It might not feel like it (sorry Manitoba) but summer is coming!

Canadians, I’m pretty sure, live for the summer. We may put in time on the slopes, on the ice, and building snow forts, but really, aren’t we just putting in time until the REAL season comes back?

Long summer evenings. Outdoor parties. Firepits and hot dog roasts. Camping and swimming. Soft summer rain. Ahhhhh it’s been a long, arduous winter. We’re getting there though.

Summer is coming!

Or is it…. Summer is coming…. Brace yourselves….

For a lot of businesses, summer can mean a slowdown of work, but one thing that it means for sure is a many loooong weekends, weeks off, juggling holidays, and backfilling employee absences.

As a small business owner, my mind works overtime whenever a holiday request comes in, and they are coming soon. We never deny our employees holidays - they work damn hard and earn their days off no question. So juggling requests and ensuring we have the staff we need to manage client work without putting more strain on those in the office is a trick.

Throw in the fact each of the three partners usually takes a week in summer to check out, and the balancing act gets a bit more interesting.

Am I singing a familiar tune for anyone out there?

So how do we manage?

First, our staff does a good job of ensuring that they leave notes and lists for whomever takes over in their absence.

Second, we store all active files in Google Drive, so that we have any client files available to us in case of emergency.

Third, we make sure that all of the necessary code, files, client contacts, and work plans exist where they are entirely accessible to all team members.

The backstory is there. The task lists are prepped. Sales, proposals, prospect lists, and outreach history - nothing that someone else might need exists on paper, or in local computer files, or just in emails.

There’s a trail that we create on every project, using software to help keep everyone in the loop enough that we can balance absences and still enjoy summer ourselves.

Summer fun with a little help from our...software

Imagine this turning into a love story about software! Summer romance in the cloud anyone?

We know that losing days of work hunting for a client backstory is a nightmare for a project manager and a business owner.

There are a ton of tools out there that can help you keep a record of what your employees are working on, without creating a nightmare of data entry and record upkeep during their busy working hours.

Software that you can bring together to also get an ongoing overview of how your business is growing and changing.

Do you have a useful ecosystem of software to help you manage your business, even if one of your key employees disappears for a week or more? Or do you tense up whenever your staff asks for time off?

We thrive in the cloud - all of our work is accessible online, in a secure series of tech environments that lets us manage our work and our staff from anywhere in the world.

Sounds like magic? Might be. If you think it is, maybe you need a magician or two to help you figure it out. We happen to have a couple of those on staff.

We’re tech consultants for a reason. We love to solve a good technical problem. Bring us yours and let’s see what we can do.