Subject: Re: Growing pains!


> Can anyone share their thoughts on:
> 
> 1. The whole growing the business thing (strategies, useful tips)

there are two general strategies for growth.   one is to get a bigger
chunk of the same price range, and the other is to get the same size
of chunk in a higher price range.   many businesses follow the former
strategy, with the most prominent example at the moment being
Microsoft.   in the arts and most skilled professions, though, the
second model is generally preferred.

going after a larger chunk is good if you're in a commodity market..
one where the standards for the product are well defined, and
customers pick and choose among several, more or less equal, vendors.

going for the higher ticket price is good for bespoke work.. markets
where no two products are more than vaguely the same.   success in
bespoke trade means high quality and high flexibility, and it's harder
to do that as you add more people.

the most imortant thing to remember when you think about scaling up,
and which your questions already address, is that getting bigger gets
more expensive as you continue to grow.   you have to devote more and
more resources to maintaining the internal structure of the
organization itself.   that overhead chips back both your flexibility
and your speed.   when you're massive as an elephant, you can't be as 
maneuverable as a hummingbird.

in general, web development is more of a bespoke trade than a
commodity market, so it's probably better to tune up the skills of the
people you already have and start sliding up your prices.   the rule
of thumb among the artisans i know is, "decide how much work you want
to do, and set your prices accordingly".



> 2. Where to find decent, qualified people! (I see so many "web
> experts" who know virtually nothing about design or HTML)

it's simple.. you hang out with other talented people, meet friends of
friends, find out who you get along with, and spend time learning to
collaborate professionally.   simple, yes.. fast, no.

unfortunately, there's no other way to accumulate people whose skills
and judgement you trust.   collaboration between professionals is
based on mutual respect, both personally and professionally, and
there's no shortcut for that.   the flip side is that once you've
invested the time and effort to build really good collaborations,
you're more or less immune to competition from the people who do want
to take shortcuts.   that's not much consolation at the input side, 
though.

in lieu of having qualified professionals drop from heaven and land in
your payroll, the next best bet is to work on improving the skills of
the people you already have.   boosting the skill range and
productivity levels of existing staff will give you a good footing for
both growth patterns listed above.

also, don't underestimate the value of your own people as headhunting
resources.   if you can send one of your people to a training session
or convention, you're boosting their skills, but you're also sending a
trained observer into a room full of other professionals.   the other
professionals your own people associate with will be your best bet for
future hires or partnerships.



> 3. Partnerships - should I be thinking of joining up with another
> person in my situation, combining forces? Or just finding a successful
> independent guy and bringing him on with good pay/benefits/etc.?

how much control do you want?   that's the fundamental issue between
the two options.   if you want to be able to say, "you're doing this,
you're doing it now, and you're doing it this way", you want an
employee.   if you want someone who's largely autonomous and can take
responsibility for large sections of a project, making an external
contract is a reasonable option.

hiring employees offers faster lead times and lower initial expense,
but you pay more in overhead keeping them on track.   contractors and
partners are a lot harder to find and tend to cost more at the start,
but the maintenance expense over the long term is lower.

the problem of dealing with contractors is that you really have to
know what you're doing before you start.   the traditional bitch among
salaried employees is that if they were working hourly, they'd be
making less than minimum wage.   that happens because the managers
above them set the goals for the project without knowing whether those
goals are realistic, and rely on the salaried people to meet those
guesses by whatever means necessary.

contractors are harder to abuse that way.   if conditions get bad
enough, they may find other work elsewhere, and cut you off entirely.
certainly, they'll take it out of your hide on the next contract, if
there is a next contract.   therefore, having a good relationship with
a contractor means doing good planning before you negotiate the contract.
again, it's not an attractive option going in, but once you know how
to do good planning and write good contracts, finding and working with
good contractors becomes a lot easier.


if you have more work than you can handle at the present time, you
might look at a split approach in your growth strategy.   identify the
incoming projects which are most like commodities, and start farming
those out to subcontractors, under your general supervision.   that
builds you a talent pool for future collaborations.   it also frees up
more of your own time to handle jobs in the higher price range, and to
upgrade the skills of your existing staff so you can bid on even
higher-ticket projects in the future.