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Optimism, Pessimism, and Realism in Economic Change
Hints of change bring them all out. First the pessimists who want to see it as all bad. Then the optimists who want to ignore all negativity. And last, the realists who balance the facts and determine what is best to do no matter what.
Pessimists come in two types:
- Those who delight in the bad. They rub their hands in glee, exaggerate the negative, and find delight in the misery and hardship of others. These are the ambulance chasers, and the gossips.
- Those who want to wallow in despair. They believe themselves incapable of happiness, and each negative thing around them serves to increase their conviction that life sucks. Good things are ignored, or not even recognized. Every hope is an illusion, every light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train, and if events prove otherwise, they are certain there is some trick to it, or that it will not last.
Either type of pessimist poisons the world around them, drip by drip of acid from their negativity.
Optimists also come in two types:
- The unrealistic people who state over and over that if you just believe that nothing bad will happen, then nothing bad will happen. Problem is, bad things DO happen whether you think they will or not.
- Those who tell themselves over and over that nothing bad is going to happen, because deep down inside, they fear that if it did, they could not handle it. Blocking out potential negatives is the only way they can cope, because they do not have the self confidence to believe they can succeed in spite of challenge.
Optimism can be just another form of pessimism. It just wears a different mask, but it is really just hiding the same face of low self confidence.
Realism is the balance between the extremes. Yet realists are accused of pessimism by those who call themselves optimists. Rather silly, because realists are, at heart, optimists – the difference is, they DO have the self esteem to believe that they can succeed in spite of opposition. If the worst happens, they know they can handle it.
The realist looks at the facts. They consider whether there is validity in all the circumstances. When faced with potential challenges, they do not stand around wringing their hands about it, and they do not gossip and blow things up to be worse than they are. Nor do they minimize or dismiss legitimate concerns.
Rather, they weigh the evidence, and act accordingly. If it is likely that challenges are coming, they develop a plan of what they will do if it happens. They don’t lose a lot of sleep over it, and they are not scared of negative things, because they have considered the potentials and they have prepared.
Realists are willing to face potential negative situations, because they know they are capable of surviving, and thriving, no matter what. They see both the good and the bad. The good is acknowledged with gratitude, the bad is faced and dealt with heat on.
Change IS happening. Much of it is not good. It is not likely to get better any time soon. But that is ok, because I am prepared, and I am confident that I can succeed even in the face of economic hardship. I have a plan for my business that will allow it to go forward regardless. I have a plan for my life that will make me better situated to cope with it. I am not afraid to face challenge head on, because I know I can cope, even if bad things do happen.
I can be happy even if I don’t get what I want.
I’m a Woman… I Changed My Mind!
I was going to do another top ten list. It was logical, it made sense. Until I started to do it!
Truth is, I don’t use very many online services. If I can do it with a self-hosted program on my server, or a program on my desktop, I’ll own my own functionality, thank you! I haven’t run across a free service that impressed the socks off of me in many moons.
I was hard pressed to come up with THREE extraordinary servcies that I use regularly, let alone those that were any kind of news. The one that came to mind is kind of a trade secret – one of those that is a real find, not highly popular, and something we use in our business to both help our clients, and to sound impressive when we need an answer that nobody else has.
Besides, compiling those list when you DO know what to list is more time consuming than the average post because you have to make sure all your links are valid. So I opted to babble instead.
Business has picked up for us, and we have reached the “sustainability point”. This is the point where we have the number of contracts coming in per week that we set our goals for a year ago, where we knew we’d be to the point where we could make the money necessary to sustain the business and to get Kevin and I onto regular salaries that were liveable – not grandly, mind you, but enough for us to get ahead bit by bit if we are wise.
So we are now strategizing to maintain this level of workload without outsourcing any more than we are now, and planning for outsourcing more once we exceed this level. If business continues as-is, we’ll have a slump again in the winter and spring, then exceed this level this time next year by a significant amount (our business is more than double now what it was this time last year). We’re not out of the woods, but we are galloping toward reaching our goals. That is good.
What is getting us here?
1. Building relationships first. That is the beginning and end of our marketing. The value of those relationships has given us benefits that are incredible. We’ve come to know many wonderful people who have chosen to help us along the way. Their value and friendship is beyond price.
2. Helping before asking, Giving before soliciting. We try to help wherever we can without giving away our services wholesale.
3. Doing our best to serve our clients. We like our clients, and if they like us, it is because we try our best to give them more than they pay for.
4. A truly different set of services. They may look the same on the surface, but once we get into it with the client, the difference is obvious.
5. Determination to do whatever is necessary and honorable to grow our business. We don’t give up. We stick to integrity.
6. Prayer and blessings. We pay a tithe on our earnings, and we consult the Lord in what we do. This should perhaps be first, because if there is wisdom in what we do, it comes from the Lord, and if there is anything wondrous in our growth, it is a result of trying to give back to the Lord as we have things given to us. We surely need to do more in that – but I must acknowledge the hand of God in our growth, and I must acknowledge that when we give to the Lord, He returns it ten-fold again.
So it is fall again, and I am still harried and too busy to possibly do it all, but I’m also working smarter, more focused, and seeing great things come together.
Top Ten Self Hosted Web Applications for Small Business
Oh yes… and they have to be free to make this list…
We use a lot of self-hosted applications. That is, software that we install into our hosting space and run over the web. The ones listed here are ones we’ve used, and found to be of value.
1. Joomla. Hands down the most functional and extensible CMS out there in the Open Source world. Drupal enthusiasts might disagree, but we cannot find nearly the number of extensions for Drupal that are available for Joomla, and the learning curve for Drupal is significantly higher. So Joomla is our number one pick. http://www.joomla.org
2. CMSMadeSimple. For lightweight website needs, this system is simple to use, simple to build a site in, and simple to sustain. An all around winner for someone who does not need the power or extensibility of Joomla, who just needs a basic website that they can easily make changes to. http://www.cmsmadesimple.org
3. WordPress. Ok, that’s a no-brainer. We don’t recommend WordPress for anything more than a blog – it tends to get clunky and unsustainable if you try to expand it too far – but it is tops for blogging. http://www.wordpress.org
4. Magento. NOT RECOMMENDED ANYMORE. Too many problems, you lose something in your site every time you upgrade, and they release upgrade patches every few DAYS. Too hard to template also.
5. PrestaShop. NOT RECOMMENDED ANYMORE. Too difficult to template, and not stable. Buggy functions which are absolutely basic.
6. WebCollab. A real gem. A simple but functional project manager that is just perfect for companies that need a fast solution for tracking multiple projects. The only one we’ve seen where it was designed for one manager to handle multiple projects and get an overview of them all at once. Should not be made open to the public in any way. Easy to use. http://webcollab.sourceforge.net
7. PHPTimeClock. A terrific little location independent timeclock. http://timeclock.sourceforge.net
8. WordPressMU. Yeah, it gets a separate listing from WordPress. This is the multi-blog version. We tried several other options for this, but WPMU is just the best solution out there! http://mu.wordpress.org
9. Bad Behavior. It is only a plugin for WordPress… Theoretically. But it is so good it has been adatpted to many other online systems. It slows down spammers and does a good job of that, but also reduces the threat of other malicious bots that attack websites. So good that we’re working on a standalone version that can protect any website. http://bad-behavior.ioerror.us
10. PHPAdsNew. NOT RECOMMENDED ANYMORE. Some things get way out of date. This one did.
Now, we could have added SugarCRM, a host of Joomla extensions, and several other apps, but these are the ones we use on a regular basis, that provide us with truly useful function, and which have been instrumental in building our business.
We’ll have hosted goodies next.
Top Ten Free Small Business Desktop Software Programs
Ok, it’s been done before. But it hasn’t been done by me. Over time, I’ve found some goodies that have helped me work smarter and more efficiently, on a shoestring budget. The following apps help you get your foot in the door when you are trying to build a business on limited resources.
1. Open Office. This is number one on the list, because it is simply great software. It is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The suite is a free alternative to MS Office, and has the ability to handle word processing, spreadsheets, databases, presentations, and drawing documents. Best of all, it reads and writes MS Office compatible files! http://www.openoffice.org
2. NotesBrowser. Some of you may be tired of me telling you about this little gem, but it rates as number two for its long term value. You never outgrow it! You’ll probably have to download this and play with it to really grasp the power, but it is an information organizer. It categorizes and subcategorizes info, and is a great place to store info that you have to access over and over. http://www.notesbrowser.com
3. Mozilla FireFox. No big news here! It’s just a browser, right? Actually, it is a powerful tool, which you can extend with plugins. I like it because as a web developer, there are plugins I can add to it that help me keep my tasks central to a single program, and which help make development of websites faster and easier. There are plugins that can help people in other industries as well. http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
4. Thunderbird Mail. While we are on the subject of Mozilla, it is worth mentioning this program. I like it better than Outlook, it filters mail more simply. Besides, I never liked MS owning more of my computer than necessary. Thunderbird is mail only, but you can add plugins to it also, to extend the function. http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/
5. Right after Thunderbird, comes Lightning. Actually, this calendar program comes in two versions – SunBird, which is a stand alone calendar, and Lightning, which is the SunBird calendar adapted as a plugin for ThunderBird. So if you want email and calendaring in the same application, just add Lightning to Thunderbird, and off you go! http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/lightning/
6. Serif PagePlus SE. This little desktop publishing program is amazingly functional, and terrific for someone who needs to make business cards and brochures but who cannot afford software to do it. It is also great for graphic designers who want to make downloads of editable templates available on their website, because you can do them in this program, and anybody can download the program and edit them. http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/software/PagePlus/
7. AlZip. A nice little Zip utility that can pack or unpack just about anything, and which leaves cute little eggs all over your desktop. Seriously, this is a highly functional bit of software, and we install it on every computer we own, because it is so good. http://www.altools.net
8. The GIMP. Image and photo editing software. It has its limitations and annoyances, but if you need graphic editing capability that gives you the ability to produce professional quality images, it can get the job done. http://www.gimp.org
9. Audacity. Audio recording and editing. If you need to make a sound blurb, this program can help you do it. http://audacity.sourceforge.net
10. Infinite Patience. After all that work, you’re entitled to some relaxation! Infinite Patience has a ton of different Solitaire games. For Mac, there’s the classic Solitaire Til Dawn, which Infinite Patience can’t quite measure up to. www.spf-15.com/infpat.htm
I’d have loved to have added AVG Anti Virus, and TexGen (a terrific little texture generator), but they are not free for commercial use. Friends of mine recommend Inkscape and Scribus, also Open Source programs for graphics and publishing, but I have not used them, so I could not include them on the list. Other favorites that did not make the list (too specific in use, or just not quite as useful), were Max’s HTML Beauty, FreeMind (a mind mapping tool) and Gadwin PrintScreen – a terrific screenshot utility.
I’ll follow this up with some other great finds, for web software, and hosted software services.
Failing to Take Advantage
Periodically, he will call me and tell me he has purchased a domain, or a website. It is sort of an addiction, I think, this reckless spirit of gambling that possesses him and compels him to purchase without getting a professional opinion. Some of his purchases have been fairly pricy – but they sounded good at the time.
He then comes to me and asks me what it will take to make it into this, or that, and what a good deal he got. I tell him the price, and what it will take to actually turn what he bought into what he thought he was getting, and he wanders off disappointed, to look for the next illusive pot of gold.
He could ask, first. I’d tell him. He doesn’t. So his money is wasted on things that do not work, or for which he was unprepared, because he didn’t realize that he was not buying what he thought he was buying.
Many times, professionals will offer simple tips on getting the right start, and they’ll offer it at no charge. They know if they help you get started right, then there is a high chance you’ll come back to them for the next thing. But many people won’t take advantage of that.
With a website, if you intend to use a professional to help you, they should be involved from the time you purchase your domain name – sometimes even before. And you should NEVER purchase an existing website without a professional opinion, unless you have strong experience in assessing the value from a technical perspective. There are simply too many potential risks involved – things you’d never even consider that someone would do to you under the guise of selling you a website.
Domain names and websites are often not what they seem. Their value runs through many layers – the quality and length of the domain name, the age of the domain name or site, the coding of the site, the quality of the content on a site, prior promotion done for the site, etc. Many “bargain” websites were not built for the purpose of selling the site, they were built for the purpose of link propagation, and they may have hidden or subversive links buried in the code, leading to sites you’d rather not be promoting, and which can hurt your chances of ever making anything of it.
When you have a goal or dream, a professional can help you avoid serious errors, speed up the route to success, and help you get more value and profit from the things you do. That’s worth starting out right for.
The Comfortable Trap of Familiarity
Familiarity is where we are comfortable, certain, and secure. It is the basis of experience, predictability, and even reliability. But too much ends up no longer being an asset.
When you only know one thing, and want to make everything you do fit that one thing, familiarity is no longer a strength, but a weakness.
We see this in software choices, where someone tries to do everything with a single solution. We see it in food choices where we refuse to try anything new. We see it in our choices in style, problem solving, and the brands we use.
What frustrates me in business, is when people fall back on familiarity when it is to their disadvantage. One person wants to use HTML for everything, even those things that it should not be used for, instead of finding a more appropriate and functional solution. Another wants to make WordPress do it all – which it was never intended to do and does badly if you push it too far. A third won’t try networking because it is out of their comfort zone.
I like familiarity. But I realize that sometimes it is a trap that stops us from seeing what can be a more effective way.
I’m not talking about breaking rules that should not be broken. The rules that make sense and protect us. I’m talking about thinking outside the box and considering new methods when we are beginning to get bogged down in the existing routines.
Many times, familiarity lulls us into thinking that there cannot be an easier way, when in fact, the learning curve is often low, the time saved from the right step forward will yield profits over and over.
Take the time to honestly weigh the benefits against the drawbacks. And consider it for the long term, not just the short term, because that is generally where the biggest benefits are realized.
Trying for Three Days
I’ve been trying to come up with a topic for three days now, but I’ve been so busy that it has been difficult to even think outside of what I have had to do. In that time, I’ve come to some conclusions, because of events around me.
First, I’ll never willingly choose to work with X-Cart if there is any other option. It goes onto our “do not touch” list, along with OSCommerce, CubeCart, and several others. It rates for it’s complexity, and lack of flexibility. The templating is a nightmare, outdated, clunky, and inflexible. I managed to carry off a site design to be proud of, but it still isn’t what it should have been. I will not pay for a cart that is not even close to the quality of free Open Source options, and whose support is extremely inconvenient to access – no better than that available for Open Source, and in many ways worse.
Second, there is a line that I will not cross. As one of our clients flirts with it, it reiterates my reasons for not wanting to ever promote sites that exceed the limits of my moral principles. There is always a consequence for it. One that I am not willing to court.
Third, I cannot do everything. We’ve consolidated our business again, preferring to give up the less profitable aspects rather than trying to grow in a clumsy way. By refining our services, we can do more, in less time, and profit more. Static HTML sites are not the only thing we’ve given up. We have three other businesses that we are now referring several types of work to. It keeps us focused.
Fourth, the reputation you inspire in others is of more value than anything you say. When other people say it, it has more credibility. Of course, I know this. It has just really been apparent the power this has, in the last several weeks, as we have received calls and contacts that we have not had to hunt, from people who come to us pre-sold. What a blessing!
Fifth… Faith can be tested in ways we do not expect. We never know what the true gifts are in our life until it is. I finally feel like the last bits of healing are taking place since Sidney died. My spirit feels whole again, though not terribly strong yet. It seems to be healing along with my body, which is getting better month by month as Crohn’s Disease has less and less influence on me.
One of those busy times, full of lessons, full of happenings, but much of it not fit for sharing. Too personal, too mundane, but not at all worthless.
You Gotta Say So!
A friend emailed, and told me that he had received an unsatisfactory response from a tech support department. I encouraged him to inform them of that, and to not settle for a non-response.
I don’t have anything against tech support personnel. Quite the contrary, I like them, because I depend on them to make me look good. I offer tech support myself, and because of that, I encourage people to let a business know when there is a problem.
See, often, the techies in the background are unaware of the problems in the foreground. This happens because 80% of dissatisfied people just go away, they don’t complain or ask for help with the problem. The other 20% ends up being very valuable. When you complain, you not only represent yourself, you represent 4 other people who DIDN’T complain as well!
Most problems on the user end of things are obscure ones that only happen in certain circumstances. Many are things we can’t even duplicate – so we rely on you to report, and then to see if we fixed it. That is just the nature of computers – they behave differently in other people’s houses, just like kids do!
If you don’t say, we may never know!
Sure, we’d rather you didn’t call and harangue us, or flame us in an email. That doesn’t help anybody, because then we just think you are a crank who isn’t satisfied by anything. But when you call or email and say, “This isn’t working, can you help me?”, we like that. We get a chance to make the problem better, and we find out what else might not be working that we didn’t know about.
People who can calmly state what the problem is, and how it occurred (tell us what you were doing when it happened), are a great help to techies.
So if you get a “non-response” from someone at the bottom of the food chain, holler again. Sometimes the little guys at the bottom of the tech support heap try to put off people with complaints that they can’t fix. Don’t let them. Ask to go to the next level. Keep doing that until you get someone who listens. Be polite, but keep insisting!
Most companies DO want to keep you happy. But sometimes you have to make some noise to get past someone who isn’t helpful. It is worth doing, because for a good company, it can make a difference to more than just yourself. It can help to solve a problem for the entire user base. And that is something to feel proud of.
Being the Person Your Clients WANT to Call
Is there a person at a company that you prefer to reach when you call? I’m talking about a small company where there are three or four employees in a given area, where you might get any one of them. Which one do you enjoy talking with the most?
Why?
When people call you, do they do so because they WANT to talk to you, or because you are the only choice? If you had an office with three or four, would they still want to talk to YOU? Would they want YOU to be their favorite person to deal with?
I’m not talking about a popularity contest. I’m talking about something else instead.
- Courtesy
- Professionalism
- Expertise
- Helpfulness
- Kindness
- Friendship
Do you offer those things? If you hire employees, will they offer those things?
Do your clients want to call you for things that are really a bit outside your expertise, just because they know that if you CAN help, they’ll get the best?
I began thinking about this the other day, when a client was calling repeatedly. How some people, when they reach our office, just want to talk to me. Others will talk to Kevin just fine. What makes them want to talk to one or the other, or willing to accept someone else?
If we kindly help them, then they want to call again. True, that can be a blessing and a curse, but believe me that you do WANT them to call! It keeps the customers happy when they feel you are the person to turn to when they need something.
Our Philosophy Behind Using CRELoaded, Joomla, and CMSMadeSimple
We use free Open Source systems. We don’t do so to be cheap, but merely as a way of producing affordable solutions.
I know that my clients will not be able to afford or justify a yearly subscription fee, and most cannot afford software fees at all unless they are just for a few necessary add-ons. They already have to pay ongoing fees for maintenance, to keep the site software updated. One more fee on top of that is a deal breaker for them, and I know that it will be for others also.
By becoming “just another commercial cart”, I believe that CRELoaded will lose a huge portion of their user base. That, in turn, will reduce the viral nature of a good Open Source project. Joomla, and CMSMadeSimple, which are the other two major software systems that we build site solutions around, do not have any indication of going commercial, though they do have some commercial enhancements.
There are other projects, still free, which have been nipping at the heels of CRE for a long time, and which have made significant progress in the last six months. Our company will be testing those, and adopting the most flexible solution. We have no choice with the market we serve. I’ll report on what we find when we make a choice, and I’ll start testing the two most promising ones today, in between working on a Joomla template.
Our clients give back a great deal over the long term. But they use freely available Open Source software as a means of getting a foot in the door, until they have the means to give back. In the mean time, they are donating time and service, volunteering to move good projects forward, and giving in other ways while they do not have money to give. They are people worth helping, and we keep our own service prices low by building site solutions using Open Source software.
Our company gives back also – we support and assist with several Open Source projects, offering documentation assistance, usability help, and promoting them. We aren’t parasites who are just complaining about the loss of a free tool. We’ve invested in every system we’ve used, and provide training, tips, and encourage their use with both clients, and colleagues. Each system we use has a section in our Trade Association pages, where we are assembling resources and tools for them.
We are not the only company out there that promotes Open Source software, nor which contributes to it. When an Open Source project moves from a freely usable business model, to a commercial business model, they lose a large portion of their user base, and an equally large portion of their contributor base. Active members drop from the help forums, abandon the Wiki, and contributing developers wander away to more promising projects. After all, why should they contribute freely to a project for which someone else makes money but they do not? And why should they develop paid contributions when the likelihood of sales are much lower?
I faced the same issue with Front Porch Folks. I could develop it around a free membership model, a paid membership model, or a combination with free and Premium memberships. Before I made the final decision, I took a poll of the membership. Even though the free model meant ads in places that reduced the value of their membership, most members voted for an ad based revenue model. We had to think creatively to make that work within the structure of that site. But it was worth it, because the support of the members is very strong. They know now that we listen to them, and that we’ll be responsive to their requests. Most of the new members that come in are doing so from promotions that the members are initiating. They know we have to make money from it to keep it going, and they don’t mind that. They just want the most open community possible for networking, and that happens best by keeping it free. The same holds true of Open Source – indeed, that is the power in it.
It is also not wise to load every kind of revenue generation into a project. If you are going to charge for the service, then don’t plague the users with ads at every turn. They already paid for it, and built-in ads that are not a genuine service to the user should be left off.
There is no perfect solution to it all, it is going to be hard any way you do it. But I believe that in this current economy of high competition, and plentiful freebies, that some businesses and products will simply be stronger, and healthier, and be able to earn more, if they remain with a free option.
Note: The opinions expressed in this post are the perceptions of the writer, and should not be interpreted or quoted as fact without corroborrating evidence.
Another Garden Analogy
There is a scriptural reference to seeds that are scattered in good soil, and bad soil, or which receive favorable or unfavorable conditions in which to sprout and grow. It refers to faith – but it makes it very clear that seeds need a good start, and careful tending, to grow. I often think that we ignore this simple truth many times with business, from ignorance, lack of motivation, distraction, impatience, or even greed.
So, in tribute to the comment made by Mitch Allen on my blog post titled Business is Like a Vegetable Garden, I’ll expand on this thought.
I think we often just toss the seeds of business out the window, hoping, like Jack, that they’ll sprout overnight into a great stalk that reaches a pot of gold hidden in the clouds. But Jack is just a fairy tale. Nothing good ever grows that easily.
Many of us, when the first seeds don’t produce the miracle we wanted, will turn around and throw some more seeds out the window, in the vain hope that they’ll sprout and grow by themselves. We may make a token effort to weed or water them, then we give up because they didn’t sprout soon enough, or bear soon enough.
We fail to take the time to clear a suitable spot for them, and to determine that we will give it the time each day to nurture and care for the seeds before they sprout, and then to care for the seedlings until they bear fruit.
Later, we fail to be patient while the plants are growing – we just want the good stuff, and are not content to see the almost imperceptible growth, and accept it as a promise that there will be good things to eat soon.
Whether you plant in pots, or in the yard, you have to follow through, and not get too distracted or impatient. Otherwise, our efforts only result in barren ground where there should have been growth.
Realizing Again How Unique Our Business Really Is
Two years ago when I had the concept for our business, I felt it was unique. I also felt that it was badly needed, and that few others would do it unless we proved that it could be done, first.
So what is the big deal? Lots of web designers say they specialize in small business. Many offer $500 and $300 websites. But they weren’t doing it like we were – and they were struggling to make a profit on the small contracts.
We discovered that there are techniques, skills, and adaptations that completely change the equation for a small website. We learned how to offer a $500 website that contained everything that a small business owner needed, and that they’d usually have to pay more than $1500 to get. What’s more, we learned how to do it efficiently, so that we could still make a handsome profit at it. Everybody wins.
Most small business web professionals are not aggressively exploring ways to cut costs and make things more efficient. You don’t find efficiency being much of an issue until you get into the corporate world. So we are an anomaly – a small business, that works with other small businesses, but which is applying business process management to streamline operations.
That just isn’t being done by most small web designers. It doesn’t occur to most TO do it. If they struggle to keep up with the bills, they simply raise their prices, and eventually price themselves out of the microbusiness market.
I like the people we work with. I like them well enough to want to keep working with them. So I started studying the ROI and price breakpoints for them, specifically. I also analyzed the way we are doing things. When we hit a wall in the profit equation, we revisit the way we do things, we don’t raise prices first.
We also provide a range of services – not just a site design, but many types of sites, and all of them with basic copywriting, SEO, security features, and basic ADA accessibility. We help each client write a policies page, and to present themselves professionally.
I’ve tried to explain how different we are, to both other web professionals, and to customers. Customers don’t get it unless they have previous web designer experience – then they appreciate what we do. Other web professionals generally cannot even wrap their heads around it all, they cannot conceive that there could be a faster way to do what they do, which still results in quality service.
It feels pretty lonely sometimes. I have the whole thing in my head – but it is slowly getting out, and the tools we are developing are slowly making a difference to our clients, and to a few other smart people who have decided that maybe we can teach them a thing or two after all.
It is hard to shake the world when the world can’t even understand the hugeness of a concept, simply because they cannot see how big big really is.
Gardening doesn't have to be that hard! No matter where you live, no matter how difficult your circumstances, you CAN grow a successful garden.
Life from the Garden: Grow Your Own Food Anywhere Practical and low cost options for container gardening, sprouting, small yards, edible landscaping, winter gardening, shady yards, and help for people who are getting started too late. Plenty of tips to simplify, save on work and expense.
