management Archives - Talixa Tech Blog

April 27, 2020April 25, 2020

Financial Planning

The unprecedented impact of the Coronavirus will certainly be the subject of countless articles during the following decade. After all, there’s much to be learned from this event in a variety of fields. Economists, epidemiologists, lawyers, and business owners will all approach the subject from a different angle. Undoubtedly, many of those conversations will involve financial planning and economic impact.

As I look at the nation, after over a month of lockdown, the most obvious thing I see is the lack of sound financial planning. From the individual to the federal government, this event has exposed a gaping hole in our ability to plan for disasters. Of course, it’s easy to say that nobody could have predicted a pandemic – so how could we prepare? But countless disasters happen every single year. Earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, tornados, winter weather, and extreme cold are common events that could easily bring harm to a business or family.

Furthermore, sound financial planning has always said you should have six months cash on hand. That’s wise advice for individual, corporate, and government financial planning. Yet, within a week of the lockdowns, people were lining up at food banks across the nation. Surely businesses would be better prepared. Right? Sadly not. Within short order, the government opened loan programs to keep businesses from failing. Even worse, the government itself was unprepared and an extra 2 trillion dollars was added to an already unsustainable national debt to deal with the virus.

From one end of our nation to the other, nobody had any money in the bank to weather a week long storm – let alone a months long shutdown. And, sadly, I think we’ll see innumerable businesses lost in the fallout of this national disaster.

How can we – the business community better deal with these kinds of events in the future? First, we obviously need to ensure that we have adequate cash on hand to continue to meet our financial obligations even if we are unable to conduct business. Second, we need to find creative ways to operate our businesses using eCommerce, cloud systems, or other technologies that can operate even during a disaster. Third, we need to encourage everyone – at all levels – to put money back for a rainy day. We may not see another plague in our lifetime, but we will undoubtedly see other disasters.

June 5, 2019May 28, 2019

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.

February 26, 2019March 16, 2019

The Value of Communication

Throughout all my time in the workplace, I’ve heard employees at various levels complain about management. Workers always want to blame management for all the problems that end up derailing a project. Or, as a business owner, I hear other business owners complain about how poorly their projects are going with their clients. This is the status quo. Blame management and stay in your safe space without working to fix the problem. Or, maybe you’re on the other side of the equation… maybe you’re a manager or a business owner complaining about how the resources working on your project aren’t accomplishing the goals you had established for the project.

I don’t think the problem is management, or workers, or other businesses. I think the problem is much simpler… poor communication. I know this is true in my business. Some clients are eager to communicate with me. We have weekly meetings, discuss progress, determine if direction should be changed to better meet organization objectives, and spend a little time developing our professional relationships. Other clients simply can’t be bothered. Their schedules are too busy for even a weekly phone call. Which projects do you think go smoother?

Maybe you disagree. Maybe you think that resources should focus on accomplishing the mission assigned to them. Maybe you don’t want to spend time communicating with them. What impact does that have? When dealing with software projects, lack of communication can be catastrophic. You may tell explain a new feature to me, but I may misinterpret your request. Or, maybe your request wasn’t actually what you needed but I delivered exactly what you asked for. In either instance, both time and money has been wasted to move in the wrong direction.

Fortunately, the solution really is simple. Schedule time to communicate with the people on your team – both internal and external, senior and subordinate. Ensure that everyone understands the objectives of the project and provide frequent feedback as the project moves forward. Listen to questions and concerns and work with them to find a solution that best resolves any issues. If you want to achieve the most from any project, this is a necessity. If not, you’ll still be complaining about the same things next year.

February 14, 2019

Control and Responsibility

Over the past decade, the deep rooted traditional business methods have taken a shift, arguably for the better. In the Information Age where almost anyone can find out what they want to know, it’s much harder for businesses to feign values. People quickly become aware of any inconsistencies between what the businesses say they stand for and what they truly are. The same applies to company culture.

To note one thing in particular, the difference between a business that stands out as genuine versus the alternative comes down to looking at how control and responsibility are at play. A business feigning values will often have a structure of controlling more than they should, while shirking responsibility for mistakes onto those who fall lower on the totem pole. Rather than accepting a lack of sufficient leadership, they often play the blame game in an arrogant attempt to avoid displaying vulnerability or weakness.

Fortunately, in looking at the structure of Talixa, I see quite the contrary. Our business is exceptional at delivering quality through the services we offer, yet I see selflessness from our leadership and the other team members. Rather than trying to micromanage and control every part of the business, we each have lanes suited to our skills and experience as well as having a plethora of opportunities to excel. Since responsibility is shared across the board, team members are not afraid to admit to their flaws and work together to develop and grow. By filling in our gaps and working for the good of the team and the community, we are better equipped to scale as a company.

Hardly anybody likes when people pat themselves on the back, though. As far as I personally am concerned, I can’t take credit for the company culture and the success we have seen. I can, however, speak on behalf of the wonderful people that are also a part of this team and working to bring new industry and growth to our community. The more I get to know them individually, the more I am blown away by their willingness to serve. Where does your business or employer land on this spectrum of control and responsibility? If your business is community driven at its core, we’d love (insert shameless “Happy Valentine’s Day” plug) to develop a relationship with you.