As I improve my Cloud Architecture skills, I’ll be moving towards consulting
Photo credits: freepik.com
As I sharpen my skills in cloud computing/architecture, I’m realizing that I need to continue tapping into my consulting talent that I began developing while I was in the military.
When I served in the Army, I was a Medical Logistics Specialist where my job was to manage the major supply contracts I negotiated for ward departments such as: Emergency Room (ER), Surgery (SUR), and Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
I created long-standing relationships with Directors, Executives and Sales Engineers that were a part of the clientele base for each of those wards.
One thing’s for sure when it comes to establishing and sustaining those types relationships, you must build trust.
We’ve heard this philosophy repeatedly, but some professionals still miss this along with the other fundamentals of acquiring loyal business which is to also garner pertinent information from the people they’re either selling, advising and/or presenting to in order to construct the best pitch.
When I say “pitch” I don’t mean the usual, gimmicky way of basically bribing someone to buy your product/service.
The goal is to cultivate genuine interest in whatever you’re presenting. In order to do that, you must also listen intently. You cannot know what the client/consumer wants if you haven’t paid attention to a thing they’ve said to you.
Knowing all of this, I plan to move back into the consulting direction, but for cloud solutions within the cigar business sector.
**Data Security & Compliance**
As we see various industries move towards the cloud to streamline data protection, there are some outliers that have yet to be introduced to this concept.
The cigar industry is a very “niche” market, meaning they have extremely specific standard practices that, to them, almost doesn’t have room for evolution.
I beg to differ.
Everyone needs to security. That’s why you have protective vehicles like insurance, contracts, regulations and the like because all parties involved in a business transaction needs to be irrefutably affirmed in their endeavor(s).
The cigar business doesn’t see this yet, so that’s where I’ll come in.
**Scalability**
Cloud infrastructure can scale up and down according to the business’ needs. As cigar lounges particularly become more prevalent within the community, they will need to learn how to better safeguard their big data into manageable storage environments.
**Cost-Efficiency**
Every business is looking to “cut cost”, but many implement this method in the wrong way…
They become cheap.
Being cheap is almost never an efficient tactic in business, and we see this time and time again when a company decides to lay off a department or two worth of employees to decrease their tax burden (that’s right you’re 🫵🏾 expensive), which results in an increase of improperly distributed workloads.
In other words, individual burnouts.
Nothing gets resolved properly this way. So ditch the pseudo-frugal business practices and get protection, otherwise, you’ll have no business.
**Enhanced Customer Experience**
With big data on the cloud, many lounges, in particular, could potentially offer personalized experiences to their patrons through loyalty programs and/or event recommendations (I’m giving too much game, I know my cigar competitors will eventually see this lol).
**Comprehensive Solutions**
Beyond just singular data protection, the cigar business can get a better handle on inventory management (especially in the realm of distribution and trade between countries), reservation systems (in-lounge experience), customer relations (post-lounge impact), and IoT integration (tracking cigar inventory).
All of these and more would be beneficial talking points to present to cigar lounges and shops around the world when I finally move towards the consulting aspect of my business.
Thank you for reading and I hope you’ll continue to join me in my journey as a budding tech professional and Founder of Cigar Chef LLC. STICKS UP!!!
