In a routine business call to Manish and Manasi this past Saturday, Manish informed me that he wanted to discuss something that couldn’t be handled by phone.  I immediately began to worry.  Was Manasi expecting a baby?  Did they need to return to India?  Had Manish been offered a job  by the people at Yahoo whom he had met at a recent conference in California?  I grew more anxious as our meeting at NXNW, our favorite brewery, grew closer. 

We ordered a beer, and I asked Manish to lay it on me.  He told me that he had been offered a job with Yahoo.  I cried.

Manish has been with me for 3 1/2 years, and I never thought he’d leave our group unless he was returning to India.  Manish came to TDS as a first year Master’s student in electrical engineering.  He had no programming experience, but he did posess a deep desire to learn. I had just hired my first intern when he applied in the winter of 2002-03, and I told him that if my intern experience was a fruitful one, I’d be intersted in hiring another student in the spring.  He came back right on schedule, and I gave him a job. 

This kid caused me gray hairs back when I didn’t have any! He started out doing web design stuff, would get stuck on some complex table layout (back before CSS), I’d spend too much time fixing it, and he’d manage to muck it up again.  This happened a lot.  :)

Manish had never used the Vi editor, typed with two fingers, and had written little code.  The code he did generate, he wrote in Dreamweaver.  Niall Durham and I introduced Manish to the basics of Vi and file editing in SSH, but his comfort with a WYSIWIG editor kept him from breaking out of his comfort zone.  I finally demanded that he learn to use it and insisted that no real programmer–what he was aiming to be–would write code in Dreamweaver.  He argued his point in futility before reluctantly abandoning his beloved software and eventually learning that bosses sometimes have a point. 

Now a Vi expert, he was hungry for more and started playing with shell scripting.  In one marathon session, he took ten hours to write a script that was maybe 20 lines long.  I ribbed him about it endlessly before promising I’d never bring it up again.  (Does this count?)

Fast forward a year and our programmer was still typing with two fingers.  I set a date for him to either learn to type with all fingers, or forgo any raises until he did, and as his employer, I learned that money talks.  (I used this same threat of a “withheld raise” when he started to buy an overpriced car from an unscrupulous car salesman.)

Just as I can joke about his early shortcomings, I can highlight his successes.  My position as teacher was soon overshadowed by my one time student and now full-fledged programmer.  Manish spent a lot of time adding to the success of Thunder Data by an insatiable appetite for learning.  He loved cool new technology like Ajax and mashups (using the online tools of his new employer, Yahoo), and was a primary force in bringing us to where we are today with fully 55% of our revenue coming from programming.  No programming project or technical question felt out of our reach, because I knew that Manish would rise to the challenge to hammer it out.  I realized over time that I didn’t know what I would do without him.  He had become my partner.

So, on Saturday, when Manish told me he would be accepting his new position, I was heartbroken.  I realized that part of my sadness–even grief–came from the realization that I was experiencing the loss of a dream.  All the plans we had mutually laid in our early period and refined over the later were for our success. 

But in my sadness, there is also pride.  My student intern who had become like a son is leaving for a world-reknown company because he has earned it.  I am thrilled that his success in school–and I hope here at TDS–has enabled him to acheive what many in his country can only dream of. 

So, my dear Manish, know that I will miss you greatly, and know that you are taking a little piece of my heart with you.  Don’t you forget your roots, and know that if you ever want to come home, I’ll be waiting.

With all my heart, Dawn  

I had been telling Stacy that for many people, the most difficult part of starting a business is actually telling others that you are! I had read that once you lay it out there, people will wait for you to fail. I don’t know if I agree with the sentiment, but I do know that the fear of failure keeps many would-be business owners from taking the first step.

Another fear is lack of money. In a book I am revisiting from my bookshelf, “Growing a Business”, I read an interesting point by author, Paul Hawken. He discusses the concept that for small business, “too much money is worse than too little.” He continues, “The major problem affecting business, large or small, is a lack of imagination, not capital.” I agree.

Back in 2000 when I started this company, a laptop was a pretty expensive investment at about $2500. And like all new businesses, I knocked on a lot of doors trying to get sales. I needed to show prospective clients the quality of my work (neither particularly good nor bad), and without that expensive laptop coupled with a time when many businesses had no computer connection, I was limited. So, what did I do? I used Photoshop 3.0 to create prints of the website designs I had done and carried them in those cheesy plastic sleeves. I laugh about it now, but you know what? I sold my clients on my work.

Creativity offered an opportunity.

When I read Hawken’s words tonight, I realized that at TDS we serve well the businesses that don’t have a lot of money. I like to tell prospective clients that we will do as much or as little as they want us to do or that their budgets allow. We create editable websites and ecommerce sites, and offer a lot of guidance to help our clients use the web to help them sell. In short, we give them ideas that cost nothing but time. The clients willing to invest the time and energy needed to create dynamic and useful sites are rewarded with increased sales. Those clients come back to us a year later a little busier, having a little less time to devote to site maintenance, but holding a slightly thicker wallet to hire us for the work that adds to profits.

So, consider the possibilities and make your expenditures count. Have attractive, professionally designed, business cards made with your web address on them. Join your local chamber for a couple of hundred bucks a year, and hand out those great looking business cards. Get a cell phone, and when you are out of the office, forward those sales calls from the chamber folks who found your number on the business card you gave them at the last event!

Creativity and hard work are more useful than money, and honing these skills early helps lay the foundation for real profits when used in concert with smart investments–bought through increasing profits–to accelerate growth.

And what of those slick presentation “brochures” I created? I still have them. Stop by the office, and I’ll let you see what money can’t buy.

We just closed on a house two weeks ago, and our lush landscaping is a haven for spiders and other non-human inhabitants. My daughter twice was stung by wasps, and my oldest daughter’s friend–in an attempt to prevent detection as we walked outside in the midst of his rolling our home in toilet paper–was greeted in his dive into the foliage by a snake who promptly bit him in the leg. He wasn’t hurt.

Several nights ago, as we played a family game at the dining room table, we watched a large spider feverishly work to build a web across the non-opening part of our sliding glass door. We were mesmerized by the industry of this little arachnid and frequently glanced over to watch the build process. When complete, the spider sat smack in the middle of her creation and awaited prey coming to the light of our brightly lit interior. The next day, the spider and all signs of its presence were gone.

Forward to the evening: much to our delight, our little friend reappeared and again laid plans for her project. Again, she sat in the middle when the trap was complete. The next morning, all traces of the spider and her home had vanished.

And again the next night.

During night four, I realized that this little spider was spending an awful lot of time working and reworking the same process with the same outcome. It reminded me about our work with clients on office automation.

By far, I enjoy working with clients on helping them automate tasks more than any other part of my work at TDS. We have wowed our clients with new ideas and processes that make daily drudge work a thing of the past. One day, we’ll share with you some of the projects we have completed and the effect they’ve had on a client’s bottom line.

But for now, I’m going to continue to watch our gal in the spiderweb building business and try to figure out if she’s changing up her designs at all. P’raps she’s a web designer!

When do you invoice clients for changes and additions to their project? In one of my posts, I discussed our reputation for handholding and the challenges we have faced through the expectation that we would continue to work tirelessly on a client’s behalf–often at no charge well after development ended. In the last week, we have had four clients request changes, improvements, or additions, and most haven’t given a thought to possible charges.

Case 1: Website software - No matter how much you believe you’ve nailed down a design, miscommunication happens. Maybe this is a learning process for us, or maybe other companies anticipate these changes and charge accordingly. Regardless, the design our client requested was not the one we heard. And until I know how to get over that hurdle, we will always absorb the cost of miscommunication.

The misunderstanding came to light as our client requested new features. When I told him of the extra cost, our client believed he should not be invoiced since he already paid X amount. Stacy came to an interesting conclusion: clients feel that if they are paying $20,000 for a software product, they should not be charged for a few hours here or a handful there. After all, what is that trivial amount in comparison to the whole charge?

Total unbilled time: 14 hours

Case 2: Website Design - Our client wanted a very simple design. In fact, he wanted us to recreate a brochure design as his web interface–”exactly”. But six–count them, six!–modified designs later encompassing everything from logo changes, to border and background modifications, to an entirely different and final look, he settled on his current design. To our fault, it wasn’t until design #4 that we told him that his “exact design” was no longer exact, and the barebones price was no longer that. If he wanted us to continue, we needed a very nominal amount to pay for the fifth change. He didn’t like it, but agreed. Moreover, he ended up requesting yet another design at full rate.

Total time unpaid: 4 hours

Case 3: Website Application - Quickbooks is the standard bookkeeping software and one we like to integrate into our online applications. For this client, we were creating a ThunderCart extension to upload a complete parts listing, shipping weights, and general information for online sales. Any changes in Quickbooks–our client’s primary tool for shipping and invoicing, would cascade to the online commerce module. There were three additions to the software. We sent out the final invoice for all work today including all charges for the additions. We will report this outcome later.

Case 4: Website Application - We have completed one of our largest projects and to our credit (this time), we probably hit the quote right on the money, so we are happy there. But over the last few days they have requested minor changes to email alerts, interface wording, et cetera. This time has already cost a couple of hours. Minor? Yes! However, we realize that we must convey the message that this application’s development is over and has been complete for several months. I have a feeling that Stacy’s conclusion is going to show up in this case when we do point out that changes are not included after development is complete. We’ll report back on this project.

These four cases demonstrate the need for us to create even better documentation spelling out our obligations, client expectations, and how modifications or improvements are handled. We are working on some in-house processes to reign in some of this time. For example, we want to:

1. Differentiate client improvements or changes from our bugs or errors and charge when appropriate.

2. Convey the message that “10 minute” changes never actually take 10 minutes and that multiple, separately requested changes are far more time consuming than several handled at one time and may incur additional charges.

3. Stop programmers and designers from making ad hoc improvements regardless of the reason without prior approval. Sometimes, a programmer feels that a few extra hours invested here or there will help improve the overall product. This is fine when we are dealing with a client that wants and is willing to pay for top-notch design. But there are clients that–due to funding challenges–want the greatest measurable results at the lowest cost even if the design might be slightly more cumbersome. Their philosophy is “grow as you go”, and they are willing to hold off on bells and whistles until they have the money to implement them.

4. Reduce overall client communication. We can do this by waiting to address a single item to see if one or two more crop up. Or we can cut down on pleasantries in our emails to keep them to one or two lines. Shortness can be confused with terseness. I’ve told everyone here that when emails are particularly short, we can add exclamation points and smiley faces to soften the tone. All agreed! :)

We’ll continue to monitor our efforts on reigning in on unpaid time and report back our results. Time is money, and these four cases alone would have bought us a heck of a lot more than a couple of rounds at the Gingerman!

Manish has probably never kicked a soccer ball, yet I play every Sunday. Dan grew up along the Texas border and has experienced a totally different life than Stacy did in an affluent suburb of Chicago. Manish and Manasi speak to eachother in their native Indian language that the rest of us don’t understand. We’re different, and we can learn from each other whether our topics of interest concern business or life.

So, today we begin our planned, monthly discussions with our first topics: microformats and XFN, and how to use the ideas introduced in Geoffrey A. Moore’s, “Crossing the Chasm”, to take our box office ticketing software, ThunderTix, to the next level.

We do a lot of hand holding with our clients whether they are tech savvy or Internet neophytes. Thus, a lot of our time is spent explaining everything from email setup to how business processes can be performed on the web. When I started this business as a one-person shop, most of my clients were barely using email. They asked a lot of questions, and because I had to earn their business, I performed a lot of research on questions that had nothing to do with their web application and contributed nothing to the bottom line. They’ve got used to that attention, and honestly, it has been an element of pride for us.

Our hand holding earned us a great reputation as “a company that did a lot of hand holding”.  We took on a lot of clients that expected (and got) that attention.  The challenge now is to figure out how to balance client expectations while striving to streamline more processes and sometimes–like a parent to a child–urge our clients to leave the nest.

We’ve implemented a few new steps:

• Help the callers — Too often, Stacy and I were on the phone while a client called in.  Since we are the primary contacts, the clients asked for us and whomever answered the phone simply took a message. This created a cycle of telephone tag that ended up with a simple question like, “How do I setup my email?”
• Create educational content — We get so many phone calls where potential clients are really just researching. There was a time that I could explain until the cows came home. As we get busier, the time needed to educate others has become a time drain. So, pointing potential clients to specific pages on our website helps them gain an understanding on their topic of interest or even to see our portfolio of work.
• Collect preliminary information through web forms — Collecting initial data helps on two fronts: we get an advance sense of what our clients need and hone in on those elements, and gently urging clients to provide more information can indicate their determination.
• Give price quotes early — We hear a lot of great ideas for web apps. Some of those will take a significant investment to turn into a reality. Giving those parties a gauge about costs can help them realize if they have the resources to move forward in their research and prevents our staff spending a lot of time in planning before we hit them with a quote that is beyond their means.
• Use pre-formatted responses and quotes — Our ThunderTix app gets a lot of traffic and research.  When we first hit the market, we were inundated with responses which took a huge toll on our ability to get our work done.  Systemizing our responses with questionaires, requests for additional information prior to quoting, and pre-formatted responses has helped to greatly reduce the extra email/phone correspondence.

The TDSers are working hard to figure out new ways of streamlining to get things done faster.  Stay tuned as we add our ideas and implementations. We’ll tell you what works and what needs fine tuning.  We’ll share the failures, too!

On my way home tonight, I discussed with Stacy TDS’ state of affairs. In business for six years, I feel like we have made great strides–we have built a great product, ThunderTix, we have created a great plugin for e-commerce, and we have automated much of our work. Despite all of our efforts, our overall sales have not outpaced our fixed costs in a way that benefits the business financially (read “me” :) ). Truly, after six years, what can we do differently to affect the bottom line? On Monday, the office will meet to discuss some ideas on how we can automate more and push projects through in a more timely fashion. Over the next few months, we’ll describe what we are doing to try to reach our goals and whether our new courses are working. Until then….I’m “on vacation”–or at least, trying to be.