A LIST Apart: For People Who Make Websites

No. 275

Discuss: The Long Hallway

by Jonathan Follett

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1 No Choice

For a design business, The Long Hallway is not an option: it’s crucial to survival. I’d say, scramble and adopt it during the slow initial rise of the trend, or be run over by it when it attains critical mass.

Lucky Balaraman

posted at 07:40 am on April 24, 2007 by Lucky Balaraman

2 But what..

But what about the customer? I think it’s much harder to introduce a virtual company in business competition and explain it to it’s customer than building up a working team. Those guys who work for us are allready experienced in futuristic web behavior. The clients mostlikely aren’t.

This article is a very good one, very interesting. But i think my question / problem with it is at least as important. Answers or suggestions?

Stefan

posted at 02:18 pm on April 24, 2007 by Stefan Klose

3 Untitled

Hi All,

Thanks for the comments, Lucky and Stefan.

Stefan: In response to your question, I think, in competition for work, the virtual company relies heavily upon the business development skills, personal network, and professional reputation of its leadership. If clients trust your design sense and judgement, and you can show a track record of successful completion of projects, the virtual firm may be an easier sell.

In terms of gaining exposure and finding new clients, I have a feeling that leaders of virtual companies will spend a majority of their time on the road, meeting lots and lots of people at conferences and smaller industry gatherings.

For kickoff meetings, design reviews, and the like, I’ve found that it’s not too difficult to make your virtual team a “real” one for a few days, assembling on site at a client location. Going to the client, rather than making them come to you, is often seen as a value-added service.

You’re right in that the sales cycle is complicated for the virtual company, and that some people will not be comfortable hiring a firm with no physical headquarters. But, I have a feeling that, over time, this fear of the virtual will abate, as business decision makers get used to the idea of the long hallway.

Does anyone else have insight into this from a sales perspective? Has anyone won, or lost an account specifically because their team was virtual?

Jon

posted at 03:20 pm on April 24, 2007 by Jonathan Follett

4 Untitled

just wanted to say, great article!

posted at 03:28 pm on April 24, 2007 by Chakrit Wichian

5 killing me softly

ALA is one of the few places in the virtual world where I frequently get the feeling that hey, I know exactly what you’re talking about! (Well, sometimes not, as it may happen, but that is also challenging and useful.) The situations and issues you discuss in your article are part of my everyday life, and mostly we’re just making it up as we go along, solving the most pressing problems asap and dealing with others – well, later, when they do become pressing problems.

Thanks for a great article & greetings to everyone who is trying to create a balance between having a life and running a virtual company.

posted at 09:33 am on April 25, 2007 by Laura Mänki

6 Trust and getting together is very important

I worked for a long time in a virtual team. We made every week one meeting so everyone was up to speed and to avoid double and unneccesary work. These meetings also help to build trust in the team. It is very important that everyone in a virtual team /company trust each other. Difficulties with trust are bigger problems then the long hallway.

posted at 12:42 pm on April 25, 2007 by Katja Schiemann

7 A project not a company

I don’t think there will be many virtual companies. But I totally agree that there will be many many projects with virtual teams. The difference is that a company has a common interest into something. Whatever the interest is, you want to build something stable, much more than just making a bit of revenue with one client. A project with a virtual team is different, you know that you are working together with the other team members for a limited time and after that you might work together again on another project, but you also might see the other team members never again. So if you have the possibility to work together on a project basis, why would you want to make a company out of that? A company makes sence if it is bigger than the sum of its parts. But to grow bigger these parts have to have strong relationships that I don’t see in a virtual company. So yes, work together as the article described, but not in the form of a company.

posted at 01:05 pm on April 25, 2007 by Handy Andy

8 Finding the "business" team

The problem that I have is doing the business side: sales, accounting, lawyers, etc. These people can be annoying to find, but absolutely essential to running a small business. Sales can especially solve networking issues in finding clients.

Is there any effort to attach these folks to the more technology based networks?

posted at 02:08 pm on April 25, 2007 by x Designer-wannabe-developer

9 Untitled

I think it’s a thin line between a company and a team of independent professionals collaborating frequently. The key issue is indeed to ‘build something stable’, and yes, that is hardly possible if you just hire people cheap on a project-by-project basis without any intention to build long-term relationships based on mutual trust and benefit.

posted at 02:31 pm on April 25, 2007 by Laura Mänki

10 Untitled

I couldn´t see a great difference between a project team and a small virutal company. In both cases everyone is following the main goal of the company/project and also own interest. In a virtual company you couldn´t switch of personal interests especially with not equal employees.

posted at 04:47 pm on April 25, 2007 by Katja Schiemann

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