4 Realities for Anyone Starting their own Company – By Matthew Weigelt

Naveen Krishnamurthy, founder and CEO of Riva Solutions, now understands two realities about the life of an entrepreneur. Being the owner of his IT management and consulting firm is not sexy, and it’s even lonely.

“It’s me, myself and I,” he told me in a conversation about his life as an entrepreneur. He has to remain focused on his goals and continue to move forward.

Krishnamurthy has worked at major firms such as Booz Allen Hamilton and CACI. He joined a small venture about eight years ago. The experience allowed him to learn the lessons early on of small business ownership, inspiring him to launch Riva Solutions in 2009.

With his company now, he said, “I’m taking a second bite out of the same apple and it’s so much better the second time around.”

So what has Krishnamurthy learned?

He shared five lessons for success for businesses in the federal marketplace.

1. The life of an entrepreneur is far from glamorous. He spends about half of his time on human resources, run-of-the-mill legal issues, and accounting, which are just as important as the front-office sales. Without good operations, the company will have problems with employees, the law, and the IRS.

2. A manager and a leader are two different roles and don’t often mix. A manager has a heavy hand in immediate operations, while leadership provides vision and then entrusts its implementation to the people around them.

3. A company should not “game-ify” the system. A small firm should not play up the fact they have a small-business size status to persuade federal agencies who have goals to meet. Instead, small businesses should highlight this as an added benefit to the quality of the company’s work.

4. An entrepreneur should attend networking events and hand out business cards. Krishnamurthy said he has to have the mind frame for interaction. He goes to at least one networking event each week and meets one new company.

These are just a few of the lessons that young entrepreneurs will share at FOSE. Krishnamurthy will be a part of a panel of other entrepreneurs who will share more life lessons about business ownership. They have offered to speak honestly about lessons learned, wins, losses and advice they received, both good and bad on Wednesday, May 15, at 11:05 AM in room 146C of the Convention Center.

For more information about Naveen Krishnamurthy’s session or other Future Government Technology Leaders sessions at FOSE visit www.fose.com