I’m actively involved in 2 on-line communities. When I say communities I mean forums and message boards. In this modern day it’s very difficult to be in a technical occupation without the assistance of forums or message boards to learn and share information. One of the message boards has had a huge impact on my business with customer referrals. The other message board has had a huge impact on my business with knowledge gained. I often marvel at the group dynamic of very large communities that have expanded beyond the point of help-only-content into areas of off-topic discussions or topics that cover anything. I think allowing off-topic or open-topic discussions can be a double-edged sword and it’s one that I’m now beginning to question. It seems that these open-subject areas are most likely to bring out the worst in people and to really taint the positive feeling of community. More specifically I rarely if ever see arguments or slander in help forums. People in help forums are there for one purpose and that’s to get or receive help. Technical help rarely involves the exchange of opinion and is certainly never political or religious unless someone says, “Pray that you can get that working.”. Open-topic message boards seem to have many flare-ups and while these flare-ups do provide a good chance to learn about the dynamics of people I do think they detract from the value of the community. There always seems to be an aggressor that is looking for a fight and I think giving the aggressor a stage to launch attacks from is a mistake.

Now as I’m starting to evolve as a small business and I’m looking for ways to grow. I feel that my participation in the one help-based community is going to shoot way up and my participation in the other open-topic based community is going to drop off… significantly. For me I think it makes more sense to blog on a regular basis about technical and business topics than it does to participate in an open-topic community. I still plan to read the open-topic community on a daily basis because not doing so would have a very negative affect on the growth of my skills and knowledge.

The act of blogging means I open my doors to comments and critique of what I’m doing as a business and in a technical occupation but this will lead to value and maturity. I hope that at some point people will start to find enough content here that they begin asking questions about the how and why of decisions I make. This by no means implies I will change what I do to make the responders happy. What I’m doing has been successful quite on it’s own. In making that statement though I do realize that it might sound like I’m slamming the door on people exchanging ideas with me for doing things better. I’m not at all suggesting that I don’t place extreme value on that. What I’m saying is that the true strength, value and enjoyment of a blog comes from bloggers who stick to their opinions and are not easily swayed. It could be that the blogger might in fact be wrong and it certainly is his/her place to admit such things. But the real enjoyment comes from reading their wrongs and the resulting dialogs. A good blog is strongly opinionated and not afraid to discuss many topics as long as they relate to the vision that is established by the blog and it’s description.

Well, I suppose I digress at this point but I did want to record my thoughts now on community participation and the perceived value of a blog. Only time will tell if I am right on any of this. The evidence will not doubt come from the arrival of new and unsolicited readers who have stumbled upon this blog and enjoy reading the content contained within.

As you might have read below this April will mark the conclusion of my 3rd year operating a small business. Now more than ever before I’m becoming aware of how much effort it takes to keep a small business up and running. On a daily basis I’m nearly overwhelmed by the constant demands of running a business not just a business but a business in a rapidly changing technical sector. When you think about running the business alone the task is quite daunting. When you realize that I’m trying to maintain good physical health, be a father, husband and friend it quickly becomes a run-away-train. I often think that small business owners should be the most soft after people in the world for bigger businesses. As small business owners we must make critical decisions by the minute. What needs done now? What can wait until later? What’s going to be an acceptable definition of later and who will be the judge? Can I afford this? Should I buy that? What does my budget look like for more expensive items and how am I managing my growth. Did I call the people I needed to or is email going to be fine? Do I hire someone today or try to find a new way to squeeze one more hour of productivity out of myself?

Once you push aside the aspects of operating a small business then you have to embrace the tasks of your business. By tasks I don’t mean emptying the trash and dusting the furniture. By tasks I mean keeping your critical skills updated. Being aware of security flaws that exist in both hardware and software deployments. Implementing the technology solutions your clients expect in a timely manner with the right touch of quality. When it comes to implementation it’s one thing to work with clients in the same town or city. It’s truly rigorous to try and understand designs and requirements with clients in other states or across the country. You are a small business and you most likely don’t have the time or the capital to travel and so the logistics of your work multiply the complexity.

I do feel like I’m stretched too thin every day. I feel like I’m taking on too much and I feel like I simply have to say yes because saying no is so final. Running your own business is certainly not a simple undertaking nor is it the “get rich quick” that many people think it is. I know that each day I have to learn something new, forget something old and somehow make it all balance. In the back part of my mind I cannot help but wonder if I’m slowly turning into a precious and rare resource that could be a superstar in big-business or if I’m getting out of touch with corporate culture and slowly working myself into a niche from which there is no escape. I don’t think there is a right answer to this question and as time goes on I’m sure how I feel about the answer to this question will certainly change.

For now all I can do is the work that’s in front of me. I cannot worry or at least not too much about the work that’s behind me and I simply must fight to preserve my health and my relationships outside of work. I will constantly be hunting for new tools allowing me to do more with less and with each new discovery I must decide if I keep the hour saved and share it with my family or if I push yet one more hour out onto the bargaining table of profit. Somehow I just have to keep up but as I go forward I must constantly be vigilant for opportunity. The opportunity to save or grow and vigilance is the key.

Today I was reading about local companies and public statements that were made with regards to their hiring practices domestically and abroad. This caused me to reflect about the particular company and my experience as an employee of that company. Once I started down the path of visiting thoughts concerning my previous employers I became aware of a simple truth. The very best solution isn’t always the best solution.

What I’m getting at here is that sometimes I think individuals and companies make a decision based upon one factor and usually that one factor is money. Admittedly, businesses need money to run. But should money be the largest factor that influences their decisions? When I ask if money should be the largest factor I’m implying that money could be a board of directors, labor costs or geographic operating costs. It sure seems like every company I read about makes their decisions based upon one of those manifestations of money.

When you have companies that make all their decisions based upon money I think you really need to start wondering about the longevity of the company. It’s only a matter of time before the share holders bankrupt the company with their greed or they sell the company to make a huge one-time profit (Anyone remember Albertsons?). American business is struggling and in my opinion, American big business is gasping for air. Why? Because they’ve let profit become more important to them than the employees who generate the profit. Once employees realize they are a resource to be utterly consumed for any purpose deemed useful by the company a feeling of apathy ripples through the employees. This apathy when combined with greed from the top slowly kills a company. How can an automobile stay on the road when the owner puts the least expensive parts it can find into the car and only cares about the cars well being when performance is affected? The car will not be on the road for long and the owner will jump from automobile to automobile. It may make sense at the time for the owner to save costs by not getting a service every 30,000 miles. It may make sense for the owner to replace factory parts with inexpensive imitation parts. It may make sense for the owner to have all repairs done by the least expensive mechanic it can find. All of these appear to be the very best decision from the owners perspective which is shaped by money.

If the owner were more long sited then the owner would understand that their actions and decisions to neglect the car will ultimately result in shortening the cars life span and costing them more money as they continue to roll over into newer cars. American big business is the same way. American corporations now neglect the car and base every decision on cost and making a board of directors rich. You’ve witnessed a massive drop in American innovation and strength over the last 30 years because companies diverged away from concepts like “The HP Way” an idea fostered by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard towards greed. I’m not even going to attempt to describe “The HP Way” here. It’s worthy of an entire book and I believe books have been written regarding “The HP Way” and the vision of it’s founders.

When companies held strongly to their employees, family values and notions such as “The HP Way” they were unstoppable. Companies holding to such ideas grew fantastically and achieved success beyond any one’s wildest dreams. But in time the visions of the entrepreneurs were replaced by the pockets of shareholders and as the founders retired and died off the company started to follow.

If companies want to cut cost and become competitive again I suggest they start by firing the shareholders. Companies need to put their very best back into the only resource they have control of and that’s the employees. Once businesses start to reward innovation and value their labor they will find that success will not be far behind. I’d argue that a company like Hewlett Packard or Micron could make a huge turn-around in under 3 years if they simply reversed the value systems that directed the company.

Instead shareholders think managing money is the very best decision a company can make. I think that the best decision is managing your employees and cultivating innovation. It’s a very sad day for American business I’m afraid but the real tragedy is in what is happening to the American families that used to fuel the innovation driving American business.

Companies need to rethink solutions and decisions and realize that what seems like the best decision for the shareholders is the worst decision for the company.