Go read the previous post about last year’s analysis and figures.

GOALS IN GENERAL

“The year 2014 will be our best year before the year 2015.”

Sure, that’s what they all say, but what is realistic, and what is hooey?

Goals are of course set so that they are reached if everything goes as planned. Probability for that is pretty close to nill. On the plus side when you put the hours in every day, there will also be positive surprises along the year. These positive surprises can raise expectations as well.

In practice one could say that nothing is impossible, but the set goals aren’t necessary realistic either.

How should your goals be set then? According to the vision, is the answer. The goals must support company direction, not just revenue-wise, but also culture-wise. It must also be admitted that goals with figures, e.g. turnover goals, are by definition dependent on luck.

AS A COMPANY

Starting a product business

Our most important goal for this year is to launch a product. We’ve already used, and will be using, a large part of our year’s surplus resources to design, build, publish and sell a product or two.

Turnover goal: 800 000 €

Our turnover has grown from 46 k€ to 201 k€ to 497 k€ during the previous years. Extrapolating from that and our personnel growth 800 k€ is not impossible, but it does require a lot of success, especially after we take into account the resources needed for the new product business. Being totally realistic it feels like we are reaching for the moon – but it doesn’t make sense to set goals too low either 🙂

Positive profit

If we make any profit, and are also able to launch a product or two, we can be very happy.

FOR THE PEOPLE

Raise for everyone

Even though we still consider ourselves as a startup, we need not be afraid to distribute the gained profits to everyone.

Three big parties in a year

Regular recreation together and “rewarding” the people with over-the-top parties and the head ache next day will help us handle the everyday challenges.

Monthly retros and get-to-gethers

We will continue having retros, and we will also utilize the services of Helsinki center by organizing free form after work events, like go karting and card playing.

PROJECT BUSINESS

Azure-focus

Now that we have fulfilled our goal of only working with Azure projects, we have to keep hold of it.

In general we are very happy about the development of the Azure market. The outlook is completely different than last year, and especially concerning large corporations there’s been development.

Projects for end customers

We will continue working hard in order to be able to do our work straight for the end customer in the future as well.

Deeper participation in projects

Our goal is to reach even stronger partnerships with our clients. We believe that we have insights to enhance the business by utilizing software development correctly – be it launching new products or developing processes.

PRODUCT BUSINESS

Leanvisio

Holvio

Holvio is a very aggressively priced archiving solution for massive amounts of data for certain types of corporations. In the way of pricing and functionalities Holvio is somewhere between Amazon Glacier and more traditional media banks, yet it still offers features that are missing from both.

Comparison to year 2013

Unlike last year, we are not seeking personnel growth this year. The reasons are pretty clear. One is that we have already attained the size required for the company to be felt as trustworthy. Also, it has to be said, that a company with our resources cannot start a product business and grow aggressively at the same time.