In any small business everyone wears a few hats, so it would be great to find someone who can do a variety of things.  But does that mean they are going to be expensive?

The good old rich vs king argument says you should employ senior people if you want to be rich (but lose control because you don’t hire someone with experience and ignore them) and you employ less senior people if you want to be king.  I’d rather just have someone with a hunger to learn, a can-do attitude and a good fit for the culture I’m trying to build.

So, here’s the first three people I want to work with:

#1 has got to complement my skills and since we’re building web applications – that means I need interaction design, graphical design and a CSS/JQuery guru.  That might sound like three people – but like I said, you’ve got to wear a few hats so lucky I know just the person and between us we can cover the entire process end-to-end and build some stunning software.

#2 there are a lot of possibilities here, but the best is someone to focus on my weakness(es) – which is the operations side of things allowing me to focus on development and running the business.  I’ll never forget one of my best customers saying to me, “I love your product, but the only time you ever talk to me is to chase money – so I’m going to switch to this other product”.  Without good operations, its so easy for things to spin out of control – so having someone to take care of this side of things will be massive.

#3 is to replace me.  I want to run the business, so I need to replace myself as a developer.  I also want to have time to learn about the parts of business that I don’t have so much experience in, so I figure I’ve got to make myself redundant as a developer.  Not that with 2 developers I’ll exactly be redundant – but at least we can deliver software without me getting in the way.

I’m really pleased to have found great people for the first two roles – people who share my values and excitement for what lies ahead.  #3 will have to wait a little longer, but if its you then I’d love to hear from you.

Check it out: http://www.tweet4yourtee.com

Over a Roti Chenai a couple of months back, we were talking about having a play with the Twitter API and how we could have some fun.  The idea hatched that it would be cool to have a tee-shirt with our Twitter name on it – so Tom and Warren went to work designing a site, designing some tees and organising the production and distribution side of things and last week we built the site.

The site still needs a bit (well – a lot) of tweaking, but we’ve managed to make use of the Twitter API in a couple of ways.  The homepage shows the twitter name of the last person to mention @tweet4yourtee, the On Twitter page shows the most recent conversations with @tweet4yourtee and the order page will automatically apply a discount to your order if you’ve mentioned @tweet4yourtee in a tweet.

Thanks to the reach of Twitter, the first sale happened within an hour of the site going live and while I wouldn’t say its spreading virally, its fun seeing hundreds of people hit the site after seeing it tweeted.  The tee-shirts are quite nice too – I’m wearing mine now and there will be a few on display at WebStock this week.

1. Seed capital
First things first, cash is king so got to sort out some cash to get things going.

2. Xero
I’ve spent the last three years building the best accounting system ever, so I’m really looking forward to finally getting to use it for real!
http://www.xero.com

3. Life chair
After sitting in one of these for the last three years, I just had to get one.
http://www.formway.co.nz/Products/Life.html.

4. Server
I thought long and hard about what to do for a development server and in the end was really impressed with Erin from Unleash who offered me a perfect ex-lease server with very reasonable hosting.
http://www.unleash.co.nz

5. Accurev
I met these guys in Boston 18 months ago and was well impressed with their SCM system.  They are the smartest agile guys I’ve met and I’m really looking forward to using their system.
http://www.accurev.com

6. Employee
Its great finding someone who’s skills complement your own and it means that the projects are pushing forward even when I’m out schmoozing over coffee.

7. LiquidPlanner
Like it or not, my company will be doing timesheets.  Partly because we’ll be doing some chargeable work, but mainly because I want to know what I’m investing into every product & idea.  LiquidPlanner has very nice project planning and prioritisation and employees get a nice to-do list which they can estimate against and track their time and progress.
http://www.liquidplanner.com

8. Pray
Yep -  church doesn’t have a monopoly on God so I want to know how God & business mix and I want to experience stuff like this: “But the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits”

9. Intranet
Managing and sharing information is key, so getting an intranet in place is a top priority.  In this case, I’ve started building my own … who knows – maybe one day I’ll productise it.

10. Office
Sitting in the sun in the garden at home, drinking Tuatara Pilsner is nice, but I’ve got to be in the CBD – so the great guys at Mindscape have agreed to let me crash on their couch (so to speak) for a while.  Thanks!  http://www.mindscape.co.nz

Now for the work to begin, I’ll share a bit about my first few projects soon(ish).

As leaders, we establish innovative and creative ways of doing things, then formalise it so we can train other people to do them.  So often, this becomes a constraint when it should just be the starting point.  My ceiling is your floor.  We should be empowering people to start with what we’ve learned and go further than us with their own creative ideas.  Instead of expecting them to run the same race as you (ie do it this way because that worked really well 5 years ago), instead pass the baton so they can run the next leg of the race starting with your best and then creating their own.

We all know that a picture speaks 1,000 words, but even more important than pictures are actions.  Actions speak louder than pictures and words.

You could write and talk all day about doing something, but its worth nothing until you do it.

That’s one of the reasons why I like the Agile Manifesto:

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan

There are two types of documentation and you should always be aware of why you are writing documentation and for whom.

Project documentation is for communication
Project documents are used for communication within a project and are not maintained once the project is completed. These documents are necessary to:

• Sell the concept
• Remove ambiguity
• Facilitate a multi-location team
• Manage the details

Product documentation is for management and control
Product documents are used for managing and controlling the product and will be maintained until the product or feature is retired. These documents are necessary to:

• Manage priorities and scheduling
• Maintain quality standards
• Maintain correctness
• Educate people

When you’re using documentation to communicate, then you’re capturing the state of the requirements etc at a given point in time. If the requirements change, then you don’t update your original communication, you make a new documentation to communicate the changes clearly.

Communication isn’t a living document.

However, when you document for education, then it is a living document. If the requirements or scope changes, then anyone reading your old document for education purposes will be misled, therefore in order for your document to meet its purpose, it has to be maintained. This means every time you write a document for education purposes, you’ve just added an overhead to your project – a document that has to be updated as the project changes. If you are not going to maintain the document – then you aren’t writing it for educational purposes. To make the maintenance cheaper, the document can contain less detail and more principals that are less likely to change.

I built it and of course they play with it more than me, but yesterday Jacob (the 4.5 yr old) gave me this card:

To Daddy

Thank you for sharing your star wars toys.

From Jacob

How cool is it to be thankful for the little things.

I really like that a big part of NetFlix’ culture is to preserve the culture.  I also like their very frank policies of, “if you wouldn’t fight to keep someone if they resigned, then fire them now” and “if you would offer someone a payrise to keep them if they resigned, then offer them that payrise now”.   Culture and values definately come from the top, so the only way to spread these values is to run the company on them too.

A big focus at Netflix is on finding and keeping high performing, motivated people.  Naturally, we all wonder if we’d meet their standards and as a person who’s on the learning curve with my sights set on being a high performer – it seems to me that being high performing doesn’t start with a degree, or with the right experience, job or boss – but with the right attitute.  An attitude that is determined to learn and push the boundaries.

The lowest form of excellence is having the disclipline to push yourself and learn.  Only from this do you start to gather knowledge through experience and upon that knowledge can come a level of proficiency that is necessary to be high performing in some area of expertise.  At this point, you deploy yourself into something that you’re passionate about or into an opportunity that comes your way and this is where things come off the rail.  Opportunity (no matter how great) without passion will always lead to medioricity.  Passion (no matter how great) without opportunity will always lead to fustration (if not for you then for everyone around you). To reach the next level where you start to inspire others into excellence and high performance requires both opportunity and passion.

Like I said, these are the thoughts of someone on the learning curve – not someone who has arrived, so I might change my mind on all this in the future.  However – I still think its interesting to look at this simplistic model and ask yourself the question – which box is my career currently in?

There are plenty of articles saying the same stuff about surviving a recession, but I really liked some of David’s practical advice.  If it takes a recession to kick-start us into doing these things, then we just have to remember to keep it up when times are better.  Some quotes from David:

On leadership
In crisis situations, leaders often feel the world on their shoulders, especially if you are the entrepreneur or business owner. All those employees. All those customers. You can’t support the whole world. Do you usually go to the gym three times a week? Go five times a week in the crisis. If you don’t have peak physical performance, you can’t have peak work performance. Do you go to yoga once a week?  Go more, both for the physical and mental aspects. Look after yourself, so that you can be there for your families, your friends, your employees, and your customers.

On strategy
The changes in the market have been so large and so fast that pretty much every plan needs to be thrown out the window. It’s time to start with a clean piece of paper and rethink the whole strategic plan for the business. It’s time to reevaluate your positioning, competitors, services, products, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

On customers
Provide outstanding customer service. Treasure and value your customers and let them know you value them. Ask for testimonials and referrals. Word of mouth from your existing customers can be one of the most effective ways to generate leads. Talk to your customers and ask them where they see the most value in your products and services.  Create a customer focus group of your key customers and run webinars with them to get feedback on your product positioning, your quality of service, and future product roadmap direction.

On innovation
Inspire creativity in both product development and in customer interactions. Would a customer be willing to pay for a developer or engineer to work on site as a consultant for a week or month? Being at a customer’s for a length of time is one of the best ways to increase understanding of customer needs.

So – here’s a challenge. Pick a conference, any conference – and go to it.

The catch is, conferences are expensive. Usually thousands of dollars for the ticket, plus travel, plus accomodation. Find a conference anywhere in the world that you’d really love to go to. It might cost you $5k or $10k to get there and its your own money you’re spending. There are hundreds of conferences happening all the time, so anyone can find one that they’d pay their hard earned money to go to. Conferences aren’t just about learning some new skills, or hearing about the latest technology – they’re also about mixing with like-minded people and walking away with some new friends, some ideas and plenty of inspiration.

By answering the question, what conference would I take a week off work for and spend my own money to go to – you’re probably also answering the question, what am I passionate about.

Now go. Its your life so you can’t sit around waiting for other people to look out for you if you’re not prepared to look out for yourself. Its going to cost a lot – but why wouldn’t you invest that in yourself to discover or simply fuel your passion. Set a goal, maybe for this year or for three years away to get to that conference, then make it happen.

One parting comment, if you don’t ask  - you don’t get.  In 2002, I was working as a java developer in London and planning to move back to New Zealand to start a business.  I wanted to move into .NET to build smart client applications and there was a great conference in London that I wanted to go to.  It wasn’t relevant to my job, but I asked and my boss let me take a week off to go the the conference.  The cost was 2,500 pounds – but it was worth it.  On the spur of the moment, I emailed the conference organiser explaining why I wanted to go and asked for a free ticket.  They said yes.  If you don’t ask, you don’t get.  Last year, I decided I wanted to go to Business of Software in Boston.  This time I paid my own way completely and took annual leave.  Both conferences were fundamental in setting the direction my career is going and I’d do both again.