entrepreneurship – 3 years later! Schot LLC is 3 years old!

What an intensity! If you also experienced a drastic change in life, then you can also relate to what those 3 years were like, after 28 years in a Corporation entering into entrepreneurship.

In 2015, I had a vision: Small Medium Businesses are newly confronted with (almost) the same complexity as Corporations. And therefore, are in great need of Commercial Contract Management support.

In 2015 I had a dream: build a company during the next 3 years, that successfully meets the SMB market needs and is able to make a living out of it.

So, I worked hard, indeed, on building a company. I looked up for all necessities, set the costs, the milestones, the 3 years objectives, etc.

Now, 3 years have passed.
All targets that I set in my business case were met and actually exceeded!
But we partially failed on 2 objectives: Revenues in year 1 and 2, and in establishing partnerships. The gap in revenue objectives is almost closed by now, and some partnerships have been established, but these remain below my initial expectations.

1. We entered the 4th year of existence (hey, remember that statistics show that 90% of those who start a business fail within the first 3 years!)
2. In the market of French-speaking Switzerland, we were the first to offer complete CCM services (no true competition: thus, pioneering the market was a challenge, which is no small accomplishment!)
3. In those 3 years, we contracted with almost 60 clients, of which ca. 90 % are SMB’s
4. We have built some recurring clients, and most clients came back for additional support
5. We have an average sales cycle time of one week (from first contact to signature) and a win rate on proposals of 90%
6. We launched over 10 productized services, some of them being unique on the market
7. We have fun!

All of that is but the top of the iceberg.
Below the surface, there is much trials, investment in networking, building business relationships, education, writing products, sharing with others, etc.

In 2015, I had a vision: Small Medium Businesses are newly confronted with (almost) the same complexity as Corporations. And therefore, SMBs are in great need of Commercial Contract Management support.

In 2015 I had a dream: build a company during the next 3 years, that successfully meets the SMB market needs and is able to make a living out of it.

So, I worked hard, indeed, on building a company. I looked up for all necessities, set the costs, the milestones, the 3 years objectives, etc.

We are now due to set our next 5 years’ strategy plan.
We have a lot of creative ideas that still need to be worked upon. Actually, these few unique and powerful offerings in our drawers that are completely underutilized. Such are fit for public sector, for large companies, or for SMBs. Even our existing clients could take better advantage from it. So, we need to think of how the market could benefit better of such offerings.

We are now due to set our next 5 years’ strategy plan.
We have a lot of creative ideas that still need to work upon. Actually, our few unique and powerful offerings in our drawers that are completely underutilized. Such are fit for public sector, for large companies, or for SMB’s. Even my existing clients would take better advantage from it. So, we need to think of how the market could benefit better of such offerings.

Indeed, many options are on the table, we keep them all open, but for the time being, we first wish to spend some time appreciating what we have built. Then, during the Summer, we shall make big decisions and continue our journey further.

You wish to stay tuned?
Then, follow us on our company page on LinkedIn (that is the current way to communicate). LINK https://www.linkedin.com/company/schot-llc/

I would like to end this blog by thanking in particular my wife, Claudio and all of our clients. And many, many more that contributed to this amazing enterprise!

Albert Schot