Cognitive X Blog

Starting a business can be exciting, a life changing event. What people don't talk about is that you're embarking on a ride. Some people have called it the roller coaster ride because of its ups and downs.  I would argue that entrepreneurship is a combination of rides that you can find at the amusement park. Like a roller coaster, merry-go-round, zipper and, the scrambler all rolled into one crazy ride.

Five years in, I've gained a few insights that I'd like to share with you.

Prioritizing and Time Management

As an entrepreneur, there are so many things that compete for your attention in the run of a day. Learning how to set priorities and manage your time effectively are THE most important aspects to master.  You must include all aspects of life here including friends, family, and hobbies.

Surround yourself with like-minded people

Create a network of personal and professional friends that care about your success and growth. Give your precious energy to people that will give it ten folds and support you in your failures and successes. Maybe it's time to take a look at your relationships and do a Friendventory. Dan Martell, a great friend of mine, wrote an excellent blog post on friendships. http://www.danmartell.com/friendventory/

Read and educate yourself

Many have done what you are trying to do, why not learn from them, from their mistakes and successes. For me, it isn't about following a doctrine; it's about building an inventory of knowledge that becomes a source of influence for the way you run your business and your days.

Get a mentor/business advisor

Find someone that has succeeded and ask for advice or help. You'll be surprised how easily approachable people are when you ask for guidance. Learn from others that have already done it. Sometimes the best advisors are from a different industry than your own.

Invest in yourself

Spend time on numero uno. As a business owner, it's easy to lose sight of your personal needs. Find a hobby that takes you out of your daily schedule and do it often. Take vacations, go hiking, spend time meditating, ride your bike or go for long walks. Doing good for yourself will give you the energy you need to grow your business. 

Help others, volunteer

Don't underestimate the value of helping others. Volunteering, not only,  has the benefit of creating value in the lives of people in your community, but it also helps you feel great. There are numerous opportunities to enlist in your community.

Feel free to reach out. I'll be glad to spend time with you to help you find out what your list could look like.

We love our team at Cognitive X. <3

The team members, at Cognitive X Solutions, have created amazing solutions for our clients from the day we opened our doors five years ago. For that we are thankful.

When working closely with our client's, our team; ensures that they understand the purpose and the business needs, choose the right tools and, deliver on the promise.

It's essential for our team to consistently learn new programming concepts and sharpen existing ones. From watching video presentations to taking part in an online course, our team is always looking for new and better ways to solve technology problems. Recently, a member of our team was able to get certified as a Xamarin Certified Developer.  

We also take part in lunch and learns, during which a developer, of any level, shares his/her favorite new technique over lunch with the rest of the team. The subject of the talk is often project related but doesn't have to be.

Partnerships are essential for growth at Cognitive X. Our Senior Architect initiated the partnering process with PostSharp Technologies. Part of our agreement was to present their technology to potential buyers through a monthly webinar, which gave us invaluable exposure as experts in Aspect Oriented Programming.

Our team stays involved with the greater development community. We've given many talks to the Moncton Developer User Group and the Fredericton Developer User Group, and we are always looking for a chance to share our knowledge with our fellow developers.

As a company, we like to give back to the community as a whole. We've extended the pleasure of giving to our employees by empowering them to volunteer for their favorite cause for up to 4 hours a month. So far we've been able to give our time to the Greater Moncton Progress Club, SPCA in Tracadie and the Moncton Pregnancy Resource Center. 

In 2019, we want to be the best place to work for in Atlantic Canada for a Developer. The whole team, at Cognitive X, is working together to define what that truly means.

If you are amazing and are interested in being part of our fantastic team, don't hesitate to contact us at careers@cognitivex.com.

We would like to take this occasion to thank you,  our friends (clients , supporters and vendors), for the confidence they have put in us. 

Over the years, we have had the chance to build some great products for our clients. 

Here are a few interesting tidbits.

- We've helped 8 startups build their software as a service (SAAS)

- Had the pleasure of working with over 50 great clients

- Completed hundreds of projects, some were challenging, all were great to work on

- Our team has grown steadily to 8 professional software developers

- We continue to foster developer growth by supporting the MonctonUG

- We like to get S#!t done!

Partnerships

We've invested and partnered with Xamarin to help us build great mobile applications.  While investigating better ways to write software we identified Postsharp as a great product company to partner with. With Postsharp, we can write better, cleaner code.

Onward

Expect great things from us in the near future and years to come. We want to be known as the best place to work for a developer in Atlantic Canada, attract skilled workers from outside the province to show them true Maritimer hospitality and continue on our path to becoming a world-class software development company. Right here in Moncton, NB.

From the bottom of our hearts. Thanks again (We can't say this enough) for your friendship and support.

Looking forward to our next encounter over lunch or coffee.