O O Ø O O O O
How To Run A Company
pintday.org: We run companies into the ground, so you don't have to.
We should explain codetalker.com.
If you've ever found pintday.org via the search engines, you will find a lot of content pointing toward URLs in the codetalker.com domain. Yet the pages are all there, and the new ones all look like pintday.org. So the two obviously have something to do with each other.
That domain is the dried husk of our old network security company, Codetalker Communications, Inc. Try typing codetalker.com into your broswer. Go ahead, we'll wait.
There, see? Nice to have you back.
We point codetalker.com back here because we mirror all the old Codetalker security-related content on the pd.o server. We do this for four reasons:
- We believe in the valuable public service this provides.
- We're archivists by nature.
- We like the traffic.
- We can't let go.
The reason we're doing weekly updates to pintday.org and not to codetalker.com is because—one supposed commerce degree and a swarm of engineers who know everything notwithstanding—we spent too much energy, time and money learning the necessary lessons about how to run a company.
Last week in a professional practice seminar, I heard a humourously frank lecture on how to run an architectural firm. The humour was in how closely the lecturer's advice matched our own uncovered wisdom.
So while we worked our way through the foils, I wrote the following:
The pd.o Guide To Business
- Get an education.
- Incorporate, or don't.
- Humans aren't assets. They're people.
- Cash is your most valuable asset.
- Careful who you hire. Ask around.
- Have some benefits, or don't.
- Drink some beer.
- Write down your policies
- Avoid the banks.
- Avoid the banks.
- Charge GST.
- Collect your money. (Play good cop/bad cop if you have to.)
- Track time.
- Send the billing detail.
- Get your jack.
- Charge mileage.
- Insure your liabilities.
- Pay people to do the shit you hate.
- Don't try to design your own logo. You can't.
- I said don't.
- Remember word of mouth.
- Drink some beer.
- Run from anything containing the word quality.
- Write shit down.
- Never write anything that sounds like a press release
- It doesn't matter if it is a press release. Normal people don't talk like that.
- Learn to spell.
- Learn to punctuate.
- English counts.
- Keep busy. It's better than the alternative.
Sound simple? Good. Now go get it right.
Evan Spence
Tuesday, October 30,
PD DXIX
P.S. If you ever run across a company that subscribes to these principles, mail us so we can add them to the Pint Day 50.