Moving at the speed of small

One of the best things about being a small business is that you get to move at lightning speed relative to large organizations. This is especially true when you're working with another small company to get something done. To illustrate the point, here is a time-line of events for a project we're working on. Keep in mind part of this happened over Labor Day weekend.

Friday 9/4 - 12:50pm: Job Post is placed on the 37Signals job board.
Saturday 9/5 - 9:32am Application received from qualified developer along with sample applications.
2:00pm - Non-Disclosure Agreement sent to Contract developer
6:00pm - NDA electronically signed.
9:37pm - Basecamp Project Space shared with developer
Sunday 9/6 - Developer reviews project space. I review applications developer has built to date.
Monday 9/7 - 10:55am - Quick chat in campfire about project question(s)
Tuesday 9/8 - 8:30am - Initial proposal received from developer
10:00am - Quick call to discuss a couple points of clarification on application architecture/design. (This is our first verbal communication)
5:41pm - Contract and SOW sent to developer
Wednesday 9/9 - 4:52pm - Contract fully executed by both parties.
Monday 9/14 - Development scheduled to begin.

Calendar days from job post to contract signing: 5 (2 business days)
Calendar days from job post to work starting: 10 (4 business days)

I've seen it take longer than 10 days just to get the language for a job posting put together. It takes reminding sometimes, but those of us who run small companies shouldn't be ashamed of our size. We should use it to our advantage.

By the way, I am officially at the point where I have no clue how I would run my business without the products by 37Signals.

The app is coming!

We're really happy to announce the launch of the site for the app we're working on. Check it out!

Make it easy for people to work with you

When trying to find a vendor or partner for a project, I always pay special attention to the way a company communicates and engages with me during the initial rounds of communication. These first interactions give you an excellent view into what it would be like working with another party, and tell you a lot about a company.

If someone gives you a completely one sided Non Disclosure Agreement where you have to sign away any idea you ever come up with just to talk to them about a project, they're telling you that they don't care about being reasonable and fair. If you have to wait 5 days for the legal department to approve a change to one line of a contract, don't expect to be able to move very quickly once you're working on a project with them. If a proposal doesn't clearly communicate services and the cost of those services, the entire engagement will be a mess. If someone requires you to use a fax machine for anything, don't expect them to be open to new technologies.

Contract negotiations, responses to proposal requests, and initial interactions tell you what it will be like working with someone in the best of circumstances. If you're easy to work with from the start, people will be much more likely to choose to continue working with you. Why this simple concept seems to escape so many is beyond me.

Take for example what I do now with my Non-Disclosures. Any time I need someone to sign an NDA, they get a link to my website where the NDA resides which they can electronically sign if they're comfortable with it. In addition, they get a link to the same exact NDA that's available on a writeboard, a wonderfully elegant and simple product from the folks at 37Signals that provides an easy and quick way to collaborate with others.

They get this other link before they even ask for any changes to be made. Why? Because I recognize that there may be something in my NDA that inadvertently makes another party feel uncomfortable, or that they think is unfair. I don't want them to feel bad about asking for a change to it, and I want them to know from the start that I'm open to collaboration and easy to work with. Just making this usually annoying process a bit simpler helps to show others what it will be like to work with my organization on their projects.

Compare this with someone who asks you to print a PDF, mark up the changes with a pen, fax them the changes, wait a few days for legal to review at which point they re-send a new PDF, ask you to print it, sign it, and then fax it back. Who would you rather work with? Who's going to be easier to collaborate with?

Initial communications say a lot about your company. In everything you do, make it easy for people to work with you.

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.