1. Stop thinking of yourself as the boss. Think of yourself as the customer 

The culture of telling people what to do because you’re the boss is dangerous . First it removes accountability from people taking decisions and creates a safety net to fall back on. Ultimately it came from you so  you can’t really argue withe the ‘you told me so’ argument. If you’re the customer on the other hand, define what really matters to you and its their job to deliver it or step out

2.  Get out of the office

Today I spend a lot more time working out of cowering spaces, hotel lobbies , coffee shops and anywhere else i happen to be. Its the beauty and freedom that cloud computing bestows on us . I find that when im in buzzier more happening and serendipitous surroundings i think better, focus more and get more done while tiring less.

3. Block time in your calendar to think 

Funnily enough things like appointments and meetings get slotted in the calendar for most people but more important things like  thinking about real complex  problems don’t. We subconsciously think to ourselves we will turn to them when we have time, or because there is no physical event we just procrastinate and don’t see the need to slot them in. In the end they keep getting pushed back and never happen. Block time to think about the things that really matter

4. Press the reset button every morning 

I found that backlogs are very contaminating. They contaminate the past present and future. You never clear them out and in  the end you are constantly playing catch up with yourself. I changed this by wiping my backlog clean every day. I wake up with complete amnesia of what i didn’t manage to complete yesterday and i ask myself  ‘whats important today’ . Helps you reset priorities to what matters now not yesterday

5. Have no more than 3 priorities 

Priorities are often confused with to do lists. Your to do list may be endless but your priorities at any point in time should not be more than 3.  if you have trouble selecting exert the stress test: go through the list one by one and ask yourself: if i had to get rid of this item today would the world come to an end? You will find that for most the answer is no. They are not priorities they are nice to have’s continue reading »

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The freelance economy now accounts for over one in three people in the working population. That’s over a trillion dollars in the UK and US markets alone.  Over $1bn per annum is spent today online in hiring and paying for freelancers a figure which is projected to grow to $5bn within the next 3-5 years according to Industry analysts.

Most people associate the move to this new way of working as a drive to cut costs and be more flexible. All of which is true. However, I believe the biggest benefit of this new way of working is not in cost cutting, and I make the case here by drawing on our own experience at PeoplePerHour of eating our own cooking. The biggest benefits of freelance working  – if implemented correctly – are a drastic increase in productivity.  I argue here that what drives that in turn are two things: 1) hyperspecilization ie breaking traditional more generalist jobs down to smaller ones and hiring people who are experts and super focuses on those jobs, anywhere in the world, to execute them , and 2) accountability.  Which comes from transforming the traditional employer- employee relationship to one of  service provider – client.continue reading »

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A lot of entrepreneurs think they can ramp up on marketing to accelerate growth and just see how it goes. They make the mistaken assumption that they can always switch off and go back to the nice organically drive growth they were enjoying before. That’s a mistake. The below example illustrates it in simple math. (and I speak from experience here as we witnessed this at my company PeoplePerHour)

Let’s assume you have a business that’s generating nice continued linear organic growth (defined here as new customers you acquire from word of mouth and referral).

Then one day you start spending – either you raised money or from retained profits.  You do your math and you see that Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) is way in excess of your Cost of Acquisition, so you are acquiring profitably. You get excited and start spending more each month.continue reading »

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I come from a background where family matters. And as i get older and wiser i realize how lucky i am to be blessed with a great family. I write this post to pay tribute to those i love, speaking from the bottom of my heart.

My father is a great man. Academically accomplished, super intelligent, once an academic turned business leader and later in life an entrepreneur. I learnt many things from him but most of all its the importance of loving what you do. The importance of values and principles over superficial success. More than anyone i know, he’s a man who’s endured the roller coaster of wealth to poverty and back to wealth by sticking to those values. Working hard, loving what you do and respecting your name and reputation more than the perks it brings you.

My mother taught me empathy, humility and love. Like me, she is an acquired taste, full on, loud, out-spoken, adamant in what she believes in and relentless in its pursuit. Sometimes tiring.  But she has the biggest heart in the world, bigger than anyone’s I’ve ever met. She is a humanitarian, charitable, empathetic, loving, compassionate and caring. In ways I only dream of matching.

My brother, Stelios, is the nicest guy on the planet. Humble, level-headed, grounded, smart and perceptive in ways he cares less to reveal. He cares less about his ego than the result. He is the epitome  of the old saying : the best way to get results, is to do it in silence. He moves quietly and cautiously, but he always knows what he’s doing, and he’s calculating.We didn’t get along in our youth, he struggled to show affection to his younger brother but that’s probably my wrong doing, being a  difficult and obnoxious kid as i was. He taught me the power of doing things in silence, unnoticed, claiming no glory for the result you influence and achieve.

My sister – Stefani – is my weak spot. She’s my darling, the one special spot in my heart that will die last. I’ve somehow managed to inspire her and i consider that my biggest success in life. She worked for me in my startup for a while and in that gig i failed her, something for which i am very sorry about. I failed to give her what she wanted, to open her wings and let her dreams come loose. But somehow, despite me, she found the strength to resurrect and now she’s doing her own startup and learning from my wrong-doings. She deserves all the credit for that. I admire and revere her determination and stamina. continue reading »

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Stumbled on this article this morning called an Ode to pour over coffee which totally resonates with me. I am a recent convert to pour over coffee which – as a coffee fanatic – I have to say tastes not just marginally better but a lot better than even French press (which aside of pour over makes the best coffee if you have good beans as the coffee lingers in the water giving it a richer flavor)

In tech or design talk we call this a ‘step change’ in the coffee experience J . It’s not just optimization or marginal improvement. It’s  a leap forward. Moreover – as in any design process – step improvement often comes from thinking about the problem in a different way altogether and simplifying the solution.

Think of this:  companies like illy, Nestle, Lavazza and so many others are investing more and more in sophisticated technology to create the perfect  water pressure to extract the right amount of flavor from a coffee, pour over coffee does better using gravity, and just the right cone shape with which the right amount of coffee (26 grams to be precise)  ground to the right grain size. That creates just enough friction for the water to trickle down at exactly the right pace.  A little too fast and the coffee is watery and tasteless. A little too slow and its too dense and bitter.continue reading »

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