HELP: Switching From One Man Business To Office and Employees

By Ram Shengale on November 8, 2014 19 Comments / 3958 views

Hi guys,

I love reading the posts and discussions here on TRH and find the community to be really helpful. I am opening this discussion as I need help with something I plan to do. This may also help those who are planning to do the same : switch from a one man (home based) business to an office and employe setup.

To save your time, I’ll try to tell my story in short. share what I plan to do and what I need your help with:

What I do…

I completed my college last year and joined a company in Pune, worked there for 8 months and left the job. Most of my college years, I was involved in blogging and freelance development work, so when I left my job (in Feb this year) I continued doing the blogging and development work.

So, currently I am working as a freelance WordPress developer, working from home. I also do affiliate marketing and manage a few affiliate and fun sites (this, this and a few others). I blog occasionally on Gyantastic.com. Also, I just launched my first premium WordPress plugin and it has received good response (and sales). I also own a couple of other sites that’re not doing well but I plan to do something about them soon.

Now, I do this all alone from my home office (my bedroom) and things are starting to get really unmanageable. Although I’m making enough money (a couple of times more that what I did in my day job) but it’s starting to be a lot of work for a single person.

What I plan to do…

I know most of you guys here must have had gone through same phase when you were alone with all the sites and freelancing going on parallely, but then expanded to open offices and hire staff to help you.

Now I am planning to do the same. I need some content writers for my content site ideas and SEO guys to help rank them. Also I’ve tested the plugin market successfully and want to scale it so need some good WordPress developers. Then I also have a lot of freelance work from repeat clients that i am not able to do alone, so need developers for that too.

And most importantly, I want all this to be managed by the staff as I want to start with my new startup idea.

For all this I’ll need to get an office and hire employees. But I have no idea where to start. And need your advice on this.

What I need help with…

I live in Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh and plan to open my company with an office in Pune. I don’t want to do it here as it’s not an apt environment for finding good IT employees and the overall environment is not fit for an IT startup.

But I don’t know where to start.

How to get an office? And where?

How to hire employees?

How much budget should I keep for this? (I have some savings and funding is not an issue)

How long will all this take?

Guy do drop in your valuable suggestions what I should do and how I should be thinking about this. It’ll be a great help.

Thanks in advance.

Ram

Follow me on Twitter: @ramshengale

Comments

Ram Shengale

19 Comments

asha chaudhry November 10, 2014, 5:51 am

wow. i love this post ram!!

guess what – i work from home (in goa) – and run trhs pretty much all by myself and therefore your sentiment resonates with me!!

i will share this post with all the pune-based rodinhooders i can think of (since you’ve decided to move to pune – which is an awesome place!)

i reckon you should go for co-working space first. encourage your employees to work from home/remotely initially to cut down on your costs and as you grow you can expand your co-working space to accommodate others.

feel free to use our JOBS section to help you hire.

all the best.
Ram Shengale November 10, 2014, 6:18 am

Hi Asha,

Good to know that you too work from home and understand what we have to go through, daily.

I like your idea of starting with co-working space first and then expanding gradually. I hope to get some cool advice on this from the Pune guys here.

And thanks for sharing the post!

Ram
Omkar Nisal November 10, 2014, 6:57 am

Thanks Asha for the link.
Ram,
Welcome to Pune! It’s a great place to startup!
I would be glad to do my best to help.

Omkar.Nisal
@
Gmail.com
+919850230070
Ram Shengale November 10, 2014, 7:08 am

Thanks Omkar.

Let me know when you’re free and I’ll give you a call. Or maybe we can have a chat here.

Ram
Rahul Varshneya November 10, 2014, 10:09 am

How to get an office? And where?

You might consider looking up real estate websites and calling up the agencies/brokers and fixing up places to see when you’re here. Although, if you’re starting out, a co-working space should be ideal as hiring will take some time. And you can go up to a few people too in co-working. Where? Closer to IT zones (Hadapsar/Magarpatta, Viman Nagar, Kharadi or Hinjewadi and Wakad). If you settle in on Wakad, I can put you in touch with one person I know who rents out seats in their office.

How to hire employees?

Biggest challenge for startups in India. No one solution, but a good place to start would be to look for online forums where developers hangout, job portals and recruitment agencies.

How much budget should I keep for this? (I have some savings and funding is not an issue)

Budget for what? If it’s about office rental, they would range anywhere from Rs 25 to Rs 75/sq ft depending on the location and facilities.

How long will all this take?

As long as you want it to.
Ram Shengale November 10, 2014, 10:34 am

Thanks for the reply Rahul.

I’m convinced by the idea of getting a co-working space. I searched on Google and found plenty. I’ll contact you if I plan to settle near Wakad.

I had the budget question because I did not think about the co-working spaces. But again, these spaces are good to start with, without the need spending too much upfront.

Regarding employees, I’m still not sure if the employees will feel comfortable working in a co-working environment instead of a real office. But for this I like Asha’s idea of allowing them to work from home (if only I could find someone who will). Will look around on online forums.

Thanks again,

Ram
Rahul Varshneya November 10, 2014, 10:39 am

As much as we would like to fantasise about work from home opportunities, unfortunately, it doesn’t have any respect in India and is most often abused. (Sorry Asha, there always are exceptions, but I’m just stating the norm).

However, there is a difference between the kind of resource for a product company versus one for a services company. Strategies to attract talent for both these are completely different.
Ram Shengale November 10, 2014, 11:37 am

Thanks for the insights Rahul.

However, there is a difference between the kind of resource for a product company versus one for a services company. Strategies to attract talent for both these are completely different.

After reading this I’m starting to realise that I need to change my focus a little here. There is a lot of stuff going on. First is my startup idea which is going to be a product (a website), then I was also planning to market my current WordPress plugin and building new WordPress plugins and themes and also building content sites. Then there is this services thing : WordPress development for my current clients that I thought of expanding.

All this expand to a big sphere of things and I’ll have to properly plan out everything or maybe cross a few things out of the list. Hiring is definitely going to be tough.

Ram
Chetan Kaushal November 11, 2014, 6:45 am

Hi Ram,

I think we should get in touch. More or less even I’m in the same situation and even I’m doing the same thing and facing the same set of challenges.

Would like to exchange notes and bounce ideas with you 🙂 … Drop me a mail at chetan.s.kaushal@gmail.com or chetan@mavenlabs.co

Another common thing we have is Bilaspur 🙂 .. My Grandma grew up there as a child. My Grandpa and his family moved to Bilaspur after partition form Punjab which is now in Pakistan. Grandpa married Grandma and moved to Bombay..

I’ve never been to Bilaspur but still have my extended family living there at Gondpara, Sarkanda and Sanichari Bazar.. 🙂
Ram Shengale November 11, 2014, 7:43 am

This is interesting. Just PMed you.
Chetan Kaushal November 11, 2014, 7:50 am

We should catch up at gmail or skype.. I think TR’s chat still isn’t working properly
Jitendra Gursingh November 13, 2014, 4:47 am

I would suggest you start with a strong product or service base as a differentiator before incurring expenses to setup space. The kind of resources you ll need (on the basis of what you have described above) are more like freelancers initially. Until you reach a minimum mass number, dont think of office & employees. Freelance networks like Odesk will help you find great people. You can also try posting on OLX or Quikr, you ll be surprised by the results. (I found 2 graphic designers working from home simply by posting it on these 2 networks).

I have started my firm, http://www.digilocal.in, about 6 months ago. Running it out of home + coffee shop meetings + Whatsapp 🙂 I own a small garage space in my society which is rented out to another firm as a warehouse. The day I started my firm, I have been thinking of moving in there. But thanks to advice I got from friends, I have not yet cut off the regular income coming from there 🙂 Currently I have 5 clients, waiting to reach till 15 and only then I shall move in to that place. So do not be in a hurry .. all d best!
Ram Shengale November 13, 2014, 5:55 pm

Thanks for all the advice Jitendra.

I’m currently focusing on my WordPress plugin and am planning to start with that. I’ve got some numbers and see a good market for that. So you can say that it’ll be my solid product base as a differentiator.

Will need a developer and marketer to help me out on stuff. So will look for them on OLX and Quikr as you mentioned along with other job portals.

Good to hear about your start-up. Site looks good. All the best for your first 15. Hope you move to your garage space soon. 🙂

Ram
Jitendra Gursingh November 14, 2014, 5:02 am

Thank you Ram .. do PM your email id; I have some ideas for WordPress Plugin / Theme & would like to share them with you.
Ram Shengale November 14, 2014, 5:13 am

Sure.. 🙂
Ashwin C Parulkar November 17, 2014, 9:48 am

Ram you said about being clueless on starting point in Pune here are two cents-
Do a online rocky of Pune in People ,place,product ,services ,living
Visit Pune and meet prospects found in above.
Part time or project work from 3-6 month in Pune should give you good head start, some money and hang of the city. May be some more things will open up your product idea may improve further
Start building your company there on
You will need money for six months to survive that should take care of your rent, overheads ,salary of 2 employees, including you
Ram Shengale November 18, 2014, 7:08 am

Thanks for the inputs Ashwin. I have a plan with me now, thanks to the TRHs community and I hope it all goes well.

Ram
Dean March 20, 2021, 1:51 pm

Well, its always have been daunting to switch From One Man Business To Office and Employees, although I’ve already did that, but the tips i found in your article now, I’m regretting for not looking them before i did that! However, now my company is settled and we work on making small website such as “this one.” and I will surely your your article to those, who will be shifting From One Man Business To Office and Employees! Thanks a lot Ram, have a good day!
- Dean March 20, 2021, 1:52 pm
  
  I meant onlinesewingmachine.com from “this one”