Growth problems in IT business

I will not teach you anything in this post. Maybe I’ll just tell you something you don’t know or don’t know. But you can face it, and then you will be warned. And that means armed. And I also count on the advice of those people who have already gone through these problems and solved them.



So, you are tired of working for your uncle and decided to stir up your IT business. You already have some ideas or breakthrough ideas. Already in the evenings you wrote everything that you planned, you already have a couple of interested clients. And now you proudly left the director's office with a signed statement in a new life.



You work for 12 hours, you are rushing, the first incomes have already gone and you can already compare them with your salary. And it seems that life is getting better. Life just changed. And now you will have other problems. And they will soon be felt.

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What are these problems?



Well, here is their list. I will not give ready-made solutions immediately (and I don’t have them), but I will return to them in the final part, where I will share some of my recipes.

1. Support and sales

When you sold the first ten copies of your product, you still remember all their customers and their problems. You can easily and quickly remove them. You know how and why something broke. And you only spent three days once to find a problem in the configuration of one of your clients. But then sales become a lot. And then a lot . Not even because you are selling more and more every day. You just sell and sell. And they have already sold hundreds or thousands of copies. And your customers have problems with them. Not everyone. In some. Those who do not read the documentation, do not watch the video. For those who could not configure your solution. For those who have a non-standard configuration and environment. For those who are useful to fix something and broke off something. And there are many such people. They are really a lot. And they all require your attention and reaction. Some require an instant reaction (I’m not saying that you need to instantly respond to any problem, but they require you to solve the problem right now at 2 am). They write. They call. They swear and take out the brain. They require a refund. They eat your nerves and your time. You have no time to program. Gradually you spend less and less time on it.



And because you need to sell. The more money you want for the product, the more time you have to spend on pre-market preparation. It is necessary to answer all questions, to talk in detail, to provide a demo version. Discuss the policy of discounts and licensing. Then talk again with the boss, explain that there will be no discounts and the dates will not move. Deal with the TK, which need to modify the product. Because “You understand, 3,000 rubles, this is serious money. We can not just take them and throw. We have to check everything beforehand. ” And all this eats your time.

2. Lack of time and planning issues

If you think that it eats only your work time, you are mistaken. Well, if you have a separate place to work and schedule this work. More often, for beginners, there is no such place and they work from home. About the problem of freelancers who are not allowed to fully work at home, have already been written more than once, I will not repeat. Not everyone can take and throw all working problems out of their heads at 6 pm and go home. Now this is not the problem of the employer, it is now your problem. How to sink and burst. You just have things to do. And you don’t have a boss who can say that I’m not going to do so many things during this time. And you can not quit, you work for yourself.

Even if you are a very rational person and know how to plan correctly (I really envy such people). Even if you successfully and daily overcome procrastination. Even if your plan includes all the surprises. Anyway, you will not have enough time. Because you can not plan a lot of things. You can not plan avraly at key customers. Can't schedule a slide. You can not plan your own disease.

All graphs of your developments are stretched. You are trying to catch several places at once. Your brain supports you. You need to spend time with your family. You need to rest and help relatives. You are alone with this chaos. You do not have time. You are not moving forward. You run to stay in place. And this does not bring particularly positive notes to your inner world. You become angry and irritable, break on relatives. You start to lie to customers and postpone dates. Because you're alone and you can't handle it. And there is no one to delegate their tasks.

3. The complexity of the delegation and search staff

This suggests the conclusion that we need to attract more people. Well, naturally. But let's think about it, when you started your own business and estimated profits, did you put these people in there? They also need to at least pay money.

And I want to mention one more paradox right away. The user does not want to pay for support, because he does not need it. But in fact, he needs her. As soon as something stops working for him or he does not know how to solve the problem, he turns to the developer. Can he refuse to support. But in this case, we get only negative. The man gave the money and left with an unsolved problem. He or wants to return the money, or damage your reputation, vilifying both you and the product. Or both together. Those. support is more profitable. And they don't want to pay for it. Here is a paradox.



Now about programming. Find a programmer, as we see from a number of recent posts, is still a little problem. Because he needs to be interested in the project and money. And work schedule. And nishtyak different. Otherwise, he will not work for you. Because you are a private shop, even without an office and an LLC. You can attract freelancers. But with this, too, you can swallow. And even a cool professional freelancer reminds me more of a weather vane. So there are also more questions than answers. You will most likely find a remote worker who is difficult to control and difficult to bring up to date if the project is anyway complicated. Especially if you have not attended to the internal documentation on it. And this is all the time, which is not, and money, which is also not that much.

4. Legalization

When you think about hiring staff, the question will arise that your organizational form (private person or individual entrepreneur) is not so good. This accountant will explain to you, I will not. But it becomes clear that it would be necessary to register an LLC, rent an office, buy furniture there, equip workplaces, hire an accountant, pay taxes for all this, etc. And here in my head already begins to involuntarily click the calculator, when you understand how much all this can cost. And the fact that your current salary exceeds that in the last hired job is not so significant. You measure it with the old yardstick ...

And without this, it will not be possible to grow. From here a conclusion - the initial capital is necessary. And it has yet to save. And you want to change the car, and to solve the housing problem, and on vacation to go somewhere in an interesting place.

And even when you open and launch all this, it will start bringing returns only in a few months. So figure out what initial capital you need.

5. The next step and chum

So, you have successfully passed the previous stage. And now your friendly team of 5 people is expanding. You all became friends, ate a pound of salt together. You have friendly pods, you can send the director to hell without much straining, and no one will say anything to you for this - just a working moment with elements of a joke.



And now you have structural divisions, your buddies lead them. But are they ready for this job? Do all the programmers make good bosses? How is subordination observed? Are you still jokingly sent to hell with subordinates? And they, too, adopt this style? You now needed a private office and they hint to you that the director was snickering? Do you need to prove your leadership in a new way? You have to build a new management system. Can it remain democratic, or will it sink into autocracy and formalism? Will you be able to become an informal leader of the team or will you permanently separate yourself from the team? How to carry out team building and whether to do it?

There are more questions than answers. The topic is extensive and already beyond the scope of this article. But to discuss it is also interesting. Welcome to the comments.

6. Finiteness of projects

Any project, by definition, is finite. This means that in your planning it is necessary to take into account that in a year, two or five years, the current project will not be in demand. And in its place should be a new project. And this should not come as a surprise to you. Such a project, and not one, should already be in your initial stage. It is better if it is a project from another area in which you are also well oriented. Development in several directions, diversification and consideration of risks, both current and anticipated, should be the basis of your strategic planning.



Do you know that planning at the country level includes decades and even centuries? And not the level of corporations 20-30 years? And that any large firm is looking forward for at least 5 years? Do you have strategic planning? Do you expect what will happen next year? In three? How and where will you develop? Where will the rest of the world go? The world and society are not frozen casts. Technologies, people, laws, norms, rules are changing. What will happen to your niche in 5 years? Will it collapse? Will they devour her? Does it lose relevance? Do you go in that direction?

Do you have a business?

Business is a streamlined process that can work without your participation. Business should make a profit without your participation. Otherwise, it's just an occupation. You are just a director who owns his firm. Whether it is out of fear that otherwise it will be taken away, that everyone will be ruined without control, or for some other reason it does not matter. It is important to be aware. This is neither good nor bad. Being an entrepreneur is quite honorable and fashionable. Only it is necessary to take into account that the majority of entrepreneurs have an occupation, and not a business. I'm not an exception. But I do not create illusions about this. Yes, I work for myself. But I have no business.

UPD: I mean, mainly, that a business should be something separate from its creator. I do not call to give the reins into the wrong hands, but the opportunity to go on vacation or (God forbid) to go to the hospital for a couple of months should not affect the business.



But you also need to understand that you are no longer just a programmer. You are a manager, salesman, supporter, accountant, personnel officer, lawyer and the devil in a mortar. And yes, you are still a programmer too.

My recipes

And now a few recipes for how I deal with these problems. They go out of tune, but they can be correlated with one or another paragraph of the article.

• I struggle daily with procrastination (although sometimes she wins). This must be done, otherwise you will not have time for anything at all.
• I plan my affairs using only a single-level list without dates (only deadlines for the benchmark). You need experience in everything, work it out - plan and check the convergence of plans.
• Do not forget that a person can do only one task at a time, and multitasking can emulate. You are a man.
• I immediately respond to all email
• I immediately solve all the tasks that can be done quickly
• I'm not trying to keep everything in my head. For this there are notebooks, trackers, reminders
• I do not provide free support by phone and Skype, only email. But I also have paid support.
• I have a license agreement and a refund policy on my site. Their copies are included in product packages.
• I have a FAQ and documentation. All this you need to write only once, and then just use
• I have hours of work that are written on the site. I can afford not to answer letters and calls at another time.
• I have a dvuhsimochny phone and it has a SIM card for business calls. I can customize her behavior as I need.
• I do not hesitate to raise the prices of my products. I appreciate my time and knowledge
• I try to attract partners, not employees.
• I conduct internship training, but I do not impose obligations on them to work for me.
• I try to do at least one case a day for my non-work related family.
• I recommend introducing traditional walks, watching movies, etc., which distract from work and bring people closer to their families.
• I was lucky in order to work I did not need to run to the office. But if you need it, then coworking centers are at your service.
• I work at a laptop, it gives the usual mobility in any situation
• I keep all the data online, it allows me to use it anytime, anywhere
• I try to combine leisure with work. To work from any country I have enough laptop and internet.

Unsolved Issues

I am not a guru at all. I have not decided and half of the problems raised in the article. I am not afraid to admit it and I am always ready to absorb someone else’s experience. I haven’t found a good partner for myself, I don’t have hired employees and I’ll only think about opening an office. Therefore, the article contains many unanswered questions. Perhaps you will help me with the answers.