Small and Medium Business

The other day I was talking to a prospective Client about the future of their business. We had just delivered a list of services we could provide, some of which were not exactly what they asked for but items we discovered that needed to be addressed. These items were less costly than what they had asked for but would quickly answer the most immediate needs. During the conversation this potential client paid us what I consider a very large compliment. He said we had amazed him in how we had personalized our relationship to his organization.

From the time I started my own programming/consulting business as a sole proprietor more than 19 years ago I have been driven to partner with our Clients in a very personal way. As Squaretree has grown we have endeavored to continue to pursue that type of relationship. An IT resource is a big investment for most companies. It is an investment that comes with large benefits and some risks. From day one I have personalized our Clients’ issues and ask all my employees to do the same. I believe that your experience of this will be what makes Squaretree stand out as the premier provider with which you work.

We perform upgrades, custom work, installations and web design work.  This type of work is highly conceptual, the outcome is not easy to visualize and the complexity can be hidden before you actually do the work.  So how do we say we are On Time, In Budget and Beyond Expectations?�
�
We work with our clients to make everything we can into a project.  Then we work with our clients to recognize the limitations of the process and explain how we forecast, prioritize and mitigate against the things we can not know in advance as well has create contingency plans should we not be able to avoid a problem.   These are all standard project management processes but are used less often in the small to medium business market because only a few people/companies have figured out how to apply the correct amount of process to the size jobs we encounter.�
�
We do not mean that we can create an initial budget/time and set of expecatitons and always meet it without modification in mid projects.  What we do mean is that we do not get 90% through a project only to find out that we actually have no idea how much longer it will take to get past “almost done”.  It also means that if there are ambiguous pieces of the project that must get done but where it’s not clear how we will do it we will acknowledge that risk, let you decide if you want to go ahead anyway and put that problem at the head of the line so we know early if it’s going to be a problem or not.�
�
This and many other techniques make it possible for us to make the claim that in the vast majority of cases we are On Time, In Budget and Beyond Expectations.

In 1992, Larry Mandelberg and I were contemplating starting a business together. We needed to find a name that both of us liked. We spent months coming up with name after name: ones that he liked and I didn’t, and others that I thought were great that he hated. Twice we found names that we both liked and our wives hated them.

The evening before we were to show at a conference, we still didn’t have a company name or business cards. Of course, neither of us wanted to use the other person’s current company name so we had to do something. We decided to wing it and just randomly try words hoping for two that combined would create the feeling of what we wanted to create. The name had to look good on hand made cards in script print.

We both were in agreement that we wanted our company to focus on using technology to benefit business with the focus on business. This meant that we didn’t want to use some whiz-bang cute computer techie name. We wanted it to emphasize stability and longevity. We shot some words back and forth and decided to try starting with the word Square, as in “square shooter”, “he’s a square guy”, and “they treated us fair and square”. Besides, the S and q looked good together.

Next we thought we needed a word with a lower case riser like l or t. Soon we tried the word tree and both thought that this word added a feeling of longevity and solidity and reliability.

Thus Squaretree was born. We both figured we could change it as soon as we wanted but at least we had cards for the show. The more we used it, though, the more we liked it. Now over a decade later the name has stuck.

Larry has since left the company for other pursuits but the name lives on and, more importantly, says just what I want it to say. While the two words together have no real meaning I think it creates a feeling of honesty, integrity and reliability. These values are what I want Squaretree to symbolize: honesty, integrity and reliability in using technology to help businesses and organzations realize the most value from their technology investments.