Detailed Notes
The Building Better Developers podcast is back with its 24th season. This time, hosts Rob Broadhead and Michael Meloche tackle the essential topic of Building Better Businesses. Whether you're a software developer turning a side hustle into a business or an entrepreneur refining operations, this season offers valuable insights. Expect practical strategies and real-world experiences to help you grow.
Read more: https://develpreneur.com/building-better-businesses-introduction-to-season-24/
*Stay Connected: Join the Develpreneur Community*
We invite you to join our community and share your coding journey with us. Whether you’re a seasoned developer or just starting, there’s always room to learn and grow together. Contact us at [email protected] with your questions, feedback, or suggestions for future episodes. Together, let’s continue exploring the exciting world of software development.
*Additional Resources*
* Launching an Internet Business (https://develpreneur.com/launch/) * Increase Your Value Through Business Knowledge (https://develpreneur.com/increase-your-value-through-business-knowledge/) * 3 Ways To Start Your Business (https://develpreneur.com/3-ways-to-start-your-business/) * Launch Your Business – Turn the Revenue Machine On (https://develpreneur.com/launch-your-business/)
*Follow-us on:*
* https://develpreneur.com/ * https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZOuFN_LhczvGyT2KSItH_g/featured * https://facebook.com/Develpreneur * https://twitter.com/develpreneur * http://linkedin.com/develpreneur
Transcript Text
[Music] all right we have hit recorder I moving my Cafe gam so it is in front of me we start a new season uh let's see season 24 I think right Yep this is season or 25 I think this is 24 yep 24 so about that one and we're looking at 800 episode 843 yeah been cranking through these so let's see so I think we'll just start with I had a great idea of something I wanted to talk about which was um do we decide on the theme I think I wanted to do so I think we'll do the first one just do an overview I think the first topic one of the things to do would be um essentially accounting um and sort of just get into the value of keeping track of stuff uh because it's easy for us to get off track but using tools and stuff like that so we can figure out like so our business has I don't know a budget and you know we keep track of where money is going and stuff like that particularly at side hustles that's I think I've known too many people gotten bit by that so I think starting with that um we'll do good we can do a lot of like little things like that sort of like one not I mean the pseudo oneoff topics but basically like somewhat similar to what we did not quite habits but um almost a basically a season of building Better Business of like here's some of the things you need to be doing and some of the things that you should maybe you don't normally think about uh but that you you pick up things like we'll talk about like you know elevator es and uh even the you know Classics of like just reviewing your all your socials and things like that okay and you mentioned uh possibly doing interviews this season so what was your ideas around that um we'll see we'll just sort of take them as we get them um if you want to do it then I think like part of it is like right now it's very difficult just schedule wise I think for us to find a way to get interviews built in um so that would probably come on probably after the first probably into the second third second or third third of the season because I think this first little bit we're just going to be too busy we got too much going on there's too this it's hard enough to schedule even this much less schedule it with yet another person's schedule and trying to get all that to work unless we do like evening scheduling and stuff like that we could probably pull that off but um also I need to you know it's going to take a little bit to spin that back up and and find some good uh interview people although I guess you got like one that we could pick up you know sooner rather than May later maybe is talk about your one of your co-starter people there yeah uh Randa with the macaron Place uh she just wanted another Grant and a couple other things so I thought she would be a good one to talk to with kind of like how to go out and find funding and build the business that would be I think that's a you know an excellent topic and an excellent thing to do so we can figure out of time with her so what's her availability and we'll try to figure something out and get that one somewhere along the way because it's easier for us um since we're going to mix them in it's going to be easier for us to get them done and then we'll just sort of figure out when that's going to it'll almost be like we'll work ahead that time so we'll just you know be able to get because we'll we'll probably still do like a you know as we've done in the past we'll do sort of like a before and an after for the two episodes because it'll most likely I'm guessing be a two episoder and then you know edit them put in the can and we're we're off and running okay I'll reach out to her and figure out her availability I think she's got um probably more availability in the evenings um granted she can probably do some recordings too like earlier in the day or something while she's baking uh cuz she does have time after she preps everything and it's all in the ovens that's true evening well that works out best because I think evenings are more likely for us to to find a spot all right well let's kick this season off with a little three two well hello and welcome back we are in a new season it feels like I've said that like I don't know 23 times before something like that because this is season if I'm counting properly season 24 and we are going to go sort of continuing our building better series of series of Seasons uh we're going to do about really sort of look at building better businesses this time around uh before I get too far into it introduce myself my name is Rob Brad I am one of the founders of developing or building better developers also a founder of RB Consulting we help you there uh with RB Consulting we help you Wrangle your technology we we look out there the technology sprawl that you have the technology sprawl that you could have because there's so many opportunities so many options out there we help you we understand you know work with you to understand your business and basically build that custom recipe for the the best dish that we can with you your company your goals technology for not only today but also setting up for the future so you don't have to you know every six months or every year throw your hands up in the air go okay what's my technology road map going to be this time around we do that through integration simplification Automation and Innovation even we will create custom stuff or there's a lot of things out there that we can probably get stuff you know as they say off the shelf and get you going very quickly good things bad things I'll go with it's another one of those it's actually it's a good thing and a bad thing in and of itself is uh work in the last little bit for me has been very busy it's been one of these things where it's like we're sorry we're into a new year there's a lot of projects going on and that's really cool but part of the challenge is also that you get pulled in many different ways you'll start you know you do 15 minutes with this project and then you get pulled over to 30 minutes this other and then this other and you at the end of the day and it is uh that's the bad thing I guess the good and the bad is you're exhausted you know you did a lot but it's really hard to remember exactly what you did because you did so many things cuz you're keeping everything moving forward but you probably didn't actually finish anything however I finished this introduction so that's the one I can check off and then I can pass it over to Michael to introduce himself hey everyone my name is Michael M I'm one of the co-founders a developer ER building better developers and as Rob said this season we're doing uh building better businesses uh I'm also the founder of Envision QA where we help small midsize businesses coition uh essentially small businesses with their software a lot of companies I talk to company owners and businesses a lot of them complain or have issues around their processes where their software doesn't really meet their demand they have to kind of work around the software to get things done and that's where we come in we work with you we do assessments of your current processes your current software and we help you understand what it is that you have what it is that you need and we will either help you find the right software or build something custom for you good and bad so good news it's warmed up um starting to feel better it's nice again outside although we're about to get cold again which is kind of the bad news so we're kind of in that low of the seasons where it's like uh starting to feel better but then you know you take the risk of getting sick again because going to go through that hot cold hot cold period um and also kind of to emulate what Rob said you know same kind of situation uh things are very busy right now a lot of things going on make it to the end of the day there is a lot that was done in the day and you're right you know we typically it's hard to figure out what it is you actually got done but a lot of stuff was done but it's just we keep moving things forward we're just not done done yet so it's like one of those where it's like come on why get there but you know slow and steady wins the race so that's my good and bad we're going to kick this season off as we usually do with u essentially an overview so like where are we going with this what is it that we plan on getting done in this season and in building better businesses I think what we're going to we're going to do it in a little bit like a fashion that we've done the last couple Seasons instead of uh although we have done the developer Journey instead of like trying to walk you all the way through a business as we did uh you can go see that a few seasons back we actually sort of walked our way through uh starting up a business and some of the challenges you're going to meet at any given time this one's going to be a little more uh sort of like a you know drop in sort of helicopter options or kind of thing like a drop in we're going to talk about a topic and then we'll move on uh we will likely because we haven't done that in a while and we've got some people that are sort of out in the in the wings we'll probably end up adding a couple of interviews back in much as we did in the past it'll probably be two parters maybe three parters depending on how long winded we get but really what we want to do is part of this is going to be looking at how we can leverage who we are and this is not just us as you know developing Ur with our background but it very much is going to be I think you're going to find that there's going to be ways that you can relate with your background and what you're working with and in that uh the little bit is leaning towards the preneur part of the develop preneur but it's also looking at what we do because we are most likely interacting with different types of business even if it's just your you think about like if you've got a day job and a side hustle your day job for quite possibly could be with like a a Fortune 500 or Fortune 50 company and then your side hustle is you know maybe a solo preneur kind of or you know maybe you're one or two employees or something like that is most likely going to be a small business now maybe your your day job is a small business you work for a bakery but your main side hustle is you own IBM or something like that but that's not often the way it goes it usually doesn't flip that way but what we get out of that is we get to experience one wearing a lot of different hats if we are starting up a business somewhere along the way although some of those hats may not fit us very well we are going to be doing things like we're going to be doing accounting and marketing and sales and business planning and you know all operations kinds of things all that stuff that we get like hands-on experience albe it in a small sense but at least we have experience with it it's like it's our own MBA program in a sense it's going to be very valuable to others because there may be somebody that you're dealing with that's a company owner or something like that but maybe hasn't gone through all of that there may be pieces that they haven't been exposed to that doesn't mean we have to be an expert in each of these it just is something that we can now say hey we've had some some experience and here's maybe where we went for help so maybe that'll help you out we can you know work as a consultant in a sense with our customers along with being you know if we have that developer or that developer specifically kind of bent that we can also be solving problems with them so it allows us to you know we have a a quiver with more arrows there are more problems that we although maybe not personally are to solve directly but we can help them solve it through you know recommendations and things of that nature there's also a a value in seeing that range of uh we'll call problems the problems that you see with a small business versus a medium middle size versus some you know gigantic Behemoth of a business there's going to be commonality across those and sometimes you're going to find stuff most specifically where I think the biggest value is where there's big business things that you can actually apply to a small business and really help them plan for the future and really help them stabilize however there are some things that there's there are valuable things that small businesses do that get lost once you become a big business and I think sort of reminding people where they came from in a sense and pointing back to those small business T tactics can help you as a large business as well so what I'm I'm hoping that we get out of this season and part of this plan is not only for us to have some ways some action items for us to improve our business but also ways for us to help our customers improve theirs as well so I'm going to toss this to Mike and we'll get your thoughts on this as we step into this new season yeah so this season you know we're going to be talking about building better businesses but it's not just about the business it's also about you you know your you the business own because as people we have a lot of busy things in our lives and as Rob said you know you could have a day job and a side hustle and you have a lot of things going on you we have to juggle a lot of things and juggling things in the right way really can enable us as business owners to really Thrive to kind of build the business drive it but being busy or being distracted can also detract from our business we can also go off the rails kind of lose focus on what we're doing we can flounder and the business could essentially wither and die so one of the key things I kind of hope that we can bring to you our viewers this season and our listeners is how can you stay focused on your business how can you make your business grow how you can make it Thrive and how you can kind of grow into those other areas that you may be looking to but either have not had the time to focus or really the understanding of where can I take this what can I do with this and that's kind of My Hope for this season like Rob said we're going to kind of drop in different topics but the overall theme for me for this season is what can we do as developers as business owners to grow our business and take it from that side hustle to take it from that idea and really get it to something where maybe one day you can quit your side your day job or this is your day job and you can really stick to it and it you know it thrives it succeeds and you can start hiring people or if you don't need to spend that way you can spend out you know uh horizontally and add you know more silos to your business and grow it that way but these are just ideas and things that we'll talk about throughout this season yeah I think the that's an important part is that it is and we'll talk about this as well some of the ways to do this because there are unique challenges I think when we're doing the side hustles and thing that we have and part of it is sort of that uh stick tutiven that is the do it and then continue to do it it's we talk all the time about like that continuous Improvement and and progress and even if it's you know baby step every day at least it's a baby step forward every day or if it's a baby step sideway it's at least we're moving and we're we're addressing our you know our overall goals because it is it's very easy to get distracted by your day job just like in a job in general it's very easy to get distracted by that big customer or that big project and you lose sight of developing your business itself you tend to too too much working in your business instead of on your business you know you're you're like I gotta punch the clock and put eight hours of work in and then you're in it a day and you haven't actually yes your business is you know generated income but it is not positioning itself for that next customer for that next product and that's one of the things that is I think always is going to be a challenge for any business is figuring out when do you do how do you balance that stuff out you see this even with big huge private company or public companies where they're trying to figure out you know do we put a lot of money into improving our employees or do we put aart a lot of money into sales and marketing and you it's it's finding that that balance and it's very I think that's a one of the things that we bring to the table is that is much more real to us I think because we're not you know steering 10,000 people and everything sort of you know spread across them it's like it's us and so if we spend more time on one thing than another we're going to feel it we're going to know that like I'm not doing this as much as I used to or there's this thing people talk about in a business and I've never actually done that so I should probably think about it and some of those are the things that we're going to talk about here is like making sure that we we touch all the bases often enough and that we and some of these are going to be those episodes that remind us as hey by the way this is something you need to do periodically as well also the things and also some of the things that you know that brings to mind is it's not always the you know best practice of things to do some of the things we will also touch on this season are the personal challenges that you'll into well trying to build your business while you run your business because not just getting bogged down with your customer or your business but personally you know we take on a lot of stress as business owners because we want our business to succeed and there are times where you're going to get into those dark areas or you're going to get bogged down and it's like I don't know if I can do this and we'll give you ideas and suggestions to kind of keep things moving keep things positive and kind of get you over those humps that you run into cuz running a business and getting it started is a lot of highs and lows and you're going to hit a lot of lows at the beginning like it's going to be like great this is great and then it's like wait I have no customers and then you're going to go why and and you get into those what ifs games so it's not all about being essentially building better businesses but it's also building ourselves up and positioning ourselves for a Better Business yeah and I think that's part that's a great point because I think there is a it's sort of glamorized being an entrepreneur or or a small business owner that is like oh that's so cool you get to Be Your Own Boss and things like that but you know there's other there's all these other things that I don't think people understand as much because it's like when you you know when you do when you run a payroll you're the last one the owners the last one to get paid and it can be very difficult when you're sitting there and you're running a payroll and the the company's you know sort of chugging along but you're not yet you know you're like you're still investing too much in it and that is always U you know it's it's very painful to like write to check to everybody else but not yourself even though you've been probably busting your hump more than anybody else in the company because you're you know it's it is your life it's not just a nine-to-five kind of business and that's you know one of the things we're going to talk about is how do we how do we find those limits and some of this we're going to talk about it because we haven't found it quite yet because there's those lines get blurred all the time we cross the lines and the next thing you know you've spent you know 48 hours straight focused just on your business and there's a whole other life out there that you've you know you've forgotten about because you've been too busy because you've been focused you've been too focused is actually it uh and then some of it's going to be you we have to talk about like how do we maintain productivity across all of this it's not easy this is not something that you know while people are like oh that's so cool you get to do this you get to do that it's like Well yeah if you you know if you're Elon Musk or somebody and you've managed to sell a business a couple times or you get you know billions of dollars and yeah sort of life becomes easier but even then you just got got more stuff you've got to manage so as we grow business it's not like you go into startup mode and then 6 months later you get a customer and now you're like cool I'm on Easy Street no because now immediately you've invested what you need for that customer you have to keep that customer happy and now you're also still looking for another customer and when you win that one you have two customers to keep happy and now you're looking for another customer and it can be daunting but there is there's help out there there is ways for us to find our way through it and that's part of it is just sort of like go through with a camaraderie kind of feel with this to say hey this is not something that is unique to you it's not like you you know you screwed it up and you're running your business wrong it's like that's just part of running a business thoughts yeah and we try to keep it real you know we try to keep it personally what we've gone through you know a lot of the stuff we talk about we've been in the trenches we're still in the trenches I mean we run businesses it never stops I mean if you are a business owner you are almost 24/7 in your head about your business at some level you may not be like physically working on the business but you may be thinking oh I got to remember payroll oh I need to talk to this customer these are things we are going to be talking about a lot this season and that we're going to bring the discussion closer to home you know back to not necessarily the glorified hey you're running a business to hey this is what you can expect from running the business how to succeed and some issues you're going to run into you know we constantly challenge ourselves you know if you are an entrepreneur you're challenging the status quot you're like hey I can do it better or oh I have an idea that people need to you know pay for it sign up for it you know sell this and and given that a lot of our sector you know we constantly talk about building better developers so talking software software is more of an intellectual product where we can build things and we actually sometimes have things we can show like if you're building a website or mobile app but if you're doing backend work no one sees it they just know something works you know numbers go in numbers come out hey great but they don't see the product so sometimes what we do is not seen so it's hard to sell what it is that we're doing the other thing is if you're doing physical products even if you're like doing t-shirts or you know or baking whatever it is you're doing if you have a physical product you still have to meet the demands of the customer because they're Ever Changing in our current Society I mean you have a t-shirt that's hot today but it could be out tomorrow it's like I mean just look at Marvel it's like Marvel was great during the first Avengers series now it's like floundering and things go in cycles and that is another area that we will kind of work into our discussions with you because Cycles are a part of business it's not just hey I have an idea I have a schedule we're going to prank out some software and we're going to sell it to the masses it doesn't always work like that yeah I think there's a couple key like word associations there one is cycle is it like cycle like if you think you're on a bik like it's it doesn't end it's like you keep going through it and then you get through a loop and then it's like now we cycle again also it's running a business it's not walking a business or leisurely strolling a business you run a business and trust me once you get into it especially you know it's it almost teases you when you first start off with a side hustle because you get to do a lot of the things that you're like oh wow I really get to stretch the you know who I am all the stuff that I my boss didn't let me do or my business didn't let me do now I get to do this and bless you if not but for the most part that shine wears off at some point because then you're like gez I got to do this again I got to do this again I got to like you because you will realize I think that there are things that you are built for you're better suited towards that you have certain skills and joys and things like that that that's really where you want to be and there's all those other things that don't have that but you still have to do it that's the whole like eating the Frog and all those other things that we talk about is making sure that even the crap that we don't want to do gets done because sometimes that is mandatory crap it's just like one of those things things that you've got to do sooner or later and so you might as well get it done get it out of the way and go back to the fun stuff hopefully this gives you an idea of where we go if not you can listen for the whole season and you will understand by the end of that where we have gone hopefully now it could be that we've gone in so many different ways that you don't even know where we were going or even where we started so quick question before we kind of wrap this one up uh what type of challenge I know this is kind of the introductory episode the season but I still want to challenge our listeners a little bit to get them in the mindset for this season I'm thinking for our introductory challenge if you're running a business think about some of the things that you're struggling with what are the things in your business that you need help with for those of you that don't have a business but have an idea of something that you want to do write that down and if you guys have time shoot it to us on all of our social media Outlets to give us an idea of what it is that you're struggling with what are some of the things you're looking for and we can talk about those this season yeah I think if you can just put down like your top three struggles that will help and then honestly even if you try to put together a business plan it usually will highlight when you're trying to do that business plan it will highlight some struggles it may be things like I have no idea how to value my product or my time or it may be things like I have no idea how to go from concept to actually working on building a product or building a team or marketing it or selling it or telling other people whatever it is there's a lot of problems and challenges out there that you will find just in trying to think about your business so don't like think oh I'm off the hook because I don't have a business right now you probably you're here because you've got some something in your head that's a business someday you would like to do or you've got gripes where the boss has said I need you to do this this and this and you're like I would do it that way i' do it the other way put those down there you go here's the things that I would love to do but I can't do because my job my boss you know whatever it is the man keeps me from doing it the man will not keep you from sending us an email though just as Michael alluded to go ahead and let us know send us an email at info developer.com you can go there's contact us for you can leave us feedback whether it's on develop andur whether it's out on YouTube and the developing her Channel whether it's the building better developers podcast wherever you get podcasts any of those places we would love to get feedback from you hear your thoughts about the challenge and what you'd like to hear from us as we step into the season ahead and if you would like to be interviewed or you know someone that would like to be definitely reach out to us because we more than happy to talk to you and see where that will fit in with the wide range of topics we're going to cover this season that being said go out there and have yourself a great day a great week and we will talk to you next time all right bonus material so since this is kind of the introductory episode for the season I I'll throw out this if you're looking for an idea to start your business or you have an idea but you're not sure where to begin you threw out a business plan go Google some researches there's a lot of them out there through like the small Better Business bureaus small business bureaus to give you kind of little worksheets and Tool tips to just kind of walk through putting together a business plan or ideas on how to kind of outline what it is that your business might do now is the time at the start of this season to kind of go through and do that exercise because it will kind of get you in the mindset as we talk about these ideas on how hey how can I take this idea and get this business going or uh I've got this business I'm struggling or maybe I want to expand the business and this will just kind of get your mindo so as we talk about these topics you might go ah there we go now I can run with that and and maybe get past my current struggle in my business yeah I would just follow up on that is there are a lot of free resources out there for small businesses for getting a small business started for templates and things like that uh definitely take a look at though there are a lot of also there's companies out there that will help you for a price and so I would just you know be cautious for the help you for a price because there may be a lot of that stuff that you can do that you could do for free as good as you're going to be able to do it for what you pay for particularly because you you know likely have some techn technical skills so there's a lot of times there going to be things we'll throw in they'll have like we'll give you a website and we'll help you set that it's like no you you know how to do all of that kind of stuff and if not shoot us an email and we can point you to places out on our site that will walk you through it uh we're also happy to give you feedback on your ideas or point you in you know more specifics of where you know you can find some information to help get your business started and and how to get that going and how to grow it and who knows it may be one of those things that we can even bring you on as a guest at some point and talk through that with you and sort of do like a you know a working session kind of interview so there's some bonuses for those of you that are actually here in the YouTube world as opposed to just the pure audio of podcast all right so that's going to wrap this one up we are ready to dive into this next season so go have yourself a good one and we will talk to you as we get into episode two of season 24 have a good one all right [Music]
Transcript Segments
[Music]
all right we have hit recorder I moving
my Cafe gam so it is in front of
me we start a new season uh let's see
season 24 I think right Yep this is
season or
25 I think this is
24 yep
24
so about that one and
we're looking
at 800 episode
843 yeah been cranking through these so
let's see so I think we'll just start
with I had a great idea of something I
wanted to talk about which
was
um do we decide on the
theme I think I wanted to do so I think
we'll do the first one just do an
overview I think the first topic one of
the things to do would be um essentially
accounting
um and sort of just get into the value
of keeping track of stuff uh because
it's easy for us to get off track but
using tools and stuff like that so we
can figure out like so our business has
I don't know a budget and you know we
keep track of where money is going and
stuff like that particularly at side
hustles
that's I think I've known too many
people gotten bit by that so I think
starting with
that um we'll do
good we can do a lot of like little
things like that sort of like one not I
mean the pseudo oneoff topics but
basically like somewhat similar to what
we did not quite habits but um almost a
basically a season of building Better
Business of like here's some of the
things you need to be doing and some of
the things that you should maybe you
don't normally think about uh but that
you you pick up things like we'll talk
about like you know elevator es and uh
even the you know Classics of like just
reviewing your all your socials and
things like that okay and you mentioned
uh possibly doing interviews this season
so what was your ideas around that um
we'll see we'll just sort of take them
as we get
them um if you want to do it then I
think like part of it is like right now
it's very difficult just schedule wise I
think for us to find a way to get
interviews built in um so that would
probably come
on probably after the first probably
into the second third second or third
third of the season because I think this
first little bit we're just going to be
too busy we got too much going on
there's too this it's hard enough to
schedule even this much less schedule it
with yet another person's schedule and
trying to get all that to work unless we
do like evening scheduling and stuff
like that we could probably pull that
off but um also I need to you know it's
going to take a little bit to spin that
back up and and find some good uh
interview people although I guess you
got like one that we could pick up you
know sooner rather than May later maybe
is talk about your one of your
co-starter people there yeah uh Randa
with the macaron Place uh she just
wanted another Grant and a couple other
things so I thought she would be a good
one to talk to with kind of like how to
go out and find funding and build the
business that would be I think that's a
you know an excellent topic and an
excellent thing to do so we can figure
out of time with her so what's her
availability and we'll try to figure
something out and get that one somewhere
along the way because it's easier for
us um since we're going to mix them in
it's going to be easier for us to get
them done and then we'll just sort of
figure out when that's going to it'll
almost be like we'll work ahead that
time so we'll just you know be able to
get because we'll we'll probably still
do like a you know as we've done in the
past we'll do sort of like a before and
an after for the two episodes because
it'll most likely I'm guessing be a two
episoder and then you know edit them put
in the can and we're we're off and
running okay I'll reach out to her and
figure out her availability I think
she's got
um probably more availability in the
evenings um granted she can probably do
some recordings too like earlier in the
day or something while she's baking uh
cuz she does have time after she preps
everything and it's all in the
ovens that's true evening well that
works out best because I think evenings
are more likely for us to to find a
spot all right well let's kick this
season off with a little three two
well hello and welcome back we are in a
new season it feels like I've said that
like I don't know 23 times before
something like that because this is
season if I'm counting properly season
24 and we are going to go sort of
continuing our building better series of
series of Seasons uh we're going to do
about really sort of look at building
better businesses this time around uh
before I get too far into it introduce
myself my name is Rob Brad I am one of
the founders of developing or building
better developers also a founder of RB
Consulting we help you there uh with RB
Consulting we help you Wrangle your
technology we we look out there the
technology sprawl that you have the
technology sprawl that you could have
because there's so many opportunities so
many options out there we help you we
understand you know work with you to
understand your business and basically
build that custom recipe for the the
best dish that we can with you your
company your goals technology for not
only today but also setting up for the
future so you don't have to you know
every six months or every year throw
your hands up in the air go okay what's
my technology road map going to be this
time around we do that through
integration simplification Automation
and Innovation even we will create
custom stuff or there's a lot of things
out there that we can probably get stuff
you know as they say off the shelf and
get you going very quickly good things
bad
things I'll go with it's another one of
those it's actually it's a good thing
and a bad thing in and of itself is uh
work in the last little bit for me has
been very busy it's been one of these
things where it's like we're sorry we're
into a new year there's a lot of
projects going on and that's really cool
but part of the challenge is also that
you get pulled in many different ways
you'll start you know you do 15 minutes
with this project and then you get
pulled over to 30 minutes this other and
then this other and you at the end of
the day
and it is uh that's the bad thing I
guess the good and the bad is you're
exhausted you know you did a lot but
it's really hard to remember exactly
what you did because you did so many
things cuz you're keeping everything
moving forward but you probably didn't
actually finish
anything however I finished this
introduction so that's the one I can
check off and then I can pass it over to
Michael to introduce himself hey
everyone my name is Michael M I'm one of
the co-founders a developer ER building
better developers and as Rob said this
season we're doing uh building better
businesses
uh I'm also the founder of Envision QA
where we help small midsize businesses
coition uh essentially small
businesses with their software a lot of
companies I talk to company owners and
businesses a lot of them complain or
have issues around their processes where
their software doesn't really meet their
demand they have to kind of work around
the software to get things done and
that's where we come in we work with you
we do assessments of your current
processes your current software and we
help you understand what it is that you
have what it is that you need and we
will either help you find the right
software or build something custom for
you good and bad so good news it's
warmed up um starting to feel better
it's nice again outside although we're
about to get cold again which is kind of
the bad news so we're kind of in that
low of the seasons where it's like uh
starting to feel better but then you
know you take the risk of getting sick
again because going to go through that
hot cold hot cold period um and also
kind of
to emulate what Rob said you know same
kind of situation uh things are very
busy right now a lot of things going
on make it to the end of the day there
is a lot that was done in the day and
you're right you know we typically it's
hard to figure out what it is you
actually got done but a lot of stuff was
done but it's just we keep moving things
forward we're just not done done yet so
it's like one of those where it's like
come on why get there but you know slow
and steady wins the race so that's my
good and
bad we're going to kick this season off
as we usually do with u essentially an
overview so like where are we going with
this what is it that we plan on getting
done in this season and in building
better businesses I think what we're
going to we're going to do it in a
little bit like a fashion that we've
done the last couple Seasons instead of
uh although we have done the developer
Journey instead of like trying to walk
you all the way through a business as we
did uh you can go see that a few seasons
back we actually sort of walked our way
through uh starting up a business and
some of the challenges you're going to
meet at any given time this one's going
to be a little more uh sort of like a
you know drop in sort of helicopter
options or kind of thing like a drop in
we're going to talk about a topic and
then we'll move on uh we will likely
because we haven't done that in a while
and we've got some people that are sort
of out in the in the wings we'll
probably end up adding a couple of
interviews back in much as we did in the
past it'll probably be two parters maybe
three parters depending on how long
winded we get but really what we want to
do
is part of this is going to be looking
at how we can leverage who we are and
this is not just us as you know
developing Ur with our background but it
very much is going to be I think you're
going to find that there's going to be
ways that you can relate with your
background and what you're working with
and in that uh the little bit is leaning
towards the preneur part of the develop
preneur but it's also looking at what we
do because we are most likely
interacting with different types of
business even if it's just your you
think about like if you've got a day job
and a side hustle your day job for quite
possibly could be with like a a Fortune
500 or Fortune 50 company and then your
side hustle is you know maybe a solo
preneur kind of or you know maybe you're
one or two employees or something like
that is most likely going to be a small
business now maybe your your day job is
a small business you work for a bakery
but your main side hustle is you own IBM
or something like that but that's not
often the way it goes it usually doesn't
flip that way but what we get out of
that is we get to experience one wearing
a lot of different hats if we are
starting up a business somewhere along
the way although some of those hats may
not fit us very well we are going to be
doing things like we're going to be
doing accounting and marketing and sales
and business planning and you know all
operations kinds of things all that
stuff that we get like hands-on
experience albe it in a small sense but
at least we have experience with it it's
like it's our own MBA program in a sense
it's going to be very valuable to others
because there may be somebody that
you're dealing with that's a company
owner or something like that but maybe
hasn't gone through all of that there
may be pieces that they haven't been
exposed to
that doesn't mean we have to be an
expert in each of these it just is
something that we can now say hey we've
had some some experience and here's
maybe where we went for help so maybe
that'll help you out we can you know
work as a consultant in a sense with our
customers along with being you know if
we have that developer or that developer
specifically kind of bent that we can
also be solving problems with them so it
allows us to you know we have a a quiver
with more arrows there are more problems
that we although maybe not personally
are to solve directly but we can help
them solve it through you know
recommendations and things of that
nature there's
also a a value in seeing that range of
uh we'll call problems the problems that
you see with a small business versus a
medium middle size versus some you know
gigantic Behemoth of a business there's
going to be commonality across those and
sometimes you're going to find stuff
most specifically where I think the
biggest value is where there's big
business things that you can actually
apply to a small business and really
help them plan for the future and really
help them stabilize however there are
some things that there's there are
valuable things that small businesses do
that get lost once you become a big
business and I think sort of reminding
people where they came from in a sense
and pointing back to those small
business T tactics can help you as a
large business as well so what I'm I'm
hoping that we get out of this season
and part of this plan is not only for us
to have some ways some action items for
us to improve our business but also ways
for us to help our customers improve
theirs as well so I'm going to toss this
to Mike and we'll get your thoughts on
this as we step into this new
season yeah so this season you know
we're going to be talking about building
better businesses but it's not just
about the business it's also about you
you know your you the business
own because as people we have a lot of
busy things in our lives and as Rob said
you know you could have a day job and a
side hustle and you have a lot of things
going on you we have to juggle a lot of
things and juggling things in the right
way really can enable us as business
owners
to really Thrive to kind of build the
business drive it but being busy or
being distracted can also detract from
our business we can also go off the
rails kind of lose focus on what we're
doing we can flounder and the business
could essentially wither and die so one
of the key things I kind of hope that we
can bring to you our viewers this season
and our listeners is how can you stay
focused on your business how can you
make your business grow how you can make
it Thrive and how you can kind of grow
into those other areas that you may be
looking to but either have not had the
time to focus or really the
understanding of where can I take this
what can I do with this and that's kind
of My Hope for this season like Rob said
we're going to kind of drop in different
topics but the overall theme for me for
this season is what can we do as
developers as business owners to grow
our business and take it from that side
hustle to take it from that idea and
really get it to something where maybe
one day you can quit your side your day
job or this is your day job and you can
really stick to it and it you know it
thrives it succeeds and you can start
hiring people or if you don't need to
spend that way you can spend out you
know uh horizontally and add you know
more silos to your business and grow it
that way but these are just ideas and
things that we'll talk about throughout
this
season yeah I think the that's an
important part is that it is and we'll
talk about this as well some of the ways
to do this because there are unique
challenges I think when we're doing the
side hustles and thing that we have and
part of it is sort of that uh stick
tutiven that is the do it and then
continue to do it it's we talk all the
time about like that continuous
Improvement and and progress and even if
it's you know baby step every day at
least it's a baby step forward every day
or if it's a baby step sideway it's at
least we're moving and we're we're
addressing our you know our overall
goals because it is it's very easy to
get distracted by your day job just like
in a job in general it's very easy to
get distracted by that big customer or
that big project and you lose sight of
developing your business itself you tend
to too too much working in your business
instead of on your business you know
you're you're like I gotta punch the
clock and put eight hours of work in and
then you're in it a day and you haven't
actually yes your business is you know
generated income but it is not
positioning itself for that next
customer for that next product and
that's one of the things that is I think
always is going to be a challenge for
any business is figuring out when do you
do how do you balance that stuff out you
see this even with big huge private
company or public companies where
they're trying to figure out you know do
we put a lot of money into improving our
employees or do we put aart a lot of
money into sales and marketing and you
it's it's finding that that balance and
it's very I think that's a one of the
things that we bring to the table is
that is much
more real to us I think because we're
not you know steering 10,000 people and
everything sort of you know spread
across them it's like it's us and so if
we spend more time on one thing than
another we're going to feel it we're
going to know that like I'm not doing
this as much as I used to or there's
this thing people talk about in a
business and I've never actually done
that so I should probably think about it
and some of those are the things that
we're going to talk about here is like
making sure that we we touch all the
bases often enough and that we and some
of these are going to be those episodes
that remind us as hey by the way this is
something you need to do periodically as
well also the things and also some of
the things that you know that brings to
mind is it's not always the you know
best practice of things to do some of
the things we will also touch on this
season are the personal challenges that
you'll into well trying to build your
business while you run your business
because not just getting bogged down
with your customer or your business but
personally you know we take on a lot of
stress as business owners because we
want our business to succeed and there
are times where you're going to get into
those dark areas or you're going to get
bogged down and it's like I don't know
if I can do this and we'll give you
ideas and suggestions to kind of keep
things moving keep things positive and
kind of get you over those humps that
you run into cuz running a business and
getting it started is a lot of highs and
lows and you're going to hit a lot of
lows at the beginning like it's going to
be like great this is great and then
it's like wait I have no customers and
then you're going to go why and and you
get into those what ifs games so it's
not all about being essentially building
better businesses but it's also building
ourselves up and positioning ourselves
for a Better Business yeah and I think
that's part that's a great point because
I think there is a it's sort of
glamorized being an entrepreneur or or a
small business owner that is like oh
that's so cool you get to Be Your Own
Boss and things like that but you know
there's other there's all these other
things that I don't think people
understand as much because it's like
when you you know when you do when you
run a payroll you're the last one the
owners the last one to get paid and it
can be very difficult when you're
sitting there and you're running a
payroll and the the company's you know
sort of chugging along but you're not
yet you know you're like you're still
investing too much in it and that is
always U you know it's it's very painful
to like write to check to everybody else
but not yourself even though you've been
probably busting your hump more than
anybody else in the company because
you're you know it's it is your life
it's not just a nine-to-five kind of
business and that's you know one of the
things we're going to talk about is how
do we how do we find those limits and
some of this we're going to talk about
it because we haven't found it quite yet
because there's those lines get blurred
all the time we cross the lines and the
next thing you know you've spent you
know 48 hours straight focused just on
your business and there's a whole other
life out there that you've you know
you've forgotten about because you've
been too busy because you've been
focused you've been too focused is
actually it uh and then some of it's
going to be you we have to talk about
like how do we maintain productivity
across all of this it's not easy this is
not something that you know while people
are like oh that's so cool you get to do
this you get to do that it's like Well
yeah if you you know if you're Elon Musk
or somebody and you've managed to sell a
business a couple times or you get you
know billions of dollars and yeah sort
of life becomes easier but even then you
just got got more stuff you've got to
manage so as we grow business it's not
like you go into startup mode and then 6
months later you get a customer and now
you're like cool I'm on Easy Street no
because now immediately you've invested
what you need for that customer you have
to keep that customer happy and now
you're also still looking for another
customer and when you win that one you
have two customers to keep happy and now
you're looking for another customer and
it can be daunting but there is there's
help out there there is ways for us to
find our way through it and that's part
of it is just sort of like go through
with a camaraderie kind of feel with
this to say hey this is not something
that is unique to you it's not like you
you know you screwed it up and you're
running your business wrong it's like
that's just part of running a business
thoughts yeah and we try to keep it real
you know we try to keep it personally
what we've gone through you know a lot
of the stuff we talk about we've been in
the trenches we're still in the trenches
I mean we run businesses it never stops
I mean if you are a business owner you
are almost 24/7 in your head about your
business at some level you may not be
like physically working on the business
but you may be thinking oh I got to
remember payroll oh I need to talk to
this customer these are things we are
going to be talking about a lot this
season and that we're going to bring the
discussion closer to home you know back
to not necessarily the glorified hey
you're running a business to hey
this is what you can expect from running
the business how to succeed and some
issues you're going to run into you know
we
constantly challenge ourselves you know
if you are an entrepreneur you're
challenging the status quot you're like
hey I can do it better or oh I have an
idea that people need to you know pay
for it sign up for it you know sell this
and and given that a lot of our sector
you know we constantly talk about
building better developers so talking
software software is more of an
intellectual product where we can build
things and we actually sometimes have
things we can show like if you're
building a website or mobile app but if
you're doing backend work no one sees it
they just know something works you know
numbers go in numbers come out hey great
but they don't see the product so
sometimes what we do is not seen so it's
hard to sell what it is that we're doing
the other thing is if you're doing
physical products even if you're like
doing t-shirts or you know
or baking whatever it is you're doing if
you have a physical product you still
have to meet the demands of the customer
because they're Ever Changing in our
current Society I mean you have a
t-shirt that's hot today but it could be
out tomorrow it's like I mean just look
at Marvel it's like Marvel was great
during the first Avengers series now
it's like floundering and things go in
cycles and that is another area that we
will kind of work into our discussions
with you because Cycles are a part of
business it's not just hey I have an
idea I have a schedule we're going to
prank out some software and we're going
to sell it to the masses it doesn't
always work like that yeah I think
there's a couple key like word
associations there one is cycle is it
like cycle like if you think you're on a
bik like it's it doesn't end it's like
you keep going through it and then you
get through a loop and then it's like
now we cycle again also it's running a
business it's not walking a business or
leisurely strolling a business you run a
business and trust me once you get into
it especially you know it's it almost
teases you when you first start off with
a side hustle because you get to do a
lot of the things that you're like oh
wow I really get to stretch the you know
who I am all the stuff that I my boss
didn't let me do or my business didn't
let me do now I get to do this
and bless you if not but for the most
part that shine wears off at some point
because then you're like gez I got to do
this again I got to do this again I got
to like you because you will realize I
think that there are things that you are
built for you're better suited towards
that you have certain skills and joys
and things like that that that's really
where you want to be and there's all
those other things that don't have that
but you still have to do it that's the
whole like eating the Frog and all those
other things that we talk about is
making sure that even the crap that we
don't want to do gets done because
sometimes that is mandatory crap it's
just like one of those things things
that you've got to do sooner or later
and so you might as well get it done get
it out of the way and go back to the fun
stuff hopefully this gives you an idea
of where we go if not you can listen for
the whole season and you will understand
by the end of that where we have gone
hopefully now it could be that we've
gone in so many different ways that you
don't even know where we were going or
even where we started so quick question
before we kind of wrap this one up uh
what type of challenge I know this is
kind of the introductory episode the
season but I still want to challenge our
listeners a little bit to get them in
the mindset for this season I'm thinking
for our introductory challenge if you're
running a business think about some of
the things that you're struggling with
what are the things in your business
that you need help with for those of you
that don't have a business but have an
idea of something that you want to do
write that down and if you guys have
time shoot it to us on all of our social
media Outlets to give us an idea of what
it is that you're struggling with what
are some of the things you're looking
for and we can talk about those this
season yeah I think if you can just put
down like your top three struggles that
will help and then honestly even if you
try to put together a business plan it
usually will highlight when you're
trying to do that business plan it will
highlight some struggles it may be
things like I have no idea how to value
my product or my time or it may be
things like I have no idea how to go
from concept to actually working on
building a product or building a team or
marketing it or selling it or telling
other people whatever it is there's a
lot of problems and challenges out there
that you will find just in trying to
think about your business so don't like
think oh I'm off the hook because I
don't have a business right now you
probably you're here because you've got
some something in your head that's a
business someday you would like to do or
you've got gripes where the boss has
said I need you to do this this and this
and you're like I would do it that way
i' do it the other way put those down
there you go here's the things that I
would love to do but I can't do because
my job my boss you know whatever it is
the man keeps me from doing it the man
will not keep you from sending us an
email though just as Michael alluded to
go ahead and let us know send us an
email at info developer.com you can go
there's contact us for you can leave us
feedback whether it's on develop andur
whether it's out on YouTube and the
developing her Channel whether it's the
building better developers podcast
wherever you get podcasts
any of those places we would love to get
feedback from you hear your thoughts
about the challenge and what you'd like
to hear from us as we step into the
season ahead and if you would like to be
interviewed or you know someone that
would like to be definitely reach out to
us because we more than happy to talk to
you and see where that will fit in with
the wide range of topics we're going to
cover this season that being said go out
there and have yourself a great day a
great week and we will talk to you next
time all right bonus material
so since this is kind of the
introductory episode for the season I
I'll throw out this if you're looking
for an idea to start your business or
you have an idea but you're not sure
where to begin you threw out a business
plan go Google some researches there's a
lot of them out there through like the
small Better Business bureaus small
business bureaus to give you kind of
little worksheets and Tool tips to just
kind of walk through putting together a
business plan or ideas on how to kind of
outline what it is that your business
might do now is the time at the start of
this season to kind of go through and do
that exercise because it will kind of
get you in the mindset as we talk about
these ideas on how hey how can I take
this idea and get this business going or
uh I've got this business I'm struggling
or maybe I want to expand the business
and this will just kind of get your
mindo so as we talk about these topics
you might go ah there we go now I can
run with that and and maybe get past my
current struggle in my business yeah I
would just follow up on that is there
are a lot of free resources out there
for small businesses for getting a small
business started for templates and
things like that uh definitely take a
look at though there are a lot of also
there's companies out there that will
help you for a price and so I would just
you know be cautious for the help you
for a price because there may be a lot
of that stuff that you can do that you
could do for free as good as you're
going to be able to do it for what you
pay for particularly because you you
know likely have some techn technical
skills so there's a lot of times there
going to be things we'll throw in
they'll have like we'll give you a
website and we'll help you set that it's
like no you you know how to do all of
that kind of stuff and if not shoot us
an email and we can point you to places
out on our site that will walk you
through it uh we're also happy to give
you feedback on your ideas or point you
in you know more specifics of where you
know you can find some information to
help get your business started and and
how to get that going and how to grow it
and who knows it may be one of those
things that we can even bring you on as
a guest at some point and talk through
that with you and sort of do like a you
know a working session kind of interview
so there's some bonuses for those of you
that are actually here in the YouTube
world as opposed to just the pure audio
of
podcast all right so that's going to
wrap this one up we are ready to dive
into this next season so go have
yourself a good one and we will talk to
you as we get into episode two of season
24 have a good one
all right
[Music]