You don't really have to "convert"
but from the beginning
just don't let the rate of growth
get out of hand. So, if you can't
grow fast enough, say, can't recruit
and train new employees fast enough,
get more office space, etc., that is,
don't want the headaches of 40 hour days
from really fast growth, then have
essentially a 'shortage' of what you
are supplying in which case you take
the usual approach of raising your
'prices'. So, at a Web site, ask users
to 'register' and limit the number
of new users per month. Or if you
are selling something, then just raise
your prices. Or if what you are selling
is ads on Web pages, then try to go for
better user 'demographics' and, thus,
get higher 'click through rates' and, thus,
higher 'cost per 1000 ads displayed'
(CPM), etc.

If you have some nice traffic, then
hopefully you are cash flow positive
or have enough cash to make do while
you hire slowly and carefully and
train your new staff, improve your product
or service, handle all the routine stuff
such as business checking account,
bookkeeper, accountant, tax record
keeping, trademarks, domain name
registration, business insurance,
legal issues in HR, legal issues
of using a residence as a business
location, get a car for business use,
etc. Then with all that routine
stuff behind you, a good staff
in place, and some cash in the
bank so that you won't be late
on your credit card payments,
etc., then let the growth rate
increase, prudently.

I contacted a lot of VCs and slowly
learned what they wanted if only
from what they were silent about
that they didn't like. About the
best feedback I got was from Menlo
Ventures that said that to write a check they
wanted to see, for a Web site business,
100,000 "uniques" per month. So, take
that number, some reasonable usage
scenario of a Web site, and a reasonable
CPM and do the arithmetic on revenue
per month. Will likely find that the
revenue is plenty for 1-2 people and
computers, bandwidth, supporting
a small family, etc. That is,
before they will write a check,
you must already have a nice
business, likely already better for
you and your family
than 95% of employee slots.
And for such a business, you
might need only one or a few
servers at about $1500 each, where
a guy mowing grass needs a riding
mower at about 10 times that,
plus a trailer and a truck, many
times the capital equipment you need.
Indeed, the grass mowing guy likely
gets bank loans, and maybe you could
do the same if you maintain good
relations with a local banker.

So, you are looking much better than
a grass mowing guy; e.g., to grow,
he needs more bodies, but for you to
grow you just need to handle the
paper pushing, which is a lot less
than twice the work for you for
twice the revenue,
etc. and otherwise
grow your server farm that works
and makes money 24 x 7. Do the
arithmetic: A dozen servers kept
busy sending Web pages with ads
puts you in the 1% in a big hurry.

If your Web site traffic is high
enough and growing nicely,
then maybe a VC will write
you a Series A check for $3 million
to $30 million expecting you to
rush out, rent offices, furnish them,
hire lots of people, use 'real'
servers in racks instead of servers
in mid-tower cases you plug together
from parts, have a Diesel generator
for backup power, etc.

But, still, if you keep down the
growth rate, then you can keep
down the headaches per week and
the number of weekends at the office.

A well managed business doesn't have
to be a total rat race, at least not
for the CEO: A secret is to divide
the work into well defined pieces
(as founder, you are supposed to
know what such pieces are),
for each piece, hire a head guy,
expect each such head guy to
handle his piece, check up on him
once a week, that is, get his
5 minute report and ask him
if he needs help from you and
where, and otherwise let him
do the work of his piece. If he
is getting his work done and
not causing any headaches for
you, then enjoy counting the
money in the bank.

The main business challenge is just getting
in the customers/users and their
revenue; the main technical challenge
is getting the software written;
one of the keys is just
having a good business idea that
you have executed well enough.
Essentially all the rest
is routine until time to sell out,
if you wish, and even there can get
a lot of expert advice.

This stuff about 'information technology'
is a super nice area of business, i.e.,
'clean, indoor work, no heavy lifting'.
Think instead about a guy killing
5000 hogs a day, chilling down the
parts want to keep, getting rid of the
rest in a way that doesn't have the
state EPA on your back, the next day
cutting the hogs, putting the pieces
into boxes, loading the boxes onto
refrigerated 18 wheel trucks,
and driving the trucks a few hundred
miles for sale. Then Excedrin
Headache #948,224,395: It's winter
and one of your 18 wheel trucks
loaded with 40,000 pounds of fresh
pork slides on ice on a
highway at a toll booth,
takes out the toll booth,
injures the toll taker,
wrecks the truck, and spreads
all 40,000 pounds of fresh pork
on the highway. Don't expect
an MBA program or a VC to help
you clean up such a mess!
But, not likely
to happen with just a Web site!
Instead you get to worry about
SQL injection, easy enough
to avoid just by checking out
user input before letting
SQL see it or arranging, as is
routine, that SQL sees the
user input only as data and not
as a T-SQL command! Likely shouldn't
ask the IT guys at Target just
how to do this!