I imagine many of you have heard about the whole “doing big things with small teams” idea. The first time I’d heard of it was during Jason Fried’s presentation at SXSW. It’s a concept that we at Blue Flavor are behind 100%.
However, we’re finding that, at times anyway, it can be much easier said then done. Especially when it comes to getting our business up and running.
The right mix of people.
One of the things we’re finding to be a bit challenging is that you have to wear many hats. There is no other way to do it. We’ve worked it out to where we all have a focus, mine being creative, and several skills sets that we key in on. But, when you’re trying to bootstrap a small business together, you need to be able to adapt at a moment’s notice and put on some unfamiliar hats.
Take the launch of this web site, for example. We all had quite a bit to do with getting it up and running. We all worked on content, we all had a say in the design and we all helped to develop it. Sure one of us might have taken the lead on something, but we all had to pitch in.
(This was both good and bad. When 1/4 of your small team has a differing opinion on something, it can become quite an issue!)
We gave ourselves a hard deadline to get it up (we’ve been doing biz dev for a while and people were beginning to wonder what was going on!) and we managed to make it there without too many problems. However, just before the launch Matt had to leave town for a week. He was our editor and the guy most likely to ferret out all the little technical glitches we had.
(Another pitfall of a small team. When 1/4 of your small team is out of commission it’s really, really noticeable.)
As well, we actually had some client work come up. So, we were short on time and resources. We all had to pitch in, work extra hard and do some things we might not have been entirely keen on doing. Luckily we get along pretty well together most days, so we dealt with the added stress pretty well, and we had enough overlap in our skills that we actually could do something about it.
I fully expect this kind of thing to be the rule—not the exception. It takes the right kind of person to be able to work in this kind of environment. I, for my own part, really enjoy it. Well, except when I’ve got to put my “business” hat on. That “accounting” type stuff is rough on me. ;0)
Communication is key.
At the same time, when you’ve got a small team, you need to really work at communication. Something we’re still getting a handle on. We’ve been mostly virtual and we’re finding out that it’s not all that conducive to getting things done. We’re adjusting our plans to get the whole team into the office together earlier and more often.
(Again, when you’ve only got four people everyone’s opinion really matters. This can create some pretty big communication challenges.)
A small team needs to learn to work together and to do that the lines of communication need to be open all the time and clear as possible. Just talking about our communication issues is helping. When you only have a few people to rely on, you really need to trust those people and you need to cut away all the bullshit.
Some of our recent conversations have been very, very blunt. And that’s been a good thing.
Working on the team.
I feel that in order to do great things with any team, you’ve got to constantly work on the team. It’s all that more important when the team is small.
Just as we’re working on our communication, we’re trying to spend time working on becoming a great team in every way we can. Sure, we’re going to put all we can into our clients, but at the same time we know that in order to serve them in the best possible way, we’ve also got to work on ourselves. This means growing as individuals (something I think anyone in any rapidly changing field has to do) and working on gelling as a team.
When starting a small business with a small team, working on the business means working on the team. It’s not an option. You have to do it. And, trust me, it’s quite a bit of work. The better our team works together, the better we’ll integrate with our clients and their teams.
It’s a learning process. We’ve made quite a few mistakes and there’ll be more to come. The good news is we’re also learning that we’re all dedicated, passionate and willing to work on making things work. The lessons are all worth it, even if it’s a bit painful at times.
(Don’t get me wrong, most of the time we get along great. It’s just that when you’ve got four creative and engaged minds, you’re bound to butt heads every now and again.)
As we learn, we’re more than happy to pass along the lessons to you. And, hey, if any of y’all have some advice for us, we’d love to hear it.
Everything you mentioned has been true for my team as well. We recently started a 3 person business, and a lot of the success and failure can be placed on how well we work together in certain areas - not how qualified we are.
There will always be disagreements, and compromise is huge to remaining positive. Also, it seems the quality of a product or service that was produced in a high stress environment is directly related to how well the team was working at the time - not how each individual was working.
Great post - you wrapped up my experiences identically.
Great reading!
btw. nice logo
Jason is touring with his presentation - i heard it at http://www.reboot.dk this spring.
I don’t completly agree with Mr. Fried. Sometimes BIG is what matters - believe it or not. Depending on the task, the client culture and the tast to solve size does matter - sometimes :-)
All the best Hans Henrik CPH127-pilot
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Read the comments. It seems you’re not alone in critiquing the “business is easy” meme.
Although I’m still very young/inexperienced, if I’ve learned two things from trying to start businesses: 1) Diversity is key. 2) Trust is neccesary.
Two extremely difficult traits to balance. Diversity without trust leads to arguing rather than doing. Trust without diversity leads your business gaping with blind spots.
I think you balance those two things with communication, as you mention above. Two recent books I’ve read that really go into establishing project communication are “Solving Tough Problems” and “The Art of Project Management”.
Best of luck in the endeavor!
Jordan — I’ve seen the backlash and to be honest I think most of it is undeserved. While I don’t agree with everything he’s saying, I sometimes feel people are too quick to judge.
He’s doing very well for himself and I’m a big fan of not only his products but much of his philosophy as well. He can come off a bit pushy at times, but he’s just talking about something he beleives in.
For me, I think it’s not about being small or big. It’s about trying to be just right for what you’re doing. Business is hard and there are more than a few ways to be successful.
Thanks for the luck!
Great post.
One subject that I really would like to see here or any other web design studios is to talk about how do you determine what to charge to a client/project.
I know people charge different rates but there has to be some way to have a model/structure for it. I heard some methods where you would charge what it actually will cost you and then some 10% extra on top, so that if a client wants to lower the price a bit, that will be your cushion…
any thoughts?
Interesting piece, a lot of it rang true for me. I work in a small team (now 4 was 7 a year ago) and one of the biggest problems that we’ve had over the last 5 years is the issue of wearing many hats. When you come from other companies where your role was simple i.e. you were a designer or PM or programmer, everything was defined. But when you’re the designer, copywriter, accountant and cleaner (on Wednesday’s) it can present a lot of problems. You need to find people that understand and accept that this is the way it will be for a while or else the ship will sink.
Best of luck!