BLOG: They say love hides behind every corner, I must be walking in circles

As a non-technical entrepreneur, one of the most difficult things you will encounter is finding a partner for the tech side....and it is not as easy as you might think!

Not all developers are equal. The only truth you can bank on is that they love coffee and late nights. After that you are on your own! All jokes aside, as a non technical entrepreneur it is a mountain to climb to find a technical partner. Not that there is a lack of people with know how out there, but rather to find someone who not only cares about the ME.

I meant to behave but there were too many other optionsI grew up in a family of entrepreneurs. This was a blessing and a curse. I loved it but my passion was Coding. Not something my parents thought would turn out to be a business...luckily that was 1995! I combined my love for Coding with my upbringing of Business. But I realised this is not an advantage everyone has. And in there I grew my business of being an "offsite CTO" for other businesses. Without parting with your shares you get someone that is savvy in business, but a LOVER of tech. Of course this would have only been an overhead for every company if they had to pay me a monthly fee instead of finding someone for themselves. And this is where my unique business model of "pay as you earn" grew from. Advising you on the business side from a tech perspective and ensuring that your company has the tech it needs to thrive and not only survive, ensures that my income grows. As it turned out this is a model that works. I now have "virtual shares" in 4 companies where I advise and code and as the business grow, I grow. This ensures its a relationship built to last

Showing more L.O.V.ECorny I know but there is method to my L.O.V.E madness. You see its the principle I build my business on and I want to share it with everyone!

• L stand for Longevity. No plan, be it in business, tech or even in life should be implemented with a short term strategy. I love living in the future. If we didn't where would we be? So much of our tech today comes from movies dreamt up by futurist way back (think Stargate and Star Trek). I "live" in this world where what we do now should be to our advantage in 5 years. The decisions we take now affect our life and those around us for a long time so consider the longevity of your decisions.
• O stand for Open. Although mainly focused on tech it can be used in business as well. Open is the way forward. A system designed to only work in one way will only go one way...down. We throw around the term loosely based. In one of my projects, a Point of Sale I coded for Magma POS, we looked at all the other POS systems out there. And honestly they ALL work in the same way without asking WHY? A small example was where we were trying to figure out why after completing a bill, every POS forced the waiter to capture each amount paid for on that bill be it credit card, cash or other payment methods, before closing that table on the POS. And for the death of me no one could tell me why. We asked people that has been in industry for years. The only answer was that at the end of the shift, on cash up, they know the totals to consolidate the payments for that waiter for that shift. But this data was already available, be it cash in hand, credit card slips or communication from other 3rd party systems. So we changed it and said, let the waiter close the table there and then and focus on serving the other customers instead of taking 5 minutes to capture data we already have. Then at the end of their shift they can grab a beer, sit down and capture the Totals of the shift for each amount. This increased the efficiency of the waiters, brought down the time orders took to get to customers, the amount of tables one waiter can manage and overall just made sense. Thus by being Open or Loosely based we made everything better. A motto to work towards I would say.
• V stand for Value. There should be value in what we do. As a coder I need to create value for my Clients for charging them. Just taking an off the shelve software and tweaking it is not bringing in value for my clients. The same can be said for a business. If you don't create value for your clients, why would they come back! As in business, same in life. Self value is a cornerstone for every human being. And I should ensure my self value and ensure that I look after everyone elses self value as well.
• E stand for Excited. This is an easy one. Life should excite you. Do whatever you need to excite you. Work in a job that excites you. Travel to a place that excites you. Love someone that excites you. When you enjoy yourself, everyone else will join in.

Now its back to youIf you need a CTO, or if you need a tech partner, what to look for is up to you. I have given you my thoughts about it but it is your business. Go forth and find the excitement! or click here to contact me to have a chat