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I had this great idea: I figured smaller companies need the same integrative perspective and professional management a CIO provides large enterprises, but can’t afford a full-time CIO. So I created a solution — a low-cost IT management service.

187 marketing letters and a bunch of telephone calls resulted in precisely no interest. IT Catalysts still offers the service, but since 187 is a statistically valid sample, it’s no longer something we actively market.

Quite a few of you have asked about my experience starting IT Catalysts, so at the risk of overusing that most deadly of words — “I” — here are some early lessons learned.

Lesson #1: Selling is everything. Yes, everything. If you aren’t prepared to sell, don’t start your own business. I received a deluge of kind wishes and great advice when I announced my transition in this space, but no flood of requests for my services. If you start your own business, prospects won’t call you either. You gotta sell.

Lesson #2: Write the brochure first. You don’t have to produce it, just write it. It forces you to craft clear answers to important questions, like what you are selling, who you are selling to, and why that person should choose you instead of a competitor. You’re always selling to a person, not a company. Choose someone who will want what you’re selling and can make the decision to buy it.

Lesson #3: Write the brochure before the website. A brochure must be concise. The web gives you too much space. (Yes, I learned this the hard way.)

Lesson #4: Use your friendships, but don’t abuse them. Now that you know who you’re selling to, ask every friend you have to introduce you to anyone they know who fits the description. Don’t ask for more than an introduction, though, and don’t sell to a friend unless friendship means less to you than income.

Lesson #5: Make more friends. If you understand Lesson #3, Lesson #4 is self-explanatory.

Lesson #6: Be friendly. You can’t be brilliant until after they like you. If you’re brilliant before that, you’re just another annoying show-off who knows how to talk but not how to listen.

It’s a tough year to start a business. It’s also a tough year to find employment. The only benefit of employment is that you don’t have to sell as often. It isn’t security. As a wise friend put it, true security only comes from the lack of security.

I have plenty of that.

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|In: Career Management|Last Updated:

One of my dopier career moves was showing up the marketing director at a former employer. I thought I was demonstrating how useful I could be in her organization. She saw me as a potential rival. Blam! I got backstabbed up the yin yang, and if you’ve ever had your yin yang backstabbed you know it hurts like the Dickens.

If only I’d had a copy of Wess Roberts’ new book It Takes More Than a Carrot and a Stick I’d have known better. Right there on page 88, talking about Colleague Slayers it says, “They normally attack only those colleagues who have offended them or present a competitive threat to them in the battle for power and prestige that occurs in virtually all workplaces.”

Carrot and Stick isn’t just about how to handle backstabbers. It’s a veritable field guide to annoying co-workers, only more useful.

The average field guide helps you identify critters, but doesn’t generally give you advice about what to do once you’ve found them. Look up seagulls in your average bird book, for example, and it won’t tell you to move immediately if you find yourself directly below a hovering flock.

Carrot and Stick, on the other hand, tells you exactly how to handle each of the 15 major types of office irritant. Whether your problem is an Imperious Jerk, Empty Suit, Android or Perpetual Victim, Roberts helps you cope. He gives you specific advice tailored to your work relationship, so you know what to do whether you report to the Slougher (yet another species) he reports to you, or you’re peers.

This book isn’t for everyone. I know a guy, for example, who makes his living managing his own investments. He’s actually good enough to earn a satisfactory income this way. He operates out of his home, trades on-line, and has no boss, no co-workers, no staff … not even suppliers in any meaningful sense. He wouldn’t get much benefit out of this book. Neither would your average hermit, I suppose.

If you, like my investor friend, work alone in splendid isolation, don’t bother with It Takes More Than a Carrot and a Stick. Instead, buy Bob Lewis’s IS Survival Guide (hey, I need the royalties just as much as Wess does, and book-plugging does begin at home!).

But if you work in an office and have several nominees for the cubicle farthest from you, Carrot and Stick is just the ticket.

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