Why Consulting and Why Now?
These last few years have been interesting for me. In 2017, I left GoFundMe where I joined as a member of the Founding Team and 2nd full-time employee.
I was there to basically let the co-founders get back to focusing on the technical stuff while I take on all the other stuff. Namely, customer service, recruiting, training, onboarding, and whatever else needed to get done. It was the most life-changing, humbling, and transformative time of my life.
Through those years I went from struggling non-technical, technology junkie with a glutton for punishment, to an executive and leader at the largest crowdfunding site in the world. It was awesome. After a decade of startups, sporadic income, and uncertainty, I had a big win.
Not only was it a win, but it was with my friends, doing what I loved, and in an industry that helps people. Rarely do those boxes all get ticked in 1 job.
So what’s next?
How do you follow up something like that?
- Do I do the big company thing?
- Join a startup with my old buddies and try to build GoFundMe 2?
- Get my own thing going?
- Join my wife's Interior Design Business (Beachy Boheme)?
So after I learned all my color palettes and understood how a room is really supposed to flow, I was off to the races.
I’m kidding, I didn’t design for her but I did start helping her with some of her operations and taking some of those lessons and tactics that I’ve learned over the years and applied it to her business. Small tweaks that gave her back hours to her day to focus on working on the business instead of in it.
This is fun
The results came pretty quickly. Clearer insight into her numbers and a better understanding of where her time is used. This led to more time to spend with her clients. We put processes in place to make sure things weren’t falling through the cracks. Her business grew and stress levels decreased.
It’s not like she couldn’t research these things and implement them herself but it’s difficult to know where to start and what to look for.
It turns out, I LOVE THIS STUFF. Not just because I got to boss my wife around, which was short-lived, but because the experiences and work I’ve done over the last 15 years are not common knowledge to large swaths of business owners.
There is an entire world out there that does not know this stuff and what’s more, they don’t know that they should know about it.
Could it work for others?
I was on the phone with my brother chatting about his construction business in Boston and how he just doesn’t have time for anything and his business is growing quickly. My wife overhears the conversation and says, “You should get on a plane and help him the way you helped me.”
So I did. My brother was on board, with the conditions that he pays for my time, which we argued about. In the end, this actually ensured that we didn’t just spend 3 days just getting wicked hammid at the bah’s. Also, we got to surprise my mom. :)
In the months since, I’ve leaned into helping more of the people that I know in San Diego with their businesses, both big and small. I’ve decided to move forward with my consultancy business.
That’s my Wheelhouse
What I’ve learned in the 15+ years of working in technology startups is that I am blown away by what people can do with code. I am amazed at what web developers, designers, database architects can do with code and the like. I have found myself in positions of being the “technical interpreter” in almost every role I’ve been in.
I’m excited to move forward with my shiny new website, (Wheelhouse Solutions)and help more people, businesses, and nonprofits get the most out of their time and grow their businesses.
Thanks for reading. I always appreciate comments and questions if you have them.
