» Back Office Front Office Blog

I promised in my Day 1 blog that I also would use this as a forum to showcase customers, service providers and colleagues with whom we work. This is the first of those interviews, rightly given to the man who has spent the last 7 months working day and night (literally) to design, develop and launch our best practice Back Office Front Office website.

Asif Nawaz is a most interesting man. He is a quiet man, when you meet him. He speaks softly, calmly, thoughtfully. You don’t get the sense that there will be many emotional moments – and there aren’t, although when you get to know him, you can tell when he’s turned on and fired up. Yet he’s not shy to state his opinion, or to make a point, even if it does not corroborate your own. He has the unusual ability to demonstrate a sense of adventure (quietly), while being sensitive to customer issues (cost being the one that comes to mind first!). And he’s not afraid to ask questions, directly, without hesitation, clearly wanting an answer. We’re proud to call Asif “colleague”. I respect his pursuit of excellence, and I enjoy the apparent contradictions in his character: the sharp ability to grasp and deal with details and technical complexity, juxtaposed with the satisfaction he gets from expressing himself artistically. We hope to share a long, interesting and fruitful journey with Asif. See what you think.

Q. You were born in Pakistan, but educated, lived and worked in the US, starting your professional life as a corporate Accountant. Not the expected background for a web designer/developer. Obviously there were many diverse pushes and pulls along the way. Can you share with us what some of the significant influences on your life were, and perhaps touch on the critical choices you made that have led you to where you are today.
A. The ethics of Pakistan, my family, and my mentors at the University of Colorado have influenced me in significant ways, although none of them have changed my belief system. Perhaps my most critical choice was to leave the US and move to Dubai. This choice introduced me to my wife and has resulted in many varied experiences. From a professional standpoint, technology was always my passion and accounting something to fall back on. Then I got bored of accounting and here I am at VAFTA; it is perhaps the most positive professional choice I have made: pursuing what I like as opposed to counting other people’s money.

Q. How did you get interested in technology in the first place?
A. Difficult to say. I was always interested in technology; the possibilities it opened up due to communication channels was always of interest. Then I built my first website when I turned 14. I was hooked!

Q. You’re involved in so many things, leading edge technologies like 3D web design from Dreamsoft, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, your web development capabilities. I turn my computer off at 11:30pm and you’re still working, often into the early hours of the next day. Obviously you’re not a good example of work/home life balance. In fact, in many ways, you’re a typical example of a start up SME. What drives you, and how do you personally cope with everything on your plate?
A. My drive and inspiration comes from my wife, my family and my thirst for knowledge. The coping just comes, but having a spouse who is equally driven and patient also helps.

Q. Around the time we first met, before we had spent time with you detailing our vision for the business, and certainly long before you knew us well, you sent us a concept Home Page. Yes, we had provided you with a detailed brief, and yes, we had a logo, but the overall look and feel you proposed hit very close to home, closely reflecting what we had articulated in our brand values and brand personality, and resonating in terms of how we wanted to present ourselves to our defined target market. What we have now (except for the copy, pictures and tag line) is pretty much what you had imagined. How were you able to achieve that?
A. Being a small business, the BO/FO offering was very close to my heart and I felt there was a need for an excellent service in this area. This coupled with the well written RFP really helped us put together the design. I simply communicated it to my team, who came up with the design concept we have today. They get a lot of credit for that. So,how? We read and listened.

Q. I once worked for a man who espoused choosing your customers, and there is a lot of wisdom in that, if it can be achieved. As a start up, what’s your view on finding the balance between the need to drive revenue and the desire to engage with people with whom you can work effectively on interesting and challenging projects?
A. It’s really a bit of a challenge. I’d like to think we stay away from customers who pay us to do the work and they still effectively try to do it, but then it just depends on how well we’re doing on the day a potential customer engages us; sometimes you have to take the business today for a potential profit tomorrow.

Q. I always ask this question when I’m interviewing for recruitment purposes. And I’m always flabbergasted at some of the rubbish answers people offer up. But for a start up SME, the question is valid, and the answer critical to the fundamental insight of BO/FO: “work for yourself, not by yourself”. That is, how do you stay on top of everything going on in your business?
A. Unfortunately, I don’t think we’re always on top of everything; we have our good and bad days like any other business. But I keep telling our team to “work smarter, not harder.” It’s a fundamental concept few people understand, but I think it is critical to get things done in the kind of a time-crunch that small businesses operate in. I think to work for yourself, you need to hire another You to fully rely on. Until you can afford another You, a business like BO/FO can provide vital and critical support.

Q. And the question every small business person asks, because they always want to learn new tricks (and live in fear that someone else knows something they do not)…how do you get new business?
A. Close my eyes and wish for it! Really, getting business is a matter of doing the ‘right’ thing and having faith in yourself and your business. By doing that alone, I’ve had word of mouth and testimonials do wonders for me and VAFTA.

Q. In your head, what is the shape of the business are you trying to build? How do you want it to work out, and how do you think it will?
A. We want VAFTA to become te preferred UK vendor for software delivered in the cloud. With that vision in mind, we are partnering with all the big hosted solution providers, strengthening our skill-set with other complementary services and introducing some of the most exquisite and unique SaaS products the UK market will see in the coming year.

BO/FO: Over the years I’ve collected some more unusual interview questions. Here are some of my favourites that provide surprising insight into a person.

Q.What political individual (from any age) do you most admire, and why?
A. I don’t admire politicians. But if I had to choose, I’d take a cross between Mohandas Gandhi and Bill Clinton because the former had political intelligence executed to perfection and the latter would have the oratory skills needed to front such a successful political campaign.

Q. If they made a movie of your life, who would you like to play Asif Nawaz?
A.  Why wouldn’t they pick me?!

Q. What was your very first job?
A. My first paying job was a TV advertisement aimed at showing children how to be respectful to the public.

Q.Do you think there is a difference between how people perceive you and how you see yourself?
A. Perhaps. I’ve never been one to worry too much about other people’s perceptions unless they play an important part in my professional or personal life. If they do, I try to make sure the perception is managed so they closely see me the way I see myself.

Q. What is the best piece of advice you could give your son or daughter if they were starting a new business today?
A. Work hard, ignore the noise and read ‘How to Think and Grow Rich’ by Napoleon Hill as soon as possible.

Q. Last year, a friend in Canada showed me a newspaper clipping showcasing a man who had published a new book. The content of the book was a collection of work by many people, all exercising the same task, which was this: in only 6 words, no more and no less, describe your life. Could you give us those 6 words for your own life?
A.  Husband. Son. Brother. Driven. Passionate. Learner.

Many months ago, before we were anywhere close to launching, many friends and business associates asked us the same question: our services would be needed by start up businesses – would we consider working for them in exchange for shares?

Being a start up ourselves, the obvious response to that question was, “no”, given our own need to drive revenue streams. So interesting to ponder this further, in light of the three proposals we’ve had in as many days.

I won’t describe the nature of the three businesses, or reveal the identities behind them. Suffice to say, they are vastly different from one another in all respects, each relevant and appealing in some way. What I think may be of more of interest is the approach we have taken in considering whether and how to deal with these distinct requests.

It is, at first, easy to dismiss such an appeal. Reason says there are only so many hours in a day, and we currently require all of them to get our own business off its feet – why entertain a “distraction” that would require an investment of time and money we’d rather put into Back Office Front Office?

But there is another way to look at it. Consider the various approaches to business development we are undertaking: responding to government tenders, advertising, networking…Is the probability of success responding to a PQQ any higher than having direct input to the business strategy of a sound opportunity? Maybe not.

The key words in that thought are “sound opportunity”. Why dismiss out of hand taking a senior role (and significant ownership position) in driving an attractive idea from concept to realisation? We decided a bit more “internal” debate might be interesting, but that some fundamentals had to be agreed between us, before we went any further.

The first principle we agreed was that we would not be cash investors. Period. Not what the business owner would want to hear, but clearly we were being asked because of our skills, capabilities and reputation, as much as anything else; financing alone would not lead to success without some talent and experience driving the development of the business.

The second principle was that a limit had to be assigned to the amount of time we would spend on the activity required. This notion changed thinking about the activity as a “distraction”, both emotionally and practically.

We then needed to examine whether any of the three “opportunities” were indeed “opportunities”, keeping in mind the theoretical nature of the exercise at this point. A simple scoring mechanism to evaluate the three proposals took about 5 minutes to compile using a list of basic criteria, and rating each item from 1-10 took about 25 minutes. The criteria were as follows:
- Is it a sound business opportunity (is there a business plan that answers all the necessary questions about the market and how to profitably deliver the product/service)
- Personal capabilities of the individual behind the business idea
- The trustworthiness of the individual behind the business idea (important enough in our view to be specifically distinct from personal capabilities!)
- ROI in £
- ROI in timeframe
- Our own interest in the business
- The relative knowledge, insight and value we can bring to bear
- The financial position of the business and its owner
- Whether the opportunity can be leveraged in other ways for BO/FO
- Perceived ability to work with the individual behind the business idea
- Is it doable

I recognise we did not weight the criteria, which could have resulted in a different score. What the exercise did confirm, though, with only half an hour’s effort, was this:
1. The best product or service in the world needs a market
2. Personal capabilities alone don’t necessarily indicate success
3. Entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well and can be found in the most unusual places

None of this was news to us of course, but it did underscore that thinking outside the box can open up new doors. You don’t have to go through them, of course, but they won’t be there unless you’re willing to look at old problems in new ways.

Let me set make two statements to set the context for this blog.

#1. We are self funding. 100%. That has many implications (some of which I’ll deal with in later blogs), but it also means that when we’re shopping for something for the business, whether it’s office space, paper for the printer or people to provide/deliver service, we are in the market, and prepared to spend money. We do not spend lightly; we have agreed decision criteria in mind, we only buy what is necessary, and we do research to understand market prices and how pricing works for any particular item. We don’t always buy the cheapest, and we certainly don’t always pay the premium price. I would characterize our buying behaviour as “spending to achieve the desired outcome”.

#2. There is an economic downturn that has resulted in almost 2.5m people being unemployed, and crisis for tens of thousands of businesses across all sectors. I would have thought the implications for this include the following:
- Trading businesses (especially small business) are especially sensitive to and appreciate the budget constraints of start ups. Result for a buyer: potential negotiation of pricing and terms of sale; and for the seller, a reason to focus on service delivery and after sales service.
- New customers with money to spend are considered golden, with every effort made to secure a sale when a qualified prospect walks in the door. For the seller this should mean paying attention to understanding and fulfilling needs, emphasis on differentiation, prompt follow up that adds value, and a conscious effort to close the sale.
- Competition for jobs – especially good paying, full time jobs – is fierce. Result – multiples of applications for every job opening. One would think that applicants would quickly follow up advertisements, and respond to queries, offering reasons as to why the potential employer should take the recruitment process to the next stage.

So help me understand the behaviours we have experienced:

Case 1 – searching for office space. When we first started looking, we identified a space we liked that suited our business, projected the image we wanted to achieve, and that was within our price range. It was new, and would not cost us anything to fit out, although some money would be required to construct office partitions. We met the real estate agent on site, explained our business and premises requirements, and were shown several available offices at the one location. We made it clear there was one we especially liked, and at the end of the site visit asked him to send the floor plan, along with further information on rates and other costs. I had to chase him for several days to get the floor plan, and then chase again for the costs. You would think our behaviour indicated a sincere level of interest; at least worth a follow up call from the agent. But no. We never heard from him again. Please kick me hard several times if I can’t provide better service in our two premises offerings.

Case 2 – recruiting for a Sales person to sell our Bookkeeping software and service. My research determined the base salary range for London, with a degree education and 5 years sales experience. We determined a salary at 75% of the top of the range, and then worked through our own numbers to ascertain an achievable commission. I set out the Sales role and responsibilities in simple but clear terms; I described our business at a high level, and was honest about being a start up. £100 later it was posted on one of the biggest online job find sites for 2 weeks. We anticipated we would be deluged with applications. We received 6 resumes. That’s six. S- I- X. Here’s a sample of the response:

Resume 1. From an individual with about 25 years sales experience, earned in about 25 firms. No follow up after his initial submission.
Resume 2. A degreed accountant, early into his career. No sales experience. We sent an email asking why he wanted to move into Sales. No response.
Resume 3. A degreed accountant, also early into his career. Happy to take on bookkeeping work, obviously a casualty of the economy. We sent him an email asking why he wanted to move into Sales. To his credit, he tried to make his response credible, but it was obvious he was simply trying to get a job related to his competency. If I had a job for a bookkeeper, I surely would have asked him to come talk to us.

We decided to explore outsourcing our Sales function. More on that another time.

Case 3 – a solution for our telecom needs. This is a bit of a story; the short version goes like this:
- Jack writes a brief outlining the vision for what we want to achieve, describing telecom as an enabler; it ends with some fundamental questions for the reader, making it evident that we understand what we want in terms of business outcomes, but haven’t got a clue about how to get there through technology
- I send it to two ex telco chaps I know, asking if they know of anyone who could provide half to one day consulting to help us through the technical aspects. Even a conversation would be helpful, I say. I explain that we can’t pay top consulting rates, but that there is money to pay for someone’s time, trouble and expertise. No response. I follow up with both of them: “did you receive my email?” No response.
- We talk to company A, to whom we have been referred. Jack has several telephone discussions with the representative, and sends him the brief. The outcome? A consulting proposal for £4 thousand pounds to determine the solution. (Implementation afterwards, of course, is additional).
- We talk to company B, to whom we have been referred. Jack meets the representative, and shares the brief. The result? A proposal for a solution that does not fit our stated requirements – at a cost of £3 thousand pounds for installation. Not to mention the 50 days to install the solution, and a 3 year contract with a monthly price tag of approximately £900.

So here are the questions that make my blood boil, and keep my brain turning over because I can’t find an answer that makes sense.

What has happened to common courtesy? Is it so difficult to send a response to an inquiry? Forget about actually helping – how about basic manners? Professionalism? A simple, “Sorry, I can’t help” would have been just fine with me.

What’s the right thing to do if you haven’t got what the customer wants to buy? Q. If our objective is to go wireless, why propose a landline solution? A. Because the company doesn’t sell wireless solutions, so why not try to sell wired. (I can’t tell you how many “solutions” people have tried to sell us without listening to what we want. If you thought business generally was more sophisticated, I can only say, we haven’t witnessed much of it).

What has happened to common sense? A self-funding start up a) does not have £750/day to spend on consulting, nor are they likely to eagerly sign a contract for £900/month for telecom for 3 years. And certainly, they do not have 50 working days to twiddle their thumbs while it gets installed.

Where is the service ethic? Much has been written about this, but I am running out of time and space, so instead of whinging, I will only say it is appalling. Back Office Front Office is my chance to demonstrate what real service is about, and put my marketing platitudes where my mouth is. If I can’t succeed on this point, no one will be more disappointed in me, than I myself.

And, lastly, where are all the unemployed people who can spell, and who say “please” and “thank you” and return their calls (and not a week later), who can add/subtract/multiply/divide and have good ideas, and want to make a difference, and do what they say they’ll do; oh, and who have hungry mouths to feed at home….?

Happy to hear your stories. Drop a line.

Day 1. AKA “Going Live”, “Launch”, “Kickoff”, “Rollout”, “Implementation”. None of these words actually describe the magnitude of effort, or emotional stamina that was required to get to this day.

Factually, this is only Day 1 in one respect: the publication of my first blog. The real Day 1 occurred some months earlier this year, when it became apparent that I would choose to put my life as a successful, high earning, freelance consultant on the shelf, and replace it with a life built around defining, developing and driving a start up business with my partner, Jack.

This blog is intended to provide the forum to reflect upon this journey and share my experiences, whether gut wrenching or god sent, with those who are further down the road, those who are wrestling with making the same decision for themselves, and even those who are firmly planted in the traditional business world, but are curious, for whatever reasons, to read about this one.

In this space I will promote the business relationships we are building; and commend and provide a voice for those who are striving to deliver the very best of breed products and services.

Our customers also will be showcased, the men and women who come from all times and places, each with their own stories, each one sounding a beat in the pulse of our business.

I will be honest, and I will be frank, and I hope provocative as well as evocative. So it also will express the outrage, disappointments, and frustrations that have already been felt, and inevitably, because the world is not perfect, will recur in the future. I hope, interspersed with the critical commentary, there also will be contemplations on what is right, and making sense, and applaudable in the maelstrom of start up madness.

You’ll get to know me, and Jack. And I hope along the way, we’ll get to know some of you. My hypothesis is that all people who have started their own business share some fundamental intellectual and emotional “moments of truth” that many corporate creatures cannot begin to understand, certainly not emotionally.

We started from a blank page. Literally. If you’ve explored the site at all, you’ll see it is rich in terms of breadth of services, insightful in terms of understanding our target market, and customer centric, offering several service levels to suit individual needs. Most of all, you’ll see how we are different from so many of our competitors: our emphasis is not to proselytize how something should be done, but to do it for customers. And we’ve worked 6.5 days a week for 5 months to make today happen. So I am tired.

But I also am thrilled. We started with a blank page – and then there was Back Office Front Office. It is not complete. It is not perfect. We fully expect it will change shape, despite our plans and undertakings. It will cost us more than we planned, in cash and mental fortitude, and it will require fair doses of stubbornness, resilience and tenacity to push forward, as unforeseen twists and turns chafe against our determination to steer the way we want to travel.

But we are here. I chose this road, and I shall try and shape it to my vision of what it can be. And if I’m not too tired when I do get to bed tonight, I just might re-read one of my favourite Robert Frost poems, the one with the line that everyone remembers, “and miles to go before I sleep”. 

Wish us luck, and please write back.