The time is flying by very very fast.. I remember, last year on my birthday, I had shown preview design of the new theme and mentioned about, getting the new theme up in couple of months but it’s been a year and I have never been able to get the theme up.. the HTML files are right there in my mailbox but again, no time to make WordPress theme.. but I am not complaining.. I am happy with the way things are shaping up..

So, what’s happening these days?

Well, many things.. I got new office.. so I can fit in everyone Now we are 8 and will be around 13 odd guys.. (Oh yea, I am looking for 3-4 PHP Programmers, so do let me know if you know any)

Currently, the renovation work is going on in the new office.. I was hoping that it will be done somewhere in this week but it’s taking forever.. so I have lost the hope of seeing it done in this month.. But I am pretty much excited to show the office to my family aka Web1 Team..

I just hope things go as planned..

On the work front, the work is going on pretty smoothly.. I finally on track of getting “organized”.. the process of getting organized makes few things go haywire in the start but things becomes stable eventually.. so, if you do not want to get in a messy situation, starting making a workflow process and get yourself organized before anything goes haywire..

On the personal front… well.. I have been planning for a holiday since long but I guess, it’s not going to come anytime soon.. for now, life is all about the work and work..

Oh yea, my wife Megha will be travelling to London anytime next week… so I am gonna miss her for quite sometime, as she is gonna stay there for 2 whole months.. and the worst part in this whole process is, her visa application is still not approved, we are waiting for her visa to arrive.. but again for some crazy unknown reasons it’s still under process…  So, fingers crossed and hoping for the best.. 

Oh I guess that’s it…. I don’t think anything else is left to say.. I just hope few things shape up as I have expected.. (generally they don’t haha)

Cheers,
Deep

• There was were bunch of kids trying to start a website which will allow the users to setup websites in just few clicks. The concept was pretty good but their idea was broken, they decided to implement something social, where as a user will make template and share it with other users, so everyone can use it. I am not sure how practical it will be as the business model. Apart from this, they were not even ready for the alpha stage and they were having demo at the demo pit. In short, they were not “ready” yet..  They did not have clear picture of what they are going to do in the future. (And if they had, they could not convey it to me…)
• There was another team with the idea of making something on the basis of Getsatisfaction.com, again, no clear business plan, the voting manipulation wasn’t taken care of. The making money part wasn’t so promising at all.
• Another one was based on GetAFreelancer.com, again no proper business plan. There were no answers when I asked, there are plenty of other biggies providing same kind of services, why would people come to your site? Frankly, speaking, this guy was pretty much new to this and needed some boost, I gave him few ideas and if he works on those ideas, the things should work out for him. 
• There were many others, from something like Google docs / MS live document sharing clone, to some educational portal with great idea in mind but no proper planning etc..

I am not going to list them one by one but if you notice, everyone had some kind of base idea ready, be it based on any international site or not, but none of them had proper process lined up. No business model. Infact many of these guys never thought of any business model. They were like, we will see when things work out..

From what I understand, their thinking might be like.. we will make a good product and sell it off to any company and earn some good bucks.. (Well, I might be wrong too) But I don’t think this is what business all about… You need absolutely planning and clear picture keeping the worst conditions in mind. You should have a backup plan ready.

And most importantly, the high focus should be on money, profit.. you are spending lot of time over the project.. and for what? Social service? Just to make your name? Don’t you want your daily bread and butter? Think about money.. make a proper business plan and then just into so called startup bandwagon. If you don’t have any plans ready, I don’t think you have any right to start any business..

I know I know.. there will be people with examples like Twitter, Facebook etc.. but they all have a proper business plan, it is just that it’s been kept under the wraps and they are waiting for the right time…

I think people should not simply get into the hype of “startup” and all.. they need to sit, get back to the basic and make a plan, think about the future and think about the worst conditions.

That’s it.

Oh Yea, I am not any so called “startup guru” or anything. I am just a businessman. I understand money, profits, loss along with the great ideas. That’s it. So these are the things which always run in my mind and thought of sharing with everyone, so atleast some of the guys planning to do something new can get tips from this topic.

I have been planning it for quite few times, even got the designs and integration done but was not satisfied with the design, so I kept on delaying it.. but finally today, I decided to launch it with a temporary theme.. (which is one of those paid themes)

The blog is mainly going to be company specific, my views on certain things like business, jobs, careers, programming, designing and lot more..

Apart from this blog, I am hoping to become bit more active on this personal blog too.. many things in the pipeline.. hoping for the best

Okay.. so I am gonna cut the crap and give you the URL.. http://blog.web1.in

So, visit it if you like to follow what’s happening with my company..

Cheers,
Deep

The days are passing by at the speed of the light.. memories of last year are still fresh and another one just popped up… feels good.. feels happy but to be frank, I am not so fresh and happy this time.. may be the slogging I did for past couple of months have taken toll on me.. or may be I am not happy with certain things..

But on the other hand.. I am really happy for my company, I am really loving the way it’s shaping up.. not growing at the rocket speed but on slow and steady pace it is getting ready to run on its own feet..

The company size has grown to 6 team members (4 last year).. the number is going to increase pretty rapidly from now on.. (already looking for 7th member).. Megha is going to join me full time in few days.. Getting good amount of work… improving on the quality day by day.. but still I am waiting for the day when we are 100% in terms of quality… really eagerly waiting for the day.. and I am pretty much sure that, I should be able to achieve that in coming couple of months..

In the past year.. there were few hiccups.. mostly from the employment side.. had good amount of rough days… (and still having) but hopefully things will be smooth within a week… and I will get rid of all these sleepless nights.. and will get my weekends back too…

But again.. I am not complaining.. it’s a whole package.. and we need to accept it with a smiling face.. if there are good times.. there will be bad times too.. there is no fun without the bad times..

Want to write more and more but I guess… I will end up making this a sad post rather than a happy happy post.. haha

So, let’s talk about good things… very good things.. haha the gifts…

Till now… got really cool gifts.. wife and sister gifted me.. a nice looking shirt.. a friend gifted me a nice shirt with some super yummy chocolates.. (and my fav. chocolate orange flavored Lindt)

AND… THERE IS A SUPER COOL AND EXCITING GIFT FROM ME TOO.. haha

I was going to give it myself today but due to work load.. I could not give it…

So what is it? haha

A super sexy blog design…

So how does it look? Well… will have to wait for few days.. but here is the sneak peak..

This one is just a rough header with watermark on the images and all.. the whole layout is currently being converted to CSS/xHTML.. there are really some cool things on the roadmap…

So, what do you think? How does it look?

I guess.. that’s it for now…

Ending it with a happy note… just need best wishes of everyone..

Thanks

I think I had discussed about this earlier too but the same topic comes in my mind always and my mind always wants to speak out about it all the time..  and I am sure it’s not just me.. many employers like me must be facing same issues..

These days I have been looking around for a senior level designer and PHP programmer. 

The earlier designer guy left the company due to some personal reason..  I do not have any issues if someone leaves the company, everyone wants to grow in some or other way and I totally respect that but I really hate when someone behaves unprofessionally. I get the notice from the guy.. 20 days’ grace period starts.. so obviously as an employer I will expect the person to finish all the pending work and come regularly so that we don’t miss out the things..

But that thing never happens.. the person comes at 11.30 – 12.00 in the morning.. leaves office at 7 in the evening.. spends more time in personal matters and my work remains the 2nd priority. The guy also manages to bunk couple of days..

I mean.. what the fuck is this? Is it professional enough to do like this? No but people still do..

Let’s leave that example apart.. now here is the better example…

You call up hundreds of people, out of that around 10% turn up for the interview and around 10% gets selected.. i.e. only handful of guys… so, we finalize on the one guy.. the guy feels insecure seeing around 5-6 people working in the office.. so we decide to sign a contract just for the sake of it.. Okay, we sign some funny contract.. the guy is supposed to join in next 20 days.. you call the guy somewhere on 15th day.. he never picks up…. you call up again.. he never picks up.. and you start following the same routine thinking positive.. but the guy never picks up.. so, you call him up from a different number.. someone picks up and tell you that he is sick so won’t be able to talk..

Okay, so you get some kind of smile on your face.. thinking, he is REALLY not keeping well…. you call him up after 2 day.. again.. no one picks up… you call from another new number.. the guy finally picks up and assures that he will call back in 5 minutes..

But those 5 minutes never end.. and still going on.. and one fine day.. you get SMS from the guy saying, he won’t be able to join my company coz he got job somewhere else..

Now this is what I call A FUCKED UP SITUATION..

We wait for the guy for almost a month, stop interviewing the new guys and this is what you get? This kind of unprofessionalism.

I have seen many guys joining the companies and then leaving the new company within 2-3 days.. why? coz they get a better offer..  Many guys start going for the interviews within 2-3 months after joining the new company.. again, the same reason..MONEY…

I don’t understand why these kind of guys don’t have any professionalism? They have blooded signed the contract, given a word to someone and then too they switch company…

Is money so important? Or we have lost our ethics?

I am not saying this just because I have faced this kind of issue..but this issue is a general issue, happening with everyone..

There is bloody NO unemployment.. there are enough employees but there are only handful of good ones..

There should be some kind of global black list to prevent this kind of things and maintain ethics and professionalism.

Was sitting with the accountant today.. was really happy to see around 50%+ growth in Web1 compared to last year..I am expecting this to reach atleast 75% this year.. hiring new guys.. now I have 6 people working with me.. and 8 including  Megha and me..

Just love it.. just love it.. thanks to all the clients, friends and family for standing by me. Specially few people including my wife Megha for giving me strength all the time..

Life is fun..enjoying every bit of it

I currently hold 2 reseller accounts with them (1 for Linux and 1 for Windows) and the servers and support have been quite impressive.

I know there have been some downtimes and some mail related issues lately but that’s part of the package as it’s not possible to provide 100% uptime.

What I liked most about RZ, is their support.. very quick and very friendly.. (Trust me.. very friendly).. There have been many instances where their friendly support has helped me to tackle the issues quickly. Be it with overusage of the resources or with the migration of any site.

Yesterday, I was moving a site on RZ server, I had to move gunzip file of around 1GB from other server to RZ server.. my download  (wget) process was getting killed automatically due to server restrictions, I mailed support to have a check and download the file for me, if possible.. got reply promptly from them and within couple of hours, my file was moved to RZ server…

Today, the same site was causing issues on the server, so they had to disable the site. Now, I wanted to move the site to high-end server (some other hosting company). Again, I faced the same problem of my process getting killed automatically, Dylan from support came to the rescue again. (Like always, Andrew from Abuse department helped me to figure out the issues.) Currently he is compressing the 1 GIG data, so that I can put it on the new server.

The purpose of mentioning these  2 issues is to mention that, no matter what the situation is, if you are migrating the site to their server or moving to other server provider, they will try their best to help you out and that is what I call SUPPORT. I am pretty impressed with them and I am sure they will never let me down.

If you are looking for a reseller account, I would strongly recommend Resellerzoom.

Tried and tested (many times.. haha).

Don’t worry, be happy.

Had hired a fresher couple of months back and tried to teach him the stuff.. damn, I knew very basic PHP but still I was able to do the stuff and the other guy, he could not even code the stuff without my help. And the results? Whole bloody mess…. just finished recoding one of his piece of code..

What has happened to today’s people.. everyone wants to work with MNCs, sit on the desk and do nothing. Why the hell people don’t think about growth?

Damn, this frustration.. damn.. this is the best place to let it come out..

Damn..

I don’t know but Diwali always give me some kind of strength to work more and more… and I simply love it..

So without wasting much of time.. Wishing everyone a very Happy Diwali.. enjoy the festive season, be with your family, friends, girlfriend.. give them gifts, sweets and have fun..

Here is the Diwali card that we designed today for Web1.