To my valued clients:
It has been my privilege to work with a great number of people in many fields over the last decade. This has been a very interesting, and truly rewarding experience, given the exposure I’ve had to people from different walks of life. I have gained a great deal of experience, having learned something new from each client and on every job.
For many years, I based the growth of my business and the services we would provide solely on the needs of my clients. During this time, I would seek out the most demanding clients and allow their expectations to set the bar for the level of service I worked to provide. I hired and trained staff in order to meet this demand, and spent countless hours learning new technologies and business practices that could be applied in other areas. All of this has helped me to develop a skill that serves me well today.
Starting a family has granted me the clarity of vision to focus my efforts on what I want to do, aligning personal and business goals as never before. As a result, I have restructured and downsized my company to the point of becoming an individual consultant. Regrettably, some clients that I had served for a number of years have moved on to other service providers, fearing that I would not be able to provide a timely response. In each case, I support their decision. There is only so much work that an individual can take on, and I will miss working with some of them.
Though it is becoming increasingly difficult to do so, I try to maintain a regular schedule. Consulting services and system maintenance is typically scheduled two to four weeks in advance, allowing for some flextime in my schedule to react to emergencies. Anticipating emergencies is like predicting the weather, and as a result, I am almost never on my scheduled timetable. For this reason, I have had to limit the number of clients I am able to serve.
From the beginning, I have had the good fortune to grow my business by word of mouth referrals alone. While this was not intentional, it has turned out to be a great way to get matched with clients that are a good fit. Prospective clients are now screened to ensure that I am able to meet their expectation.
I prefer to work with people that take an active interest in their organization’s business process and network infrastructure. As an outsourced technology consultant, my goal is to provide my clients with the basic tools and knowledge needed to be as self sufficient as possible.
At one time or another, I have had to cancel a previously scheduled appointment with virtually every client that I have. On the other hand, I have provided those same clients with an immediate response when there was an issue that impacted their ability to conduct business. This can be frustrating for some clients, thus the screening process to ensure that they are aware of this eventuality.
While I have several years of experience as a computer technician, and am capable of building and repairing computers, I no longer find this work interesting or challenging. I will perform this type of service for friends and family only. Due to the limited number of hours in my workweek, I cannot provide cost effective support for home computers. There are plenty of resources available on Cape Cod for this type of service.
I prefer to focus my efforts on optimizing business process through the use of technology; disaster recovery planning and implementation; and finding, then implementing solutions for entrepreneurs and small business owners. Bring me a project that can’t be done!
I take great personal satisfaction in the work that I do, and I only work for people that I like on a personal level. I am well aware that this is bad business, but I sleep very well at night. I will not associate with businesses or individuals that have no integrity.
Much of the work that I have accomplished over the years would not have been possible were I not personally motivated to help my clients. I have a great deal of respect for everyone that I work for, and that respect is reciprocated every day. This is why I do what I do.
To my valued friends and clients: Thank you for the opportunity to work with you.
Bill Kirwin
Network Services of Cape Cod
June 18th, 2008