Most Canadians don’t start their own business because they love dealing with technology and technology issues. Tech can be an overwhelming and expensive time pit.
Ruth Aliu can empathize. That’s what led her to start Techity Consulting (techityconsult.ca), an IT support and consulting company that focuses on helping small e-commerce sellers, coaches, consultants and service providers harness the latest technologies to grow their businesses.
According to Ruth, Techity Consulting was born out of the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw businesses of all shapes and sizes suddenly pivot to purely digital offerings.
“A lot of these businesses weren’t quite sure which tools and tech they’d need to maintain their usual level of customer care and service,” she says.
Soon enough, Ruth found herself fielding questions and calls ranging from, “How do I set up an appointment booking software,” to “How do I get my email marketing working on Shopify?”
And Ruth’s timely tech assistance? It was very well received, indeed.
“I started getting quite a few of these calls and they kept telling me, ‘You’re a natural at this, why don’t you consider this as a business?’” she says.
Techity Consulting was incorporated in May 2021 and by 2023, Ruth went full-time with her company and is following her goal of offering a complete set of services—from auditing technology and setting up new systems, to maintaining systems and websites.
Becoming a trusted tech partner with .CA
Ruth’s mission isn’t to be just a solver of tech issues or recommender of new tools—it’s to be a trusted tech partner to businesses. But with that comes the need to build credibility and create a sense of comfort in her customers.
“I think I’m able to really connect with their unique pain points of being a solopreneur who wears multiple hats and is the accountant, the salesperson, the delivery person. So, I’m able to meet them where they’re at.”
The other key component in building credibility, says Ruth, is having both a website and a .CA.
“A website is important for business’ visibility, so people can see what you offer, how to connect with you and the work you’ve done in the past,” she says. “I just want people to meet me. And when you meet me, you’re infected by the passion that I have, for what I do and you can just say, ‘Sign me up!’”
Ruth adds that customers have found her in numerous ways, for instance—by Googling “tech support near me” or “tech consultant Ottawa.”
“There’s a certain brand authority that comes with it when you have a domain of your own. People can search for your business and you can be discovered. It’s worth the investment every time,” she says.
As for choosing .CA—Ruth calls her decision a no-brainer.
“When I give people my website, they know immediately that I’m a Canadian small business just in the ‘.CA.’ There is a real comfort factor knowing they’re working with a Canadian-based company and the credibility, too, that I’m not pretending to be something that I’m not.”
Scaling up for success
When small businesses think about adding tech, they think about huge dollars. Techity Consulting takes a more “custom-tailored” approach, by working within a business’ budget and providing solutions that can be scaled up to meet their needs.
“I have found that most tech companies are structured to say, here are our products and services and there’s the price—take it or leave it. At Techity Consulting, we can say, ‘Where are you at? What kinds of tools work best for the kind of person or business you are? What are the workflows, processes, tools and automation that will make your life easier without causing a lot of disruption to the way you do things?’”
Ruth has been working to scale the business, amplifying her marketing reach, adding a new social media coordinator and reaching new audiences within Ottawa’s business community—and beyond.
“This is really just the beginning. I landed in Canada from Nigeria 12 years ago as an international student. And now, I feel it’s all come full circle. I’m helping small businesses make their dreams come true—and I want to continue to do more.”
