Happy New Year!
Today marks the first day of 2022 on the lunar calendar, often referred to as Chinese New Year. We’re especially excited to celebrate today, because 2022 is the Year of the Tiger!
It’s been 12 years since we marked the last Year of the Tiger, and it’s amazing to think about the changes in our company, our customers, and the world we live in since that time. In fact, 2010 was the year Tigerpaw transformed our business model into a subscription-based one. That was a challenging move at the time, but one that was part of change that’s revolutionized pretty much the entire software industry.
Now the Year of the Tiger is back, and with it, the promise of big changes, enthusiasm, courage and generosity. And couldn’t we all do with some of those things after the year that was 2021? Let’s have a little fun and inspiration by looking at 5 ways to harness the power of the Year of the Tiger:
Be courageous in your business decisions
Tigers are known for their courage, and it’s time to take some out of the bank and use it. If you’ve been thinking about doing more work “on the business” and not just “in the business,” this is your year. 2020 hit us all hard; 2021 forced us all to take inventory, and 2022 is the year to roll up our sleeves and move forward.
Thinking about diversifying your business? Need to add new skill sets to support the remote workforce for your customers? Looking to make security more of a priority for the people you serve? Dig deep, find that courage, and go for it. Tigerpaw will release the first-ever business automation platform to serve a ton of managed technology channels AND the office equipment channel in 2022. That means you can deliver on the diversification options you have the courage to build!
Contact one of our Tigers to learn more about the roadmap.
Define your vision and follow it
Tigers are known for going it alone when needed in order to to follow their vision. 2022 is going to be a year of making bold decisions and doing things others may not have the foresight or self-belief to pursue. A famous quote from Wayne Gretzky, one of hockey’s all-time greats, sums it up nicely: “Skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been.” This is never easy to do, but success isn’t built on “easy.” You don’t get ahead of the competition by doing what your competitors are doing.
Tigerpaw’s vision for 2022 drives us toward serving more of our customers’ needs than ever in our 37+ year history. We’re laser-focused on building more features and automations to help you spend less time doing mundane tasks and more time growing your business. We hired a ton of new developers and added other key positions in the past year to help us deliver on this. Interested in being part of the Tigerpaw vision? There’s still room on our growing team! Check out our careers page today and get ready to release YOUR inner tiger!
Be generous and give back to others
One of the traits of the Year of the Tiger is generosity, and we could all use a little more of that as we claw our way back to some kind of new normal. There are many ways to be generous, but here are a couple of places to start:
Education
Tigerpaw knows that while great software helps our customers manage their businesses, education and expertise are needed to help them grow in new and innovative ways. That’s why we’ve invested in business outcome-driven implementation plans, training, customer support, and ongoing educational opportunities to make sure our customers are getting the full benefit of Tigerpaw.
We’re also committed to sharing thought leadership, both within our organization and in partnership with industry experts. This blog, plus TigerTube and Tigerpaw Radio, are filled with educational gold focused on business growth and challenges. Our Top 100 initiative has brought together industry change-makers to come up with ideas and solutions to help folks in the channels we serve. In the Year of the Tiger we’ll be producing more educational content than ever before, and all of it for FREE.
Volunteering
2022 will be made even more powerful if we all give a little of our time to drive our industries and communities forward. Many of our Tigers will volunteer their time with organizations like the MPSA and the BTA to drive initiatives and programs designed to help all of us to move our businesses forward. There are a ton of organizations you can help too!
Will 2022 be the year we do more to close the gender gap in the software development world? Maybe look at helping Girls who Code by opening a chapter or donating funds. You can also explore volunteering with the largest not-for-profit on Earth, CompTIA, in one of their incredible communities geared towards technology and skillset excellence. At Tigerpaw, we also recognize the importance of our employees’ community involvement by giving all team members paid time off for volunteer opportunities of their choosing.
Rising tides raise all tigers, and we look forward to seeing what awesome volunteer efforts you embrace in the Year of the Tiger!
Keep increasing your flexibility
A key trait of a tiger is flexibility. Some live in the snowy regions of Siberia; others inhabit the jungle regions of southeast Asia and the driest regions of India. (For a cool data visualization of tiger habitats past and present, check out this interactive map at DATABAYOU.) 2022 is going to be the year of remote work, again. Some people will return to the office, a ton will remain working from home, and others will adopt a hybrid approach and do both. One thing we’ve all learned from the pandemic is that new levels of uncertainty require new amounts of flexibility.
Flexibility is essential to retain and attract the very best talent to help us grow our businesses. Show your flexibility by providing standardized toolsets that work whether folks are in the office, working from home, or out in the field. We’ve earned some stripes learning how to be better at remote work management ourselves and are using that experience to make it easier for our customers with Tigerpaw Unleashed. Similar efforts will be required for approved hardware platforms, security models and private networks via SD-WANs. Check out this great video on ending the “Tyranny of the Box” to learn more about the SD-WAN and how it can help support remote work more securely.
Don’t stop looking for efficiencies
2021 will forever be known as “the Year of the Great Resignation,” and the cold hard truth is that attracting and keeping the workforce of 2022 is going to remain a challenge. Combat this by running your business with laser focus and hyper efficiency. As technology solutions providers we all need to do more with less, and an easy way to do that is by making more use of toolsets to drive our business processes. If you’re looking for a place to get started, Tigerpaw has developed a calculator to help you identify how increased utilization rates lead to additional revenue without hiring more technicians.
Another way, a fundamental way, is to use a business automation platform that will give you more time back for ALL your departments. Sales funnel management, CRM, back office, dispatch boards, time tracking, contracts, inventory management…you can enjoy all of this and more for one simple price with no surprises. Take a look at how one software platform can automate all your businesses processes.
The Year of the Tiger will present opportunities and challenges for us all. We’re excited to work with our customers and partners to make it the best year yet for your business!
