Category: Pamela Ayuso

Setting Goals and What That Means for Your Growth

Pamela Ayuso December 17, 2018

Setting goals is essential for growth. Without a clear roadmap, the probabilities of getting to our destination are significantly diminished. On the other hand, with planning and perseverance, goals can help us arrive at previously unimaginable points. It is the only way to get to these new places.

Goals can vary immensely depending on the person and life stage. Sometimes a goal can be as simple as accomplishing a life event, like a pregnancy, in the healthiest way possible. Other times, the goal can be completing a major project successfully, such as the implementation of a company-wide system. The goals can change significantly from year to year.

What is important is to aim high and work diligently. The goals will guide you.

How to Build a Growing Company’s Structure and Organization

Pamela Ayuso December 10, 2018

Building an organizational structure is one of the hardest things I’ve worked on as an entrepreneur. It requires many hours of work and design, and the efforts must be constantly adjusted as the context and the way the company operates changes. The organizational structure is the skeleton over which all company responsibilities are built. When it is clear what team is responsible for what and how each role fits into the grand scheme of the company, work is more efficient, and the probability that an important task will get lost is greatly diminished.

How a company is organized depends on its industry, but I’ve found some overarching concepts that I’ve applied to Celaque. These ideas have held ever since I implemented them and have only become more relevant with time.

Growing Your Business and How to Implement Processes that Will Show Results

Pamela Ayuso December 3, 2018

Growth in a company is cumulative, and even small increments over time contribute. The work you have been doing over the years, whether it is time and effort that has been invested in company improvements or training for new skills, builds on top of everything else and becomes the foundation for future actions. That is the beauty of growth.

Progress, however, isn’t always linear. When things are hectic, there simply isn’t any time or energy to invest in new ideas. During periods of high activity, even tiny improvements help. Each new action builds on a previous one and acts like a chain over time. When the period of intense work is over, you can spend time on growth again.

How to Structure Acquired Knowledge in a Company

Pamela Ayuso November 26, 2018

There is a large amount of information that comes into a company on a daily basis. There are many learning opportunities from all those occasions, like insight on best practices, helpful comments, and suggestions. The question is how to bring in all of that acquired information into the company, so it lives as part of the organization itself.

This is not a simple question, and in fact, it’s rather difficult because most of the time, there is no space to think about anything other than the work that must be done. It is nevertheless significant. How can the company become a kind of learning machine that integrates all the beneficial information that will help the company grow even more?

10 Simple Methods to Increase Professional Productivity

Pamela Ayuso November 19, 2018

I often wish I had more than 24 hours in the day. Although obtaining a few extra hours is unfortunately not possible, there are ways to get the most out of the time we do have. These practices have helped me be more productive during the time that I have, and I hope they help you.

Peer Coaching and How It Can Benefit Your Business

Pamela Ayuso November 12, 2018

Sometimes it can feel like we are the only ones facing an avalanche of challenges and that we are alone. What is more likely, though, is that others are going through similar hurdles. One of the ways to find others who are in the same journey is to join a peer group. A peer group will connect you with others who are up to similar projects and will provide a forum to discuss problems and resources. Mostly it will help you understand that you are not alone and will help make the process more enjoyable.

Peer coaching groups are essential in today’s complex world. These can either be formal or informal groups of professionals who come together to share their challenges or projects. Other team members can suggest helpful courses of action or resources. You and your peers are also available for support or advice between sessions.

This Is How Review Processes Can Streamline Success

Pamela Ayuso November 5, 2018

As the CEO of the company Celaque, I need to know and analyze the main events and metrics in each of the departments. The best way I have found to stay up-to-date is through a recurrent review of key indicators and documents within the company. In an established company, this is usually all set up, but in a startup, that is not always the case.

I learned this the hard way as a manager a few years ago. I would sometimes get a question about something that was going on, and I felt embarrassed because I didn’t immediately know the answer. I was in the dark because I didn’t have the numbers at my fingertips or I hadn’t checked in a couple of weeks. I realized then that I needed to find a way to stay on top of the information I needed.

Optimism and Why It Is Crucial for Your Business’s Growth

Pamela Ayuso October 29, 2018

I recently came across an insightful quote on optimism by David Deutsch. In his book The Beginning of Infinity he defines it as follows:

Optimism (in the sense that I have advocated) is the theory that all failures — all evils — are due to insufficient knowledge. . . . Problems are inevitable, because our knowledge will always be infinitely far from complete.

The Beginning of Infinity, David Deutsch

Although Deutsch points to the ubiquity of problems, he also gives us the solution. He says that any “failure” or “evil” can be addressed through information, and that is powerful. Especially as a professional, it is the key to solving the seemingly insurmountable.

And that, according to Deutsch, is optimism: all problems can be solved through knowledge. There is hope.

An Evolving Portfolio Invoicing Process

Pamela Ayuso October 22, 2018

If you manage properties, like we do at Celaque, you probably know how difficult it is to develop and send monthly invoices to customers. As a portfolio manager, we are responsible for billing rent and other fees to apartments or office space. The invoices have many moving parts, depending on the property; ours include monthly rent, late fees, and condominium fees, and each of these items can vary and depend on different factors. This is the story of how we are evolving from manual to automatic billing.

At one point, we were managing a facility’s accounting, sending out about 300 invoices on a monthly basis to the owners and lessees of the building complex. Initially, compiling and distributing the invoices took about two weeks per month. Although we were using Cloud accounting software at the time (Zoho Books) to send out the invoices and manage payments, the invoices were still being manually uploaded one by one.

Music at Work: How it Can Benefit Productivity & Focus

Pamela Ayuso October 15, 2018

One of my greatest allies at my work has been music. As a constant companion, music is always there for me and has contributed endlessly to the work I do.

Whenever I need to concentrate, I put on my earphones and turn to my favorite playlist. It immediately helps me focus on what I am doing. Other times, there are things I don’t want to work on because they are tedious or complicated, and I would prefer to put them off and do something else. I fight the urge to avoid or procrastinate by putting in my earphones, and music gives me the energy I need to work on those challenging tasks.