Pure Happiness Is....

finding out that one of your girlfriends is engaged!



Congratulations Jilian and Todd!

My First Book Review

I just finished reading my first business-related book, “Inside Intuit” and now I can be one of the cool kids on the block by writing a review. ;-)

The book basically tells how Intuit got started and all the trials and tribulations that they had to overcome to become the #1 money management software for individuals and small businesses. Being a QuickBooks user myself (for Webmail.us) I was able to connect to a lot of the issues they faced while developing the software. Being a part of a start-up company, I was able to relate (sort of) to the hardships Intuit had to overcome in order to succeed.

One day in the fall of 1982, the founder (Scott Cook) was listening as his wife was balancing their checkbook and trying to pay their bills. She was tired of how time consuming it was to track their finances and the amount of time it took to write checks to pay the bills. Cook sat down with her and discussed the things that would make the job “easier”. As his wife made suggestions, Cook started thinking that if his wife hating balancing her checkbook, then surely many others felt the same way. That’s how it all got started.

The first employee of Cook was a Stanford electrical engineering (closest to a computer science degree that was offered at the time) student, Tom Proulx, who just happened to be outside of the engineering building when Cook approached and asked, “Where is the best place to post these fliers”. The flier boasted of a great opportunity for an innovative PC program. The job required to write in the computer programming language BASIC. Proulx asked a few questions and then took a flier. Within two weeks, Cook and Proulx started working on what was known at that time as Kwik-Chek.

In order to make Kwik-Chek successful, Cook knew that if he conducted surveys among individuals who had to balance their checkbooks and pay bills, they could create a product that could address those specific needs. This led him to call several people that he knew as well as random people to ask them a couple questions on what would make their life easier with regards to paying their bills. This grass-roots approach reminded much of the early Fieldparty.com days. Although I was not directly involved, I do remember the stories of our co-founders’ visions.

The book continues on about how they eventually grew to like 5 employees and were working on their first software release. As with any software release, sometimes its hard to make it 100% bug-free. So they had to overcome not only missed deadlines for release, but fixing bugs as they became known. This required working more than 24 hours straight for Proulx. How many times have our developers seen 24+ hours of coding and debugging?? There are so many instances in this book that I can replace “Intuit” with “Webmail.us” in many of them.

They saw hardships and barely survived in their first years of operation. But one thing that held them afloat was their dedication to their customers. Everything they did was done with the customer in mind. They listened to all customers. At one point, all employees of Intuit were required to read the “comment cards” that were sent in from customers. (Wow, comment cards?? OLD-SCHOOL!) But as the employees read the comment cards, they were able to think of new ways to improve their product. They would even invite local townspeople into one of their labs to study and observe every move the townspeople would make while using the software. This attention to customer detail allowed Intuit to streamline their areas of needed improvement of its software. These study groups provided the co-founders with indispensible insight into the market that they would soon dominate.

As the company grew, its focus grew to more than just individuals. They thought that if individuals needed this type of software, then small businesses might have interest in the software as well. Besides, most small business owners were made up of 1 or 2 individuals that were faced with similar tasks. They were able to mold their software to accommodate the needs of the small businesses. This would soon become known as QuickBooks.

In my opinion, Intuit was presented with a lot of opportunity during its growth. They were a company that started out with software on floppy disks, and then experienced the CD-ROM boom, to eventually the Internet. With the birth of the internet, Intuit needed to be creative to stay at the top of their game. They were able to capitalize on all of the bru-ha-ha that the internet created. But their gains into the internet world did not come without some recognizable failure.

Some of the failure that Intuit faced was its decreasing focus on the customer and soon its employees. At one point, 10% of Intuit’s workforce was laid off (a total 420 employees out the door!) just to announce the next day (literally) that they were going to align with a company to the tune of a seven-year deal at $40 million. Talk about a slap in the face!

The company faced leadership changes throughout its growth. The current President and CEO, Steve Bennett was hired in January 2000. With his appointment came the leadership qualities to move Intuit past the $1 billion dollar revenue point. He brought back the faith of Intuit’s employees and outlined core values to “wow” customers. Their goal is to not just satisfy customers, their goal is to “wow” them.

Overall, I thought this book was great. It helped shed some light on areas of my company, such as customer care and why it is so important. It provided insight on how important it is to be innovative and not just be complacent about your products or services. It re-emphasized the greatness of individuals and what they can accomplish when the odds are against them.

One of the immediate realizations that I had after reading this book is that our company is still small but yet growing. Having worked at a $6 billion manufacturing facility, it was more of culture shock coming to a privately-held small business. All of my dreams to “number-crunch” were quickly dismissed when I came to Webmail.us. But that’s ok! I realize (better) now that we are still growing and we will soon be at a point when I will be able to crunch numbers until my heart’s content. But until we get to that point, I can focus my talents and abilities to help our company stay in line with its #1 goal, to provide the best email hosting service and maintain its dedication to its customers. I definitely recommend reading this book.

Two Different Worlds

Every time I travel to my parent’s house I am amazed at the differences in which we live. I had to help out my sister by watching her kids while she is basking in the luxury of a cruise. This involved spending the night at my mom’s house (who has been watching them since Monday) and assisting with the kids on Friday.

After having dinner at the house with Kev and the fam, I go ahead and pack for the night. Once I have all my stuff ready I sit down for what will be my last experience with high-speed internet for the next 12+ hours. I check and respond to some emails, finish up some billing stuff for the company and browse around before shutting down and heading out.

As I am driving over to my mom’s house, which usually takes 35-40 mins, I make a couple of phone calls on the cellular. There are no cell phone towers within 15 miles of her house which means I have about 15 mins of chatting time. How is it possible that I can be so close to civilization (the Burg’s), but yet sooooo far away?

I get closer to my mom’s house and the flurries we experienced over in B’burg had accumulated to like a 1/2 –inch of snow and very slippery spots with ice. The first thing I am feeling is that the kids will have a delay for school and I will be stuck in the archaic world without the comfort of text messaging and high-speed internet.

I awoke early this morning to get the oldest girl, Alazay, in the shower. Seconds after getting her in the shower, the dreaded words filled the airwaves of Q99….”Giles County – 2 hour delay”. UGH!! So instead of being able to be “kid-free” by 9 am, this means the earliest I can head over the mountain to work is 11 am. UGH!!

I bite the bullet and continue getting the kids ready for school. Alazay is on the bus by 9:30 and I load up the other 3 (Jordan, Shayda & Kaylonie) to head out to Pearisburg. I suppose I would have felt better if I had my morning dose of emails, however, I was not about to use a poor dial-up connection. I just keep thinking that once I get Jordan to Kev’s parent’s house, and drop off Shayda and Kaylonie at pre-school life will be better.

My thoughts of how 18th century my mom’s “neighborhood” is further confirmed as I am heading out the country road and slow down so that I do not run into the Amish horse-drawn carriage that is in front of me. Yup, that’s right, sub-zero weather, and the Amish are ridin’ around. Crazy. I suppose they have stuff to tend to despite the weather.

Anyhoo, I was quite relieved to get back into town limits at which point I turned on my cell phone to welcome a flood of text messages that I had missed. Ah! Cellphone-sweet-cellphone. I just can’t get over the fact that within a 30 minute radius of a forward-thinking, high tech community such as Blacksburg, that I have to deal with dial-up, the lack of cell phone towers and horse-drawn carriages. They are definitely two very different worlds.

PS – this blog was written at Kev’s parent’s house. They do have high-speed internet (cable, I think) and if you stand in the right place you can get a signal on the cellphone. This is the bridge that connects the two worlds. ;-)

The Turtle

I was introduced to the “Turtle” this past weekend at a party. My friend Marisa explained that models will sometimes pull their shoulders back and stick out their neck to give the illusion of a slimmer body. So of course myself, Marisa, Beth, Katrina, Nicole, and even Kevin and John attempted this pose to see what we would look like.

The most extreme difference was obvious with me. We deduced that with my broad shoulders I was able to slenderize to model size most successfully. Check out the pics below…..they are hilarious! You will have to try this at home, just hit Marisa up with the instructions on how to do it.

All pictures from the party can be viewed here because blogger doesn't work well with pictures.

Aside from all the turtle pics, check out this one of me and Kevin.....I know, we're hot. ;-)

Is It Worth It?

I often feel like I need to run races the following year so that I can see if I can get a better time, or run a better race than the previous year. The two that come time mind, in particular, are the Country Music ½ marathon in Nasville and the 3Sport Sprint Triathlon in Richmond. My goal for Nashville was to complete the 13.1 miles in 2 hours or less. I finished that race just 2 minutes shy of my goal. For the Richmond race, I just wanted to complete the triathlon successfully. Looking back on these two races has given me some insight for personal growth in 2007.

Take the ½-marathon for instance. Right now I am currently training for a marathon in March. So my training runs will include distances far much greater than the distance of 13.1 that I ran in Nashville. I know that over the past year I have become stronger and that I should be able to complete the 13.1 miles in less than 2 hours without a doubt. Yesterday I had to run for 2 hours and 15 minutes at an “aerobic” pace (anywhere from 9 to 10 min miles). At 2:02 (official Nashville time) I had already completed 13.5 miles. Knowing this information, would it benefit me to run the race in 2007 to aim for a better time? I don’t think so. With that said, I can’t wait to run it with my Dad and take a bunch of pictures of all the sights that I missed the first time around! :-)

As for the Richmond race, one defining moment still lingers in my head. After crossing the finish line I realized that all of my energy resources had been used and that I couldn’t go another step. This feeling of pure exhaustion is only beneficial if you believe that your race was done as efficiently as possible. Of course, hindsight is always 20/20. But with the experience of completing another triathlon and honing my skills, I know that doing this race again will provide excellent feedback with my triathlon growth. This race is definitely on my schedule for next year, and look out ladies, this chick is coming with a vengeance.