It’s you, the founder, and maybe a few employees when you start a business. While you do most of the work, projects are not so complex that you need one. But once you have more employees and start to have larger projects, you will need a dedicated project manger. It’s too late when it hurts (at least when you think about hiring a project manager). Matt Weinberg, from Vector Media Group, discusses in Bootstrapped episode 72 that his company hired their first dedicated project manager when they had more employees than 10, but wishes they had done it sooner: “We hired our first dedicated manager when we had 12-13 people or something. It was too late, it was super late. It was something we should have done earlier. We did it because we were wasting a lot of money on projects and didn’t have good management.” – Matt Weinberg President at Vector Media Group Inc.
As your company grows, so does the way you run it. You must anticipate what the next stage will bring and how to handle them. You will then be able to plan, prepare, identify new job opportunities, how to manage resources, and how to handle challenges. Stage 1Companies typically start as a partnership with one or two founders. The company is focused on one thing, such as developing Magento e-commerce websites. It is not profitable to hire a project manger so early. The number of employees is 5. This is the right time to start looking into a project manager in order to be prepared for the next stage. This is your chance learn how to work with a manager and let go managing everything yourself. Stage 3: The company gains more clients who keep coming back. The company diversifies its services to win more large projects. It also starts developing Magento websites. It is now a full-service agency, which does everything (design, development, branding, digital marketing, etc). This results in more employees, a new layer of middle management, and solid processes. The number of employees varies from 10-20. You should have at least two project managers by now. You have more hierarchical layers, provide more services, and you have a lot of clients who keep you on their retainer. Founders don’t code anymore. Instead, they focus on managing, finance, and pitching clients. Stage 5: Once you have over 50 employees, your company is a large consultancy that does everything and has multiple locations. At this stage, the company’s top concern is keeping employees happy and hiring. Founders don’t deal with employees anymore, but focus on company culture, strategy and market positioning, building relationships with large clients, etc. Why it’s important to hire a project manger early
It’s best to hire your first project manager in the late stage of development when you have approximately 7 employees. Even though it may cost you more in the long-term, you will be able to show clients your portfolio and clients will be more trusting you. This will lead to more.