Post big love for small business

In which company do you work: in a large corporation or, maybe, in a small business? If you had to try to work there and there, you probably found the advantages and disadvantages, chose what is closer and even more beneficial to you. Regardless of our feelings with you, small and medium businesses are the basis of the economy, the force that is able to pull it out during crisis times and pump it into better days. There are a lot of small and medium businesses in the IT industry: from the earliest and matured to the successful results of a wave of startups. And these companies make cool business software, user applications, outsource, devsyat, support, implement, make other companies stronger and more modern. Well, how not to love them! Of course, to love: with merits and demerits, with conflicts and insights, with finds and packs. Talk about a small business?


Atlantes hold the sky on stone hands

Disclaimer

This article is a private opinion of the RegionSoft Developer Studio employee and did not pass any approvals before publication. The company's opinion may or may not coincide with the position of the employee.
')
Once a very serious person told me: “Never work in business, in a commercial environment, he will move you and kill you”. Over the 13 years of my career, I went through a job at a university, in a civil service, and in a short time I ended up in business - in contrast to what was said exactly at the moment when the civil service began to move me. For 11 years in IT and telecom, I managed to work in a small business, on average (the largest taxpayer in the region), in a large one - in a huge IT company with all the M & M personalities in vases, hammocks and games of frisky seals of steep corporate parties. Stopped, as you may have noticed, on the small. Not that I took you by the button and tell you all my life, no - just an intro in order to say: everything said is checked in my own skin. And yes, I will talk about IT - firstly, there was almost no other, secondly, we are at Habré, and thirdly, RegionSoft CRM systems developer and vendor is an IT company. Which, by the way, today is 18 years old - a worthy excuse to write this post.

Why do small businesses work well?

In short, in a small business you are a significant unit of a single mechanism; in a large business, a useful or not very detailed part that can be replaced relatively quickly. But it is rude, much more nuances.

Less levels of management, an open and accessible manual - this is probably what determines all the other advantages. There are no complicated hierarchies, the manager is in the maximum proximity to all other employees, often he is not just a leader, but a leader, the first among equals, himself drags the work, delves into it and understands every detail in almost all duties. It seems to me that this is a normal attitude towards my own business, unless, of course, it comes to micromanagement and poking at all PCs in the mornings (at the dawn of a career, I went through such a manager - this cannot be overcome, or you agree to such a team, or go away).

It seems that the good is that the head is always there? A good, though a lot.

• Availability in the discussion of working issues - do not need projects, presentations, coordination, waiting for five readings and one hundred meetings. You can just come up and present the idea, report a bug, ask questions. By the way, I noticed on my own: the habit of making presentations and loudly and clearly voicing them in front of the manager, as in large offices, is very difficult to get rid of - exactly until you suddenly realize that the conversation has taken a human face and does not need to keep the defense with a fence of slides on the big screen.
  
• Easy resolution of conflict situations - a competent leader always turns out to be a real arbiter and gently spreads the sides in the corners, not leading to layoffs and sabotage.
  
• You know the opinion of the head on working issues from the first mouth, and not filtered and refined by the deputy, deputy-tutu and deputy-tamu. Thus, the waiting time is reduced and there is more left to solve the problem or to make corrections.
  

"Irreplaceable", author: Peter Bünau

Respect for employees is an important feature of a small business (I repeat, we are about IT, and not about trading companies, where people often become consumables). To attract, adapt and retain an employee is not only difficult, but also rather expensive. Making it loyal and not threatening the security of the company is a whole art. Small business understands that it is in an uneasy competitive situation, that loyal employees are a key asset, therefore it treats them as correctly as possible: it meets organizational and labor issues, looks for compromises within the work schedule, tries to raise an employee and keep him as long as possible. If you manage to create such a team, or at least the backbone of the team, success becomes closer. And in a successful company, the employees themselves are successful.

Comprehensive inclusion in the project, an understanding of business and processes in general - the most favorite feature of small business. More I like only the foreign definition, which translates as “try on a lot of hats”. Working in a small business, an employee inevitably interacts with the project in the complex, and not with its separate piece. Relatively speaking, in a large IT company you sit and saw your part of the code, sometimes without even knowing its real fate after a commit, and in a small business you can write code for different tasks, participate in implementation, support clients on complex technical issues and .d As a bonus, employees are often included in the entire business process, discussing design, interface, usability, etc. - that is, they see all the facets of a software project and the process of its implementation. This is great pumping the overall value of you as a professional and noticeably adds weight to the labor market.

Easy horizontal movement . In the case of professional burnout, loss of interest, or even additional education, you can easily move to another position: from salespeople to testers, from testing engineers - and developers, from those. sales support and so on. Such movements help you firmly and thoroughly master your business from different angles, making you a universal specialist. But this is not a super value - the super value is that such movements help to make the product or service better: having been in the shoes of a sales person, you will be closer to the client and understand what the interface really should be or what the installation procedure should be ( here I can't help but sneak off and say hello to CRM, who send 12 pages of installation instructions, while our Region Soft CRM takes a few clicks - well, I’m a PR man or where! ).

Rapid changes are an interesting and important advantage for a career small business. Scaling changes to a small company is easier; it is easier to try out something new, for example, a technology stack or a methodology for working with clients. In large companies, the introduction of something experimental stalls on the first round of approvals.

In general, the main difference between a small and medium business from a large one is often the role of a leader: in a large business, it is often an appointed person who treats the company like any other employee, and in small and medium size it is the owner, a person who is vitally interested in the company lived, developed and flourished (well, if it is without deviations and mania). And this attitude is transmitted to all employees.

Why do small businesses work well?

It is good to work with small business - he is responsible for his work, he doesn’t draw up approvals, he has a huge and rather compact experience (not spread out on 150 employees), he appreciates clients.

Small business is closer to customers, he knows them better - both in terms of typical problems and “pains”, and from the point of view of analytics. For small businesses, not only the segment is important, but also the client as a personified entity. Accordingly, the dialogue is not in the language of bureaucracy, but in the language of living business people. True, there is no way without TK - but development is an exact discipline, some formulations should be reliably fixed. By the way, it is the small and medium business that implements a CRM system or a business intelligence system not for beauty or rollback, but specifically for the work, analysis, storage and systematization of the client base. It helps to work with clients quickly and efficiently.

The speed of work and implementation of projects , oddly enough, in small companies is higher. It seems to be less resources, subcontractors, and partners - and the deals are closed one after the other, projects are being implemented, everything is parallelized and literally burning in the hands. This is largely due again to the shallow hierarchy and high decision-making speed - the responsible person is closest to the project as closely as possible, and often the right to make independent decisions is delegated to him.

Flexibility and survival in the market , alas, is not always about small business. When the economy storms, it is harder to survive, because the total outflow of customers can reach a critical mass. But, on the other hand, with proper management of staff and in the absence of throwing money out of the window, small businesses are more likely to survive and even avoid cuts because the company can quickly restructure, radically change the marketing strategy or even develop a new product. In any case, this is definitely not the case when employees will wait for a crisis with folded arms and fingers crossed.

Controllability and transparency of processes is a very strong advantage of SMB. No matter how difficult the process (and in small business they are), a truncated hierarchy significantly increases the responsibility of the holders of each link and allows the process to go quickly, productively and without serious hang-ups (such as lost contracts, perpetual documents to be negotiated or forgotten customers).

High quality of service - a small business values ​​its customers, and if it is an IT business, it strives to establish excellent technical support, work efficiently, and make compromises.

Opinion

Tatiana, sales guru and customer service goddess in RegionSoft, 14 years in the company

Our clients appreciate the work of the RegionSoft managers for their responsiveness, for their readiness to help quickly, for the fact that communication is informal, not stereotyped. They appreciate that the main thing for us is not to sell the product, but to make the company implement it, work with it and make a profit.

I'll tell you an interesting case. I remember that the introduction into the company, as usual, through management and communication, respectively, was at the management level. Then somehow after a couple of months, with the next call to the company, I got to the manager, because there was no manager. Finding out the company I’m calling from, the manager said the following: “If you called a month ago, I’d give you a lot of dissatisfaction, but now we appreciate all the advantages of product implementation and the most important increase in profits!” This is, by the way. about adapting to new software is a great positive example.

Since in most cases we communicate with the management, they appreciate our help in how to properly present the product to employees, convey to them the idea that this is not control, but help and a necessary tool for work.

Sometimes, for the sake of efficiency, managers can even connect to a client in order to sort out the problem or eliminate it themselves, by the manager himself. The RegionSoft manager always makes contact with the client, there are no restrictions in the consultations, sometimes the communication takes place even during off-hours.

We try to meet each other, to find an individual approach to everyone, even to rejoice in places :-) So, our 1000 clients received an additional license as a gift, which was very pleasantly surprised. But in other cases, we are able to find a way out of the situation, to come up with favorable conditions for all transactions. Customers are satisfied, and we hold the brand.

More specialized, developed products and services + concentrated experience. Clients for small businesses are also a source of requests and requirements, the company always strives to be at the forefront of requests and make a product that is really needed and will work. And if a large corporation can afford to develop for the sake of development, to screw neural networks or “artificial intelligence” as a marketing piece, thus making the product more expensive, then small business does what customers need - quickly, in a timely manner and in exact correspondence with requests. In addition, small and medium businesses can accumulate experience in order to use it to the maximum, and not just keep it in the corporate knowledge system. Their experience = their profit.

Opinion

Free_Mic_RS , the author of this outrage and responsible for sounding RegionSoft online, 6 years in the company

Small businesses always have something to say, and I think he should say: on Habré, in his blog. This is not just a transfer of experience, it is an exchange of opinions with the audience, a lively dialogue. We are often thanked for the articles and materials, asking if it is a pity whether to give all the experience to such content open source. The answer is simple: no, I do not mind. We know that medium and small business companies need normal non-advertising information regarding CRM and automation, they have content hunger - we deliberately give out our knowledge by adding a bit of advertising. And even when other companies brazenly borrow ideas and the whole post, we don’t feel sorry: someone is clever with his mind, someone with a stranger. That's life. Content for us has become an important and complex layer of work and it seems that we can do it :-)

And what, absolutely without flaws?

Well, no, of course. There are flaws everywhere, absolutely in any work and in any form of existence of labor relations. And it would be unfair to say that they can be overlooked.

• The first and most important is the ceiling height. At some point, the prospects disappear, the limit is reached and you realize that you are walking in a circle, taking something new for yourself and generating something new for the company is simply impossible or unclaimed. By the way, the ceiling is not felt in all companies - only in those where the product, due to its features, is static for a long period of time: trading companies, FMCG (not always), HoReCa, car dealers, etc. The IT sphere is less concerned, because new products, major releases every 1.5-2 years and minor releases all the time - this is never static at all.
  
• The second is a close team. On the one hand, this is wonderful, everyone knows each other, everyone has got used to it, made friends, or, on the contrary, established a respectful distance. On the other hand, in such a collective, the framework of personal space can easily be violated, conflicts can arise that are not related to employment, or vice versa, important work incidents will be hidden based on the principle of “hand-washing”. Well, the worst option: groups are formed and redistribution begins. In the corporate sphere, of course, he looks light, but work and nerves are detrimental. But this, again, some exceptional situations.
  
• The third is Ponte. Say "I work at Google" ponto. He is treated with experience in large companies and easily changes the sonorous formulation for real value: “I work for a company that makes a powerful CRM system for small and medium businesses. We can cool automate and make the business of clients better. ” In general, I would advise everyone to do an internship, practice, or work in the largest companies: you will understand that there is no honey smeared there, and if you take off the brilliance, remove the meetings and shake off the diamond dust - development as development, commerce like commerce, each in its place . Understand that this is yours - strive to gain a foothold, understand that there is not - rate small and medium-sized businesses.
  
• The fourth flaw - an amateur. In small business it is absolutely impossible to shirk from the performance of their duties, to hide behind rallies, ballots, endless phone calls and other imitations of activity. Everything is in sight of the leadership, including the highest. Flies instantly. And in large companies, you can pull the tires on the principle of “the soldier sleeps, the service goes” and calmly receive wages with almost no problems and fawn (some Jedi bypass even the time control systems - the time, not the result). Good or bad - the business of your ambitions and your conscience. Hot head everywhere will find work.
  
• The fifth drawback intersects with many large companies, here, rather, the vision of managers: in a small and medium business there is much less social package and LCA. There is also a matter of choice: you can choose an interesting job, earn money and pay for a taxi and visiting doctors, or you can choose dentistry for LCA :-) I figured it out myself - for 4 years in a large company I chose services for 75,000 and with two super difficult cases of injury, without them - 30 000. For me, for the sake of only one DMS and soc. Package pull unloved strap is hardly worth it. Well, if you are not a shark with 300 carious teeth, then yes, savings decide.
  

I am sure that the comments now distribute their disadvantages - it is very interesting to listen to the experience of other inhabitants of Habr.

And I will do my business!

I honestly tried to open a small trading business, but this is not an IT or Habrow story from 2006-2007. Three approaches - and three failures, although we managed to create an LLC with “partners” (fellow students), to make authorized capital, to get the first profit ... Today the spirit of entrepreneurship is flying in the air and it seems that it is here - collect orders and work. But do not confuse your business with freelancing, these are completely different things. The first thing that should be - the idea around which everything will turn out. As soon as you become an entrepreneur, you cease to belong to yourself and your habits, as you take the first person - you bear a mountain of responsibility. When you fire him first, you don't sleep for a week. We did not go further.

• Business is not security. Yes, it seems to you that they will no longer dismiss you, will not be deprived of bonuses, will not punish and do not roll on the carpet for a mistake. That's right - you will do all this with yourself, because in the beginning your business is worse than any dismissal, you actually live in a panic. However, if all goes well, you will know the real value of the words security and independence.
  
• Business is not a Bentley with a trunk of money. This is a minus the trunk of money, which will have to invest in the start, hiring, tools, idea, rent, etc. - depends on the configuration of the business. And at some point you will understand that this money has also been taken away from the family. In my case of partnership with fellow students, this resulted in debts and begging from the parents of all three unfortunate entrepreneurs. Then we simply are not ripe for understanding what costs are and how they can be managed.
  
• If you have an emotional idea, you have nothing. Alas, only a cold mind and a real, living idea will allow you to start successfully. If you formulate “my mobile business planning application will conquer this world and make me Zuckerberg”, do not quit your job, sit in your free time, make the application lay it out in the store or on the business card website, look at the average speed of conquering the world, multiply by years and if you're ready to live these 630 despicable years, take a chance.
  
• There will be a lot of difficult decisions - from laying off employees to loans, problems with publishers, etc.
  
• There will be new relationships that will not bring pleasure - you will get acquainted with the tax authorities, authorities and other structures that will take away your time, strength and, most likely, (not) a lot of money.
  
  
  

Your time will be eaten. Here I will tell my favorite anecdote: one programmer got tired of working in hiring for 9-10 hours a day, infinite deployments and fires were on the way, he quit, started his own business. Now he works 19 hours a day.

Overly pessimistic? In fact, your business gives you a feeling of freedom, autonomy, flight and a surge of tremendous diligence - because now you are doing your OWN. Another thing you have to go through. Therefore, I urge: if you pull, dare, but do not burn bridges behind you. Speaking of bridges. I noticed an interesting feature: employers do not like to take on former state entrepreneurs, they are afraid of excessive love of freedom, independence and a deep understanding of the state of affairs in the company. So, if you have to return to hiring, be careful with this line in the summary.

And now I will call one single word that fundamentally distinguishes SMB from large: trust. If the company has confidence, the work is completely different, many decisions are made with maximum mutual benefit. And yes, trust can only be mutual - if trust is faced with indifference and indifference, nothing will come of it.

And so, the representatives of small business are "not gods - humans, accustomed to work." And I know for sure: these Atlants hold the economy on stone hands.

---

Well, in the end it's simple and short: happy birthday, RegionSoft ! The main gift is that you have us, and we have you. Let it be so on. Chin Chin.