| I hope everyone had a safe holiday season and are starting the new year on the right foot. Now is a great time to look back at 2020 and evaluate what we learned about how we do business. As I mentioned in a previous newsletter, I am a strong believer in zero-based budgeting, only using history as a guide. Budgeting for 2021 is a perfect example of why you would not necessarily want to use the previous year as a benchmark. The same process can be used for other aspects of the business. |
| We all probably made some unexpected changes in the way we operate our business and hopefully learned some important lessons. I will share a few of the lessons we learned at Red Wing Software, and maybe you can relate them to your own business. |
| We learned: while our team enjoys working together in an office environment, they can be at least as productive working from home. In fact, a few commented how they did not miss the commute through the little city of Red Wing to get to the office on the other side of town, especially our folks crossing over the river from Wisconsin. |
| We learned: meetings can be very productive using video conferencing, and it was surprisingly easy to get everyone up and running with that technology. Thanks to Larry, our awesome IT Manager. |
| We learned: we can get by with considerably less office space, but still need a place for shared resources like copy machines and postage equipment. |
| We learned: we can bring a new employee up to speed without being face-to-face in the same office, but it is much easier to transfer knowledge in a shared environment. |
| While we hope 2021 does not mirror the previous year, we will be starting with a blank page as we move forward, taking advantage of the lessons we learned in 2020. |