Skedsheet Blog

For the past six years, we’ve been working out of our individual houses, in our virtual office.  We have a centralized phone system, email, IM, and our own software to track sales and support conversations.  We use a few other tools to share information, but haven’t gone to the level of using webcams to communicate (yet).

Overall the positives about running this way far outweigh the negatives, but it wasn’t always clear how it would play out.  Here are a few pros and cons of what we’re doing.

Pros

1. No time wasted commuting.  Like lots of people, I used to spend over an hour every day in the car.  Now, it’s like each one of us has extra time to work, spend time with our families, or do something else productive.  Commuting is stressful too, so as a bonus, we’ve gained extra productivity by feeling better at work, too.
2. Office politics don’t exist.  This is partially a consequence of having a small company – there is no corporate ladder – but it’s also partially because playing long-distance office politics is impossible.  There’s no opportunity for cliques to form because we spend most of our time focused on the tasks at hand.
3. When you’re in the groove, there are no interruptions.  Nobody comes by my office to chat, check on me, or pull me into a meeting.  Occasionally, I hear a kid screaming in the background, but with a noise-cancelling headset, even that’s not an issue.
4. Low overhead.  Let’s face it, office space costs money.  And if we had offices in the bay area, it would mean lots of money.  Instead we can pay relatively high salaries which go much further in places like Portland, Reno, or Chattanooga.

Cons

1. You really need to work at communication.  When we first started, it was really hard.  Finally, Ted and I realized that we need to be on the phone with each other almost every day to make sure we know what’s going on.  Getting together has value, too, so we try to meet up at least quarterly.  Part of the reason we go to trade shows is to have that bonding time.
2. It’s not for everyone.  There are some people who thrive in this environment, but not everyone.  You’ve got to have a ton of self-discipline and motivation.  There are days where I miss going to lunch with my co-workers, and there are times when I find myself just looking out the window…I can imagine that some people would end up daydreaming most of the time.
3. There’s no way to micro-manage.  Each person who works at Moraware is very self-motivated, but despite the high level of performance everyone needs a kick in the pants occasionally.  There’s no social pressure to even pretend to work, so keeping the intensity and motivation going can’t rely on “management by walking around”
4. The size of our company is limited.  There’s no way that we can have a hierarchy, so there’s some limit to the number of employees here.  Hopefully, we’re just limited in the number of people we hire, not the number of customers or revenue.

In general, we’ve made some choices about our company that greatly enhance everyone’s lifestyle.  There are some obstacles that we’re constantly working on, but so far none have been insurmountable.

I’m wondering at what point should we let anyone outside Moraware start trying out Skedsheet?

Conventional wisdom in the internet software/web 2.0 world says that you should release early & often.  I certainly agree with this concept, and I’ve even given that advice to others before. But when you’re trying to apply it to your own situation, things seem more complicated.

Skedsheet is in the very early stage of development. We’re not working on the beta yet. We don’t even have an alpha build. We’re currently working on the second prototype!

The first prototype from this winter was basically designed like this:
Ted (aka product manager): “It’s called Skedsheet. It’s a spreadsheet combined with a calendar. Go.”
Derek (aka developer): “Uhh…OK”
So it wasn’t my best management moment. But we got the first prototype done, and it still looked as interesting on the screen as we thought it would when we first dreamt it up.

We had to step away from it for a bit to finish up JobTracker v3.0. As we wrapped that up, it was time to take a second pass at Skedsheet. This time, Derek & I got together to hash out as many ambiguities as we could, and decide what we would do for the next milestone: the second prototype. This meant a lot of reworking how Skedsheet behaved, and making many decisions about what functionality we wanted to provide.

So now I’m looking at a half-finished second prototype on my screen, and it’s pretty cool. Much better usability than the first pass, but there’s tons of functionality yet to be done. And it’s butt-ugly.

There’s a reason I’m calling these prototypes, rather than alpha builds. I’m not yet convinced we have the right user-interaction or the right client-side technology choice. When building a brand new product, there are a daunting number of choices to be made, and picking just the right combination is quite a challenge. We may end up completely rewriting major portions of the application as we go through the development process.

So when should we let others try it out?

• As soon as it does anything at all? (i.e. right now)
• As soon it has a critical set of features completed? (what’s really critical?)
• Only after we feel confident that it solves the problem well?

There are a few risks with releasing too early:

1. It takes longer to do development because we have to worry about existing data and users that we don’t want to break.
2. We put out something useless because it’s missing too many important features. So we lose the opportunity to get people interested the first time they try it.
3. We are still actively working on JobTracker, so Skedsheet is not going to be moving forward quickly at all times. So anyone using it early may be stuck with problems for a while before we fix them.

We’ve got competition.  Depending on how you look at it, lots of software, from Outlook to Oracle, could be considered a competitor, and there’s a whole universe of calendars, whiteboards, and manila folders that are probably even bigger threats.

So how do we compete?  We try not to be like the other guys.  In a world of software that’s already confusing and loaded with almost infinite features, we try to stand out by concentrating on what we do well.

I was surprised by Microsoft’s attempt to take Google head-on with their Bing search engine.  Although they’ve made a business of taking on competitors directly, then marketing their products like crazy, that would never work for us.

We probably go to the other extreme – find a problem that few people are trying to solve directly, and then focus on that tiny idea.  With JobTracker, we stumbled into a niche within a niche.  Even though it’s not glamorous making scheduling software for construction subcontractors, we provide value to our customers and do it profitably.

The plan for skedsheet is to take it to the next level.  In some ways, it’s even more specific: we’re not going to bring the “whole solution” for any particular type of business.  Instead we’re just focusing on replacing any place where you use a spreadsheet along with a calendar. 

I doubt that our niche competitors are willing to go there – most of them seem to be focused on extracting higher margins from a smaller set of customers.  And, the side-effects that we’re hoping for are that we can 1) have a large set of new, happy customers in our existing market and 2) branch out beyond our niche, even if it’s in a very modest way.

We’re not going to take on anyone mano a mano, but instead, we’ll keep defining what we do well, and let other folks try to catch up.

I recently went to a “Startup Exchange” meeting…I really like the format.  Each person brings a short problem about their business – and everyone brainstorms for five or ten minutes.  Since most people there are running small software companies, there’s a lot to be learned.  And they have free beer, too. 

I came with a  problem that’s been plaguing us from the beginning – “how do I hire a good designer?”

Immediately, the question came back to me: “Why do you care?”  We’ve had decent success, so it’s clear that our look isn’t preventing us from getting customers.  Most folks at the meeting said that we should focus on what we do well, and not waste the time trying to look good.  I have a hunch that design is important, but I had trouble coming up with the answer to why.  I’ve been thinking about it since then.  Here’s why I care.

1. Better design gives us more credibility as a company.  My brother came to hang out at a trade show a while ago, and I asked him to check out the competition.  He reacted to one competitor (with the big booth and fancy graphics) – “they must be the market leader”.  While I don’t mind being perceived as the underdog, I think our inconsistent marketing leads to a perception that our scheduling software might be sloppy and inconsistent, too.  I think all of us subconsciously judge a book by it’s cover.
2. Consistent design would make it easier to identify us.  Every business card, pen, and poster we do looks different.  Although we slap our logo on everything (in slightly different colors), it looks like a hodgepodge.  Because we don’t have a strong identity, people don’t necessarily recognize us until they read closer.
3. The medium is the message.  With design, our brochures, website, and software could be easier to understand.  We’ve gotten better over time, but our amateur design skills have led to materials that are sometimes hard to read, and sometimes painful to look at.  I still get razzed because of a 4′x4’ poster I had printed with a screenshot.  One of the few readable parts was “A network cable is unplugged.”
4. Design might make it easier to sell our products.  This is the one that I think about the most.  I have a feeling that an elegant, beautiful, or intentional design would make a difference.  People feel more comfortable when they look at pretty things, and although nobody has explicitly complained about it, that gut feel probably influences the buying decision.

So, based on those factors, I can convince myself that design matters.  But as with everything, it’s a question of how much.  As a company, we’re too small to have a full-time designer, but we want an ongoing relationship with somebody who can make clear, consistent, professional, and interesting work.  I still don’t know how to find them.

A common question prospects ask software companies is: “How do I know you’ll still be in business in a few years?” It’s important in determining what to buy because you don’t want to hitch your wagon to a sinking ship.

One answer I heard (and said) a lot in the Bay Area was “We are backed by a respected venture capital firm.” All that means is the VC is probably going to stay in business, and the investors in the VC will be around because they’re billionaires and pension funds. But for the startup, it simply means they’re going to spend lots of money trying to be a big success, and if that doesn’t work, they’ll go out of business.

I think the best answer you’re likely to hear is:
1) We’ve been around a long time
2) We have lots of customers
3) We’re profitable

That’s the answer I would give if someone asked about Moraware.

After seeing the carnage of two bubbles bursting over the past 10 years, I think there’s a fourth aspect that is important:
4) We have the flexibility to adapt to a changing market

Unfortunately you probably won’t find out about that one until it’s too late.

A common problem we’ve recently seen in the countertop fabrication business is companies who borrowed heavily to expand their production capacity. The new buildings and machinery costs millions, but when demand dropped, their high fixed costs put them out of business. We saw other companies outsource their extra capacity needs, and when demand dropped, they could adjust and survive.

Another area of flexibility we have seen is having a diverse set of customers. For the construction industry, companies serving residential and commercial, for new construction and remodeling have certainly fared better than those exclusively doing new residential construction.

As a company that survived this downturn, I’ve heard prospects at trade shows say this gives us more credibility in their eyes. I’m sure we would have done better in the past few years if our customers were less concentrated in the construction industry. So hopefully Skedsheet will allow us to diversify our customers a bit more, providing us even more flexibility as the market changes.

I saw a funny YouTube ad for a software company running a special, and after I got over the laughing, it made me think about the fact that we haven’t done any sort of special deals, tradeshow specials, or negotiate on our pricing… for a really long time.

Our first two customers got smoking hot deals on our software – because we needed real customers and testimonials, it was worth nearly giving away our software to make sure we had something that could become a product. 

After that, we did a tradeshow special at the first show we attended, where we offered a generous discount (something like 25%, if I remember right) if people bought at the show or shortly after.  It was good to give folks an extra incentive to take a chance on a nearly unproven company and scheduling solution.

But, after that, we stopped doing the specials and deals.  Why?  There was a cost to doing discounts.

1. We want our company to be an open book.  Discounts and deals lead to a sense that you’ve got an adversarial and sometimes underhanded relationship with your customers.  Just go buy a car sometime.
2. Our customers are happiest when they buy software on their timeframe.  If we try to hustle people into buying before they’re ready, they end up with shelfware – software that just sits on the shelf.
3. I’m not a good negotiator.  I’m generally a pushover. If I think too hard about people’s reasons for wanting a bargain, I’d probably end up giving away our software.
4. Eventually, word gets out that you’re creating a false sense of urgency.  We’ve seen companies who offer discounts on a limited-time basis, but it seems that they’ve got to keep doing the specials at every opportunity.  At some point, they’re constantly having a “50% off sale”.

There are legitimate reasons to give discounts early on – if you’re just starting, or trying to prove your concept, your first few customers are most likely going to be beta testers.  But we’re really glad we weaned ourselves from the discount addiction as soon as possible.  We could have probably made more money in the short term, but long term I’m sure it would have hurt us.

A customer came up to our booth at StonExpo and said “You’ve taken away a whole lot of chaos from our business.” Now, this wasn’t some poorly run shop, where we came in and fixed everything. They were already one of the largest and most respected fabricators in their region. Yet this guy was cheering the fact that their chaos has decreased as a result of using our software.

That got me thinking about how much chaos is actually costing us as business owners.  But how do you measure chaos?

We have chaos in many forms: customers, vendors, markets, employees… but I think the root cause of most of this chaos is uncertainty.  And the place where we have the most direct control over chaos is with our employees.

It’s the uncertainty about exactly what any person should be doing at any given moment. I’m not talking about dictating a schedule like “9:10-9:12am – bathroom break.” What I mean is this: Does every employee know exactly what they should be doing? Do they all the information they need to do that right now? 

As managers and business owners, we do a pretty good job of making sure every employee knows what they are supposed to do. If that is not the case in your business, stop reading and go fix that right now!

But the second part of the question is the cause of much of the chaos in businesses we’ve seen.  Employees may know what they need to do, but don’t have the tools. Often the information they need to do their job is incomplete, difficult to access, or ambiguous.

As  a result, you need superstar employees, you waste lots of time, and make avoidable mistakes:

If you’ve got a business with all three of those, there’s chaos.

Without access to information, you get a huge waste of time – unproductive, unhappy employees who miss deadlines or can’t deliver on promises.  And you have mistakes that lead to upset customers, higher costs of doing business, and in the end mistakes end up costing lots of time, too. 

Typically, the solution is to hire superstar employees, who can go the extra mile necessary.  But superstars are expensive, hard to find and replace, and if they get burnt out or go on vacation, you’re in big trouble.

Any one of these is a measure of chaos… but what’s the solution?  For us, it always comes back to having a system in place where any employee can get the information they need when they need it, how they need it.

When we first started talking about skedsheet, we thought we’d make something that could integrate with JobTracker… but, as we kept trying to simplify the concept, it seemed better to start from scratch.   Since it’s been a while, I wanted to review the “why and how” behind skedsheet for myself.

If we make skedsheet really easy and really cheap (or maybe free, in some limited cases), there seems to be a big opportunity, even within our existing markets.  The biggest obstacle to our existing business is the sales and support cost of “implementation”.  If we can get over that hump, we can blow away any competition and actually have a whole new way to approach the business.

Maybe it’s just a dream, but we’d much rather be in the business of selling inexpensive software to lots of people rather than relatively expensive software to fewer customers.  The progress on skedsheet has been slow, because it’s hard to take resources away from JobTracker, which is what pays the bills.  But, we’re trying to get far enough along to have a “proof of concept”.

The idea of a prototype like this is to figure out:

1. Can we make it self-explanatory?  Without being dead simple, this is just a different approach to what we already do.  This is probably the number one thing problem that we need to solve to have a product with little or no sales and support cost.
2. Can we make something valuable?  If there’s no value, nobody will give us any money for the chance to use our software.  I think there’s value, but until we run it by a few potential customers, we won’t know for sure.
3. Can we do it and make any money?  There’s always the chance that we can make something that people will pay for, but the development costs will be too high to recoup.  Is it worth spending 10’s or 100’s of thousands of dollars on an experiment?

So, getting to a prototype is a big step… but we’re not there, yet.

We’ve been busy on the JobTracker side of things – new release, new pricing, and trying to do a better job of keeping in touch with existing customers.  The long and short of is that it’s tough to balance two development projects – especially one that brings home the bacon, and another that is a complete unknown.

As part of trying to keep in touch with customers, we’ve been working on our voicemail skills.  I get quite a few voicemails, and I’ve gotten the whole gamut of long, rambling, incomprehensible voicemails from people who haven’t identified themselves, mumbling phone numbers that I should call for unknown reasons.  Here are 5 tips to avoid that.

1. Keep it short.  At best, you have 30 seconds to get your point across if you’re selling something.  In order to jam something useful into that short timeframe, I have to prepare by scripting out what I’m going to say.  Then, if you listen to the message you plan on leaving, you’ll find out if it’s possible to do it clearly within a short time frame.
2. Say your full name, company, and phone number…twice.  Not everyone enunciates clearly, sometimes you talk too fast, and you might even have an accent that’s difficult for someone else to understand.  If you give your name, company, and number once at the beginning and again at the end of a voicemail, there’s a much better chance that the listener will understand.
3. Cut out pleasantries.  Using phrases like “I just called…” only take time away from your valuable message. (well, unless “I just called” is followed by “to say I love you”).  In regular conversation, expressions like “hope you’re doing well” and “It was great meeting you” are nice, but they just extend the already painful experience of listening to a message.
4. Be enthusiastic.  Sounding even slightly hesitant or preoccupied in a voicemail is even worse than in a regular phone conversation.  If you sound confused, you immediately lose credibility, and chances are that your voicemail will get deleted before you’ve had a chance to say anything useful.
5. Don’t sell.  In the 30 seconds you have to get your point across, everything you say should have value to the person you’re leaving a message for.  They don’t care about my software, but they may care about solving their scheduling problems.

Example:  Hi Bob, This is Harry Hollander from Skedsheet at 650-242-4272.  When we met in line at the DMV last week, you sounded interested in getting rid of the spreadsheet and whiteboard you’re using to schedule your trucks now.  Please call me to discuss how we can help.  Again, my number is 650-242-4272.