just found out about this mailing list while browsing for the upcoming ELCE and RTLWS event details, in the hope to be able to participate.
Hi Leon, welcome to the list. This list was set up after discussions between various small business owners and consultants at ELC this year in San Francisco. A lot of us are having similar experiences around running our businesses, so we decided it would be good to organize a bit to get together at conferences to talk about business issues and to do some networking.
I think the most challenging issues for small companies are: - taking on a project which is bigger than one can handle one-self, trusting on the help from peers. - working with peers in a way to builds trust towards potential customers.
Indeed, neither of these are trivial. I find that when I take on larger projects I'm forced to exercise project management muscles that I haven't had to use before. It also takes more effort to keep the client informed with what is happening in the project.
- working on one system remotely (I have seen this work with a FPGA SOPC system).
Yup, me too. It took quite a bit of effort to get setup in a way that I'm happy with, but I've got most of the equipment in my lab controllable remotely. Its sometime hard to justify the time and expense at the start of a project, but I think it is well worth it in the long run.
One idea: what if we "join" each others company? (No strings attached, just being interested in taking on potential projects can be enough).
It would be great to have access to each others area's of expertise and expose this to customers.
I find that subcontracting works quite well for me. I'll bid a project, and then pass on parts of it to other folks who I know can do the work. Most of the time the client isn't concerned with the details of what the relationship is between me and the other people working on a project as long as the work gets done to their satisfaction. So even though I've got two or three subcontractors on a project, the client just sees my company, Secret Lab. And the reverse is also true. I'm happy to take on subcontracts from other people in my network.
I hope to be able to join and meet face to face again. Who is coming to where?
I'll be at LinuxCon/Plumbers in September this year, at Japan Linux Symposium in October, and at ELC next year. Cheers, g.
Hi Leon,
Welcome too!
Ithamar and myself will at least be present on ELC Europe (Grenoble) in October this year, no plans beyond that yet.
As Michael Opdenacker suggested in a previous message, we might do a pilot BOF/ mini presentation there so to introduce our companies and the peeps behind it and discuss issues like you mention.
