I am asked very often here at Brainient how we manage to work on so many projects at the same time and still deliver top-notch products, on deadline.

It’s oh so simple!

Let’s see what usually happens with teams.

You have five people. Five personalities. Five brains. Five different freaking projects from five freaking superstars. Their work is good, but not outstanding, to the super-freaking potential you seek.

What to do, what to do?

It’s two things you want:

1. A shared vision. Your team has to be united. They must have the same purpose, share the same strategy, speak the same language.

2. Kick-ass goals. Your team members needs goals. Take the following scenario:

- John needs to improve sales by 5% until 2009
- Mark needs to improve sales by 200% until 2009

Which of the two will try harder? Right on! Mark’s the winner.

Even more, your people need to share these kick-ass goals, and work together to improve and deliver. One at a time.

Have a vision. Set goals. Share them. Let it fly!

So you have a startup. It’s a gazzilion dollar idea, of course. Therefore, you start throwing in cash like it’s not yours to keep.

After all, it’s a million dollar idea, right?

Big no!

A million dollar idea is worthless without a million dollar product, service, business, whatever you call it. Really.

Try selling an idea to a potential client. He’ll say: I want to try it out. You have to options:

A. You have a kick-ass product. Client loves it. Client buys.
B. You have a shiny office, a Versace suit, a nice conference room but your product sucks. Client doesn’t buy.

You lose.

The Basics:

A. Focus on your product. Put most of your cash there. Make sure it’s a state-of-the-art, top-notch, outstanding product.
B. Have a goal. Where do you want to be in 2, 3, 5 years?
C. Keep a tight fist on all your expenses. Only buy what will help you reach your goal.

A few things you DON’T want to spend on:

1. Expensive office space. You can easily start from your home, outsourcing all the work.
2. Cheap & unreliable developers. What you pay is exactly what you get. A ‘cheap’ product.
3. Expensive hardware. Apple computers are great, yeah. But you might consider Dell instead, until you start cashing in.
4. Brand names. They’re usually repackaged generics.
5. Conferences & workshops. They’re usually expensive and don’t bring much value, besides the networking. Try going in by trading services for an invitation. It works, most of the times .

Save up! You’ll definitely need it in the future.

One of the people I admire the most in this world, Steve Jobs, said a very interesting thing some time ago:

“In order to be doing something like this, you have to really, really love what you’re doing. Otherwise it just doesn’t make sense.”

So we decided to twist things a bit in 2008 and only focus on what we love: building innovative, high-scale web applications.
It’s gonna be fun!

Oh, and one more thing: Happy New Year!

Quickly integrate equity invested strategic theme areas and focused e-markets. Dynamically whiteboard mission-critical outsourcing for client-centered benefits. Objectively deliver future-proof scenarios whereas cross-media ideas.

Interactively supply clicks-and-mortar networks through interoperable systems. Proactively promote intermandated catalysts for change for resource sucking leadership skills. Synergistically leverage other’s fully researched communities without turnkey internal or “organic” sources.

Synergistically benchmark emerging leadership skills via client-centric meta-services. Proactively disintermediate robust schemas and e-business paradigms. Completely morph extensible action items whereas multimedia based methodologies.

Seamlessly provide access to tactical outsourcing and collaborative products. Appropriately administrate cross-media channels and diverse imperatives. Authoritatively transition B2C materials vis-a-vis innovative information.

Interactively facilitate integrated customer service with wireless applications. Energistically strategize distributed metrics with synergistic resources. Distinctively re-engineer premier metrics before functional ideas.

Uniquely implement economically sound methods of empowerment before professional e-services. Conveniently parallel task cross-unit markets rather than cross functional technology.

There’s more where this came from, but to be honest… it’s all corporate bullshit, actually. Here at Brainient we love simple talk and complex thinking. Why? ‘Cause clients don’t care about technology, strategies & architecture, they just want things done the way they want it. Now, sometimes they aren’t right and that’s when we plug-in the corporate techy mumbo-jumbo, but mostly… we keep it simple!

With business and technology progressing at such a pace, both the need and opportunity for an individual to continuously develop, improve and sometimes recycle their skills have never been greater.

- Peter J Reed-Forrester