SMALL BUSINESS : LEARNING CURVE: Business Lessons From Southern California Entrepreneurs : Firm Fosters Camaraderie Inside and Out

Dustin Snell, 23, began programming computers at age 7 and got a job in technical support at a software company when he was 17. For the last four years, he has owned his own company, selling custom PC automation software, called AutoMate, mostly to information technology professionals and network administrators. Snell says that keeping in personal contact with his customers and his employees, and maintaining a casual office atmosphere that blurs the line between work and home, have been critical to the success of his firm. Snell was interviewed by freelance writer Karen E. Klein.

We became No. 1 in our software category by following the same philosophy for four years: We listen to the ideas that our customers come up with.

It’s important to develop a channel to your customers, which we’ve done by soliciting feedback on our Web site and on the software itself. We get about 50 e-mail messages every day, and we guarantee a reply within 24 hours. When you reply in a timely manner to your customers, that develops a very important bond.

On our Web site, we have a tech support forum called the AutoMate User Resource Center that includes user tips, articles and a discussion forum where our software users can post messages. That forum helps us keep the channel open to our customers, fosters community and loyalty and helps us out when our users answer questions or post suggestions about the product.

We do regular Q&A; interviews on the site with our lead software developer, which we’ve found our customers really enjoy. We call the feature “Interview With the AutoMaker,” and we use his picture, literally putting a face on our development department, which is something that other software companies typically keep hidden.

I feel that software must be shaped around the end users. There’s no substitute for our developers’ keeping in touch with the people who will eventually use the product every day. As a way to foster that communication, I have our developers answer telephones and e-mail inquiries in the technical support department one week each quarter. I take tech support calls, and I personally make sales calls occasionally too. Doing that keeps me on the right track, and I enjoy it. I think it motivates my employees to see that I’m in touch with the day-to-day aspect of the company. They respect my decisions more because of that.

I encourage open communication between myself and my employees. Every month, we take an extended two-hour lunch for someone’s birthday. We talk, we have fun, we sit down on the floor in a circle and rap out; everybody gets a chance to talk about what’s going on in their department.

The atmosphere here is very casual. You can have fun here. People are allowed to walk around barefoot. We have a ball we kick around the office. We pay everybody well and fairly, on salary, which eliminates the punching in and out of the time clock. Anyone who’s not responsible for picking up phones has a lot of flexibility with their hours. There’s no reason that software developers have to work 9 to 5. I know they all put in at least eight hours a day, and that’s what’s important.

During development rushes, we have a sleeping bag in the office for emergencies. As a business owner, I put in long hours like my employees do. They have a lot of loyalty. If they’re motivated to stay until midnight, I’d better be ready to help them 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

If the employees work long, long hours on a project and they need a break, I reward them with paid vacation time, even if they’ve used up their vacation time for the year. I can do that because we have a small group of employees that’s pretty close-knit. I know they don’t take advantage of it, because I see how hard they work.

If your business can provide a lesson to other entrepreneurs, contact Karen E. Klein at the Los Angeles Times, 1333 S. Mayflower Ave., Suite 100, Monrovia, CA 91016 or at [email protected]. Include your name, address and telephone number.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

At a Glance

* Company: Unisyn Software

* Owner: Dustin M. Snell

* Nature of business: Software developer and distributor

* Location: 3440 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 910, Los Angeles 90010

* Web site: https://www.unisyn.com

* E-mail address: [email protected]

* Founded: 1995

* Employees: 10

* Annual revenue: $500,000