RevenBlog

Ronnie and I, and hopefully Clay, are meeting today to walk through DotProject, the open source project management software, to see if it is going to be right for RevenFlo. We are looking at migrating our project management into this software. It’s just a PHP MYSQL system. We are looking at ways we can script from external applications for unique user interfaces that meet the needs of the different parties that have some stake in the information.

As we are working out our new system, I will be coordinating it with the accounting work of Jeff (our new accountant) to keep things as integrated as possible. I dream of an executive management dashboard that is the ultimate tool by which one can operate an organization of large amounts of people all with different talents and needs and tendencies and such. An organization where everyone involved with it is benefiting by being so.

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We have worked it out where Laura (a dedicated stay at home mom and a valuable addition to the RevenFlo team) can stay on with RevenFlo even as we bring on our new position. Way to go Laura!

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I have been working on the RevenFlo Core Values statement. What do you think?

1. Be Good – We want people who are overall good people (well intentioned, honest, and compassionate).
2. Be Happy – We want people who are happy to be a part of the group and generally enjoy working.
3. Be Willing to Serve – We want people who understand that success comes from adding value, which means to serve well.
4. Be Communicative – We want people who communicate, who speak their minds, who admit their mistakes, and who manage others’ expectations well.
5. Be Responsible – We want people who not only claim responsibility for themselves and their own actions, but for their role as a supporter and team player.
6. Be Systematic – We want people who look for patterns in their own work and think about ways to improve effectiveness of themselves and the organization as a whole.
7. Be Diligent – We want people who do their best to make sure that the quality of the work they do is as good as it can be.
8. Be Passionate – We want people who are electric with passion about what they do, can do, and might do in the future.
9. Be Invested – We want people who understand and seek win-win through increased investment in the organization as a whole.

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I met with an accountant yesterday. It was rockin’. I had the opportunity to walk this guy all the way through my business model from revenue models to expense models – how revenhours are purchased and managed and tasked and logged and paid out and everything. He helped me understand lots of things that I was doing and didn’t really realize it – most of them positive. He is going to work on setting up our accounting process (from data entry to executive management). I’m stoked. Thank you Jeff Deason of Rock Hill, SC.

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I had a meeting yesterday with a young salesman. It was a great experience. – in the same way that meeting with the developers and writers and designers I meet with is a great experience. I love the enthusiasm I am experiencing around me. People who excel usually do so because they are enthralled by the doing of whatever it is that they are excelling at. And this guy seems to love what he does. That’s great. We had a nice conversation.

At one point, I was talking about how I loved sales now because I have been able to eliminate negotiation from the process. Some people love to negotiate. I do not. It seems strange to me to do so. Think about it. You sit down with someone and you spell out a way that if you both put a specific thing in, then you both will come out ahead. Then you shrink into a sparring stance. It’s like me saying to you, “Hey you put in five bucks and I put in five bucks, and we can get a pizza for us both to eat.” You say, “OK.” Then I say, “OR you put in six dollars and I’ll put in four.” That’s dumb.

Look at the way products are sold at Big Box. They just put a price on it and ring it at the register. Since I developed our current system of Time-On-Task Web Staff (that’s what I like to call it), we just function like staff that works by the hour. There’s no price on anything we do except the time of the person that it took to do it. It’s completely activities based. Thus in discussing with a prospect the idea of building a web application or managing a content program or whatever, it is not the deliverable that is being purchased. The deliverable is the articulated goal. The client is buying hours of activity put towards achieving that goal.

I guess there could be negotiation in the cost of the hour (the hourly rate), but we publish our rate and our discount programs (like 10% off for the purchase of 100 hours).

Regardless, my point is that I love selling because it is just problem solving. If you approach it that way and create systems that treat it that way, then being at the table with a prospect is a fun and engaging experience, like two kids in preschool sitting at a table doing a puzzle together. It’s how we make friends with people.

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I’m so excited about our focus on systems. I feel that RevenFlo is entering a whole new phase of existence – a phase that is less about me and my contractors and more about a real team-driven organization, more about a process and an organizational model. I am meeting with an accountant next week. We plan to start a process of analyzing all aspects of the logging and reporting of hours as currency and full integration with quickbooks-controlled accounting and monthly accounting service review and reporting. We will also be working on the organization of historical data, sales projections, budgeting, and more.

These efforts all come from management. I’m learning more about management all the time. It’s all about inspiring and rewarding people to do what they WANT to do and what they take pride in doing well. A manager looks at the Goal, beginning with the end in mind, and then looks to create or integrate systems that can be leveraged for growth. Then tasks/projects are communicated and handed over to those who are eager to do them.

At least in our model, those who get the tasks are as thankful for them as the manager is thankful for that person. Our team members are each actively seeking such work. A developer is looking for development work. A designer is looking for design work. They are pleased to have our business. And we are pleased to have their time, energy, skills and knowledge. Our model eliminates the vendor-or-employee question and creates a team concept where everyone is benefiting from the perpetuation of the organization.

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Ben Graham’s coming to town today, and he and I are spending the day with Greg Ellis and a home recording studio that has everything we need – guitars, amps, drums, mics, stands, cords, pre-amps, and a Hard-Disk recorder/mixer workstation. We should have three complete songs by the end… hopefully. A band of some old and still close friends of mine played in Charlotte last night at the Milestone. They’re called Sled. I didn’t get to go, hope it went well. Greg’s leaving Ben and I in the studio tonight to head out to play a show somewhere… I didn’t even ask. It’s a music filled weekend for me.

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How could I be passionate about management? Well, the prevalent business models of the day and past and the media have created the monster that is “management” in people’s minds. I used to only have the stereo type of the business management position in my head. This “position” is the icon of the extreme vision of the soulless corporate cube farm as a matrix over our reality (pretty extreme, but a valuable metaphor all the same). But my experience managing is NOTHING LIKE THAT. Trying to create and facilitate systems of human activity that leverage technology to achieve huge amounts of positive production is an inspiring endeavor that can be one based on enjoyable interrelations with extraordinary people. (“you said relations”)

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Michael Lively, copywriter out of Charleston, SC, did some nice writing for RevenFlo. I called him very casually and just explained to him that I wasn’t exactly sure what I needed but I could talk to him about it and see if he could produce some text that would suit our purpose well. He turned the project right around and impressed me with the result. Good team style participation. Good writer.

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I submitted a job posting to craigslist yesterday at 11:40AM, and by 5PM I had received over thirty resumes. Wow! Is this a comment about the marketplace/economy? Is it a good sign or a bad one? Or is it just the wonders of Craigslist? Like all things, it’s those things and more. I’ve already starting going through the resumes, and I cant wait until we get to the interview stage. But some processes are slow on purpose, and that’s good. Positive growth is exciting at the least.

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