• Stephanie Elsen (Marketing Manager) was featured in the Red Wing Republican Eagle, the local newspaper, in a “Faces A to Z” story . Stephanie is active as a board member with the Red Wing Port Authority, helps plan local events, and teaches tech classes at Red Wing Ignite, in addition to her job at Red Wing Software. She answered some questions for locals to get to know more about her. Read the story here.
• Connie’s (Technical Writer) daughter, Jenna, danced in the Minnesota State Dance Competition and her team took 5th place. Jenna also received the Jazz All-Conference honor and was selected to dance on the Minnesota All-State Jazz Team.
• Julie (Sales Engineer), her son Joey, and his girlfriend, Somer, participated in the Hustle up the Hancock event in Chicago. They climbed 94 floors in support of those with respiratory disease. It was the first time for all three of them. Joey did it in 15 minutes, Somer in 20 and Julie pulled up the rear with a 30 minute climb.
• Mike (Quality Assurance Manager/Project Manager) and family visited Arizona for spring break. While there they saw the Grand Canyon and Sedona, a Nascar race and a MLB spring training baseball game.

• Carole (Staff Accountant) went with three girlfriends to the NFR (National Finals Rodeo) in Las Vegas. While there they met Martha Josey - a national champion barrel racer that has been competing since 1964!
• Katrina (Administrative Assistant) and her daughter are very happy the Pats won the Super Bowl!
• Mike (Quality Assurance Manager) and his daughter participated in the Father/Daughter school dance team yearly recital.
• Jada’s (Technical Support Specialist) daughter’s 5th grade basketball team went to the state tournament. They finished 12th in their division!

When is it a good time to hire an outside professional? More often than you might think. You are probably really good at what you do in your career (or you should be doing something else). Even though you are an expert in your field, there are several things that go on in any business that are outside your area of expertise.

Since you’re reading this newsletter from Red Wing Software, I think it’s safe to assume you have some role that includes dealing with financial information. You might enter checks, record deposits, calculate payroll, or take a big picture view of the business using reports to analyze where the business should go. And, in some cases, you may be responsible for all of these things.

Even if you have a firm grasp on all financial functions in your company, it never hurts to get someone from outside the organization to review the information and give an opinion, or even audit how things are being done. I’ve mentioned in several columns that I believe if we think everything we do is being done the right or only way, we probably won’t make needed changes and grow the business or our own knowledge.

I’ll share an example of how Red Wing Software employs outside professionals. Although we have been producing accounting and other financial management software for 38 years and have many people with vast knowledge of accounting processes, employ our own in-house accountant, and have Certified Public Accountants on staff, every year we have an outside accounting firm perform an audit of our records and give their opinion, and have them prepare our corporate tax returns.

It never hurts to have an outside professional come in to your business and help it grow.

- Ken Hilton, President

Hillside Farm, featured in Progressive Dairyman

Laura Flory of Hillside Farm, a Red Wing Software customer, writes for Progressive Dairyman. She recently shared a touching story of her daughter’s first smile, while on a walk to see the cows. See the story here: A time for everything: A dairywoman’s transition from farmer to farm mom.

SunBurst Dairy, featured in the Dairy Star

SunBurst Dairy, a Red Wing Software customer, was featured in the story: Variety of factors help SunBurst Dairy achieve 36 percent preg rate, in the December 24th issue of Dairy Star. In the story, Yogi Brown details how they achieve their success. Click Here to read the whole story.

I often write and talk about the great people we have working at Red Wing Software, and how long many of them have been with the company. Of course, when you have the kind of dedicated, long-tenured people we have, they eventually think they have earned the right to retire. Greg, one of our Senior Support Specialists, after 20 years with us, has rightfully earned his place among the retired.

Even though Greg will no longer be blessing us and our customers with his presence in the office, he will certainly not be slowing down.

Greg has been a go-to person on our support team with his vast knowledge of our products, and especially payroll processes and requirements. I’m sure many of you have talked to Greg over the years, and really appreciate his ability to answer any question you have without even thinking about it. Greg was thoughtful enough to give us many months’ notice of his retirement to prepare us for his absence. After February 3rd, when you call for help, and Greg is not available, you will have the opportunity to learn what a great job Greg did of passing his expertise on to the rest of our excellent support team.

We at Red Wing Software, as well as our customers will certainly miss Greg’s knowledge, but even more important, we will miss having Greg around. We were fortunate to have Greg as a member of our team for so many years, and we wish him the best in his new adventures.

- Ken Hilton, President