As a child, I used to wonder why certain companies were big and why others remained small. My father always used to tell me that the small companies were not doing that badly — at least they were still in business. When my business broke even, my father said, “At least you are not losing money.” Many companies lose big, and I have indeed been very fortunate in business.
As a child, I always used to hypothesize about why certain things were the way they were in the world. But, at that age, I had no real world experience. As an adult, I see people’s behavior, and the results such behavior reaps. The behavior of big companies is very different from that of little companies. Big companies are not always that wonderful, but at least they have the mechanism to become big and stay that way.
After dealing with little programming outfits for years and years, I realize that they seem to slack off when assigned work. They put you in a situation where you are desperate to get your work done. You wonder if you should try to bail yourself out of trouble by bribing them or run like hell. Companies that are so neglegent and unethical are common — but, what type of customer retention rates do they have? If you were a client, would you remain a helpless victim with these sadistic and negligent clowns? I think not!
Some companies have one programmer while others have one hundred. What is the difference about the ones with one hundred (unless they are lying about having 100 which is possible)? The ones with lots of programmers know how to KEEP clients as well as ATTRACT new ones. Small companies attract new clients, and then lose them through their stupidity and negligence, not to mention laziness. Smaller companies have much less skill in scrutinizing prospective employees, for one. Smaller companies also don’t have the refined management techniques or personnel that a larger company might have. The third huge difference between large companies and their mini-equivalents is that they normally have professional project managers who oversee and double check everything, which drastically reduces the error rate.
So, if you systematically throw your clients in the trash — you will never become a big company. You might succeed at making others feel helpless and get an ego trip. But God will never let you get too far ahead if you are like this.