Recent brief interview on KPAX Missoula, the local NBC station, prior to my fundraising pitch at New West Fest. This was an interesting experience. 
May 162011
Nov 212010
Another dog and pony with a potential investor in my company who “knows other people with money” happened yesterday, and this afternoon the person sent me a polite no thanks email. Didn’t offer to make a symbolic donation. Or even leave a personal endorsement on our web site. Instead she spent 5 valuable hours interrogating me like a beat cop to come to her “decision” to refuse to even introduce me to people in her loop.
Worse, this person wouldn’t even consider tapping out a 100-word endorsement for introducing water-soluble, biodegradable fuel made from wastes. She couldn’t see the value in lending her name to our effort because “nobody” knows her. (Never mind that the request is coming from the company’s CEO, who’s also been a personal friend for a decade, he thinks it’s important enough to ask.) Besides being lame it’s completely untrue; she is quite well known and respected. But this is the norm in latter-day America. Hide when somebody asks you to do the right thing, especially when it involves taking a chance.
People not willing to lend their name to a new business with an incredible mission, even when the upside is a complete remake of the energy landscape, and a real hope of repairing the planet’s tattered environment, is absolutely baffling.
It takes more than money to shift an unhealthy, some would say suicidal, fossil energy paradigm. Petroleum and coal are filthy, toxic sources of energy that can be made much cleaner simply by making and blending in clean higher mixed alcohol fuels before they’re combusted. All that needs to happen is for you to shine a light on the subject!
It takes intestinal fortitude and stubbornness to keep pushing when nobody is behind you supporting the business effort beyond lip service. Even good lip service is hard to come by. But text is too much trouble for people who believe they aren’t capable of making a difference in large-scale outcomes, or that a simple endorsement doesn’t matter. What if your endorsement was the one that tipped the scales in our favor?
Next! Care to leave your endorsement of Bioroot Energy? Here you go. Thank you very much, it is greatly appreciated.
Jul 282009
Ah, the terrible true tale of a telecommuting techie’s fiscal traumatization at the hands of a dim-witted client. Last week a new small business client bounced their initial check for $1,000, and then followed that up via email saying “…sorry, but we don’t know when we can pay you the total due of $3250″ for the site (they’ve said repeatedly they think it’s great) because their products weren’t selling.
The bounced $1,000 check was the deposit on the project, which I held after beginning work on the project because they told me it might not clear “for a few days.” Well, finally, I did deposit it 9 weeks later, and it did bounce like they said it would.
I spent a few weeks of my life to design and build them a nice-looking, ridiculously easy to use, database-driven interactive web site, and then trained the managers, office staff and sales team in how to do all the site tasks they need, like editing and publishing pages, managing users, etc. But since the site went live nobody in the company or the sales team has even logged in lately, letalone edited or added any content [Hello Success Story, or gosh! a video] or manage a user account.
The site is dead in the water of owner/user non-activity. And now I don’t get paid on time because they can’t sell their product. I wonder if there’s a correlation.
Gee, Mr. Company President who can perfume the pig for hours just like Zig Zeigler but can’t balance the company checkbook, when I write a check for business or pleasure it’s spent money and NEVER spent twice. Accounting 101. Sheesh.
My harshest recourse is to take down the site. Who turns off the power when the bill goes unpaid, right? I could turn up the heat a bit and put up a SUSPENDED for NON-PAYMENT page. I’ve read that other developers have done this with some success, although this technique for collecting a past due invoice tends to destroy what’s left of the developer-client relationship. And there’s always Small Claims.
So there are options, but none of them is as good as simply getting paid for services without a load of crap.
I can’t solve the problem of clients who are broke, untruthful, lazy, too busy or stupid but I’m here for [paying] clients, 24/7.
Apr 222009
Come to my house for a very special concert on Friday night.
Last night I spent at least an hour swapping messages with a new friend on Facebook who happens to be the daughter of an interesting woman who lives nearby. I mentioned an upcoming concert featuring an internationally known fingerstyle guitar player at the absolute top of his game. And that she and her mother would be most welcome to attend. (This is outer Montana, very rural; every seat is a great seat, and every seat with a paying person in it counts. Which is why I work hard to sell the events. They wouldn’t happen otherwise.)
The artist in question is a music industry legend who fills concert halls and listening rooms and music festivals and who delights and thrills his audiences with every thumb-busting performance he gives. All over the world. This artist could easily win a place on a list of the top guitar players who have ever lived. At least among followers of fingerstyle guitar.
No kidding. This artist is easily a world-class performer, composer and musician, by any credible measure. One Google search would provide all the artist credibility needed to validate a decision to see the artist. But we’re not talking about what is credible here.
My new Facebook friend’s incredible ensuing interrogatory was predictable for someone who was looking—first and foremost—for a way out of “having to” attend a concert with an artist she did not yet know. She wasn’t interested in what she could learn about the artist by simply showing up, putting her butt in a seat and digesting every juicy moment of the show with the artist less than 8 feet away.
My Facebook pal wanted to know more about the artist: did he sing? Or does he “just” strum?
Mar 112009
Don’t have a site? You’re not alone. For most people who have Internet access, “surfing” the Internet is much more about getting stuff (get/send email, shopping, searching) instead of gathering up and putting stuff on a web site. Too bad, because putting stuff on the Internet is the source of at least half the fun, and more importantly, the only source of whatever financial reward there is in having an Internet connection and a fancy computer in the first place.
- Build a secure, beautiful, easy to use site in minutes for free
- Publish your stories, videos and pics or sell your product or service
- Make money by displaying ads on your site
- Set up an Amazon affiliate store, make 4-11% on every product sold through your site
- Share your site with whoever you want, worldwide
- Create a secure team workspace, invite collaborators, family, etc.
You may not be unemployed (yet), but if you’re starting to feel the need for a site, read on… Continue reading »
Jan 072009
I hit the ground running in the new year, literally. The snow has been plentiful over the last several weeks, so yesterday I shut down the computers and snowshoed around the hacienda.
Dec 302008
Is a Web guy that actually delivers NOW. And then gets the bleep out of the way!
Photo: At The Wave, Paria Plateau, Utah by Jeanie Valentine
The average small business owner doesn’t maintain their company web site. But more than ever they should. Here’s why: The tools to maintain and enhance a site are all now browser-based and can be shared with multiple team members with the click of a mouse. If the owner can use Crayons, they can manage their own web presence, even if they’re not doing all the work. And in the process of doing some of it themselves, they can reduce the costs and frustration of handing it off to someone who may or may not have their best interests at heart.
Small business sites in their first one or two iterations are usually handed off to someone, like a friend or a paid designer, to construct and maintain. The results vary from beautiful to ugly, but there’s usually one constant: the site is usually hard to change by anyone other than the designer. As a result, content gets outdated, prices change, and the owner – designer relationship becomes a game of hide and seek when it comes time for updating.
Not here. I can be reached 24 hours a day. I build sites that are user manageable, and beautiful. After a bit of training, I put the point of execution in the owner’s hands, and I’m always available to answer questions or fix a problem if the need arises.
Contrary to what some of my clients think I don’t walk on water.
But I can always dream.
May 162006
More Americans are abandoning the commuting rat race for working at home. Gee, it’s about time (and money). And unlike the daily grind of commuting, everybody wins this race except the oil and gas companies, and even they benefit by having staff work from home.
It’s been cold and snowy this winter on the West Fork south of Darby. And even though it’s warming up, I’m suffering cabin fever, mainly because I work from home via satellite and business is good. A little too good, in fact. Which means plenty of time in front of my computers. A fast connection is a must.
If you can get DSL through your local telephone provider, great. But lots of folks in these parts can only get a faster connection via satellite. And there at least 3 major satellite service providers to choose from: Direcway, Starband and WildBlue.
Many people who own personal computers in the Bitterroot are beyond the reach of land-based, high-speed Internet services offered by local area telephone providers such as Blackfoot Telephone and Qwest. For cost reasons, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) service doesn’t extend into the side canyons and people who live in remote parts of the Bitterroot have but two connection choices: dialup and satellite Internet.
As a matter of fact, I just changed my connection service from Starband to WildBlue. Why change Internet providers? (Even though I still have six months left on my Starband account?) It’s simple. The new guys are nice, they respect their customers, and most importantly, they have a better product. WildBlue offers a big difference in overall performance and value, and with no difference in price. And they make it totally easy to get started. $299 buys the gear (dish and modem) you need, and the installation is fast, simple and FREE, courtesy of Bitteroot Comtel.com
Needless to say, dialup is slow and unappealing to anyone who has ever used a broadband connection. Yet many people in the Bitterroot (and everywhere else) stay on dialup because they can’t justify the addtional expense of a faster connection. Or can they?
Can you really afford to waste hours, days or even weeks over the course of time for pages to load? If you use a dialup connection for sending email and surfing the web and you hate waiting for everything you click on to do something, you’ll be amazed by the peppy page loads and multimedia richness of your broadband connection.
Let’s look at the cost comparison:
Dialup: 18.95 month
Satellite: 49.95 month
With satellite you won’t need an extra phone line for Internet access. And with satellite you won’t waste time waiting on pages to load. Even though there is some latency in satellite connectivity, it’s blindingly fast to anyone coming from a dialup past. With WildBlue you really can download full motion video and feature length movies from sites like Movielink. Lots of them. And you can quickly download mp3 files and large graphics files too. You get 7.5 gigabytes of download traffic on a rolling 30 day basis. Compared to Starband’s allotment of just 3GB per month, that is a lot of bandwidth!
WildBlue offers access plans up to 1.5Mbps download. That’s up to 30 times faster than dial-up. (I got the 500kbps Value package.) Plus you can always start surfing instantly. There are no dial-up delays or tying up your phone line. You’re always connected so you never have to worry about being “bumped off.” And the surfing experience is pleasurable because everything happens more quickly. WildBlue service can reach virtually anyone, anywhere in the USA. As long as your dish can have a clear view of the Southern sky.
Only $49.95 per month for the basic Value Pak—close to the cost of a second phone line plus a dial-up account—only much much faster and responsive! There’s a 12-month agreement. You can upgrade to higher speeds for 30 day periods, and they have a “vacation” price of just $10 per month.
Dec 092005
Linda Hiatt, our friend and neighbor. She (avoids) rocks!
Steep snowpacked dirt roads can be awesome sled runs. The reason we enjoy living by the seat of our pants in rural Montana is obvious in these TGIF video posts. Not only is sledding our driveway free and non-polluting, as you’ll see, it’s a riot on good days, and the exercise walking back up does us all good too.
See today’s mailbox run vids:
Aug 272005
Just fargin’ great. I’m on the Mississippi coast for my 30th high school class reunion and there’s a category 4 hurricane headed right this way on Monday sometime. I’ve been through a few of these mega storms, like Hurricane Camille in 1969, Betsy in 1965, Frederick in the mid 80s, and Andrew in the early 90s. It is no fun when they are this big and powerful.
I intend to post throughout the storm, at least until the power goes down, which it doubtless will. I just hope and pray losing power is the largest inconvenience and nothing real bad happens. Short of evacuation, there’s not much you can do but sit down, shut up, and hold on.
Nov 022003
And the roads we all drive are smeared with roadkill, so what?
Aug 182003
What’s the big deal? Well, I now get to piss off the front deck any time I want! If you wonder why I’m crowing about paying off my house, just ask yourself if you’ve paid off yours, and either way, keep in mind where you are reading this. I don’t talk much about my personal wins anymore, but in this case I’m making an exception.
Today’s my “natal” day…my “farty seventh”. Thanks again, Mom and Dad. I gave myself the gift of paying off the house yesterday. Yeehaw. (If you fight every battle as if it really mattered, you won’t win any of them…) That puts about 450 bucks a month back in our pockets instead of Washington Mutual’s. This is a good feeling indeed, and I can only hope all the big fires around our area of Montana don’t ruin it. With 10 more long years on the 15-year mortgage we just paid off, we would have paid at least another $48,000 in P&I had we gone the distance. I can think of plenty of things to do with $48K over the next 10 years…
