Early this year we've moved out of my garage into real office space and my goal is to add a sales person, full time creative person/director, and a 3rd developer, in that order over the next 6 to 12 months. (I have call on Monday with a client that could flip the order to developer, sales person, creative director though).
I've been blessed with some really good luck finding clients, but its hard work that keeps them clients. The company I mentioned in Boston now keeps a developer going full time but there has been a few late night spent getting their projects done on time. They genuinely appreciate the effort we put in and know they can rely on us to deliver. My other main client builds a ASP.Net content management system and because of some strong ties with the company (I was employee #1 and my wife was #2), they send us a lot of professional service work. I've managed convert a couple of those projects into long term clients of my own (with their OK of course) and it has lead to some work on some high profile sites: www.lgmobilephones.com and www.heartlandpaymentsystems.com. We've done 17 sites through them directly or indirectly. They know when they are in a bind or need a senior resource they can call on us. The other tips I can offer are: - Set your company up early as a corp, pay yourself as an employee, and separate your personal finances from your company finances. It's a nightmare to separate them down the road (my wife is doing this for a client of hers and its going to cost him a small fortune) - Once you get going find out what you're not that good at, and when you can afford to, find someone you trust who is. - When you get to the point of hiring employees, treat them like co-workers instead of employees. Our creed here is everyone has an oar in the water and a say in how and where we steer the boat. It may not be equal but everyone knows they can have a say. The rest, honestly, I'm still trying to figure out, just hoping to make as few mistakes as possible along the way. Duane -----Original Message----- From: Erika L. Walker [mailto:elwal...@ruwebby.com] Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 9:54 AM To: cf-community Subject: Re: questions for the entrepreneurs I think I need to tap Duane for some pointers ... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:289856 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
