Green means “growth“. This is why we chose green as our new corporate color.

However, what does it really mean?

Growth is an opportunity and, at the same time, a challenge. It means more people and projects to manage. It also means more income (and more expenses). Growth should always be handled with care… too much growth can put your organization out of control.

We have always been conservative on growth. While there are opportunities for us to grow, we occasionally pass over some projects because we believe that quality is priority over quantity. It is not important how many projects we’ve completed, but how well we’ve developed them.

Here at Ideyatech, we redefine the meaning of growth. Our growth comes naturally by keeping the quality of service consistent.

We now have a new home - bigger and bolder. We moved to our new office space last weekend. The move was fun, but painful…

Our new space houses all the facilities we need, such as workstations and meeting rooms. Everything is perfect… well.. almost… Our Internet provider did not deliver their promise of weekend-line transfer. Instead, we had to wait for three working days to get the line transferred. As contingency, we tried asking another vendor for a new line. But, guess what? Both vendors installed their lines at the same time - three days after. Having a “work-from-home” policy saved the company since most of our developers have Internet connections at home or have access to wi-fi hot spots.

Now, for the fun part…

It’s been quite a personal struggle for me to choose between freedom against security. Freedom pushes me hard to be creative and explore the unknown but the risk is high. If none of the creativity works, failure is immediate. On the other hand, security reduces risk of failure as financial income is consistent. I’ve tried going back to corporate world for the past 3 months with a good paycheck… but cannot find the satisfaction in the things I do.

This experience adds maturity as I begin to understand that satisfaction is not measured by amount of $$$ earned rather by personal achievements and accomplishments. This is the first time that I have to give-up my financial security in exchange to following my passion.

Looking back to where I started, it was passion that pushed me to start an IT career, it was passion that gave me career promotion, and now it is passion that makes me go back to continue what I envisioned - my own IT company.

Let me conclude by saying that ideyatech will be back on track and will continue to build quality software and deliver world-class services.

I started the vision of my first lame attempt to build the next generation software last 2004, after 7 years of getting bored from corporate pressure of delivering enterprise application. I realized that working hard for 12-16 hours a day does not fulfill my needs. So to start off, I did some consulting for a friend until I had enough money to join this premier online project bidding website. After a few tries, I got into my first major project for approximately $1,600.00. This kept me afloat for a while and I started to build my profile and credentials. After a few months, I had several clients that comes back to give more work… so, I tried balancing client requests with my next generation software.

I was working with freelancers and part-time developers to get things done. For half their time, I get half the product and eventually have to complete it by myself. I control the cashflow $$$ like freak using a simple rule - all expenses should have concrete deliverables. I choose to work on projects that we specialize - Java. I took advantage of the Internet and ran a remote development team using 3 basic tools: forums, issue tracking and cvs. Finally, I make sure client expectations are well set. So far, these basic principles help me maintain perfect feedback and ratings. Cool.

By end of year 2005, I didn’t have my next generation software - someone did it already. So all I have are several pieces of reusable codes and $2,000 at my disposal. I decided to hire and train 2 full-time staff in my native town, Bicol. With my existing clients, I can pay my staff to keep the business going. As for me, I’m back at the drawing boards for yet another next generation software but this time I have reusable codes and a stable business foundation. Its a slow start but considering that I started this company by doing consulting work with no available capital… I am quite fulfilled.

Well this is not my success story… but a story of building something out of nothing. Caio!