I am thrilled to announce that I am starting a new chapter in my career! A few weeks ago I left my company of 4+ years to join my fiancée, Fred, in an independent consulting business (Allenium) that he began earlier this year and has been fortunate to have plenty of work come his way!  This means that we now own and run our own little consulting shop focusing primarily on salesforce.com platform architecture, business and communication strategy, and application development. It is, of course, a little scary to not have a steady paycheck coming through the door, but working for myself has always been a personal goal and I feel so fortunate to be able to give it a shot so early in my (hopefully) long career. 

We’re making slow but steady progress on our website where we’ll host much more detail about what we do, but in a nutshell: we work with each other and with several other independent consulting partners to help our mutual clients make the most out of their investment of the Salesforce platform. We both feel strongly about “drinking our own champagne” and we are constantly exploring new ways of working as a small business. Ultimately we want to find and test different IT solutions for ourselves, and then share the models that we like (and use) with other small businesses who would benefit from a similar approach. This type of small-shop R&D is intriguing and is something that I am really excited to explore. 

Another reason (of many) that I am attracted to the smaller consulting shop model is that we have very little overhead (and no employees) which means we can be super flexible with the type of services support that we offer clients, including the ad-hoc “pay as you go” services model that bigger companies simply cannot support in the personal way that we can. I also love that when clients choose to work with us, they are choosing to work specifically with *us*; our brand = our personal identities, experience, and credentials, and when we bring someone else in to support a project it’s someone that we know very well and deeply trust. This kind of flexibility is enormously attractive to me and I hope to our current and future clients as well. 

Overall we’re super excited for this new adventure! I’m so grateful for all of the support from my friends, family, clients, former colleagues, and Salesforce community members, and I look forward to continue growing all of these relationships in the context of my new role. It’s a new era and I am beyond ready for it! #BringItOn!