Business-Side

No Omar this week, so I decided to answer a question I get frequently: How do I get started with consulting? Be aware that the advice is worth what you paid for it.

The feature image was generated using the free version of Google’s Nano Banana. Took several prompts to get this image, which is not exactly what I wanted but close enough.

Have a question you want answered in a future video? A challenging or interesting problem you want to see solved? Constructive feedback? Then comment, DM me, or send an email to ask@saturdaymp.com.

Custom software is expensive to build and usually delivered late and overbudget. Custom software, like a garden, needs to maintained and frequently updated. Especially for security updates. Everyone, well almost everyone, forgets to budget time and money for maintenance.

Before getting custom software built you should check for an existing solution. I’m willing to bet something does exist. Don’t get hung up on the 10% the custom software can’t do. Look at the 90% of the problem it does solve.

Book: Talking to Strangers
Author: Malcolm Gladwell

This book has a lot of stories that include a police stop gone wrong, pyramid scheme, Cuban spies, drinking, sexual assault, and torture. A bit hard to follow all the different stories and pick out a theme for the book. At least for me.

My biggest takeaway was finding the balance between trust and doubt. The book points out that most humans are wired to trust by default. We believe what others say and this trust can override nagging doubts.

Check out this post I wrote for Corgibytes about balancing maintenance work with new features when modernizing software. Special thanks go out to my fellow Corgis for their constructive feedback. They convinced me keep the overall idea but re-write my first draft. Plus they fixed my spelling and grammar errors that regular readers of this site are used too.

Saturday MP is a small family business and like your local family run restaurant the entire family is involved in some way.  Currently it’s mostly me working at Saturday MP but Ada helps with some book keeping and in the past was a consultant.  Our daughter also used to clean the basement office and shred papers.

Also, like your local family restaurant, when we take a vacation the entire business closes.  Well, mostly closes, we can still be reached virtually but please expect delays in our response.  Thank you for your patience and we look forward to serving you when we get back to the basement on November 27th.