Celebrating Four Years of TruSummit Solutions
For many, the turn of the calendar into a new year signals a chance for new beginnings and a fresh start. For me, it holds even more significance; four years ago on January 1, I took the massive step of hanging my own shingle and starting TruSummit Solutions.
I leaped into entrepreneurship and into launching my own Salesforce implementation firm because I believe that Salesforce has extraordinary power as a core enterprise application and that organizations deserve a Salesforce partner who listens to their unique challenges and objectives and engages not only to implement metrics-based solutions but also to enable and empower the organization to own its application moving forward.
I’ve been heartened by the reception my firm and approach has received and am exceedingly proud of the results we’ve delivered. We’ve experienced rapid and significant growth over the past four years and are now nearing approximately 40 employees across the country who are implementing and optimizing Salesforce for global manufacturers, enterprise healthcare organizations, financial institutions, and more.
I’ve also learned innumerable lessons along the way about being an entrepreneur, running a business, building and leading a team, and delivering success for clients. As I reflect on the past four years, I’m sharing four – actually, make that five! — lessons I’ve learned along the way:
- Hire for Your Gaps: The Importance of Team Dynamics
I think team dynamics are arguably the most important consideration of building a company. The team makeup is so incredibly important, and one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch. Every person I hire is an essential addition to the team, no matter how big or small their role may seem. If you find someone who is as good as you or better than you, embrace them, and let them influence. Hire for your own gaps or inadequacies.
A good team is diverse, and well rounded. If everybody looks and thinks the same, you’re doing it wrong. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have the same core values; rather it means you need different perspectives and life experiences at the table.
- Keep Showing Up
It’s never going to get easier. Once you get comfortable with that fact, the sooner you’ll be able to learn how to enjoy the process and lead others to do the same. As soon as you think you’ve surmounted the latest challenge, there’s another one around the corner. Embracing this is necessary.
- Innovation Is a Must
Refusing to change or adapt to changing circumstances is a sure-fire way to fail. Each year that we’ve been in business, we’ve had to pivot, evolve, and innovate – sometimes in response to client needs, sometimes in response to changing market conditions. Evolution and innovation drove the start of our Managed Services business in 2022; it’s at the heart of our product development roadmap for Salesforce accelerators in 2024.
One of the most exciting things about our innovation is that it helps drive our clients’ innovation, as well. If we can build products and capabilities that are needed every time an implementation takes place, we’re essentially accelerating our clients’ speed to market, helping them engage more quickly with their customers and partners and further accelerating their business outcomes.
- Don’t Try to Boil the Ocean
Start small and be willing to build and iterate over time. (See my note above about innovation and change and adapting to change.) If you wait for conditions to be perfect to start something new or change something that isn’t working, you’ll be waiting forever.
- Be Decisive
What ifs, could haves, should haves … these can and will consume all your mental energy. Pick a direction, be decisive, and move on. Learn from your decisions and apply those lessons to the next experience. The road of life is paved with flat squirrels who couldn’t make a decision.
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