2011 Reflections

As the winter weather begins to rear its ugly head here in Tulsa, it seems like a good time to kick back, pull the covers back up over my head, and stay in bed. It's Saturday, I don't have anything too pressing to do, I dropped my daughter at pom practice, my wife's preparing to venture to the OSU/OU Bedlam football game in Stillwater, and my son is still sleeping. There is a 60% chance of significant snow Monday, and I'm not ready for winter. What about you?

It's been a few weeks since my last newsletter. Since that time I have begun to sew up my major projects for the year, and to reflect on what's worked and what hasn't. This is always a time of learning and readjusting for the coming year.

2011 was a choppy year for me. Revenues are down about 50%, but through God's good graces, we made it through. Lots of anxiety and worries along the way, but the mere fact that we made it gives me reassurance that He will always provide for me and my
family. And to think of all the years I used to worry about things like that. A lot of wasted energy over things I can not control.

2011 was also a year of simplification. For over a decade I managed multiple online businesses in addition to over 100 web site domains. Trying to keep all of those sites current was a bear, and as my consulting took up more and more time, it became virtually impossible to keep up with it all. Finally, this year I decided to close up shop on my electronic publishing business, Ebookomatic, and shut down dozens of web sites. I've kept less than a dozen and focused my energies on improving their design
and content.

One of the many projects still in limbo is Very Cool Tools. I wanted to create my own membership site for reseller products. I've grown so weary with the poor quality of most reseller membership sites, and wanted to do something good for people.

What I learned along the way about setting up membership sites was worth its weight in gold. There's money to be made there for sure, but developing new products every month is time consuming. Coming up with the product idea is easy; bringing that idea to fruition is difficult.

This year I wrote four new ebooks and created one new software product. Our goal was to launch the membership site with the first 12 month's of products in place, so we would be one year ahead. What I didn't count on was the economy affecting my development team in Pakistan. My counterpart there has moved to Dubai to escape the political unrest, and he has started a new company. So while he still is available to me and wants to continue our 6 years of collaboration, he has different priorities and responsibilities to deal with. Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men.

I also shut down my own web server which I have run for more than a decade. I moved all my remaining web sites to a hosted server at Host Gator. While it was technically easy to do so, I am still learning about the fine differences between managing a Windows and Linux server. Chief difference that impacted my business until recently was that Linux links are case sensitive. Thus almost all of my links between pages and sites and download pages were broken.

I didn't realize how big a problem this was for over a month until I saw my sales and revenue plummet to zero. Once I realized what the issue was I quickly started to correct all broken links, and now sales are beginning to trickle in again. I probably lost $2K in revenue over those broken links. Ugh. Hard lesson to learn.

>From a consulting perspective, this year I began to change my sales and marketing approach. For instance, I used to provide a free web site analysis with a free 10 page review in order to prove my value to a new prospect. They loved my analysis and
frequently implemented my fixes on their own or with the help of someone less expensive. So now I charge for my time up front, and I deduct the cost of the analysis if the prospect awards me the project.

I'm also getting more serious about offering coaching services. After a recent introductory engagement with 13 new companies in the same industry, it became very clear that company owners and founders really appreciate my broad background and my ability to speak to them about just about anything. They appreciated my honesty, my
empathy, my faith, and my positive attitude. So I've added a coaching page to my web site and we'll see what happens.

I see much greater opportunity in serving clusters of companies in associations rather than individual clients, and will be looking for more of these opportunities in the future. If you or someone you know belongs to either a professional association or
an informal collection of companies, and you want to do some projects together, contact me to learn how I can assist you. Having a project manager or administrator to assist you with project planning and implementation is essential to long term
success.

This year has also been a year of growth for me on the performance side. Most of my subscribers know I have a fun side to my life which involves my second profession as a magician. This year I stopped performing at one public venue and started doing more private shows. This December I have seven shows and will be busy right up to the holidays. I am excited and very grateful and excited to be performing again. I love doing magic for people because it brings smiles to their faces, and it also generates additional income. It's great. I love it.

And so now it is time to plan for 2012 and to prayerfully implement a new business strategy which will hopefully bring me back into more fruitful territories. I hope the economy hasn't impacted you too badly, but if it has, I urge you to remain strong in your faith, and to begin to analyze the past year. Look for ways to change your strategy, drop what isn't working or drains your time, and to focus on the core things you do best and that brings you the most joy. Where there is a will, there is a way.

Until next time,


Steven