JigsawTek Client Highlight

JigsawTek

www.JigsawTek.com 

Richard Hanson is the owner of JigsawTek in La Verne, California. JigsawTek is an IT management and services company for small businesses with a background in IT services for corporate players like Northrop Grumman.

Richard’s background was software development working on projects between New York and Orange County California. In 2013, JigsawTek Needed to change it’s focus towards managed services targeting small businesses. “We recognized we needed to do a business plan and started putting it together. There were certain areas that we just didn't know how to deal with,” Richard explained. 

At a business planning seminar, Richard was informed by the speaker that SBDC’s have mentors and you really should pick up a mentor to help “define and move forward with your business..The University of La Verne has an SBDC right on campus. You should talk to them and get a mentor and that's when we met Malcolm Geffen.”

JigsawTek’s chief challenge was that Richard had a lengthy IT resume but did not have a strong business, sales, or financial background. “So many different things that happen in a business, I just never had to do,” commented Richard, speaking on the differences between running his business and his time as an independent contractor. Richard’s other challenges were primarily sales-related: reaching out to prospects and creating relationships to drive sales.

“SBDC took a real tech geek like me and turned me into a real business person.”

After Meeting with Malcolm, JigsawTek created a strategic plan. Malcolm advised focusing on specific industries and organizations that included local city governments. Malcolm also helped incorporate sales techniques and systems to help JigsawTek create and build sales relationships. On the administrative side, Malcolm helped JigsawTek implement internal systems for budgeting and bookkeeping to manage the growth of the business.

After a year of mentoring from Malcolm Geffen from the University of La Verne, JigsawTek has secured a contract with a local government agency. Malcolm’s experience and advice have also led to promising developments with many local city governments for IT systems management.