The crashing of the waves is intense and reverberates across the lania (Hawaiian for balcony). My feet are up, a Guava juice with a wedge of lime and a bowl of rice chex at my left. I have the Wordpress iPad app open. We landed 2 days ago, with a brand new ipad but short one functional macbook pro. A little flick of the wrist and a full glass of water spilled across the keys. The screen flashed white and immediately went dark.

I screamed. Then opened the chassis, poured out the water and set it to dry. A quick trip to the apple store right before our flight, and the tech just shook his head, wished me luck and sent me on my way. His advice, wait 3 – 5 days, say a little prayer and hit power. Today is day 4. Perhaps this exercise will end tomorrow.

Now in full disclosure, Peter, dear man that he is, raided my house and brought an ancient computer and my backup drive to SF. Phew. Except that my fairly new time capsule backup was corrupted. Four hours of internet research later and only a few hours to go before our departure, I gave up. No sleep for me. I did bring the old lappy with me, but as it really had almost none of my software or my development files, its basically good for watching Hulu and little else. A tangent but Hulu really should get an ipad app, which I would gladly pay for it – even repeatedly. Heck, I pay $17 a month for netflix.

In the end, I found myself on the ipad, trying to run a company. Now if I was a full time technician, this would be a disaster, at least for now. I have yet to see MAMP (IAMP?) on the iPad (wouldn’t that be sick?!?). But, those days are slowly fading and now I am a full time freelance art-director / project manager / sales person. I spend the day communicating. For that, the iPad has got me about 80% of the way there. Ok, onto the good and the ugly (or just plain uninformed).

The Good

Battery Life: Impressive!! I spent over 8 hours on this little box drinking deep from the internet the whole time, and at the end I had 14% remaining. A battery charge lasting a full day’s use. Now that is what a battery was meant to be.

Touch: I was prepare to rail against the loss of my mouse. It was only at the end of the day that I noticed I never missed it. Turns out, Apple, and many of the application developers out there have done a nice job with UX. My appreciation and respect!

Apps: Considering how young this platform is, the breath and quality of the apps was surprising and this can only get better. I used the following native apps: mail, calendar, safari, notes, contacts, photos. The rest of my time was spent camped out on AIM, Skype, Pages and Tweetdeck. On the web, google docs was a life saver and still worked fairly well. I spent time some time exploring file management tool like Dropbox + RDocs. Next I plan to look for a good time tracking app and an alternate browser option beyond safari, which I found to be frsutrating for the reasons I state below.

Accessories: The keyboard was the make or break (thanks Simon for reminding me). While typing on the screen is far better than I had imagined, I would probably have developed carpel tunnel. The keyboard shortcuts mostly work and the keyboard itself feel really solid. I wish was that there was some way to have it work in portrait mode as I prefer that orientation for some of the apps. Overall, a total win.

Beauty: Peter has a saying, “Work comfortably”. As I sit here on the lania overlooking the surf and swaying palm trees, I find myself somewhat captivated, calm and inspired. Spending the day on the ipad (technical limitations aside) is much the same. Its nice to be immersed in elegance and beauty. I am happier for it.

The Bad

Linear Workflow:

In some ways, being focused on one thing at a time is quite nice. But the reality is that I often use multiple tool to accomplish a task. Like taking notes when reviewing a design. I either have to open and close, open and close, open and close (annoying) or find alternate means of multitasking. Hopefully the 4.0 update will improve the experience.

Push:

Push notification is way more disruptive than growl (it forces you to acknowledge it) – can’t I have a passive push style notification that fades in and out on the top of the screen? Di I really need to stop what I am doing because Reid just sent me something on aim?

Email

• Email client needs basic format tools – ctrl-b doesn’t bold on highlight. Is a super simply wysiwyg too much to ask for? maybe textile would be ok?
• I didn’t realize how important push email was till now. My imap email on dream host just doesn’t support it (to my knowledge). Maybe its time to consider google apps or some other service because waiting 15 minutes or having to click refresh manually is lame.
• The disappearing email bug (maybe its just dreamhost) went from nuisance to dangerous. On my iphone I found it annoying, but I wasn’t solely dependent so I could live with it. Why do some emails show up for a sec, then disappear? Sometimes it takes 4-5 refreshes before they stay.
• How I miss flags on my emails. Good folder architecture is a reasonable second option but…
• Search only searches one folder at a time. Since I use folders a lot, it makes search way less powerful, even close to useless.
• Email hangs pretty often. It will start to search for new emails and spin for 20+ minutes. I end up restarting the iPad just to get email syncing again.
  

AIM

• First of all, Nice work AOL!!
• I wish it would remember my group, but as I can keep running conversations open in a reasonable manner, I can live with it.
• I can’t copy text from IM’s?!? That is just inhibiting.
• No image sharing yet, probably ok for many people, but not for an art director managing a remote team.

Safari

• It handles large images oddly, shrinking their actual size without allowing me to see them at full resolution. This is a HUGE HUGE HUGE problem as I can’t see details on large comps
• I keep seeing the mobile version of sites – makes no sense on this form factor. Ultimatly it is the site developers fault for using useragent rather than screensize, but I would love to be able to change the user agent with some toggle? Mobile view VS web view? I seem to loose about 70% of features on the mobile views.
• Is there a way to have mobile safari not try to reload pages every time I change tabs? This is a huge time sink, especially when reviewing 2mb comps.

Core

• iPad drop menu limited width – went to ing direct and can only see the bank name but not the account numbers when trying to transfer money. It was like playing bank transfer roulette. Good thing there is a confirm page.
• Moving apps between pages often doesn’t work.

Calendar

• What do you mean you can’t open an .ics calendar invite?!?! you’ve got to be kidding. Now I have to reply and ask for time and place and details to every meeting invite. I can’t confirm automatically. Super unprofessional.
• I can’t change / delete events I was invited to that are in my calendar from the good ‘ol mac days. Sucky. Got lots of those.
• Something is really wrong with timezone, but I have yet to identify what it is. One day changing to Hawai’i worked great. The next day, everything is back to pacific time and wont change.

Summary

It is doable. The future is here (almost). As Reid told me earlier today, this would have been my greatest fantasy when I was 12. Really all that stands in my way is a small amount of finess to improve workflow. Better searches, integration between apps, file management (although I think I woud be happy with a tagging approach rather than traditional hierarchy), better poweruser support in safari, and more good apps. In fact I have a request for Intuit: make me a QB Lite app where I can do basic actions (invoice, receive $, pay bills) from a QB file stored on dropbox. That would impress me.

For those of you on the same adventure I am on: Which apps have been helpful? Any tips on optimizing the core apps to solve some of my issues?

Follow the adventure on Twitter (@justlikeair): #livingonipad

Despite all the possibility for disaster, projects went relatively smoothly. We learned a few good lessons and as a result, our terms and conditions grew.  Time to update the old contract.

It Doesn’t Matter What Your Contract Says if They Don’t Understand It.

We may build software and create intricate designs, but we are neither a software company nor a design company. Those are just tools of the trade. We are a service company. The goal is to help our clients be successful. Our business thrives on happy customers and the referrals they generate.

So, when the day comes in which the client understands thing one way and our contract said something else, who is actually correct? Technically our contract is the final word. It is a valuable safety net. But that is its secondary purpose. When it comes down to running a long term healthy business, working with a client is much like being married. It is a long running set of compromises. My wife often says things to me (while I am focused and working) which I never hear. Later when we find ourselves arguing, who is at fault? Is it her fault for thinking I was engaged when I clearly was not? Was it my fault, as I did not take the time to stop what I was doing and giving her my full attention. In one short word: Yes. But does it actually matter whose fault it is? Not really. What is vital is that communication resumes.

The purpose of a contract is to facilitate communication (and be there as a fall back in case it breaks down completely). I am completely indebted to Reid for reminding me that we need to walk our clients through each item in the contract. The greatest value we have ever received from our contract is the discussion surrounding our terms and conditions. It is when the expectations are set, determining how we will work together.

Tricky issues such as response time, hosting up time, getting hacked and more are all things we faced in the last 6 months. Most of them would have easily been resolved with an early conversation and a little documentation for later. We may have had clauses (or not) to address them, but the understanding reached from a discussion is what actually created the sense of trust that a contract should, but rarely if ever creates.

So what changed?

A lot. In some ways, I am a touch sad to have to add this level of bureaucracy to our contract. Not all of these items make it into each contract (hosting for a design gig makes little sense), but forewarned is forearmed.

Response Time

Shane & Peter, Inc. works exclusively with Independent Contractors. The benefit of a flexible team is rapid scalability and a diverse set of services. Due to the nature of the business model, Shane & Peter, Inc. is not set up to support on call services. Within the duration of this Contract Shane & Peter, Inc. will make every effort to reply to inquiries within 48 hours except where The Client has been previously notified of a period of limited availability. Shane & Peter, Inc. will respond in good faith but cannot guarantee any specific action within a given time frame.

Dependencies

In the event that any aspect of this Contract is dependent on a separate third party or the Client’s in house team, the quality and punctuality of the Finished Product(s) may be subject to said party’s ability to meet the required time lines and/or level of quality. Shane & Peter, Inc. is not responsible for any delay or defect caused by separate third party or the Client’s in house teams.

Hosting

Shane & Peter, Inc. does not provide Hosting services beyond temporary internal development environments. The Client is responsible for choosing, paying for, and maintaining any required Hosting solutions and associated services. As a courtesy, Shane & Peter, Inc. may offer suggestions, however, Shane & Peter, Inc. is NOT responsible for down time, poor performance, or loss of data caused by the Hosting Provider. Additionally, Shane & Peter, Inc. is not responsible for any bug caused by changes on the Host after the Acceptance of this Contract, including but not limited to updates to operating system, compile systems, code libraries and languages, or any changes resulting from security violations.

Backups

Shane & Peter, Inc. maintains internal backups of active project code and design files. This backup system is not intended as a solution for The Client, rather as a code archive through the duration of this Contract. While the Shane & Peter, Inc. backup system is fully redundant, it is not guaranteed and does not support any content produced by the Client. The Client is solely responsible for the Backup and Restoration of the Finished Product(s) and any associated data.

Security

Although Shane & Peter, Inc. makes every effort to provide secure Finished Product(s), due to the nature of rapidly advancing technology, Shane & Peter, Inc. can in no way guaranty that the Finished Product(s) will not be subject security breaches. Shane & Peter, Inc. recommends the use of strong passwords and the observance of standard security practices. In order to minimize the chances of security violations, systems should be updated often. The Client is solely responsible for tracking software updates. Any updates during the life of or after the expiration of the Contract can be negotiated as an addendum to this Contract or as an additional Contract.

Review, Expiration or Cancellation

This Contract is valid for the calendar year of in which it was signed, upon which point it expires. Upon expiration, both parties may review and amend the Contract and decide whether or not to renew. This Contract may be terminated by either party with a full 30 day written notice. All payments will be due and all work will be submitted upon the termination of Contract.

Steal What You Like: Caveat emptor

Don’t have a contract of your own or want to steal some juicy bits? Go ahead and borrow ours. OBVIOUSLY, we are NOT liable for whatever mess you get yourself into. Yes, our lawyer went though ours. But her job is to represent our interests, not yours. We just share out of the goodness of our hearts.

In short: Caveat emptor

Download: Shane & Peter Inc Contract Template

Please let us know if you find any errors, have suggestions or things we may have not considered!

Do you have a system in place to check your work before it ends up in the public eye? Too often, I find that as contractors, we get so pressed by our deadlines we do not build in the time for careful review. It is a tough lesson Peter & I keep learning over and over again.

Today, Julie and I received some great holiday gifts. We ended up rolling around on the floor laughing as we read the tags and labels that came on them.

The Dillian Sakae company had the following label attached to the jacket Julie’s dad received. The label was in Chinese with English subtitles:

.Extra softness and superior warmth provided by using imported raw materials

.Due to not spurting mucus(chemical liquid), so there isn’t any harmful affection on the human body

.A super product of the 21st century which can protect environment because of its excelent fluey, softness, warmth and reusage.

Body is feeling lightly and gently

This kind of linguistic ingenuity is beyond my ability for fiction. Do they have companies who specialize in this stuff or just some poor schmoe in their marketing department?

Another label from a piece of clothing we received, sold by the Mitsubishi Corporation, listed the following:

Using hydrophobic characteristic together with durable water repellent treatment it keeps garment dry and minimizes the loss of exercise”

Better, but still a bit quirky. Though, I’ll admit that if their jacket really does minimize my loss of exercise, that is a pretty cool product. I’ll let you all know how it goes. I have my doubts.

This brings us back to the point. Do you want people mocking your work on their blog or admiring it. There is no finer way to ruin a perfectly good business that to turn out sub par service. So how do you avoid that?

Check your work. It sounds obvious but it turned not to be as simple as we had first assumed. In order to combat this issue ourselves, we have a deliverables checklist. As you put together this list, see if you can make sure each piece gets the touch of another set of eyes. Too often we stare at our own work for so long that we begin to miss the obvious, let alone the details.

So what goes in a check-off list? Start by including all the milestones and also add any approved change requests. Have someone with a good eye for design double check that the pixels have been pushed into their proper place and someone with good grammar review all the copy. Double check the actual files you are sending as I have often seen the wrong ones get uploaded or sent. Also, if you happen to need to make last minute changes, make sure it didn’t break everything – Murphy’s law seems to dictate that is virtually inevitable.

No astounding revelations here folks, you think everyone would do it, but we have been just as guilty of skipping this step when under the gun as everyone else. Heck, even international corporations can’t seem to get this part right. But, while they might be able to lose a few customers every now and then, it is something best avoided if possible. In the case of contractors, where your name is all you have, you had best guard it well.

Happy holidays everyone. Hope you are having a great time. I’ve almost finished my third fantasy book in as many days. My folks come in tomorrow night. This has been quite restful. Peace.

“I quit.”

I pronounced the statement firmly (or as firmly as one can get over IM). It was my company, after all. I could certainly do whatever I felt like.

“You can’t quit.” Harry’s statement was just as firm, but it held a note of panic. “You need to run the business.”

I complained. Then I ranted. I eventually lapsed into what I refuse to call whining. A lot of patience and love from my business partner and I didn’t quit that day, but I wasn’t very happy. I had too much work. Those of you who have never been there, don’t scoff and envy me. This is a sucky place to be, when you can’t keep it all together no matter how hard you try. After all, shouldn’t working for yourself be a pleasant affair?

Making a choice

I loved the act of running our business. I loved seeking out opportunity, seizing it, and making it mine. I gloried in negotiations, new contracts, and hitting the mark just right with clients. Most of all I loved writing. I could do it all.

That’s what entrepreneurs do, after all, don’t they? Freelancers, the self-employed… They “work for themselves”. They wear many hats and have hundreds of faces. They do everything…

Or so I thought.

I wasn’t really an entrepreneur; I just thought I was. I was a writer who owned his own job. “You have to choose,” Harry said quietly. “What do you want to be?”

That was the crux of the moment. I’d built myself an over-glorified job. My job created jobs for others, but without me, everything crashed and no one worked.

If you can’t be replaced, you can’t be promoted.

Unwittingly, I’d effectively squashed not only my own growth, but the growth of the business.

“I want to be an entrepreneur,” I concluded. Not a writer, not a manager… a true, full-fledged entrepreneur. Someone who takes calculated business risks. Someone who builds a business that runs on its own. The question was how to go from self-employed (ever notice how that sounds a lot like you own your own job?) to business owner.

If you want strength and room for growth, don’t renovate. Rebuild.

Changing a few aspects of the business or my day-to-day tasks didn’t achieve much. In fact, the more changes Harry and I made to turn the job into a business, the more we had to dismantle our current way of doing business. The root of the problem was not in our day to day business activities, it lay in the 6 inches between our ears.

We eventually tore down every inch of what we’d built. We had to rebuild from the bottom up. Sure, we saved some pieces, we got rid of others, but we started over. When we began putting the structure of our business back together, we built it to accommodate what we wanted right now and we made sure that our business was flexible enough to accommodate change in the future.

If you’re a one-person show, a lone freelancer or individual entrepreneur, be cautious of getting stuck in the rut of what you do. We label ourselves – writer, designer, programmer, manager, self-employed… whatever suits our fancy. Most of us have built ourselves a job – not a business.

In The Technician and the Entrepreneur, Shane wrote: Your job as the owner is to prepare yourself and your business for growth. To educate yourself sufficiently so that, as your business grows, the business’ foundation and structure can carry the additional weight. To make it survive you.

Rethink who you are and what you are. Allow for the possibility that you may want to grow. Prepare for it. Plan for it. Strategize long before it happens – and trust me, that moment of truth will happen.

If you were like me, you own your job and want to make the change. Now what? Check out Amanda’s post on the 5Ws and pick up a copy of the E-Myth Revised. Another good post is Christine’s How I choose a business model.

Your first step is a shift of focus. What is your plan? Shane interviewed a number of business owners recently, and almost none of us had clear exit strategies. That’s not the end of the world, but most successful entrepreneurs we meet have a long-term plan for their business. It sure isn’t, “Get old and maybe retire.” (Sound familiar?).

Take some time out and ask yourself those questions. Otherwise, like I was, you might end up stuck in a job you don’t like. And guess what? You built it for yourself.

I started climbing again today. Sitting on the ground stretching, my climbing shoes and my chalk bag at my side, I watched a few people prepare for their ascent. On goes the harness, then the rope gets looped in and tied off in some crazy fancy eight knot that should save your life as you plunge into the abyss. Your buddy checks you. Each buckle gets reviewed, your knot is inspected. Chalk bag, check. Additional cams, clips, check. You approach the wall.

“Is the Belay on?”

“Belaying”, replies your buddy, pulling snuggly on the rope to confirm tension.

“Climbing”, you state. But you don’t grab stone yet.

“Climb on.” Ok, it’s time to begin the ascent.

For a lot of beginning climbers, this routine feels ridiculous and a hindrance. Each step is choreographed, an intricate dance of preparation. That ritual of communication was truly annoying to me until I got dropped 18 feet on my ass. Turn out my buddy was busy with a different ritual, introducing himself to the belayer next to him (and a might beautiful belayer she was).

The point: if you have a business team, do you have a communication ritual? How about with your clients? Is consistent and reliable or are you about to get dropped on your ass?

We have 14 different projects running right now, not including sales and bidding efforts. I wrote about fear a few days ago when I mention our goal to gross a million. My biggest fear: we loose control of all the flying balls and disappointed a lot of people. So Peter & I are working on communication systems. Frankly this is not our strength. We are both highly independent. I am writing this post more to me than to you, though I figure, it will be good for both of us. So, what could we do to make the dialog explicit and manage with more planning and intention rather than firefighting?

A weekly meeting?

We tried this and I have to point fingers. Peter often resists the structure of a required meeting preferring the flow of an organic approach. It doesn’t fit with the ebbs and flows of our working patterns. During rushes it is an encumbrance, during quite times it isn’t necessary. After all, we are constantly talking. There are pros and cons of each approach. The question I keep coming back to: is the consistency of a specific regular date valuable in its own right? Could there be value in having a time in which we review and analyze the health of the business rather than just trouble shooting? Knowing it is coming, we mentally gear towards it? Jury is out. I’d love to get everyone’s opinion.

A start up and postmortem checklist for every project?

We have a project evaluation score sheet we use to decide if we want a gig.

I think this is something different. I got this suggestion 3 days ago while reading the TRW small project handbook, courtesy of my mother (thanks!). A bit more formal than I am used to as they call a small project anything with 20 or less people or grossing up to 2 million. The start up checklist would include those key steps involved in launching each project.

For Setup, the things we often cover (somewhat haphazardly):

Milestone & Detailed Schedule
Budget & Risk Management Plan
Team Organization
Communication / Project Management System Set-Up
Facilities / Equipment / Software / Asset Review & Acquisition
Configuration / Data Management
QA & Review
Customer Relations

For Shutdown:

Billing
Archiving Records
Updating Component Library
Lessons Learned
Closing Accounts

I’ll probably do a blog on this in a whole lot more detail as I dig through this workbook and learn more.

Take a business retreat.

Ok, this was one of the best ideas we have had and it has been quite practical. We stepped away from the urgent, so that in the quiet lull (like 3am) we could work on our business, not just in it. We focused on goals, on metrics to measure progress, and current issues and upcoming concerns.

USE your project management system.

A lot of us at some point or another have paid the money to get a project management system, be it basecamp, copper, redmine, active collab or any of the many options out there. The irony is that we rarely actually use them. Why? Because they are build to be used by many people, which means they were not built for you. They don’t think like you think.

When you are truly solo, that’s fine, because it can all live in your head. When you run a team though, not only does it become impossible to hold it all in your dome (which causes enormous stress), but it is detrimental to the business. You can’t have a Mac Truck person. Thats what we call it. Someone who is so valuable that if they get hit by a mac truck the business grinds to a halt. I mediated on the fact that we had a hard time using our PM system (we use copper). About 6 months ago Peter I decided it was time to stop whining about it and just USE it. If they day comes when we have a brilliant idea on how to improve things, then we can build one (we will) but waiting for that day is sheer lunacy. We seem to have to keep remaking that decision on an almost monthly basis. We are getting better and the system truly is helping communication with our remote team.

Learned Lesson: CC’ing someone doesn’t mean squat.

On a more practical note, I have learned that CC’ing someone does not mean they saw it, nor ingested it. In fact, a direct email may not have even registered. Sometimes, a conversation in passing doesn’t even click. Make sure that there is a confirmation / checkoff process on dialogs that are important. I can’t say we have figured this one out yet, though Peter’s post on not holding your breath was a good start.

We want to know: What do you do?

So you strapped on your PM system harness. Your business team and tools are on belay. Business on. The fact is that these systems of communication save lives and save businesses. No man reads mind (verdict is still out on women). As we begin to grow larger and have more projects and people, this becomes vital.

So let me ask, what are you doing to structure your communication and make it explicit? What has worked and what failed?

If you think these questions were interesting and the dialog that follows, then click here now to subscribe so you won’t miss out on the next one!

I would never have guessed before hand, but it seems like experience had very little to do with whom we chose to interview. So many people were incredibly qualified, we had to turn to other selection criteria.

When we sat down to go through the first wave, Peter & I made three piles : Delighted, Satisfied, Unsatisfied. Then we began to sort.

The Big No-No’s

Go directly to unsatisfied. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Lose 3 Turns.

Here are some things that can make or break your resume:

1) Say hello to us. It’s polite and we like it. It lets us know about you and shows a touch of people skills. After all, you are supposed to represent us to the world. If you send an email with no message at all or “Please consider me for this job, here’s my resume”, then you pretty much got tossed. It feels like you don’t care and we just got spammed.

2) By the 70th resume, if anything was hard to read, you were out of luck. We would like to congratulate Jocelyn Whidden for having the most beautiful (we are a design company), clean, easy to read 1 page resume we have ever seen.

3) Spelling & Grammar are not optional. Have someone proofread the email and resume a few times before you send it. I sympathize as a linguistically challenged chap. That said, one of the primary responsibilities of an admin is to ensure the quality of everything that goes through their office.

4) You MUST include a resume. Sending an email asking if we want to see your resume is … well, enough said.

5) If you already have a full time job, a part time job and just want to squeeze in work into that final hour you have left while you are eating and washing yourself, you might want to be a bit more subtle about it. No one likes to feel like you’re their last priority.

6) It clearly says: Must be willing to drive to Santa Cruz a minimum of once per week. That means if you live in Pennsylvania or India and you respond, we will hold you to it. And no, we won’t pay your gas money.

Moving from Satisfied to Delighted

In the end, it was primarily about presentation, credibility & personality.

1) Three of our nine picks for the first interview round included great letters of reference. And they absolutely made a difference, especially the reference sent by Angela Williams. All of you wish you could get a letter like this one to flaunt. Recommendation Letter (Thanks for letting us post it).

2) All our picks wrote interesting, clear, concise introduction letters that gave us a peek into their personality, where they are coming from, and had a spark of enthusiasm & energy. Your ability to clearly convey a message is at the heart of what you will do for us. Communication is key for a remote team. More than anything, we are looking for someone that matches our culture and way of thinking. The better you show who you are, the easier it is for us to recognize you as our dream admin.

3) An intrinsic sense of organization. Beyond neat and organized. Two of our picks had letters/resumes that screamed a passion for precision. And that is why we are looking for support.

I could probably come up with more (but the call of work is strong in this one). Please let me tell you – this list is not to discourage you. If you are not passionate about detail and your strengths lie elsewhere, just tell us what those strengths are. If you don’t have the reference letter from the messiah himself, so what? I don’t either. This is meant to give you ideas and improve your odds if you haven’t sent in your letter yet. We are so grateful for all your messages and wish we could meet you all personally.

I will definitely add a post later today on how to interview with us.

We look forward to seeing your resume.

Plan. Do. Check. Adjust.

I’ve heard it for years. Not a brilliant revolutionary idea. It sounds kind of plain. But, in all honesty, when is that last time we did it? Are you building your business consciously and intentionally, or do you spend each and every day putting out fires at the whim of circumstance?

It is common for us to become so busy running our business that we forget to follow the pattern. And I do not mean the generic ‘we’ meaning ‘you’. I mean Peter & I (though you might be just as guilty as we are). Our business has picked up speed, to the point where all we are doing is reacting to crises. Recently, someone we care a great deal about gave us a lecture explaining that you cannot grow rapidly and build an effective structure at the same time.

Having acknowledged the need to consciously follow a more sane pattern, we have taken steps.

1) We are hiring an virtual office manager / administrator (interviews this week), who should handle the daily bureaucracy and help free us to focus more on the growth of the business.

2) We are turning away new clients / warning current clients of limited availability until mid October.

3) We have scheduled two retreats, one in mid September and one in early November, during which we will Check, Adjust and Plan again.

So what is going to change? The purpose of the artificial stall of our business is to establish a structure that will allow us to grow further.

Finding Vetted Contractors.

We need a system that will screen and attract qualified and talented freelancers & small businesses. Peter & I know a number of people from our personal network, but it is time to actively grow beyond our circle.

Finance and Reporting

We need a system that tracks the finances and work flow of our company in such a way that we can draw solid and effective information to support decision making.

Postmortem

We need a system by which we review projects, learn from them and apply that knowledge to avoid future mistakes.

Hedgehog Concept

We need to continually review our current business model, question and confirm its validity. We need to ask ourselves what can we be the very best at and how do we quantify the answer.

Personal Development

We need to pause and take a good look at ourselves and discuss strong points & weak points and how they affect the company.

I’m sure I’ll come up with more before our meeting in September and add it to the list.

Ultimately, either you are steering your business vehicle or your circumstances are. For those of you thrill seekers (I bet you use the snooze on your alarm too), feel free not to plan. But if you want to create a sustainable business (or a massive organization that changes lives), it will need to be deliberate.

The question at hand: how to manage quick growth? It’s a bit of a balancing act. Our recent conclusion (not an answer because we don’t actually know yet): you can’t grow constantly. Sometimes you need to purposefully create a short plateau so that you can regroup and organize the team to handle the next round of challenges. If you don’t, the odds are that some important things will fall through the cracks. I thought I would share a conversation with a very close friend of mine, who is also a CEO running an exploding company.

On July 31st in the late afternoon on AIM:

Shane Pearlman
I’m listening

My Good Friend
you’re putting too much on top of untested systems
it’s one thing to build a system, test it, fix what’s broken, test again, and then expand
it’s another to build a system at the same time that you expand
you can’t do it
you’ve been trying, and it clearly doesn’t work

Shane Pearlman
I concluded the same thing this weekend
We are going to be extremely careful accepting new customers for a little while so that we can get a better grasp on our growth. Peter agreed this morning.

My Good Friend
that’s good
that’s a step

Shane Pearlman
how have you guys been handling that
I know how cautious you have been choosing where to place your resources

…

My Good Friend
we’re at the first stages of growth to the next level

this round will probably be four hires
then we pause for a little while
ingest the new meat
take on more responsibility
and then grow again
probably then with a larger group
maybe six
remember this: you can never be outnumbered

Shane Pearlman
you mean between the core and the periphery?

My Good Friend
yeah
well
no
there are four types of employees
green, ingested, core, and senior management
where senior management is core+

Shane Pearlman
ok

My Good Friend
green employees can never outnumber ingested+core+senior management
and I don’t think green+ingested can outnumber core+senior management, either
it has nothing to do with seniority within the organization and everything to do with how ingrained they are in the culture

Shane Pearlman
ingested means capable but not culturaly integrated or capable and culturally integrated but not putting the business as a life priority?

My Good Friend
ingested means capable and culturally integrated to an extent… they know the core values and know the culture, but they can’t create it or instill it in others

We ended the conversation at that point as he had to leave. I truly look forward to digging deeper into my friend’s advice, but for now, I’ll reflect upon our own experience.

The simple wisdom here states that managing growth for any company is just as important as managing projects. Every company wants growth, few get it, even fewer actually know how to deal with it when it happens. Thoughtful, organized, well planned growth cycles are the key to truly harnessing expansion in a way that provides a sustainable foundation on which to, well, keep growing, which is the goal really. As our team continues to expand and take on new projects, this will certainly be one of the key factors that we will constantly be aware about.