Category: Business development

What I Do When I Need to Focus

Pamela Ayuso September 10, 2018

My flow of work depends on what I have to accomplish. For some tasks, I have to be active and communicative, responding to questions or contributing to a project. During these times, I am moving from one task to the next.

Other times, I need to sit down and focus, shut off the world to get a project done. I find these types of tasks much harder to finish than active decision-making and responses. Writing my blog articles, filling out long application forms, taking notes from the books I read, and creating plans for implementation are all examples of tasks that require diligent focus. My mind tends to wander, and I procrastinate endlessly, so I realized I needed a new approach to help me maintain my focus.

How to Make Sure Processes are Always Up-to-Date

Pamela Ayuso September 3, 2018

If there is one constant in the office, it is that everything will change. Once processes have been developed within a company, they need to be reviewed recurrently to ensure they are still effective, relevant, and up-to-date. A new member may have recently joined the team, or perhaps a new system has been implemented which alters the workflow in the office.

We have developed a system for keeping our processes updated at my company, Celaque. It includes periodic reviews, ad hoc modifications, and self-reviews. The best way to make sure the entire body of processes is always updated is through a programmed annual or semi-annual review. Self-review procedures and taking the opportunity to correct processes when mistakes are found are both essential practices to ensure that processes are in the best shape possible.

The Benefits of Company-Wide Meetings You Need to Know

Pamela Ayuso August 27, 2018

I discovered the concept of company-wide meetings in Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg’s insightful book How Google Works (read Valuable Ideas from Google for Growth and Innovation: Part 1 and Valuable Ideas from Google for Growth and Innovation: Part 2). According to the authors, the CEOs at Google held weekly Question and Answer sessions to discuss company policy and direction. The goal of the meetings was to also foster communication and transparency across the company. The idea sounded intriguing, and I decided to give it a try to see how the model could fit at our firm.

I was not 100% sure about how it would work for us, so I implemented a similar idea during our company’s holiday event. A representative of each of the core teams got up to speak about their greatest achievements during the year; as people shared their experiences with one another, I could see invisible communication barriers breaking down. It turned out to be much more powerful than I had originally imagined.

The End of Excel and How to Substitute It (For the Most Part)

Pamela Ayuso August 20, 2018

I have been on a crusade to eliminate Microsoft Excel at our company for the past year and a half. Excel is a wonderful tool, don’t get me wrong. I have been using Excel for years and years, and that very loyal, noble spreadsheet has been my support through thick and thin. During my days as an accounting student, I programmed my financial statements and balanced them using Excel. As an investment banking intern, I learned to create advanced financial models with the same tool. In Alianza, the company where I worked previously and where I ran the accounting department, we also used spreadsheets to create our financial statements and their supporting documents.

Through all those times, Excel was dependable and a true friend. Eventually, however, we started having problems. If I look back and analyze it, the issue wasn’t Excel itself, and it still isn’t. It was the errors we kept finding: we either added an extra digit to the number by mistake or the spreadsheets weren’t all connected with one another, so they needed to be reconciled between each other. Once Alianza grew to a certain size, we quickly realized that we spent more time checking to make sure Excel was right than working with the information in the first place. So, when we started Celaque, the company I currently run, I knew our dependence on Excel had to go.

What Happens When You Automate Your Business Processes

Pamela Ayuso August 13, 2018

Creating and organizing a firm’s processes is not easy; it requires a lot of work and persistence, but it’s worth it. Once all business processes within an organization have been mapped out and designed to work together, everybody on the team will interact like a beautiful symphony. Less time will be spent wondering about possible missing pieces, and more time will be spent foreseeing future problems and thinking about strategy and innovating.

Streamlined business processes are highly beneficial to any firm. It makes all the difference in the world when everybody is working together.

This Is the Story of Our Latest System Implementation

Pamela Ayuso July 30, 2018

Last year, we implemented NetSuite, an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software at our firm. We were previously using two systems, Zoho CRM and Zoho Books, which we had outgrown. We needed something that we could personalize based on our processes, and NetSuite was the solution (please see my blog post NetSuite: How to Select the Best ERP for more on how we selected our ERP).

Implementing the new system was a company-wide effort which required a lot of hard work, and the first six months were particularly intense. In the end, however, we were able to produce a work of art. NetSuite was the system we needed and more.

My Favorite Methods for Communicating and How to Use Them: Part 2

Pamela Ayuso July 23, 2018

The ability to communicate is one of the most powerful skills we possess as human beings. Moreover, today, we have an unprecedented quantity of tools available to communicate at work. These tools are sometimes subject to misuse, resulting in misunderstandings and wasted time, but they can also be extremely powerful. The more adept we become at switching between one instrument and the next, the more effective we will be at connecting with others and obtaining positive results and healthy business habits.

In My Favorite Methods for Communicating and How to Use Them: Part 1 of this guide, I discussed email and digital and mobile chat applications and their advantages, disadvantages, and best uses. What follows are the three other means of communication my team and I use most often.

My Favorite Methods for Communicating and How to Use Them: Part 1

Pamela Ayuso July 16, 2018

As we were evolving, one of the main abilities that set us apart from other species was our ability to communicate complex ideas. Communication is what has allowed us to build groups, organizations, and nations. We need to communicate to grow and develop, and for that reason, communication is one of our most important tools at work.

The art of communication, if not properly leveraged, can create roadblocks within the work process. There are so many ways we can communicate nowadays that it is easy to become overwhelmed by the options. Our success relies on choosing the best method of communication and how each option can best benefit our professional aim.

What Happened During Our Year Implementing NetSuite

Pamela Ayuso July 2, 2018

In 2017 our firm embarked on the biggest system implementation yet: NetSuite, an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. It took six very intense months to become operational, but the full implementation lasted a year because we had bugs and problems that needed to be resolved. Because NetSuite interacted with all the departments of the company, bringing the system online was going to affect everybody.

Prior to implementing NetSuite, we had a very basic accounting system; it only took care of fundamental transactions, such as bills and invoices, and it produced fixed customer statements, accounting reports, and financial statements. While it was a good system for a startup, we realized we had outgrown it.

This is Our Process for Closing a Sale

Pamela Ayuso June 25, 2018

As a real estate development firm, our company sells properties on an ongoing basis; each time a property is sold, several actions must take place to complete the transaction. The problem is, however, that there are so many steps involved in closing a sale that it is impossible to keep track of all of them. From remembering file storage, document signage, and the entire accounting process, it is crucial not to neglect any of these steps.

Different companies organize the steps in various ways. Originally at our firm, each person had a separate checklist, or just memorized all the steps. Many times, we would overlook a crucial step, and it would be left undone until the mistake was discovered later. Other times, the missing actions were never noticed at all.