We learned two really good lessons this week. Why do good lessons always cost thousand of dollars?
Lesson #1: Manage The Right People
Our most expensive contractor costs us a lot of money and he is totally worth it. Problem was, Peter & I spent so much time running around managing our Jr’s and making sure they knew what they were doing, we didn’t pay him or his project enough attention. In retrospection, we innately assumed, at that rate he should manage himself. Truth be told, he did well, but did not approach things as we would have preferred (it happens).
The problem is that when your $15/hr Jr. goes astray, that’s one thing. When your head developer or project manager goes astray , that is insanely more expensive. So thousands of dollars later we are back on track and got a good lesson. Manage the right people.
Lesson #2: All Clients are Not Created Equal – and The Loud Ones Aren’t Necessarily The Most Important
Basically, pay attention to those clients who pay your bills. Right now we have one client whose project is providing a significant percentage of current incoming revenue. We were ahead of schedule; they got busy for a few weeks (and as a result were not quite as loud as many of our other clients). Thinking we had a bunch of extra time, we spent that time running around paying attention to the urgent calls of our smaller clients, and as a result gave less attention to the important larger one. Time goes by so quickly when you are busy and we suddenly realized that weeks had gone by without giving that client the proper attention.
If you have a client who makes up 30% percent of your income – make sure they get the necessary attention to be a complete success. And yes, after that realization, it worked out very well. We hustled and produced within the required timelines and they are thrilled. It just turned out to be unnecessary stress on ourselves.
Conclusion
So what is the point – basically make sure to keep focused on the right people. The right contractors, the right employees, the right customers. Make sure to remember what your priorities are and consistently check if you are aligned properly. Because every time you are off it costs money.