If anyone is actually reading this blog, make a comment to let me know...
I want to do something interesting, but I am not sure how, yet.
I want to talk background and current business as well.
Maybe I should start categorizing my posts - that would require me figuring out how to do it.
Lets talk some current business. End of the first quarter and revenue wise we are at about 74% growth over last year. Pretty damn good. Profit wise, not so good. Revenue growth has been great ( as you can see) but profit is pretty dismal right now. At the end of the quarter it stood at $+13K. Well, business ramps up as the year gets going and Jan and Feb are really break Even months. So we are doing well from the standpoint of where are we according to plan. My budget for the year has me at -$11K so from that perspective things are OK. Partly this is due to timing though (my budget has some expenses evenly distributed across the board but in reality they are paid in lump sums).
I am going to add some stuff to this Blog too. I want to keep track of my YTD Profit on here to make it interesting. I will also try to post every day as much as possible.
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Back from the Corp Spy's Visit - Background Part 3
I am back in action from the Corporate SPy's visit.
Its also very busy at the end of the month and the beginning of the next. Lots of measuring and planning going on. End of the quarter too. So we have Quarterly financials to prepare and look at.
We did well, got a B+ on our review. I am not sure how many A's they give out but I am sure it isnt many. This is a growing company and we are at the top of the leaderboard. It isnt because we are slackers!
OK - so back to my history. I start my new job, based in Baltimore, but working for national and international clients - could be anywhere depending on where certain skillsets are needed. First week of this turns out pretty rough. I am working for a client in Bethesda and Gaithersburg - a horrible commute from my home. Good news is that I am partly working at the client's office and partly at my own office so I am often commuting at odd times. It is tough though because the people that had started this project had left halfway through and left sort of a mess.
I end up working about 90 hours my first week. I had no idea it would be like this. I had been told that it would be tough but this is crazy. I ended my first week by having a meeting with my 2 bosses (one a partner in the firm) at 4 AM on saturday morning. The sun was coming up as we were going over a presentation. I was allowed to have the rest of the day off and was back in at 9 AM on Sunday morning to finish it up.
I got another short term gig working in downtown washington for a few weeks. It was also a nightmare because of the people and politics involved. The guy who was in charge of the project would not speak to the person that I was working with so I had to act as the intermediary and have phone conversations with the Boss about the guy with me giving one word answers to questions like "wash that a$$hole doing this today?" and such.
Its also very busy at the end of the month and the beginning of the next. Lots of measuring and planning going on. End of the quarter too. So we have Quarterly financials to prepare and look at.
We did well, got a B+ on our review. I am not sure how many A's they give out but I am sure it isnt many. This is a growing company and we are at the top of the leaderboard. It isnt because we are slackers!
OK - so back to my history. I start my new job, based in Baltimore, but working for national and international clients - could be anywhere depending on where certain skillsets are needed. First week of this turns out pretty rough. I am working for a client in Bethesda and Gaithersburg - a horrible commute from my home. Good news is that I am partly working at the client's office and partly at my own office so I am often commuting at odd times. It is tough though because the people that had started this project had left halfway through and left sort of a mess.
I end up working about 90 hours my first week. I had no idea it would be like this. I had been told that it would be tough but this is crazy. I ended my first week by having a meeting with my 2 bosses (one a partner in the firm) at 4 AM on saturday morning. The sun was coming up as we were going over a presentation. I was allowed to have the rest of the day off and was back in at 9 AM on Sunday morning to finish it up.
I got another short term gig working in downtown washington for a few weeks. It was also a nightmare because of the people and politics involved. The guy who was in charge of the project would not speak to the person that I was working with so I had to act as the intermediary and have phone conversations with the Boss about the guy with me giving one word answers to questions like "wash that a$$hole doing this today?" and such.
Monday, March 27, 2006
Whats happening in my business now?
I am going to interrupt my background series of posts for a minute to fill you in on what is going in my business now.
I feel like I can be more specific in alot of areas if I remain anonymous and that this information will be more beneficial to readers of this blog. What I actually do is not as important in the grand scheme of things, because every business operates using essentially the same resources - and has basically the same issues.
Well its almost the end of the month, and the end of the first quarter. My company has been in business for almost 3 full years. We are budgeted to do about 70% growth over last year. As you can imagine this is a challenge from many aspects. We are slightly behind on our first quarter goal right now but we are hanging in there and moving in the right direction - we actually have a great shot at hitting it.
Another interesting thing is that we currently (today and tomorrow) have someone visiting from our corporate office - the corporate spy- as some of our employees call him. He is doing an inspection of our operation plus helping me plan and get focused on some things. Its usually a pretty valuable exercise. It is part of the franchise agreement that this happens at least once a year and we usually have a more focused 1 day visit with him at least one other time during the year. We run a pretty tight operation so I am not worried about any negative results- we probably have a few minor issues but all in all our team is top notch by design. We have pretty stringent recruiting and hiring practices.
So I am going to be somewhat pre-occupied with that until Wednesday morning.
I feel like I can be more specific in alot of areas if I remain anonymous and that this information will be more beneficial to readers of this blog. What I actually do is not as important in the grand scheme of things, because every business operates using essentially the same resources - and has basically the same issues.
Well its almost the end of the month, and the end of the first quarter. My company has been in business for almost 3 full years. We are budgeted to do about 70% growth over last year. As you can imagine this is a challenge from many aspects. We are slightly behind on our first quarter goal right now but we are hanging in there and moving in the right direction - we actually have a great shot at hitting it.
Another interesting thing is that we currently (today and tomorrow) have someone visiting from our corporate office - the corporate spy- as some of our employees call him. He is doing an inspection of our operation plus helping me plan and get focused on some things. Its usually a pretty valuable exercise. It is part of the franchise agreement that this happens at least once a year and we usually have a more focused 1 day visit with him at least one other time during the year. We run a pretty tight operation so I am not worried about any negative results- we probably have a few minor issues but all in all our team is top notch by design. We have pretty stringent recruiting and hiring practices.
So I am going to be somewhat pre-occupied with that until Wednesday morning.
Friday, March 24, 2006
Background - Part 2
So, here I am, 22 years old, just finished college and a world of possibilities...
Well, I am beginning to realize that my new salary is going to be eaten up quick! Rent (which I had already been paying on my own - but now there are less people in the same house) is going up, car payment, insurance, work clothes (suits and ties) and all the fun I am now supposed to have that I am out of school and actually have some money to my name.
Oh yeah and I forgot about student loan payments. Now you do get a bit of a break (6 months) but that doesn't seem like much. I think the payments started out in the $200 range.
Well work is pretty easy, too easy in fact. I pretty much have the technical work that I am doing mastered. I find a system to make it go much quicker than it was planned to go and used my spare time to look for a new job and plan a strategy to get one or make a move within the company I already work for.
Couple of meetings with my immediate boss, who worked for a Big 6 firm for many years and left when, according to him, it was either join the partnership or here is the door. Looks promising, I think he knows where I am coming from and truly wants to help me get where I want to go.
Couple of meetings with the big boss and he is basically evading and trying to stall the works. OK its time to put the external job search into high gear.
2 interviews at 2 different Big 5 firms ( there was a merger shortly after I finished school). One is a referral from a person that used to work at my current company and basically wanted the same things I did (and to move to NYC) and the other is one I started working on while still in school. One would require me working in mostly Northern VA - which I thought would be OK because I would also be travelling alot. The other was based in Baltimore.
Long story short I get an offer from both but the one in Baltimore is for a partner that I met and liked. The other firm the partner was pretty harsh with me and only discussed things with me from a very suspsicious and combative stance.
I take the new job and quit my first job. No one is too upset or surprised!
One funny part is that of all the people that had resigned and left my project since I had been working there (a little over 1 year) all were allowed (asked) to leave immediately but were paid for their notice period. I was asked to stay until the last day.
Well, I am beginning to realize that my new salary is going to be eaten up quick! Rent (which I had already been paying on my own - but now there are less people in the same house) is going up, car payment, insurance, work clothes (suits and ties) and all the fun I am now supposed to have that I am out of school and actually have some money to my name.
Oh yeah and I forgot about student loan payments. Now you do get a bit of a break (6 months) but that doesn't seem like much. I think the payments started out in the $200 range.
Well work is pretty easy, too easy in fact. I pretty much have the technical work that I am doing mastered. I find a system to make it go much quicker than it was planned to go and used my spare time to look for a new job and plan a strategy to get one or make a move within the company I already work for.
Couple of meetings with my immediate boss, who worked for a Big 6 firm for many years and left when, according to him, it was either join the partnership or here is the door. Looks promising, I think he knows where I am coming from and truly wants to help me get where I want to go.
Couple of meetings with the big boss and he is basically evading and trying to stall the works. OK its time to put the external job search into high gear.
2 interviews at 2 different Big 5 firms ( there was a merger shortly after I finished school). One is a referral from a person that used to work at my current company and basically wanted the same things I did (and to move to NYC) and the other is one I started working on while still in school. One would require me working in mostly Northern VA - which I thought would be OK because I would also be travelling alot. The other was based in Baltimore.
Long story short I get an offer from both but the one in Baltimore is for a partner that I met and liked. The other firm the partner was pretty harsh with me and only discussed things with me from a very suspsicious and combative stance.
I take the new job and quit my first job. No one is too upset or surprised!
One funny part is that of all the people that had resigned and left my project since I had been working there (a little over 1 year) all were allowed (asked) to leave immediately but were paid for their notice period. I was asked to stay until the last day.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Background - Part 1
I am going to try to get this blog going by starting with some background and then re-capping events on a more detailed basis from 1 January 2006.
A little about me: I graduated from college in 1997 with a BBA in Accounting and (MIS) Management Information Systems. I started out in a science but really did not have the aptitude for it and had tested well in math and accounting. I switched to accounting and then at the end of my third year in college realized that the highest compensation in the acccounting field as a graduate would be as an auditor for a Big 6 accounting firm (yes there were 6 then). I also did not have the best grades in the class - although I probably did get the concepts better than most of my fellow students - I missed alot of classes and did not do much in the way of homework. I was working 30 - 40 hours/week during that time. I added the MIS major as a way to differentiate myself from the competition (my fellow students). The year ahead of me there was one student who went the same route and was getting better job offers than anyone else in the class. I was the only student in my year that did it.
During my final year in college I worked at an internship for a technology consulting firm and received a job offer from them about 6 months before graduation. I was shopping around with accounting firms and other consulting firms for jobs as well. I had several job offers from both industries. At that time the average graduate with an accounting degree was getting offers from $30K to about $35K. The average MIS graduate was getting offers from about $32K to $36K. There were a couple of exceptions to this but most were in these ranges.
I ended up taking a job with the company I interned with for $36K my first year. It was more of a wait and see strategy. I was able to start working sooner (and earning my full salary and benefits) before graduation and it was local. I did not want to move but the higher paying jobs were mostly in Washington DC suburbs and Northern VA. I kept looking at other jobs and was working on a transfer within that company to a more "management consulting" oriented job. The reasons were 1. Higher Pay 2. Higher Profile work (that interested me more than technical work) and 3. Opportunities to travel 80 - 100% of the time.
Let me address the travel aspect of what I wanted in a job - and if you are about to get out of university and this even remotely appeals to you or you have the opportunity, read it - I will publish it in another post.
A little about me: I graduated from college in 1997 with a BBA in Accounting and (MIS) Management Information Systems. I started out in a science but really did not have the aptitude for it and had tested well in math and accounting. I switched to accounting and then at the end of my third year in college realized that the highest compensation in the acccounting field as a graduate would be as an auditor for a Big 6 accounting firm (yes there were 6 then). I also did not have the best grades in the class - although I probably did get the concepts better than most of my fellow students - I missed alot of classes and did not do much in the way of homework. I was working 30 - 40 hours/week during that time. I added the MIS major as a way to differentiate myself from the competition (my fellow students). The year ahead of me there was one student who went the same route and was getting better job offers than anyone else in the class. I was the only student in my year that did it.
During my final year in college I worked at an internship for a technology consulting firm and received a job offer from them about 6 months before graduation. I was shopping around with accounting firms and other consulting firms for jobs as well. I had several job offers from both industries. At that time the average graduate with an accounting degree was getting offers from $30K to about $35K. The average MIS graduate was getting offers from about $32K to $36K. There were a couple of exceptions to this but most were in these ranges.
I ended up taking a job with the company I interned with for $36K my first year. It was more of a wait and see strategy. I was able to start working sooner (and earning my full salary and benefits) before graduation and it was local. I did not want to move but the higher paying jobs were mostly in Washington DC suburbs and Northern VA. I kept looking at other jobs and was working on a transfer within that company to a more "management consulting" oriented job. The reasons were 1. Higher Pay 2. Higher Profile work (that interested me more than technical work) and 3. Opportunities to travel 80 - 100% of the time.
Let me address the travel aspect of what I wanted in a job - and if you are about to get out of university and this even remotely appeals to you or you have the opportunity, read it - I will publish it in another post.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
My First Post
Hi. Let me introduce myself.
I am a 30 year old (pseudo) entrepreneur from Baltimore, MD. I use the caveat "pseudo" because I own a franchise which is sort of like being an entrepreneur only cheating a bit.
I am writing this blog for 2 reasons:
1. To share my experiences in business with other people that may be in a similar position or considering getting into a similar position.
2. As a form of a journal which is a tool I will use to reflect on what things are happening in my business and to me personally as it relates to my business.
I have never written a blog before and at this point am unfamiliar with this tool so bear with me. Its going to take me a few weeks to get used to using it.
I am a 30 year old (pseudo) entrepreneur from Baltimore, MD. I use the caveat "pseudo" because I own a franchise which is sort of like being an entrepreneur only cheating a bit.
I am writing this blog for 2 reasons:
1. To share my experiences in business with other people that may be in a similar position or considering getting into a similar position.
2. As a form of a journal which is a tool I will use to reflect on what things are happening in my business and to me personally as it relates to my business.
I have never written a blog before and at this point am unfamiliar with this tool so bear with me. Its going to take me a few weeks to get used to using it.
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