Archive for August, 2007

There is a revolution occurring. It is changing business, changing families, changing lives. Information technology is now providing people like you and me the tools we need to work from literally anywhere. In today’s new marketplace, the entry cost to running a small technical business has changed from capital to courage.
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Who would have thought that the best way to overcome my fear of big waves was to go surfing at night?

After a year of surfing three-foot waves on a ten-foot surf board, Shane started to push me to try bigger waves and increasingly challenging situations. However, the idea of a wall of water threatening to hit me with my 10 foot surf board was hard to swallow.

I liken the feeling to balancing on a curb… 40 feet off the ground. You know that 6 inches off the ground you can balance just fine. Though for some reason the extra 40 feet stirs a distinct uncertainty.

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I don’t believe that clients set out to be “difficult” on purpose. Sure, there are certain personalities that just don’t mesh, or clients can have expectations of the designer that are unrealistic, or be unclear about communicating, but for the most part people don’t shell out money with the intention of it ending badly.

Projects end badly for a number of reasons, but the majority of them have to do with a lack of communication between the designer and the client.

So what can you, as the client, do to make the design process a much more positive experience?

Here are some ideas:

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Professor Peter Elsea completely changed my view of what a person can do when he taught me that skill is nothing but a bag of tricks.

The thing is, just about anyone can express music to some degree. Anyone can make a picture, or cook a meal. It might not taste very good, but perhaps that’s simply due to a dearth of tricks in the cuisine bag.

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Five days ago we placed a post on craigs list for a virtual office manager / administrator. Since then we have received well over a hundred responses. Many we threw away immediately, others we filed for later. Some merited an immediate response directly from my personal iPhone. So, what was the difference?

I would never have guessed before hand, but it seems like experience had very little to do with whom we chose to interview. So many people were incredibly qualified, we had to turn to other selection criteria.

When we sat down to go through the first wave, Peter & I made three piles : Delighted, Satisfied, Unsatisfied. Then we began to sort.
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So it just dawned on me, after having spent yet another weekend on this project, that maybe there should be a cap on the time or the number of revisions allowed within the scope of the bid.

Oh wait, we do have a cap in our contract. So (scratching my head), why am I now working on revision #4,536,136? Oh, that’s right, because this is for the one client that we have for whom we did not prepare a formal contract for.

This brings to light a fundamental concept… Contracts are for people who think they don’t need contracts.

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The definition of insanity is to perform the exact same action over and over while expecting different results.

Plan. Do. Check. Adjust.

I’ve heard it for years. Not a brilliant revolutionary idea. It sounds kind of plain. But, in all honesty, when is that last time we did it? Are you building your business consciously and intentionally, or do you spend each and every day putting out fires at the whim of circumstance?

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Wish you could see the future? So do we. The first night we got our iPhones, Peter decided what the world needed more than anything was a mobile surf predictor. Who could argue with such an impeccable understanding of human nature!

After a bunch of research looking for good prediction data, some math and homework, we realized that reporting the current surfing condition is fairly easy. On the other hand, predicting the future is a whole different story. Through his search for quality information, Peter came across a bunch of great public ocean data resources. If you happen to be as surf obsessed as we are and want to play the amateur oceanographer, here is a list of the sites we found with the help of our associate, Ben Porterfield.

NOAA | Storm Surf | Storm Surfing | Surfline: Pleasure Point | Buoy Weather | Wavewatch | Wetsand | Surfing Santa Cruz

I am so excited to post this! Its time for us to get just a bit bigger. At this point, Peter & I need to be able to focus on growing the business and are looking for someone to join the team and support us in day-to-day administration. I am posting this listing in all the usual spots. If you are reading it here, then you know how to get a hold of us.
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vague dead.line [vāg dêd’lîn]
noun

1. An unclear time limit. Often implemented with the intent of relaxing time boundaries only to produce an impending sense of doom.
2. A clearly stated deadline that has been utterly ignored and therefor requires de-emphasis. Usage: “Yeah, we figured 3pm sharp was a vague deadline and that it would be OK to get it to you at 6pm tomorrow.”