Category: Life

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Business Life Technology

Coworking Not Just for Freelancers

I’m currently reading REMOTE but the people over at 37signals as preparation for some long-distance thinking on my part and I’ve been enjoying it so far. If you have read REWORK (also by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson), then you know the style of the book and I think you’ll enjoy REMOTE as well.

That’s some context for my reading of the following tweet:

Some local people here in New Ulm have discussed looking into starting a coworking space here, but it is cool to see it happening (or at least being looked into) in Shakopee as well. I think there is a real need for spaces like this, and it is only going to become more and more of a feature for a town or city to have.

However, something I’ve always needed to overcome is the idea that a coworking space is exclusively for mobile or freelance workers. Basically, it is only for people who aren’t tied to a specific company or area. My mind worked on this and has a slightly different angle on it now.

A former coworker of mine and I talked in the past about the lack of collaboration outside of the strict walls of where you are currently employed, and I think that coworking spaces have the opportunity to break some of these walls down.

Reading REMOTE, maybe relaxing the need to have all employees in the building at the same time could allow some collaboration for hard (or even simple) problems in a coworking space. Get a bunch of network and systems admins together into single space, throw a problem at them, and then let them talk through all of the possibilities. It will require cultural changes, but it follows a sort of “open source” model of collaboration in the idea that “the rising tide lifts all boats” to an extent.

I’d never thought of it that way, but maybe there is something there to not just have a space, but to enact cultural changes in some companies to open them up and improve things for more people overall.

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Business Life

Business for the Future

Why is the sole purpose of a business the short-term gain instead of on the long-term future on not just the business, but the customers as well? At least that is sometimes how it feels. With Go the Extra Mile – Not Quite What You Thought, my friend Nate Beran touches on this when he links to a piece on the Mittelstand at Inc.com. The Mittelstand are small-to-medium sized businesses in Germany that are unique in the fact that they are usually family-owned and centuries-old. If you are planning on opening your own business, you will want to hire Top Rated Security Services. As a relatively recent convert to the family farm (as compared to my younger brother), it is an almost inspiring read and look at how a person might frame decisions when thinking not of just profitability for the next quarter, but for the long-term viability of the entire business.

Since I’ve had children of my own, my perspective has changed drastically. A decision to be made isn’t just about how it will affect the bottom line of today, tomorrow, or even five years down the road … no, it is made with an eye to the distant future, to a time when my sons might be the ones walking on the same land and looking at the same sunset as it goes down over the same fields. I want to be able to supply that to my own children, and their children. The idea of a business, in this case a farm, staying within our family for centuries excites me, but for this a business need to be well managed, including production and finances, so things like budget and payment can be handled with services as payroll systems uk so everything is more easy and effective.

Many times that can mean temporary difficulties to get over the proverbial “hump” to some different time. It might mean forgoing the run-up to try to keep up with the people around you. It might mean staying smaller so that the family can be the ones to take care of the entire operation instead of needing to bring on help.

I know I don’t have the answers, but this is just a small taste of the lens I look through when a decision is needing to be made. We are blessed to currently be looking at the third and fourth generation of Martens farmers working the place … I hope to one day maybe see the fifth and sixth do the same. I want to provide that opportunity for my family.

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Life Technology

Not Going Back

App-pocalypse Now by Jeff Atwood got some play last week around the web last week (or was it the week before, I can’t keep track of these thing) and it has been sticking in my mind since then.

  • I do not want to go back to the web-centric world for all applications. The idea that every application should be and live on the web does not excite me in the least.
  • Content-only sites do not really have a need (most of the time) for a separate application. Responsive web design has allowed many sites to work really REALLY well in just the excellent browsers the main platforms have been providing. The web as a content-distribution platform for text-centrci documents is excellent. That is what it was originally made for and I think it excels in that regard. That would eliminate a huge portion of the ridiculous app banners and popups that almost every site seems to want to push on people.
  • Do not confuse what is best/easy of the developer for what is best/easy/wanted for/by the user/consumer/customer. They are not always the same.

I think that is the main gist of it. I was going to originally just tweet this out, but it would have been too much for poor Twitter and I’m sure that Phil would have complained about me spamming his timeline again.

Thanks Phil!

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Life Technology

Opportunity vs. Outcome

I posted You Need a Person earlier and it focused on Steve Jobs’ thoughts on education and technology. In that same interview there was an even shorter line from Mr. Jobs that stuck in my mind as well.

I’m a very big believer in equal opportunity as opposed to equal outcome. I don’t believe in equal outcome ’cause, unfortunately, life’s not like that and it’d be a pretty boring place if it was.

I’m pretty sure everyone knew that Steve believed in meritocracy, and this is another example of him outlining that worldview. I think, though, it belies an even greater truth that I am trying to parse out in my own mind.

When we talk about equality we need to understand that in this world, things are never going to be equal for everyone when it comes to outcome. That is a road to lowered bars and stifling the individuality of everyone. When we all need to have the same outcomes, we’re all going to end up being the same.

That would be a dreadfully boring place.

You can watch the section of the interview on YouTube. The whole thing is pretty good but you’ll need to set aside a good amount of time to watch it.

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Business Life Technology

Technology in the Barn

Now that we have almost 4000 little pigs in our hog barns, our focus turns to how to better manage the double-sized operation without needing to add manpower. My dad and brother are excellent herdsmen, and I have no doubt that the added pigs are in good hands … but my end revolves around making sure that our numbers stay good and that we are building a sustainable business not just for the short-and-medium term but for the future a well.

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Of course I jump to thinking about using technology in some capacity, so I’ve been working in my mind about how that will work.

The most obvious change we have made is to move our bookkeeping online to Quickbooks Online and using the iOS apps to make us more honest and to easily add receipts for those things we purchase. The update to the website has made the service much easier to use and we have been pleased with it so far.

However, when it comes to working out at the barns themselves that is still going to be a WIP. Since the office is not complete (it is currently a covered mud hole until the ground thaws enough to pour the concrete floor), that will need to happen in the future. However, here are some thoughts on what I am going to be attempting.

  • I am going to keep as little technology permanently out in the office. I’ll have a place to keep papers that need to be scanned, but the technology for the office will be completely mobile so that it can be kept in better conditions.
  • Every piece of paper we need to keep around will be scanned, organized, and stored where it can be backed up continuously. The documents we have are too important to have in only one physical location.
  • I am looking at moving some of our paper stuff to an iOS application. Some benefits would be digital historical records for the pigs along with additional features like a camera that can be used to document needs within the barns and easy access to information like dosage recommendations for medications and other information. That is a very long-term project but after going through PQA Plus certification there is so much to keep track of that you really need to have a companion with you and I think an app could do just that.
  • Our generator maintenance schedule and information will also need to be digital in some way. Possibly a separate application or maybe just a spreadsheet to start until I get a better handle on what the information needs to look like.

Those are just a few ideas I am tossing around at the moment. More will come, many will die off and be replaced with others but the idea is to try and use technology to make things easier and not more difficult. The benefits should always benefit the farmer and the animals and I think there are huge areas completely ignored by the technology industry right now to do just that.