Comments on: How To Save Money as an African Startup

By: jongos

jongos — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 09:33:43 +0000

8 hour work days are the standard for most businesses in this country and hundreds of others around the world. What's it like at your job? Furthermore, as a programmer you can work from anywhere, if you're disciplined enough to actually get work done, communicate with the rest of your team and if you've got access to the resources you need. So anyone who has those things wouldn't need to be in the office.

By: tiffany

tiffany — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 09:05:03 +0000

I want you in the office from 9 to 5). That doesn't sound like a good way to treat programmers and creatives…

By: tiffany

tiffany — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 09:03:38 +0000

. More often than not you will walk away with a lemon and/or shoddy service. It's just better to pay what is asked. Nobody gets hurt that way. I'm surprised this doesn't happen in your country. ..

By: Abid

Abid — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:25:31 +0000

Like #13 hard to implement but people get used to it and it works. I use it in my classes and

By: thadk

thadk — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 06:30:07 +0000

What is the cost-benefit of Generator vs. Inverter? We use a sizable generator here to deal with outages. I don't see the bills so I'm not really sure how the petrol cost compares with utility, but also maintenance cost of an inverter/battery solution. I would suspect a generator will last longer without replacement or maintenance but might result in some unclean voltage for the computers.

By: jongos

jongos — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 15:00:00 +0000

Figo, regarding #13 let me ask you a simple question: Can you run a business if you are unable to in touch with your staff for important tasks/meetings? If you have a client coming on Thursday who wants to meet your start programmer but you haven't heard from that programmer in three days what do you do. What's the penalty? Should there be one?

This is a situation that I've delt with, and that's why I recommended this as a solution. The fact is 'freedom' always comes with a caveat. In government 'freedom' comes with the agreement that you'll obey the law. You break the law, you go to jail. In this case, you can't explain absences, you get fired.

By: jongos

jongos — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 14:59:23 +0000

By: Figo Mago

Figo Mago — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 12:23:40 +0000

Great points. I like them all but tend to disagree with #10 and #13.

On #10 you rightly mention that this is the norm in most African countries. In South Africa I wouldn't recommend it for procuring services and technology. More often than not you will walk away with a lemon and/or shoddy service. It's just better to pay what is asked. Nobody gets hurt that way. I'm surprised this doesn't happen in your country.

On #13 It sounds like a contradiction to the other liberties you afford your staff (work from anywhere with a laptop, anytime, but I want you in the office from 9 to 5). That doesn't sound like a good way to treat programmers and creatives. It leaves a taste of micromanagement and you are not likely to get the best out of them that way – unless you were referring to other staff member types (e.g. receptionist).

All in all a great article. I'm glad to see there's some serious net action on the continent. I would like to see more of your product releases.

By: kenyantykoon

kenyantykoon — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 12:00:08 +0000

i have just read this post and it is really useful… particularly the part where people work under contracts. This keeps the employees on their toes so that they can get their contracts renewed. it also resduces bad relations as one technically doesnt have to fire people all the time

By: jasper Bakyayita

jasper Bakyayita — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:28:03 +0000

As a Ugandan,have found this article to be inspiring.Make the use of the available challenges and develop them into working strategies.Bottlenecks,barriers can be overcome with investors willing to understand the culture,working ethics and propel the small company to great heights