Re: FN-FORUM: Creating a Web Developer organisation

date posted 13th August 2007 12:34

Julian Voelcker wrote:
> Hi Richard,

Hello!

>> I've just been catching up on this group after my hols and found the
>> discussions about starting a new organisation to which quality web
>> developers can apply for some extra leverage.
>
> I've skipped/missed the heart of these discussions, but thought I would
> just throw in my 2pence worth.
>
> Back in the mid 90s we setup a collaborative IT group called The Trust
> Group with various aims:
> + Good networking
> + Collaboration between members on personal jobs (one guy sells
> servers, the other does networking - obvious benefits for teaming up on
> jobs).
> + Collaboration on larger projects, sourced and managed by the group.
> + Providing individuals with the backing and support one would expect
> from a larger organisation
> + Bulk purchases on hardware/software
> + discounted insurance/training, etc

A large list of services there, implying a group with plenty of resources.

> The group started out of similar discussions on the IT forums on
> Compuserve back in '94/95.
>
> It was a great idea and we ended up with several hundred members,
> however the biggest problem was it that it was run by voluntary members
> of the group who inevitably ended up being too busy with their own day
> to day work to be able drive it forward, it really needed a
> professionally run office with a decent sales team to be pushing the
> business on.

The lesson here is to have a group that requires as little work as
possible, which in turn means that it does as little as possible.

> The only way to do this would have been to charge higher membership
> fees and also to charge commissions on the work going through the
> group.
>
> This was again great in theory however most of the members only really
> became active when they were at a loose end looking for work and would
> generally be unhappy with paying high membership fees.

The lesson here is to keep membership fees as small as possible.

> Additionally it was impossible to manage the commissions side of
> things, unless the work was generated by (us the voluntary committee) -
> any work generated by the members was generally dished out behind the
> scenes to other members and there was no way for us to monitor that.
> Members would put the first few jobs through the group but quickly
> adopted members they dealt with into their own little 'network' and no
> longer needed the group.

Here the lesson is that commissions don't work.

> Having said that a deal was struck in I think it was Norway where it
> was funded properly from the outset, however it ended up more like an
> agency for freelancers and I don't think it lasted.

I think we have some evidence from your email as a whole that the idea
of a group looking for work for it's members is doomed to failure. I'm
not sure if that's what people were wanting.

I certainly hoped that membership of the group would be more a status
symbol that we could point our clients to when touting for work
individually.

Regards
Richard

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