In this episode of "Small Business, Big Moves,". Thomas Bennett is joined by Babar Arshad to explore creative strategies and innovative approaches that have propelled small businesses to new heights. Discover the art of thinking big in small business and how to build and leverage technology to grow and scale your business.
Connect with us on social media:
- Facebook: Thomas Bennett
- Instagram: @Thomas.mbennett
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-YouTube: @SmallBusinessMoneyConnector
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Small Business Big Moves is a podcast where innovation meets entrepreneurship. Join Tom Bennett as he explores all things business growth! From business funding and business tax credits to conversations with leaders who have grown successful and innovative businesses!
In this episode of "Small Business, Big Moves,". Thomas Bennett is joined by Babar Arshad to explore creative strategies and innovative approaches that have propelled small businesses to new heights. Discover the art of thinking big in small business and how to build and leverage technology to grow and scale your business.
Connect with us on social media:
- Facebook: Thomas Bennett
- Instagram: @Thomas.mbennett
- LinkedIn: Thomas Bennett
-YouTube: @SmallBusinessMoneyConnector
Subscribe to "Small Business, Big Moves" on Your Favorite Podcast Platform for more inspiring episodes on innovation and entrepreneurship.
Small Business Big Moves is a podcast where innovation meets entrepreneurship. Join Tom Bennett as he explores all things business growth! From business funding and business tax credits to conversations with leaders who have grown successful and innovative businesses!
Welcome to Small Business, Big Moves, the podcast where innovation meets entrepreneurship. I'm your host, Tom Bennett, and we'll explore all things business growth from business funding and business tax credits to conversations with leaders who have grown successful and innovative businesses. Welcome to the show. My guest today is Babar Arshad over at iTitans. If you wanted to introduce yourself, Babar. Yeah, thank you for having me Thomas. I think you're doing a good job with the podcast. So I am a tech entrepreneur. I identify as a tech entrepreneur who's not limited to tech only, but thinks that tech is a very integral part of any modern day business. I was born in Pakistan. I moved to the U S about eight years ago. I've had global experience and exposure in terms of my call. In terms of my job experiences, I worked on the corporate side for a few years and then realized that that's not something for me. My strength on the corporate side was product management. So I built big products for, you know, Fortune 500 companies on senior level positions and about four. Four years ago, I officially started my tech journey. I was in tech already. I was in entrepreneurship, but I started my official tech entrepreneurship journey start of 2019. It's going to be five years, in fact. So time flies, man. But that's where I started from. I have about three companies under my belt. The main one that I identify with is iTitans. It's a tech services company, and we have a very simple motto. You do the business, we do the tech. You know, so that's what it encompasses. And you know, we can go into more detail in a bit, probably. Absolutely. Yeah, I know that that's it. I appreciate the intro. That's exactly what I wanted to cover today for everyone is really just whether you're looking to build and start a software company, or if you're a small business that's looking to innovate and grow a little background kind of how businesses can really leverage technology, whether that's your services or the Millions of other services out there. So just, just kind of wanted to jump into that a little, right? I appreciate you kind of giving the background on where you started. I know, know things have been been crazy for a lot of businesses over the past few years. Is that has that had any sort of impact on you in the business or is that how has that made a difference for you guys? I think for a lot of tech people COVID was a Fortunate thing again, sound weird when you say that, but because COVID made a lot of people realize the importance of digitalization and technology, a lot of people who were traditional in their approaches were old fashioned, only having physical you know presence, they realize that, okay, you know, the world can come to a stop, but you need to get earned money to still keep going. That's. Part became very integral. I think now 95 percent people, they know the importance of tech. It used to be probably like 50 percent before COVID. So COVID was kind for me. I was gladly working in health tech. I was building health technology for a few companies when COVID happened. So, you know luckily enough, those companies blew up, you know, they, they got a lot of business, a lot of traction when COVID happened and same happened for me. And since then, you know, I've tweaked my model a little bit. I want to help out innovative, young businesses instead of working with bigger companies. And probably we can come to that in a bit, but I worked with. Big companies, you know, I built tech for I, I, I think I should not name them, but for fortune 500 companies and it was tough, you know, it's tough to, as a small company to work with very big clients the mindset match is not there. So now I want to work with people who match my mindset, who want to build stuff, you know, and they want to build elephants, you know, they, they want to build big things, you know, elephant baby takes two years. Before it comes out, you know, so that's, that's to work with innovative young businesses and help them build, be part of their journey. And help them out as much as I can. Definitely. Yeah, that's why, like we said, I'm excited to have you on because of that. We got a got a similar purpose and mission out there. It really sounds like just helping these small businesses get their business to where they want it to be. A lot of people maybe want to think and stay small, but just trying to kind of inspire some of these businesses to... Think bigger and really scale to where they need to, or want to get the business to is there, would you say there's anything specific or anything that's really helped you move faster in business or really in in the software space as a whole? I think it's a general business acumen or tactic. You can say, I just always want to keep an open mind, open mind and open ears. I don't restrict myself to any certain industry. You know, I specialize in health tech just by chance. I have a lot of fintech experience. I have a lot of e commerce experience I have a lot of martech experience marketing technologies, but that's just my chance so I keep my eyes and ears open and I would want every in Any business owner at any stage honestly to do the same and that's the problem. I have with very big businesses Because they're so fixed So they don't have their eyes and ears a lot of time open because they can't afford to Absolutely. No, and I agree with you completely, right? I came from the the large corporate space myself. I was in the HR payroll industry. I worked for all those large companies. I worked for some of the large Unifers companies. I was doing solar before solar was cool and everyone was kind of jumping in on that. That's really where I started always with the big companies, right? And then being able to switch to a firm where, like I said, we really focus on helping that small business, right? We really, and our partners the leaders of our company, really think about it every day. What can we do to help small businesses get to the next level, right? And that's A lot of people aren't doing that. So that's, that's definitely a valuable thing right now is the, the large companies, the large corporations, they they get, they get a lot of help that they already need, but yeah, definitely excited to help the small business as well. One of my mentors when I was in college, he told me, you got to learn the processes. From the large companies and the aspirations, the dreams from the small companies. And that's what I luckily was able to do. You know, I worked in a couple of startups, I worked in a few big companies before starting my own thing. So I got a bit of, you know, both mix before going in. Absolutely. And is there, is there anything like any advice that you'd give someone that's looking to get into the whether it's like the tech or software space or just kind of starting a small business in general, any, any advice that you'd give someone there? Yeah, yeah, for sure. And this can be probably for anybody starting or anybody who already has a business. Tech is a tool to leverage leverage on, you know, tech is not a responsibility. Tech is not a. Expense, you know, some people think, oh, tech is very expensive. It's expense for me. Tech is a tool to leverage on. Tech is there to help you improve your efficiency, improve your bottom line. If building a 50, 000 tech is not helping you save, you know, 250, 000 in the next three years, then it's not worth it. So don't be pressurized to build tech, but wherever you think the need is, there has to be tech there because that's just your bottom line. I love it. No, I agree completely. Right. It's you want to invest in the tech. You want to invest in the the tools to grow your business. Like you said, obviously, you want to make sure it has that ROI. You're not going to invest the 50, 000 into Into some tech that may not help your business. Unfortunately, a lot of people do that, and as we know the statistics on how how quickly a lot of small businesses can go out of business just making those decisions. But when you get people like you and other leaders of some of these software and tech companies that truly want to help the client and make sure it's a worthwhile decision that that definitely helps. Yeah. And one more thing, right? I think it's very important and this is for any industry, but especially for tech. Sometimes when we, when we try to build tech. We get too much into it, you know we always have to stay agile. There's a framework that we use called Agile development methodologies. It only teaches us to be always, as I said, keeping our ears and eyes open and making decisions accordingly. We should try to build and sell side by side. We cannot build first and then go to market. There has to be some side by side stuff going on, or else you'll do something that's either too niche. Or that's not needed, honestly, or the time has passed. Sometimes I've had all of these three situations and that's how I learned, you know, building and selling together is very important. Absolutely. No, that's critical. I'm glad you shared that and then kind of piggybacking off that. I know obviously there's a lot that goes on a lot of decisions that you have to kind of make as you adapt and kind of grow in the business as well. Is there anything specific that you do to continue to learn or improve the business, just making sure that you're staying on top of things with? Everything probably changing daily. Yeah, yeah, especially the last one year or so, right? With the AI revolution and stuff like that. There's, there's no way you can not keep up. Especially in the tech world. So, in fact, interestingly, I have one person dedicated who just does research for us. You know, the whole company, the person's job is to go into different technologies, AI tools, do research, and then help each individual. I have about 60 odd people in my company. This person can help each individual try to make their life easier through modern day tools and learnings. If you want a topic and you're like, oh, you know, how do we do how can tech help me in coding? For a mobile app, this person will go in, do research and come back with things for you. Because a lot of us are lazy, right? Or we're too busy. So the research skill is so important that I'm, I'm paying thousands of dollars a month to have this one person in the company doing this for us. So I think it's very important. There's no way you can not stay updated. Another very big thing, I think. is staying grounded with people. Sometimes in the tech world, you go too digital. Like everything that you're doing is digital is all your connections are digital. All your meetings are digital. All your clients are digital. You work with clients for five years. You don't even know them by face. No, they don't, they never come on video. So I think having that human touch to say, stick around it in terms of selling, in terms of networking, in terms of relationships is very important in the tech world. Absolutely. Yeah, I know it's a yeah, it's a missing point that that is, as you know, impacts a lot of these software and tech companies, but it's such an important piece is that human aspect. And like you said, with the direction that AI has been going, I, I know how big it's going to be. Obviously, you know how big it's going to continue to be, but you at the end of the day, you can't replace that human experience. And if you don't have that human experience and customer service, then So, yeah. Those are the type of businesses that are going to end up being replaced, unfortunately. Yeah, yeah, for sure. For sure. I totally agree. Absolutely. And then I know you've, you've got a lot of experience in the tech space. It sounds like you've kind of had your hands in a majority of the industries out there, right? Obviously we do the same thing. We partner up with all different industries as well. Would you say there's been like a, what's the biggest like obstacle or failure, however you want to put that, that that's maybe had a negative impact on your business, but kind of turned it into a a good place. I think getting a foot in the door with a lot of people, everybody needs tech. As I said, 95 percent of people understand the importance of it. They're too scared of it. They're too scared to, you know, talk about it, think about it, take, take any action. So I think getting the initial conversations, going with people, um, getting them across on a, on a meeting, a table, you know anywhere where they actually listen to you is, is my toughest challenge. People out there are craving good technology and people like me want to give good solutions, but it's just sitting across the table and list. Thing to each other, you know, the basic human problem of trust of connection. I think that is the, the biggest challenge for me and most of my efforts are dedicated, you know, trying to have these conversations with people. The initial first 15, 20, 30 minute conversation. Maybe people realize that tech is, is beautiful. Tech is not supposed to be scary. It's supposed to be good. So that's, that's where I have a tough time. I think. Absolutely. No, that's exactly right. It's it's something that a lot of businesses need. And a lot of these business owners are, are scared of that change are scared of adapting and kind of getting on the the latest trends or maybe something that's really going to help their business. Especially these businesses that have been around for a while, right? They've been doing things the same way over and over again just kind of continuing to get by. Maybe they just need to, they oftentimes really just need to make that one tweak or invest in that next technology or software that's really gonna help elevate their business. And like you said, a lot of times they're scared of it when once you, once you do the research and you really sit down and weigh everything out. There's really not much to be scared of at the end of the day. You make that make that logical decision. Is it something that's going to help the business or not? And that, that's really what it comes down to, right? Yeah. Yeah. And one thing that I've seen a lot of people do well, and some do not well is involving younger people as employees, as I don't know, their, their family members, as vendors. Like if I talk to a 20 year old, I'm going to learn so much. I'm 30, right? If I talk to 20 year old, 10 year difference in like a one hour conversation, they'll teach me so many things that I will never get to know besides that. About mindset, about general approach, about business, anything about how they use shortcuts. A lot of us have tips and tricks that save time for us because we're all you know craving more and more times to ourselves So I think a lot of older business owners anybody who's been in business for more than five years Try to hire fresh blood try to work with flesh, you know fresh blood younger people it's gonna it's gonna give us open your eyes so much Absolutely. No, that's huge. That's a great valuable piece for for all the business owners out there. Listen, definitely, Definitely pay attention to that. That's a good, good thing to implement to your business is that that fresh blood and just kind of making sure that the team staying up to date with everything for sure. I know you touched on it a little bit was there. I know, obviously, you mentioned that your background and kind of the main thing for you was really getting your foot in the door and really building up that that reputation and trust. Was there along that line was there ever kind of a moment in your life or business where things really kind of changed or clicked and said, I think I got this obviously there's Always more to learn, but this is this is what I needed to get going in the right direction. In terms of that problem, honestly, if I'm being honest, I have not been able to solve that problem. I think that's a that's a forever problem. It's more like a struggle than a problem, you know? It's like how I have struggled to go to the gym, you know, every day. Or, you know, struggle with different things, being spiritual or whatever. So I think it's a, it's an ongoing effort. There's no one solution to it. The more people I meet, The more effort I put into it one thing, honestly, I think that helped me in fact, was I tried to stop pushing. I tried to stop selling, you know, for the first couple of years, I was always trying to sell. Hey, you know, hey Thomas, as soon as I meet you, hey, you know, check out my prices, check out my products, and you know, do you want to build tech? No. Now I focus more on knowing people. I want to know people. I want to make people know me. And then if they know me as a subject matter expert and they, they know me as somebody who believes technology is beautiful and simple, they will come to me once they need something. And everybody's going to need tech sooner or later. For me, my pricing and my offerings are so unique that I know when somebody comes to me, they're not going away. They're going to stay, you know, that has happened to me so many times. Once somebody comes, it just keeps going up and up and up. I have a few number of clients, but very deep work with them. So, so yeah, I think. I stopped pushing to sell. That's when this problem began a bit, a bit easier. Absolutely. No, that's huge, right? You you really want to build that customer for life instead of just signing someone up tomorrow, that's not going to want to partner up with you. And whether that's. Next week next month next year. Definitely good to be in that business where people want to build that relationship and continue working with you as you grow and then you get to help them grow. Absolutely. And then kind of tying off that what's something really anything great that's happened to you or your business over the last year or quarter kind of anything in between that that's really been a great impact on your business. So it's not brought impact to me yet. But I finally got out of my comfort zone. I'm trying to do one or two things a quarter, which are, I'm not comfortable with. And public networking is one of them. I don't like group networking settings. I can talk to people all day one on one. But if you put me in a group with a hundred people, I'm a bit shy. So I did one of those activities. I joined a group, a local group in Dallas. It's called Apex. It's a beautiful group. I've not had any like value out of them in terms of money till now, but just the mindset being around, you know, cool entrepreneurs and people who are, you know, hustling and you know, disciplined. Being around that, I think it's a good thing that has happened to me. Something very recent. And if it leads to more money, good. If it doesn't still good, because you know, everything cannot just be money oriented. So it's not really for my business more for myself till now. But I think joining that group Apex was a, was a good small win for me. Absolutely. No, I agree completely. I, I, I'm in the group as well. It's a great network, right? And like you said, it's not, at the end of the day, it's not really about the money. Obviously, the relationships and connections are going to come out of it and just having that huge network of like minded entrepreneurs, business owners elite salespeople, just kind of all walks of life, right? You've got people that are In their early 20s that are starting up a business and just absolutely killing it and then you get people in their 50s 60s maybe even older that have been in the game for so long and just there to kind of Give value and in feedback to help people. So yeah, and i'm with you It's I went I go to the that million dollar mastermind every year and get in a room with Over 2000 entrepreneurs. It's yeah, definitely gets there's definitely pressure there, but just being able to make those relationships and just see if you guys can all get together and help each other. It's a powerful thing. Yeah, yeah, for sure. For sure. Yeah. So that's, that's a good small win for me. I did not think I'll do this anytime soon, but I actually took a leap of faith. Absolutely. And is there Anything that I didn't ask you or anything that you think might be important for the audience or some small businesses listening to know or learn as well? I think as I mentioned earlier, don't try to do everything yourself. You know, if you don't do tech, if you're in home services and you have a very good way to sell a very good client pipeline, a very good offering, everything, don't try to do stuff yourself. There's no, there's no reason for you to not spend, I don't know, 10, grand to build technology from somebody else who specializes at it. And while you focus on, you know, making that technology efficient. seeing where you can use that technology or for other things, you know, HR operations accounting, some people suck at numbers. So don't try to do everything yourself. It's impossible. And then it kills the, you know, kills the entrepreneur vibe. The, the biggest reason that I at least, you know, chose this route is freedom, you know, trying to be free. And number one freedom for me. It's freedom of time. Everybody, all the entrepreneurs I see are so busy. All the entrepreneurs I see, they're so busy. Their calendars are packed. They have like 20, 000 things every day. If I was in a job, I would have less work. You know, I will be more free in terms of, okay, I can make my calendar. I can go pick up my daughter. I can go to the gym, blah, blah, blah. As an entrepreneur, if you're not able to you know, go to the gym in the middle of the day, I still have my workout clothes on because I just go anytime. You know, so I think try to not specialize, not do everything yourself, try to delegate, strive for freedom, because I think that's the biggest thing anybody can get. Absolutely. No, it really is. And like we've talked about throughout the show, it's the money really is a byproduct, right? Of how many people you can help. And at the end of the day, when, like, when you talk about freedom, it really is that time freedom, right? It's people can. Work 24 hours a day and make a ton of money. But at the end of the day, you know, it's like, what are you working for at that point? So absolutely just being able to kind of schedule your own day. Like you said, you want to go to the gym at 5 AM? Great. Maybe you want to go at two o'clock in the afternoon, you know, it's whatever works for you. Yep. Yep. Yep. Totally. Totally. Awesome. And yeah, no, I I think that that's pretty much it on the on the wrap of this episode for the small business big moves. I want to just let everyone know if you if you enjoyed today's episode what would really help us is if you shared the podcast with someone you think would get value out of it. Also can hit me up on Facebook at Thomas Bennett or on Instagram at thomas. mbennett we'll look forward to seeing you guys on the next show.