Idan Kadosh

I don’t think being a workaholic is bad. If it excites you, go for it. You have an idea at 10 PM, sit down and code it.

 

Idan is the co-founder of Send A Job. Idan moved to San Diego after his army service in Israel and established a service referral business focused on getting service leads to emergency professionals. While building his business he grew to love the marketing side of things and wanted to build better cloud based solutions for his peers. In 2010 after selling the now booming service referral business he moved on to try and innovate the way service businesses operate.

Where did the idea for Send A Job come from?

Well, when we built the product we primarily dealt with emergency contractors that simply wanted to “Send the job” to the right guy. (Plus the domain was available…)

What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?

I start with a strong cup of espresso and start looking at yesterdays tickets at about 5 AM. My daughters wake up about 2 hours later and then I escape to the office.

When you are dealing with multiple tasks every week things can get hectic. For me Trello is a true bliss, I literally have a board on Trello for everything from design sprints to home improvement projects.

How do you bring ideas to life?

You first need to see the problem, I’m a true believer that if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it. If you visualize the problem your end customer might be having the ideas really start to flow. Next, you start to code. You design and code the solution until you get to a point where you think “As a business owner, I could really use that”.

What’s one trend that excites you?

Machine learning, the possibilities are endless. For years tech products had to run large queries on endless data sets to get some idea of whats next. Today you have tools that you can simply teach.

What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?

Lists. I can not stress it enough, I take every small “to-do” thought that I have and I list it. Later I can set a priority. When I start my day I have one thing to do, check whats next on the list.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Worry less. We tend to visualize the future and worry about it too much and looking back I now see that things have a way of working out.

Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.

I don’t think being a workaholic is bad. If it excites you, go for it. You have an idea at 10 PM, sit down and code it.

As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?

Be pragmatic and let go of things.
There is two type of issues in life, the ones you can change and the ones you can’t.
The ones you can’t it’s better to put behind.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business? Please explain how.

I would say this is something that is mostly relevant to tech products.
Always look at the user.

Developers often get caught up in how cool their solutions are.
You can have the most sophisticated solution out there but if the average joe can’t figure it out, its worth nothing.

What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?

Delegate tasks.
I found out at a younger age that I cannot do everything.
A project comes up and you think you can do it better than anyone else.
Sometimes you need to take a step back and use other peoples experience.

What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?

I am a strong believer in the service industry.
I believe that good contractors are always in shortage.
This is a business you can start fairly easy from your home, there is no need for buying expensive stock and advertising yourself is easier than ever.
This goes for any service trade painters, plumbers, locksmiths…

What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?

That’s easy, Taizu restaurant in Tel Aviv. I am foody, for me, a good meal is money well spent.

What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive? How do you use it?

Trello.

The interface is very basic and easy.
I create a board for everything.
Development.
Marketing.
Current feature sprint.
Personal todo.
Arrangement before travel.
Next, I create three columns
Todo, in progress, Done

The objective is to move things forward and every time you move something to “Done” you get a nice little sense of achievement.

What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?

Rework. It has solid advice that may seem strange but are very basic and true.
I really think that sometimes the simplest solutions are the right ones.

What is your favorite quote?

“Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.”
Sometimes you need to let go of things that don’t work or already happened. Always look at whats possible.

Key Learnings

• Use small victories, divide your work into small achievable tasks and run through them. Don’t forget to congratulate yourself when you are done.
• Always learn, never assume that you are the master of any subject. You can always be surprised by others point of view.
• Letting go is important in your professional and personal life. Always try to make the best of an existing situation.

Connect:

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Idan Kadosh on Facebook:
Idan Kadosh on LinkedIn: