We get a handful of leads each day. Add to this the ongoing needs of existing clients, partners, and selves. Compare that to the available production time of our team. And we end up with a discrepancy, not enough time.
Supply and demand economics tells us to raise rates. Common sense tells us to be more selective regarding new projects. Casual onlookers say hire more people.
But the fact that we’re working more and more hours is proof that we follow none of this advice, at least not on pace with the issue.
Looks like I’m complaining here. That wasn’t on purpose – it just came out too fast to stop. We’ve actually just brought on two new developers and can hunt for a third if need be.
What got me thinking about the topic tonight was seeing the new Sidebar Creative site. Their inquiry form has a slider that lets interested prospects select their budget. Default selection is $100,000+, low end is $10,000+ (the plus sign is important.)
This might seem like a small thing, but I guarantee it will have a big impact on the quality (higher) and quantity (lower) of leads they see. It’s a clever way to add a bit of natural selection to their cycle.
On the other hand, it’s also a good way to scare off beautiful babies looking to party (and by beautiful babies, I mean prospective clients.) We have babies, er clients, that came in under their slider’s minimum extreme but performed above their maximum (if it weren’t for that omnipotent + sign.)
I’m not criticizing…what do I know any way? We’re the ones working until 2am every day.
Best of luck to Sidebar. The collective is made up of Dan Rubin, Steve Smith, Jonathon Snook, and Brian Veloso.
3 Responses to “The supply and demand of time”
We’re in the same boat you are, really. My head hit the pillow at 3:20 this morning.
The temptation is to hire again, but we’ve found that it’s a significant investment of time to bring a developer up to speed, and you don’t want to bring another one on board before you have your current house in order. Blindly throwing people at a problem only works if the problem is a machine gun nest and you have a lot of people.
The ideal, obviously, is current clients and new prospects with lots of money and nice, big projects. The reality is less of a sure thing. Part of me wants to put a moratorium on new projects, but the payroll monster that shows up every two weeks has different ideas.
Deane, do you mean to say that you actually pay your people? I imagine that makes it easier to hire.
We tried not paying, but it turns out that’s something called “forced servitude,” and — get this — it’s illegal. Damn government interference.