People think that having a company is a really easy. That everybody can have a company, because it’s not a problem to manage a one-person company. That’s a bullshit! Setting up new firm is easy. Paying taxes is easy. Having company? No. Why? Because having a one-person company is a myth.

It’s not really hard to set up a firm. You need to go to one or more offices; fill some forms… and that’s it. Depends on the country… it takes from few hours, to few days. It’s easy.

However after that… you need to keep afloat. You need to build your project, gain customers, advertise services, negotiate contracts, or even answer the calls.

You can have a design company, which offer services of one type, for one client. You can have a software house, which is hiring by bigger companies for small works. However… if you are thinking about the real company – forget about the one-person firm!

You are not a specialist in everything.

Even if you are a great web developer (yes, even you!); great web designer; great project manager… you are not a great *** (you can put here anything you want). Really good web developers are not good web designers, good web designers are not good web developers. That’s the natural fact. If you want to be a good designer, you need to spend your time on learning how to become one of them. You can’t learn everything, because you won’t be good in anything.

Web developers are the worst, because they think that they are the specialists of everything (I know what I am saying, because I was one of them).

Do you want to build good product? Don’t do it by yourself.

You need to have a time for more important things

If you want your firm to grow up – you need to have a time for all kind of meetings with big players, for negotiations, for writing business plans, for gaining new clients, etc.

Your main duty is to keep your firm working.

That’s why… don’t be afraid. Hire virtual assistants, outsource as many things, as you can. You will be surprised of how many time for any other things you will gain.

You are too slow

You could be the fastest programmer in the world. You could be a world champion in gaining new customers. However it’s still too few.

Successful firm is not a firm, which can do some part of a project in few hours.

Successful firm is a firm, which can build the whole project, on time, without any problems. Successful firm is a firm, where project manager is engaged with a customer, designers are creative, developers are specialists, etc. Successful firm is a firm, where customer is happy about the cooperation and after all… he would be back for more.

(…) and in the mean time… successful firm would gain new clients for the next products and external projects.

Could you imagine, to do all of that by yourself? Probably not. If yes – then stop. You’re not gonna make it.

Don’t have enough money for more then one-person company? Think how to get it.

Don’t even think about building a company without any money. I did such a mistake. I thought that if I am a good programmer, my wife is a good designer… we’re gonna make it. We did not make it.

External clients didn’t pay on time; we couldn’t hire really good cooperators, because we didn’t have enough money; we had no chance to finish some of our projects on time; I was afraid to delegate most of my duties to other people. I couldn’t sleep for all nights, I was afraid about taxes, bills and payments. That was a disaster. Don’t do it!

If you don’t have enough money… don’t hire people for full-time. Try to outsource, hire virtual assistants and good freelancers, try to automate as many processes as you can, delegate things, which are not core for your company.

Focus on gaining money.

Write a business plan, create a kick ass presentation of your product, calculate everything. Then calculate it again. Try to look for a venture capital, private equity, business angel, private investor. Try to gain government funding. Participate in the contest. It’s not so hard. You need to have a plan and follow it.

Do not take a loan from a bank if you can not afford it. Investors are ready for the risk, banks are not. If your company goes bankrupt – you would still need to repay the loan installment.