Happy to have friends...

...friends that have more life and business experience than I do. I've had a pretty rough week and it looked like the bottom was about to fall out of a project. I spoke with a few of my friends in various businesses that have far more experience than I do. I've listened to them all and realize I have some tough decisions to make. Some of them expressed far more extreme measures than others, but I think I can find the middle ground and make some decisions of my own based on my involvement in the whole thing.

I know I appreciate being able to talk to my friends in these matters, because without having been able to do that would have most certainly led to the end of a number of years worth of work, time and effort invested....and possibly a couple of friendships. It's not worth all of that to be thrown away, especially not over some frustration.

For now, catastrophic failure has been avoided...but the sit-down meeting has not happened yet. The drama has yet to unfold and we are left waiting to see what will come of all of it.

Stay tuned....this blog may turn into a soap opera...

2nd time around

This working from home jazz is habit-forming. I spent the day working from home again...and thoroughly enjoyed it. It may be a rough day for me tomorrow going back into the office. I'll probably end up spending the day debating on moving my office to my house, instead of working.

The best part of working from home is being so close to Jennifer. We were able to get some important work done since we were sitting right next to one another. It would have been difficult to do all of this work via phone or IM. So, it's leading me to believe that we could get more work done if we were in the same office all the time. We're a team, so why should we separate the team? The downtown office is nice and all, but it makes more business sense to work more closely together.

Besides, it's time to take a serious look at where this company is going and making some changes to spur further growth.

Woo Hoo! Working from home

Working from home is excellent. For some reason, I'm seriously considering moving all of my stuff back to my house to work from there. It's rather nice to get up and work a little, take a break and work some more. I definitely get an earlier start than when I go into the office. I'll probably end up working later too. Oh well, can't beat the lunches...and spending all day with Jennifer!

Thanks, LD

Thanks for not showing up to work on a project that is your responsibility too.

Thanks for putting yourself first instead of making sacrifices like the rest of the team. Guess you'll be the one surprised when it comes time to reap the benefits of all the hard work. You'll put your hand out and you won't get anything...well, maybe a dirty snot rag or something more vile.

I appreciate your lack of dedication. I especially like how you always look for the easiest way to getting out of doing any real work.

This one's for you; Mr. I think my ideas are all I need to contribute, call me when it's done so I can critique it absentee partner guy.

You get two thumbs up and a great big, "NEAT!"

The hard to please

Have you ever just had a client that seemed like they were impossible to please. This was my week to deal with that client. It seemed like no matter what was done, it wasn't good enough. On top of that, they kept changing the scope of the project and expected not to pay any more. Guess that's part of business, but it sure does stink. Seems like we got them all straightened out and things seem to be progressing towards completion now. Man, what a week!

I've got some serious catching up to do on all my other projects now. Guess it could be worse. I could be sitting here talking about how I have no work to do and may have to try to get a job at Home Depot or Lowe's...only to not ever get a phone call from either of the 2 places. I've been down that road too, so I'll count myself blessed to be facing the trials that I've been dealing with.

Dinner was great

Jennifer & I had a wonderful dinner out last night.

Being the ever-so-job-minded man that I am, she ended up making dinner reservations for us. Put another mark in the "things he didn't plan and should have" column. I've gotta formulate a plan to redeem myself.

Dinner was excellent. We finally had a chance to relax and talk, plus enjoy the meal.

I've been thinking about my lack of attention to her lately. It's definitely not a lack of love for her...I lover her tremendously...I like her even more. I think that men genetically have this career clock, much like women have their biological clock. My focus has been on building my own business and trying to create a means to secure our future and allow us the opportunity to have kids. I know I'm not the only one. Other guy friends have told me they are going through the same thing. There isn't anything lacking in any of our lives, but we've all become pre-occupied with the need to secure our futures. You would think we were salmon or something...just doing what our genes are programmed to do. Who knows, maybe I'll snap out of it and give my wife the love and attention she deserves. Or, maybe I'll just snap....

Paparazzi

We had a photographer come in and show us how to use the new camera (Nikon D-70).

Talk about confusing. Way too complex for me. F this and F that, ISO, grey balance....sheesh. That's why there are professional photographers.

I guess it's another one of those things that I need to force myself to learn and will probably end up enjoying. Besides, if I can ever figure out what I'm doing I'll be able to charge my clients for photography and not have to pay the photographer any longer. That, or I'll just get really good at taking family photos and pictures of my dogs.

We're in a downtown area with plenty of people milling around. They can be my test subjects.

For now, the disposable cameras are looking really appealing. Point. Click. Nice.

Blogging can get you fired

I had better keep an eye out for the boss then. Wait, I am the boss...or so I'd like to think. If I catch myself online blogging too much I may have to fire myself. If I'm smart, I'll find a way to make the whole blogging thing work to my advantage. Hmmmmm....

Hmmmm.....

I think the gears are rusted in place and the hamster has moved on because nothing is coming to mind.

I even tried to put a link to something amusing...but couldn't find anything worthwhile.

Is it Friday yet?

Making sure it works...

Now I'm just spamming my own site...

I need to make sure this whole site feed thingy is working, so pardon me.

Figured it out....

...had the wrong path set to my ftp...it was loading the atom.xml into a different directory....

newbie mistakes will get you every time!!!!!

Driving me crazy

I can't for the life of me figure out why the atom.xml file I have for this blog won't update. I set my site as a feed, but the only thing it's feeding is this headache I have.

Maybe Chad, the all-knowing, will have some insight. I'll send him an e-mail to bug him about it.

Tuesday

The continuation of the long Monday. Mental fatique seems far worse to me than physical fatique. My brain is shot...and has slipped into a coma.

Monday

It's Monday. It's been a long day. And that's all I have to say about that.

Time with the kids

Dogs...

Man's best friend.

Nothing could be more accurate. Our dogs still love us even when we've been pouring ourselves into work, coming home late and only spending a few moments with them.

It was time to play our favorite game with the squeaky ball. Jennifer & I each sit on one end of the walkway area and play keep-away from them. Of course, they get more crafty each time we play and find a way to keep the ball from us more than we keep it away from them. It's a great time and it tires them out so they get a good night's rest.

Here are some post action shots of them just hanging out trying to rest.


Kira & Baron


Baron trying to figure out what I'm doing


Baron posing, since he realized that it's a camera and it's pointed at him


Kira pretending she's shy


Kira making sure the squeaky ball is safe


Don't forget about Mimi!

We don't often spend as much time as we'd like with them. They get to go to the dog park at least twice a week and after we eat dinner they hang out and watch TV with us until bed time.

Should be a beautiful weekend, so lots of time to play...since I'm going to leave work behind for a couple of days.

Progress Report

I was thinking on my way home that my little experience last night with the internet expert was a test of my progression of knowledge. I know I have much to learn, but dang if I didn't hold my own last night. In years past I may have just fumbled over my words trying to find any reasonable response, but last night I was snapping the answers off like that guy who was racking up the dough on Jeopardy!.

I also failed to mention that I later found out that Mr. Internet Expert had only just met the guy (the client)who we were there to meet in the first place. Apparently he asked to sit in during the meeting. That will be Lesson Learned 1.1 - never let a client make a last minute roster change or addition. It screws up the gameplan.

Can you believe that, a barfly who thinks he knows everthing there is to know about the 3dub. Maybe I need to start hanging out in bars and drinking more beer! Seems like that's where all of the movers and shakers are.

Lessons Learned 1.0

Have I ever mentioned how much fun running your own business is?

Let me provide a little insight to any business owner who has to do sales or go to sales meetings with their sales team.

NEVER GO TO A SALES MEETING AT A BAR!!!

So, I get at call that we have an informal meeting with a potential client. Now, to accommodate the client we agree to meet him at his favorite watering hole after he closed his business for the day. We're on our way and get a call asking if it's okay that he has someone there with him who happens to know a little about websites and the internet. We say, sure...

We get there and sit down and start asking the client about what his expectations and website needs are. Things are going fine as we proposed how we planned to deliver what he was asking for (and began asking more questions to see if our plan would suit the client's needs). That's when the bomb drops. This newly added member of the meeting starts asking question about everything we talk about. Why this solution when there are $9.95 solutions for the same issue. Why this and why that? It seems this guy had nothing better to do that night than drink half a pitcher of beer and antagonize us while we were trying to find out what it was that the client really needed. So, we proposed different solutions based on the scenarios they gave us...and the blow-hard keeps saying there are cheaper ways to go...yada, yada, yada. He also had to tell me that I know nothing about search engines or how they work. I wouldn't say I'm an expert (he might say he was though) but I do know how they work. I also know that I have applied different techniques and have gotten some really good results for my clients. However, according to this guy I didn't. Who the heck did the work and actually saw the clients' position go from number 40 or so to the first page of the search results....sheesh!!!

So, I stop the conversation and look at the client and tell him that his buddy with all the answers should build his site. Mr. I wrote every article regarding websites known to man finally shuts his mouth and we finish up the meeting. During the course of the heated exchange the internet expert was handed my card.

I checked my e-mail from home, before heading to the office and what to my surprise was waiting for me? An e-mail from our friend, Mr. Know-It-All. He proceeded to tell me how I've done this or that wrong on all of the client sites in my portfolio. He's telling me he wouldn't have done this or that or how Flash is this and that.

Was I fuming? Not really. I decided to think about what he said for a while and came up with this conclusion: If he can send me his portfolio and I am inspired by his work, then I'll take his advise as helpful and improve upon what I am doing for my clients. They'll be the ones to benefit from it. If he can't produce a portfolio, then I'll pass the whole thing off as a guy who had too much beer and highly elevated opinion of his own skills.

I don't need some middle-aged, corporate monkey telling me what the weaknesses of my work are. I don't build website that fit neatly into a little cookie-cutter mold to satisfy a corporate philosophy of how the internet should look. I don't put much merit on the voice of the 'collective' that have nothing better to do than evaluate what everyone else is doing and point out what they are doing wrong. I do, however put heavy weight on the experience and knowledge of those who are putting theory into practice everyday trying to make a living in this industry.

When I finally get a link to the guy's portfolio (which I don't think will ever find it's way into my inbox) I'll post it for the world to see here on my blog. If this guy has as much knowledge as he claimed, then it will show in his work and we will all be the better for having seen it. I'll even print out his e-mail and put it in one of my "important" folders of my file drawer. Who knows, I may even look at it from time to time as I work on client projects to be sure I'm doing everything right. Even better, maybe I'll find out that I was privileged enough to sit down at the table with the keynote speaker of the most prestigious industry conventions or trade shows...who just so happened to be blowing off a little steam at a local bar.

I'll also let you know when the guy's name shows up anywhere in the search engines. I know I looked for a while and couldn't find him anywhere on Google, Yahoo, MSN, Excite, Ask Jeeves, Alta Vista or Teoma. Maybe I don't know what I'm doing...or maybe the search engine algorithms weren't in tune with what it was I was trying to find. Anyway, once I see what this guy has done I'll decide where to put his comments.

In the end, I now know better than to set up a meeting with a potential client at a bar. My sales team is gonna get it for that one!!!

I'm sure as my company grows I'll be able to share more insight and fun stories about things that go on. I hope you get a laugh out of this one...because I sure did.

A Little Break

The past few weeks have been rather hectic.

So, I'm taking a little "me" time to blog. Nothing really important to say or gripe about, just wanted to spend a little time away from work.

There, now that it's out of my system...back to work!