8 Ways to Sunday

This site has been short on substantial updates for quite awhile, and with good reason. I’ve been busy both wrapping things up at my long-time day job and getting things started at my new web development and graphic design company, Zenscope Studio. Here’s the story.

Out With the Old…

I’ve worked at the same small college in some capacity or another — student help, part time, or full-time — for the last eight years. That’s pretty unusual for someone my age (29 last May), when most others have held half a dozen jobs by now. That’s all changing, however. I’m taking a quick break from cleaning out my desk to post this on my last day working for the college.

I wasn’t fired and I didn’t quit; instead, my position was phased out. I found out about the changes headed my way last October, when the Director of Development (Jill, my immediate supervisor) and the VP in charge of fundraising (Paul, my boss’s boss) took me aside to explain things. For the previous two years, the board of trustees had been asking for a new gift officer in our department. Gift officers are the ones who go out and visit wealthy alumni to ask for the big gifts of about $2,000 or more. We definitely needed another one, but the kicker is that the board didn’t want to grant us the extra budget money for another hire. Basically, they were saying that someone had to be let go. It wasn’t said in my meeting with Jill and Paul, but I wouldn’t be surprised if someone on the board asked “what about that guy with the cryptic job title and hard-to-explain duties?”

A quick lesson in private college political structures: the board of trustees hires and fires college presidents, but the president gets to pick new board members. Fiscal responsibility has been the order of the day around here since our new college president, Dick, took over for a predecessor whose financial management skills left much to be desired. Dick and Paul both wanted to keep me around through the end of the big school-wide database conversion that was in the works, but they had to go to bat for my job with the board for two years to keep me on the payroll. Dick, God bless him, has done a very good job of picking fiscally responsible board members.

Anyway, Dick and Paul both held fast on keeping me where I was, since they knew that my skills would be essential in the conversion. That conversion has ended, however, and they couldn’t stall any longer. After all, even the president works for the board.

…and In With the New

It’s definitely weird leaving the college after working here for almost a decade. I’m grateful that Paul and Jill took the time to explain the behind-the-scenes reasons to me, and I’m not the least bit bitter. I’ve been thinking for some time that I needed to move on, and I’m looking at this as the right kick in the pants at the right time. I’ve been talking about starting my own web design / graphic design business for over a year, and I’m finally moving forward with it now.

My new company is called Zenscope Studio, LLC; my mission (every new business should have a mission) is to help small and mid-size businesses remain competitive in a global economy that’s increasingly dominated by the Wal-Marts and Best Buys of the world. The Zenscope web site still needs a little fleshing out, but it has all the basic info that a potential client could need. There are a lot of cut-rate hacks out there claiming to provide web design and development services to small businesses, and the result is a lot of ugly and ineffective small-business web sites. I’ll be offering this badly under-served group a new, far better option.

I’ve already completed a site for my first professional client, Tucson Hospitality Inn, and have a project preparing to start with a local veterinarian’s office. The vet’s husband is a physician, and his clinic also needs a site. Already, things seem to be moving right along.

Between my last paycheck and the cashing out of my retirement fund, I’ll be able to maintain at the same income level for about 4 months. That should be enough time to get some steam built up with the new biz. Health insurance will come from a group plan offered by my local chamber of commerce; I’d encourage anyone starting a new business to check out local business organizations for similar services.

Zenscope’s Start-Up Special: First 15 Customers Only!

Update: the start-up promotion has now ended.

Although this hasn’t yet been announced on the Zenscope home page, I’m running a special offer to kick off my new business. My first fifteen clients get to take advantage of a special offer — no matter the level of service provided, the cost of the job will be capped at $1,000. It’s a steal for the professional results they’ll get.

The biggest challenge in growing my business will be getting small business owners past the cost of hiring a real professional. Giving my first clients a chance to sample professional-level services at a discount price may help go a long way toward making this happen, especially for customers who’ve had to work with some of the low-budget hucksters in the past.

My message to potential customers, in initial consultations and free educational presentations alike, will be simple: A company’s web site is an investment, just like new equipment or improved facilities — you usually get what you pay for. Always take bids and proposals for your site from more than one company, check references, examine portfolios of past work, and meet with your would-be site builders in person if possible. Even if you don’t choose me to work on your site, following these steps will always get you better results than picking the lowest bidder by default.

Here’s to Entrepreneurship and Other Forms of Madness

I’m excited, I’m scared, and I’m looking forward to the adventure that lies ahead of me. Wish me luck.