4 ms·

> Even if you are totally self funded you still are accountable to your customers 2 main differences: 1) your customer's requirements are pure (usually) - "pl

by abraae 6y ago

> Even if you are totally self funded you still are accountable to your customers 2 main differences: 1) your customer's requirements are pure (usually) - "please add a frammel button so I can manage my widgets better". Your boss's requirements are less so - "please satisfy corporate by attending this compliance training". 2) you can fire any customers who you don't like. Not so your boss.

edoceo 6y ago
I have this for my small business. About 450 small "bosses" (clients). Because we don't answer to investors or board or anything we have what I call "alignment" with our clients. Despite 400+ opinions, the pull on the team is one way: client needs. My previous Companies has outside money, board, etc. That's three directions of pull. We've saved a lot of time that way on investor management but our growth was limited by cash-on-hand.
- Rebelgecko 6y ago
  Have you ever needed to fire a client? Or been in a situation where you have to juggle client needs that were non-compatible?
  - edoceo 6y ago
    Fire client: less than 2%. But looks, losing only 2% to focus on the other 98. Well, you'll grow back. Not-Compatoble request is a bit harder. But, with like 10+ prior years in consultant I'm generally able to direct thing to a multiple compatible solution. Lots of research and customer development play for that.
roenxi 6y ago
> "please satisfy corporate by attending this compliance training". Compliance training is about legal requirement. A little extrapolation suggests it is going to be things that your bosses are only asking you to consider because they are legally mandated. If they were going to be considerations anyway, why mandate them? A lot of stupid things businesses do are to satisfy legal requirements that the business thinks is stupid. That one isn't the boss, it is the government.
- vanusa 6y ago
  Compliance training is about legal requirement. That's the thing -- oftentimes your Boss thinks that X is a "legal requirement". When really it's "so-and-so is bugging me to cram this down your throats saying something about 'legal' and I'm too busy to even bother googling to find out whether it's really so. Plus even if I did some basic research I might have to actually think about it for a minute or two - and you know how much I hate that. So to save myself time, I think I'll just cram it down your throats." My favorite X in this category: drug testing. (Contrary to popular belief, it's almost never an actual legal requirement - even if your company is getting state or federal funds.)
  - geofft 6y ago
    This is technically true, but as a solo founder, you're even less equipped than a large company with a legal and compliance team to determine what's actually a legal requirement and what's not - and what legal requirements are imposed by industry groups like PCI instead of the government but are no less binding in practice if you want to run a certain sort of business, and what sorts of things are in the grey area of "the law only speaks about this broadly, but nobody chooses a specific implementation other than X in practice, so in theory you could innovate but you're on your own," and what sorts of things aren't legal requirements on their own but do save you if you get into legal trouble for other reasons, and so forth. Remember that solo founders are widely encouraged to incorporate in Delaware just because it's the least legal risk. One state! Out of fifty, and several non-state entities! There's no legal requirement, and you can absolutely incorporate in your home state or many other places, but the advice is that if you want to focus on what your business does best, don't spend time thinking about any states' corporate law other than Delaware's, which is well-explored. If that's the bar, basically all other forms of compliance are well above it. I get that good hackers have an instinct to ask "Why?" or "Really?" at every step and to understand the whole system, and I have it too, but one thing I've learned with experience is you need to train yourself to put a stopping point on "Why?" if you want to get anything done at your current level of descent. You absolutely can go arbitrarily deep, nobody is goin to stop you, and there are all sorts of fences that have no reason for existing, but you have a limited amount of time to do whatever work you want to do and show results. Do you want to build the next great social network, or the next great form of corporate structure? You can absolutely do either - you can't do both. (One caveat: there are a few things that are legal requirements or near enough thereto that only apply when you have more than a few employees. If you're a solo founder, you presumably can't create a hostile work environment for yourself, for instance. However, if you're a solo founder pursuing B2B deals and having meetings with companies, it might be worth being aware of what sorts of things your target companies consider hostile work environments and would cause them to not invite you back for the sake of their legal risk - and that's even more about the standard corporate view of the law than the law itself. So, you may not be able to get away ignoring these conventions even as a solo founder, after all.)
anon9001 6y ago
> 2) you can fire any customers who you don't like. Not so your boss. I know what you mean, but I think there's an alternate way to look at this. Every time I've moved jobs, I really look at it as firing my boss. The process is pretty much the same as firing someone: * First, I voiced my concerns and gave my boss a chance to improve. * When he wasn't improving, I began searching the job market to find his replacement (my future boss). * After a few interviews, I found a replacement that was a really good fit for the role of "my boss". * I let my old boss know that his performance had not improved enough, and I was forced to let him go, but I wished him all the best in his future endeavors. * I gave my new boss a start date, and so far everything is going great.
- MrRiddle 6y ago
  Except you don’t get to keep the job. Firing your boss means changing your job, firing your customer does not.
  - dvtrn 6y ago
    Adding to that, unless they’re your only customer, firing one customer means you’ve only lost a % of potential future income. Firing your boss, and quitting your job altogether-unless you’re moonlighting, getting passive income elsewhere or accepted an offer before quitting-most commonly means losing 100% of future earnings until signing onto the next job.

by abraae 6y ago

edoceo 6y ago

I have this for my small business. About 450 small "bosses" (clients). Because we don't answer to investors or board or anything we have what I call "alignment" with our clients. Despite 400+ opinions, the pull on the team is one way: client needs. My previous Companies has outside money, board, etc. That's three directions of pull. We've saved a lot of time that way on investor management but our growth was limited by cash-on-hand.

Rebelgecko 6y ago
Have you ever needed to fire a client? Or been in a situation where you have to juggle client needs that were non-compatible?
- edoceo 6y ago
  Fire client: less than 2%. But looks, losing only 2% to focus on the other 98. Well, you'll grow back. Not-Compatoble request is a bit harder. But, with like 10+ prior years in consultant I'm generally able to direct thing to a multiple compatible solution. Lots of research and customer development play for that.

roenxi 6y ago

> "please satisfy corporate by attending this compliance training". Compliance training is about legal requirement. A little extrapolation suggests it is going to be things that your bosses are only asking you to consider because they are legally mandated. If they were going to be considerations anyway, why mandate them? A lot of stupid things businesses do are to satisfy legal requirements that the business thinks is stupid. That one isn't the boss, it is the government.

vanusa 6y ago
Compliance training is about legal requirement. That's the thing -- oftentimes your Boss thinks that X is a "legal requirement". When really it's "so-and-so is bugging me to cram this down your throats saying something about 'legal' and I'm too busy to even bother googling to find out whether it's really so. Plus even if I did some basic research I might have to actually think about it for a minute or two - and you know how much I hate that. So to save myself time, I think I'll just cram it down your throats." My favorite X in this category: drug testing. (Contrary to popular belief, it's almost never an actual legal requirement - even if your company is getting state or federal funds.)
- geofft 6y ago
  This is technically true, but as a solo founder, you're even less equipped than a large company with a legal and compliance team to determine what's actually a legal requirement and what's not - and what legal requirements are imposed by industry groups like PCI instead of the government but are no less binding in practice if you want to run a certain sort of business, and what sorts of things are in the grey area of "the law only speaks about this broadly, but nobody chooses a specific implementation other than X in practice, so in theory you could innovate but you're on your own," and what sorts of things aren't legal requirements on their own but do save you if you get into legal trouble for other reasons, and so forth. Remember that solo founders are widely encouraged to incorporate in Delaware just because it's the least legal risk. One state! Out of fifty, and several non-state entities! There's no legal requirement, and you can absolutely incorporate in your home state or many other places, but the advice is that if you want to focus on what your business does best, don't spend time thinking about any states' corporate law other than Delaware's, which is well-explored. If that's the bar, basically all other forms of compliance are well above it. I get that good hackers have an instinct to ask "Why?" or "Really?" at every step and to understand the whole system, and I have it too, but one thing I've learned with experience is you need to train yourself to put a stopping point on "Why?" if you want to get anything done at your current level of descent. You absolutely can go arbitrarily deep, nobody is goin to stop you, and there are all sorts of fences that have no reason for existing, but you have a limited amount of time to do whatever work you want to do and show results. Do you want to build the next great social network, or the next great form of corporate structure? You can absolutely do either - you can't do both. (One caveat: there are a few things that are legal requirements or near enough thereto that only apply when you have more than a few employees. If you're a solo founder, you presumably can't create a hostile work environment for yourself, for instance. However, if you're a solo founder pursuing B2B deals and having meetings with companies, it might be worth being aware of what sorts of things your target companies consider hostile work environments and would cause them to not invite you back for the sake of their legal risk - and that's even more about the standard corporate view of the law than the law itself. So, you may not be able to get away ignoring these conventions even as a solo founder, after all.)

anon9001 6y ago

> 2) you can fire any customers who you don't like. Not so your boss. I know what you mean, but I think there's an alternate way to look at this. Every time I've moved jobs, I really look at it as firing my boss. The process is pretty much the same as firing someone: * First, I voiced my concerns and gave my boss a chance to improve. * When he wasn't improving, I began searching the job market to find his replacement (my future boss). * After a few interviews, I found a replacement that was a really good fit for the role of "my boss". * I let my old boss know that his performance had not improved enough, and I was forced to let him go, but I wished him all the best in his future endeavors. * I gave my new boss a start date, and so far everything is going great.

MrRiddle 6y ago
Except you don’t get to keep the job. Firing your boss means changing your job, firing your customer does not.
- dvtrn 6y ago
  Adding to that, unless they’re your only customer, firing one customer means you’ve only lost a % of potential future income. Firing your boss, and quitting your job altogether-unless you’re moonlighting, getting passive income elsewhere or accepted an offer before quitting-most commonly means losing 100% of future earnings until signing onto the next job.