Entries Tagged 'Planning' ↓

A good way to picture a project, is like a corporation. It is a “Thing” that doesn’t really exist, but is comprised of many real world things that do exist. The documents, code, and the people who produce it; bring life to something. All of this must come together to under the direction of a project manager, who guides the project through its “lifetime”. Projects are defined by:

• A budget of time
• A budget of money
• A certain amount of risk or uncertainty

In project management, the biggest concern is time and money. Money is yardstick by which time is being measured. The longer something takes, the more money it’s costing. This is where risk and uncertainty blow the budgets of most projects. Effective project management depends on an almost obsessive level of planning, to minimize risk. You need a well-designed plan for the project. A proper plan includes construction of a wireframe (business process), prototype (front-end), and architectural design (database field names). This level of detail, is to reduce the uncertainty and risk involved.

A project manager is concerned about:

• What are we going to do? - Taking into consideration the constraints of time, money, and resources; try and meet the requirements of a “wish list” set of goals or features the project is to include.
• What have we done? - Unless there is a plan for what will be done, it is impossible to gauge progress through benchmarks, or milestones, that have been reached.
• What did we do? - How much of the plan has been completed. This is where the obsessive part comes into play. There could be reams and reams of documentation involved. Not only for technical reasons, but maybe legal ones too? This documentation has to be created and maintained continually. The consequence, is a mad scramble when the project is “finished”. Because there is nothing to prove you’ve satisfied all the legal and customer requirements.

No matter how the technology changes, it’s sure to bring about inspiration and more ways to interact with tools, skills, and processes to undertake a project. The project manager uses these skills to produce repeated software project success.

Even when you start a business on a small scale, you still need to do everything in a professional manner. I’ve noticed that no-one understands this better than religious organizations. They have amazing websites. Really good graphic designs, standards compliant, something I didn’t expect at first, but makes complete sense now that I think about it. They are trying to embrace new technologies to get their message across.

I have seen situations where someone comes up with a number, then doubles or even triples it randomly to pad the rate for unforeseen circumstances. - Jeff Knooren

Most people just don’t understand that a website is YOUR way to get a message across. Ignoring really crucial details when they embarking on a new business, is obviously a disaterous mistake. The root cause, seems to be they wish to keep the costs low. If you plan everything in an orderly manner, shoestring budgets are the set up of your small business.

The Budget Client

Every client is on a budget, but some clients just seem that much tighter than the others. The budget client can be the result of doing a friend or relative a favor, or equally just a regular client who never has any cash.

The Good News:
Budget clients are happy when the work you do comes under budget. Though unfortunately this isn’t always the case because they don’t have much room to play with.

The Bad News:
It’s almost a given that any work you do for a budget client, will not be good enough to even mention that you worked on it. This makes them bad for business.

What to do:
Make sure your budget client realizes their projects are not first priority. Extra changes or revisions probably won’t be done, because it simply doesn’t make good business sense to work for the price they’re paying. Of course, this will probably make them aggressive, accept that they aren’t worth it and let them go. If you’re going to work cheap, at least work for non-profit organizations like churches.

You will loose many clients when bidding on projects as a freelance developer. For all the clients requesting “good communication” as a primary concern, they’re often not that good at it themselves. It’s not always your fault though, even when they try and make you think it is. My advice, is to not get discouraged and self doubt yourself. But also, don’t invest the time in giving them a piece of your mind. They probably won’t read it, just move on.

Technophobe clients will put your communication skills to the test. - Jeff Knooren

The lesson you should take away from that experience, is to decide if the next client is worth working for. It’s hard to turn away paying work. But it’s also not worth being treated with a little common courtesy. Something, that is unfortunately all to common on the internet. So, here are some behaviors to look for, and look out for when dealing with your next job.

Paranoid

This person has a background in the legal profession somehow, because they love Non- Disclosure Agreements. You wind up trying to straighten our points of terms and definitions, rather than doing your job.

The Good News:
Nothing will be overlooked. If you’re the kind of person who appreciates the details and covering all the bases, it might not be problematic to work with this person. As long as you don’t breach any part the contract, you should get paid.
They might also represent some government agency, and the pay scale is usually much higher than anything else out there.

The Bad News:
Often within the contracts are a whole list of grounds for the client dismissing you without payment. Grounds might be that you miss a deadline for whatever reason (even if the paranoid client is at fault). Also, a personalized legal agreement is very expensive if you need to retain the services of a lawyer to review their contract.

They are always on the lookout for evidence that they are being ripped off or overcharged. This requires additional administrative duties on your part to document IN WRITING every detail and minute of time being spent.

What to do:
It depends on how big the job really is. They often want specific details about mundane tasks, or want to follow up on irrelevant details. Such as, wanting wedding photos scanned in, and asking for previous experience with scanning, or previous job references. It might not be worth the effort.

Most companies have legal agreements because they want to protect themselves or sensitive projects, but the paranoid client gets paid to be protected, so you should quote more to cover your documentation costs.

You will loose many clients when bidding on projects as a freelance developer. For all the clients requesting “good communication” as a primary concern, they’re often not that good at it themselves. It’s not always your fault though, even when they try and make you think it is. My advice, is to not get discouraged and self doubt yourself. But also, don’t invest the time in giving them a piece of your mind. They probably won’t read it, just move on.

This person puts your communication skills to the test. They just don’t understand technology, so you’ll have to make lots of analogies to explain things. - Jeff Knooren

The lesson you should take away from that experience, is to decide if the next client is worth working for. It’s hard to turn away paying work. But it’s also not worth being treated with a little common courtesy. Something, that is unfortunately all to common on the internet. So, here are some behaviors to look for, and look out for when dealing with your next job.

Uninterested Client

The uninterested client doesn’t want anything to do with the website, and could careless about the minutia of why something doesn’t work, or the best ways to do things. When you ask them questions about their business, the responses are minimal and feels somewhat like you have to drag information out of them.

The Good News:
They will give you a lot of freedom in terms of design, and achieving the final result, as long as you don’t mire them down in the details of how you go about it. You also tend to get additional side projects that this person doesn’t want to deal with.

The Bad News:
The uninterested client will ask you to do many tasks outside of any formal agreement. Typically referred to as “scope creep” they pass anything they don’t want to deal with anything web related onto your plate. They make assumptions that these things should be done for free, because you have a “web contract” with them. Not realizing this should incur extra cost. This could be copywriting (when you’re a web designer) to printing brochures (when you’re a copywriter).

What to do:
It takes prodding to find out what this person is up to. Get used to calling or emailing repeatedly. A humorous tone helps, because an uninterested client isn’t trying to be rude. Mostly, it’s procrastination of doing something they don’t want to do. Explain that extra work is an opportunity to outsource to you, for a nominal fee of course.

If you manage to complete all the small projects, you will be known as someone who ‘takes care of business’. But be clear about costs, because they will probably not mention it otherwise. If you’re documenting all the work, in a format similar to this STATEMENT OF WORK. You will be constantly updating this document. At least you prove what you’ve done already, incase they forget.

You will loose many clients when bidding on projects as a freelance developer. For all the clients requesting “good communication” as a primary concern, they’re often not that good at it themselves. It’s not always your fault though, even when they try and make you think it is. My advice, is to not get discouraged and self doubt yourself. But also, don’t invest the time in giving them a piece of your mind. They probably won’t read it, just move on.

…in software development, design is undervalued. Often no user interface design is done, or it’s considered a formality. - Jeff Knooren

The lesson you should take away from that experience, is to decide if the next client is worth working for. It’s hard to turn away paying work. But it’s also not worth being treated with a little common courtesy. Something, that is unfortunately all to common on the internet. So, here are some behaviors to look for, and look out for when dealing with your next job.

Techno-phobe

This person puts your communication skills to the test. They just don’t understand technology, so you’ll have to make lots of analogies to explain things. Another troublesome characteristic, is they want you to fax them everything. Neat-o piece of technology, but there are 10 better ways to send documents today.

The Good News:
Pretty open to any suggestions you have. They will look to you as your technology guru. They will be simply amazed when you come up quick solution, to something that has been bothering them for months.

The Lows:
They have to be instructed on almost everything you do. Again, explaining what you’re doing is chock-full of analogies. A techno-phobes idea of how the website should work, is often the worst way to do it, and people don’t like being told their wrong.

They often don’t understand the context of technological terms. For example, you might have previously told them that ASP means Active Server Pages, but when referring to a business that does ASP; it means Added Service Provider.

What to do:
Make sure everything is in writing for them to reread at their leisure. I recommend creating something like this STATEMENT OF WORK. They won’t read it all in one sitting, but at least you can reference something so you don’t have to repeat yourself. They can look tidbits of information up, as they need it. However, plan on most things being discussed by phone and face-to-face meetings.

Over the last few years, new services such as ifreelance.com have sprung up, and revolutionized the way people who need sites, find people to make them. Be mindful of the buzz-word “revolution”. As an experiment, I signed up for the service to give it a solid evaluation. Here is how the system works. A freelancer, pays a small fee and lists themselves in a category. There are 15 categories, and you can buy all of them if you choose. I signed up for one category, and every day there are like 5 new projects.

…in software development, design is undervalued. Often no user interface design is done, or it’s considered a formality. - Jeff Knooren

How The Service Works

New projects are presented to you, and you read the description someone has posted about what they want. This person, is referred to as a Buyer. You, as a Bidder, fill out a form and give an estimate of what you think it will take to do the project, and you quote a price. Bidders will see their bids as either won, or lost. In the last three weeks I’ve bid on 100 projects. As of today, my record is one in seventy one. That is, I’ve officially won 1 project, and lost 71. If this were boxing, I would one win above a punching bag like Mike Tyson. To the right you will find a graph showing most of my bids, are comparable to others using the system. So far, I don’t think this is the best use of Bidders or Buyers time. Here is the breakdown:

Replying with my estimate took twenty minutes at the very least:

• 100 bids @ 20 minutes = 2000min (or 33 hours)
• 1 Win @ $500.00 (Project took 17hrs to complete)
• 50 Total hours / $500.00 = $10hr

So, in other words, it took me 50 hours to win a single project and do the work. That averages out to $10hr. But also 33 hrs in providing free quotes. The ratio of wins/losses needs to be 2hrs, and not 33hrs to be worth it. Again, it’s not the price of $10 membership, and there is no shortage of projects to bid on. It’s the time wasted in bidding that is the real cost of using the service.

As a Bidder, no matter how much time you spent preparing, or how accurate your estimate is, a buyer is gone with one mouse click. Why? Was it something you said, were you overpriced, didn’t give enough info… there is no explanation. Sometimes Buyers do complain that Bidders didn’t give them enough info. But most of the time, even the most well thought out responses go nowhere. As a Bidder, it isn’t practical to give anything more than cut-n-paste quotes, because you’ve got 4 other projects to bid on.

From The Buyers Perspective

Shopping for computer services online is nothing like the real world. In the real world, you’re encouraged to “Come down to our showroom for a free quote”. Because whatever the business is, knows you’re more likely to buy when you’ve taken the effort to drive to the showroom. Or, gone to three other showrooms, and all the prices are pretty much the same.

If this were boxing, I would one win above a punching bag. - Jeff Knooren

On the internet, the buyers want you to bring the showroom to them, with an unlimited number of bids or price quotes. I can see why this is convenient, but everyone looses. The automated bidding process has turned into competition, like for a home mortgage. That system works for mortgages, because they’re one-size-fits-all solutions. The buyer is not in a better position with 100 project quotes. You should need no more than 5 quotes personally tailored to you.

Summary

Services like ifreelance.com sound like a good idea. Honesty and transparency must be at the heart of how a Bidder prices a project, and what a buyer expects to get for the price. But the only way to win bids, is to lie about the prices and timeframe. Spending an hour to prepare an estimate, along with 100 other people isn’t a productive way to do business. And too many quotes result in a lot of portfolios to look through, and references to check, and time wasted weeding out the ones who can’t do the job.

There are many way to keep track of the time you spend. It should go without saying that, you have to keep track of the time working on a project, so you can bill it to clients. But I recommend, even tracking time spent NOT billable to clients. Reading emails, training, YouTube videos. For instance, writing this post I’m tracking the time it takes to write, format, and publish this article.

“Make an example for me, and if I like it, I’ll pay for it”. If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard that adage… - Jeff Knooren

There is no shortage of time tracking applications out there on the market. I won’t even attempt to list them all. Whatever method you choose, be sure it is easy for you to start and stop your time. I decided to build my own, because I’m a masochist, but also because I knew that if I couldn’t easily starting and stopping time, I’d never use the application, no matter how cool it looked.

Time Tracking database

I used MS Access to create a database to store entries. I simply “punch in” and punch out when I stop or start tasks. Of course, there is a field for entering what I’m doing. Sometimes I put detailed information on the task I’m working on. Usually it’s just a few sentences which serve as a reminder, when I print out a time report. Here is what I came up with.

What the buttons do

1. What project is this, and buttons to create new projects if they’re not available in the list
2. Time entry for current item, with buttons to automatically insert the current time
3. Create a new entry
4. Reports
5. LOGIN keeps track of my passwords

When it’s time to bill clients, I select the project from the dropdown box. If there isn’t a new project, I create it. I won’t show every step in the process, or all the features of my program. And this doesn’t have to be a fancy looking piece of software. The important thing is that I can add projects easily. That’s really the key to all this. Tracking time is boring and tedious, so make the process of doing it as easy as possible.

Here are some tips to keep in mind when billing clients for time:

• Many clients are surprised by how much time it takes to create a website. Good reports combined with a professional time log will alleviate most concerns. Most importantly, it might highlight time is being wasted, because someone continues to change their mind.
• Include your hourly rate in your contracts, and perhaps on your website. It will dissuade some people from haggling over your rates if they see that your rates are firm and universal.
• When you set your hourly rate, choose the increment of time you will round off to as well. Early in my career, a client asked me in what increments I billed. I told him that I billed in 1/4hr increments. I’ve since discovered that I prefer to charge by the minute, with a thirty minute minimum.
• Don’t fudge the billing. I’ve heard web designers who decided that some clients deserved to be charged extra, and the easiest way to do that was bill extra hours. The reason not to do this; If you were an employee, you might get fired for surfing internet porn at work. As a contractor, they’ll demand you pay them back. It’s just not worth it.

“Make an example for me, and if I like it, I’ll pay for it”. If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard that adage… - Jeff Knooren

Reporting

The whole point of tracking time, is to generate reports about what you’ve done. The reports are available in various formats, such as on screen, or exportable Word documents. I only need to generate three reports. The a dump of the entire log, breakdown by Month/Week, and a specific item, like “blogging” or “design”. Here is a sample report, of how much time I’ve spent blogging on my website. Again, nothing fancy:

Notice there are prices here. That was one thing missing from every time tracking application I looked at. There wasn’t a good way to put in dollar values. As you can see, the report calculates prices based on time and hourly rate.

Bonus features

One of the good things about making a time tracking application from scratch, is that over time, you can make small improvements to it as the need arises. For instance, the LOGIN button here keeps track of all my passwords and logins for websites, programs, etc…

Summary

Time is often equated with money, and just as we often find ourselves short of cash, we also find ourselves with short of time. This post took 2.5hrs to create. If I paid myself a salary, I should’ve gotten at least $120 to write this article. To understand where your time goes, it is important to assess how you actually spend it. One way to do this is to keep simple operating records. For this purpose, record activities and accomplishments during a typical week, This should give you a start in observing your time usage more efficiently.

My first recommendation, is don’t; Just don’t. Stay as far away from computers as you possibly can. You either have to hire lots of people starting out, or wear a lot of hats. Consider that if you’re not the person hands on building the site, then you’re the “go-fer”, or better known as the Project Manager. It is your job to get all the stuff everyone else needs to do their job, and you’re also the businessperson who has to dole out the checks. You’ll have to sell services in five major areas of web development:

Engineering

Anyone can learn HTML in a week, and be considered an expert within a month. Many people start out here, because you can’t make anything work on the internet, without knowing some bit of code. You may have been even started out with MS Office software, and built a database, or an excel spreadsheet. Over time you have branhed out to learn the basics of what makes a website work.

Be prepared to change your business cards, as fast as your underwear. - Jeff Knooren

This training, combined with computer networking is a good foothold to have. If you’re trying to branch out from this environment, I bet you’d need help, because it takes a very analytical mind to understand the minutia of efficient programming concepts. This is not typical of other positions, as perfection isn’t required.

Creative

If you are a creative and artistic person, you are probably thought of as artistic. Or, autistic, depending on how you look at it. You create logos and graphics, or pre-press print work. But, you work as part of a larger team that takes care of the analytical programming tasks for you. You will probably find it tedious to work on lines and lines of code, and debug error messages.

Manager

Probably the most obvious, and overlooked hat you will be wearing in this business. Middle management sounds glorious, but your basically the person who makes sure people have what they need, when they need it. Is the client supposed to supply stock photography? Then YOU are the one to make sure the creative people have it on time. This position is quite a juggling act. Because you probably interact with clients who know nothing about the web. So you have to explain it to the uninitiated.

Business Owner

If you don’t have any business, then it doesn’t matter how good you are at the other occupations. If you can’t stay profitable, or bring in new business, you simply won’t be in business very long. I’m not saying you need to be an accountant, but knowing what technology to invest in, and what NOT to spend money on is critical.

It is reasonable to expect that a certain amount of manual intervention is required in tracking the inflow and outflow of money. How do you monitor billing of clients, take care of refunds, etc. You must make sure that all billable time is tracked to an invoice, and submitted to the client.

Customer

There are times when you must make tough decisions to further the business. So, would you buy your won services? Do you need to take on some low level jobs to log some experience? Do you need to charge more for your services? If you do, how can you justify the increase in cost? What can you improve to make the process of web site development smoother for a client?

Your life, as you know it, is over once you ask the question “how does that work”. - Jeff Knooren

Some people love the stress and tension of making hard business decisions. Most of us would rather avoid them. But not matter how you feel, three are many times when a detached, unemotional opinion is needed.

Putting It All Together

My experience has proved that these five services need to work together. There may be times when you want your creative talents to take center stage, and other times when you need to sharpen a pencil and do some math. It’s definitely worth it to pay an expert for a few hours of consulting, just to help you go down the right path in your research, so you don’t fiddle away your time on the internet.

By no means am I an expert PHP programmer. But I understand programming logic, and can modify it with no problem. I’m also not an SEO expert, however I know how to structure pages properly, and have bought keywords on the major search engines. Many of my clients have made me realize the benefit of having a wide area of knowledge. Being able to adapt quickly, and fill in the gaps of your knowledge will often land you contracts you could have missed otherwise.

Trying to categorize the various people involved in designing websites is hard, because for every Graphic Artist that is hired, for sure those people need to fill other roles in their occupation. Roles are unclear, because traditional definitions continually evolve.

As technology gets more advanced, websites become harder to make as an individul, not easier. - Jeff Knooren

Evolving Capabilities

The blended media of print, presentation, and online delivery of… well, everything. How all this “everything” stuff comes together isn’t hard when examined under a microscope; HTML isn’t hard. Designing a User Interface Design isn’t hard. There is nothing about websites that anyone couldn’t learn… with enough time. In other words, it’s easy when you know how. All those easy skills build on each other, and eventually becomes so complex, you need a professional to do it. Modern principals of design, have changed traditional roles in the following way:

• Reduce the number of personnel - This may simply the process as each person “wears more hats.” Part of this is driven by faster methods. Part is due to a technology becoming obsolete, and new ones gaining favor.
• Create more complex skills - Each professional has an unlimited amount of information to keep up with, new skills to develop, background to search for, and processes to evolve. Everyone is overwhelmed in this industry, so understanding responsibility outside of their primary set of skills keeps people working smoothly.
• Compress project phases - The demand for faster and shorter time schedules. Although this is attractive to those needing sites quickly, such compression creates more errors, less quality control. Mistakes and duplicate efforts cost money, so there should be no excuse to have an approval and proofreading process.

Roles and Responsibilities

Of course, there are team members within each of these general groups that cross the borders of responsibility. Each project necessitates a different configuration of staffing. The possibilities of collaboration are infinite, the roles and responsibility are not.

Each group has defined functions, though some functions may overlap. An example is a Webmaster, traditionally though of as a production person, may have client facing responsibilities, or serves as a tech support role. All of these web activities, independent of size or number of people working on them, are handled by three groups:

• Client Group - Initiates communication between the development team, and the client.
• Creative Group - Creates the projects.
• Production Group - Get to the act of building what the first two have laid out.

Client Group

The client group is the person(s) needing to communicate requirements to the creative group, and deconstruct the communication in terms that both parties can understand. This group ultimately pays the bills.

• Client - Is the decision maker who provides direction and writes the checks. They could be a business owner, or even a committee of other professionals. They decide what deadlines need to be met. As such, they must provide any means to achieve what results are expected.
• Project Director - In some cases, this person must be familiar with the terminology of the client. Therefore, this is the person most likely to be deemed the “point of contact” or manager of the project.

Creative Group

The creative group is design capable, either outsource or in-house, that brings visual appeal to the project. Breaking the process of creative activities into definable chunks enables you to identify the right mix of people.

• Art Director - Manages the creative deliverables and supervises the quality of the entire design and production process. The Art Director is responsible for creativity and style.
• Project Manager - Keeps track of all the schedules, budgets, and communications. Easily accessible to oversee projects on a day-to-day basis. The Project Manager is responsible for keeping projects on time, and on budget.
• Researcher - Finds all relevant facts, background information, handles marketing research. The Researcher is responsible for gathering source materials.
• Designer - originates ideas and concepts, coordinates resources, and brings to life the production process of “what does it look like?” Typically, this person was several people, such as typesetter or production artist.
• Webmaster - Has an active role in making the site “do” what is proposed in the project. For example, if there is a store, they manage the shopping carts, install scripts, etc… It is here where the most conglomeration of job roles takes place.
• User Interface Designer - Constructs models of the site. There is a wireframe model, which shows how you get from page to page of a site. It has no graphics, and looks nothing like the final product. The prototype builds off the wireframe, but incorporates the look and feel from the other members of the creative group.
• Programmer - Works with Project Managers to make the site actually DO those crazy things that have been planned out and documented. They are also responsible for maintaining and optimizing their efforts.

Production Group

The production group provides the finishing aspects of the project. For the print industry, there is a more linear workflow. You can’t print a newspaper, until all the pages are laid out.

• Writer - generates the text for the written parts of the project. This could be help documentation, or copy. Their primary function is to proof-read, and provide another set of eyes to differences in language.
• Editor - evaluates the writing and adapts text to the design if necessary, and reviews proofs for typographical errors. The editor is responsible for developing content.
• Printer - advises on the output, and creates proofs, of any printed materials.

Summary

One must be prepared to be asked anything, or be ready to make anything with next phone call. It could be a tree, or an icon. - Jeff Knooren

This list of people and their responsibility is by no means complete. It is meant to give an overview to a process of creative design you might not have known existed. Lots of simple tasks, must come together, and this is what makes building websites such complicated process. Job duties can shift from person to person, but it is always subject to the clients approval.

Sometimes, web development is a no-win situation. Clients think they’re paying too much, Creative group doesn’t have the photos promised by the client, and Production doesn’t have the proofs from the Creative group. Good work has rarely come out of rushing products though a deadline, or having an adversarial relationship with a client. But it’s equally important for the client to be reasonable in their requests. Those that have a cooperative attitude can really help when problems arise. And all thought this creative process there will be problems on a daily basis.

A web design business (henceforth known as a developer) offers services to set up and build websites on the internet. A web design business can be any size; from a one-person business, to a large company with hundreds of people working on varied aspects of multiple projects. The goal is to offer professional advice relating to building websites.

Expanding your business isn’t always the right course of action. If you can’t balance growth, and work at the same time, you wind up with unhappy clients. - Jeff Knooren

There are three sizes of websites. It’s pretty obvious, but the sizes are small, medium, and large. Small is a personal site. Medium is corporate or commercial. Large encompasses everything above the first two. You could create more categories like huge, or gigantic, but let’s not worry about specifically trying to define them, or create sub-categories.

In addition to designing websites, many developers offer a variety of services. These can include consulting and training, web site hosting (space where the sites are accessible to the internet) programming, e-commerce, search engine optimization, marketing, etc… You many need to provide some or all of these additional services, depending on your area of expertise and the need of your market.

Your business can be located in your home, or a commercial office building. I have found that a developer should not be located in a luxurious office with high overhead. The cost of this office space is passed too your customers. Obviously, if it makes sense to have a large office, then it makes sense to have an office. But perk of being a professional in this business is you don’t have a permanent office. So, how do you decide when to expand? I have prepared the following test.

Stay Small

• I can make my own decisions without requiring a team discussion.
• Dealing with Human Resources, work environment, and payroll, is tedious.
• If I feel like working at 2am, and napping at 3pm, I could do so. As long as work is still moving along, the schedule is more flexible.
• If I get a job that requires a skill I don’t have, I can hire someone who has it.
• If a client is happy, I enjoy knowing I’m the reason for their happiness.
• Problems can be addressed quickly, because you have the authority to act towards a resolution, without having to ask permission from superiors.
• Working hours are more productive, because there are fewer distractions at the water cooler.

Expanding

• Responsibility for decision making is shared.
• With others to depend on, more work can be handled simultaneously.
• You could hire people to do the tedious work, like accounting and HR.
• A large pool of talent is readily available without having to search them out.
• Teamwork can lead to a better product.
• You must turn work away?

I can’t wait until computers work just like they do on Star Trek. - Jeff Knooren

Expanding your business isn’t always the right course of action. If you can’t balance growth, and work at the same time, you wind up with unhappy clients. In this web design business, it’s better to pass on projects you can’t handle, than have unhappy clients.