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The secrets of a system integrator. My Journey of Startup, Product + Project Development
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It turns out a “how-to” interview I did with Andrew Warner of Mixergy got published today. Happy Thanksgiving in Canada, indeed. 
When Andrew asked me to share, I was honoured. Andrew accesses very cool people in business and tech, and asks them the deeper questions we all wonder about. Luckily, I was only doing a “how-to” interview, haha.
I hope my contribution of information furthers what Andrew is working to put out there. I can’t recall picking a Mixergy interview to watch and being disappointed. It’s quality stuff.
One skillset that I’ve learnt and and continued to develop over the last 12 years is systemizing and automating things in businesses. I hope you enjoy it and future posts on systemizing and automating in a business.
http://mixergy.com/jas-panesar-damaag-interview/
Why systemizing sucks less than not systemizing
10, Oct 2011When we read about systemizing, there can be a sense of dread of having to do it.
So much writing. Documenting. Trying it out. Make sure it works.
It’s seems easier and faster just to do it yourself, right?
In your business, is it your job to do everyone else’s job? Or is it your job to help figure out how to best do something?
Take a look at your actions. We go off figuring out the latest item we need to get running smoothly for ourselves. We want to make our own lives easier. So you decide to document it, scribble down some notes, and know that in a few months you’ll have enough to go back on. Bask in satisfaction of a job well done. Kind of.
Are you really finished? Or did you just systemize a process into being more efficient for just yourself, and not for your business? Don’t know what I mean? Systemize yourself so you can pass your expertise into your business to become systemized, and run that one thing without you.
This is a second post diving into the mind of entrepreneurs and understanding why systemizing is the most critical thing they need to go while they build their business. When we start a business, we have a dream. Of a life. Full of creating and living. Remember that?
That dream doesn’t always happen as we plan. An undisciplined business can take over every non-business area of your life if it’s left to carve it’s own path. A new business is a new born and it needs constant attention and feeding and direction. I learnt that first hand in the early days of my freelancing/contracting career around 1999-2004 before I made myself see my work for what it needed to be: A business first. My time since has been spent getting better at it every time something goes how I don’t want it to.
Let’s agree on one thing before exploring it from this perspective.
What is a business? Something that creates value and can run without us.
We don’t own a business until it can run without us. Until then we own a job we can’t quit because it cant run without us, and we’re too invested to easily quit or change.
My last post about How to systemize and Automate any business was the starting point of something I want to write more about.
It was pointed out to me today that there’s not a lot out of actionable information out there about how entrepreneurs can systemize their business. More of a problem, entrepreneurs don’t know why they should keep systemizing a high priority.
I have some information on how to systemize any business. That’s a pretty crazy thing to say for some. But, I’ve been thrown down a lot of wells too and learnt a lot and keep learning more every day. Hear me out, let me know what you think, and test what I’m saying. It’ll help me clarify it even more.
I’m going answer one question in this post:
Why must you systemize as much as you email, breath, sleep and bathe?
How to systemize and automate any business.
7, Sep 2011Look out information hoarders. Knowledge isn’t power, applying knowledge is power. 15 years of being thrown down many problem solving wells is about to rain down some cold hard facts!
So, you have a business. Like any business, you need answers from every system in your business. The funny part? Every business wants the same answer from their data.
WHERE IS EVERYTHING AT?
That’s all anyone cares to know. On demand. Get good at it and there’s a future for you.
Automatically presenting this answer through systemizing is what I do as a Systems Integrator. I first make it simple to use what you click and read. Then under the covers, the complexity of what you do is busy working away for you 24/7.
If you’re looking for for meaty, applicable experience, here’s the first post in hopefully many. If more software was built like this, or better, we wouldn’t have so much bad, time consuming, hard to use software.
- In: Business| Business Technology| Customers| Productivity| Startups
- Tags: automate, systemize, systems integration
Picking a Software Startup Idea
1, Mar 2011Following my post on finding a software startup idea, the next step is to pick one. I know, rocket science.
There’s a lot of great material out there on how to pick a startup idea that stands a chance of succeeding after you’ve found and made a list. Do your best to not get lost in a sea of reading. There will be no perfect decision, only a more informed one. (A great habit I have picked up is never, ever read anything that doesn’t have something to do with the exact current thing you’re working on in your project. Just bookmark it.)
A noble first goal is to validate that your idea is something customers are willing to pay for. Seth Godin summed it up beautifully in a blog post the other day about the two step process to find and pick an idea. Seth highlights how founders often don’t wander wide enough to examine a lot of ideas, and once they begin with an idea that might not be very good, become far too open and attached to it.
Finding a software startup idea
10, Jan 2011First, we have to understand ideas. None are original.
Second, all ideas generally start with an opportunity. To sell. Either to someone you already have, or a way to reach them (adwords, etc).
Third, the idea has to be marketable in a way that you can market it. If you have connections in an industry, it’s not a bad place to start. I prefer to make the first few sales personally in-town to get the pitch and value presentation down before putting it online.
I’ve built up a bit of a bad habit in the past year with my blog — I have dozens of draft posts that are near completion and need a bit more editing — I just never made the time to edit and post them.
It’s interesting looking back at all I wrote in 2010 and with the perspectives I ended up with at the end of 2010.
Here’s where I ended up: ColdFusion + Mura CMS + FW/1 Plugin Bundle = My web development nirvana. I haven’t been this happy with developing in years. It’s like discovering how easy ColdFusion made everything all over again, 12 years later.
How did this happen?
- In: Coldfusion| Mura CMS| Startups
- Tags: Coldfusion, Mura CMS, startup
Ideas are worthless. Tune out the noise.
17, Oct 2010Ideas are worthless. There’s three things any ideas need to become reality. Time/Money, Technical Talent, and ability to Sell. If the idea doesn’t have those three it’s stupidly harder.
Generally, avoid idea people like the plague. If they don’t have money, tech talent, or the ability to sell, it won’t work out. If Idea-only people won’t put their money where their mouth is, no one’s time is worth it. I never sign NDA’s with first timers. If person has never had a success and they’re already scared, it’ll only get worse.