The past 12 months have marked some of the best periods in our company's history. While many consultants and tech firms face challenges in a tougher market, we have successfully achieved significant growth. In this short article, I reflect on the reasons behind our success.
From Dev to DevOps
Over the past 7 to 8 years, our small company has made a significant shift from focusing primarily on software development to embracing DevOps. Eight years ago, DevOps was a buzzword that few truly understood. Many questioned why developers should concern themselves with platform matters. At that time, the demand for full-stack development skills was high, and numerous projects required these capabilities. However, as a small company, I believed we needed a distinct niche to compete more effectively with larger firms. So, despite the significant challenges to find projects with the need for DevOps resources at the time, we started a path to become specialized as DevOps consultants.
Cloud Computing and AWS
Despite the long-standing presence of cloud computing, most businesses have relied on on-premises or hybrid-cloud architectures—and many still do to some extent. Back in 2016-2017, I extensively researched AWS and followed tech-market analysts' predictions about the future of cloud technology. I became convinced that cloud computing should be a central focus of our core business strategy. This focus aligned perfectly with our DevOps expertise, as successful cloud operations heavily depend on DevOps skills.
Entering the cloud computing space was challenging, I have to admit, but we found a niche in the market: migrations from on-premises to cloud and cloud-to-cloud migrations, and cost optimization.
Spearheads and Specialists
Shifting from the broad software development market to a more specialized niche has been a significant game-changer for our small company. When we enter a project now, we do so as specialists, leveraging our expertise to lead and drive success. Operating in a specialized niche has given us a significant advantage as a small company, allowing us to offer expertise and skills that few others can match. This strategic focus has not only differentiated us from larger competitors but has also enabled us to build a reputation for quality and reliability, that would have been difficult to do when trying to cover a bigger field of business.
As a result, we have been able to attract and retain high-value clients who recognize and appreciate our unique capabilities.
Location, Costs and Markets
Being a distributed company, with all of our employees being located in different areas and countries, and no big cities, we literally had to make no changes to our day-to-day operations when the Covid pandemic struck. Our business had been based on remote work for years. In my view, the ability to work remotely is essential for success in the future globalized IT market, by allowing organisations to tap into a diverse talent pool without geographical constraints.
Working remotely, with minimal costs associated with office space and related expenses, has enabled us to operate at lower rates than our competitors. As a result, we can offer our services competitively in the vast European and US markets, positioning ourselves as specialists. Operating globally is crucial for us, especially as specialists, and our cost-effective approach allows us to achieve this.
Diversifying our Business
The saying "Don't put your eggs in one basket" is particularly relevant for small businesses that primarily sell hours. We realized early on that we needed to diversify by not only selling our time but also building systems to attract customers in need of cloud hosting and related services, such as monitoring and support. This has become a growing part of our business. In addition, we also take on and fully deliver complete projects, under fixed-price contracts.
Going Beyond Tech...
We recently kicked off a project that we have been discussing and planning for a long time. Our goal was to create a unique offering that combines our tech workshops with engaging events, providing a comprehensive package deal to our customers. By entering the event market, we can enhance the workshop experience with additional activities like recreational trips on land and water, and various adventure activities. This way, we can offer a more comprehensive and enjoyable package to our customers.
