Mac – Not For Business Anymore

Catalina

A few years ago, I fell in love with the MacBook Pro. From the amazing display to the incredible battery life and everything in between, the MacBook Pro is an amazing machine. Unfortunately, Apple started killing that when they removed support for standard USB and I decided not to upgrade. Now, Apple has placed the final nail in the coffin for professional users with Catalina.

Apple has grown accustomed to telling their customers what they want and providing few options. Whether it’s the iPhone, the iPad, or their computer products, you typically don’t have many choices. This has always been a complaint lodged against Apple by PC users. But during the last year, this has killed the effectiveness of the MacBook Pro for business users. With Catalina, Apple has removed support for 32-bit software applications. Unfortunately, as a business user, I don’t have the luxury of upgrading my system if it’s going to kill applications I need for my business. In the business world, legacy code and applications may exist for a decade or more. So, I need to support those systems until they are end-of-life. This means insuring that I having support for 32-bit applications well into the future.

So, as of Catalina, I am no longer an Apple fan. I will keep my current MacBook Pro until it is no longer usable, but my next machine will be a Windows laptop. I can pick what ports I want, and find the corresponding laptop. I can decide what OS I want and what software. I don’t need Apple to tell me what I want – I’m a business user and I know my tech needs far better than they do.

Sleazy LinkedIn Users

Bar

As a small business owner, I am always trying to improve my social network. It’s an essential part of business development and the main point of LinkedIn. During the last decade, I’ve communicated with clients, prospective customers, old colleagues, and people I went to school with via LinkedIn. Unfortunately, now that I’m a business owner, I increasingly find that too many LinkedIn users behave like they’re at a sleazy bar. They connect with me to ‘grow their network’, and within a month I’ve received a half-dozen unsolicited messages to give them my business. I find this utterly annoying. Just because I connected to you doesn’t mean I am looking to outsource to your company, purchase your health care, use your accounting services, or anything else. And your behavior ensures that won’t change.

Previously, I wrote a blog about Social Media Etiquette. In that blog, I mentioned the Like/Know/Trust model. The idea is that you move connections from the outer circle to the inner. I start by getting you to like me, then get you to know me better, and finally get you to trust me with your business. Unfortunately, when you start by spamming me, I don’t like you. If I don’t like you, I will never get to a point where I trust you.

Why are people engaging in this sleazy behavior? I assume, sadly, that it gets results. If you spam enough people, you only need a small percentage of conversions to consider your method a success. But what happens to your reputation among those who didn’t purchase your product? It’s possible that I may have purchased your product at some point, had I ever gotten to know you, but now I never will. You have lost a potential customer who, because of your sleazy business practice, will never be converted to a client.

My advice for social media: slow and steady wins the race. Develop meaningful relationships with people, share meaningful content, engage your network. Through this process you will earn friends. And we all know that given the choice of working with a friend or a stranger, nearly everyone will chose to give their business to someone they know and trust.

To those who spam me on LinkedIn: my new policy is to immediately remove you from my network. You bring nothing of value to me. I get enough spam in my email, I don’t need it on social media too.

Value & Time

Growth

When we think about value, we think about the cost we pay for something. However, that’s a very shortsighted definition. We probably only consider cost as defining value because most of the things we buy are defined this way. For instance, when we go to a grocery store, we look at two brands of cheese, and the cheaper one is the better value. It doesn’t matter much which is the better quality cheese, it simply matters which is the cheaper cheese. As consumers, we typically only consider the cost. To me, the definition of value is far more complicated.

Buying Vacuum Cleaners

Twenty years ago, when I would buy a vacuum cleaner, I only considered cost when purchasing. The cheapest vacuum was the best value and the one I would purchase. But time and time again, I found that my value vacuum cleaner would stop working after about a year. So, I’d go back to the store and buy another one. I was paying about $100 per year to purchase vacuum cleaners. Note that now my value definition has a time element. After several years, I considered buying a Dyson vacuum cleaner. It was four times as expensive, but I had hoped it would do a better job than the $100 vacuum cleaners and that it would last longer. And today, 15 years later, I still have that same Dyson vacuum cleaner. If it were to break today, I would have spent $400 over 15 years for my vacuum. That’s a substantially better value than before!

Value of Technology

The cost of computer technology is very similar. You can buy the $300 laptop and expect to replace it next year, or you can buy a MacBook and have it for 10 years. But custom software is a little more difficult to directly compare since the price tag isn’t as clearly defined. What I’ve found is that when customers purchase consulting services or software development services based solely on the cost of those services, they often find that the price tag explodes over the lifespan of the product due to poor development. When you find the developer with the lowest cost, he probably has the least experience. He will take longer to accomplish the work since he’s bound to run into more snags than an experienced developer. He’s also likely to overlook things that a senior developer wouldn’t. These issues will result in additional costs during the lifetime of the application to fix in addition to lost time and productivity from your software users.

Conclusion

Paying for custom technology services is more like buying a vacuum than it is purchasing a block of cheese from the grocery store. The true value of those technology services will be defined not by cost alone, but by how long those services solve your technology problems.

Drive & Success

Drive

Most people would say that I’m a successful person. I’ve started my own business, enjoyed 20+ years of a happy marriage, raised a wonderful daughter, earned a third degree black belt, and done so much more. Of course, each of us may view success differently. To some, success may be earning their first million before 30 or to earn their MBA. Success may be marrying the woman of your dreams or buying the car you’ve always wanted. Regardless of how you define success, the formula is pretty much the same.

Drive

The relationship between drive and success is well defined. Tommy Hilfiger said: “The road to success is not easy to navigate, but with hard work, drive and passion, it’s possible to achieve the American dream.” Chuck Norris also recognized the connection: “I’ve always found that anything worth achieving will always have obstacles in the way and you’ve got to have that drive and determination to overcome those obstacles on route to whatever it is that you want to accomplish.”

But what too many people seem to ignore, is that the opposite is also true – without drive, you will have a very difficult time being successful. When I look around, the people I most often see struggling to get by are the same people who have little – if any – drive. They buy their next lottery ticket and hope this is the one. They put their money into fad diets because it’s easier than working on the body they want. They rely on whatever easy method or get rich quick scheme they can find. And where does it leave them? Exactly where they started.

My wife has often says I’m driven by a rubber band. She says that I never stop, and that she believes I could achieve anything if I set my mind to it. I’m thankful to have that drive. It has served me well. But to those of you who have not achieved the success in your life you have wanted, why do you think that is? Are you driven to success, or just driven to the couch to binge watch the next season of your favorite show? Are you as interested in learning Italian as you are sitting on the deck all summer? If you’re not getting where you want in life, what do you intend to do about it?

It’s never too late to change your life to be what you want it to be. However, you need to start by taking charge of your life and focusing on the things that will drive you toward the success you wish to achieve!

Fit for Sale

Sales

As an app developer, I am often approached by friends and acquaintances with “great” app ideas. They believe their idea is worth millions and that I should drop everything and develop their app. Businesses too fall prey to the idea that “I need an app“. Either way, it’s imperative that adequate market research be performed prior to developing any piece of software. 

A Great Idea

A few years ago, I was approached by an individual who had a “great idea” for a software application that was going to revolutionize the industry. He had some startup money to develop the application, and was in a hurry to get started. He contacted me to write him a mobile application, cloud-based management system, and REST services for integration points. It was an ambitious project for the client, and I was excited to start developing. He provided the requirements to me, and I wrote the software. I provided feedback to improve the application, but it was ultimately the customer’s decision what he wanted to include or not include.

Poor Market Research

Unfortunately, as the project moved forward, I learned that the client had very little money for development. None-the-less, we worked to create a working product which we achieved on his budget. But, as he would learn during the next month, he was creating an application that nobody actually wanted. Not only did his application lack features that would be necessary for adoption, it served only a very small niche market. The customer assumed he knew what people wanted, and had never bothered to reach out to any prospective clients for feedback.

Consequences

Due to the customer’s poor market research, he was unable to find clients interested in his software application. Months went by with very few interested parties, and nobody ultimately purchased the software service. Consequently, the customer blamed me for writing an application that nobody wanted. He even fought me on payment because he was unable to make his money back through sales.

Lessons Learned

There are several important lessons to be learned from this experience. First, if you’re paying someone to write you software or create any other work for you, make sure it’s worth the cost. It’s your job as the customer to know what you are purchasing and to ensure that it will meet your business objectives. As a software consulting firm, I can provide you with information and develop software. However, I can’t tell you wether or not your application will be a success. Second, market research is of paramount importance for any project. If you don’t know the target market, the demographics, the estimated number of consumers, and other key data; you can’t determine financial viability of the project. Before you go into any project, do your part first and ensure that the work you are paying for will take you where you’re trying to go!

Scheduling & Planning

Schedule

Last January, I made a decision that profoundly changed my life – I started scheduling and planning my time. Most people are subjected to schedules and plans at the workplace, but few take their life so seriously. As a consequence, we all end up in a place we never intended to be. We all have hopes and dreams, but we fail to plan the steps necessary to get there. During the last year, I started my business full time, completed 61 college credits in 6 months, read four books in Chinese, and accomplished more than I have in years. None of these things would have happened without planning and scheduling.

Pen & Paper

Many people may use electronic tools like Google Calendar or their iPad Reminders. While these are both great tools, they are way too easy to ignore. I have found that using a written planner is so much more effective. Every night, I plan out out the most important things I need to accomplish the following day. On Sunday, I plan the big items I need to accomplish throughout the week. I take notes of what happened in any given day so that I can reflect on my progress later and see where I can improve. I nearly always have my journal nearby so that I can capture anything important to me.

Electronic Tools

While I prefer to do my scheduling and task lists on paper, there are some things that simply work better via electronic scheduling. For instance, when I write a blog post, I schedule it to be published at a future date. That way, I can write several posts during one block of time and have them go out during the upcoming month. For my social media, I use HootSuite for the same purpose. I can schedule all my media for the week or the month and not worry about it during the week. This ensures that my blog and my social media are constantly fresh and updated without the necessary worry about posting every day.

The End Result

Through the use of scheduling tools, I have found that I am able to be substantially more productive than ever before. Tasks get accomplished on time, more gets done, and I have more free time to focus on the things I enjoy in life. Even more importantly, I know where my life is headed. I have a plan, and I know where I’m going. Do you?

Payment Terms

Money

Recently, a fellow small business owner asked me how I handle billing. For a small business, money is often one of the biggest concerns. Without a steady flow of cash, you can’t meet your business objectives or your personal financial requirements. As a small business, you have to determine when to bill and how to bill. Even worse, you have to define how you deal with delinquent payments – which can kill your business.

When To Start Billing?

The first question to answer is when do you start billing? This is particularly true if you’re billing by the hour. Does the clock start ticking at your first meeting? After the project requirements are defined? After the project is complete? For my business, anything after the initial project meeting is billed to the customer. I think it’s important for a customer to understand that project planning, requirements gathering, and any other tasks completed before any actual code is developed is an integral part of the development lifecycle. I typically bill the first of the month after any billable hours have accrued. I’ve found that the longer you wait, the more the bill increases. Then, you risk the customer suffering from sticker shock when you finally send the bill after months of work.

Late Payments?

When I started my business, I was so pleased to have customers that I didn’t worry about late payments. I assumed that my customers respected me enough to pay me on time. I was incredibly wrong. What I’ve found instead is that many companies will put me at the bottom of the list of payees. Why is that? Well, I think it’s pretty simple. The customer knows they have to pay their lease on time or risk eviction. They know when they fail to pay their internet bill, they won’t be able to perform their mission. What happens when they don’t pay you? Likely nothing. Additionally, they know you don’t have a collections branch and are unlikely to use a collections agent. Thus, they have absolutely no reason to worry about when they pay you. I have learned to include verbiage in my contracts defining payment terms. I give customers a 5 day grace period, and after that the customer is charged a late fee. Additionally, all the customer’s projects are paused until payment is received. If you continue to work, you end up months behind on payment and continuing to work for free.

What About Equity?

I’ve had many ‘customers’ offer to pay me in equity. I do the work and they will give me a percentage of the revenue generated by the software. I have a very simple answer for this kind of relationship. No. While an individual may think that their idea will generate millions, they rarely do. Even worse, you’ve now wasted time developing software that you will never be paid for. The original ‘customer’ lost nothing. You lost countless billable hours to a project that will never be profitable.

Conclusion

Money is the lifeblood of any business. What I’ve learned is that it’s imperative to have clearly defined payment terms and procedures for your business. When you fail to make those terms clear to customers, you will quickly find that your business struggles to get by and that you are spending more time nagging customers to pay than you do performing your business’s objectives.

Surface Pro 6

As a developer, I tend to need a lot of hard drive space for projects and tools. As such, my MacBook Pro was starting to run out of drive space. This was only exacerbated by the fact that I was also running Windows 10 on the same machine for .NET projects. I decided it was time to replace my MacBook Pro, and looked at the newest product line. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed by the lack of ports on the new MacBook Pro. With a sticker price of nearly $4,000 for a machine with all the bells and whistles, the lack of ports is simply unacceptable.

What to Do?

After much deliberation, I decided to get a separate Windows machine and reclaim the space on my MacBook Pro for MacOS. I had been looking at the Surface Pro for a while as it looks like a great machine. So I went to the store and purchased the computer, a keyboard, and the pen for around $1000. Given a price tag one fourth that of a new MacBook Pro, how does it compare? So far, I am very impressed. The Surface Pro includes numerous features that the MacBook Pro can’t touch including: facial recognition for login, touch screen, functionality as both a tablet and a laptop, and he use of an optional pen for drawing.

Conclusion

While the Surface Pro does not compete with a top-of-the-line MacBook Pro in terms of raw horsepower, it is lightweight, multipurpose, and more than adequate for the occasional .NET project I need to support. Even more exciting, it will work far better than my MacBook Pro for taking onsite to gather customer requirements or take quick notes.

Note to Apple

Apple, your decision to remove standard USB from your laptop cost you $4,000 I would have gladly paid. Instead, I paid $1,000 to buy a laptop from your competitor. While you may think you’re a trendsetter, a large number of developers I’ve spoken with are less excited by your choice. For us, computers are a tool to solve a problem – not a trendy accessory. You managed to capture a growing portion of developers, but focusing on trends instead of solutions will negatively impact that growth in the future.

Lessons Learned

A little over a year ago, I decided to start using a planner to keep track of my todo list, take notes, and keep track of progress on projects. Each week, I review what happened during the week and note any lessons learned during that week. At the end of the year, I compiled all the lessons into a PDF document that I can frequently review. This helps me to continuously improve myself both personally and professionally. Some of the things I’ve learned may be worth sharing.

Fall in Love with Customers

I’d like to say this one was mine, but I read it somewhere and it really resonated with me as an owner of a service company. Imagine if you treated every customer like you were as infatuated with them as you are with the man or woman of your dreams. Deliver that level of service! This is a hard one, but if you can do it you will never be without clients!

Be a Leader in Everything You Do

It’s easy to lay back and relax, and let someone else take charge. But your success will only be achieved when you make it happen! If you want to be successful, you need to be a leader in everything you do – in your home, your workplace, your place of worship, your social clubs, absolutely everywhere.

Focus on People

As a business owner, it’s easy to focus on money. We worry that we won’t have enough or that our sales pipeline is drying up. When we do that, we lose focus on people. But relationships are really what matters most. Every job I’ve ever had – whether as an employee or a contractor – started by having a relationship with someone.

Be Selective of How You Spend Time

Life is short, and you’re busy. Do you really have time to commit to a new project? Volunteer at the school? Take on additional responsibility? If the answer is no, don’t commit. It’s easy to become overcommitted – and burned out. If you don’t have the bandwidth or the desire to do something – don’t do it. Focus your time on the things that will aid in achieving your goals.

Set Goals

I have found that by setting goals – both annually, quarterly, and weekly, I am able to achieve substantially more than I could before. I heard it once said “plan the work and work the plan”.

Conclusion

While I have hundreds of other lessons learned, the above represent some of the most important. This year, I have been trying to do a better job at all of the above. I’ve got far to go, but I can see the fruit of my labor when I look at how far my business has come during the past year.

Small Business Struggles

Becoming a small business owner is an incredibly rewarding experience. You have complete control over your schedule as well as how much money you can make, you can take time off whenever you choose, and you get to make every decision for your business. However, small business ownership is not without its struggles. Here are some of the things I’ve found out.

Don’t Expect a High Credit Limit

As a technology company, I need to be able to buy hardware such as computers online. And, writing software means that the $500 computer at the local store isn’t going to cut it. I want a high-end laptop. A laptop that will last for several years, run fast, and meet all of my high-tech needs. Of course, along with that comes a high price tag. That’s not a problem with my personal credit card. Years of solid payment history has yielded a good credit score, and a high credit limit. My business credit card, on the other hand, barely has enough to buy the accessories I need for my computer.

Everyone Wants a Job

Now that I own my own business, it seems that everyone wants a job. Somehow, as a small business struggling to find enough work for myself, I am expected to hire other people too and find work for them. Own a tech business? Now you can expect every teenage boy in your social circles to ask to be an intern for you this summer.

Human Resource Problems

Just hired your friend? Have fun with that! There’s nothing quite as awkward as dealing with performance issues or other HR issues when the individual is someone you’ve known for a long time. Now, you get to walk the fine line between running a successful business and protecting a relationship.

Hate Spam? Expect More!

As a business owner, everyone wants to sell me something. Whether it’s email, social media, or written correspondence, expect to receive even more junk mail. My favorite is when people connect on LinkedIn to grow their social network. Then, within minutes of accepting, you receive both a private message and an email to buy their services. Ignore that message? No problem – you’ll get another one tomorrow. Then, a week later, you’ll get a third message asking if you saw the first two.

Time is Valuable

As a business owner, you quickly learn how much it costs to perform tasks that are not billable. Marketing, social media, accounting, human resource management, website updates, and so many other tasks will require your attention – and none of them generate revenue. I’ve quickly learned to cut out the unessential so I can focus on what pays the bills.

Lots of Hats

I’ve learned just how many hats a small business owner must wear. Plan to be successful? You’ll need to know marketing, social media, accounting, human resource management, contract law, negotiations, and so much more. Oh, and that doesn’t even mention being an expert in the service you sell. Get a large hat rack – you’ll need it!

Final Thoughts

The last year of running my own business has been amazing. I’ve had financial freedom like never before and enjoyed the freedom to do what I want when I want. But that freedom hasn’t been without struggles. Business ownership is lots of work, and navigating the struggles has been part of the fun.