Tag: business

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Exponential Growth

For entrepreneurs and business owners, trying to build something bigger than the individual poses one of the most challenging initial struggles a company can face. A brand is often represented by a figurehead, whether that be the owner, CEO, or majority shareholder. When the growth of the company is contingent on the amount of time an individual in this capacity can offer at an hourly rate, growth will by nature follow a specific linear pattern, before ultimately reaching a plateau.

In an effort to scale beyond this point, businesses can plan ahead to position and prepare themselves for the anticipated changes and challenges. Structuring the business model in such a way that money naturally flows into the business through multiple streams can create an ecosystem where each specific element supports other elements in different ways. In doing so, the business network can expand well beyond the individual, and the company can scale up to meet the goals necessary to attain sustainable growth and success.

While all of this sounds fantastic generally speaking, the task of specifically applying these principles to a business could seem daunting. Often, small business owners can fairly easily grasp the linear aspects of business growth. However, the road block often comes when the businesses are forced to think differently and realign their goals and focus. Sometimes the solution is both simple and effective. If your business has been struggling through a similar situation, I would strongly encourage you to take a look at your people. The people who are passionate about the work and mission of your company are the strongest agent of change for scalability. Take some time and consider their interests and skills, and invest in helping them find their best work!

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What’s My Why?

A few weeks ago, I read Simon Sinek’s Start With Why. As I was reading, I was forced to ponder what my company’s purpose is. The simple answer is that my company exists to make money so that I can pay my bills. But that’s hardly very motivational – for me or for customers. No, I want my company to have a bigger purpose – I want my company to be transformational! What is my why? My company’s why is pretty simple – to make the world a better place. That’s a pretty lofty goal for a small software company. How can I possibly accomplish that? I can make the world a better place by accomplishing three things. First, Talixa will empower and enable customers to solve their business problems. This will enable them to better capitalize on their market which will, in turn, generate revenue and jobs. This improves the lives of people not only directly (through jobs) but also indirectly (through taxes generated for local government). Second, Talixa will work to improve the local community through creating jobs and developing tech leaders. Talixa is committed to hiring local resources and striving to develop the pool of local technology experts. We will work to support, grow, and train the next generation of technology leaders in the area. Third, Talixa is committed to improving the world through philanthropy. Talixa will work to support charitable organizations not only through financial donations, but also through serving and volunteering both locally and throughout the globe. We will encourage all those working with us to do the same.

So there you have it – the why for Talixa. Empower businesses, hire locally, serve globally. If we can achieve these three things, we can have a small part in making the world a better place!

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Life’s Not Fair

When my daughter was young, she once complained to me about how one of my decisions wasn’t fair. I don’t remember what she asked for anymore, but I do remember my response. I told my daughter she should be thankful that life isn’t fair. Look around the world today and you see children starving in underdeveloped parts of the world, people being oppressed by cruel leaders, people suffering from lifelong disabilities, and all kinds of other suffering. Yet here, in America, we enjoy an incredibly high standard of living. Few of us die of starvation, we have a democratically elected system of government, and we have some of the best healthcare services in the world. I am thankful every single day that I have been blessed so greatly.

How does this apply to technology and business? As I run my business, I see how fortunate I am. I see that I am well paid, that I have freedom to enjoy life, and that I am the master of my own destiny. As I look around, I see that few others have that freedom. Even among the greatest nation on earth, I am among the most fortunate of people. As such, I have a moral obligation to make the world around me a better place. I am compelled to improve the community I live in, to better the lives of those around me, and to work to empower those I work with. I’m thankful life isn’t fair because it gives me an opportunity to make the world a better place. It gives my life purpose and meaning.

Making the world a better place should be part of the mission of every company out there. Is your business empowering employees? Are you making your community a better place to live? Are you serving more than your own pecuniary interest? Can you sleep at night with the decisions that you and your business make on a daily basis?

When we all work together, we can make the world a fairer place for all. We can work to ameliorate suffering and starvation. We can improve healthcare around the globe. Maybe, someday, the world will be a fairer place. Until then, each one of us – business and individual alike – has work to do.

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Great Minds

It’s often said that “great minds think alike.” It sounds great, in theory. But is it really true? Just because I’m thinking the same thing someone else is, does that really mean we’re both great minds? I hardly think so. It’s not the employee who thinks the same as everyone else that brings value to the team, it’s the free thinker who has a different perspective. In the boardroom, when everyone thinks the same, we call it groupthink. Psychology Today says “In a groupthink situation, group members refrain from expressing doubts, judgments or disagreement with the consensus and ignore any ethical or moral consequences of any group decision that furthers their cause.” This hardly seems beneficial to the team. When I think of great minds, I think of the men and women who engaged in thought well outside the mainstream – brilliant men like Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, and Benjamin Franklin. If you want to be a great mind, think for yourself! Don’t let the people around you define your thought. Be willing to take risks and think outside the box. It’s those people who history remembers – not the people who think like everyone else.

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Change is Good

Yesterday, I took the Myers–Briggs personality test online. I’ve done this many times in the past, and I always come up INTJ – “The Architect”. This is a great personality type to be – listed as being imaginative and strategic, independent and decisive, hard working and determined, and having high self confidence. But as I began my journey into entrepreneurship, I realized that being an introvert wasn’t such a great idea. So, I decided to work to change myself to be more extraverted. After all, if I can’t comfortably talk to people and sell my services to clients, it’s going to be difficult to run my own small business selling software services. To make this change, I started reading books a year ago on small talk, communicating in social settings, and similar skills needed to be an extravert. I also read books on sales and leadership. After all, being an extravert isn’t going to get me far if I can’t sell myself or if I can’t project myself as being a leader in both business and software development. So, when I took the personality test yesterday, I was pleased to see that I have changed to ENFJ. Not only have I become more extraverted, but I have learned to rely more on my feelings instead of just logic. As a software engineer, that’s tough, but the world of people is rarely a world of logic – it’s a world of feelings. If you can’t relate to someone on that level, logic won’t get you very far.  Now, instead of being “The Architect” I’m “The Protagonist”.

Are you growing and changing? Is You 2.0 going to be better than you are today? What are you doing to get where you’re going? Are you willing to work to change the most basic elements of your own self to move your life in the direction you want?

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Business Ownership

I started my own business about 5 years ago just to make Android apps for the play store. It was never really intended to become a full-time thing, just a hobby. Then, over the next few years, I started being asked to develop Android software for local businesses. Working full-time while running a growing business on the side was a challenge. Then, as my business continued to grow, I realized that I could no longer do both. I had to quit my day job if I wanted my business to continue growing. Of all the things I’ve ever done, that may have been one of the scariest and most difficult decisions I’ve ever made.

Now, after running my business full-time for the past three months, I wonder what took me so long. Every single day I wake up excited for the day. I get to choose what I’m working on today, when I go to work, where I will work from, and how long my lunch break is. I have the freedom to take complete control of my life. Sure, it’s scary at times, but it’s absolutely worth it. My friends look to me with awe – as though I’ve done something special. The truth is, I haven’t – I just did what millions of other Americans have done and said goodbye to the traditional job.

Have you ever considered starting your own business? If not, what’s holding you back? In another decade, will you look back and wonder ‘what if’? For me, I know that even if my business were to ultimately fail, I will never regret the choice I made to give it a try!

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Expertise and Versatility

Successful entrepreneurship hinges largely on maximizing benefit and  minimizing risk. While striving to solve some of the world’s most difficult problems, entrepreneurs that rise to the top are those who optimize the process of weighing the risk versus reward of their decisions. The end goal for businesses and communities should not only be to survive but to also thrive. Rather than making strictly safe and comfortable decisions, people ought to encourage taking an appropriate amount of risk for the right reasons. After all, the health of a society cannot adequately be defined by “success” or “failure” in a word.

In a world replete with industries that constantly change and develop, consumers have grown to expect that products and services will become better and cheaper over time. Entrepreneurs and businesses who look beyond the basics tend to find opportunity knocking much more frequently, because they are willing to learn and share their knowledge with others.

With others striving to beat out the competition and have a “better than them” mentality, some of the greatest success stories have started with an individual whose desire is to become better today than yesterday and become better tomorrow than today. This yearning to improve and accomplish more each day ensures that the business will exceed customer and consumer expectations, delivering greater quality and value over the long term.

Over the long term, expertise alone will not suffice to assure sustained business growth. Along with expertise, businesses need to be able to understand how to apply their knowledge and continue addressing the new problems that arise. Versatility paired with expertise can provide the essentials necessary to build a business that is strategically positioned to endure the storms that businesses ultimately face.

Businesses ultimately face many challenges.  The task of satisfying and exceeding the expectations of clients, customers, and consumers can seem daunting. However, those who more willingly face adversity tend to more easily overcome adversity. We have woven these principles into our own business model, so that we grow alongside our community by sharing our expertise to help businesses create new value. As you consider applying this information to your own business, think of ways that you might increase expertise and versatility to make awesome happen for our community.

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Carpe Diem!

Today, my daughter and I ran the first of three 5K runs this summer. We decided to participate in the Disney Virtual 5K this spring, and have spent the last few months training. Today’s race wasn’t great. We didn’t break any records, but we accomplished our goal for this month. Next month, and again in August, my daughter and I will run another virtual race.

As I was running today, I remembered something I read this spring. “Today I will do what others will not so that tomorrow I can do what others cannot.” This simple idea applies to just about everything in life. Today, I will show my wife that I love her so that tomorrow I have a marriage others look to as an example. Today, I will study Spanish for 30 minutes so that when I travel to Mexico later this year I can get around. Today, I will learn a new technology so that tomorrow I will be more marketable.

To achieve any goal in life, effort must be exerted day after day. I see people everyday who want to own their own business, or write a book, or run a marathon. Yet, rarely do these same people have any plan to get there nor are they exerting any energy toward their goals today. They are hoping that, by some miracle, they will wake up one day and it will have happened. But it never will. My business, my profession, my 5K run today, and everything else I have ever accomplished have taken untold amounts of effort and energy. But never once have I looked back on those efforts and regretted my decisions. Can you say the same about the things you have put effort into?

A leadership conference I attended this spring talked about the importance of self-leadership. About how we can never lead others if we can’t lead ourself. How do we lead ourself? By setting goals and working toward them. The leaders we wish to follow are those who have a record of achievement. They are people we aspire to be like. Are you putting in the effort today to be the leader that others will look to tomorrow? If not, are you willing to put in the effort today so that tomorrow you can do what others can’t?

Sieze the day! Make something awesome happen!

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I Need an App!

Increasingly, organizations desire an app of their own. For many businesses, this can be a source of increased visibility for their organization or even a channel to generate more revenue. A great example is apps by large and small businesses alike allowing users to order and pay for food and then stop by to pick it up. The business gains increased visibility with their corporate logo on the user’s phone, while the user gains an improved user experience… everyone wins.

Conversely, many organizations create an app just so they can advertise that they have one. They want the increased visibility for their brand, and they imagine a benefit for the user that causes them to create the app. However, does the user truly benefit, or does the business instead create a failed attempt at trying to seem relevant? I’ve seen some apps for businesses that aren’t worth downloading as they provide no tangible benefit. Rather than enhancing the company’s relevance, the app creates a cheap or cheesy brand image. Sadly, organizations can also appear lacking in technical know-how and damage their brand.

We’re here to help! If your organization is looking to create an app, be sure to identify a tangible benefit to the user. Give the user a compelling reason to keep the app installed on their phone. Convince them not to uninstall the app or give a poor recommendation to their friends. Be careful not to create an app just to say you have one. Instead, determine – first and foremost –  how it adds tangible value for the user. After all, the end-user doesn’t care how the app improves your brand or your revenue. They simply installed it on their phone so it could benefit them!

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Technology and Community

Over the last two decades, technological advances have brought along with them unimaginable change to the way people interact with each other around the world. The advent of the internet and smart devices has created countless opportunities for creativity and innovation to flourish. From a global perspective, companies like Google, Alibaba, and Amazon have pushed the limits of how technology can simplify tasks and serve businesses and consumers alike, enabling people to accomplish more with less and saving people time and money. We can learn a great deal from analyzing why they have succeeded where others have failed.

In the same vein, immense opportunity exists when considering the potential of technological integration and innovation within our local businesses, organizations, and community. Nothing prevents me from coming up with ideas to help others and improve the world around me. Likewise, nothing prevents small businesses from grabbing on to these same ideas to grow and make a difference. After all, why should anyone work if not to positively impact those within their reach? We ought not go through the trouble of learning without the drive to put what we learn to use, because knowledge without application holds little value. The time has come for our community to capitalize on these advances and enable each other to succeed.

As you go about your work week, think about some of the areas that you are spending considerable time and/or money, sometimes with little or no return.  These are often the areas with the most potential to increase productivity and profitability.  How might technology be able to benefit your endeavors?  Asking the right questions is the first step towards a better tomorrow for our local businesses, organizations, and community.

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