I don't know about the rest of you, but the end of 2008 couldn't come soon enough for me. It was a great year for business, but we were exhausted and needed a break. Now, refreshed, we're plowing in to 2009 with a lot of work on the books and a solid focus.
No "happy new year" post is complete without a few resolutions!
Communicate Better
As a consulting company, we're always serving as intermediary for someone but there are many occasions when we're speaking for ourselves. Progress reporting, designing something new or even responding to a helpdesk request (yes, we've all got bugs to deal with) all come to mind. We don't let things languish, but in our response we should be conveying our desire to help, our energy and our drive to build really great software, every single time. I resolve to communicate confidently, expressing a willingness to listen to feedback and promote an open and frank conversation with our clients all the time.
Improve Satisfaction
One thing I resolve to do in 2009 is to reach out to our active clients once a week (minimum) and see what else is on their mind. Sitting back and waiting for the "right time" to ask is a short trip to miscommunication and dissatisfaction. The better you know your clients, the more responsive (and perceptive) you become to their needs. Our clients have been absolutely amazing at providing us referral business and I intend to keep that trend alive in 2009. I resolve to reach out to our current clients more frequently and prospective clients more aggressively in 2009 so that we can delight and retain the clients we have, while simultaneously attracting new ones in to the fold.
Be a Champion
I could only dream of having been on the World Champion Philadelphia Phillies. That's not the kind of champion I mean. We should be strong advocates for the tools we use, simply because we've found honest and powerful utility in them. I think the Adobe toolset has provided us with many opportunities to solve problems effectively and efficiently while making a decent living doing so. So, go ColdFusion! Go Flex!
Therefore, I resolve to be more vocal in my support of our chosen platform and spread news of the successes we have had working with it in order to attract more people to the ColdFusion and Flex community. Having served as user group manager of the Philadelphia ColdFusion User Group for several years, I know how great it feels to be part of a vibrant and active community of empowered and motivated folks.
In a similar vein, we do a lot of work in higher education. We've never passed on an opportunity to promote ColdFusion and the results we're able to deliver using our skills. I think there's still plenty of room for growth there (Wharton is just a little ways away and look at all the cool things they do with CF and Flex!) and I'll do my best to continue to encourage more use within our sphere of influence.
Grow. Now.
One of my favorite movie quotes:
"Get busy living or get busy dying"
It couldn't be more appropriate in business. So to address it in three major areas:
Grow the Business
I will seek out and secure new, interesting work solving problems that excite us and simplify the work of our clients. I think that resolution will be difficult enough on its own in 2009!
Grow Professionally
My role is just like that of many small businessmen: a different hat every 10 minutes, 24/7. I must (MUST) work on clock management (just like Andy Reid)(minus a few hundred pounds) and prioritization. We are all committed to doing whatever it takes to get the job done and more than satisfy our clients, but there were two periods last year where we sacrificed more than we should have due to commitments I made and should not have. I resolve to stop, think, plan, collaborate and leave room to breathe, even if that means passing up new opportunities. I would rather delight fewer clients and end the year slightly less well off than mismanage the only real resource we have: our time. I respect the people I work with too much to abuse them. I will improve this, starting now.
Grow Personally
To those that know me, you know I'm generally non-confrontational. At times, that has not served the company well. As a leader, I need to be more focused on the goals (client, project, and company), clear in my communications, and strong enough in my resolve to hold fast when necessary, bend when prudent and never compromise the stability of our enterprise. Again, I respect the people I have the privilege of working with too much to let them down on this one. I resolve to (well, gee, I don't know how else to say this...) find my backbone *g* in 09. That said, I'm still planning on enjoying what we do as much as I can...self employment is an amazing opportunity to grow every single day and I love that responsibility.
Be Better Geeks
ColdFusion (MachII, Coldspring). Flex (Cairngorm, Mate). AIR. LCDS. Enterprise Service Bus. Databases (SQL Server, Oracle). We touch these things (or plan on touching them) this year. To deliver well, we need to keep learning and advance our skills. That's the best part of being in the software field -- there's always something new, something to get better at and something you can then teach someone else. I want to learn more, know more, master more, and then deliver great stuff because of it...and then turn around and teach someone else how to become a master. I may not blog as frequently as Ben Nadel (I blame Twitter for that) and Matt's just not much of a talker (ha!), but I think together we'll come up with some interesting things to share as we learn more this year. I resolve to acquire at least one new skill and improve the ones I currently have in 2009. Even if that means taking a real DBA class ;-)
Oh, so you decided to read this far? Perhaps I could interest you in the services of a growing, intelligent, poised and information-hungry consulting company specializing in the Adobe platform!
I look forward to sharing more with you in 2009. Best wishes for a strong start to the year for everyone!
