“At some time in the life cycle of every small business, its ability to succeed in spite of itself runs out.”
John Fenton

1. Staff regularly work long hours

Working long hours is often worn as a badge of honour in the new media industry – particularly, when staff have had to work throughout the night to meet a deadline. However, long hours take their toll on both people and profits. Someone working a double shift will get paid overtime and will want time off to recover – that can add up to a hefty bill.

Of course Murphy’s Law dictates that there will always be the occasional crisis. That is acceptable as long as it happens once or twice a year: if it happens once or twice a month, or even worse, once or twice a week, then there is something fundamentally wrong with the way your projects are managed.

2. Deadlines are missed and work is always 95% complete

The creative concept may be great, the design and overall structure may be outstanding, but if your work is ‘nearly finished’ rather than finished, then you are putting your company at serious risk.

You may well hope that the client will be so impressed with the excellence of what you have done that they won’t worry too much about that little bit that is not yet quite finished. Often, that may be the case: but one of these days, the client’s deadline will be real and you will have blown it.

Running projects like this:

• risks creating customer dissatisfaction
• means that more work has still to be done
• means that the next project you planned to start today will have to wait
• risks running into payment problems or even worse legal action

3. Projects are never as profitable as you first expected

Profit is the oxygen that keeps a business alive – without it your company will fail. If your projects regularly return less profit than you originally expected then you will always struggle.

Remember that the costs of project over-runs, correcting errors or doing things again has a dramatic effect on your profitability – such costs come directly off your bottom line.

4. Poor communication between team members

A new media project lives or dies on the quality of communication between team members. A good team has a clear sense of purpose, an openness and a willingness to share ideas, together with a deep sense of pride in what they do.

You have problems if members of your team:

• tend to work in isolation
• resent suggestions and get defensive about their work
• don’t know or don’t care about what is happening overall
• don’t flag up problems they see immediately
• just do what they are told to do and don’t contribute their own ideas

5. Team members are held back, waiting for others to finish

Delays have knock-on effects. If staff assigned to a project are held back because someone else has not finished their bit, then they are being unproductive. They either have to twiddle their thumbs or do a short bit of work on another project. This is inefficient and will inevitably have an effect on profitability.

If such delays happen on a regular basis, then key staff will become frustrated and dissatisfied.

6. Too busy to prepare for or attend meetings

Many people see meetings as a waste of time – something that interferes with the ‘real work’. But good, well-planned meetings help, not hinder the work process: they are an essential part of the task and will not function properly if key members are absent.

Likewise, meetings will not function if individuals have not prepared for them. Always read the minutes of the last meeting and make sure you have done everything you said you would do.

7. Poor or non-existent documentation

Many people view documentation as a burden – time consuming and cumbersome. In such companies, the only complete knowledge of a particular project lies on one individual’s head. If they are not available or on holiday or sick, then the project is very much at risk.

Furthermore, such individuals are also likely to have a mistaken belief in their own ability to communicate and inspire. They will assume that everybody understands exactly what they mean and what they want to happen – in reality other team members are likely to be puzzled or unsure what is expected of them.

8. Assets go missing

There are probably hundreds of assets in a new media project. They need to be handled and stored with great care – losing assets in an unforgivable sin.

Having to go back to the client and explain your loss does harm your credibility or professional image.

9. Mistakes need to be fixed more than once

Everybody makes mistakes and in a busy, complicated new media project, a certain number of mistakes are inevitable. Such mistakes must be identified and rectified as quickly as possible.

Fixing a mistake once should be enough – but if those bugs do not stay dead, you do have a problem.

10. Dissatisfaction and lack of pride

If your team or if individuals in the team are showing a lack of interest, you need to take action. You may well have a team member who is not pulling their weight, but make sure it is not your own lack of management that is causing the problem.

Remember dissatisfaction is a highly contagious disease, particularly in a small team – you need to nip it in the bud.

(First published by NMK, 2000)