Sales Tips For Bootstrapping a Development Startup

Software developers often think about starting a business of their own. There are freelance and remote working opportunities, the job requires understanding business models, and the pay is great. Of course, the tricky question is - how to land repetitive customers? 4 Strategies For Bootstrapping Without A Sales Background [caption id="attachment_13303" align="aligncenter" width="650"] Checklist from https://articles.bplans.com/business-startup-checklist/[/caption] Sales skills are paramount for founders. Founders are the best salespeople in a business over the first years. They are passionate enough to work crazy hours for minimal pay for years, living and breathing their own business. Founders know every aspect of their business… Continue Reading

10 Practical Risk Management Techniques

Successful business founders, executives, and managers employ different approaches when it comes to risk management. Whether dealing with financial volatility, market competition, or internal organizational challenges, managing risk effectively is crucial for long-term success. Only 23% of CEOs believe they have comprehensive information about the risks in their business even if 92% of them agree that having such information is highly critical to the success of their venture. On Shark Tank’s season 7, Robert Herjavec said that “Great entrepreneurs live in paranoia”. While I do agree with the sentiment, the risk management course I took back in the day was… Continue Reading

Main Considerations When Working With Big Enterprises

Clients are not as different as you may think when working with small or big enterprises. At the end of the day, it is always about achieving results and communicating with the decision maker on the other side of the table. One important thing to note is that higher paying clients are often from larger organizations, and they are structured differently from small-scale businesses. Types Of Enterprise Businesses In terms of the organization structure, here are the types of enterprise businesses (small, medium, and large ones) that are worth noting up front: There are enterprises with thousands or tens of thousands… Continue Reading

10 Tips to Efficiently Manage Emails

Email is still the go-to communication protocol that I prefer over everything else. Meetings and calls are necessary every now and then, but communicating with vendors, partners, peers, PR, and media editors is a lot easier asynchronously, plus the added benefit of managing notifications or work reports within the email inbox. We have signed at least three seven-figure contracts over email - and we’ve never met two of our partners live. Considering the impact of COVID-19, distributed communication is ever so important, and this aligns really well with one of the oldest communication mediums for digital experts. Emails vs. Meetings… Continue Reading

Strategies In Managing A Software Development Team

Prior to launching my own web development agencies over 10 years ago, I’ve jumped between the role of a senior developer and a manager multiple times – including leading and managing a software development team role. My first stunt in management was back in 2007. We were building a Java-based distributed software for a telecom group operating in multiple countries. I spent a year and a half with the company as a developer before joining the project along with our Chief Technology Officer (CTO), and a couple of other developers. The CTO and I spent several months working closely together… Continue Reading

Is Your Business Safe? (15 Operational Questions)

The last recession has put almost all businesses to the test. Some were hit really hard especially the hospitality and travel industries, along with brick and mortars. A few made some decent profit like pharmacy and  home delivery services. But everyone else was partially hit or still struggles to make a living in these uncertain times. I launched my agency during the great financial recession. While sales were terrible back then, starting from the ground was scalable and I wasn’t renting an expensive space and paying dozens of people while business was down. One of the most operational lessons I… Continue Reading

Investing In Your Software Engineering Professional Development

I spent 3 years teaching Java at the high school I graduated at. I was used to technical training courses for organizations that had already adopted Java, as well as paid courses with students who were really passionate about Java. The high school gig was different. Students had a dozen other disciplines to prepare for! It was their senior year as well. Some of them were already employed as junior developers and rarely attended classes. Others were aiming for a job in a different field - front-end development, Python, Ruby. Needless to say, their commitment was diverse. How Software Engineering Curriculum… Continue Reading