This Business and Moment...
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I guess it depends on what the perm package is. In my sector, it seems pretty imbalanced; I went from a relatively senior perm role to more junior contract position and I earned more in 8 months than I ever did in a year as a perm from base salary plus bonus. Obviously when you add in pension and other bits and bobs the gap closes but from what I can see to get something approaching parity from a perm role I'd need to find a pretty rare opportunity that would be even more senior than I have worked at previously or otherwise be a bit of a gamble on stock options etc. An equivalent role to what I do as a contractor in the perm market pays perhaps 50-60% base. Frankly, [some] IT contracting seems overpaid if you ask me, especially given you can focus more on doing the job without all the extra baggage that comes from being a perm. Security isn't something I value that highly any more, I don't need a regular income so being out of work for a bit doesn't bother me.
Ultimately what I've concluded is that to go back to the perm sector I want either:
a) A motivating job / industry / subject area. I think I would take the gamble on this (big pay cut)
b) Career progression within my comfort zone, something paying top money where I can leverage my prior experience and then potentially springboard on from there. The pay cut for this would need to a be a lot smaller.
I think it will just gradually converge towards an equilibrium point whereby the firms traditionally based around big hubs like London are able to find enough good staff willing to work for less money because they live in cheaper areas. Conversely, firms based in cheaper locations may find it harder to retain staff and hence face upwards pressure on wages. The problem at the moment is we are still in a period of high uncertainty, so there are artificial barriers to progress towards that equilibrium.
I wrote about it elsewhere but I still think 'hybrid' working is very immature / not fully thought through - I think it is very hard to get right and I suspect many medium-large sized organisations will try and fail at it. Unless done well, I think it is a case of "worst of both worlds" not "best of both worlds" because you keep hanging on to that need for physical proximity to an office, travel costs etc but at the same time it's not practical to get the full benefit from onsite collaborative working unless you are a small company. A fully WFH (with occasional adhoc F2F) is massively more appealing to me as both a candidate and a manager than hybrid.
One area I haven't seen explored much is whether disability discrimination could have any bearing on this. I'm not saying it should do, but the direction of travel this century has been more and more towards diversity and inclusion. If you are someone who has a disability that makes it less practical to travel (e.g. cannot drive a car), you could perhaps argue that being forced to come into the office where not essential to conduct your duties is discriminatory in some way. Certainly WFH is hugely helpful for people in that position because it opens up many more potential employers that are based in locations not well served by public transport. And those locations perhaps may spring up more if companies decide they don't need an expensive city centre office but instead could be based in an out of town business park or whatever.
Soldato
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It depends what hybrid means really... At present we have a mix of "comes in a couple of times a week on a routine", "can come in ad-hoc", "lives nearby but doesn't come in" and "I've moved 200 miles up the country now". Vast majority are WFH full time.
I think if the company can accommodate multiple individuals' sets of needs, this is a Good Thing. All-WFH would have as much fallout as all-office or rigid schedules for everyone. That's from the perspective of my firm (50-100 people) and in terms of individual wellbeing, I can't speak for hard budgets or targets... But we've had two successful years while almost all home based.
I think if the company can accommodate multiple individuals' sets of needs, this is a Good Thing. All-WFH would have as much fallout as all-office or rigid schedules for everyone. That's from the perspective of my firm (50-100 people) and in terms of individual wellbeing, I can't speak for hard budgets or targets... But we've had two successful years while almost all home based.
Yes it definitely depends what it means, the sort of hybrid I'm referring to is where there is a predefined expectation of days in the office i.e. X days per week/month.
My concerns are as much from the perspective of the employer as they are the employee. I'm sure there are some organisations that have made it work effectively, but I think it will need a lot of thought and iterative optimisations rather than just come up with an arbitrary concept and click go. Operating a hybrid model means potentially either keeping overheads high (office space) or at the very least a logistical challenge to figure out how you rotate staff in a way that reduces desks required but doesn't compromise on the benefits of F2F working.
I guess the crux of my concern is as much about how the reality and practicalities of how things will operate in some organisations versus the utopian view of harnessing happier staff with focussed in person productivity. Personally for example I've seen workshops work more effectively fully remote compared to hybrid, that doesn't mean it can't work hybrid, but it certainly isn't straightforward.
From the perspective of an employee, hybrid working is probably better than full time in the office simply due to the saved time on commuting but proportionally I don't think the benefit scales fully. Certainly when it comes to rail transport costs it seems really inefficient on the routes I've looked at. Right now this probably doesn't bother people that much if they are still getting full whack on the salary and the benefit of reduced costs and reduced commute time (who wouldn't want reduced outgoings and more free time for the same money?), but in the longer term if we see downwards pressure on wages in some locations it might be more of an issue for those who need to commute by rail.
No that's not the sole reason, I wrote a bit about it here: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/your-work-situation.18880544/page-20#post-34922952
My concerns are as much from the perspective of the employer as they are the employee. I'm sure there are some organisations that have made it work effectively, but I think it will need a lot of thought and iterative optimisations rather than just come up with an arbitrary concept and click go. Operating a hybrid model means potentially either keeping overheads high (office space) or at the very least a logistical challenge to figure out how you rotate staff in a way that reduces desks required but doesn't compromise on the benefits of F2F working.
I guess the crux of my concern is as much about how the reality and practicalities of how things will operate in some organisations versus the utopian view of harnessing happier staff with focussed in person productivity. Personally for example I've seen workshops work more effectively fully remote compared to hybrid, that doesn't mean it can't work hybrid, but it certainly isn't straightforward.
From the perspective of an employee, hybrid working is probably better than full time in the office simply due to the saved time on commuting but proportionally I don't think the benefit scales fully. Certainly when it comes to rail transport costs it seems really inefficient on the routes I've looked at. Right now this probably doesn't bother people that much if they are still getting full whack on the salary and the benefit of reduced costs and reduced commute time (who wouldn't want reduced outgoings and more free time for the same money?), but in the longer term if we see downwards pressure on wages in some locations it might be more of an issue for those who need to commute by rail.
Man of Honour
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I personally prefer going into the office and interacting with people. I get a lot more done when I'm in the office working with people and spitballing ideas over a coffee.
Arranging a zoom call to discuss an impromptu idea doesn't quite have that same dynamic interactivity.
That said having admin days and head down days at home are welcomed.
As for my new offer. I have accepted it my current employer won't match the salary as it would put me above of our CEO besides, I feel the need for a change regardless. I quite like Moving around different roles, I used to do a lot of that, helicopter in, do some changes, improve productivity and profitability and then move onto another project.
They expect 3 days in the office as a minimum which suits me well. Allows me 2 days of school runs and being at home, my wife works locally in the small town we live in the countryside so it's less of an issue me going back into the office again.
After 20+ years of commuting around the world, the UK and just into London I'm quite used to it and it doesn't bother me in the slightest. I like being visible and accessible by my staff and colleagues which I personally find easier in an office environment.
Associate
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So my business that I detailed in this post is coming up for 18 months old. The growth has been slow but steady and has been picking up the pace for the last 6 months. We've learned a few lessons in that time, not limited to:
We're at the point now where we can take about £2000 each per month after tax & running costs so I am happy at the moment with some passive side income as I have an actual day job as a Project Manager. Thankfully this business does not require much effort at all as our marketing and finances have been outsourced plus support is light. The difficult bit is going to be growing this product and the others we have in the pipeline so we can leave our day jobs + side money and transition fully into this. I'd like to think within the next two years we can do this, subject to the performance of the other products. I'm very happy that we decided to spend all that time working on this and working for yourself is so much more satisfying than working for someone else.
- Native iOS/Droid App is a must. Trying to make a mobile friendly website for all devices is such a pain.
- Ease of use has been our number one selling point.
- Potential customers seem happy to disregard you unless you offer everything they could ever want.
- A lot of people seem to take out trials and then not actually do anything beyond signing up.
- Mobile phone use seems to be about 90%. Tablets 7% and laptops/desktops the other 3%. Some users have never seen our website on a laptop/desktop
- Invest in social media marketing and keep posting as Facebooks algorithm for what to actually show is weird.
- Prepare to deal with a lot of time wasters and people too lazy to find the answer to their question.
We're at the point now where we can take about £2000 each per month after tax & running costs so I am happy at the moment with some passive side income as I have an actual day job as a Project Manager. Thankfully this business does not require much effort at all as our marketing and finances have been outsourced plus support is light. The difficult bit is going to be growing this product and the others we have in the pipeline so we can leave our day jobs + side money and transition fully into this. I'd like to think within the next two years we can do this, subject to the performance of the other products. I'm very happy that we decided to spend all that time working on this and working for yourself is so much more satisfying than working for someone else.
Thinking of leaving my job and have scatterguned some applications on Reed to get the recruiters biting. Currently an assistant tax manager at a top mid tier accountancy firm and the applications are all more towards financial controller or family office work.
I'm not particuarly unhappy but equally not particularly happy. It is more a feeling of restlessness. I've been told that I have a good future at my current firm but it feels like there will be no progression without other managers retiring first. Galling point is that a job spec was put out for a role more junior than mine with a salary bracket which covered my own.
I am planning on having a few interviews, get a lay of the land and either leverage a payrise or get a fresh start. I am frustrated however that I have to jump around to progress when I would rather be recognised where I am.
I'm not particuarly unhappy but equally not particularly happy. It is more a feeling of restlessness. I've been told that I have a good future at my current firm but it feels like there will be no progression without other managers retiring first. Galling point is that a job spec was put out for a role more junior than mine with a salary bracket which covered my own.
I am planning on having a few interviews, get a lay of the land and either leverage a payrise or get a fresh start. I am frustrated however that I have to jump around to progress when I would rather be recognised where I am.
We seem to be hitting an incredibly unfortunate patch with sickness - with COVID only a minor percent of that so far. 6 people in the last few days out of action for various reasons - not sure what the latest 2 are off for. On top of having a few off on long term sick for things like sprained/broken ankle, etc.
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What do you do in terms of product analytics? Do you understand your customer journey within the app? Where they go,what they do etc? This is very useful to be able to be able to bunch users into cohorts, which helps you understand what the behaviours are of the one who pay most vs. ones who don't and allows you to do use different marketing approaches for each.
One thing I really missed was app store optimization at the start. How do you rank on the keywords you're targeting there? I relied a lot on web but completely missed that 90% of people now see if there is an app for something!
- Mobile phone use seems to be about 90%. Tablets 7% and laptops/desktops the other 3%. Some users have never seen our website on a laptop/desktop
Congrats man, it's great to see it moving like it is. Really loving it! Keep us posted
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Have you simply confronted your management about this? That would be a start if you're not actually unhappy with what you're doing?
The pay matter is simply the pebble that has started the avalanche. Looking at some of the jobs which I have interviews for I am looking at nearly a 50% pay rise so I am not entirely confident that my current firm could counter. Added to that a payrise would mitigate some of the grievance, I am not sure it would help with my general milaise and the progression.
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That's fair enough then. Always get the best progression moving, sadly!
As for jobs, I'd definitely use Linkedin over Reed! Loads of really good jobs on there.
LinkedIn definitely seems to be leading the way nowadays, historically I relied on aggregators like Indeed but LinkedIn has the benefit of having recruiters come to you with opportunities that you might otherwise have overlooked. My current role was just someone 'randomly' reaching out, and I'm in the 4th stage of the process for another place that again was them approaching me rather than the other way round. It seems far better than the oldschool thing where you would have your CV uploaded somewhere, I never got many decent leads through that.
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The two I'm talking to at the moment have all been linkedin and both approached me about the job through linkedin!
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Remember Monster? Jesus that was a spread by numbers job that. Quality was low.
So this tells me - customer commitment to purchase is a problem (typically a value appreciation) and additionally you have a cost of sale problem.
In a previous role we'd look at trials - however what we'd do is offer a trial that is limited and given the service offered encryption keys, the trial accounts would generate keys that are EXPLICITLY stated to from a shared and recycled pool specifically for trial accounts. We'd charge for a trial too - given they have support/opeartionals and we'd work with them within their organisation to promote their business case. Therefore the service would simply start with production keys once they'd contracted with us for production keys..
For mobile services - I used to own a few services that had web and mobile application (one of the large banks). You will have a journey drop out for each click or entry field someone has to fill. You should be laser focused on the customer journey metrics - but in the end the customer needs to see value to them. It needs to solve their problems - talk to your customers then prioritise to solve.
You can also use pyschology - increase the price. Either (a) paid trials if you have a cost of operating the trial which promotes commitment or flight response at the idea of paying for a trial and (b) people relate money with how good it is (why would someone give something good away for free?) plus it promotes an expectation that the product will continue to be supported and continue to deliver incremental value to them as the features are added.
I've just watched the video - it's a full 1 minute and 30 seconds before you start mentioning payment mechanisms - a full 1 minute 30 before you introduce the first CUSTOMER business value feature. Before that it rambles on (sorry to be blunt) - it needs to say what the value is, show how that and finally summarise the value as feature points - all for £/month. Internet time is fast so you have 15-30 seconds to hook an searching customer and less to catch a cold-click.
"This video shows how you can solve X, Y & Z problems your business and customers have ...". Typically these are related to (a) customer (appointment) management/point of sale interaction, (b) supplier management, and (c) financial book keeping. Branding is important so some degree of personalisation - ie upload a logo etc.
Note that (c) is likely to already be in place with an accountancy firm or via something like Quikbooks or SAGE that provides a regulatory approved filing for small businesses. You could integrate perhaps but you're entering a mature and feature rich field on this feature. Make its easy for your customers to use without needing to copy data or stop using existing products that they're using features for.
Remember you are also handling a risk in liability - both in customer personal identifiable information (regulatory and legal) and financial information (regulatory and legal), thus you will need a security testing etc to operate the service. You can pass that on to the customer as value (although typically companies will try to wing it). If you're passing the financial piece to PayPal for example it helps mitigate some of the financial and card related regulatory/legal requirements. If you're storing customer personal identifiable information you will need to cover that for your service.
Also there's very little reporting I could see in terms of customers looking to spot trends etc year on year or for events (ie crufts).
There are a lot of CRM/financial/payment combined services out there - sure most will require some customisation for a cost but I don't see what dog grooming differentiator you're offering. Perhaps you could operate a sales channel for pet related product vendors that can be split with the owner - like google do with adverts, however yours are targeted specifically at the breed and age for example.
Congrats! Sounds like it is going well. My mrs and I have a conundrum post her maternity leave as she may not be able to do her previous role (cabin crew). She's hoping to move into HR within the same company but we have thought about launching a business for her.So my business that I detailed in this post is coming up for 18 months old. The growth has been slow but steady and has been picking up the pace for the last 6 months. We've learned a few lessons in that time, not limited to:
- Native iOS/Droid App is a must. Trying to make a mobile friendly website for all devices is such a pain.
- Ease of use has been our number one selling point.
- Potential customers seem happy to disregard you unless you offer everything they could ever want.
- A lot of people seem to take out trials and then not actually do anything beyond signing up.
- Mobile phone use seems to be about 90%. Tablets 7% and laptops/desktops the other 3%. Some users have never seen our website on a laptop/desktop
- Invest in social media marketing and keep posting as Facebooks algorithm for what to actually show is weird.
- Prepare to deal with a lot of time wasters and people too lazy to find the answer to their question.
We're at the point now where we can take about £2000 each per month after tax & running costs so I am happy at the moment with some passive side income as I have an actual day job as a Project Manager. Thankfully this business does not require much effort at all as our marketing and finances have been outsourced plus support is light. The difficult bit is going to be growing this product and the others we have in the pipeline so we can leave our day jobs + side money and transition fully into this. I'd like to think within the next two years we can do this, subject to the performance of the other products. I'm very happy that we decided to spend all that time working on this and working for yourself is so much more satisfying than working for someone else.
Execs it helps overlapping your schedule in the office, but they will pick up the phone or their PA will. Engineering complexity and the need for speed - you can beat a board or window in an office to draw on.
"Nothing interesting happens in the office" (NIHITO) as the now CEO of Pragmatic Marketing would say during our training - referring to the customer world..
My Mrs has just done her 'Trolley' exams - moving from being a secretary to tax, offered by the company for high performance. I hear unhappy people given the luck that people are promoted due to attrition where some are faster than others purely due to the rate of attrition. Nature of the beast I suspect - tax accountancy seems odd to me. The nearest parallel I have is the software consultancy market where the modern industry actively accepts external hiring and attrition is expected for promotion or salary. Even the banking industry technology side is very fluid compared to the promote-from-within low risk business side of the bank.
I would find that absolutely unacceptable. I believe fluidity (say every 3 years) is good for you - it gives you enough time to get up to speed, do the role and own the results of your decisions/actions yet provides a new pasture to prevent you from getting stuck in ways or too comfortable.