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software tools operations sme
What Happens After You Buy 'All-in-One' Software
All-in-one tools promise simplicity but deliver consolidated complexity. Everything in one place doesn't mean everything is clear.
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Essays and thoughts on systems, design, and building.
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- |compliance systems operations accounting
Why 'My Accountant Handles It' Isn't a System
Accountants handle paperwork. They don't prevent operational non-compliance. That's a system problem.
Read more - |tools systems operations productivity
Airtable, Monday, Asana — Why the Tool Doesn't Matter
Teams debate tools endlessly. The tool is almost never the problem. The process underneath, the ownership, the behavior—that's what breaks.
Read more - |photography architecture visual-systems documentation
What Architectural Photography Actually Captures
Good architectural photography reveals the designer's intent—whether executed or not. It's structural analysis with a camera.
Read more - |communication remote-work operations productivity
Async Communication for Small Teams
Async feels slow at first but it's actually faster—it forces clarity and reduces loops. Less interruption, better decisions.
Read more - |systems operations sme
Why Automating a Broken Process Makes Things Worse
Automation doesn't fix problems — it scales them. If the process is broken, automation multiplies the brokenness faster than anyone can fix it.
Read more - |automation sme operations roi
What Automation Is Worth It for Small Businesses
Most automation advice assumes you have engineers on staff. Small businesses need a different filter: repetitive, predictable, low-judgment.
Read more - |events av systems operations
Designing AV Systems for Non-Technical Users
The waiter, manager, or receptionist will operate this system. They're not audio engineers. Design for the least technical user.
Read more - |systems operations sme
What I See in Businesses That Finally Stabilize
Stabilization follows a pattern: constraints accepted, ownership clarified, exceptions reduced. Stability isn't calm by default — it's calm by design.
Read more - |photography operations visual-systems asset-management
Why Most Business Photography Is Wasted
Photos get taken, used once, then forgotten. Without a system for organization and retrieval, photography is a cost center, not an asset.
Read more - |systems operations compliance
Why Compliance Is System Behavior, Not Paperwork
Compliance fails not because someone ignored the law, but because behavior wasn't encoded. Paperwork proves compliance — systems create it.
Read more - |tools adoption sme
Why €20/month Tools Don't Change How People Work
The bottleneck isn't tool cost. It's adoption, ownership, and behavioral change. Cheap subscriptions lower the barrier to purchase, not the barrier to actual use.
Read more - |communication availability operations productivity
Why Constant Availability Slows Teams Down
Availability creates the illusion of speed. Underneath, the system stops carrying load. People stop checking docs—someone will respond.
Read more - |consulting execution systems hiring
When a Consultant Is the Wrong Choice
Consultants are hired for advice when the business needs execution. You get a PDF and an invoice. Nothing changes.
Read more - |systems tools operations sme
CRM vs ERP vs 'One Tool for Everything' — What SMBs Actually Need
Tool confusion is a symptom of unclear operational boundaries. Define the process first, then pick the tool. Usually, you need less than you think.
Read more - |systems operations sme
Why Your CRM Isn't Used (And What That Actually Means)
Most small business CRMs sit empty or outdated. The problem isn't the tool—it's that no one owns the behavior it requires.
Read more - |compliance croatia fiscalization operations
What Croatian Fiscalization Actually Requires
Fiscalization rules are poorly explained. Business owners are confused or misinformed. Here's what you actually need to do, without jargon.
Read more - |digitalization croatia eu sme
What Digitalization Really Means for Croatian Small Businesses
Digitalization in Croatia often means installing software to satisfy EU requirements. But without ownership and behavioral change, it's just theater.
Read more - |philosophy thinking meta epistemics
Epistemic Guardrails I Use
It's easy to believe your own framing. Separate thinking output from identity. Revise without ego.
Read more - |eu-grants digitalization croatia transformation
What EU Grant-Funded 'Transformation' Actually Looks Like
EU digital vouchers incentivize maximal scope and checkbox adoption, not operational change. Once reporting ends, the system decays.
Read more - |software eu sme tools
Why Most EU SMB Software Is Overbuilt
SaaS designed for US markets assumes scale and growth trajectories that don't match European SMB reality. Croatian businesses need simpler tools, not more powerful ones.
Read more - |systems operations sme
Why Everything Still Ends Up With the Founder
Delegation fails not because people are incompetent, but because the system routes everything back to the founder anyway.
Read more - |tools excel operations
When Excel Is Fine — And When It's a Liability
Excel isn't the problem. The problem is when Excel becomes the system of record for things that change, require collaboration, or have compliance implications.
Read more - |events operations planning
Why 'We'll Figure It Out on Site' Always Fails
On-site improvisation is expensive. Decisions made under pressure are usually wrong. The site is for execution, not design.
Read more - |systems operations transformation sme
What Happens After the First System Actually Works
The first working system changes expectations. Suddenly, other broken things become visible. That contrast creates appetite for more.
Read more - |compliance operations risk sme
The Real Cost of 'We'll Fix It If They Inspect Us'
Flying under the radar works until it doesn't. The fine is usually less painful than the audit stress. Compliance upfront is cheaper.
Read more - |growth retention systems
What 'Fixing the Leaky Bucket' Actually Means
Most businesses try to grow by pouring more water in. The smart move is fixing the holes first. CAC spirals when retention leaks.
Read more - |compliance croatia employment operations
Foreign Worker Compliance: What Changes in 2026
New regulations create new failure modes. Most businesses won't know until it's expensive. Here's what's changing and what your system needs to handle.
Read more - |vat compliance croatia digital-business
The Hidden Cost of VAT on 'Digital' Businesses
VAT treatment for digital services in Croatia creates friction that pure-software businesses underestimate. Digital doesn't mean simple.
Read more - |philosophy focus decision-making meta
How I Decide What to Work On
Not everything interesting is worth doing. Constraints clarify. Say no more often.
Read more - |operations systems sme efficiency
Manual Processes That Quietly Kill Small Businesses
The cost of manual processes isn't visible until you measure it. What takes 10 minutes daily costs 40+ hours yearly — and that's before the errors.
Read more - |events systems operations
What Live Events Teach You About Systems
In live events, failure is immediate and public. The systems that survive pressure, fatigue, and imperfect people are the ones worth studying.
Read more - |marketing growth systems strategy
The Difference Between Marketing and a Growth System
Marketing is activity. A growth system is infrastructure. Activity without infrastructure creates leads that go nowhere.
Read more - |growth operations marketing systems
Why More Leads Often Makes Things Worse
If your operations can't absorb demand, more leads just creates more chaos. Growth is only useful if the system can handle it.
Read more - |marketing growth diagnosis
Why 'Marketing Isn't Working' Is Never the Real Problem
When founders say marketing isn't working, they usually mean spending without results. But the problem is rarely the channel — it's the system around it.
Read more - |systems operations tools
Why Notion Doesn't Fix Operations
Notion is flexible. That's both its strength and its failure mode. Learn why a blank canvas can't replace operational clarity.
Read more - |philosophy productivity meta self-knowledge
What I've Learned About My Own Operating Limits
I work in bursts. Sustained output degrades quality. Publish when clarity stabilizes, not on a schedule.
Read more - |photography documentation visual-systems authenticity
Photography as Documentation, Not Decoration
Business photography is usually treated as marketing. It's more useful as documentation of what's true.
Read more - |communication processes async operations
How to Design Processes That Don't Need Slack
If a process requires real-time chat to function, it's not a process—it's a conversation. Design for async-by-default.
Read more - |consulting process systems discovery
Questions I Ask Before Starting Any Project
The quality of an engagement is determined before work begins. Better questions upfront mean fewer problems later.
Read more - |systems operations sme
How to Reduce Interruptions in a Small Business
Interruptions aren't random — they're symptoms of missing defaults and unclear ownership. Here's how to reduce them by encoding answers.
Read more - |leadership systems delegation operations
How to Remove Yourself from Daily Decisions Without Losing Control
Control isn't presence. It's knowing what's happening without being asked. Design systems that surface exceptions early.
Read more - |automation consulting systems boundaries
Why I Say No to Most Automation Requests
Most automation requests are solutions to problems that don't exist yet, or band-aids for broken processes. I say no when the ROI doesn't justify the complexity.
Read more - |systems growth debt
The Moment a Business Realizes It Has Systems Debt
Systems debt is invisible until it's expensive. The realization usually comes during growth, when a key person leaves, or when a compliance deadline hits.
Read more - |automation diagnosis operations
A Typical 'We Just Need Automation' Situation
Most automation requests are diagnostic. The problem they point to is rarely the problem they describe.
Read more - |photography production visual-systems operations
Visual Content at Scale: When One Photographer Isn't Enough
Some projects need volume, multiple locations, tight timelines. Scaled visual production needs systems thinking.
Read more - |operations systems scaling
Why 'We'll Just Handle It' Never Scales
Handling things manually works until it doesn't. Memory fails, people leave, and context gets lost.
Read more - |systems operations sme
What Breaks First When a Small Business Grows
Growth doesn't break businesses randomly. It breaks them at the seams—handoffs, coordination, and things everyone just knows.
Read more - |systems operations sme
When You Shouldn't Build a System
Not every problem needs a system. Some problems need more customers, better execution, or just time. Premature systematization creates overhead without payoff.
Read more - |systems operations sme
What I Need to See Before I Agree to Work With a Business
Not every business is ready for systems work. There are preconditions — real pain, willingness to constrain, and capacity to let systems carry weight.
Read more - |growth advertising systems marketing-strategy
Why I Don't Start With Ads
Ads amplify what's already there. If the system is broken, ads just amplify the brokenness faster.
Read more - |automation systems operations
The Difference Between Workflow Automation and Real Systems
Workflow automation connects tools. A system defines behavior. Understanding the difference prevents expensive mistakes.
Read more - |events systems reliability
The Difference Between 'Working' and 'Reliable'
A system can work in testing and fail in production. The gap is stress, fatigue, and distraction. Reliable means it works when everything else is going wrong.
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