My consulting firm- how i started my business
One of my favourite activities is attending networking events. I love the excitement of meeting new people and listening to their stories. Sometimes the innocent boy inside of me is wondering how could it be that there are so many people out there, with unique stories, dreams and goals, challenges and fears. I network a lot. I love the ability to connect compatible people to each other, find job opportunities for my friends and identify new collaborators, partners and clients. I take networking events very seriously and usually develop a strategy before going.
First, i always check for an attendance list, review the attendees and check their areas of interest. I try to pick few who stand out in their relevance to what i’m interested in and i memorize their specific areas of interest. I also rarely attend these events alone. I usually bring a team with me, each one focused on specific individuals whom they want to get to know. Some my call it hunting, we simply call it calculated networking. In future articles, i will elaborate on it more to explain the mistakes many people make when participating in such events.
At that one event, which took place in the beautiful Hilton hotel in Vienna, i felt stuck. I wasn’t sure how to properly introduce myself in a memorable and impressive way. At that time i was still a bachelors student and a freelance consultant. Everyone else that night introduced themselves as employees of top companies and large organizations such as the United Nations. I had to find a better way to introduce myself, if only to be memorable and stand out. I remember thinking about how great it would have been if i owned a company and introduced myself as the CEO. It always begins with a single thought.
During a short break, while sitting on one of the dangerously comfortable sofas in the hotel’s lobby, i entertained the idea with my friend Seraphim. We jokingly came up with the name Zilbershatz Consulting. The joke became serious quite fast and in a matter of two weeks the company was alive with a website, business cards, a team and social media presence. Someone once told me an idea has 8 seconds before our brain finds a reason to discard and disregard it. Action must be taken immediately and that’s exactly what i did.
Knowing Daniel Kahneman’s Prospect Theory, i knew that putting myself in a position of loss, will drive and motivate me further to realize my idea. I quickly bought the domain and invested in a proper website. I was now eager to get my initial investment back and together with the excitement of a new beginning, Zilbershatz Consulting was born.
Later on, the consulting company transformed into a marketing agency now known as Vsible.online.