blog

If you’ve had the chance to talk with inFlow’s Customer Champion, Siobhan, you know that she has a laser-like focus on helping you solve your problems.  When she picks up the office phone or enters a live-chat with you, you can feel that all she cares about at that moment is helping you.  We often have trouble dragging her away to take a much-needed lunch break!

It’s no wonder that after a few short months, she’s become so essential that we wanted to show her our trust by sharing more company information with her.  It’s part of the philosophy of open-book management; if you let your employees know traditionally sensitive information like profit levels, they’ll appreciate and return that trust.  What’s more, this helps them understand things that are important to the company beyond their immediate responsibilities, so that they can make better-informed decisions.

Sounds easy, but for Siobhan, there was one thing worrying me.  Scientific studies have shown that if you force people to think about money, they’ll be less outgoing and less willing to help other people.  One of the things that makes Siobhan so great is that she cares about you, not getting money out of you.  Would knowledge of our company finances be a forbidden fruit that detracted from her focus on what’s good for our customers?

We debated this for a while.  Finally, we decided to go with our hearts, trust her and share everything with her.  Not just the financial numbers, but how much we valued her input, why we wanted her to keep working on our customers behalf, and the whole thought process behind this.  She probably won’t care to check that information much, but she certainly appreciates our trust in her.

I believe we’ve come a long way from the old top-down management style where company secrets are jealously guarded.  I want to work in a company where everyone is trusted and able to make decisions intelligently.  This is hard if people in your company don’t trust each other completely, but that’s a sign that you need to weed out the bad apples and share the fruits of knowledge.



Siobhan, our inFlow Customers Champion!

For some organizations in South Africa, World Cup fever may have meant a slow down in productivity as the host nation and its people enjoys a month long, once in a lifetime experience. But for one company in Gauteng (the smallest, most populous province in the country) things have never been busier!

Dev 9, a small customized software & web development company and recent addition to the inFlow reseller community is celebrating a big win. An order to supply a leading pharmaceutical company with inFlow software, implementation and support services.

The story began earlier this year when Craig Robinson, Managing Director of Dev 9 was approached by a client looking for an inventory management software solution. Scouring the market for options he struggled to find a local solution he felt happy recommending.

As a software developer himself (Dev 9 designs and sells its own financial services software) Craig has an eye for knowing what well designed, intuitive and user friendly software should look like. So he set about finding a program that delivered the best possible customer experience at a fair and reasonable price. When he discovered inFlow, he knew he had found just what he was looking for – an opportunity to expand his business.

“inFlow is a superb product and the price point is amazing! Its much more affordable than the competition offer here in South Africa” After joining the inFlow reseller community, Dev 9 immediately started to reap the rewards.  Focusing on the needs of Small to Medium Enterprises (SME) in and around Johannesburg and Pretoria area, Dev 9 was perfectly positioned when Sanofi Aventis came calling, seeking a quality but affordable cost inventory management solution.

Sanofi, a leading pharmaceutical company in South Africa is part of one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies. With locations in 100 countries it employs around 11,000 scientists and 100,000 employees that work to meet the needs of healthcare professionals and their patients globally.

In the midst of organizing implementation with his new client, Craig said last week “Its been a fantastic
experience working with inFlow so far. I’m really excited about working together to capitalize on the demand here in South Africa”

Congratulations to Craig and his team at Dev 9. The local support and expertise you bring inFlow customers in the Rainbow Nation is greatly appreciated.

To find out more about how to join the inFlow reseller contact us here

I recently signed up for a subscription to the magazine The Economist.  I didn’t really need it; most of the content is available for free online, and I’m more limited by time available to read than by great content.  A few years ago, I wouldn’t have spent the hundred bucks a year or so on it.  But recently, I’ve noticed a change in my way of thinking.

You see, even though I’m heavily immersed in technology, I still just prefer to read on plain ol’ paper a lot of the time.  I can carry a book or magazine with me to the kitchen, or sit snuggled in a blanket in bed reading under a lamp.  Even if it sounds silly, I just know that having that paper copy will make me more likely to read and thus learn more.

Now here’s the interesting part.  When trying to justify the cost, I asked myself, what are the odds that learning more about world trends will help me generate $1,000 in value over the next ten years?  I thought the odds were pretty good.  Maybe with some more cultural awareness I’ll be able to help one more Guatemalan entrepreneur find and buy inFlow every year.  Maybe there’s a 1% chance that some trend I picked up on will help lead to a million dollar idea.  This way, everybody wins.  More people benefit from our work, I’m supporting great journalism, and it’s a good financial investment for me.

What really makes this possible though is being in an environment where creating more value can reward me financially.  This is typical for entrepreneurs, but it’s also possible elsewhere, like jobs that are commission-based.  In a typical salaried job though, this type of logic just doesn’t work.  Maybe you can get a raise if contribute some great ideas, but don’t count on it.  All you can really do to have more money available is to pinch pennies.

So that’s why as I’ve shifted from a fixed-income mindset to this variable-income mindset, it’s encouraged me to do more to invest in my own capabilities.  This is incredibly liberating, and yet another reason why I encourage everyone with small business ambitions to go for it!

If you set the bar too low, it’s not worth doing.

If you set the bar too high, it’s unrealistic.

If you set the bar comfortably where people know they can do it, it becomes a mundane chore.

If you set the bar uncomfortably high where people believe they can do it with some hard work and faith, then it becomes an invigorating challenge.

This is the sweet spot to target for yourself and others.


Bonus: The more you stretch, the better you become.

People often ask me how the recession is affecting us.  In my most sagely voice, I respond, “I don’t know”.

We’re continually improving our product, our marketing, and the way we do business.  As a result, we’re continuing to do better, despite the trends in the overall economy.  We might come up with a new way of promoting our product that helps increase sales 50%, or improve the product in such a way that doubles our revenue.  If we remove some roadblock that’s turning away one quarter of your potential customers, we increase sales by 33%.  Perhaps in a more prosperous general economy we’d see our numbers increasing by an extra 10-20%, but that’s just gravy - the things we can do have a much greater impact.

Whether you’re trying to grow your business, cope with extra work for the same money, or find a job; don’t let the economy or the news make you feel helpless.  It may be more of an uphill battle, but it’s still your battle.

Both at work and at home, we’ve all experienced moments when it seems as though we just can’t keep up with all of our responsibilities.  Situations like these can quickly become tipping points where the smallest task, such as making a phone call or responding to an email, can become very difficult and stressful.  While it won’t win you many style points, a system of organization can really come to the rescue when you’re feeling overwhelmed.

How does it all work?  On the subject of organization it’s easy to get swamped in the vast amount of literature out there, which can range from business-oriented how-to’s or philosophies offering to give your life a complete makeover.  The basic principles are generally the same though.  Recording a task somewhere removes it from your mind and reduces the effort you expend on having to remember things.  This freedom allows you to better focus on actually performing tasks instead of worrying about what’s around the corner, or what you shouldn’t be forgetting.

The specifics of task management vary depending on personal needs.  Some people prefer to keep things really simple, relying on the tried and true pen and paper To-Do list.  Others prefer a more detailed approach using desktop and online PC tools that can associate dates, timelines, contacts, locations, and priorities with a given task.

In light of so many options, success comes in using the right tool for the job.  If all that’s needed is to jot down some quick reminders, a task manager laden with features can become more of a burden that deters organization.  After some trial and error, you should be able to find something that works well based on how much effort you want to spend.  Understanding your habits, and how capable they are of adapting, is also critical in figuring out what kind of task manager you are.  Keep in mind that, ultimately, no system of organization will pay off without some kind of maintenance.

While becoming a taskmaster is by no means easy, the rewards can be drastic.  The personal health benefits from stress reduction are accompanied by rises in productivity and efficiency.  When you work within your own system, it becomes easier to schedule and anticipate what you want to work on and when you want to do it.  Preparation, in turn, makes the quality of work higher and provides an opportunity for revision and improvement.  Being able to maintain and stay on top things can also become a great motivator as well as a source of confidence.  Additionally, setting and reaching goals becomes more of a habitual practice.

Most importantly, at its core, a task management attitude makes sure that you don’t forget the little things. Tying up all your loose ends, both in the office and in life, can really put you in the driver’s seat when it comes to getting things done.

If you had two choices:

If you’ve ever sat at your office feeling too tired to get anything done, this article is for you.

When you’re working on creative tasks, people often lack the energy they need to be effective more than the time.  We all have those times when we’re feeling lackluster and those times where we’re ready to kick butt; I know I can be ten times more productive when I’m hyped than when I feel a little drowsy.  If you have the flexibility of choosing when you want to work, you should think about taking advantage of these energy cycles.

For example, I’m not a morning person.  I’m usually most energetic in the mid-afternoon.  I generally try to set up my day to take advantage of this.  In the morning, I’ll take care of easier tasks like writing emails or running errands.  Then when I’m at my most productive, in the mid-afternoon, I’ll set aside a block of time to work on problems that take more concentration.  This is a lot easier if you’ve been able to organize things so that you can choose when you want to work.

Planning your work around your energy is one thing, but there are also things you you can do to increase your energy levels.  Many people rely on caffeine to wake them up.  I find this helps me in doing repetitive tasks, but it makes it harder for me to think creatively.  Doing some exercise is a great way to get the blood flowing through the body and brain.  Eating a light, nutritious lunch is also great.  See what works for you by experimenting.