Wrong.

Invariably, they’ve registered the domain name with a service which is, well, limited. They’ve chosen user-friendly hosting, which means that it’s not geek friendly. They have Yahoo email. They have all their content in a Word document, neatly formatted, with images precisely positioned.

The first step, in this case, is to start over.

The choice of hosting has to come after the choice of development technology. My platform of choice these days is WordPress, which means I need hosting on Linux or some other flavor of UNIX. Not Windows. I also need true FTP access for direct access to the files. Not an online file manager.

Email should be you@yourdomain.com, not yourdomain@yahoo.com. I can’t ‘move’ that email, or work with it in any way, without costing you lots and lots of money.

Microsoft Word is not a web development tool. The beautiful formatting in your document will not transfer to the web automatically. It may transfer, partially, to WordPress, but the cleanup will take longer than starting over.

The images embedded in a Word document may very well be useless. Word is not an image management or editing tool. The images may be too small or at too low a resolution to be usable for your site. At the very least, extracting them from Word is going to cost, because it’s a tedious process I don’t enjoy.

This only covers web development, but the principle applies to choosing a cell phone, your next computer or printer, your internet service . . . any technology—and the people who’ll be working with it on your behalf:

Step One is always, always to ask for professional advice from someone you trust.

However, some recommendations in the segment on websites got me fired up a little bit. They said:

• You must register your own domain name; if someone else registered it for you, insist on being given complete control
• Build your own website
• Or, if you hire a professional, make sure they use a template in order to save time and money

As I mentioned in my comments at the presenter’s blog, having control of your domain name is only an issue if you don’t have a solid trust relationship with the person who registers it on your behalf. If you trust them, your domain name is in no danger. If you don’t, why, may I ask, are you doing business with them?

All other things being equal, shouldn’t your technical tasks be outsourced to a technical person? Do you really want to manage your own DNS settings, configure your own email accounts, and do all the little tedious things involved in managing a domain name?

Building your own website is a first-rate top-notch recipe for disaster.

The following may sound a bit like a pitch; like I’m bragging. Probably.

I have hand-coded websites from scratch, with built-in organic search engine optimisation, a spam-resistant contact form, good user-interface engineering and usability, in under an hour. Yeah; 59 minutes.

Fifty-nine minutes.

Cost? $300.

If you build your own website using some site builder tool, guess what it will cost to have a professional web developer take it over when you reach the point that you can’t manage it anymore?

More than $300, I’ll tell you that.

Really; why would you make your web presence a homemade non-professional not-standards-compliant invisible to the search engines hard-to-use thing, when I can hand-code a custom site (using your existing images and content) which meets all the technical and human criteria of excellence, in under an hour, for $300?

Oh; templates? Asking me to work with a template is like asking a brain surgeon to work with mittens on. Sure, I could do it. But you’ll pay extra in order to have a site that came out of a box, instead of being completely custom-made.

The Commonsense Virtual Assistant—Becoming an Entrepreneur, Not an Employee, is designed to help the growing number of virtual assistants analyze their business skills, and find and fill any gaps.

It’s also a resource if you’re looking for a VA. The book outlines what you should expect from a professional virtual assistant.

You can pre-order an autographed copy for $19.95. The book will ship in May.

What Folks Are Already Saying About the Book

“Your book will be a great asset to many new VAs.” Jan, Your Virtual Wizard

“Good luck with your book. I hope it will emphasize the importance of self-worth and encourage future VAs to value their skills, to always continue their education, and to be responsible and conscientious business owners.” Jennifer, www.ccvirtually.com

“Can’t wait to buy your book!” Rosalind Harris CPS, www.instantassistant.net

“Sue and Joel, I really appreciate your efforts in putting this information together and look forward to the final product.”  Margie Gibson, MG Virtual Office Solutions

We’d known that since her business has reached a certain stage, my job is to take over as general manager and project manager and put some systems in place. It’s been a challenge, but no major crashes.

She’s home again, slowly stitching things back together. Three immediate benefits came from this:

1. The crash course brought me up to speed faster than if we’d lollygagged for the next six months.

2. Her clients know that, even if she’s not at the helm, the business will still function.

3. We have two employees we can depend on.

Cassi Brazil has been assisting Sue with Awesome Assistant for some time. She’s intelligent, talented and hard-working. Sue calls Cassi her clone. If you know Sue, this says much about Cassi.

The surprise was when it made sense for our daughter, Rachelle Ashman, to quit her job at the photography studio to work with us. She has the finest customer service skills I’ve seen and puts a high value on our family’s success through entrepreneurship.

Rachelle will be our customer service front line from now on. She’ll be watching the office, helping connect the right client with the right people here at BizBa6, and making sure you’re taken care of. Sue and I are always available, and Rachelle will be there to help make it happen.

We’re proud of our junior entrepreneur and her willingness to pitch in and make our shared dream a reality.

Guest Post by Triiibes Friend Rick Wilson DMD

For the next 3 years, it’s 11:59. All the time.

And in spite of all odds, January was a good beginning for us. Because we made it so. Laser focus, people, that’s the key. Full-throttle sense of purpose. Nothing less will do in these times.

Trust me, though. You can do it. Si se puede!

I’ve set goals and I’m determined to rock out in spite of the overall economy. Operating within Seth’s philosophy which so far is working beautifully. It’s not fast, not a quick fix, but I’m just beginning to see real long-term rewards.

I believe that each business should identify their own “Four Horsemen of their Apocalypse”. Maybe three, maybe five, but some tangible things that hold us back. I also firmly believe that it’s hard to see your own challenges clearly, and that it helps a great deal to look at other industries or fields that are different than your own. Then draw parallels and learn and apply the lessons to yourself.

Wanna hear mine? The last will surprise you. OK. Essentially all I need to experience growth are a certain number of new patients per month. Leave the rest up to me and my wonderful staff, we practice Edgecraft etc. and treat people in Anne’s Visceral manner, very I-You. All I need is to have enough folks find us. We’ll handle the rest.

So my Horsemen are:

1. People who move away. Our society is a very mobile one. I still miss folks who moved away a long time ago, and recently we’ve had such fine patients go far away. It’s sad, and also of course it drains away a little part of the practice each time it happens.
2. Patients who pass away. (No, not in the chair!) Our practice has a large elderly population. Even sadder than when they move, of course, and same effects in losing potentially more than we can gain with new patients.
3. Patients who say, “My insurance changed, I can’t see you anymore”. But you have to say this out loud in that exact voice that Jerry Lewis used when he screamed “Laaaady!” ;} Here’s the irony—they are usually folks who are healthy and have very little dental needs besides maintenance, and it might cost them, say, $140 per year instead of, say, $57 per year. I can understand changing doctors when thousands of dollars in some reconstruction might be reduced, but these smaller amounts do leave me bemused.
4. Here’s the interesting one—people get healthy! If patients are reasonably compliant and listen to health advice, we can reduce cavities and periodontal disease to very low levels. It has been said that dentistry is the only major business that is constantlly trying to put itself out of business.

I post these in detail because, again, it takes a lot of deep thought to truly identify the challenges in your own business, and I find going far afield helps to figure it all out. So maybe someone here who does something quite different than me can use this, and will see something that they missed before.

So, in my case I need Marketing. Not Advertising, which is broken, but Marketing. So we Embrace The Cow, we use Edgecraft, I recognize that we’ll always serve a crowd but also we can lead a tribe within that; I reflect on and use Anne’s Visceral Business and Blatant Integrity concepts. I’m a bit fortunate that way because Dr. Sukoneck practiced that way instinctively since the 70′s, before it was ever called that.

So, bringing in an appropriate number of new patients and treating them with excellence is what I need to do to counterbalance my Four Horsemen. As long as we stay focused every minute as if it’s 11:59 we will continue to grow. The best thing about using Seth’s concepts as opposed to “Y’all come” advertising is this—nearly all of the new patients who are referred by our existing patients are fine people with whom we can have a good mutual relationship, and this is simply because they were referred in by similar people who are already in the practice. We rarely have an extremely difficult, cantankerous new patient these days because it’s not a random selection process.

Rick Wilson DMD

Frederick Herzberg’s studies on mental health in business are a sort of practical application of Maslow’s heirarchy of needs (which, by the way, isn’t really heirarchical.) Often called The Two Factor Theory, Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory shows that, as expected, there are things in our work which make us happy, and things which make us unhappy. What’s unexpected is that they’re not the same things.

Certain aspects of work fall into the ‘preventing dissatisfaction’ bucket. Workers need to be paid fairly. They need safe working conditions and reasonable hours. If these needs aren’t met, workers will be unhappy.

Which is very different from saying that if they are met, workers will be happy.

Other aspects of work fall into the ‘creating satisfaction’ basket. recognition, advancement, meaningful work, a sense of achievement—when these things are present, they increase happiness (which, we assume, will increase production and value; this assumption is intrinsic to Herzberg’s work.)

Which, again, is not the same as saying they decrease dissatisfaction.

The ‘preventing dissatisfaction’ bucket gets filled with water. Pay enough money, have a safe workplace, meet the basic needs, and the bucket is full. Add more water (by paying more money, for instance) and it doesn’t pile up—it overflows. Once dissatisfaction has been reduced as far as possible (hopefully, eliminated) there’s no value in trying to reduce it further.

It’s not a long scale with ‘unhappy’ at one end and ‘happy’ at the other. It’s not a zero sum game, where reducing dissatisfaction equals increasing satisfaction.

What you have is two separate containers. Once the ‘preventing dissatisfaction’ bucket is full, you can’t fill it more. But the ‘creating satisfaction’ basket—that, you can pile to the sky.

Recognition? There’s no such thing as too much. Tell every employee, every day, how much you value their loyalty and hard work. Do it sincerely. Read The Carrot Principle and put it into practice.

Achievement? How about helping every employee do as much as they can? It helps fill their satisfaction basket, and fills yours at the same time.

Keep checking the ‘prevents dissatisfaction’ bucket, ’cause sometimes it leaks. But once you’ve got it full (or if it was full to begin with, for you A+ entrepreneurs) focus on creating satisfaction for your employees and customers.

And at the same time, you’ll be creating your own.

Marketing guru Seth Godin’s latest book Tribes inspired a social network where some of the smartest people I’ve met hang out and share business ideas. A small segment of that group have banded together to create a smaller network of business mentoring professionals. We’re going to be sharing business ideas, not just with each other, but with each other’s clients. So when you talk to me, you’re talking to an international team of incredibly talented professionals.

I’ve created a full page to introduce them properly. It begins, though, with our shared philosophy on the state of business today. Please drop by and introduce yourself to any of these fine folks who strike your fancy.

And stay tuned for more developments!

Last night’s meeting was “The Great Tip Exchange.” Members shared two minutes of their favorite books, web tools, business strategies, and philosophies. Sue took extensive notes and posted them at the NorCal Speaker’s social network.

Non-members can read all the info and follow the links, but if you have anything to add feel free to join the group and post your comments.

Next week, I’m hoping to introduce you to a handful of folks from all over the world. I’m excited about the possibilities this group opens and just couldn’t wait ’til next week to mention them, even though I’m not quite ready to unveil them yet.

Technology is the same way. The folks who design and build software seem to think it’s natural to study a user’s manual and take classes to use a tool. I prefer the hammer/screwdriver approach.

Hammers don’t come with an instruction manual. It is assumed that the simplicity of the design makes its use obvious. Web tools should be the same way. Most desktop software, cell phones and other geek gadgets should, too.

When you get a new tool, see if those who foist it on you can help configure it so it works the way you think, rather than training you to think like a computer. One shortcoming of most software is that it has waaaay too many options. (It should, instead, be designed not to make the user finish the design in the ‘Options’ screen.)

Use that failing to your advantage. When something doesn’t work as expected, get help adjusting the tool so it behaves. Next time, we’ll talk about options when it just can’t be trained.

But in the meantime, train the dog, don’t let the dog train you.

It all feels very steampunk.