I just landed a big webmastering client yesterday. It took a month of follow up. For a big client regular follow up is essential. If they are so busy they can’t take the time to send you an email then they need your help a lot. After a few phone calls and emails and not really moving forward I set up a physical meeting. I had to drive 90 minutes one way to get to it but I wanted the client. It was well worth it.
This type of follow up is great for the right type of client. You need to determine that in the beginning. I’ve had other potential clients were any more follow up over three calls is not worth my time. Create or update your business plan for the type of clients you want. I want little clients all the way to big clients. I’ve been creating websites since 1995 and I’ve learned that little clients turn into big clients and some big clients go out of business. Having a diverse group is best. Also, it’s fun to see clients grow and add features to their website. When they add a support ticket system or team Intranet site that says a lot about their business. It says they are successful and I was a part of that.
After the great meeting I went to have a massage. I had one the day before but this one was unique. It was a birthday present from a client Jessie Dingler. She does a European Lymphatic massage. Wow, I zoned out quickly and throughly enjoyed an hour of bliss. Jessie knows how to give a great massage. After a 15 minute recovery to get back into my body I was off back home and to support my Nan who had a preview call for her upcoming teleseminar The Spirit of Money.
A good day.
As I was waiting for my massage therapist get ready today I was looking at a magazine, I don’t remember the name. But, it was entirely about relaxing and enjoying life. One article was about a group trying to get the USA to have three week vacations as standard from employers. I know my friends in Europe think that Americans are nuts working so much. Americans take less and less vacation every year. Most tour companies are now having to provide one week tours to meet the demand of short term Americans.
My massage was fantastic and I lazily made my way home blissed out. Later in the day I went to my gym. I’m riding a stationary bike and notice that everyone is staring at the bazillion TVs everywhere. It is hard to not look at them as they are in front of everything. People are mindlessly working out and starting at TVs. It was a surreal experience for me to see a bunch of robots not interacting with anyone. They were totally distracted.
People are distracted throughout life and then wonder what happened. I find staying in the moment and appreciating everything as life moves keeps me centered. I’m happy noticing people, saying hi, appreciating nature and having fun. Life is good. Life is fun and I notice that more when I got rid of the distractions.
I use to send people a blog link of mine years ago to tell them about my dislike for forwarded emails. Now people are using whole websites. Cool.
A recent trend among email-overloaded web developers who don’t want to explain the basics of email etiquette to frequent senders is to set up a web page that does it instead—then reply to senders with a link to the page, or just include it in their signature. Merlin Mann’s Thanks, No turns down unwanted email; Mike Davidson’s five sentences explains why his email messages are so short; and now Brett Kelly’s BCC, please asks that bulk senders use the BCC field to hide his address from everyone else on a big list.
Netiquette
Randy Pausch (www.randypausch.com) is a virtual reality pioneer, human-computer interaction researcher, co-founder of CMU’s Entertainment Technology Center (www.etc.cmu.edu), and creator of the Alice (www.alice.org) software project.
He’s dying of cancer and this is his last lecture on living life. Good words from someone that knows.
Here is a story about a very frequent traveler losing thousands of dollars of electronics out of his luggage.
Moral of story. Do not check your electronics ever. You can buy toothpaste and underwear anywhere for spare change. Electronics are a pain to replace and costly.
Ma.tt » Don’t Check Your Valuables
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