It’s Independents Week and we’re celebrating by profiling successful entrepreneurs within the Salesforce community on the 10K blog. Follow along with us at #IndependentsWeek and #GoIndependent as we give a peek into each person’s journey to independence, lessons learned along the way, and advice for others who might be interested in joining the thriving Salesforce ecosystem.
Phillip Poskus
Founder & CEO at
Quantum CRM Solutions, LLC
Tell us about your business.
Quantum CRM Solutions is a Salesforce consultancy firm focused on implementations, custom development and coding, and anything tangential to the broader Salesforce ecosystem.
Currently Quantum CRM Solutions focuses on helping our customers maximize their investment in Salesforce by designing tailored solutions for each company and successfully managing the implementation project to deliver impactful results. We’re also working on a few ideas to elevate our offerings via an app that will be available on AppExchange – keep an eye out for that in the future.
Why did you decide to start your own business?
I guess you could say I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit — my first gig was in elementary school drawing Power Ranger pictures and then selling them to friends and family for fifty cents each. I made $1.50 off of that venture. That job turned into a yard management business throughout my teenage years. I’ve always had a “make your own lunch” mentality – if you want something done, you have to put in the effort.
I worked for my former employer – a Salesforce consultancy – for about five years and the energy around this industry was palpable. The Salesforce ecosystem is booming and talented professionals are in very high demand. I had been thinking about starting out of my own for a few years and finally decided to take the leap. I’m so glad I did.
What advice can you share with others who might be thinking about embarking on a similar path?
First, and most importantly, determine the minimum revenue you need in order to keep the lights on, food on the table, and maintain a decent quality of life. Once I determined that number I realized it was much less than I had imagined it would be. Seeing the number in writing took quite a bit of stress off of my shoulders in those early months. Remember that the benefits of being an “independent” — pride of ownership, loving what you do, and having control over your destiny — are what’s most important.
Secondly, find a project management tool and use it, even if it’s as simple as the tasks feature in Gmail. I relied on far too many hand-jotted lists during my first few weeks. There will be many business tasks to manage, from doing the actual work that has to get done, to the business side of things.
Lastly, if you’ve done the research and you’re comfortable with the potential risk, just believe in yourself and do it.
What are the best parts of being a business owner? And what is the hardest part?
There are so many benefits to being a business owner. I love having the freedom to run my business and manage my time the way I see fit. It’s an exhilarating feeling to see my hard work result in success, recurring business, and happy customers.
The hardest part is the exact corollary to the best part. If you’re passionate about your work it’s easy to mess up your work/life balance. I am naturally a competitive person and will often try to push myself to get one, two, or three more tasks done. Before I know it, I’ve worked a 14 (or more) hour day. I often remind myself not to forget to enjoy the benefits of being my own boss.
If you could go back and give yourself one piece of advice from the future, what would it be?
I waited several years to take the leap and was only able to do so once I asked myself what I needed to do to be truly happy and what it would take financially to get to that place. If I could go back and do it over again I would have come to that realization sooner.
Stay tuned all week for more advice from successful “independents” within the Salesforce ecosystem. Learn how to go from admin to entrepreneur from 10K Advisors CEO Nick Hamm.