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21

You’re talking about a 1099 contractor. You can think of them as a closer relationship than a handyman, but essentially you’re going to be on a dynamic, flexible system of give and take.

You’re also talking about potentially someone from the forums since they need to have one of your machines.

First, I would make sure you have a very clear statement of work. Things like: Proof reading the docs, making changes to the text and configuration in the docs, formatting the docs, creating and editing images for the docs, authoring new information into docs pages, pushing changes to github for review and publication. Authoring, editing, and publishing social media posts for V1E, etc.

You want to just say right away that cutting things out or maintaining their machine or hanging out on the forums is all encouraged, but explicitly not part of the paid job.

Then both sides have to trust each other a bit. Start with a discussion on the amount of time (and money) you’re willing to start with. It might be 20 hours over two weeks or 50 over a month or something. Design or planning meetings at the beginning of that time should be charged. A list of more specific tasks to work on should be agreed to and then the contractor would work towards them, while documenting their time. (As a former by the hour contractor, a digital timecard app in android/iphone is really helpful). If they get close to that allotted amount of time and they aren’t close to done, or they are close to done and need more tasks, then you meet again.

That way, neither of you should be surprised and the amount of work/money on the line is finite. The contractor would not want to jeopardize their future work by being dishonest and Ryan wouldn’t be writing a blank check.

There will be problems you should look out for. All the normal management stuff is going to be an issue. But specifically, Ryan is going to want to check in very often and he should avoid doing that. The contractor may have a question every couple of minutes that Ryan could easily answer. But they should try to solve it themselves first and collect a couple of questions at a time. The initial estimate for the amount of work will get done in a set amount of time will be wildly incorrect. So be prepared to be understanding on both sides. Some tasks may be explicitly time based. Like, “Spend 8 hours on the LR4 Jackpot instructions”. In those cases, you would want to see the actual pull requests that come out of it, and the contractor has to be responsible for staying on task over those 8 hours.

Eventually the relationship has to be cooperative or it won’t work. Both sides will have to trust each other. So there is a push to be explicit at the beginning (in the statement of work, to define the boundaries) and then based on cooperation and trust, with less specifics. It would waste a lot of good will and time to make the contractor document what they did every half hour, for example.

It really can work. There are definitely a lot of people that can’t do it with Ryan. Personalities are just like that. I’m assuming Ryan doesn’t have a lot of experience in management either, so he will have to grow too.

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22

Ryan is spectacular at design.

Documentation… that’s really hard to do when you are deeply immersed in the design.

To be able to have working documentation with the perspective of a newbie (and an old pro) requires a different discipline. Good tech writers are EXPENSIVE - and they’re few and far between.

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23

At a previous company I hand made 1,010 unique parts. WE went over to our manufacturer, I handed them 1,000 of them and went about the rest of our agenda. A few days later, they said they were 100 short. So we went and counted the machines and they had made 1,100 units. They said since they were in negotiations with our company to handle the China direct market they went ahead and made 100 units with the intention of using them as a test batch if the deal was finalized, if not they would just add them to the next order. If you follow that logic and look at the invoice, and the fact that they did not mention the extra unique hand made parts, the partnership got real shaky after that.

The reason I am using LDO and being very open about that is I do trust them. I am paying a premium to work with them but obviously it is not in their best interest to do anything off the books as us makers are all a really close bunch.

100%, I worked under that system for a little more than a year and appreciated it. Since the burden of taxes is on them I understand the need for a premium as well.
I can add a remote worker to my payroll if it comes to that but I have a feeling this is just going to be easiest for everyone.

Great point.

A new year, a new challenge!!

I was talking with another company about this very thing. A current employee of theirs did the best thing ever, had their partner follow the instructions and took detailed notes. Fixed a ton of things and went from there. That is the way I always intended on doing it but that takes a ton of time, and scheduling that is never easy.

Obviously this will be a very slow roll out and a learning experience, There are messages here and in my PM’s. I am purposely taking my time with answers to take in the responses and take the time to figure out a solid game plan. I am excited.

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24

I am pretty remote!!! Can’t help though at the moment. :stuck_out_tongue:

I hope something great comes from it and I can finally build my MPWDM (Mostly Printed World Domination Machine) you yet have to come up with. :slight_smile:

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25

But also make the victim volunteer listen to an engaging podcast to keep them from focusing too hard.

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26

@CarmenJ did this early on in the LR4 for a few parts and I believe that helped out some in updating the docs. I need to get her to build a complete one start to finish to see where the docs are at now and continue on with the rest of the build past putting YZ/Core together lol

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27

Much as I’d like to help, I’m not a good docs person. I troubleshoot as I build, and usually can’t remember what I did from docs and what I “just figured out.” Having built a few V1 machines now without instructions of any kind, I really couldn’t say.

Though I don’t think I made any huge leaps in logic, I’m also aware that I swing back and forth between pedantic unnecessary detail and “This should be obvious to anyone” when that is not in fact the case.

I’ve often thought running a print farm might be a side hustle though.

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28

I’ve been “going it alone” in my various business ventures since 2002 and my hold up has always been bringing on help. I’m what some would call a bleeding heart and if things were going not so good I’d be sure to pay staff before myself. So to avoid putting myself in that situation I found people I could trust and call on when I needed them, paid them as contractors so they handled claiming the income (or not) on their end and I never had to worry about cutting myself short to keep an employee. That said, my business ventures are/have been quite a rollercoaster in terms of income. I’d have some $30k months and I’d have stretches of 2-3 months with zero income.

You have an amazing army of advisers here in the V1 family and I know within these “walls” the perfect solution exists.

I was told way way back in my first venture “the most successful businesses are the ones that run themselves”. I wouldn’t be surprised if ten years from now you’re able to do nothing but design as this incredible machine you’ve developed runs all on it’s own.

Or you can see about developing the MPRYAN. That’s a solid Plan C…

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29

I’m afraid what I am about to say is so paternalistic I’ll look like a complete ass saying it, but FWIW - here’s my 2c worth.

Rather than chop bits out from posts again, I’ll just pretend this is the second post in the thread so please excuse where I am going over old ground.

I’m a little concerned. Partly this is due to the incredible state of flux you find yourself in in that part of the world - how you can make any plans at all beyond this afternoon is beyond me, but experience tells me that companies that find a way to battle through times of adversity are the ones that thrive in the long term, and when viewed from the outside at least, opportunities abound.

Sorry, the following has a good deal of telling you how to “suck eggs”, but maybe some will find it useful or worth arguing about at least!

It may not actually be “a time to get rich”, but it’s an excellent and actually exciting time to plan your way through the times ahead. Ironically, creating a globally based entity rather than a US-centric one may not be your government’s plan - but I suspect that doing so will establish the foundations of your business for the very long term, and provide exciting opportunities in the future too. It’s probably much easier to see that from the ‘outside’ now than I imagine it is from your perspective.

If you have not read “the E-Myth” I strongly recommend you do that without delay. After 30 years in publication, it’s still pertinant to where you are in business right now.

Having run both design and project management businesses for a lot of years, some of them with “remote” (a few countries away) offices, one of them on the other side of the world, your IP and corporate identity is THE most important thing to protect, outsourcing the rest is relatively easy to control, but you must also understand what your business actually is.

In my view you are in the engineering design business (even though you actually derive your income from product sales and manufacturing). Therefore all your decisions must be around making your time most effective in that area.

If that doesn’t make sense to some, understand that Macdonalds is a property business. Reportedly, around 80% of Macdonalds corporate profit comes from real estate investment, but it has found a way to leverage that through franchising food outlets.

It goes without saying that your design work and corporate identity should always be in your control, and you have substantial support and no shortage of volunteers to support you in that.

That includes documentation, but it only has to happen once in every project’s lifetime and I think a collaboration with @CarmenJ and @Jonathjon who are already “trained” and understand your corporate objectives makes so much sense that it’s difficult to see an alternative.

Even though your cashflow is generated through fulfilment - do you really want to be a manufacturer? Would a print company which offered direct shipping make more sense for printed parts, or is there a company that will assemble and ship the whole kit for what your real costs are?

What about direct shipping to the US from offshore as well? I know today’s tariffs are daunting, but something will settle for you (it has to, or Boeing will be out of business). Consider anything that will focus your mind on product development and new product which will diversify your customer base but not your focus.

After all that, keep a fall back position in mind too - after a period of time how will you re-establish what you have now if some aspects struggle?

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So far I have learned just to stay the course, not overextend, live frugally. Any time I try to predict anything, I am perfectly wrong.

Yeah, while I have been poking around in several different avenues, I do believe it is more clear than ever where my time is best spent. My time is never wasted, I learned from every step of my journey. I will never be the recent grad that jumps right into management. I understand every single step in glorious detail, nothing is just a number to me.

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31

Didn’t you say you were retired? haha

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