I wrote the last post when buzzing one morning - this one is at 5pm on a slowish Monday - i wonder if this will affect my tone
Its my attempt to summarise how we do it here at OME (as we near 4th anniversary) and is as near a personal statement (can't bear to insert the word mission in here) as i am ever likely to come up with
- pay your bills - i once worked for a company who paid everyone late or not at all if they could help it. It was horrible when you make a creative wait 90 days for his money or having to persuade media to take your booking as you promised "cheque was in post" etc. We wanted to have a good rep and good media and supplier relationships from Day 1 - i think we achieved that
- if someone seems like a bullshit artist - they absolutely are going to be a bullshit artist. This applies to suppliers (and clients!) but most particularly any staff or business development outsourcing you want to do. You and your senior team are the best people to sell and market your business
- If you can avoid it - don't do tenders (this is may not be good advice). They may be written by people who don't understand the questions they are asking - who if they are looking at costs and commission - are asking completely the wrong questions in a digital recruitment world. So why put yourself through it. Having said that - i just did a well written tender last week that we were invited on (small shortlist etc) and managed not to win that either - so it may just be us!
- Be good to people and stay in touch if they are out of work etc. Two reasons - 1. they will appreciate what you have done and may help you in future and 2. BECAUSE ITS THE RIGHT THING TO DO!
- and finally - keep your confidence up - many people will question your business model, you as individuals, your name/logo/offices etc. People are bitchy - its just life. Don't second guess yourself - and if your confidence is down - just fake it - it will be OK
2 comments:
You know I'm a big fan of your blogs generally Dom - but can I thank you for this particular one. Our company has been going almost exactly half as long, and having read quite a number of articles and postings on starting up a business none has resonated as much as your musing on the subject.
So whilst there's still the chance that it might just be both of us being delusional fools - I hope that this particular delusional fool will be able to point people to this blog in 2 years time and say "yeh - it's DEFINITELY like what he said".
Here's to doing the right thing, doing it as well as we possibly can and building our own good times.
Thanks.
p.s. The one thing I'm failing terribly at is point 6 of your first post - but I'm hoping that being aware of it(as I am) and being driven to try & be in a position to redress that as soon as possible doesn't make me all bad :-]
cheers Alex
point 6 is all well and good when you are 100% confident that your work is going to pay all your living costs with young children as we both have. We took no time off for first 2 years (not proper time off) - and that was understandable but at the end of it i was shot to pieces mentally - and was not physically looking after myself either (coffee crisps sandwiches diet with the odd motorway Ginsters thrown in)- a balance is good and i still not sure i get it exactly right
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