While I’ve enjoyed every position with every company I’ve worked with, not every position fulfills me in ways that I want. In some cases, I missed the ability to design. In other cases, I missed the ability to strategically move the company. As a small business owner, I get to do it all.
My story started with my first company, Wertel Enterprises, LLC. The state of Arizona is great for startups. Arizona has created a very friendly environment for businesses to get started and to find resources to grow. Wertel Enterprises, LLC was organized to fulfil the professional desires that I had, which my full-time employment was lacking. However, other things had higher priority: work, family, and volunteering, for example. Essentially, it turned into more of a hobby than a business. So why am I doing it again?
Aerospace Research and Development Group, LLC is formed as a multi-member LLC. Having a partner in the process has been extremely beneficial. First, I am challenged by my teammates to meet deadlines, so the business maintains a higher priority. Second, the timing is better. I have fewer conflicting priorities freeing up time to support this venture. Finally, running a business is hard. Splitting the workload between my partner and I has made things easier. Having someone with the supplemental skillset, capable of taking over areas in which I’m not as strong, has relieved much of the stress and resulted in a better organization, and vice versa. That being said, one thing that a company needs to stay in business is still difficult to find – customers.
That’s why my partner and I joined LinkedIn’s ProFinder. (You can find the links on our “Meet Our Team” page.) We’ve each tried other websites looking to solicit our capabilities to a wider market than our typical word-of-mouth was able to reach. Each of those “freelance environments” did nothing more than commoditize our skills. Competing purely on price/hour against lower cost locations was not the way to grow a healthy, and specialized, engineering and design company. With ProFinder, we’re not competing based on commodity. ProFinder is another tool to grow our contacts list; to provide a larger word-of-mouth network than we can create on our own or through other media channels.
Starting a business is difficult. Maintaining and growing a business is just as hard. Any business should utilize all the available tools in their toolbox to continue to expand its customer base. ProFinder is one such tool. It will help us grow AeroRND; it can help you, too.