A few weeks ago, I was attending a black-tie event in Christchurch, New Zealand for the local Business Awards. I had been nominated for the business awards (for ProActive Software), and shortlisted to 8 out of about 50-80 businesses that were nominated from our local area. The evening was great, food was fantastic, the ‘transvestite’ stage show amusing, but the definate hilight of the evening was getting to meet our country’s Prime Minister, Helen Clark (she has a great handshake).
Helen was handing out the awards, and whilst I didn’t win, I did receive a certificate. but… I digress…
The real reason I enjoyed the night was that I got to shake Helen Clark’s hand and congratulate her on breaking up Telecom (Our nations’ monopolistic telecommunications provider). Finally, now Helen’s busted Telecom, New Zealand should get some decent competition between the other internet broadband companies.
Hopefully better speed of access in the local loop! About time!
With the burgeoning global economy and communication barriers coming down all over the globe, we seem set to have the world economy unified and country dollar rates average out even more.
For example, India discovered that due to it’s cheap dollar and massive labourforce, it could offer competitive outsourcing services. The world starting outsourcing it’s core services to India for $1-5 per hour. Over the years, as India’s economy strengthens they become victims of their own success. Now it cost $20-40ph for Indian outsourcing and it becomes a less viable option.
Other countries are following suit. China, Romania, Gemany, and other ‘outsource’ countries are strengthening their dollar and becoming less affordable for remote labour. So where do we turn in this new economy when we need some cheap labour for our oursourceable services? Here’s what we’re doing…
We have worked out that the best avenue is self-creating a workforce. We’re cooking up our first worker as seen in the image below. After working out the capital cost to get the infant to a workable age (2-3yo), it’s still an affordable solution. Also, from birth, we’ll train the baby in the ‘ways ot IT’ and nothing more. Baby’s brains are like sponges, so we feel we can have him or her ready to be a productive worker within a few short years. Here are some reasons we’re considering infants as cheap labour:
- Babies talk incomprehensible gibberish just as good as current foreign outsourced support call services.
- As babies just poo where they are, there’s less toilet and bathroom breaks.
- Most 2yo’s today can operate computers better than their adult counterparts. Some are at advanced level ASP and DBÂ programming by 3-4yo.
- Babies aren’t on solid food so can keep working whilst being straw feed from a central food repository.
- As babies have no need for cash yet, rather than minimum wage, they can be paid with empty cardboard boxes.
- Got bad payers? Get the baby to spew up on them for each payment missed. They’ll soon pay up!
- The only problem? At about age 2 babies develop a mind of their own and speed off in crazy tangents like most developers. I guess we’ll need to wait for genetic modification to sort that one.
Here’s the photo of our first new worker we’re cooking up:
Are you finding that you’t have enough time in the day to get your work done? Here are some ideas to help you ‘create time’ in the midst of the busyness.
Change Your Work Hours & Save 6 Weeks!
Imagine! Having an extra 6 weeks in the year to get work done or spend with the family! Are you working from 9am-5pm? That means you are probably travelling to work in peak hour traffic. In many cities, the average commute can take up to an hour each way. If you change your work hours from 9am-5pm to 8am-4pm, or 10am-6pm, you could miss the peak hour traffic and save 30 minutes each way. This amounts to an hour a day, 5 hours a week, or 250 hours a year! And that’s about a 6 week time saving!
Commuting – Time Consuming and Boring? or Productive Time?
Are you one of the many commuters stuck in traffic each day? Many employees spend 30-90 minutes commuting to work, each way in cars, buses and trains. Do you get road rage? Stressed with the bustle? What a way to start the day -stressed! What if you could use this time to your advantage? If travelling by car, start thinking about what you have on that day, or use a Dictaphone to write a letter. Plan your first half of the day in your mind whilst driving. If travelling by bus, read a proposal or a work brief. If travelling by train, use your laptop to clear some emails. Look for new ways to turn the time consuming chore of commuting into an invigorating ‘Head Start’ on your day. This will help you save time, and start work in a more focused manner.
Here are some tips to help you ‘cut the fat’ and improve the productivity of your business. If you apply a few of these, you’ll be well on your way to achieving greater profit and creating less stress!
1. Cut the Slackers!
“Carrying dead-weight employees? Lose them now!â€Â Ever tried to run a marathon whilst towing an old tire? This is what it’s like trying to grow a productive business with unproductive (or unmotivated) employees. Not only will they not add value to your bottom line, they’ll drag other ‘productive’ workmates down to their level. Cutting a slack worker (legally of course) will actually increase the productivity of other workers.
2. Cut the Paper!
“Start a war against paper!†Do you need to print that email to read it? Or that brief? Reduce office clutter on desks and encourage better use of digital filing. Ask clients to email files rather than send faxes and printed media. Use a web-based project management or time-tracking solution rather than paper-based timesheets. Get the drift? It saves trees too!
3. Cut the Time!
“A task can take both 10 minutes and an hour!†Have you noticed that if you assign a task (e.g. write a proposal) to an employee and they have a day to do it, they will, but if you give them 3 days to do the same task, guess what, they’ll take 3 days! Put tight and exact deadlines (e.g. Wed 3:30pm) on important tasks, and your staff will become more productive.
4. Cut the Expenses!
“Plug all the holes in your cash flow!†Make a list of all general expenses in your business. Next to each one, write one of the following: Need it, Review it, Cut it. Take this list to either a receptionist or an employee with some free time. Firstly, have them work down the list on the expenses to ‘Cut’. This will create immediate savings. Secondly, have them ‘Review’ the expenses you need, but perhaps could get a better deal on. ‘Trimming the fat’ every 6 months can help you create profit.
The article referenced here was one of those ‘I’m bored – lets call the paper’ scenarios. Bit of a laugh now, as I’m sure all will agree, but still, there is a little truth in the comments.
Anyway read this: Proud to be a Geek! article from the local paper.
