On Being a One-Man Operation
Amid a tendency in business for smaller operations to portray themselves as larger ones to appear more successful or be taken more seriously, I submit to the world a proudly defiant confession:
CoachAccountable is indeed a one-man operation.
I’m delighted by how often that surprises people when they learn this, from long time customers to first time visitors to the site.
This setup works remarkably well. Having marketing, customer support, UI design, copy writing, and actual building of the system all come from the same brain affords delightful efficiency. Just the other week when creating a tutorial video I found places wherein it would be more logical to teach and more pretty to present with a few modifications. So I just made those modifications to the software, and continued on with my screen captures (in a larger organization the marketer would usually have to propose those changes to the product manager, and if the marketer was lucky enough to have those changes accepted and prioritized, the product manager would have to schedule in those changes to with the development team, and then those changes would be made and released days if not weeks or months later).
But that I am just one person causes concern for some people, and understandably so. One coach who was at the time a prospective customer summed it up beautifully:
…It concerns me a little that you are a one man shop. Though obviously a very gifted, committed, and responsive one man (in fact I don’t like people like you who can make me – a mere mortal – feel like a sluff…haha) but there is inherent exposure for all of us there. How will you keep up with supporting the system as it grows? What happens if you (heaven forbid) were to get hit by the proverbial beer truck? For those of us who could be staking our coaching livelihoods on a system like this, it leaves one concerned about the exposure and need for a continuity plan.
Very fair questions indeed.
