hyperlinked world

Over the last few month, I have been really busy trying to build a solid team for our company. We were seriously understaffed, yet I exercise a lot of restrain from just hiring anyone I can get. I only want the best, and I won't compromise.

I had a couple of setback in finding the right people. We had a good developer earlier this year, but he decided to pursue some other things after just 7 months. I partly blame it on myself for letting him getting bored with the (slightly less than desirable) pace which the company was moving. To my defence, I had some personal problem that drain me completely during those few early months.

We were also overwhelmed with support requests. We have a very strict policy of providing excellent support and replying every single email within 24 hours. This can sometimes takes a big chunk on our daily time. As a result, development work slows down to a crawl. We haven't had any major updates for a few months, and this upsets the customers. I was desperate with the support issues and decided to make a compromise with hiring a support guy. We hire one guy, although lack serious PHP skill, did very well in the interview and I reckon was smart enough to handle the technical side of this. It was a major disaster, and I learn a very important lesson, be very careful with smooth-talking people. Sometimes, that is the only thing they are good at. (But I reckon my ex-tech guy would do well in sales line! )

Another issue that I had was having someone who is too ambitious. Yes, I want my team member to be ambitious and passionate about what we do, and it is actually a trait that I value highly. But at a point, it can be very disruptive if it is not aligned with the company's direction. You can't be an affective team member if you are busy trying to close your own sales. Thankfully he understood this and decided to focus on on his own work and not dragging the whole situation into a lose-lose situation.

Starting this November however, our company grew to 6-people strong, 4 of which are developer, with 2, non-technical staff. As always, we manage to hire everyone while maintaining our profitability and strong cash-flow. You'll be able to find out who they are from our main site soon. For now, I have a good feeling about the current team, and I expect great results from every single one of them!

Lets get to work boys.. (and a girl)!