Every now and then a comment you say or hear just hits you… I was tweeting away on Twitter and said the following comment:
“Small” is the new “Big” in the global economy. Big is slow, small is fast!
Now I realize that this is a hugely gross generalization etc, but there was some depth to it. Many of the people I talk to in the software realm (many are CEO’s of small/med co’s) are massively feeling the pinch. Sales are down, traffic, expenses up etc. But there’s one thing that stands out. Few of them seem to realize that they have a competitive advantage in being small.
They are able to rapidly change product development, marketing approaches, simplify and automate admin and processes etc.
They’re not so big that reviewing expenses is a a chore, ie: Now’s a good time to review hosting providers, communications providers as they’re not ‘pinned down’ by the administrative and bureaucratic weight of 100,000+ customers.
This is a fantastic time to tweak product or brand focus, trim expenses or change strategic direction. The big players in the market can’t make such changes easily due to the huge bureaucracy, process and resource headaches that follow.
The small can move faster and position themselves better in the market, and the market is definitely changing. Those who don’t adapt will be affected. Small and fast is good!
You have 250 projects, 2000 tasks assigned to 25 staff (With 150 projects overdue). The Excel doc you keep track of everything in is 400mb and takes a month to update after getting manual printed reports from the team. The Manager walks in and says “Budget meeting with team leaders in 10 minutes, bring your summaries” – Your heart breaks, you shed a tear and working at a laundrette now sounds appealing.
Your entire project management process hinges on the availability and stock numbers of yellow, green and orange hilighter pens and A2 cardboard sheets in the office. If you run out, chaos reigns.
The new Creative Director comes from the school of ‘Web2.0′ thinking. He tries to instil in you the value of having your project management software run on every wired device possible. He wants your project list available on your Laptop, browser, iPhone, BlackBerry, Car GPS, Bedroom TV, Boat’s Fish Finder and Watch. He also brags about how he can access project data when on a plane, in the car, or on a toilet. Then he asks you to “Go find that piece of software”.
.. Read more…
Continue reading about 15 Signs That You Urgently Need Project Management Software!
Firstly, understand that whilst you can control your business to some degree, you can’t control the general market atmosphere. Up’s, downs, good times & recessions are all just a normal part of the swings and roundabouts of business. In the ‘old days’ I used to have a small design business that was affected by market conditions. In the down times, I would stress, panic, chase work and generally lose focus.
After 5-10 years of similar trends of up and downtime, it became apparent that no matter how much I fought, the quiet patches still occurred and revenue dropped. On the flipside, I found during the busy, more positive times that business was good, and revenue flowed. It was also during these busy times that the busyness hilighted the need for good systems and processes. Trouble was though that I had no time to put any new processes and systems in place. I was too busy!
It tome some years to recognize that these periods were actually market trends and not just a result of bad business effort. Look around and talk to business people today and you’ll find that nearly all businesses are in the same economic condition. Almost all are noticing the same patterns, so it’s not just you – we’re in a bad trend.
Here are some simple tips you should consider to help your business run smoother in tough times…
Continue reading about Is your world going quiet? Don’t panic – here’s some ideas…
As founder and CEO of www.proworkflow.com – our web based project management software company, I have many challenges on a daily basis. Basically my day is troubleshooting and helping sort people out. So I’ve decided that this description of the term C.E.O. is a little more relevant.
Continue reading about CEO = Creative Entrepreneurial Organiser!
I found an old email the other day with some thoughts on bootstrapping I’d written to a mate. I thought it was interesting reading over what I’d written, so decided to repost the thoughts here… Here goes!
Regarding bootstrapping, It’s a hard balance. We put lots of time into systems and development, but sales suffer… or we focus on sales and then development suffers… Bootstrapping is fun to a point, then if the intention is to bootstrap through to profitability, the issue is 100% correct allocation of resources between development, sales, systems and marketing.
We don’t have a lot of wasted resource, only a tight team, no flash offices and a few contractors but we do A LOT with what we have. We have a good number of dedicated servers in California and one in NZ, are in profit and have no debt. So the years of hard work are paying off. Not an industry legend yet, but we’ll get there.
Continue reading about Some thoughts on bootstrapping a software company. How we do it!
