The business behind JakeLudington.com is a one person operation. The one person being me. My brother jumps in and saves my butt on occasion, but largely the decisions, both bad and good, are made solely by me. This works well most of the time, but as things grow sometimes undoing decisions I made two or three years ago cause some serious growing pains.
The month of January 2009 is definitely one of the most painful I can remember. I’m gradually making updates to the way JakeLudington.com functions so that pages load faster, all browsers display the pages well, and in general so that as site traffic continues to increase people will have a good experience. I’d rather be focusing on writing articles, answering questions, and making some new videos, but instead I’m upgrading and then unbreaking things as I upgrade.
Why am I telling you all this? Partly because it may have impacted you in some way. For instance, if you sent me a question in the past week, I may not have gotten the email. If you’ve been waiting a week or more for an answer, by all means, submit your question again. If you tried to download a file and it didn’t work, you might want to try again – many things are more stable now than they were two weeks ago. The other reason I bring this up is I’d love to hear from other people who have experienced growing pains in running a one-person or small company. What was one thing you did that made a big difference or changed your company for the better?
outsource what you don’t know how to do. Don’t hire, the staff becomes a monster demanding to be fed.
What a nice diversion. (1) Trite, but: You are not alone. We’ve gone from information age to instant information age to constant information age. Even people without information are aging! Most days I’m treading so hard I’m afraid I’ll get sucked up my own butt and cancel myself out. And I bet my case is “mild.” (2) Honestly? I’ve been listening to audio books for years. Since I got a 30GB Zen, now a 120 Zune (partly because of your recommendation re Audible, thank you), I listen to 3-4/week. Usually business. Keeps cool water (fresh ideas) circulating in the mental pond. But the real leap occurred when I discovered serial killer series. My days seem so calm now. (I would be happy to recommend some, if you like — well and thoughtfully written in my opinion.)
Good luck, and thanks for all your work.