Me and several other Microsoft employees have been teaming up to start our own consultancy firm. The main goal is to offer high quality work for a substantially lower cost than Microsoft. The problem is we all have quite a lot of skills on our plates which makes it hard to pin point the focus of our business. I don’t want to overload our customers which long service lists as this becomes a turn off for many.
Any thoughts on how we can reduce our service list?
Here’s roughly what we have now:
- AI and Machine learning
- Data insights and analytics
- Data quality assurance
- Optimize infrastructure and deployment for cost efficiency.
- Moving systems to the cloud and scale.
- Architecture Reviews to Improve system performance and scalability.
- Improve security
- Develop proof-of-concepts for new tech.
- Integrating multiple solutions for efficient workflows.
- Training staff in various technologies
- Application and database performance reviews.
I also rather remove as much technical drivel as possible, and this is already a “simplified” list.
What do you think?
Do you already have clients who have already signaled they are ready to make the switch over to your team? If not, this list doesn’t matter. Its what you can get hired for.
I read another post of yours. I definitely would take some time to do some market research on those services, industries and target markets.
I would make a list of what you guys do the best and make a list of the market for each product. Is this service needed? By whom?
Then I would connect the two lists and see where those areas overlap.
You are setting yourself up for stress. Jack of all Trades…This much diversity in your portfolio will be almost impossible to manage effectively. Find your Niche…Look up book, The Pumpkin Plan. Focus and Master = Profit
My two cents: make a landing page for each of these services, and run a LinkedIn campaign targetted for each.
Soon you will realise where is the demand. Why do the market research when a simple campaign can tell you how many clicks are coming for each service?
Check Click through ratio, cost per click, and contact form fill up. These things will guide you about what the market is demanding.
One more thing - start broad, and as you have enough work, start going narrow towards where your ability to serve and market demand both are highest. But in the start, try to take all kinds of projects. That will help you with the revenue.
All the best!
You do know that almost all of these companies have delivery centers in developing countries to offset cost
Sure, but while we worked for Ms there also tons of companies that were using Ms consultancy services at ridiculously high rates, so we are targeting this kind of companies