:: MIS Insights ::

After Jackie introduced me to Mitch Albom’s Five People You’ll Meet in Heaven, I was inspired by the book and had to write down a list of people I’ve met so far. Thanks to nine months of freelancing, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting a variety of wonderful and sometimes, acephalous people because of my work. Here’s my list:

5. Good Clients

I’ve met good clients. These people know what they want, are concerned with company strategy rather than implementation and appreciate the value of I.T. for their businesses.

Translation:

They know what they want - they can stick to a scope we agree upon.
Concerned with company strategy - as long as I deliver high-quality work at the agreed upon time without any legal trespasses, how I do it shouldn’t be any problem, right?
Appreciate the value of I.T. for their businesses - proper $ka-ching$ for decent and honest work

4. Bad Clients

Likewise, I’ve met bad clients too. These people want more than they know, implement without a strategy and put a prime value on I.T. for their businesses.

Translation:

Want more than they know - some things they request for are beyond the means of time, technology and their budget
Implement without a strategy - I.T. deployment or expansion seems more of an after-thought than a plan
Put a prime value on I.T. - you should see how some people value 100,000-peso projects using prime numbers like 29,989… [yes, 29,989 is a prime number]

3. Pimps

Surround yourself with lots of these! The success of service-oriented businesses depend very much on people that can bring in projects to your company. For every project that a pimp brings in, do as I do! Reward them beyond their wildest dreams! An iPod or a project cut will do wonders in motivating them to bring in more projects for you!

2. Solution Providers

No man is an island. Technology changes at the blink of an eye. Honesty is gold. Time is the best policy. I could go on with more cliches, but let me stop here.

If you can’t do a project on your own, look for people who can do it and share the project with them. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t solve it alone. What matters is that the problem got solved thanks to you!

1. Friends

These are the people who’ll tell you the truth - no matter how ugly your face is.
These are the people you’ve worked with before, could have declined, but decided to pursue the business with you.
These are the people who’ll introduce you to new literature like Mitch Albom’s.

How about you? Who’s on your list?

Most people relate the concept of shopping with clothes and malls. This morning, let me relate shopping with online purchases. As part of TechForge I.T. Solutions‘ brand protection scheme, I bought around 20 domains that sounded like our company name.

The last thing I want is typosquatters and cybersquatters damaging our reputation.

Wikipedia:

Typosquatting, also called URL hijacking, is a form of cybersquatting which relies on mistakes such as typographical errors made by Internet users when inputting a website address into a web browser. Should a user accidentally enter an incorrect website address, they may be led to an alternative address owned by a cybersquatter.

Cybersquatting is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad-faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else.

While TechForge isn’t really the most original of company names out there, this sounds like a good name for our first company.

Our primary website, TechForgeOnline.com will be up by December 25, 2006.

I just got back from my Davao business trip! What a productive expedition!

Day 1

Statistics. The plane ride from Manila to Davao lasted 1 hour 42 minutes, maxed out at 855 kilometers per hour with a peak at altitude of 37000 feet!

Upon landing, we checked in at the Grand Men Seng Hotel (GMS) where we were greeted by a breakfast buffet. After breakfast, we met local government officials to discuss the purpose of our visit. Cooperative, they were kind enough to provide us with transportation. An asset we utilized very well for the next 48 hours of our stay. We were able to tour the whole of Davao, performing feasibility studies for over 100 sites.

Lunch during the first daw was fishy. We ate at a roadside restaurant, Marina, where the highlight viand was a gigantic panga (Grilled Tuna Jaw). I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so much tuna in one sitting in my whole life. Oishi desu.

The work-day ended at 9pm after dinner. Since I was already up by 2am, 17 hours of work left me with just enough strength to drag myself to bed when I got back to my room.

Day 2

Teams. There were four of us that went to Davao. Two representatives from India company and another two from November company . The group split into two. The first pair (Fred and Mel) wrapped up on the last few sites that needed validation, while the second pair (Jay and I) met up with the local Papa company to discuss the connectivity issues relevant to the success of the project.

Meeting went well over our lunch at Ahfat, one of the must-visit restaurants for Davao tourists. I had sweet and sour seafood soup, steamed fish and pata. The menu included crab, but since I’m allergic to crustaceans, I kept myself to the first three items on the list.

I also got to visit a souvenir shop where I got myself a malong and an ethnic polo. I would have wanted to get other stuff, but I had other more important stuff queued with my budget.

The team ended the day by having a round of drinks, sashimi and kinilaw at GMS’ pool side. I would have wanted to swim that night, but my tired body got the better of me.

Day 3

Ped Xing. Our site visits this day required a lot of pedestrian work. After two days of smorgasbord without any real exercise, I welcomed the long walk we had throughout the city proper. We walked the whole morning and got back to the hotel for lunch - just in time for our meeting with the local geodetic engineer head.

This afternoon, I finally got to swim! The pool was about 25m long and around 5 feet and 8 inches deep. After six years without swimming, I could say that I no longer have it. Man, I miss the swimming pool. I wish there were an affordable swimming place near my place [at Tandang Sora]. 2 hours and a badly wrinkled skin later, I had cramps and had to leave the swimming pool.

Dinner involved another buffet at GMS and a Christopher Reeve movie, “Somewhere in Time.” Sad movie, but a good one, nonetheless.

Day 4

Itineraries

0445 wake up
0545 reconnaisance at the hotel lobby
0600 departed gms
0615 arrival at airport
0700 airport mixed up my boarding pass with another person
0710 situation resolved
0750 departure of pal pr 810
0930 arrival at manila
1015 exited airport
1115 arrived at home, sweet home
1130 brunch [yes, i had no breakfast. don’t worry, i have lots of reserve]
1230 end of story

The opportunity cost of physically being in one place is the most expensive of them all. An article from BusinessWeek writes:

When you’re out talking to customers and giving speeches, you’re not in meetings talking about nasty little problems

This is the motivation that got me ping-pong-ed back-and-forth from Tandang Sora to Makati twice yesterday. As I mentioned yesterday, my friends and I are on the process of wrapping up on our SEC incorporation - which mainly involved autographs and notaries from the incorporators.

0800 [makati-philair]: Got Ryan to sign his part in the articles of incorporation
1000 [cubao-horseshoe]: Got Franz and his sister, Nikki, to sign their parts of the articles of incorporation
1030 [cubao-horseshoe]: Notarized the forms
1200 [cubao-horseshoe]: Had a diet-wrecking lunch
1330 [t. sora-commonwealth]: Arrived at my MetroBank branch to create corporation’s bank account
1345 [t. sora-commonwealth]: Found out that MetroBank had its prescribed treasurer’s affidavit. It required notarization and signatures from all the incorporators. They said that the generic affidavit generated by SEC’s online registration was incomaptible and therefore, cannot be used.
1350 [t. sora-commonwealth]: Left MetroBank without a bank account after asking why do other branches don’t need such prescribed treasurer’s affidavit and why this wasn’t SAID when I inquired about the requirements two weeks ago from the SAME branch
1400 [t. sora-evelina]: Brainstormed on possible schedule for the next 24 hours of my life.

The original plan was for Franz to have the new document autographed by the signatories living in Makati early next morning. However, that would prevent us from meeting with one of our clients. Therefore we improvised.

1430 [t. sora-evelina]: Coordinated with the schedules of the signatories based in Makati
1500 [t. sora-evelina]: Went to Makati
1600 [makati-pililia]: Picked up Leo
1630 [makati-philair]: Met Ryan
1700 [makati-philair]: Acquired autographs of all subjects from Makati
1800 [manila-binondo]: Wai-Ying. Unlimited dimsum and one rice meal each for four hungry people for a total bil of P765.
1930 [manila-binondo]: Business meeting and one Hot Chocolate Grande at iStarBaksss
2145 [makati-pililia]: Dropped off Leo
2235 [cubao-horseshoe]: Dropped off Franz
2345 [t. sora-evelina]: Dropped myself to bed

While I will do everything to get our company up and running, I will not allow it to get in the way of previous commitments. Doing so would be very detrimental to my reputation, professional code of conduct and of course, conscience.

This is part of a series on the 10 D skills an Entrepreneur should have. I got this from an entrepreneurship book back when I was in college. Yes, college was a long time ago for me - something like twelve months ago. I’ve found it very useful so I’d like to share it with the world.

Dreams

Entrepreneurs have a vision of what the future could be like for them and their businesses. And, more importantly, they have the ability to implement their dreams.

Formulas
When I was in High School, I had a pretty good formula on how to achieve what I wanted in life:

However, sometime during College, my parents asked me, “What do you want to do after college?” This question got me into thinking. A lot of things have already happened to the Philippines since I last devised my formula.

For instance, cut-throat capitalism and the consumerist orientation of society have become more pronounced in our economic society. Just think of how much effort the big Telcos in the country are expending just to get to that one peso in your pocket. Or the offering of high-speed yet sometimes erratic broadband internet connections. Such high-paced quality of life has brought about increased costs of living and job tenure insecurity which no longer fits my trusty formula.

Fragments
That’s when I started to dream about what could lie for me in the future. That’s when I started to see the countless opportunities out there waiting to be taken advantage of. That’s when I saw the potential of the SME market in the Philippines. However, before realizing such opportunities, I first needed a company that would house such business ventures for me. While having a company is not necessary to keep projects from coming in, it is a required first step if we want to start taking in seven-figure projects. This is the first fragment of my dream to be realized.

Ladies and gentlemen, the fun starts within ten days, after our registration with SEC, big projects queued and all.