Valve's amazing company structural model

I read in amazement about the games-maker Valve. It is a company without management, where employees work on what they want, sit where they want and decide each other's pay.

"We're a flat organisation, so I don't report to anybody and people don't report to me," employee DJ Powers told the BBC. "We're free to choose to work on whatever we think is interesting. "People ask you questions about what you are working on. And the response is not to get defensive but to have that conversation and make sure that we're all invested in each other."

Valve's games include the Half-Life, Portal, Dota and Left 4 Dead series. They are well-known for their quality and their high sales.

Its (lack of) structure might lead to individuals simply working on pet projects with no team-working at all. This could not lead to the games it produces, so how do its quality products some to fruition?

"One of the ways that things get done at Valve is that a critical mass does form," explained Mr Powers.

"There are lots of ideas about what is cool to work on. But unless you can find like-minded people to work with, you will struggle to get enough resources you need to get it done."

Powers rejects the theory that there's an elite of people working at Valve. He said: "It works because it was the original philosophy. Gabe [Newell] and the crew that started Valve hired people with this in mind. That's how we got to a company working effectively for a long period of time under this structure - because it was designed from the beginning."

The firm also has a ranking system in which staff working on the same project assess each others' technical skills, productivity, team-working skills and other abilities. This helps to form a ladder which determines who will get paid most. 

Yet in the land of equal, someone has to have the ultimate say.

As Valve's handbook says: "Of all the people at this company who aren't your boss, Gabe [Newell] is the MOST not your boss, if you get what we're saying."

See original BBC article here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24205497

Business confidence at 21-year low

Business confidence has hit a new low, according to a report on the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21387493) based on a survey by accountancy firm BDO. Confidence was at its lowest for 21 years, the survey said, based as it is on optimism in business performance and the economy over the next six months.

This is in spite of improving labour market figures and a stock market that peaked recently at well over 6,300.

It seems that the survey's responses reflect the continuing lack of growth in the UK economy and any signs that it has turned the corner.

While a triple-dip recession remains a possibility, the survey's employment index was up in January, as was optimism within the manufacturing sector.

As a business owner, I have seen a fall in enquiries as a reluctance to spend money persists. With that trend, the spiral is downward until people and businesses decide to spend again. It appears that upward turn is still some way off.

Selfish business owners reap the wrong rewards

There is nothing quite so irritating in running your own business as non- or late payers.

Just before Christmas I was asked to do a small piece of work by a company in Wales. It was urgent, the boss said, so I did it in good faith, and sent it back to him in a timely fashion.

The charge would only be around £15, but since sending it off to him, I have heard nothing: no acknowledgement, no responses. I have tried to ring, and once got through to a woman who said she'd get him to ring back, but he never did. I have emailed him, I have sent him the invoice.

Nothing.

I will keep trying, but nothing so far.

OK, it may only cost me £15, plus the time taken for the work (not long) and the time taken chasing up (probably longer), but the actions of this selfish business manager will mean that I will have to be tougher in future.

I'll have to ask for a deposit, for example, for pieces of work - however small - causing inconvenience to everyone involved.

Is he really delighted to have saved just fifteen pounds? It's quite pathetic really. If he doesn't pay the invoice or respond to further communication in the next month, I'll name and shame him and his company on this blog.

Selfish non-action has wide consequences.

2013 will present challenges

It's been nearly three months since I posted on here.

I'd like to say that I've been busy, and I have. And no complaints about that, for sure.

However, 2013 has not opened quite as optimistically as 2012 drew to a close. One regular two-month contract in early year had fallen victim to internal cuts and I am a victim of that.

Such is economic life, as it has been for a few years. Nothing can be taken for granted.

So it is now time to renew efforts to bring in new work, to search for new opportunities and look for new ways of working.

If it was easy, it would be boring.
If nothing changed, we'd stagnate.

I welcome the challenge and intend to make 2013 even more successful than 2012 was.

Happy New Year!

Unsecured business funding

Unsecured business funding can be useful for businesses which either don’t want or don’t qualify for unsecured lines of credit.

Hawkeye can help your business obtain the loan it needs, and gives you guidance on whether a loan or a line of credit may suit your business best.

Hawkeye Management provides solutions to help your business get the funding it needs. Obtaining a loan is a process and Hawkeye will help you through the process to ensure that you are best positioned to get a loan from the bank.

Avoid being turned down for a loan. Turn to Hawkeye for the loan solution you need for your start-up company, or to build or grow your business.

Dental practice for sale

Occasionally dental practices come up for sale. Are you a dentist looking to buy a practice, or looking to sell one?

If you are then you’ll be looking for an experienced practice broker or consultant to help you with the process. In the United States the National Association of Practice Brokers (NAPB) is the organisation that can best help you find the solution customised for you.

A dental practice for sale may be for any number of reasons, such as retirement, lifestyle change or a plan for an exit strategy. Whatever the reason NAPB member brokers have the experience to help you, giving you assistance with partnership agreements, relocations, tax arrangements, contracts and financial packages.

If you have a dental practice for sale, look no further than NAPB.

 

Anger at the banks

It's hard not to be irritated by banks these days.

It's hard not to feel outright anger.

Fixing interest rates, mis-selling products ... on top of the crisis they caused by the way they acted before the credit crunch and recession.

And they still merrily charge individuals and business owners punitive amounts when they go ever-so slightly overdrawn. Yes, it did happen to my business recently. Overdrawn for less than a day: charge of £30.

How is this justifiable?
How does this help?

If my business was really short of cash (it's not - it was just in a different account), how would charging the business help that cash shortage?

And yet banks are supposed to helping businesses.

The only business they're helping is their own. Helping themsleves to our money.

Manitoba carpenters

Carpenters are at the heart of most construction work. Wood is fundamental to the construction of houses and most buildings, as well as the cabinets, doors and other furniture inside.

There are basically two fundamental types of carpentry work: rough carpentry and finish carpentry. The former is for outdoor work with projects using unfinished wood, such as house frames, scaffolding and other forms. The latter is for doors, windows, interior moulding, cabinets, floors and the like.

Manitoba carpenters provide all this kind of work, and they also provide carpentry in the film and theatre industry, as well as the less obvious area of wharves and docks.

While many pieces are built at base and shipped to the construction site, other work has to be carried out onsite.

Cabinetmakers work on custom designed cabinets, shelves, counters and other fittings for stores, restaurants and the home.

From small workshops to large construction sites, the influence of carpenters is everywhere.

Embrace the Optimism

I am back working at home after a stint on a client site for the past couple of months.

I may be wrong and, of course, the sample set is very small, but it seems to me that there's a very slight increase in business optimism.

I have had more enquiries and pay rates for work seem to be slightly higher. It may be an illusion; I've not analysed it, it's based on a general feel.

And what happens when you're more optimistic about business? Things seem brighter, better, more sustainable, and you're keener to get on with things.

How about we stop all the doom and gloom, threat of strikes, moans about the Olympics and...

Embrace the Optimism

The European Trade Register Scam

I am little embarrassed to admit that I fell foul of an invitation from European Trade Register to ‘update your details for free’ recently. I filled in the form and sent it off believing that a free update to my details in a directory would be a good thing.

I was shocked, therefore, a couple of weeks later, to receive an invoice for €990 for my "insertion" into the directory. Sure enough, on reading the tiny print on the original form I could see that there was a charge of €990 per year for three years and then following on year after year. There was no "right to change your mind" or "cooling off period".

I didn't pay. I couldn't afford to pay. I immediately emailed them and wrote to them by post to tell to take me out of the directory as I would not be paying. No response.

There followed further demands to pay by email and by post and a threat of a late payment charge and an admin fee which took the total to €1124.

Sharing this news with a colleague, she pointed me to this site: 

http://www.mukaumedia.co.uk/european-trade-register-scam-usual-decide

Well, good for SAM DEEKS, and other websites of a similar topic.

http://www.mukaumedia.co.uk/european-business-guide-scam/

http://www.mukaumedia.co.uk/expoguide-scam-decide-yawn/

http://www.mukaumedia.co.uk/world-business-directory-scam-decide/

Thus, I realise this is not a new thing and it is a scam, in that it comes from an unsolicited, mis-leading email and offers virtually nothing for a huge amount of money, using fear to frighten people into paying. In addition, they never respond to any attempts to contact them. But they do note them and feed on that to continue to try and frighten people into paying.

In the end, after reading many comments from people who had fallen foul of this scam like me, I was actually amused at the sheer effrontery of these people and their shameless attempts to frighten people into paying. 

After sending threatening emails, they then use an apparent global debt collection company, Waldberg & Hirsch, to chase up the debt. It's the same people.

If you're in the same boat and have either received apparently good "offers" from any so-called business directory (particularly if it has a 3 part name in the following format:

[Europe / European / World / Global] [Company / Trade / Business] [Directory / Register]

then just bin it.

And, if you receive emails, faxes, letters, phone calls from these people demanding money, just IGNORE THEM. They won't sue you, because they wouldn't win (because it's an illegal scam) and it would expose them. Read Sam Deeks's blogs, join in the fun, sit back and relax... 

...AND NEVER PAY A PENNY.

On reflection, of course, it was foolish to respond to unsolicited mail and believe in something that appeared to be free. I will not make the same mistake again.

Be wary of moaning about work on your social media

I find it interesting the number of people who moan about their place of work on social media such as Facebook.

Let's face it, Facebook and Twitter are great places to get things off your chest, and moans about work are something many of us have often wanted to get off our chests. With so many like-minded friends, family and followers linked to our Facebook and Twitter accounts, we're bound to get a sympathetic hearing.

But do we remember all those people we friended on Facebook? Your colleagues, your staff ... your boss?

You might not get such a sympathetic view from them.

And even if you're not connected to colleagues from your current place of work, one day you might need to use your connections on Facebook and Twitter to get yourself a new job. But, browisng through your historical comments, they might not take too kindly to someone who's often moaned about their place of work.

Is there anywhere you can really let off steam? The pub? Even walls have ears.

Non-communicative businesses look like scams

It is frustrating that we all get junk mail and spam email, and it shows no sign of decreasing.

Equally frustrating, I find, are businesses who cannot communicate. These are businesses who may write to you (by post) or email you, but when you reply to them, there is no acknowledgement of your communication at all.

This is happening to me at the moment with one organisation, so much so that I am beginning to believe that it is actually a scam operation, despite its headed note paper etc.

Until they reply to my communications I cannot believe that they are a true operation and if they are, what does it say about them when they can't even reply to my emails?

Can you suggest more back-office systems?

As a small business owners, we sometimes neglect those small, yet significant, tasks that bigger companies have whole departments for.

I'm thinking of back-office systems.

I'm sure we've all got things like our accounts under control, including our invoices and our purchase orders, but what about the other back-office systems?

Things like:

• Work enquiries
• A list of clients
• A list of suppliers
• Staff holiday management
• Work applications (e.g. speculative CVs sent through to you)
• Staff sickness management

There must be loads of others; things that I haven't thought of because my business is too small.

Can you suggest some other back-office systems for me?

Use the excitement of 2012, not the gloom

The Prime Minister gave a "downbeat" message yesterday about the business and economic prospects for 2012. There is little doubt that it will be a hard year, especially for those with low incomes.

For small business owners, the year will also likely prove to be a tough one.

However, for small business owners, there is little choice but to plough on and make the best of it. We cannot go on strike; we cannot moan about "fat cats" somewhere higher up the company ladder. In many cases of single-person businesses, the owner is the potentially striking "worker" AND the would-be "fat cat"!

At least there's a reduction in fussing and fighting, my friend.

Small business owners will probably be using much of January to plan how they will improve their business prospects for the year. 2012 promises to be an exciting and complicated year and business owners should try and tap into such events as Euro 2012, the Diamond Jubilee and the 2012 Olympics. How could you use those to your advantage?

The smart ones will work out how, make the best of it and come out the other end of the year saying what a great year it was.

Is high pay rewarding failure?

It's difficult to see any real justification for the huge - and increasing - disparity between the highest earners in the UK and the rest.

The High Pay Commission - set up by a pressure group - says the difference between what top executives and average workers earn has been building for 30 years.

Richard Evans, president of PepsiCo in the UK and Irish Republic, sought to justify the enormous salaries to top executives to the BBC by saying that the UK has to be competitive with the rest of the world.

But one wonders whether it does and if it is. Does it have to be competitive with the rest of the world? And is it?

I haven't got the figures to answer that question.

What I would say is that salaries at such a level should be commensurate with the success or failure of the compnay they are running. I am all for incentivising success. But given the dismal failure of many companies' share prices in recent years (often chosen as a general indicator), that should surely mean that salaries should have fallen recently.

Why do we continue to reward failure?

That's certainly a good incentive for top executives: "I can screw this company and this country and still get paid hugely. What a fine vehicle for competition this country is!"

Branson's an example we should aspire to

There's still a lot of anger about regarding the banks, since the credit crisis and recession began in 2008. The anti-capitalists camping outside St Paul's and the Stock Exchange in London demonstrate the ongoing frustration.

It is interesting to speculate how the news that Northern Rock is being sold to Virgin Money will be received.

Many hardliners will no doubt shrug it off as being sold from one bunch of capitalists to another, but I suspect many will be (at least secretly) quite pleased that Northern Rock is being sold to one of Richard Branson's companies. A self-made billionaire, Branson doesn't quite fit the bill of the despised money-men.

In fact, Branson is - and should be - feted, lauded, exemplified and copied. This is surely the kind of business person we should all aspire to be.

I hope he makes a magnificent success out of Virgin Money and its new-found Northern Rock clients.

Cymax

Cymax, based in Vancouver, Canada, and founded in 2004 is a leading ecommerce retail. It prides itself on its excellent customer service, it low prices and wide array of products.

Cymax began by specialising in audio and video furniture, but has widened its furniture portfolio to encompass one of the largest product lists on the web. From humble beginnings it has grown steadily to beat $100 million sales in 2010. It was listed by Internet Retailer as one of the Top 500 online businesses in the world in the same year.

The company dedicates itself to excellence in retail and great service, and with its inspiring culture and young team it continues to innovate to remain a first-class online “e-tailer”.

Cymax has more than 100 online stores selling brand-new merchandise from the best manufacturers in the world.

Cold calling never ceases to irritate

Times are tough for small businesses. I have found recently that business can vary from one week to the next, and the only guarantee is that nothing is guaranteed.

In such times, of course, business look for more work. I can certainly understand that, but it is still very irritating to get the cold callers on the phone:

"We're not selling anything..." yeah, right.

"You're a [Telecoms network provider] customer. We think we can offer you a better deal..."

"Do you play golf? We have some great deals..."

"We can offer you cut-price accountancy..."

I try to be polite (no, I really do), but when more than one person from the same company rings you within a couple of days of each other, a saint's patience would be tried.

I know they're only trying to do their job, but go away and try it on someone else - please.

Jury Service and the self-employed

I was summoned for Jury Service earlier this week, for three weeks in November.

Being self-employed I was concerned about the impact that would have on my earnings; i.e. if I'm not here, I don't earn anything.

So I immediately rang the Coroner's Court to ask the question. I spoke to three people before I got through to someone who knew the answer. Before I reached her, I was thinking: "Surely I'm not the first person to ask this question!" I would have thought many people would have asked this before and everybody in the coroner's office would know the answer straight away.

The answer, by the way, was a desultory £32.95 for four hours, and a vague "about £60" for a full day - plus expenses (car travel, car park) in both cases. Not much, eh?

The justice system doesn't seem to put much value on the self-employed!

How is business for you?

It has been a while since I've been on here to make a comment.

I have been busy - working!

That, of course, is a good thing, but I also like to keep up with the blogging and background articles and such like. Never mind, the work has to be done!

I can't be sure whether the extra work means that the economy is recovering. Macro figures may suggest otherwise, and my sample of one business is 'rather' small, but I can but hope that things are moving in the right direction.

I've said on here before that one good month doesn't necessarily make the next month good, and small businesses have to learn to live with the ups and downs of their particular market.

While taking on as much work as possible, it leads me to think about taking on other people - as freelancers only - to help me with the work. Now that surely would be another tick in the economic recovery box.