Category: digital coaching

Don’t Ask Technicians to Build on a Non-Technical Foundation

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

It happens all the time in my web business; someone comes to me with ‘everything ready’—they have a domain name, hosting, email, content; it’s all ready to go. This will be the easiest website you’ve ever done, they say.

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.

Trust Trumps Tech

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

Watching a great series of how-to videos which address all kinds of technical hurdles in really simple ways.

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.

New Book! The Commonsense Virtual Assistant

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

My wife and I have just completed our first business book together.

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

Plan Ahead. Expect Change.

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

When my wife went into the hospital for emergency surgery almost three weeks ago, we weren’t quite ready for me to take over her business. But, as John Lennon famously said (and Murphy always knew) life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.

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.