I wanted to make something

That is the answer to why I decided Ideal Project Group should have an internal project and develop a product of our own. Now, this is a small step in a slightly different direction than I had originally anticipated; that I would focus solely on providing project management. In fact, the home page of my website says this:

Because we focus exclusively on Project Management, our incentives are exactly aligned with yours. We’re not trying to up-sell you on consulting, market analysis, or any other business services. Our only goal, and the only reason we’re in business, is to successfully manage your projects and deliver the desired results.

Then, in the "About" Section of my website, I say this:

Ideal Project Group LLC specializes in, and our only business is, Project Management. We do not and will not employ developers, business consultants, or any other myriad of professional services. Our only business is your projects.

The point in these statements was that I wouldn't be trying to up-sell customers an additional service. That Ideal Project Group could always be counted on to provide unbiased opinion and consultation, and that we wouldn't benefit by employing others on a project we were managing, ultimately creating a "moral hazard". This is still the case.

I haven't fundamentally altered the strategy of my business, (though I will be updating my website) I just had an idea I'd like to pursue. Of course, there are additional benefits of building our own product as well. First, it will be fun to work on a project in exactly the way I prefer. For example, not caring where a designer or developer works from. If I happen to have the good fortune of finding the right person in the same city I live in, then that's great and it would be wonderful to spend a little time with them now and then. But limiting the entire talent pool in all of the world down to a single city? That seems like a bad business decision.

It also provides me with something that I can share with and show to the rest of the world. The nature of the business is that NDA's are signed and a lot of the project specifics of what I work on are considered proprietary/confidential information. Building our own app helps build towards a meaningful public portfolio that I can openly share and discuss. In this regard, just building the application is a win for my business.

Lastly, and probably most importantly, it engages Theresa on a fun, interesting project right away that is extremely important to my company. When is the last time you felt like you were working on something important for your employer? If it's been a while, that's a bad sign. Working on this app also adds to her experience and ultimately allows her to grow into a position with my company where she's taking on more complex client projects. Here again, the core business of Ideal Project Group benefits from the development of this application.

It would certainly be nice if we ended up making a little money as well, but it's a fortunate situation to be in where just completing the first version of the application instantly helps the part of my business that's ultimately funding its development.

Welcome....Theresa Valdez

Today was a big day for Ideal Project Group. I hired my first employee, Theresa Valdez, about two weeks ago and today marked day number one. Theresa and I have worked together in the past so there are none of the worries/concerns/jitters that would normally come with a new employee. This is perfect because quite frankly, I can't afford to screw up my first hire.

Theresa joins Ideal Project Group as a Project Coordinator and will be making an immediate impact. Working on everything from growing the business by focusing on some new key areas, to assisting with a couple projects that I'm working on, Theresa is starting not a minute too soon.

Most notably, Theresa will be the Project Manager for our first internal software project - running everything from start to finish. We'll be posting more about the application that we're working on later, but I'm pretty excited about it and there's no one I'd rather have working next to me.

With a technology heavy background, Theresa brings Project Management, Business Analysis, Technical Writing and QA experience to Ideal Project Group. More important than her experience though is the speed and quality with which she accomplishes her work. I'm very excited to bring Theresa into this tiny family and can't wait to see what she accomplishes.

Theresa will be based in LasVegas, NV where she currently resides.

Talent is Far More Important than Experience

It absolutely amazes me that so many organizations focus on how much experience a person has when considering who to hire. Look at any job posting, and you can be assured it will clearly call out how much experience the job poster thinks a person should have for a particular role. What won't you see? Anything mentioned about talent.

In the most absurd cases, talented people are passed up for internal promotions in favor of less talented people with more experience. Why does this happen? Who knows for sure, but I suspect a lot of it has to do with a hiring manager being unable or unwilling to do battle with their superiors, or possibly the HR department, over who they can hire. It's too bad too, because these are exactly the people that can a great company.

Let's say you're hiring a Customer Service Manager, or an Operations Manager or a Project Manager. Does it really matter if they have 10 years of experience instead of 5? Sure, it would be ideal to get an extremely talented person who also had a ton of experience. But why put experience up front? Why make it a litmus test for whether someone gets past whatever your initial screening process is? Experience is great, but it's by no means a substitute for talent.

When someone says: "I want a person with at least 10 to 15 years worth of experience for this role", what they really mean is, "I'm assuming that someone with 10 to 15 years of experience is going to have the skill and talent required to be successful." That may be the case; but it might also be that they're nothing more than good corporate politicians.

Businesses need to operate like sports teams in this regard. Sports teams scout based on talent first, and experience second. They look at past performance, speed, agility, and whatever else they're interested in. The experience that a player brings to the table is certainly beneficial, but it's talent the gets the player through the door. Let's say it another way; How many 60 year olds have been playing golf longer than Tiger Woods? That may be an extreme example, but you get the point.

When you're looking to hire someone, talent comes first.

How to Start a Business in Chicago

Since starting Ideal Project Group in 2006, numerous people have asked me what steps you need to take in order to open a business in Chicago. When I first looked into creating the company, I recall being appalled at how many different sites I had to visit just to make sure I was doing everything correctly. In addition, it was pretty difficult just to determine the order of the steps I had to take. The disclaimer to this post is that I'm not an attorney, this isn't legal advice, and it's your responsibility to make sure you've done everything correctly. This being said, everything below outlines what was done to create Ideal Project Group, LLC. I hope you find this information helpful, and if you happen open a business I wish you the best of luck.

Step One

First, go to the Secretary of State's website to make sure the name you want to use isn't taken. Once you've come up with a name, register your business by filling out the online application. (Note, this is the LLC application, but you can browse the site for other corp. types that you can set up.) You can do all this online, and it costs a whopping $600 - ouch. Do this step first because you don't need a federal ID to register your business, but you do need your business name, which will be required when you go to get your FEIN.

Step Two

Get a Federal Employer ID (FEIN) from the US government. This is essentially a SS# for a business. Hooray, you are now a small business - one little piece in the backbone of the American economy.

Step Three

Now that you're a business, you'll need to register with the state of Illinois. This is also to give you a license at some point so depending on your business type you may want to wait until you've secured a business location. In addition, this will give you your Illinois Business Tax ID - so the govt can collect sales tax. This is used if, for example, you're a retailer. If you don't collect sales tax you'll likely never use this number except for when you get your license from the City of Chicago.

Step Four

To do business in the city of Chicago you need to get a City of Chicago Business License. For this one, you need to have your Illinois Business Tax ID which we just covered in Step Three. Also, you may need to have a location so the city can okay the business you're going to start in the location you want to start it. The form for this can be found here, and it also contains many of the links I provided above.

You have to actually go down to city hall to get the license, but it's not that big of a deal. In fact, I recall being surprised at how efficiently the place was run. On top of that, you'll meet a bunch of other people starting their own business, and the process of actually going to City Hall, applying for the license, and seeing other entrepreneurs was pretty inspirational. This of course is after you get over the fact that in America you need a license from the government just to start a business. But, let's not get into that now.

Step Five

If/When you hire employees, you'll also need to register with the Illinois Unemployment Insurance Agency. They'll calculate the percentage of your employee's salaries that you need to pay for unemployment insurance.

That's it. The first two steps are the most important because once that's done you can go to the bank and open a checking and savings account and a credit card in your company name. Then you can start buying stuff under your new company name!

Step Six

Get to work!

I hope you found this helpful, and for those of you that are starting a business, I wish you the best of luck.
 

Better Late than Never

I've been wanting to start this blog for a while, and frankly I have no excuse as to why it took me so long. After all, I've created a number of blogs before and this layout took me all of 10 minutes to put together using blogger; not to mention that I've been in business for almost three years.

Better late than never I suppose, and at long last I finally have my blog about Project Management. I intend to write relatively often, though I make no commitments as to how often I'll be posting. I'm not going to limit myself solely to Project Management, but also plan to provide plenty of opinion about business in general and entrepreneurship in particular.

I also plan to re-work the Ideal Project Group main site a bit, at least in terms of the content, to more accurately reflect how my views on Project Management have evolved over the past few years. My core beliefs haven't changed much at all actually, but what has changed is my perception of how those beliefs should be communicated to the outside world. In short, I think I "corporatized" my message and I need to undo this.

Lastly, I've been feeling lately like I'm taking a hell of a lot more than I've been giving. Numerous people have helped influence my understanding of the web, technology, business and a host of other things, but I haven't been paying any of that back. This needs to change and I intend for this blog to be a vehicle for these contributions.

I'll link to the blog from the main site shortly, once I finalize a few design and content decisions. In the meantime, thanks for stopping by.