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Hi Andrew

This isn't so much a request to place an ad for a designer, more a request for some guidance. Basically, I have a graphic design business which has been running now for 5 years with various degrees of success, and as with most business I have reached that 5 year cross road where I either collapse or prosper.

I am in a situation now where I need to grow to survive, I need some one to join me and be a part of my business, be that as an eventual partner or commission, or whatever. This person would share the responsibilities of managing the business, someone who is more business orientated.

No doubt other single operators suffer the same problem where no less than 80% of their time is spent running the business and 20% is on design (if they are lucky), I want to be able to reverse this figure.

My question is, how do I go about finding this sort of person? I am reluctant to advertise as I have had bad experience with this, I guess I need 'word of mouth', somebody floating around the industry who is looking to start their own business who has a leaning towards management/client liaison.

I would greatly appreciate any help with this as I have had little luck so far in my search.

Thanks

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Sent: Thursday 24 September 1998

Hey Anon!

Good that you recognise some of the potential pitfalls at this stage in your business's development. Re finding an appropriate business partner, I would suggest a number of steps:

Casting The Net
(it can't hurt provided you have a good filtering process to weed out the crap)

1. put an ad on the AGDA website

2. contact a couple of specialist agencies, eg. Desktop People, Equatorial Talent, etc.

3. start talking about your search with every designer friend and acquaintance you have, plus at AGDA functions

1. write down all the things that you expect this person to do (don't use business jargon, as nobody really understands it - plain English is exactly what you should use)

2. tick off the items which you are doing already, and how much time you currently spend doing them

3. for the items which are not being done at all, estimate what you think those activities are worth to your business and who you expect to be doing them, e.g visit 2 prospects/week in order to generate 2 extra clients worth $50K/year each in additional revenue

4. on a separate list, write down all the bullshit lines you've heard about design & business management, and note what type of people made those comments

5. on another (!) list, write down the attitude/personal characteristics that you think your business needs and that you need in the people you work with

6. write down 2-3 business situations which you can use to "test" the applicants, and make sure they are real situations that you have dealt with in the past - this is a great way to work out whether or not YOU trust the applicant's business judgement (let's face it, that's what you're buying, right?)

7. get a trusted friend/acquaintance who knows your business to look over your filter material and strip out the stuff that's too idealistic

8. use the material you've prepared to fill out an assessment of each applicant (ie. WRITE DOWN and CHECK OFF your assessment after each interview) - then use the first pass assessments as the basis for selecting 2nd interview applicants and zeroing in on the issues you want to understand in more detail.

a. your very first thoughts will be damn close to spot on

b. your best bet at improving them is AFTER you have drafted them once - the big trap that managers fall into is assuming that they can get it right first time

• no unrealistic wish lists
• no more than 10 items per list, except for list 1 (max 20)
• plain English that your mother/partner/best mate can understand

Cheers

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andrew@lam-po-tangcom