Mavance, LLC

I had a rough understanding of what I wanted to do and I knew going back to consulting for a company was not in my cards. I wanted to build my own company. My passion was in technology and I liked the idea of helping dynamic small and medium sized businesses solve their problems. Previous to working at a large corporation, I consulting with mostly middle market companies and their ability to get things done energized me in my past life.

I looked at opportunities including franchising, startups and partnerships. I knew my valuable technical experience should be utilized. While I was reading more business & marketing books from the likes of Brian Tracy (site, Amazon), Brad Sugars (site, Amazon) and Napoleon Hill (Amazon), I knew I did not want to go to far from the technology. Besides, I recalled how bored I was when I worked at a Wendy’s and a Subway nearly two decades ago.

So.. how could I exploit my experience while learning new skills and business systems? A technical franchise came to mind immediately. I will not get into the names of the companies I looked at, but they ranged from a “outsourced IT” approach to website design. The key issues I discovered were threefold:

1. Having worked for a company obsessed with its branding, I understand the importance of this. With franchises, you are building the company’s brand. Your brand is simply a holding company/semi-independent entity.
2. The fees the franchises were charging were a bit rich for what they provided. The range was between 10% and 18% of sales (read: not income). Again, I will not get into the names because I have NDAs in place with these companies.
3. Territories overlapped in one of the cases. The nearest franchise owner was, literally, 3 blocks away. The franchise explained this as “it’s like having another McDonald’s three blocks away”. Well, I think McDonald’s would think twice about putting another franchise within 3 streets of another unless you are in a densely populated place like New York City.

On the plus side, franchises generally offer working business systems. However, I was not convinced of the virtual/home based franchise models. I did not see the benefit of growing someone else’s brand while taking the risk on myself. So… what, oh what should I do?

With sites like PartnerUp and BizBuySell and friends with ideas and contacts, I questioned if I should go the safe franchise route. I was not comfortable with either approach after giving it more thought. I chose a hybrid approach. While the partnership with AIS Media is similar to a franchise it differs in the following ways:

• I will grow both their brand, AIS Media, along with mine Mavance, LLC
• I am not limited in what services I can provide. I have a certain affinity toward Open Source (well.. and Apple stuff too..) If I want to be an Open Source VAR/SI then all the more power.
• I have a partner who will fulfill orders. The ability to offload this allows me to focus on my clients.
• AIS Media prides itself in providing winning web design.
• AIS Media understands the nuances of marketing and I can learn strategy and tactics from them.

In summation, this approach allows me the opportunity to apply sales and marketing theory while having an established company to learn from. Additionally, it takes me out of the technical loop. While this is a strength, I already know how to do this. I need to learn new skills and continue to grow.

The next posts will go over the systems I have put into place. Yes, it’s fairly technical but systems are important. As Brad Sugars (and Michael Gerber, et. al.) will preach - you have to have business, people and technical systems in place to leverage your time. I have headed their advice and will share what I’m doing within the LLC.