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  • #83877
    Avatar photoMike
    Keymaster

    Do you make any assumptions about how many people work for a wargames business based on their about us page or similar?

    Quite often you will read things like “We at Super Cool Minis strive to make sure our products are the best we can make…. If there are any issues, please contact us” and so on.
    Also quite often these wargames businesses are sole traders and have no other employees and there is in fact no we or us.

    Do you expect more in terms of service from a business that has multiple employees?
    Does this even enter your mind, do you even care?

    🙂

    #83878
    Avatar photoNot Connard Sage
    Participant

    Put me down as a ‘not bovvered’ 🙂

     

    Obvious contrarian and passive aggressive old prat, who is taken far too seriously by some and not seriously enough by others.

    #83879
    Avatar photoNorm S
    Participant

    I would not have thought about it until you raised it.  I think I would prefer better accuracy, so something like ‘Angel Barracks strives to make the customer happy, so this week I am giving away free stuff to anyone who’s name begins with ‘N’.’

    ‘we’ might be best reserved for when there really is a team behind the product.

    #83880
    Avatar photoAngel Barracks
    Moderator

    I think I would prefer better accuracy, so something like ‘Angel Barracks strives to make the customer happy, so this week I am giving away free stuff to anyone who’s name begins with ‘N’.

    Does not sound that accurate to me…    😀

    #83882
    Avatar photoNot Connard Sage
    Participant

    I think I would prefer better accuracy, so something like ‘Angel Barracks strives to make the customer happy, so this week I am giving away free stuff to anyone who’s name begins with ‘N’.

    Does not sound that accurate to me… 😀

     

    I am in complete agreement with Mr Smith.

     

    Regards

    NOT Connard Sage

     

    🙂

    Obvious contrarian and passive aggressive old prat, who is taken far too seriously by some and not seriously enough by others.

    #83895
    Avatar photoJohn D Salt
    Participant

    I think I would prefer better accuracy, so something like ‘Angel Barracks strives to make the customer happy, so this week I am giving away free stuff to anyone who’s name begins with ‘N’.

    Does not sound that accurate to me… 😀

    I am in complete agreement with Mr Smith.

    Regards

    NOT Connard Sage

    🙂

    It’s amazing what some people will sink to in their attempts to scrounge free stuff.

    All the best,

    John D NaCl

    #83898
    Avatar photowillz
    Participant

    Mike to me you are Royalty and if you have two personalities and like to call yourself we, more power to your elbow.

    #83903
    Avatar photoDarkest Star Games
    Participant

    “Yes, I like free stuff!”

    It is funny, but I HAVE heard people say “oh, i won’t buy form that site because it’s just one guy and not a real company” as if being a one-man-show was something bad.  I’d have to think that those sort of people must have a very narrow interest as well as a very narrow retail presence.
    For DSG I do use “we”, even though I an the sole proprietor.  It is both to seem “larger”, but also because it does take more than just little ol’ me to get the product out.  I sometimes hire people to sculpt things I either do not have the skill to do or do not have time to get to it.  Then there’s also the mold makers and resin castor and 3d printer guy.  I can spin metal all day but have yet to master making and cutting molds.  These people may not be stake holders in the company, nor my direct employees, but they are integral to my operations.  Should they count towards the “we”?  I dunno.  What says the crowd?

    "I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

    #83906
    Avatar photoIvan Sorensen
    Participant

    Hm, I never thought about it.

    I tend to assume most companies are in that “1-2 full time, a couple part-time helpers” range, unless they are very clearly a 1 person operation.

    I always sort of assumed companies just used “we” when talking about themselves in English.

    #83917
    Avatar photoNorm S
    Participant

    I think I would prefer better accuracy, so something like ‘Angel Barracks strives to make the customer happy, so this week I am giving away free stuff to anyone who’s name begins with ‘N’.

    Does not sound that accurate to me… 😀

    I am in complete agreement with Mr Smith. Regards NOT Connard Sage 🙂

    It’s amazing what some people will sink to in their attempts to scrounge free stuff. All the best, John D NaCl

    John, I hope that is not a serious comment! the lack of a smiley that the other posts have managed, left me wondering.

    #83920
    Avatar photoNot Connard Sage
    Participant

    I think I would prefer better accuracy, so something like ‘Angel Barracks strives to make the customer happy, so this week I am giving away free stuff to anyone who’s name begins with ‘N’.

    Does not sound that accurate to me… 😀

    I am in complete agreement with Mr Smith. Regards NOT Connard Sage 🙂

    It’s amazing what some people will sink to in their attempts to scrounge free stuff. All the best, John D NaCl

    John, I hope that is not a serious comment! the lack of a smiley that the other posts have managed, left me wondering.

    You may assume he was kidding. How’s your schoolboy chemistry?

     

    Obvious contrarian and passive aggressive old prat, who is taken far too seriously by some and not seriously enough by others.

    #83937
    Avatar photoAltius
    Participant

    I like to imagine that every miniatures-related business I deal with has a whole crew of happy, enthusiastic employees who like to meet together for beers every Friday night, but experience reminds me that it’s probably just a guy working out of his garage.

    No matter, really. I’m happy to support small businesses. I can imagine how difficult it must be to compete with the GWs of the world. As long as he or she can provide the service they advertise in a timely and reasonably cheerful way, I couldn’t care less about their use of the royal ‘we’.

    Where there is fire, we will carry gasoline

    #83940
    Avatar photoRadar
    Participant

    I was always under the impression that one man band companies used ‘we’ as a way of giving the impression that they weren’t Billy No-mates when they went out on their work’s Christmas do.

    #83953
    Avatar photoTony Hughes
    Participant

    We is normal usage when referring to any commercial operation, no matter what its size. It may have fallen out of use a bit in some parts of the English speaking world but it doesn’t stop it being correct.

    I use ‘We’ in referring to my business activity and ‘I’ for personal, just ‘standard’ referencing as far as I’m concerned, no intent to ‘big’ my operations up or mislead anyone.

    Amazing how people are happy to accept some of the new, almost daily, changes to the language (many of which are ungrammatical) but criticise traditional usage as being ‘unclear’.

    Tony of TTT

     

    #83954
    Avatar photoPhil Dutré
    Participant

    It is common practice in many editorial texts or scientific literature.

    #83957
    Avatar photoAngel Barracks
    Moderator

    I try to make it clear that my businesses are just me.
    If e-mail replies are a bit slower, it is because it is just me having to do it all and fit in everything around everything else.
    I don’t have a person that casts which then gives me time to answer e-mails, I don’t have a person doing the e-mails which would give me time to sculpt.
    I don’t have anyone doing anything for me, I have no staff.

    Mega Games LLC ‘we’ is very different to Bobs Models ‘we’ in real terms.
    Mega Games LLC having 4 people full time and Bobs Models having 1 person part time after his 9-5 job.

    I have found that making it clear it is just me means people are willing to accept a bit less and or make allowances in terms of everything a business is expected to do.
    A just me company will understandably stop if the me is ill and unable to work, a we company should be able to carry on operating to some degree if one of the we is ill.

    I feel managing expectations is important.

    YMMV

    #83961
    Avatar photovexillia
    Participant

    I’m confused and sometimes use both. If it’s a company announcement I use the more formal sounding “we”. If I’ve just updated a web page I use “I”. Given that I often have help from my lady wife I suppose it should be “we” all the time.

    In general I agree with Tony Hughes: the editorial “we” for business and “I” for personal.

    #83964
    Avatar photoAngel Barracks
    Moderator

    Thinking more on this…

    I think there is an element of pride involved in my using the singular.

    I saw recently whilst doing my traffic origin searching thing, that a few people had said things like, ‘great service from the team at TWW’ and ‘the guys at Angel Barracks’.
    This praise is nice and very much appreciated, but in my own weird head seemed lessened by attributing the deeds to a group of people.
    It was not a group of people that delivered the product that earned the praise, it was just me, on my own.

    Now yes this is quite possibly odd to see it like that, but maybe it rings true in more regular work place settings where a person creates something and the whole teams gets the praise?

    I am quite proud of TWW, AB and CA.
    They are not big by any stretch and even in the gaming world they are small (pun intended).
    I doubt many people outside of 6mm sci-fi have heard of Angel Barracks and I am willing to wager that most of those into 6mm sci-fi have not heard of it either.
    Same for CA and TWW.
    But despite that I am still proud to be associated on a personal level with the 3 brands (if you can call them that) and it feels nicer to be recognised as the person behind them, rather than people think it is a team that built them up.

    Not sure if that makes any sense?

    #83965
    Avatar photoAltius
    Participant

    Makes sense to me.

    It’s a different set of rules in other business environments, apparently. Once, early in my career, I was meeting with a bunch of high-level honchos to discuss a software system I was developing. I might have been a little nervous and I reverted to the royal we, for some reason. One of the VPs stopped me mid-sentence and asked me if I had a mouse in my pocket. Since that moment, I’ve been more conscious about using it.

    Where there is fire, we will carry gasoline

    #83970
    Avatar photoGuy Farrish
    Participant

    My sympathies with your experience Altius. That’s just a **** trying to make someone feel small for a corporate infighting win. Pathetic. They go on the list.

    As for what a sole trader says when talking about their business – entirely up to them, one of the benefits of being your own boss, you can do what you like within reason. For example, as I type I am wearing one of these.

    PINK CARNATION

    #84009
    Avatar photohammurabi70
    Participant

    If a company then someone is representing the shareholders whereas a sole trader is an individual.  Thus the ‘we’ is normally used with a company. The opaqueness is where there is only one shareholder, a modern legal development.

    www.olivercromwell.org; www.battlefieldstrust.com
    6mm wargames group: [email protected]; 2mm wargames group: [email protected]

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