Perfection getting in the way

[TommyZ]

With the most recent business that I ran ( A home Automation business for 3-4 years) I found that trying to get each job perfect just killed me.
I spent an enormous amount of time supporting all the big jobs that I had done. I really wanted to get them flawless.
This just was not possible. Their are too many moving parts in a fully automated home.

I came to realise It's like looking after IT for a small business. Their are things that need to be maintained and updated. Their are also bugs in every piece of software, only some of which get sorted out over time.
The difference with IT, is that their is an enormous support network through peers, Internet, High level support agreements with vendors etc.

Home automation their was none of this. Many of the products had limited email support at best.
For example - I purchase a number of brand name 50 inch LCD's and connect a cable TV box through a HDMI matrix switch. Works perfectly on one job.
Do the same for the next job, I get intermittent problems.
That same exact model of TV may have had a different firmware or even a different mainboard even though I bought it only a month later.
I can also have similar issues with the matrix switch or the HDMI dongles.
Tracking these things down sometimes borders on impossible.
And I had access to some of the best guys in IT, process experts etc..
No amount of process could get around these problems.
Just too many moving parts.

What I found was, that I just could not guarantee a perfect experience for the client, through no fault of my own.
The client was not able to understand that their 100k of automation does not guarantee that they get no problems.

I came to the conclusion that it is either a bad business or my personality was not suited to setting expectations with my clients. (The trying to please dilemma)

In the end I got out of the business altogether as the support problems were just killing me
I was glad to get back to a slowlane job after this experience. It was like a holiday (At least for the short term).

But I now find myself thinking of business again....

 

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[Joe Cassandra]

Sounds like you were actually working 'in the future' when all our homes will be automated like that. [unless I misunderstand what you did]
I'm guessing you did home theater and such.

Curious if you could've partnered with an electronics manufacturer. This sounds promising...

So you could swap out pieces at discounted rates for your clients rather than trying to 'make everything work.' Or, even better...you partner with Sony (as an example), and sell them Sony pieces, get commissions from Sony and fees from clients. Then, every client becomes automated.

If the client crosses their arms and says "NO", then you charge them a support fee...or, you come up with a script essentially outlining the nightmare scenario of their home theater imploding on itself.

You're out of the business, but this stuck out for me.
-----------------------------------
You're already on the right side of history since you're thinking of the customer first. Your situation was unique...but, you got started and had a business going. Try again. Since you're putting the customers first already, you're in fine shape.

 

[TommyZ]

Sounds like you were actually working 'in the future' when all our homes will be automated like that. [unless I misunderstand what you did]
I'm guessing you did home theater and such.

Curious if you could've partnered with an electronics manufacturer. This sounds promising...

So you could swap out pieces at discounted rates for your clients rather than trying to 'make everything work.' Or, even better...you partner with Sony (as an example), and sell them Sony pieces, get commissions from Sony and fees from clients. Then, every client becomes automated.

If the client crosses their arms and says "NO", then you charge them a support fee...or, you come up with a script essentially outlining the nightmare scenario of their home theater imploding on itself.

You're out of the business, but this stuck out for me.
-----------------------------------
You're already on the right side of history since you're thinking of the customer first. Your situation was unique...but, you got started and had a business going. Try again. Since you're putting the customers first already, you're in fine shape.

Thanks for the reply man
Gives me hope.

I've really enjoyed reading and studying the MFF in the last month. It is getting me thinking about what to do in my next business

Partnering with a manufacturer was a bit out of my league a the time. I did look at partnering with the bigger audio shops though they showed no interest at the time.

Bit more info on home automation for those interested

Home Automation –
· Security cameras – watch cameras from anywhere on your phone etc
· access control – open gates and garage doors from your phone etc
· lighting – Automated lighting, sensor lighting, lighting scenes etc
· HVAC – Heating and Aircon – control from phone etc
· Distributed Audio – Multi room audio, controlled from phone etc
· Home Theatre – Any content to any screen in the house etc
· Pool pumps, Auto shades, curtains, windows etc
· Home networking, wireless, NAS etc

When you put all this gear in a home, you own the problems with all of it.
There are so many different parts to an automated house.

I have kept up to the minute with home automation, and to this day, there is no single system that can do everything.
You would still need 3 or 4 different apps on your phone to control all parts of your home.

I did much research into buying helpdesk services for x amount per customer depending on levels of service required.
Give the help desk a script/flow chart to follow – Would hope to solve 90% of issues. The other 10% gets put through to a teko for chasing up.
Have another company do all the warranty?
I had at least one warranty return on every job I did. This required a trip to the job to swap out the part and return to the manufacturer or shop. And then another trip to reinstall the part.
Too time consuming, unless I can charge for it.

Most of the wealthy clientele that I worked for wanted an all in one up cost up front

Opposite of a Fast lane business
Or I couldn’t figure out how to Fastlane it

Maybe I could do things differently with the things I have learnt, but I'm thinking their are just too many moving parts in this type of business to fastlane it.

 

[TommyZ]

I studying day trading after I got out of home automation, because it seemed fast lane with few moving parts.
All newbies (myself included) have dreams about making millions in the market, then after a year or 2 you become more realistic about what you can make.
Huge learning curve and one of the toughest mind games I have ever seen.
Its a tough game if you plan to make your day to day living from it. Many of the pro's recommend to do anything but learn day trading, but if you must do it, their is a small percentage of real traders and teachers out their.
Investing for the longer term is much easier and pays to learn about.

 

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