Let’s do test #2
Test
We’re almost ready here. This is a test post.
Business 24x7x365
I wrote this on a forum the other day, and it seems like Christmas Eve Eve is a good day to post it here.
********
I started thinking about how the expectation level of clients in general has risen in regards to “availability”.
I think the media (especially the internet) has essentially done this to us – it’s truly turned us into a 24/7 society (most of you are old enough to remember when TV generally had test patterns all night. Does any station go dark now?)
I’ve noticed that I get e-mail from clients at all hours. Even managers in “9-5, M-F” jobs e-mail me from their laptops at 10pm on a Saturday. The typical vacation message doesn’t ever mention the word “vacation” (a weak, taboo word in the business world). Instead it says something like “out of the office”, and many say to reach them at their cell or e-mail. That’s not much of a vacation.
I regularly get someone contacting me on a Thursday, needing their (fairly large) project done by Monday morning. And it’s not just bad planning on their part – that used to be the case. Today, it’s generally expected. They actually “expect” me to work the weekend. I once took on one of these, and had a question on a Saturday – no response to my e-mail or phone call. Monday morning, the person was mad it wasn’t done. I said “well, you expected me to work the weekend, so I expect you to answer my question on a weekend”. He didn’t like that (and is no longer a client.)
I think this is going to get worse, too. Right now, people under 21 (or so) have been brought up on the internet, e-mail, and texting. Immediate responses are 100% EXPECTED. These young people have no idea that their current social expectation is going to translate to the business world when they enter it. Someone who is a 19 year old “5,000 texts a month” person today is going to be a department manager tomorrow. What will they be like in ten years? What will their expectations be? If they text a subordinate (or a vendor) on a Saturday night, will they wait until Monday for a response? And how are they going to react when their boss texts them on Sunday afternoon?
It’s interesting (and somewhat scary.) Personally, I’ll resist it as much as I can, but I think it will start costing me in a decade.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
The little things will just kill you, sometimes
Goodness, it’s amazing to me how some businesses can just let the little things slip. Maybe it’s a non-returned call; or not enough shopping carts at a particular moment; or maybe nobody bothered to put out more of sale item X that everyone is coming in for; or perhaps even a moldy bowl of fruit… the fruit thing is what happened to me tonight.
Maryellen and I went to an Italian restaurant tonight – we’ve been there once before with friends, and were really impressed with the food. So tonight we go back. We were really looking forward to a nice dinner, then back home to the hot tub/etc. Basically, a nice evening.
So we get there, and once again, the food is superb. Really superb. This is one of those places where they bake their own bread (fantastic stuff), and serve sorbet between courses to cleanse the palate and all. And after your meal (and before dessert), they bring out a nice fruit plate. Or they did last time, anyway.
This time was different. This time, we got a moldy, wrinkled orange, and two tiny, shriveled apples (that were obviously bad). Now, I live in NY’s Hudson Valley – trust me, we have the best apples on earth here (Washington has nothing on us.) For this place to serve really, really horrible apples, and a moldy orange just astonishes me. And it’s not like this was a mistake that somehow slipped by – the fruit was soooo obviously bad that someone (anyone – even the dishwasher) should have said “whoa… no chance that makes the dining room”.
But nobody said that. The kitchen / waitress / whatever allowed that fruit to represent them. And it totally shot the meal for us (the orange was that bad – listen, oranges are called oranges for a reason. They aren’t called “fuzzy half greens”). I politely pointed it out (and really didn’t want a replacement), but there’s no coming back from that – the damage was done. The memory of the meal was that fruit plate.
It’s likely that we would have spent $500 there in the coming year. Note the past tense, because I doubt we’ll go back.
The little things can just kill ya.
A question for you network marketers (etc)
You want me to write a long sales page to get people to sign up for your network marketing system/program. Or maybe your work at home business opportunity, etc. Whatever…. I have a rhetorical question for you people:
Why is my price an issue when the “program” you want me to write about implies that you are making $1,000 a day (or whatever it is)? Because I would think hiring a copywriter would be really easy if you were truly pulling in that kind of scratch. Especially since my total fee was less than a few days work for you.
I mean, you are making that kind of money, right? Because you certainly want me to write such. You wouldn’t lie about this kind of thing, would you?
Been awhile, huh?
It’s been awhile since I wrote here – little more than a month. Been meaning to (you know how that goes), and I have four million random thoughts in my head. Here are a few of them:
- I have just had the “busiest” month of my life. Not so much work-wise (that was normal), but with Ruby dying, then getting a new puppy, and having a ton of work done around the house, it’s been a solid month of little sleep and constant “stuff” going on. I’m 44 – I’m not into a lot of “stuff” going on. That’s as close to a ”non-posting” excuse as I’ll offer.
- I’m still working on the new site. Man, being a one-guy shop can be hard when you have your own little project to do with all the client work. How the heck did I ever find the time to write two books?
- Of course, on that last note, I am always writing another book. Whether anything new ever sees the light of day is another story, but dammit, I’m still tapping keys in my downtime.
- I’m not one to share “oooh, look at this cool thing I found on the web”, but really, this little “I’ll guess who you’re thinking of” app is pretty brilliant.
- I’m an X-Box junkie. I admit it. This does not fit well with my “I have no time” complaints above
- I didn’t vote this year. I find ”issues” pretty pointless these days. It’s all a lot of red / blue / the other side doesn’t get it / “gotcha” moments. If you think you are on top of things and are well informed because you watch Glenn Beck or Keith Olberman, you are mistaken.
- Expanding on that, I am “nothing” politically, really. I just don’t identify with any one person, or any particular party. I like some conservative ideas, I like some liberal ideas, I want the death penalty for murder, I like guns, I have zero problems with immigrants, I want pot legalized, and I think we’d probably be better off if we stopped bombing people.
- I’ve been thinking a lot about success lately. I am convinced that in most cases, a truly successful person does their own thing, and doesn’t copy others. I write like I write – I don’t “try” to write a certain way - I just do it, and it works. It’s like music – the Beatles, the Stones, the Doors (a million others)… they did their own thing. Phish does their own thing (and they do it well). Motley Crue and Bon Jovi did their own thing. We remember them – anyone really remember Dokken or Warrant?
Ok, that’s enough “Random Dan” for one day. I promise not to let another month go by
Ruby
Our dog Ruby passed away yesterday. It was heartbreaking, to say the least.
Ruby was verymuch an integral part of our lives. Maryellen and I don’t have kids, so our pets take on an increased role in our home – suffice to say, they get a TON of attention.
We got Ruby in 1999, when she was about 2 (she was a shelter dog – we like “used dogs”), and besides our vacations, she was with us almost every minute for the past 11 years. She was on the couch with us, she slept with us (sometimes in our bed, sometimes on her bed), etc etc. I feel dogs should be welcome everywhere in their home. Personally, I don’t like dog owners that tie their dogs outside for hours on end, and then lock them in the basement when they DO let them come inside. Listen, just expect that if you have a dog, your house will have that certain doggie smell, dog hair will be present, and on rainy days, you’ll see little pawprints. Deal. But I digress.
Anyway, Ruby started limping this past summer – we took her to the vet, and they said it was likely arthritis (after all, she was 13). We got some pills/shots for her, but the limp got worse. She was pretty obviously in pain. Then her shoulder appeared swollen last Saturday – we took her back to the vet this past Monday, and got the worst diagnosis possible: it was a tumor, and she had bone cancer. Very advanced bone cancer. And very terminal, very soon. The tumor grew daily – it was almost double in size in a few days, and really hurt her. Ruby was in serious pain, and we couldn’t do anything about it. Two sleepless nights where she moaned and cried out in pain was enough. Although she put on a brave face, she was too sweet a dog to go through that any more – we took her back to the vet Friday to get put down, and she died peacefully in our arms as we told her we loved her. I’m tearing up right now as I write.
Ruby dying has affected me in a “time” sense (as well as the loss of a loved one). I’m 44 years old - my life is likely half over. Maryellen and I got Ruby right after we met/got married. So now “the Ruby years” of our lives are over. It’s very sobering to think about it that way.
George Carlin once said “life is a series of dogs” – he was right. The Ruby era is over. We’re now looking at new dogs to start a new era.
Still here
Still working on the new website, but just wanted to post to say “I’m still here”. So let me gripe a bit.
One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how many people think I’m just dying to “bargain”. The old “I have no money now, but…”
Listen, if you truly have no money, you need to concentrate on other things, like groceries. Unless, of course, the “I have no money” really means “I have no money to pay you, so please work for free and I’ll hit ya back someday”.
Or someone who says to me “can you break your fee up into payments?”. To which I always answer “yes – I take credit cards. That way, you can take as long as you want to pay”. To which they usually say “oh…”
Or, lastly, someone who says “I can’t afford that much, because I had to pay the SEO guy / Web Designer / Printer / etc, so can you reduce your fee?” Ummm…. let me see if I get this straight – *I* should reduce *my* fee so someone I never met gets their whole fee? Why didn’t you ask THEM to reduce their fee so you could have enough left over to pay Dan?
This is just a small sampling of clients, mind you – most people are just fine. But it is funny how many of us entrepreneurs can relate to the above, because we hear it a LOT.
Yikes (Google changes)
So Google changes their search to provide “instant” results as you type. This is going to be HUGE, and it’s going to sting a lot of people. Likely me included. Until we adapt, at least.
One big problem I see here is negative keywords in adwords. For example, I do “business writing”, then minus a few keywords, like “tips” (because I don’t want to pay for a visitor who is just looking for “business writing tips”). But my ad starts showing up before the searcher gets to even write “tips” – thus, showing this person my ad. That’s not going to be good (at least on the surface.)
Second, many advertisers counted on “long” keyphrases, like “NY hotel upper west side” – but now, most searchers will stop after typing “NY Hotel” because Google will give “NY Hotel” results right after “NY Hotel” was typed, making it very possible that the rest of the phrase won’t get typed out.
This is going to outright destroy some businesses that relied on towns and such in their online keyword advertising. I don’t know what it’ll do to me yet, but I’ll find a way to adapt. I suspect it’ll raise my ad budget some (as I didn’t rely on location stuff, but I did do well with a few “longer” phrases). But some businesses might not be so lucky. And others will probably flourish.
Such is the nature of the internet. You gotta stay sharp.
Anmyway, I’m off to tweak adwords some, and then work some more on the new site.
The first day of school
I’d like to take a moment to address the kids out there…
I know sometimes life can seem tough, and it seems like the first day of school comes far too quickly. And I know it seems like school lasts FOREVER… well, I’m here to tell you that you are right – it *does* last forever (and ever.) And your teacher this year…? Mean. REAL mean.
Just some encouragement as you board the bus for the first of 180 school days.
***************
New site is moving along. Saving up the better blog posts for it.
Subscribe
Dan Furman at LinkedIn