Growing pains of Scaling a Business
I have been gone for a couple of months working on the business, this week I quickly stop by to check my numerous unread PM messages, and at the end of this week, unfortunately, i will be gone for a couple more months... probably till the end of the year. The demands of the business are escalating.
Thanks for the questions, mr. 456
(is your name a "doctor who" reference? or is that in reference to the ferrari 456?)
I am deep in the thick of it right now. Things are shifting rapidly and i am progressing... but as to be expected, i sometimes make mistakes every now and then too... of course, while also learning from the experience and making the necessary adjustment as i go along.
Right now, it will be premature to write about specific technical solutions because in a few months, i will probably be using a highly modified version-- having adapted to my increasing business needs. It has gotten to the point where i need at least two managers. Right now, i am the one supervising and handling (#1) the raw, technical aspects of the computer refurbishing business + (#2) the general management/workflow of the business + (#3) the critically important acquisition of new clients, price negotiation and sales. I cannot keep doing all three by myself. I need at least two people with managerial talent to lend some sort of assistance with #1 and #2.
Even for #3 function(clients/sales) which critically requires my personal touch, afterall, clients are the lifeblood of my business. Even for this #3 function, i will eventually need to train a multilingual, ethnically diverse sales team representing the faces of third world countries. Almost half of the continent of Africa-- that is where the bulk of my sales come from -- speaks french. In fact, i just closed a big client from Senegal, Africa, and I had to brush up on my french for that one. Having people on the team that speaks local dialects, different languages, and fraternizes at ethnic enclaves goes a long way in bringing clients in. Because this is also a word-of-mouth business. Yes, i have randomly had two heavy hitters clients contacted me directly from a craiglist ad i posted, wanting to do business. But the rest of my clients are from who knows whom knows who knows whom type of thing... six degrees of separation scenario. The raw fact is that, people in general are more likely to do business with their own kind.
These are the developing situation that i am in right now... with increasing duties and responsibilities as the business expands... and the question of finding the right talent, training and building them up, motivating them, designing incentive structure for them, delegating to them, and managing them... doing all these while making sure all these expanding, different moving parts are well integrated together to function like one, single organism is the task. You learn a lot about your strengths and weaknesses.
The next 3 months is supremely critical to the business.
Again, it will be premature to discuss *the solution* that i have now... because in a few months, that specific solution will be outdated as i adjust to reality on the ground. Case in point, even though 4 months ago i just finished building a Garage structure for the business(wrote about
it/posted some pictures in this thread); but given our current rate of expansion, i am beginning to consider actually moving into a warehouse. Volume, volume, volume.
Again, with apologies beforehand, i won't be able to reply to messages in threads and in PM after this week-- i will gone for many more months, most likely till the end of the year.
regards,
Nemencine
P.S. thanks DJ-MATT for the info about the thermal printer. Yes, those things are a beast. I will look into the software you recommend. Thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it.
456 said:
Nemencine -- any updates on the infrastructural side of the business?
Would be great to hear how you may have had to rig up various 3rd party solutions together to fit your workflow. Also, any progress on the timeclock front / managing your workers?
I've seen a lot of business infra automation, via custom software "glue" to connect / control / analyze all the moving parts (usually 3rd party systems / softwares / workflows).
It's fascinating because as a given software solution's customizability goes up, so does the complexity. There's a lot of opportunity therein for developers, consultants, etc.
