Well, as most of you know, I currently own and operate my own business doing website development and hosting. This past month, I have really learned the importance of managing my business vs. working for my business. Up until these last few months, I’ve always done everything in my business. Finally its grown to a point where I’ve becomed swamped, almost overwhelmed with the amount of work coming in that I’ve had to hire. Thankfully, I’ve found some talented people who I feel have similar vision to myself, and am in the process of training them.

When someone starts their own business, it becomes their baby. When it succeeds, it becomes their pride and joy, and it is often hard to let go of parts. Similar to raising a child (which I hope to experience some day), you need to let go of things to let it grow. I’m confident that once my employees are trained, business will grow more than ever. I’ll be turning over responsibilities and trust to my employees, that they will do better jobs than I at their tasks.

I’m very thankful for my Human Resource class that I took back in May, I learned a great deal of information about managing employees, as well as hiring practices, and the legal ramifications of being an employer. Someone once told me that their biggest event with their own business, was moving from a 1-2 man operation to having 3-5 employees, and business just took off. I’m praying and hoping that I will have a similar experience.

Well, this has been a fairly good summer so far. Besides the fact that it has yet to get warmer than 70 degrees and go for more than 3 days without raining. I finished my Human Resources class that I took in May, and got an A-. I liked taking it as a May class for 3 weeks rather than a regular term class, I learned it better with the accelerated pace.

With my business, it seems like I constantly have 2-3 projects on my plate. I’m currently hiring, and recently met a lady who is going to start working for me, and helping me with web development. I’m excited, as this means that I can focus my time on things that need to get done, besides spending all my time actually making the websites themselves. Now I just need to hire someone to do system administration to help with the long list of projects I have going on with my servers.

Right now, I’m setting a goal for myself. I want my business to acheive $100,000 in the next year. And to start off this goal, I have a short term goal of getting $3000 in sales by the end of June. So I really need to get my butt in gear and start marketing. Thankfully my good friend Mike Frankosky recently finished my new logo for Utaria, and I LOVE IT! I’ve passed the logo on to my good friend Bryce Howitson who is going to do his magic and create a fantastic new web-layout using my new logo for me.

It’s funny how I develop websites for other businesses, and I feel that I do a pretty darn good job at it. Yet I don’t have time to develop my own website! I guess it is a cost-benefit thing, where my time is better spent making sites for clients to bring in money to pay the bills. This is exactly why I need to hire.

This is all for now. I really need to try to blog more, I find that blogging helps me organize my thoughts so I am aware of where I am currently, and I think its cool to read the comments of those who I’ve never met commenting on my life. So, until another day, cheers!

Right now, I’m taking a May class, Human Resource Management. It is 8am to 11am, Monday thru Friday for 3 weeks. It’s a pretty intense class, but I’m doing well (I got an A on the last exam). I really like the course because we are covering the different aspects of Human Resource Management, things like legal regulation on hiring practices, job descriptions, recruitment etc. Basically, a lot of things to do with employment. This is good because right now, I’m looking to hire a new employee or two.

Work has picked up a little for my business. I have several projects on the table that I am working on, and am at the point where for me to grow anymore, I need to hire. I’m excited, yet at the same time, terrified. My big fear is that I’ll hire someone, and have to pay them, but they won’t be a benefit to my business.

Being a small business, I need to examine the cost/benefit for each hire. Ideally, I want to find someone with a similar skillset to myself, who understands some business, and who is willing to help grow the business and make it succeed. Basically, any employee I hire needs to help make the business more profitable, otherwise the employee becomes a liability. So I’ve been putting together a fairly detailed job description, as well as job requirements. But the more I look and focus on that, the harder it is going to be to find someone to fit that job.

So as I pursue this new opportunity/need for my business, I’m really prayerfully considering God’ plan in all of this, where He wants me to be, as well as where He wants my business to progress.

Well, I took my last final last night. And it feels good to be done with class for the semester. Too bad I’m taking a May class, and start class again on Monday!

Work is picking up, I’m getting a few more web design projects lined up. I need to get on the ball more and finish the ones in progress so I can get paid for them. I’m really excited about getting ARCO’s site up and running, I just need to get in touch with them and get the finalized contract signed.

Gerdus did a good job on the latest version of MXR, I like the new admin interface, as it is more intuitive. So it will be easier for me to use and teach others how to use it. For those who are unaware, MXR is the content management system that I use for most of my web development projects. It was coded by Gerdus van Zyl, a hosting customer of mine. It works great, and is a good CMS for designers/developers as it is quite customizable. I hope to be giving Gerdus a lot of work this summer as more projects come in.

I’m looking forward to the next few months. I’m going to focus on re-vamping my YouResell.com site, and doing a big push for resellers. My plans include updated reseller plans, value-added services, and a detailed internet marketing campaign. More details to come!

Well, I havent posted in a while. I have been extremely busy with meeting with potential clients, to working on a new development that has come to me. But I’ve taken a break from it all, and am spending the weekend at my parents house since tomorrow is Mothers Day.

I love my family, they’re all really cool, and I enjoy spending time with them. I especially like the fact that my parents are still married after 23 years. And I never know what I’m going to find when I come home to visit.

I got home yesterday afternoon, and there was a car in the driveway that I didn’t recognize. Its a 2005 silver Saab 93T. I go inside and ask who’s car that is, and my mom says, “It’s mine”. I asked what happened to her old car (a green 2000 Saab 93t that she bought last fall). Well, she traded it in for the new one because the payments were the same and insurance was only $40 more per year. I just had to shake my head… And my friends wonder where I get my spending habits from!

My mom recently got back from a trip to Brazil where she was visiting my Aunt & Uncle (who are missionaries in Brazil). So she had been gone for the last 2 weeks, so I didn’t see her when I was home last. I enjoy spending time with my mom, I like that I can bounce ideas off of her and talk about business stuff, especially since she has had her own businesses too. She recenly sold her Home Healthcare agency that had over 40 employees, and is now starting a promotional product business with my Dad.

Well, time to go help put the Dock, Boat lift, and Boat into the lake.

So, I received a phone call from Charlie at JAARS, an organization that works with the Wycliffe Bible translators. They want me to come and see how I could fit into their ministry, and possibly go abroad, setting up technological infrastructure for missionaries in other countries. I think that this is really cool. One of the things that I’ve wanted to do is grow my business to a point where I can support myself, and then go abroad and be a self employed missionary. If this is the route that God wants me to take, then this is definately a door that is being opened.

So I’m going to call them back later this week, and figure out a time early this summer when I don’t have class to go out to North Carolina for a week and get a feel for what they are doing, and how my skills can be put to use serving with them. If that is a route God wants me to take, I have faith that He will provide for me. I would need to sell my house (I’m planning on this anyways), grow my busines to a point where I can support myself at least minimally, and have a good establishment here in Duluth with an employee or two to make sure the day to day operations keep running smoothly. Then I can do everything I need to do remotely.

I’m excited about this. Ever since last fall, I’ve been getting the itch to travel, and this fits in with what I have been thinking about where I want to take my business.

So yesterday afternoon was really nice. It was 60 degrees and sunny! So I decided to go for a run, to get out of the house, and get some excersize. I ran probably 2, maybe 2.5 miles max (out and back from my house). The thing I learned from that was that I am extremely out of shape.

I used to run cross country back in high school (8-12th grade) as well as Track (8th-11th grade). I loved running, especially distance running. There isn’t a better way to get out, clear your mind, and enjoy nature than to go for a run down a lonesome county park trail.

When I first came to college here in Duluth, I set a goal of running Grandma’s Marathon before I graduate. Well, I havent really ran at all since high school, and I’ll be graduating next spring, so it looks like I need to start training if I want to meet my goal. I’m going to try to get out and run 3 times a week (MWF) as I have time. Actually, I’m going to schedule time into my schedule for running, that way I’ll be more likely to do it.

I think its about time that I add a ‘Goals’ Page so I can keep track of my goals, and others can prod me to stick to them

As I’ve been in this recent time of personal financial stress, it really hit me today the importance and meaning of being frugal. As I work to get myself out of debt, as well as get my business ahead, I’ve been learning firsthand how important it is to cut costs.

The realization became more clear to me as I was making lunch today. My lunch consisted of SPAM sandwiches. I opened a can of SPAM, fried up several slices, melted some cheese, and put it on a couple slices of toasted bread. It really wasn’t a bad meal, it actually tasted pretty good. And in all, it really only cost me, maybe $1.50 at the most to make the 2 sandwiches, and have a glass of coke (from a 2 liter). Now most people don’t consider SPAM a delicacy, and the only reason why I bought it when I was shopping last was because it was $0.89 for a small can, and I remembered eating it as a kid.

I’m still working, and trying to get a strict budget laid out for myself personally. I’m really kicking myself because just yesterday, I ate lunch on campus, and paid $5.50 for a meal that didn’t completely fill me. I could have had 3 meals here at home for the same price. Expand that over the course of a month, and that is a couple hundred dollars a month I can save.

So now, I’m setting myself a goal to not eat out until June 1. I’m going to see how well this goes, if I can break my habit of eating out, or eating fast food (which is less healthy as well). There are only certain times that I’ll allow myself to eat out, and that is if it is for business. For example, if I am meeting with a client or potential client over coffee.

It’s time that I start pinching my pennies, and counting my quarters so I don’t end up nickel & dime’ing my way into the poorhouse.

Well, I am really liking this web design business kit. I’m almost done going through it, and I’ve already started to put some of its knowledge to use! I’ve been in contact with a prospect the last few weeks, and finally scheduled a meeting for next week with them. I just sent off a letter confirming the meeting using one of the form letters included in the kit.

One of the key aspects of business that the Kit stresses over and over is contact with the client. In reality, it is just common sense (or at least, common business sense). But its put in such a way that details how and when to make contact, and how to maintain contact. It includes examples and form letters that Brendon uses in his own design business.

All in all, I feel this kit will really help me boost my business, and I recommend it to anyone who is in Web Design/Development. Even those in web hosting will find usefull info in it. You can find some of the sample chapters from the kit: HERE.

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On another note, I’m in the process of changing my business name. My business is/has been ‘Utaria Web Services, LLC’. I’m re-filing as a C-Corporation, and changing the name to ‘Utaria Solutions, Inc.’. I feel that this will give me a broader service base for my services, as I’m starting to get into the local market with IT consulting. All around, my business is going to focus on providing technological solutions for businesses in Minnesota and abroad.

Now I just get to figure out how much work it is going to be to get my workmans comp insurance changed, along with my EIN/TID and bank accounts etc. all changed over to the new name.

2005 is going to be a big year of growth for Utaria. And I’m excited for it.

This weekend I learned several good lessons. While meeting with a potential client, who became a client, they clued me in on a bit of advice about how to present myself. If you have been to this site before, my tagline used to be “Ramblings of the Village Idiot”, but I have since changed it to “Entrepreneur Extraordinaire” thanks to Jan’s advice.

See, the way we present ourselves to the world, gives people certain first impressions. By my having the tagline, even in jest, suggesting that I am the Village Idiot, it can put people off immediately, and diminish in their eyes, the quality of what I say. Even though my posts here are often meant to be taken tounge-in-cheek, that same feeling can be carried over to other areas of my life online. So from this, I’ve decided to label myself, at least here on this site, in a more positive light. This should not only give me a more positive view of myself, but also let others know that I do know what I’m talking about on certain topics.

I learned another important lesson this weekend about the value of your services, and offering fair value. In the last few months, I’ve been attempting to launch a new brand of hosting called Nerfix Hosting. This brand is catered more to the global community, those looking for higher resources for lower prices. Targeting those who are perhaps, a little more web savvy, and don’t require the hand-holding that local clients often need. Well, it has been a rough few months, with only 2 paid hosting customers signing up. This was a bit of a discouragement, but I still kept heart. I decided that I wanted to have a special of sorts, to entice users to sign up, even if at a small loss, to start building a client base for the brand.

I thought about lowering the price of the plan to a couple dollars a month, but then I though that it would be a bad idea. Part of what Jan told me on Friday, I was already figuring out for myself on Thursday. People place a certain value on a certain price level. For example, my normal hosting rate for Nerfix is $7.77/mo. So potential customers have a preconceived notion of what they value as $7.77/mo worth of hosting. If I were to lower the price to $1-2/mo, they would have an even lower notion of the quality of hosting, just due to the price level of the plan.

So I decided to keep the standard price at $7.77/mo, and offer a coupon code for 75% off the regular price. I advertised this in several forums, and did not post it on the site. Now these same potential customers saw that I was offering a hosting plan with the value of $7.77/mo, at the price of $1.94/mo. That was enough of a bargain that 5 people signed up within the last 2-3 days. That is twice as many had signed up in the last 2-3 months!.

So, I guess the point of this post is, people have a preconcieved notion of the value of things. Whether it is the value of a person, or the value of a service/product. You need to meet that preconcieved value, by offering a fair value, whether it is how you present yourself professionally, or how you price your services.