Years ago (that seems kind of funny to say after my seven years in business) when Niall Durham was working with me, we used to talk about spending an afternoon here and there building cool new apps just to test new frameworks, languages, or ideas.  But on the planned day, we’d get slammed with phone calls or new business, and our ideas sat on the shelf.  For all our planning, we just never got these brainstorm/build sessions started.

Two weeks ago we mapped out a new strategy.  Fridays are “fun days.”   If support questions or sales calls come in, we’ll temporarily focus our energies on that item.  But at the moment the phone call is finished or our client leaves the office, we get back in step with our team project.

Years ago (and this time, I’m talking 20 of them), I worked for an insurance company.  The manager, Tom Lindberg, used to instruct us to “Pay yourself first.”  This directive referenced putting money into your own savings before you spent on the immediately gratifying things in life.  Thunder Data builds software for clients and for our own products, services, and uses.  TDS is going to take Tom’s advice these 20 years later and pay ourselves first.  

Our dividends will come in a myriad of ways.  These are great teambuilding events where we can get excited about bringing an idea to fruition.  Implementing new APIs or testing theories in web applications introduces concepts that may take root in other projects.  The cool stuff we build may have the wow factor that wins over a new client.  And finally, we are creating applications that will add to our bottom line.

With SXSW formally kicking off this Friday night and running through next Tuesday, our old mindset would have placed our creative scheduling on the back burner.  Now, we’ll look at the day as an opportunity to gear up for the conference.

With the challenges we have faced with losing key staff members, I’ve had to step up–or perhaps I should say “step back”–and relearn some of the old programming and HTML code that started me off in this business.  When I told Scott that I was thrilled with the outcome of my first CSS/XHTML/PmWiki conversion in a long time, he said he needed to experience more of those “small victories.” 

Prior to November when M&M went off to Yahoo, I spent such a limited amount of time accessing code in secure shell that I often forgot the password to access it.  Now, I am finding happiness in remembering some of the old Linux command line stuff I learned in Dr. Donnelly’s class way back when.  Today, I thrilled in seeing the work created playing with opacity and z-index style attributes to create a nice little message box.  In short, I’m enjoying the learning process and the outcome of the lessons learned.

Tiny steps?  Yes!  Small victories?  Bigger yes!

Companies strive–and sometimes succeed–in “getting it right”. Think Apple’s Ipod, Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings,” and Converse Chuck Taylors.

Campbell’s Soup is the maker of Prego spaghetti sauce, and it seems the company recently had a short violin piece commissioned to go with one of the Prego TV commercials. Hearing what was described as a “haunting” melody, I had to hear it myself.

The 30-second-spot score was written with the goal of evoking feelings of nostalgia for listeners. The positive response was so overwhelming that Campbell’s rescored it for a 3 minute download. It really is beautiful in its simple elegance.

But the amazing thing to me was how well Campbell’s nailed their goal. When I played the piece for Stacy and asked her what she thought, she said, “The music reminds me of an elegant ball in the post war years of the 1940’s and 50’s,” then added, “in Italy.” Now, that is getting it right!

January, my 3 year anniversay with TDS.  We currently have 2 positions available to join our Austin team — a graphic artist and an applications programmer.  As a team, we have been doing a lot of brainstorming on our “ideal” candidates (too much during work time which I have been attempting to keep to a minimum, but our excitement for new talent gets the best of us).  Collectively, we have come to the conclusion that we are no longer interested in applicants with little experience (and a lot of heart), but which require training and time to get up to speed.  We desire talented, accomplished, and intelligent people to join our tight knit group — People that are able to start working with little to no training in their trade softwares or languages – mostly training in our business, our vision, and our core values. 

Individually, I have come to the conclusion that our newest team member must be confident.  I want to know that when our graphic artist or software programmer answers the phone, or contacts clients, that their knowledge is not only displayed through their outstanding portfolio, but in their communication skills and conversations that exude confidence. 

We have been going through the interview process for several days now and it is a relief to know that we actually have choices reagarding which qualified applicant we will decide to hire.  Not only for their breadth of knowledge in their field, their desire to learn, their interaction with us as a team, but also for the way that they carry themselves.   I don’t know yet who’s picture we will place next on the Team page, but I do know they will fit in with our mentality, style of professionalism, and willingness to share a few beers (or cokes) at the local pubs and breweries.  :)

In business, we rely on a host of employees, affiliates, partners, consultants, and occasional freelancers to serve our clients and meet our goals.  Yesterday, I learned in jaw-dropping fashion that a trusted part of that network has long been engaging in such deceptive practices that I am left reeling from the blow.

There are two parts to this story that have struck me with such forcefulness.  The first is the sheer cost of the deception.  I have been paying for services that simply weren’t performed.  To shore up the shortfall, I have thrown additional money into the mill.  We have suffered losses in both work performed and in dollars paid.  Secondly, I am immensely pained by the fact that the charade was conducted by a trusted source with whom I’d shared my hopes, concerns, and tears.  

If it were not for the magnitude of the dishonesty, if it were not for the person orchestrating the fraud…

So, now what?  I have to ask myself some hard questions, explore legal avenues, and make difficult decisions.  My mind just nags at the second half of the quote, “Burn me twice, shame on me.”

Earlier this week, I tossed, turned, worked, and worried before finally succumbing to sleep at 5:00 a.m. I had just received a phone call from a client who was terribly unhappy about our work. While I had heard rumblings about this client’s dissatisfaction, I hadn’t realized the scope of the problems. We had built a flawed, bugged system, which they’d abandoned out of sheer frustration.

The funny thing is, I had unknowingly asked our caller how the application was working, and was shocked to hear her simple yet surprising, calm acceptance, “We stopped using the software long ago; everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.” I hung up as embarrassed as I’ve ever been.

We’ve had great satisfaction with our reputation for attentiveness to client needs, so how on earth could we fail so miserably this client? Generally a hands-on manager, why had I not been involved in rooting out answers to their problems? How do we prevent a recurrence of this scenario, and more importantly, how do we go about winning back the confidence of this customer? 

Over the next day or so I was so taken aback by our collective failure. Sales for not indicating to me the depth of the problem. The programming team for simply giving up on fixing the bugs. Me for not having our staff understand that a client problem was our problem. 

Problems like this are small failures that will ripple into potential failure for us as a company. Over the past year we’ve been fortunate to land several large projects, but our busyness creates its own challenges. There are things that must be done in the housecleaning department that we simply don’t have time for. Ditto for new in-house products and projects. And obviously, we may be falling short in the attentiveness department. 

So, the morning after my sleepless night, I arrived early and invigorated for an impromptu meeting. I made an unpopular decision: forty hour work weeks were not an option until we had a laundry list of “to dos” completed. The first item on the agenda is addressing our client’s software. 

All companies make mistakes, and hopefully, most of them will learn from their errors. We are no different. I am no more afraid to openly admit those missteps than I am to share our successes. Because remember, those successes may have found their start in the fixing of an error.

Well, we wrapped up our first full week (and a day) of Phase Two (post M&M era) with Scott Duff in residence. 

Scott knows code, understands processes, server issues, and all the geeky stuff that makes him worth his salt.  While he’s got a lot of learning to do when it comes to the general practice of business, here at TDS, we’re excited to have him on board just in time for year-end wrap up and new year goal setting! 

And speaking of end-of-year trends, every December Manish takes off for India leaving me to get a chance to revisit my roots–programming roots, that is.  Now, I won’t pretend to be a programmer, but I do know enough about code to navigate around and get our clients through any down time without Manish.  In doing my usual December coding, I was thrilled to see the advances Manish has made in his skills over time.  He really nailed down the tenets of programming making it easier for Scott to pick up the mantle and head onward without Manish.  I’m so appreciative of that.

Manish’s and Manasi’s adherence to good code also allowed Scott to avoid getting bogged down in trying to understand or cleanup old code.  With his ability to pick up where M&M left off, we’re just itching for Scott to get us caught up, so we can relax, learn, and play.

And what about December play time?  The holiday season always means the phones stop ringing, and we get to explore the ideas and and build the programs we’ve held at bay all year.  We’re busier than ever and the phones won’t stop!

More on Phase Two of TDS’ goals in the near future.  I’m just dying to pool ideas and collectively set some pretty ambitious goals!

Since I started this business, there has been one absolute that has been our guiding principle: be better today than we were yesterday. I remember the first time I read “Good to Great”. I was thrilled to learn that my business philosophy mirrored that of many standout businesses: avoid being “good enough”, devote time to developing ideas, and hire the best people you can find. It’s the last one that has ruled our success.

I have the best freaking people.

Allen Clarkson just pointed out that our ability to scout good talent is evident with Yahoo! stealing my beloved Manish. Manasi has blossomed into a fantastic PHP programmer, is smart as hell, and funny, too. And talk about growth! Dan came in as a fine artist and now mesmerizes even his own coworkers with his talent. I truly believe he has the stuff to be among the top in his field. Often, the least hailed in any business is the administrator, yet the job is so essential to running the business! And no one can hold a candle to Stacy in her ability to handle the details that keep us moving forward. They are all smart, articulate, and motiviated.

But you know what? We just got better. Jonathan Scott Duff–programmer extraordinaire–just agreed to make the move to Austin and joins us full time in December. As a team, we are incredibly pumped about having Scott on board. The guy is freaking good!

We have had six years of phenomenal success. Each year we have exceeded our goals and doubled sales. The TDS team created software products, streamlined processes, and harnessed a work and team ethic that allows us to choose the work we wish to do. Our clients are the recipients of measurable growth and goal attainment.

We are drawing 2006 to a close, and I cannot say how excited we are for the new year. I will boldly declare that 2007 promises to be an unprecedented winner! And like I said in a recent post, once you declare it, people will wait to see you fail. It’s our collective job to prove “them” wrong. :)

In a routine business call to Manish and Manasi this past Saturday, Manish informed me that he wanted to discuss something that couldn’t be handled by phone.  I immediately began to worry.  Was Manasi expecting a baby?  Did they need to return to India?  Had Manish been offered a job  by the people at Yahoo whom he had met at a recent conference in California?  I grew more anxious as our meeting at NXNW, our favorite brewery, grew closer. 

We ordered a beer, and I asked Manish to lay it on me.  He told me that he had been offered a job with Yahoo.  I cried.

Manish has been with me for 3 1/2 years, and I never thought he’d leave our group unless he was returning to India.  Manish came to TDS as a first year Master’s student in electrical engineering.  He had no programming experience, but he did posess a deep desire to learn. I had just hired my first intern when he applied in the winter of 2002-03, and I told him that if my intern experience was a fruitful one, I’d be intersted in hiring another student in the spring.  He came back right on schedule, and I gave him a job. 

This kid caused me gray hairs back when I didn’t have any! He started out doing web design stuff, would get stuck on some complex table layout (back before CSS), I’d spend too much time fixing it, and he’d manage to muck it up again.  This happened a lot.  :)

Manish had never used the Vi editor, typed with two fingers, and had written little code.  The code he did generate, he wrote in Dreamweaver.  Niall Durham and I introduced Manish to the basics of Vi and file editing in SSH, but his comfort with a WYSIWIG editor kept him from breaking out of his comfort zone.  I finally demanded that he learn to use it and insisted that no real programmer–what he was aiming to be–would write code in Dreamweaver.  He argued his point in futility before reluctantly abandoning his beloved software and eventually learning that bosses sometimes have a point. 

Now a Vi expert, he was hungry for more and started playing with shell scripting.  In one marathon session, he took ten hours to write a script that was maybe 20 lines long.  I ribbed him about it endlessly before promising I’d never bring it up again.  (Does this count?)

Fast forward a year and our programmer was still typing with two fingers.  I set a date for him to either learn to type with all fingers, or forgo any raises until he did, and as his employer, I learned that money talks.  (I used this same threat of a “withheld raise” when he started to buy an overpriced car from an unscrupulous car salesman.)

Just as I can joke about his early shortcomings, I can highlight his successes.  My position as teacher was soon overshadowed by my one time student and now full-fledged programmer.  Manish spent a lot of time adding to the success of Thunder Data by an insatiable appetite for learning.  He loved cool new technology like Ajax and mashups (using the online tools of his new employer, Yahoo), and was a primary force in bringing us to where we are today with fully 55% of our revenue coming from programming.  No programming project or technical question felt out of our reach, because I knew that Manish would rise to the challenge to hammer it out.  I realized over time that I didn’t know what I would do without him.  He had become my partner.

So, on Saturday, when Manish told me he would be accepting his new position, I was heartbroken.  I realized that part of my sadness–even grief–came from the realization that I was experiencing the loss of a dream.  All the plans we had mutually laid in our early period and refined over the later were for our success. 

But in my sadness, there is also pride.  My student intern who had become like a son is leaving for a world-reknown company because he has earned it.  I am thrilled that his success in school–and I hope here at TDS–has enabled him to acheive what many in his country can only dream of. 

So, my dear Manish, know that I will miss you greatly, and know that you are taking a little piece of my heart with you.  Don’t you forget your roots, and know that if you ever want to come home, I’ll be waiting.

With all my heart, Dawn  

I had been telling Stacy that for many people, the most difficult part of starting a business is actually telling others that you are! I had read that once you lay it out there, people will wait for you to fail. I don’t know if I agree with the sentiment, but I do know that the fear of failure keeps many would-be business owners from taking the first step.

Another fear is lack of money. In a book I am revisiting from my bookshelf, “Growing a Business”, I read an interesting point by author, Paul Hawken. He discusses the concept that for small business, “too much money is worse than too little.” He continues, “The major problem affecting business, large or small, is a lack of imagination, not capital.” I agree.

Back in 2000 when I started this company, a laptop was a pretty expensive investment at about $2500. And like all new businesses, I knocked on a lot of doors trying to get sales. I needed to show prospective clients the quality of my work (neither particularly good nor bad), and without that expensive laptop coupled with a time when many businesses had no computer connection, I was limited. So, what did I do? I used Photoshop 3.0 to create prints of the website designs I had done and carried them in those cheesy plastic sleeves. I laugh about it now, but you know what? I sold my clients on my work.

Creativity offered an opportunity.

When I read Hawken’s words tonight, I realized that at TDS we serve well the businesses that don’t have a lot of money. I like to tell prospective clients that we will do as much or as little as they want us to do or that their budgets allow. We create editable websites and ecommerce sites, and offer a lot of guidance to help our clients use the web to help them sell. In short, we give them ideas that cost nothing but time. The clients willing to invest the time and energy needed to create dynamic and useful sites are rewarded with increased sales. Those clients come back to us a year later a little busier, having a little less time to devote to site maintenance, but holding a slightly thicker wallet to hire us for the work that adds to profits.

So, consider the possibilities and make your expenditures count. Have attractive, professionally designed, business cards made with your web address on them. Join your local chamber for a couple of hundred bucks a year, and hand out those great looking business cards. Get a cell phone, and when you are out of the office, forward those sales calls from the chamber folks who found your number on the business card you gave them at the last event!

Creativity and hard work are more useful than money, and honing these skills early helps lay the foundation for real profits when used in concert with smart investments–bought through increasing profits–to accelerate growth.

And what of those slick presentation “brochures” I created? I still have them. Stop by the office, and I’ll let you see what money can’t buy.