Philosophical / ""news"" post here about my specific case but also the value of brands and simplification.
I'm merging my two businesses together to make life simpler for my team (and mostly for me because it's been a pain juggling two separate identities). For those who didn't know, I had two businesses operating exactly the same - one focused on Sage CRM (Azamba) and one on Microsoft Dynamics CRM (QuantaCRM).
It doesn't really impact anyone that I know on the Sage side (partners, customers, Sage, etc.) but it is kind of creating some short-term pain on my Microsoft practice. The key word is ""short-term"" and we can work through it.
One thing that I firmly believe today, that I probably would have resisted five or more years ago, is that our company brands are not substantial. My team posted up some concerns about this move ""what about all our work on creating the QuantaCRM brand?""
My honest assessment is ""what brand?""
Each of us small biz owners get hung up with our own efforts and ego around things that we do and we imagine we have created something bigger than what we actually have created. This leads to all sorts of problems on our perceived value both as advisors and in the cases of mergers / acquisitions.
I've really been trying my best to hold up the mirror to my businesses, my approach, and my own behaviors to figure out what I want to be doing with my life and what stuff should I cut out.
I know a big part of this is a by-product of facing my own mortality and having a few brushes with some ugly health problems. None of us are getting any younger and I'm sure many of you, like me, are seeing long-time friends pass away or experiencing serious health issues.
(One relevant case for all of us in 90 Minds is Mark Kotyla. I didn't agree with him always but I miss his presence on Facebook where I interacted with him through public and private convo's.)
Life is short so best to enjoy it to its fullest.
And I feel very fortunate in that I do enjoy what I do in serving my customers and helping them be successful so I want to do it better and with less stress. Dump the stuff that is stupid and pointless and inefficient, listen better to what works and what doesn't, and find great people (teammates, customers, and partners) who are good fits and get rid of the rest.
This stuff might be no brainer stuff to everyone else. I feel like I'm just starting to get a grip on some of it with my own life. LOL.
Here's the announcement I put on Facebook and LinkedIn:
Last week: Sage CRM User Conference (huge success - thanks to everyone for their interest and participation!)
This week: my life gets simpler and more customer focused. We are merging our two businesses together into one. Hallelujah!
The intention here is to align our operations with our mission statement.
Our mission is to help small and medium-sized organizations reach their goals effectively, efficiently, and profitably through the use of CRM technology.
We had two companies to do this.
Azamba focused on Sage CRM technology and QuantaCRM focused on Microsoft Dynamics Customer Engagement / Sales / CRM.
Both organizations had the same mission, same proven methodology, same fixed customer price model, and moneyback guarantee on all services.
Rolling the two businesses together will allow us to cut out our own inefficiencies and spend more time thinking about the challenges and opportunities facing our customers (and prospects)!
Maybe it's just a mid-life crisis for me but, for whatever reason, I am extremely excited to streamline my life and make things easier for us, our partners, and our customers! :)
Please let me know if you have any questions about the particulars here. I would be happy to answer them here or offline via email or a call if you prefer.
https://www.azamba.com/2018/11/07/azamba-adds-microsoft-dynamics-sales-and-support-azamba-quantacrm-merger/