As I mentioned in an earlier blog post I am a serial entrepreneur. I've got experience in running a startup (financing, marketing, sales, etc)...not a lot and my previous ventures haven't been very successful but I have real life experience. That said I will admit that that experience doesn't seem to lend itself to running a startup candy bar company. The two areas for which I thought would be easiest to manage have turned out to be incredibly complex...incredibly.
I WAS SPOILED
For my two previous websites I was privileged to work with a developer who was experienced, timely and incredibly professional. The guy would set a deadline and then meet it. If the site crashed he'd pick up his phone at 3AM and get right on it. He had a host of clients and made a pretty penny as a solo contractor and after experiencing his customer service it was easy to see why. The guy was "set it and forget it". Meaning talk through your specs or issues with him and then no more worries. Presto fixo!!! Unfortunately he was unavailable (due to personal reasons) for our Cakedy ventures. We've worked with awesome developers on this project, but it has required much more involvement than before. I chalk up some of this to the newness of the relationship but nonetheless it is frustrating. My personal style of management is to be very hands on with vendors/employees/partners at the outset until they are comfortable with what needs to be done. But after some self reflection and discussion with internal team members I don't think that approach will work when it comes to our website this go around. Being actively involved day to day will require somewhat of a mindset change for me, but like I keep telling our team, I truly believe in this product and I believe the extra effort will be worth it.
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