Don’t let the prospect of one sale drive your product development.

TimeDock is an intuitively simple-to-use mobile time-tracking system that uses QR-barcodes or NFC tags to allow workers to ‘swipe in’ with enabled Android or iOS devices as they arrive to work.

TimeDock is especially suited to field-based contractors with supervisors acting as check-in terminals and employees needing only their ID card to check in.

BusinessInterviews.com:  What inspired you to launch your business?

Le-roy Staines:  I had originally thought it’d be ‘very cool’ if you could, as a construction business, clock staff into work using QR codes. Then, back when I was still contracting as a software developer, I was at a meeting with a construction client. During the meeting my client expressed their pain at collecting time-sheets for out in the field and how there was ‘nothing for them’. This was the catalyst I needed to inspire me to produce a prototype and secure our first customer.

 BusinessInterviews.com:  What issue does your core product help solve and how so?

Le-roy Staines:  We make portable time-tracking (for time-sheets) uber-easy. Most field-based supervisors have iPhones and Android smartphones, but they don’t have time for fiddly miniaturized mobile spreadsheets or long lists of employees. Because of this the payroll administrators are still putting up with the system of collecting hand-written paper time-sheets. Collecting those time-sheets is a difficult task as they are often late, forgotten, lost, and inaccurate, and must be manually keyed into payroll. This pain point is what we are solving.

BusinessInterviews.com:  What has been your biggest challenge as a business owner and how have you met that challenge?

Le-roy Staines:  Work-life balance.

For a long time I struggled with working ridiculously long hours, often due to the pressure of growing the business, customer support and sales demands (in opposite TimeZones).

Fortunately we are now in a stage that I can defer a lot of the workload to employees of the company. I still do the occasional late night but for most part the work-life balance is on much more of an even keel!

BusinessInterviews.com:  What’s the most exciting thing on the horizon for you/your Company?

Le-roy Staines:  Snowballing customer acquisition! We are now growing into many foreign markets, including non-English-speaking which is pretty exciting!

As a software developer, I’m also pretty excited about some of the developments we’re working on behind the scenes including a pretty revolutionary new data model that’ll allow us to really up our game in terms of competitive features.

BusinessInterviews.com:  Have you had any mentors or role models that have influenced you? Describe the impact.

Le-roy Staines:  I’ve had massive influence from several role models. In particular Warren Coogan, our BDM and financial backer, has been helping me develop myself as a businessman since I worked for his construction company a decade ago from age 17. As well as a business mentor, Warren has always been a strong advocate of my software and design ability and over the years he’s given me the freedoms I needed to really hone my skills and develop I many areas.

BusinessInterviews.com:  Do you consider yourself successful and by what means do you measure success?

Le-roy Staines:  Yes! I’m successful because I’m doing what I love. There’s no need for an elaborate answer here, it’s as simple as that.

BusinessInterviews.com:  What advice do you have for other entrepreneurs and business owners? What do you wish someone told you?

Le-roy Staines:  Don’t let the prospect of one sale drive your product development. In the early days I was bending over backwards for anyone indicating ‘if you just had this feature we’d buy’. But, as we grew, it because a cause for resentment since it A) wasn’t allowing us to control our product to be what we really wanted it to be, and B) grew this expectation with customers that we’d add anything they wanted and when they wanted.

Customer feedback and feature suggestions can be really valuable but don’t add features unless they really should be there. And, if you do, put together a road-map and stick to it. Don’t escalate new features because one or two customers or prospects are jumping up and down.