New Blog, New Address

Please head to http://chinasourcingblog.blogspot.com/

I’ll be consolidating my China Sourcing Blog as well as Micro Multi Startup at that location.

Thanks!!

Chasing Problems Around

Ah, life as the chief cook and bottle washer.  Small business is so exciting, terrifying, mind bending, and usually all at the same time.

I struggled for months with getting advertising kicked off.  That’s finally working, at least things are improving.  Now, the problem is not enough horsepower to get the work done.  I just added a mechanical engineer — likely bringing him on full time after the first of the year.  This should really improve our ability to scrub technical documents in preparation for inspection or sourcing work.  Downside is, it’s another draw on an already fairly tight cash stream.  Oh well, if you fail to invest, you die a slow painful death!  At this point, it’s grow or die!

New QSS Website

After several weeks of work, the new Quality Sourcing Solutions website is up.  Check it out and let me know how it looks.  This is one of the growing pains that I anticipated.  As our little company grew, and reached more people, it became apparent that we needed to put on a more professional image.

The folks at NetSmartz did a great job.  I may also use them for some other ideas that I’m working on.  In short, I would recommend them for any of your website design, e-commerce, or SEO needs.

Go check the new site out!  I’d love to hear comments.

The Buck Stops Here

There’s an interesting shift that happens when you run your own company — there’s nobody to blame.  In the past, I’ve always tried to take responsibility, to present problems that I see, but also solutions.  There have certainly been times that I have just ranted, bitched, and blamed (sorry to all of my past supervisors).

Now, if I don’t make a sale, it’s because I screwed it up.  If my advertising isn’t working, it’s because I wrote bad copy, or placed it wrong.  I’m not saying that I expect to be perfect in everything, but that if something isn’t working, I’ve only got myself to blame.  That seems scary some days.  Most days, however, I’m completely ok with it.  The situation definitely motivates me to improve my game in every way, and that after all, is a good investment in myself no matter what happens.

CQA Certification

I just got the news from the American Society for Quality.  I’m now a Certified Quality Auditor.  As I’d mentioned before, I’ve done many audits, but had never become certified.  The course I took last week was great, and this is a big deal for QSS.  While I don’t think certifications are worth much in and of themselves (I see far too many idiots with lots of initials after their names), this just improves the credibility of my little company, and hopefully will help me build trust with our clients.

Trip to Atlanta

Just got home from a business trip to Atlanta.  It’s always interesting to travel, and I love doing it, but it’s also nice to be home.  As the chief cook and bottle washer of QSS, it’s hard to move around too much, there’s just too much going on.

I’m always looking for ways to improve the value of the service QSS provides.  One of our most popular service offerings is company audits.  We go in and review a company’s quality management system from top to bottom.  Our mission is to help our clients manage risk.  By knowing the weak points of their vendors, they can make better decisions.  I attended a course to become a Certified Quality Auditor and then took the certification exam on Saturday morning.  I’ve audited many companies (I’m guessing 50 or so), but had never become certified.  I learned a bit, and refreshed my memory on much more.  All in all, a good experience.  Results of the exam to be posted when I get them, but I’m fairly confident I did well.

If you’re traveling to Atlanta any time soon, here’s what I did to save money and get around.  My class and exam were at the Atlanta Sheridan, downtown.  As with hotels in most major metro areas, this hotel was a bit expensive (don’t recall the exact rate — $200 or so a night?).  Anyway, I opted to use a combination of Best Western Airport East, which when combined with a Travelocity-booked airfare, got my total flight and hotel costs to about $600 for the whole week.  Instead of using expensive taxis, I used the Atlanta subway system (MARTA).  It cost me $12.50 for a 4-day unlimited pass.  The system was clean, fast, and convenient.  The Best Western Hotel was friendly, inexpensive, and clean.  My only problem was that the internet service was spotty — on and off at random and frustrating intervals.  For a long stay, it was frustrating having communication difficulties, but nothing a quick MARTA ride to the nearest Starbucks didn’t fix!

A solid trip all around — didn’t spend too much, learned something, met some potential business contacts, and likely got certifed as a CQA.  Made it home in time for dinner on Saturday with the family.  You can’t look for much more than that!

Starting a Professional Services Firm

My major web advertising is still off!  This is driving me nuts, as I watch the slow trickle of visits to my site.  At this point in the game, my website is still my primary advertising tool.

 I took a pause this morning to read some articles about managing a small professional services firm and found this from the Denver Business Journal:

  http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2006/07/31/smallb5.html.

It’s a bit of motivation about a PR expert who started and grew a professional services firm from his basement.  Ok, the article isn’t exactly riviting, but the story behind it is encouraging.  One point that is made is that in the corporate world, the usual priorities are 1) Profit, 2) Customers, and 3) Employees.  Sound about right?  It does from my experience.

I know folks like Sir Richard Branson always stress that happy employees are their first priority.  Judging by the insane success of the Virgin Group, it seems to work.

Meet the Team!

One of the joys of starting a company is working with the team.  The first group of people step way outside their comfort zone, and take a real risk.  My team left stable, good-paying jobs to come with me.  I’m grateful, and feel a deep sense of responsibility for them.  Supervising people, as most of you know, is one of the most difficult parts of management.  It’s also the most satisfying.  I just introduced my Office Manager, Violet, on the QSS sourcing blog.  Please check it out!

GM and UAW — shame on you!

Ok, this blog is supposed to be about starting a micro multi, not about an established behemoth like GM, but I was watching the news this morning and was compelled to write something.  You see, I travel about a bit, visit lots of companies, talk to lots of folks about international competition and the role of the US and US companies.  I’m struggling to understand what it takes to survive, and maybe even thrive, in today’s economy, and on the news, I see a scene that could have been from 1970.

First of all, lets get some basic bookkeeping handled.  I don’t have a pension other than my 401k.  I never have.  As a self-employed individual, I get screwed attempting to buy insurance.  GM — you are having your ass handed to you in every market except for those nice Buick vans made in Shanghai (I have spent WAY too much time in those, but that’s another story).

 That bit of unpleasantness out of the way, I DON’T want this company to go under (I don’t want to pay for the bailout either).  If you actually made a car that came close to a Toyota or a Honda I might even buy one.  How can you strike when your very existance is at stake (both of you)?  How can you not see what’s at stake?  As if hemorrhaging money and dumping market share aren’t enough.

Here’s an idea for the UAW — either start thinking about the needs of today or make yourself some really cool tunics and wooden swords and start running medieval festivals!  In this age of global competition, what will matter is that workers have a chance to grow and learn, even if they don’t work for GM (or any other large company).  What matters is mobile benefits like health and life insurance — available at a reasonable cost to responsible individuals willing to take a risk and start a small company.  What matters is portable pension benefits that allow responsible individuals to invest their savings (maybe with some help from companies) in a tax deferred fashion that makes sense for them.  Start advocating for the workers of tomorrow, and you may yet avoid selling little crystal baubles while enduring the oh-so-painful squeeze of your corset.

 You want to keep American jobs?  I do, but I know that we need to be smarter and faster than ever!  The world is different now, and requires a different outlook.  I don’t claim to have all of the answers, but it seems to me that a group of smart folks around a table could have done better than this!  Just be aware — Toyota has already beaten you, and Hyundai, Geely, and Great Wall are right behind!

Why not share my sense of urgency!

So, my first problem was getting the word out — getting some hits on my site.  I started driving traffic only to realize that the bounce rate off my site was way too high (at least by my definition).  Ok, fine, I’m learning.  After all, I did the site myself in a weekend.  I know what I want the site to look like, I just don’t have the web design expertise to make it look like I want!

Enter now the website designers.  The first mockup is good, but looks like a cutout from a stock design catalog.  Ok, concept good, now the next step.  No need to meet?  We can discuss over the phone?  Ok, maybe I’m just stupid, or spent too much time at a whiteboard myself, but I’ve never had much creative success over the phone.

 I’ve got to travel to Atlanta the second week in October.  I’ve got all of my advertising turned off pending the rollout of my new site — so obviously my phone is not ringing off of the hook.  I need this site up before the second week of October, and we’re having a phone conference!!

 I’ll give you the final verdict, along with a link to the designer when this is over.  Hopefully, all goes well and I’m happy with the new site.  We’ll see!