Nick Points is not just the speaker I was thrilled to listen to speak at IT Nation last year, but he’s a savvy business owner and educator. Nick’s company, CharTec, is designed to help IT leaders learn the business side of their business.
And through his work, Nick’s learned a lot of valuable lessons that all business leaders should know. Namely, continuous learning and growth is key to growing an IT service business at any point in the company’s maturity.
Here’s some of the key takeaways from our conversation with Nick on episode 61 of The Stride to Freedom podcast.
CharTec was built in a real-life laboratory. Nick built an MSP business that adapted and evolved over the years. They started with hardware, then moved to a service model, and then started investing in both infrastructure and services for their clients.
Along the way, Nick was having conversations with business owners. He asked questions like: What do you do for marketing? What’s your sales strategy? How do you train your employees?
These conversations led Nick to realize that there was a big piece missing for many business owners—knowledge about how to run and grow a business. They’re IT professionals and many needed to boost their knowledge in other areas to make a sustainable company.
So, CharTec was born. They offer quarterly conferences to train and equip IT leaders to take their business to the next level through practical, firsthand knowledge.
Takeaway: Build from your knowledge, experience, and real-life problems you encounter. Follow the natural ebb and flow of the market to figure out what it needs and how you can offer solutions.
Continuous Learning for Business Development
Companies at all stages of the business lifecycle come to CharTec Academy to learn. They might be just starting out or well-established in their industry. No matter where they are in maturity of their business, they bring different problems and questions.
As leaders move through the academy, they’re learning the right skills and expertise for the stage their company is in.
Then, they go implement their new knowledge and see improvements.
Then, they come back and learn more.
Implement that, see improvements.
This is the process of continuous learning and growth. As a business owner and leader, you need to keep investing in your knowledge and realize there’s always something to improve on. Nick has seen such a variety of companies move through the Academy, making it clear that there’s no end point for learning.
Takeaway: Invest in continuous learning and knowledge as a leader and recognize the stage of the business lifecycle you’re in so you can apply it appropriately.
Understand How Growth Works
Growth happens step-by-step, not all at once. And yet, many people want to rush ahead and take big leaps to reach their goal.
For example, a company might want to boost sales and start looking for a new star salesperson to hire for the team. The reality, though, is that they have a lot of work to do in leveraging what already exists. Processes are not automated; technology is not yet fully utilized—these things need to be in place before you scale up and hire more people.
The same thing applies with profitability. Nick points to this as a major blind spot for many business owners. They’re not sure exactly what makes them profitable or not; they don’t really know the numbers.
Taking a step-by-step approach to growth is to dig deep into pricing structures, costs, revenue, sales acquisition costs, and everything else that contributes to profitability. Use that knowledge to drive decisions to reach your goal.
Takeaway: Growth happens slowly, step-by-step. Stop along the way to evaluate where you are and what the logical next step to reach your goal is.
It was a great conversation with Nick Points. Make sure to check out his full interview on episode 61 of the Stride to Freedom podcast to learn more!
And, if you want to keep up with him, connect with both Nick and CharTec on LinkedIn.
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Show Notes + Transcript:Â
Nick Points: LinkedIn
CharTec: Website/LinkedIn
Nick Points: Email
