Comment by trykondev | Hacker News Reader

Comment by trykondev | Hacker News Reader

I'm kind of cheating with this answer because it's not a specific piece of tech, but the thing that I'm really focused on learning right now is how to build out my business by hiring developers & learning how to properly manage them as they help contribute to some of my company's projects.

Most of my development work has been solo, with occasional one-off help from contractors. But the number and scope of my projects has been growing and I've been struggling to keep up, so I'm now going through my first round of finding people to hire, designing a fair & useful interview process, and figuring out the best way to break down my current projects so that it's minimally painful for a new developer to ramp up on them.

This process has also forced me to actually start looking for a legitimate source of funding for my business, besides my own savings. I've been trying to learn this side of things, but it's been a real struggle -- I've definitely been living in the bubble of focusing on my product without thinking about the business side of things for too long, and I'm finally making the leap in terms of taking the business side of things seriously.

Any words of encouragement or advice are greatly appreciated :)

Use the client's funds (shorten accounts receivable terms): x% up front, y% per month, or work ceases. Nobody should complain, if they do then make like a medium to large scale organization and cite 'policy'. Finally, defer all outbound payments (accounts payable/liabilities) by some fixed period, eg. one month. You can do this on the sly by setting a fixed date per month for payment and offsetting all contracts such that you gain 3+ weeks of hold time. Use your existing funds as a buffer in case of non-payment.

A few things: Make sure you hire developers that fit the business culture you are trying to establish and understand the "why" of your company. This is worth a read: https://blog.samaltman.com/how-to-hire

You don't have to have overly strict rule about hours, leave, documentation, etc. but make sure it is very clear to your developers what they are expected to do, and have them evaluate their own performance (obviously with your input) every few months.

Criticise in private, complement in public.

Choose your customers wisely. You make a lot more profit when you start saying no to the wrong customers. (An easy way to say no is just to charge a lot, like 10 times more, than you would normally charge for a certain job)

Don't be afraid to make mistakes, well rather: try not to make mistakes, but expect them to happen occasionally and when they do, don't beat yourself up about it - recognise the mistake, try learn from it, and move on. It might also be an opportunity to impress your customers, by turning a bad outcome into something positive.

Make sure you set things up in such a way that can get some downtime without your company falling apart.

Good luck!

Thank you for the thoughtful reply -- I really enjoyed the article, and several of the points you mention are already resonating with me, even at this early stage in the process!

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