Hire when it hurts
In my previous positions, before Herodesk, I've more than once fallen into the trap of hiring in anticipation of future growth.
Or at least wanting to.
I was looking into the Palantir, trying to predict what would happen.
How many customers we would get. How busy we'd be. And how many people we'd need to handle that. So, I pushed hard on getting those people hired so we'd be ready for what was about to come.
Well... That was a mistake.
(I can think of a few of my old colleagues who'll probably laugh a bit when reading this, but yeah, you were right - shoutout to you!)
Anyway, it's not only a bad way of running your business. Doing that can be extremely dangerous for startups and small businesses.
Especially if you're bootstrapped!
Hiring is a big, fixed cost that you'll carry every month, and often it can take several months to get rid of that cost if needed.
So you must be 100% confident in what you're doing before you hire, and be comfortable with your cash-flow budgets.
All that combined is why I've decided to hire a new senior full-stack developer now.
Next time, I'll deep-dive into the process of going from >400 applications to one final candidate.
I've taken a lot of inspiration from 37Signals' original principles on running a business, among those "Hire when it hurts" - not in anticipation of what is about to come (read it, it's worth it).
For me, there are two different aspects to this.
First and foremost, it has become a goal in itself for me to run Herodesk with as few people as possible. To run a lean, flexible and fast-moving team.
I've tried to run a big team and be part of a huge organisation. It was fun, it has its perks, and I learned a lot from it.
But honestly, I enjoy smaller teams and organisations more.
And since it's my company, that's what I'm aiming to build.
Second, I no longer take any pride in how big my company is in # of employees.
I don't know if it's only a Danish thing (but it is definitely a Danish thing), that the first thing someone asks you, when you meet at a reception or whatever and get to know each other, and you say you have your own company, is: "Well, that's great, how many employees do you have?".
That's like asking what your brand is worth based on Facebook likes.
Unless your production capacity is directly tied to # of people you have (like a consultancy agency or something), it's a vanity metric.
Instead, you should ask: "How much money are you making?" or "How much money are you making per employee?".
Now, THOSE are interesting questions. Very "un-Danish", but way more interesting and insightful to what really matters: Is the business good?
Bo Møller and I talk about this on the most recent episode of our new podcast: SaaSKøbmænd.dk.
It is in Danish, but check it out and LIKE and SUBSCRIBE if you enjoy it.
We also deep-dive a bit on where each of our companies are at, get concrete on growth- and customer numbers, and what we'll be focusing on next.
(If you also want regular updates from Bo and his businesses, subscribe to his newsletter on https://bandeja.org/)
