Sam Kidd's thoughts on business

Well this year is flying by, and yet again after saying to myself to write more blog posts I find myself 20 odd days into this new year and still no bloody posts.

I'm finding it hard to get time to write posts, but I do think a lot of this is down to the fact that I find it harder to get down on paper (screen) what it is I want to say. Writing has never been my stong point so I look for any excuse to get out of it, and being too busy always sounds great in my head.

So far this year is looking good, we are flat out in Digital Crew with work and hope to have a few big jobs coming up sson. TeamworkPM is also really starting to go places now, It's getting very close to the point that we are going to have to look at getting a full time person on board to deal with feedback and questions and just general chat with our customers. We even had one of the major film studios in the States onto us last week about using TeamworkPM, it will be great to have a big name on board.

On a totally different front now, Sam&Dan's is now finally open at nights. We started the late openings towards the end of December and it's been going great inside there. I have to say I enjoy working nights there when I get the chance, the chatting to the customers there at night is always a good laugh and we have been getting a great amount of positive feedback as well.

I know all the talk on the radio and newspapers at the moment  is all doom and gloom, but I can't help but feel really excited about the changes in the economy.  The world was starting to get a bit crazy and it just seemed like it was going to be fecking impossible to move up the ladder in business at times because everything had gotten so bloody expensive, and the barrier to entry just seemed so high at times.  Now it's fair game to anyone with the balls and vision to take this recession on, things are cheaper, people are looking to do deals now as businesses are fighting for work and I think it could be a very interesting year ahead.

It is the year of the OX and as they say about Oxen, they were used in farming because they were able to pull harder and longer than horses, particularly on obstinate or almost un-movable loads, so here's to hoping we can all be Oxen and start to pull our businesses out of this recession and  on to great things

Yes I am still alive and well. It's just been a crazy summer. I have been meaning to update the blog for quite sometime now but just never manage to get around to it. The days are just flying by, I can't believe it's nearly September already, bloody crazy!

Digital Crew has been eating most of my time lately, we are just up the walls at the moment which is great, but is also stressful. We have a new member joining the Crew next month, I'm sure Dan and Topper can't wait, he's another programmer to help us with our workload.

Teamworkpm is going well now and we have had a lot of new signup as well. The guys have been working on getting the API up and running as soon as possible. We hope to have it good to go during September.

Sam&Dan's is now over a month old as well. Things are going well there, the Donuts have been the big hit there so far. We have also added topped ones to our menu now. (so tasty)

AREA51 is still rocking away as well, been back in there for the Tuesday night gaming the last few weeks and had a good laugh. Nothing beats kicking your customers asses in a game of Call of Duty 4.

The next thing on my list is to give this blog a face lift. It's pretty old at this stage and it was a template I stole from Dan to save time.

Well thats the story so far not the most exciting blog post in the world but at least it proves if still alive and kicking.

If you're around from 6pm-8pm any week day call into Sam&Dan's some time for a coffee and a dog. I'm working there most evenings. Dan and I were talking today over coffee, saying we must hold an open coffee morning there one day as well as start to get to the others held round Cork. It's another thing I need to add to my list of things to do as well.  I was sorry to miss Techludd yesterday, I would like to start to meet up with all the guys in Cork that I'm now following on Twitter. There's a good bunch of Tech heads around in Cork, to be sure! (I'm so Irish now!)

Yesterday was manic inside the new Sam and Dan's shop, at one stage we had 9 people working away in there and space is tight with the kitchen sitting in one corner.
Yesterday, the counter we have running around the shop was finished off, all that is left now is to have it varnished a few times.

The back store room was worked on and all the holes patched up. The ceiling throughout the shop was also painted. We then had the hoods for the kitchen installed and all the steel work on the walls behind where the kitchen will go finished off as well.

Now we just have the painting of walls, Kitchen to be installed, and the second fix of the electrics to be completed and also jacks to be plumbed in. We are hoping (praying) to have most of the work completed by Tuesday so we can open during the week.

We also have our first shipment of Hot dogs arriving from Germany tomorrow as well, I have to say I wish we were finished with the construction in the shop, because we have stuff stored all over the place such as, bar stools, donut machines, donut mix, T.V's. Ahhhh so much to get sorted and so little time.

Work in Digital Crew is manic as well at the moment I was in Galway on Friday looking at the new Galway webworks building, we are doing the website for it, nice place all very modern. 

The days are very long at the moment with trying to do loads of Sam&Dan's work during the day along with Digital Crew and AREA51  trying to get all my written Digital Crew work done at night. Still I have to say I am enjoying but also finding it a bit stressful too.

Below are the latest pics from the shop.

I have be meaning to update the photos and fill you in on what is going on with Sam&Dan's but finding time to sit down and write a blog post has been very hard to come by.

Work in Digital Crew at the moment is crazy as well, every man and his dog is looking for new sites
or application to be built. We even finished a pretty cool internal app. for Lidl Ireland in the last week.

Any how as you can see below Sam&Dan's still looks like a bomb went off. So much for the builder saying most of the work will be done by Tuesday. There should be big changes made by Friday this week. I would be hoping that the shop will be pretty much ready to rock and roll by next week. (fingers crossed)

People there is no magic website making button, no one is hiding it on you, honest!
Working in Digital Crew I'm starting to see that a lot of companies out there that still don't realise what is involved in making a good website these days.
It's not as simple as drawing a picture, pressing a few button and then 'wham' a lovely site appears that runs your business and sells loads of their products! (Hell I wish it was like that)

I just can't believe the amount of companies out there that have unrealistic ideas and budgets for making a website. A website that they want to use to help their company generate sales worth thousands and sometimes millions of euro.  One thing I wish people would realise is that to build a really good site does take time and no, your uncle Dave who got a computer last year and said it was really easy to make a website, may actually not really know what he's talking about.

Then again there are the companies out there that are fantastic to work with. They know how long it takes and what is required to make a site that works for them.  One thing I'm trying to get across to people all the time is that, setting up a website is like creating a real shop or office. If you were to open a shop in the morning you wouldn't just walk into a place bang up some shelves and open the door and expect people to take your seriously and buy your products. You would want to spend some time designing the shop, you may even get a shop designer to help you get this right. Then you would get a builder in, because he has the right skills and tools to get the job done well.  You're going to want the public to come into your shop, and you want to create a good impression, you want it to look professional and you know if you get the look and feel right this will help sales.

Well folks it's the same with websites, instead of using wood and plaster to build your shop or office your using programming and software. Both the real and the virtual shop take time, expertise and a lot of hard manual labour. 

If you're looking to create a web based business or you want to extend your real world one I would just like to say, take some time and really think about what you want to achieve with your site. It's like opening another premises. If it's a shopping site remember how long it took you to open the one you have now, and how much work went into it. Because the same amount of work can go into the online one as well.  Remember your website may be the first and only experience a potential customer may have with your company, so you can't afford to get it wrong, because you're not standing behind the counter in this shop, and you can't win them over with your charm.

 

Yes I'm still alive incase anyone was wondering. I have just been working away flat out the last few months. I keep meaning to post here but I have been finding it hard to find the time.

So what have I been up to thats made me ohh too busy? Well I have joined the Crew, I'm now working away with my friends Dan and Topper in Digital Crew. I have been in and around their office for years now and we have AREA51 between us as well. So now I have moved in and am working away pretty much full time inside. It's been a bit mainic getting myself up to speed. I'm now the new business development manager inside. Dan and Topper are still the programming nerds.

Digital Crew has been up and running 9 years, and they have some top class clients on the books now, so it has'nt really been a hard job for me yet to bring in the sales. It's been a nice change for me to do something different for a while and I do believe a lot in the products and sites that we are developing here. The Skills thats the guys have now is class and we must have the best CMS (Content Management System) out there now.

We are also, as I have said in an early post,  TeamworkPM. We have been using TeamworkPM inside Digital Crew now for the last 5 months I would say and it's really changed the way we work inside. It's made us much more orginised and it's really helped us stay on top of clients needs. There is a free version for anyone to try so I would say, give it a go ;-)


Right I must get out of the office and head home, I'm really going to try to get back into my blogging from now, I'm always coming across things and thinking shite, I should have a little rant about that but I just have'nt gotten around to it, so I hope to get back in the game again.

 

 

 

 

 

Been up the walls here the last week so have not blogged in a while. I have been working with the guys (Dan and Topper) on Teamworkpm.net The product is looking really well now, the guys have done a great job in building this.

Teamwork PM is an online Project Management application that will help you work faster and be more productive in the work place.  We have been using it for a while now in Digital Crew and it's been bloody fantastic. (well I would say that I guess)

Before Teamwork we often forgot to pass on messages or simple tasks that we needed to do for our clients, or it just ending up taking too long to sort out problems because we would miss each other in the office or emails we sent to each other would just get buried in an our email inbox.

With Teamwork we have got rid of all these problems. We have a few more features that we are in the process of adding, and  we have have had a load of suggestions from people currently using Teamworkpm but It will always be an on going project as we improve things over time.

I would love to get some more feed back from people to see what othe feature people would like. There is a free edition use as well as the paid versions with have a few more features. Please give the free one a go and let me know what you guys think.