What I’ve learned in the last year

In the last year in building eTop Technology the learning curve of building a business has been awesome yet occasionally terrifying. The things I know now vs even just 6 months ago seem substantial. Here are a few things I’ve picked up along the way.

1. Always have a good accountant in your corner.
   1. Luckily we have always had a good accountant but as we are growing having someone that can give you great advice on tax planning, employees, income, and finding new clients has been amazing. I recommend finding someone you can trust that has business experience, to listen to, and then follow through on what they say.
2. A good attorney
   1. Before we hired our first employee we talked to one of our clients that happened to be a workers comp attorney, it is far cheaper to have a good attorney create and or proof your existing documents then to find out after the fact that your documents are terrible.
   2. I would recommend this for both workers comp and contracts
   3. This one is hardest for me to follow through on since I don’t like having people sign stuff. I also feel like typically my industry doesn’t have anyone sign documents at least at the level I’m at. This is probably the number one way for us as small business owners have good documents and then don’t touch anything before you have your paperwork signed.
3. Treat your business like a corporation – Even if you’re not.
   1. Always treat your business like a corporation. What I mean by this is no co-mingling of funds. Have separate bank accounts don’t fudge the accounts back and forth. Think like an owner not just like another technician in your business. Becoming someone who thinks like a ceo/president is tough and not always fun, but making decision’s is imperative to your growth.
4. Learning.
   1. Holy cow I have always had a good breadth of knowledge in computers and small business consulting, but as I have driven our company deeper and deeper into this market the pool of knowledge has grown tremendously. I routinely come home in the evenings with a brain that is tired because of the new ways I have learned to solve a problem with Active Directory, or how to point internal computer’s to the company’s external website(go DNS).
   2. I love making existing things work but something that is a slow learned lesson and I am still learning is that Band-Aids are best left for small wounds on children and not something you use in an office environment. Sometimes it is cheaper to make the recommendation to just replace things up front rather than trying to nurse a sick computer back to health.
5. There is always something else to learn sometimes you have to stop and let your brain rest so you can come up with the next idea that will help you grow.

William Pote

CEO/Founder

eTop Technology, Inc.