16
nebula
1y

caution: just some dude sharing a random story.

started my own small business around half a year now. a month earlier from that my cousin also started his career as a self employed dev with his own small business and we work together.

next year we we will start a company together, where we merge our existing small businesses into one. we are developing software on our own and we design and implement software for our customers.

seems like we are doing something right because we are reaching our capacities almost all of the time.

we plan to hire apprentices (hope it's the right word) and to teach them all we know to be able to then increase our possible workload.

you know, I do not have a degree or some form of education in the field of IT. And here in germany it was almost impossible to land a job as a dev. needed my cousin who studied cs to get me my first position in that field - and even with his reputation it was not easy.

this shit will not happen on my watch. If I see someone with fire for development I will give them a chance, irrespective of their background. And I will be more than happy to let that person grow and to give every kind of support I can.

we also plan to have something like "if the employee has a good idea for software that sells, we will support it and share revenue". got to figure out the details on that one, but I want to give the employee the possibility to grow some passive income out of their normal job - because for me this was never an option. and I think that this will motivate in some way 😅

just wanted to get this out of my head 😣

Comments
  • 11
    It's fair to give someone a chance, but keep this in mind.

    1) your decisions impact more than just you now. You have a partner and employees you need to protect.

    2) don't lose sight of what is important, your business. You can help more people by staying operational longer than trying to provide charity to everyone at once.

    3) don't take it personal, these are your employees. Sometimes, like every relationship, it just doesn't work out.

    4) the best way to help someone is without them knowing you even helped them. What I mean is this; support those who have the will to be more, support those who struggle more. Never do something for them when they can do for themselves.

    One of my managers from years ago compared management like raising kids. If you don't have any experience in that, you might have a harder time understanding what truly matters to build a cohesive team, but you'll get there and you'll be a great parent by that time too.

    Good luck and happy memories!
  • 3
    @sariel thank you for your insight :)

    you are right. highest priority is to keep the business running.

    That is why we need to start small, by starting with

    a) offering students to work for us part time. should be affordable, flexible for us because they can only work 20 hours a week. And the student can gain experience in the field.

    b) hiring apprentices that are also cheaper than a full time employee.

    We do want to pay as much as we can (considering business needs and growing cash reserves for hard times). But we need to consider that a lot of companies fail because they are running out of cash.

    The idea where employees can create themself passive income is something we just came up with yesterday. need to clarify on that one, too.

    I do not think that we are doing charity. It's the people that keep the company alive. And I will find a way to honor them for that.
  • 2
    Keep also in mind that some will leave once they got to an acceptable level of skills to work in a bigger company.

    Yes it happens very often here... They ask to learn new certificates that will help the company. Once they have the certificate (paid by the company) they just leave somewhere else.

    It is shit and as a CEO you need tough skin sometimes...
  • 0
    @Grumm anywhere I have worked in the last 5 years makes you sign a contract to get those. Minimum of 1 year or you pay back the value of the cert, prorated of course.
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