When you create any company, you can make a lot of mistakes, which can later bury the entire business. Each area has its own specific errors, including in IT. Stas Shchukin, who has 15 years of experience working with IT in such companies as Sitronics, Svyaznoy, Tvigle Media and A1, told about Technopark about how not to run around the rake. In addition, six years ago, Stas founded his own company, developing custom projects, where he periodically acts as a contractor, consultant and principal developer. Read the text of the speech under the cut.

1. Where not to start

Almost everyone makes the first mistake: they start with administrative procedures that are completely unnecessary for your main activity. Office rent, parking fee, internet connection, hiring employees that you don’t need. I call this “administration of emptiness” when a businessman creates a kind of shell of activity before the start of the activity itself.

And all these tasks can be solved differently. You can meet somewhere in coworkings and cafes, organize the development of the first projects of the house. To maintain the official contractual part, you can enter into contracts as an individual entrepreneur or even as an individual - a contract or order contract. And always remember that every day the existence of the company, even if it exists only on paper, is an expense. With this absolutely no need to hurry.
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2. Specialization

Decide on the beginning, even before you start work, what you will specialize in. The market is big, I want everything at once. But it is better to do one thing well, than to tackle many different areas in which your knowledge and skills will not be enough to create a good project. The first ten projects will become your portfolio, so it is better to make them neatly, thoughtfully and efficiently.

3. Third-party assistance

You probably will not have employees with high professional or special skills that you do not need every day. In this case, you can contact the professionals for advice or hire them as freelancers. For the first time for a small start-up company, this is perhaps the most successful form of interaction. After all, you will hardly be able to attract good specialists with a high salary or good working conditions, but you may be interested in them as a business partner, as a person who gives you interesting work.

Never be afraid to seek cooperation. There is a common misconception that it is better not to contact any top manager or a high-class specialist, that he will ignore you or immediately refuse you. Do not listen - you can try to ask for help from any specialist in the market. And if you are ready to pay him, he will be happy to talk to you, advise you and, possibly, even do some work for you. And definitely do not be afraid to ask for something for free. The IT market is quite young, poorly regulated in comparison with traditional industries, and many things are very easily solved at the meeting: they drank coffee, orally agreed, and did a good job together. The main thing is not to be afraid of any contacts, then they can grow into large partnerships.

4. Lack of competition

Another common misconception that one very often comes across is “We came up with such a thing, where we will have no competitors. We will feel great and get rich soon. ”

One way or another, you have competitors. They are in your area and in related areas or will appear in six months, when you have already spent money on development, with which you will not be ready to compete with other companies. Therefore, as soon as you have decided on the main goals, main tasks and key specialization, find your competitors, those whom you will look with envy or derogatory. You need to constantly be in the market and be guided in what is happening around you. And evaluate everything soberly. If your competitors are doing something well, you need to analyze it and also learn.

5. Rationalization of the process

Set the tasks as formally as possible - even if your company consists of three people sitting in the same room, and you think that there is no need to write each other letters. Otherwise, problems await you in the future. From the very beginning, select a bug tracker or task manager with whom you will work. Use letters, the minimum documentation that software provides you. The market is full of solutions, paid and free. JIRA costs about ten dollars a month, even for a small company it is ridiculous money, and you can actually start your business in an industrial environment.

All this is necessary because in the further professional activity the phrase “I told him” cannot be an excuse. Words are forgotten, memory is deceptive. And the tasks set in the task manager will not go anywhere.

6. Keep your momentum

It is very important. There is such a thing - “process fatigue”. When the project drags on from month to month, from year to year, people who work on it accumulate such fatigue that labor productivity drops almost exponentially. To prevent this from happening, find an opportunity to demonstrate progress to your employees, customers and partners.

This can be done very simply by changing any statuses. For example, “We met”, “We recorded this”, “We sent it to everyone”, you need to inform all participants about the change of project status. Some kind of landmark in the project, the release of a release - be sure to write about it and tell. It is very important. Develop such a habit, in the future it will help you many times.

7. Meaningful and insignificant people

It may look a bit cruel, but you will always be surrounded by people who talk a lot but do not make decisions. This is especially true for customer representatives who write letters and require some kind of meetings. I spent many hours at meetings of 15 people in large companies, where technicians, managers, marketers, designers, and all told each other something and demanded something from you.

If a person does not influence decisions and is not responsible for the money that you receive as a result, try to minimize your contacts and obligations to him. In order not to seem like a rude and bad partner, maintain a certain level of activity in correspondence, inform on status rallies or in status reports. But people who do not make decisions, by and large you are useless.

8. Company Knowledge Base

A very important point that must be put in the basis of your philosophy, if you want your company to develop and exist for a long time. Even the smallest startup should have its own knowledge base in which you accumulate your company's history, lists of contractors, employees, contractors, contact information, project documents, specifications, etc. The sooner you start filling this base, the easier it will be support.

Unfortunately, in the Russian IT industry, many things are done handicraft, unlike foreign companies. We have a document management in IT can not be compared with the circulation of documents on any industrial production, with its mandatory regulations, specifications, compliance with state standards and TK. The sooner you start to follow a similar approach, the easier it will be for you to live, the easier it will be to return to some projects. Maybe in this knowledge base it would be advisable to store even ideas and ideas that may be useful in some future project.

9. The ability to part

We must be able to part with people, with partners, with subordinates. Constantly be prepared for this. Even the closest friends, the most professional employees someday will leave you. Or you will have to part with them if they interfere with your performance. A small rule that everyone knows about, but which is rarely followed, - try not to work with close friends, with spouses, with children, with parents. Because any production relationship will interfere with personal relations or personal will interfere in the affairs of the business.

10. The alignment of forces in the team

Always imagine the alignment of forces in your team and think about what will happen if in a very important project you are left with a key employee, to whom a lot is tied. This can happen by chance (for example, due to a long illness) or deliberately - he is tired, he was offered higher wages and / or better conditions. Therefore, always figure out how to redistribute the load on team members, if any of them (including yourself) will be forced to retire.

11. Stock Finance

If you are starting a project (on order or for yourself), always have that amount of money to continue working for half a year. Things happen. It happens that the payments stipulated by the contract are delayed or completely stopped. And you also risk your name. You have employees and partners, and if you want to maintain a reputation in the market, you can always be sure that you can pay for the work done, even if you don’t have any money from the customer in the near future.

12. Non-production costs

Many starting their businesses, especially young managers, tend to underestimate non-production costs. Suppose a task is received to develop a site. You counted:

• I'll pay a thousand to the designer
• programmer two
• I'll take five,
• I will tell the customer that it costs 25.

In fact, it turns out that this project will cost you all 30, and you will have to pay extra from your pocket. This is due to the fact that you not only pay wages, but also equip workplaces: you buy equipment, software, furniture, pay for business trips, outdoor events, etc. Therefore, when planning and budgeting any project, always try to accurately assess non-production costs.

Offhand for a small company, the volume of these costs can be two to three times more than the project cost in man-hours. For a more mature company, the share of such expenses is lower due to the effect of large numbers, because, for example, ten or twenty people can use one cooler. But even in large companies, non-production costs remain at the level of 15–30%.

13. Do not rush to pay

No matter how cynical it sounds, do not rush to pay the bills. This does not mean that it is necessary to deceive people and delay payments, but do not pay ahead where you can do it a little later. After all, money is quickly getting cheaper. In addition, unpaid bills motivate contractors and partners to quickly and efficiently perform the work ordered by you.

The same goes for customer relations. Never do something for which you have not made a prepayment. Or at least they did not promise to pay very well. No one appreciates the extra services you provide. If you promised the customer to make one site, and made two, and say how wonderful it is, he will still pay for one.

14. Software purchase

Do not spend money, especially at an early stage, on software. Everything necessary for the normal operation of the organization is now available either by subscription or free of charge. If you need complex and expensive software products for two or three days, then use the trial period. For example, the designer says that he needs filters for Photoshop, he needs to buy them, they cost $ 1,500. At the same time, working with them will take half an hour. In this case, it is better to take advantage of the legal trial period for this product. This must be treated quite calmly.

15. Affiliate programs

For a small company can be very beneficial affiliate programs of large corporations. For example, Microsoft had a lot of partnership offers for start-up companies. They concern preferential prices for software, and hosting, and training programs. Many large vendors have such support programs. Feel free to use them, you can always find something interesting.

16. Hiring employees

Always remember that opening a company in a new position is a complicated process, and for a small company it is generally critical. If you decide to hire a person, you must be aware of what he will do at least in the next year. This is a normal time period during which a person may be disappointed in you, and you can understand that you are no longer on the way. But if you open a position in the state, then you need to see the prospects of this position for the year ahead.

17. The combination of roles

Combine non-production roles: operational, administrative, even project activities. As long as you have few projects, most likely you can be the general director, chief designer, project manager, and also meet with customers.

Of course, it’s stupid to be both the CEO and the courier. Any specific and incompatible roles should be simply outsourced. Instead of being an accountant or courier, it is better to put 20% of your time on the work of a development director. For a small company, this is a big deal. If you do not do this, then even if you are fine, in six months you will find yourself in a crisis. And in a year everything will get worse. Therefore, 20% of the time needs to be given to thoughts and ideas, how to optimize something, to do something new, with whom to start a partnership, how to improve the quality of work. Thus, you yourself will keep yourself in good shape, and your business will have greater potential for growth.

18. Terms

Remember that as the first person of the company, you are responsible for all its mistakes. The main criterion of your inefficiency is non-fulfillment of your obligations on time to the customer. Even if it is your own project, you must meet the deadline. Always consider risks that your performers may not think about. Be cautious about developer evaluations, especially if they are not super professionals — less experienced developers tend to overestimate their strengths, and they are often mistaken about what can be done and what cannot be done.

In consultation with the developer, consider his opinion, but make the decision yourself. Try to understand the technological aspects, understand the essence of the issue and, passing through yourself, decide on the timing or the possibility of the implementation of a task.

By the way, there are managers who have a broad outlook, but without sufficient technical skills. And when the developers say: "This can not be done," they answer: "But Facebook did." And the developers are starting to dig like this.

Yes, and do not try to push people with their heads together, especially in a small team and a start-up company. If one developer says that he will do it in two days, then do not blame the other: “Misha said he would do it in two days, and you promise five.” So you create a conflict situation that does not lead to anything good. We must be able to stop such things at an early stage.

19. Honesty

Most likely, at an early stage you will be all bad. It will seem that you do not have time, that the money goes somewhere, and they really will go somewhere. The main thing is not to deceive yourself and the people with whom you work.

It is not necessary to tell your customers that they are your only ones and that no one else is interested in you. If you have a deadline in a week, and you do not have time, then it is better to notify everyone, and customers, and participants in the process, but still try to make it. This is a very important reputational moment. If you once promised and did not, then the second time you will not believe, and the third - they will not work with you. It is not always easy to be honest, especially if the customer is some big company with a charismatic leader. It will be difficult for him to say: “You know, we somehow misunderstood”. But it is better to do this and go down in history as an honest guy than screw it up, get fines and lose a customer.

Even harder to honestly fix their losses. In any business, in any process you need to know where your point of no return is. Calculate in advance how much money you are willing to spend to no avail, before you finish the project, freeze or cancel it altogether. A huge number of projects go into financial holes only because their creators or managers do not find the strength to stop in time or they lack experience and knowledge.

If you have spent, say, 30% of the budget, and everything looks as if the project will never be repulsed and you will not return the money, then without thinking and not regretting, finish the project and move on to another. You will save time, effort and money and many times thank yourself again for this.

Another situation, close to the two previous ones, is characteristic of small development companies working with freelancers and disparate teams. You did not have time, did not do it or did it poorly - but you are not ready now to present the result of the work. And they write to you: “How are you?”, Or the telephone rings, and you are so embarrassed and frightened that you disappear, and in a couple of days you call back. This happens in life and in school. This snowball effect can ruin a lot of your good initiatives. Problems come and go, but you need to maintain constant communication with the people with whom you work, who depend on you or are waiting for the results of work. Even if it will be nominal, even if they call you to not cope with affairs, and do not be afraid to swear.

20. Evaluation

And the latest, but important for any manager - develop a rating system and always evaluate it according to your work on each of the projects, on each of your undertakings. You can thank yourself by buying a cookie, you can put yourself a five or a hundred points or not give yourself a cookie and put 25 points. But it is very important to evaluate your work, because the CEO or the manager is a key employee of the company. And in a small company, 60% of an organization’s success depends on it, and its constant work on improving its efficiency is the key to success.

The more you take responsibility for yourself, look for your mistakes and work on them, the more the next time you will have reasons to praise yourself and the better the next project will be.