Years ago I started a small site about Karate. It was called Dojo.ro (from that I created my brand: Dojo Design) and was just a small creation of a woman with too much time on her hand. After 6 years Dojo.ro has a lot of brothers and sisters (new sites in the network) and 1 year ago Dojo Design became the name of a small web design firm. MINE.

I recall years ago a thread in one of the big webmaster forums I like to be a part of, when someone made fun of another member implying how pathetic a small apartment business is. If I remember it well it was something like “oh, so you are so tough, working from your momma’s basement”.

What’s wrong with having a small firm?

I know most people would like having a huge building (maybe something like the Empire State Building, since we don’t have the Twin Towers anymore), with hundreds of floors and at least 20 thousand employees (just as many as Yahoo seems to have fired lately). We’d be running an empire and feel good about ourselves.

Is this a VIABLE option for most of us when we start up? It is, you can get a huge loan and pay it for the rest of your life and have your grandkids pay monthly rates till the end of their lives too (that if you’d find any bank stupid enough to give you so much money).

That pathetic loser from his mother’s basement is me, is you and other people who started low and grew step by step. In out business a fancy office is something nice, but NOT NEEDED since most of our work is done on a computer connected to a server. Our clients can discuss with us at a nice meeting, a good laptop gives us enough mobility and for the clients who are abroad (since most of us have such clients), a paypal account and the email account are enough.

Would I like a huge office? Yeah, I would. But I would have to pay for it a lot and my small business is not yet ready to sustain this. Or maybe I’d like to pay for a new car (my readers know I have a thing for the new Opel Corsa) monthly and be able to have a small firm and a cool car to serve me from now on.

I think a business is pathetic (nasty word, I know, but I use it too sometimes) when the owner is trying to offer an image that costs him more than it should. I do like to pay for a very good perfume (for a woman this is always a good thing) and for a nice blouse or quality jacket that would make me look CLEAN and PROFESSIONAL. Not too business like since no one expects a web designer to wear a suit, but some very nice clothes, being clean and smelling awesome do the trick. Trust me, I know what I am doing

I also have a nice pen (Parker) and a good looking agenda (was a tad costly). With these few tricks (that cost way less than a huge office), I can look nice and professional and play my card well with my client. How many of these people calling a small firm pathetic are able to look good in front of their clients? How many are smart enough to convince a client that he’s the best option? How many are well prepared in this business as to be able to offer viable solutions to their clients from the first minute, present the project as they see it and offer excellent answers from the first meeting? I can and many other pathetic losers who have a small apartment firm can do this.

I already created an article: Learn to be on a profit from the first day! in which I presented some of my ideas to have a small firm with no debts and even profit from day 1. I could have a big office as we speak and few employees too, but in this year I chose to spend money for myself: to establish my brand, create more sites in my network (that bring me more money too) be able to get a new car, maybe buy myself a new laptop, saving money and not worrying about tomorrow.

The many clients I already had (so many I haven’t been able to update my portfolio for 10 months already) didn’t care about my office because they never needed to see it. The most important thing for them was for me to be able to deliver some good designs, SEO services for their projects and a nice partnership. They didn’t care about a huge office since this would also reflect on my prices. I can still have small prices (even if I doubled them in 12 months, due to the huge number of clients for such a small business) and still have a huge profit rate. My expenses are maybe 5% of the money I earn, I have no rents to pay, I have no utilities or debt.

Maybe for some people my business and other similar ones are pathetic. We are just that loser who’s working from his bedroom, but the good thing is that we don’t have debt and all the money we earn can be used to grow the business, promote maybe, buy something new, change the old PC with a new one and be able to sleep nicely since we know we have no problems with anyone. We can even take 1 week off if we felt like this and not worry that we won’t be able to pay the rent or the employees.

What should we chose? Get a big loan from the bank to start the business “with a bang” (office, employess, cars, new PC) since a brand new firm doesn’t have this money? Or have some savings we just spend on this and then have to worry for tomorrow? Or maybe keep the money in an account (for darker days or maybe future expenses) and just start nice and slow? Build up some profit, save it, reinvest and grow the business in our own way. It’s clear to me that one day I’ll need an office since I’ll need people to work for me. It’s clear to me this day will come sooner or later, but I want to be able to afford this and not have my development suffer from such an unexpected expense. Getting that office should be a normal result for a firm that’s developing so nicely, that has got a lot of clients and a lot of work to be done. It should be this and not just an expense I don’t really need, but it would make me look “cool” for God knows what guy on the internet.

If small firms are pathetic, then I am so glad I’ve got one.