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!
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!
So the world is going to hell in a hand basket? Stocks going pear shaped? Mortgage or job looking shaky? Old ‘Bush’ about to pull 700 billion out of nowhere to devalue the economy further? Can’t sleep at night?
Join the masses – we’re all in it together. It’s pretty basic really, the economy goes up, then some years later it goes down. Guess what – than it goes up again… Wait for it… Then down… Spotting a pattern yet?
This isn’t going to be a groundbreaking blog post about recessionary survival tips for software companies, rather this is just a list of common sense reminders we should all apply and consider from time to time. It just happens that now is a great time (while the world is economically hurting) to apply them. It will get better, but now is an opportunity to make your startup or business more efficient so when the tide turns you’re in a good place to scale. So here’s my tips on some key areas:
Continue reading about Software Startups – Tips for surviving a recession
About a year ago, I did a series of YouTube vids for a laugh and also to share some advice I’ve learnt along the way developing www.proworkflow.com . Although I’m a year older now, and a bit more wise and weathered, this advice still stands. Please excuse the poor quality of the sound – I was experimenting with a camera and got some lag. But I bet Twitter wished they’d listened to the first vid!
I’ve had a few good chats lately with Patrick Macfie from http://start-up.co.nz about what they’re up to with the Start-up venture. This is a great New Zealand based resource for people needing startup advice, info, resources or simply to see who else in in ’startup mode’ as well. Whilst our company ProActive Software, developers of the ProWorkflow Project Management Solution aren’t in startup mode any more, I wish this website had been around when we were. There’s a lot of great material worth checking out. I asked Patrick to send through a bit more in-depth info about the website and what they’re doing. Here’s what he sent through.
