The BPE, near total data loss, managing freelancers, and jury duty.
(The following blog entry was originally posted on Blogger on 10/28/11)
As the 4th quarter of this year got underway we began discussions with a big magazine publisher here in New York. They brought us in to brief us on the scope of a huge project — which I'll refer to as Biggest Project Ever (BPE). And it needs to be done in about a month. A proposal needed to be submitted ASAP. It wouldn't be sexiest project we'd ever taken on, but it might be the single largest. And if we were awarded the work it would basically save the year for us revenue-wise.
Soon after we dug into the details of our proposal for BPE, we realized the scope of it would require every ounce of project management skill my business partner and I could summon. BPE was going to be very challenging from a problem-solving and workflow/information flow standpoint. And the sheer scope of it clearly would dictate that we outsource a lot of the early-stage set up work — most of which could be done offsite.
Running simultaneously with BPE was the imminent threat that our office NAS drive was slowly losing its mind. (NAS stands for Network Attached Storage, for those of you who don't know — it's a high capacity hard drive that functions as sort of a scaled-down server for small businesses like ours.) I downloaded a firmware update to it one afternoon, and the next day it started to freak out on me. Files wouldn't copy from it. Folders couldn't be compressed. Read/write errors kept popping up. Maddening stuff like that. I of course started to sweat large cold bullets. The damn drive was malfunctioning. Those of you who have lost data or have come close to losing data know how utterly horrifying this scenario is. Our NAS drive had a 2TB capacity, and we had about 200GB worth of mirrored data that was in jeopardy. 11 years worth. The timing of this seemingly colossal failure was so not good.
Seven tech support calls later to Western Digital (the maker of the NAS drive) concluded that our drive's RAID hardware was failing. But the good news was that it appeared that the data could be copied off it. I ran over to Staples and picked up a 1TB external drive, connected it, started the copy process, and went home. I bought a new NAS drive the next day, and then begged my close friend and network security guru Gary Morse, President at Razorpoint Security Technologies, to come by and save our company's data on a Saturday night. He's a mensch, let me tell you.
We restored all the company files on the new drive, but there's another layer to all this anxiety. The following week we were awarded Biggest Project Ever. Oh and I had to report to City Hall for jury duty. Yeah. That's right. Jury duty. Can you believe it? I still can't.
So in order to get BPE off the ground while the first stage jury duty selection process holds me hostage downtown, we bring in freelancers to help out. Fortunately we knew a couple of pros who could do just that. I keep hoping I'll get dismissed early in the process and I can get back to work. And FYI — they don't allow computers, cell phones or any electronics in the jury duty assembly rooms anymore. Not even in the room designated "Juror Work Room". It was agonizing.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday go by without my name being called. I'm thinking maybe I'll get lucky and sail through this unscathed. Thursday however was a different story. Shortly after I arrived in the morning I'm forced to watch a video on the Grand Jury process and responsibility. What? What is this? This is not good. Then later in the day, a lottery of names were called out and I became Juror #21, on a Federal Grand Jury. Damn! It was devastating. Some of these jury panels have to participate for 18 months! I went into a mild state of shock. I pleaded with the judge when my turn came, but no dice... he wouldn't excuse me. And my service would require one month of participation. Good God. A month. Really? It was really bad news. The only silver lining was that our particular jury panel would last only a month. That's OK I thought. I'll die of sheer exhaustion by then anyway.
The rest of October was a blur from that day on. As it turned out my jury duty service would require only a half day one day per week. And for those of you who've never had the honor of being a grand juror, you don't sit in on one case — you vote to indict or not indict defendants based on evidence an attorney presents. And within a half day you can hear 3-4 indictments/cases. But it was nerve wracking all the same. The grand jury process keeps you on a short leash. Every evening at 6pm all the jurors had to call a number to check a message that gave us the next day's instructions: whether we had to show up or not, what time to show up, etc. And that's how it went through the month of October. I'll end my service November 2nd, and then I think I get a break from jury duty for 6 years. Ya-effing-hoo!
BPE got off the ground with the help of our freelancers. I've worked every single day since the last week of September. It was really a bitch to get through all that. My business partner really stepped up and directed projects well in my absences. It looks like we'll survive the storm — a little tattered but no broken bones.
This is how scary having your own business can be. It can be unbelievably toxic and stressful for long stretches. Things you never thought you'd have to deal with suddenly appear in front of you and you have adapt. It really makes you appreciate calm waters when your little ship glides into them again. Your mind relaxes, your blood pressure returns to normal, and then you plan a vacation.
Really? It's been eight months since my last post?
(The following blog entry was originally posted on Blogger on 06/12/11)
My apologies to anyone out there who's following me and reading this drivel. I haven't posted anything since August 2010, and it's a testimony to a) a rebound in the economy late last summer, and b) that rebound translating into a freighter-load of new projects that landed in our busy little company, and c) a little help from LinkedIn.
I remember a former client of mine (a marketing guy) emailing me back in probably 2006 or 2007 about urging me to join LinkedIn and I went pfff, nah, I'm not interested in another social networking site. And he said no it's not like that, it's more focused on businesses and professional networking. I still poo-pooed it and dismissed it, skeptic that I am.
Then about a year later I kept hearing chatter from colleagues and clients about LinkedIn, and it seemed like it was gaining momentum in the business world. Not long after that it became downright embarrassing if you didn't have a profile on the site. Peer pressure won, so I joined up (as did my business partner) and we started banging out the invitations.
Cut to 2011, and between the two of us, we've amassed a list of current and former clients that would impress any new business developer. But as everyone knows, a LinkedIn profile is only as good/current/relevant as the profile itself. And some people in our networks seem to not give a shit about it at all.
Then there was the example of one of our former clients whose profile announcements, ("so-and-so has just updated his experience") kept appearing almost daily for about a week. And I'm sure his co-workers must have seen them too. I said wow, sounds like so-and-so is either looking for a new job or is on the cusp of landing one. Sure enough, he emailed us both a couple weeks later and said "hey guys, I'm over at _____ now, here's my new info...". "Really? Best of luck in your new role. Thanks for letting us know!" (Like we didn't see it coming.)
In addition to the LinkedIn contacts and potential new business tool it represents to a small business like ours, we also took it upon ourselves to try a new business developer -- as in, a real person -- in late 2010 and early 2011. She found us on the internet and was old school: only wanted to work by the hour ($100 an hour and no commission on future billable jobs), and would work from a list of companies and contacts that we'd provide (which we culled from a 4-inch thick 2009 edition of Advertiser's Red Book we'd scored off eBay for $35). We picked our dream clients, and she went to work, burrowing her way into those selected companies. She'd get a contact and his/her info, forward to us, and we'd email them an intro letter, along with a link to our website to see samples of our work and to contact us if they needed a shop like ours.
Seemed fairly simple right? The process was relatively easy to manage and could all be done with email. My feeling was, if we got 1 new client, just 1, especially one that's outside the magazine publishing industry, from which we get probably 95% of our revenue, then this effort was worth it. As of this writing, not a single meeting has resulted from our efforts. We got a few nibbles, a few replies, mostly "check back with us later" or "check back when Jill or Richard or Amy is back from vacation." That sort of response. There are still a couple from that list who may have some potential, but I'd say it's probably a long shot.
All that said, I still feel optimistic about our networking prospects, and the power of a site like LinkedIn. And I think the year is going to be a good one. Early this week another former co-worker of my business partner emailed him (via LinkedIn) and said he was at a new company and was looking for a small agency/creative team and we met on Friday. It all transpired in less than a week. Maybe he's just kicking the tires, or maybe it's the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
A summer of good news/bad news.
(The following blog entry was originally posted on Blogger on 08/22/10)
Now that we're two-thirds of the way through summer, and two months since my last blog post, it's time to get all 4 of my followers/readers up to date. A lot has been happening business-wise and of course in current events. Let's start with the bad news.
If anyone remembers the summer of 2010 at all, it will probably be associated with one thing: the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Sure, the economy is still gasping for breath, but the spill stole the spotlight. It dumped 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf, and lasted nearly 3 months before they capped the well head. How it will affect the lives of those who make a living in the spill zone and the long-term future of sea life is anyone's guess. But one thing's for sure: as a nation we haven't taken the necessary steps to diversify our national energy portfolio. And any financial manager will tell you if you're too invested in one area, you take large risks with your investment. And so we have. It has taught oil companies a hard lesson as well: cutting corners on safety will most certainly hurt your employees, their families, your reputation and your share price.
One of the interesting things to track during the Gulf oil spill crisis was the shift in the Advertising/PR strategy of BP. Not only was the clean-up effort a remake of the old black and white movies of the Keystone Cops from the standpoint of those working with or around BP, it was also a slow-motion train wreck from a PR perspective. Not long into the spill, the feel-good ads that presented BP as being "alternative" and "green" disappeared from TV and print ads. They were replaced by BP manager testimonials about how they're "here for the long haul" and that they'll be "making a commitment to the environment" and so on. I don't doubt that the managers in the ads felt they were speaking the truth. But the reality is that BP didn't know heads from tails on how to coordinate the clean-up effort, and I wouldn't be surprised if we see more bad reports in the future coming from beaches and communities where BP has shirked its responsibility. Or has played pass the buck and pointed the finger at the U.S. Government.
Now the good news. My company has seen a solid rebound in new job requests from the lackluster first half of the year. It appears that our clients have turned on the marketing faucets again and job orders are steadily coming back in. We noticed a big up-tick in June and it's been steady so far through July and August. I'm crossing my fingers that it gains momentum through the rest of 2010 and into next year. Though I must say I'm cautiously optimistic - there's a lot of chatter from the financial sector about lukewarm forcasts and weak job growth projections. And slow sales growth in the housing market.
I hope my next post sometime in the 4th quarter has more good news. Maybe it'll be titled The Autumn of Good News/Good News. And maybe some of us small businesses will hold on through the worst of it. We've made it this far.