Behind the Scenes - October 2020

16 November 2020 roxie-thoner Notes from the President
• Matt (Sales Consultant) and his wife Lizz spent a week visiting friends in Long Beach, MS.
• Carole (Staff Accountant) enjoyed a beautiful fall ride with friends.
• Ashley (Accounting Software Support Specialist) had an opportunity to try out her new snowblower earlier than expected and enjoyed a birthday manicure with daughter Paytin.
• Katrina (Customer Service Representative) surprised her friend Sheila in Arizona after not seeing each other for five years! She then went to a wedding in Las Vegas for her friends.

Notes from the President

13 October 2020 khilton Notes from the President

Ken Hilton - President Red Wing Software

Every day, we all make important decisions that affect how our business will operate, and those decisions determine the path we want the business to follow. The same holds true for our local, state, and national elections. You get to determine your community, region, and country’s direction by exercising your right and responsibility to vote.
These decisions can be difficult because of all the confusing messages we hear, but we need to sift through the noise and try to get to the facts. We must look past the bumper sticker messages and look at the underlying philosophy of the candidates. What direction do they want to take the community, country, and world? We need to ignore the pundits that try to tell us what a candidate means from their perspective. After an interview, speech, or debate, one way to do this is, change the channel to something non-political, and decide for yourself whether the candidate is the kind of leader you would like to see guiding their respective geographic area.
Remember, whether your candidate wins his/her race, or the opposition comes out victorious, know that you will get another chance to vote in two more years. However things turn out, there is not a better place in the world to call home.

Notes from the President

03 September 2020 khilton Notes from the President
Check all available information. One of the first things I learned when I started taking flying lessons was to “check all available information” pertaining to the flight you are about to take. This is obviously a good idea since once you leave the ground, it’s not easy to pull over and fix something you forgot to check before you left, like how much gas you have, or the conditions at your destination airport (Is the runway closed?).

Ken Hilton - President Red Wing Software
Whenever you make any large decision that could affect your business success or other life-changing events, it is always good to check all available information. As an example, with the recently issued presidential memorandum about the payroll tax holiday, make sure you, and all employees, understand the real implications of deferring the withholding of the payroll tax. At the time of this writing, there are many unanswered questions regarding this memorandum, so while we all may have opinions on the topic, we need to make sure we have all available information before deciding whether to implement this deferral.
There are numerous examples of decisions that we regularly make that warrant checking all available information before making a final choice: What is the best brand of equipment to do the job? Is this new applicant the best person for the job? Who is the best choice to cast my vote for in the upcoming elections? Checking all available information before making those important decisions will help ensure the best outcome.

Notes from the President

11 August 2020 khilton Notes from the President

Ken Hilton - President Red Wing Software

Cautious, but not fearful. I was having a conversation recently with our Red Wing Software CEO, Jim, and as often happens during these times, the subject of the pandemic came up. We discussed how we felt about the risk of contracting the virus and what steps we were taking to protect ourselves and others.
His response was he was “cautious but not fearful.” I thought that was a great attitude toward the pandemic, and many other things in life and business. When thinking about personal purchasing decisions and or major life-changing decisions, after doing the appropriate research, and making your decision, be cautious, but not fearful of your choice.
When making business decisions, such as taking on a new venture, investing in new modern equipment, or deciding when it’s time to hire additional employees, again, after doing the appropriate budgeting for the new project, evaluations of the new equipment, and interviewing and selecting the right people, move forward, and be cautious but not fearful.

Notes from the President

06 July 2020 khilton Notes from the President

Ken Hilton - President Red Wing Software

As I write this, we are approaching a significant date in the history of the United States. This may sound a little strange at first, but I choose not to celebrate the 4th of July. However, I will be celebrating Independence Day; it happens to be on July 4th.
I feel we tend to recognize, observe, and celebrate dates rather than the events that made the dates important to us. Remember the special events that happened on a date and recognize why that date is significant.
These thoughts can carry into your business management, as well. Every day, week, month, and year we run a variety of financial reports to track how our business is operating. We look at a Balance Sheet and get a snapshot of the financial health of our business, but do we dig into it and determine what caused the changes on this report? We run an Income Statement, P&L, Statement of Farming Activities, or Statement of Revenue and Expenditures (depending on your type of organization), but do we take the time to drill down and determine why the business is heading in the direction it is?
Every country and business have events and reports that they recognize and review at certain times of the year. Let us make it a point to remember why we are running these reports and the reason we are celebrating these dates.
Independence Day is also a great time to remember all the people that keep us free and safe, especially in challenging times.