Flat out I’m a thinker, a brainstormer, and a manifestor. Coming up with new innovative ideas and outside the box thinking how we can constantly evolve and make our service better than the rest. Often times I get lost in my own train of thoughts and my brain is working faster than parts of my body can function. This can seriously impede productivity on what’s most important in an organization if a leader is like this, and I’m guilty of it.

“Don’t Confuse Activity with Accomplishment..” John Wooden

This is a fine line to walk, and unfortunately activity is not the same as accomplishment. As a business owner in the startup life I tend to forget this from time to time and I have to refocus. Business can be one of those things that can seriously inhibit growth if not planned properly.

Activity can be addictive and just like levels of addiction, it can take more to get that same “buzz” feeling, so what do we do? Up the Dosage of activity feeding that addiction of accomplishment. What used to seem exciting now needs to be replaced with something more exciting, exhilarating and challenging. Problem with this is if we’re constantly busy, we may be too busy to even think. Or as it is in my case, I over analyze and think too deeply. Like a well thought out or played chess game, every move is calculated to the end and it’s potential outcomes. The harder we focus on thinking / doing the wrong things, the greater the danger it can become.

What’s The Definition of Insanity?

Doing the Same Thing Over and Over Expecting a Different Result.. As mentioned before, the wrong type of activity can be the thief in the night. Stealing precious time from pressing issues that matter most. The more diligent you are at the wrong activities, the further you are from your stated goals and objectives.

This can create the false sense of accomplishment; going down your list of completed To-Do’s and counting the things to did trying to rationalize were the time went. Success is not a full calendar of things to do, or things you’ve done. Our goal should be the productive use of our time to enable others to grow and accomplish predetermined outcomes and set tasks. Non-strategic activity pulls rather than pushes towards our goals.

It’s Easier to Push than Pull

Failing to plan is planning to fail in my book. It’s always best to have some sort of direction with your organization. Having a well thought out strategy and processes (Like giving estimates insteads of quotes) can save future time and headaches. Creating SOP’s (Standard Operating Procedures) for each part of your organization will make expanding (or replacing) easier when the time comes. It’s easier to go with the current than against it, and having a plan in place will help sail your ship in the right direction.

But things don’t always go as planned right? Sometimes things don’t always go as we expected or planned. That’s why learning to roll with the punches as they say is key in any technology industry and if you’re not 2 steps ahead of the game, you’re a dinosaur and soon to be extinct.

The bottom line are results, what’s is working for you and what is not. Are you getting the results that you wanted / expected out of your day? If not, find out what is holding you up and make a change.

Have you ever confused activity with accomplishment? If you’ve ever found yourself in the rat-race and stuck finding victory in your day, what did you do you change it?

The post Part 4: Putting the Cart Before the Horse appeared first on Widgetware.

When do you not need a service?

Okay, so maybe I shouldn’t be writing a blog post about this especially since we sell Software as a Service. It’s like a car salesman saying don’t buy your car here. Then I realized, I’m not a car dealer and I only build products that I use to save me time and money. So judge for yourself. When we were completely overhauling our business we had to make some tough choices on what to keep and what to scrap and having a post like this would have saved me so much heartache. So here goes.

For any small business or startup’s journey there will come a time where everyone gets together and discusses whether or not they should invest in paying monthly for a service. This is a very important topic because tacking on service after service can nickle and dime your profit margins, also you might not have a ton of capital to wield on all the services you actually need. After the phone bill, internet bill, banking fees, a CRM, marketing, etc… money can get tight. So how do you know when to drop a service?

This is tricky. A lot of times you can be wholly convinced that you absolutely need a service, but likely that is not the reality so here is a simple set of general rules that could save you a ton of time and money.

List the Services you pay for

First things first, make a list of all the services you use. Likely, you are going to automatically prioritize your list. Meaning that the first things you list are typically going to be the ones that are most important to you. The ones you have to look up in old emails or notes, these make good candidates for the scrap pile.

Condense

Second most important thing you should do is look for service overlaps. If you have two services that basically do the same thing, then scrap the one you use less. Chances are, if you have two or more related services, at least one service offers almost exactly the same thing you need from the others. This is also a great time to investigate the services you use and see if there are features that can help you part with the other services more gracefully. Not only does that save money, but it could consolidate your workflow.

Look for Open Source replacements

If you haven’t already cut a few things, here’s a great opportunity to take a plunge. Just use a search engine and query, “The name of the Service you pay for” + “Open Source.” You will be blown away by how many people, just like you, who took a stand against paying an outrageous monthly bill for a few things they can’t live without. Sure these replacements may have a small learning curve to get them up and running, but the money you save will almost always be worth it. Plus, you get the added value of really learning a system you are using. Who knows, you might be able to contribute back to the community if you improve an existing product. For example, we dropped our CRM software and replaced it with an open source version of MediaWiki and blended our workflow with a Invoicing/Time Tracking service we use. Turns out, we have way more flexibility and we save $50.00 a month. That’s $50 a month more towards marketing or beer at our company BBQs.

Look for cheaper and quality replacements

This is kind of a no brainer because hopefully you shopped around before you signed up to a service. Still this is a good time to take a moment and search the market for newer cheaper alternatives. If the service you are paying for isn’t being competitive it’s time to drop them. It’s how a business like theirs knows that it needs to keep on its game.

Write a Monthly Service Breakup letter

Okay, this is cheesy, but this will help you I promise. There are a lot of services out there that you can only cancel by making an actual phone call and talking to a diligent representative whose job is to keep you from canceling. If you’ve ever dropped a Gym membership then you know exactly what I’m talking about. The concept is, make it hard to quit, and make the person feel guilty for trying, because if it’s uncomfortable to do then a company can squeeze an extra $75 a month until you muscle up enough courage to get out. Might as well slap a surgeon generals warning on the side and call it a pack of Marlboros because this can be tough to get through.

So don’t resort to asking a tough talking friend to get you out of it, it’s time you kicked this teenage puppy love style. Write down a short concise letter that explains that you are canceling your service and a short summary of why. They are going to ask you why you are leaving about a dozen times, and if you hesitate they will pounce. Even if you have to read word for word off your break up letter, that’s okay. Don’t be bullied into another month of servitude when you’ve come this far already. If the representative is persistent and the conversation is dragging on, all you have to do is say, “I’ve summarized why I am quiting in an email and will send it to you the moment that you confirm my service is canceled, until then I prefer not to answer any more questions.” That’s called a velvet dagger ultimatum. It says you are done talking, time for business, without being a complete jerk or getting to the point where you are so frustrated that you hang up the phone. To them, a pissed off paying customer is worth more than a non-paying nobody so don’t just hang up when you’re frustrated.

That’s about it. Hopefully after reading this you will be armed with the tools to start stripping services and saving some hard earned dough. Have you ever written a service break up letter? If so I would love to hear all about it in the comments below!

The post Startup Life Log: Post 2 appeared first on Widgetware.

Widgetware is a startup company.  While we’ve been around for quite a few years, we are finally hitting our groove and focusing what we do. We have officially branched into the world of SaaS or Software as a Service and we learned a ton of hard lessons from our years as a small business that we don’t want to leave completely behind.  One of those lessons was transparency, so we want to document our experience of becoming a Tech Startup complete with the good, the bad, and the ugly.

My name is Scott Wyatt and I am a Co Founder of Widgetware as well as the Senior Designer/Developer and CTO.  My goal in this series of blog posts is to relay our progress from nobodies to our goal as industry innovators from my perspective starting off with what I do and a few pro tips.  I don’t want to leave anything out that you might want to know, so if you have any questions make sure to drop me a line or two in the comments below.

That awkward moment

I find myself always fumbling for an answer when someone asks, “So what again do you do for living?” Even if you have a relatively meager social life like myself, this question inevitably comes up.  If you’ve ever seen Office Space, it’s a lot like sitting down in front of the Bobs where you clearly know what you do but have no idea how to express it.  My answer almost always varies, not that my job does, but the social definition of my job is really inconsistent.  I’ve ranged from “Backend Designer” to “Frontend Developer,” all the way to “User Experience Engineer” and “Systems Engineer,” always trying to find that 2 or 3 word phrase that sums me up.  For people like me, there really isn’t a good answer for exactly what we do that doesn’t sound overly pretentious.   Simply put, “if it’s digital, I do it” isn’t something you can really say because it has that funky air surrounding it like the saying, “I’m in between careers,” might. It sounds like something a desperate barista might say if they really wanted to leave that job at that local café to work for corporate. It’s almost like saying I specialize in specializing.

Jack-of-all-trades

So what is it that I do?  I run the gauntlet for all things design and all things programming and then I tie the middle ground together in neat little packages that people can actually use while looking good.   If that sounds a little bit like, “Jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none,” you would almost be right.  This skillset is a fine line between beauty and disaster, and it’s one of the quickest evolving careers I’ve ever even heard of.  It’s almost like being a digital adrenaline junky where you are constantly ducking and weaving to stay at the edge of your game while always hoping to stay one step ahead of total utter calamity.  Fast paced, high stress, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Is this valuable?

You might be asking yourself if this masochist skillset is even valuable.  Truth be told, that’s almost more of an awkward question than it is trying to define it.  There are only two types of places that actually need this skillset, and to them it’s invaluable.  One is at startups and the other is as directors.  Having a person who can sit in any chair, wear any hat, while also being able to translate between the different moving parts produces some incredible results.  It’s like having a conductor who can theoretically play every instrument in an orchestra.  Since the maestro has an intrinsic understanding of each musician’s job, the best performance can be coaxed out.

That still doesn’t answer the question

I know there are other people out there that do what I do, but it’s not like we have a club and a secret handshake.  There’s not a collective body that has officially labeled this skillset and there’s no institution that trains them.  This is actually pretty dangerous for the industry.  Since there is no regular title, job listings are created that are filled by inappropriate specialties.  For example, on job forums the titles “Designer needed with expertise in backend development,” or “Software Engineer required with bachelor’s degree in design,” are starting to pop up more and more regularly.  Since this skillset is difficult to define, often a job listing is created that should be filled by two completely different people, especially if it is dealing with entry-level positions.  Employers are having a golden dream of hiring two people for the price of one.

Hunting Unicorns

So what is the Human Resources department or the people in charge of the hiring/firing missing?   They know the solution they need, but are confused about the relationship between designer and developers.   It’s gotten so bad, that people who are equally good designers as they are developers are being referred to as Unicorns.  Mythical creatures who’s blood, if swallowed, can make you turn a profit in the first quarter. Scary.  To me, people with this skillset are more like narwhals. (These horned whales were also once thought to be mythical, but the truth is, you just need to know where to find them, but don’t worry, I’m not actually going to refer to them as narwhals.)

Having a “Unicorn” in your company can have a massive impact.  It really can improve your team’s workflow and communication (sadly, it is also very easy to abuse and burnout a unicorn since they are so wildly flexible.) If staffing a unicorn sounds great to you and you are quickly making a decision to hire one, you still need to know how to find one.  That’s the tricky part, you can’t.  See, what a unicorn actually is, is a multi-function problem solver. They aren’t born with the ability to be a code ninja or be an awesome designer, they are driven people who take an initiative to solve puzzles and learn new things. They are that kid who has an assortment of odd hobbies and is always learning something deifferent. You might be reading this at the office and you can probably think of one or two people you work with that fit this description.  They are your baby unicorns.

So now that you’ve found them, what do you do?  You invest in them.  Give them the resources to explore the other disciplines that your office handles. It won’t take long for that to pay off.   Not only will you be increasing the productivity of your team, but, you will make someone like me extremely happy.  If you are convinced that you don’t have any baby unicorns staffed and are considering placing a job listing to find an existing unicorn, don’t waste your time.  You don’t stumble onto a full-fledged unicorn, you recruit them.  It may finally be time to dabble with Head Hunters, but that’s a story for a different post.

So, to finally answer my own question, what am I?  I am a professional problem solver with an emphasis in design, development, and user experience until I master more.

If what I’ve described sounds a lot like what you do, please let me know how you define your job title down in the comments below!

The post Startup Life Log: Post 1 appeared first on Widgetware.

The Startup Life = No Life

My hat tips to everyone has started their own company or who has taken part in the startup company. There’s no such thing as a day off, or vacation. It’s always work, work, work and go-go-go in the startup life. If you look in my trash can it’s scratch drawings and different size cans of redbull. We live off caffeine – and love to go fast. When we’re not drinking energy drinks it’s coffee, if not chasing one with the other.

When you’re a part of the startup life you have no life outside of work. You’re always working, from networking at the local Starbucks getting your morning coffee to lying in bed thinking of all the things you have to do in the morning. It’s ALWAYS on your mind. But that’s not necessarily always a bad thing. I’ve met some of the greatest people in my life in our startup.

Separating Work From Real Life

It is a problem although when it starts to take a toll on your health. Already being an insomniac combined with wearing a bunch of hats in a startup – you can easily wear down your health fast. Some days I’d sleep 4-6 hours and weekends (days when the phone wasn’t ringing) catching up on sleep – something had to give.

Living in Southern California you might think sandy beaches and clear skies. I happen to live in rural Southern California, and I can’t remember the last time I put my feet in the sand, sadly. I tried not looking at my computer for a weekend and that was a disaster. Monday morning rolled around and I had 315 unchecked emails, I played my entire Monday catching up. I couldn’t just say “I’m not going to open my computer and check emails or respond to customers for the weekend” – after all, we strive on providing the best customer service possible.

So what was the give? I decided to answer all my messages and get as much work done before the wifey woke up, go outside and do something, and then again when I got home for the day. Staring at a computer screen 10-16 hours in a room can wear on your sanity. After all, I am blessed to live in SoCal, so why not enjoy the scenery.

In the life of a startup it can be difficult to separate real life and work at times, but it has to be done, and it’s a fine art. It’s not something that can be taught, it’s something that has to be conditioned. You have to learn to “unplug” – relax, rest, and recharge, otherwise it will start to wear on your health as it did mine in the past.

Risk vs Reward

The best part about living the life of the startup is the reward, but it’s also a risk too. If someone had to describe the job position at a startup before they joined it might say something like “Long hours, little or no pay, can’t give you a job title because you’ll be doing so many, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel and an oasis with everything you can dream, we just have to get there” – Would you take it?

It’s Not For Everyone

The startup life is definitely a Risk vs Reward situation. There’s huge risk in any startup with great rewards if it works out. And it’s not for everyone. Those that need a consistent paycheck or someone telling them what to do M-F 8-5pm looking over their shoulder should steer clear. The startup life is you being your own boss; it takes dedication, commitment, and the willingness to work long hours for a greater rewards in the end. I don’t want to scare anyone from starting up their own business but if you can’t commit to those type of things then the startup life may not be for you.

The post Part 2: The Startup Life appeared first on Widgetware.