It is Thanksgiving evening, November 26th 2009 and is my yearly tradition to reflect on the past year.
My goal for this year was to simplify, organize and try to get some of my projects done. I did make some progress on those goals. But old habits are hard to break. Still working on a few of the goals and I am closer on completing my first book.
This post covers many of my thoughts on that thought process [ Click Here To Read ].
I do want to take this time and share what I’m thankful for.
First and foremost I’m thankful for my wife who is there for me day after day to support and console me on life’s challenges and successes. I’m thankful for two healthy daughters and this year I’ve been blessed by two grandchildren, Logan my 5 month old grandson by my oldest daughter Kellianne and her husband Kyle, and Amy my 3 week old grand daughter by my youngest daughter Jessica and her husband Dustin. Pictures can be seen on ThatOneGrandpa.com (Yes, if you hadn’t guessed I’m a proud grandpa.)
Next i’m thankful for my business partner Zachary McCullough who puts up with my sanity and our Office Assistant Sue Thompson who helps keeps things in order and moving forward.
I’m thankful for my Accountability Partner Val Dawson who checks in on a weekly to hold me accountable to move forward and see real progress. I’m thankful for my internet friends and business partners and Armand Morin’s AM2 Group for their leadership and direction. I’m thankful for my weekly mastermind meetings with Bret Ridgway and Bryan Hane who help brainstorm ideas and give feedback on projects in progress.
I’m thankful that I live in a country where I can Worship in the church of my choosing, and have the opportunity to own and operate a business. I’m also thankful that we are able to openly express our opinions and freely discuss what is on our minds.
And I’m definitely thankful for those of you who take the time to follow my blog, read and buy my products and training course, and those of you who take the time to give me feedback, suggestions and ideas.
I’d love to hear from you about what you are thankful for and hear about your success for this past year.
Thanks so much and I hope you have a great holiday season.
Yes this year
All the best and much success in everything you do! Frank Deardurff III - That One Web Guy!
I’ve been thinking about this recently and thought I’d write about it here.
In the process of taking the steps to grow my business I realized I need to figure out where my business “IS” before I can build upon it.
Now my original thinking was this. I had gotten so busy “DOING” my business I’d lost sight of where I’m making money, where I’m spending money and where I’m loosing money.
In loosing money I mean, leaving money on the table in different areas, or not tracking billable time.
So during this thought process I decided to open up a spread sheet and start listing my websites, adding information such as domain, where it’s hosted and so on but also started to list if there was an opt-in page, url to sales page, thank you page etc.
Well in this exercise I noticed there were a lot of domains bought on a whim that “sounded” like a good idea. This got me thinking a little differently about my original thought “WHERE is my business?” Meaning not necessarily the position my business is in, but where is my business focus what area should I be focusing my business in training? development? service? applications?
Although I’ve yet to determine where my business is I realized by scattering my focus or looking to many places to make money, I may be loosing sight on what is making me the most money and what I enjoy doing most.
So the next plan of attack is to finish up the website list get rid of what isn’t making money. Look at what is bringing in money, determine if I want or like doing that part and focus the energy there to build my business further.
Obviously you have to figure where you are at before you can determine where you are going and if you have nothing to measure from you cannot determine growth.
Have you asked your self recently “Where is my business?” If so what steps did you take to refocus, measure or grow? I’d love to here your feedback on this.
All the best and much success in everything you do! Frank Deardurff III - That One Web Guy!
Over the past month I’ve been trying Google Docs I’ve used it in the past in a pinch but recently I decided to use it on a more regular basis. My goal for this year is to “simplify” and doing that I’ve been looking at ways to be able to work more readily where ever I need to and by using Google apps have allowed me to do that.
I’ve been working on my current project “50 Biggest Website Mistakes” and decided to finish the writing in Google docs. I still save a copy to my hard drive and that’s when I noticed that the file size of the new documents that I created in Google Docs are 3-4 times smaller in file size.
At first I thought maybe it was because the document was shorter so I decided to copy the text in the Google Docs and open up Microsoft Word. Then I simply pasted that information into the new document and saved in the same .rtf format. (Just FYI rtf stands for Rich Text Format.)
Next I compared the two document file sizes the one created in Google Docs was just 7k in size where as the Microsoft Word Document was 34k in size nearly 5 x larger in file size. Ok, you’re probably thinking well 27kb is really not that big of a deal but over time it slow eats away at your valuable space on your hard drive. Just think I’ve been creating each of these 50 Biggest Website Mistakes as individual documents for various reasons. I could either consume 350Kb of space on my hard drive or 1,700Kb that’s 1,350Kb or 1.3 Mega Bytes of wasted space.
That can easily rack up several hundred Mega Bytes of storage in no time at all.
Just an observation I thought I would share.
All the best and much success in everything you do! Frank Deardurff III - That One Web Guy!
Over the past week I’ve ran into some unavoidable interruptions in my daily procedures.
Things where I had to be away from my PC and yes before I continue I did suffer from Discomgooglation which is symptoms when people are deprived of ability to get their Internet “fix.” Any way as I was saying I was trying to brainstorm on ideas of how to make sure that I could still be productive or prepared for being “offline” in case of emergencies power outages and things such as that.
So what I’ve done this far is to make sure that I have my to do list up to date. I’ve been currently using the “Things” iPhone application recommended to me by Sylvie Fortin (thanks again Sylvie) this has been quite helpful. I’ve also been trying to keep all of my notes in Evernote which has an iPhone app that syncs with a web account and a desktop account so everything stays in order.
To keep track of time I’ve been utilizing an app called “TimeLogger” but that keeping track of time helps me stay productive as I see where I spend time or loose time and try to hold myself more accountable to track time.
As of this week I’ve been using Google docs more as well so that I can access any writing or info I need to from where ever. Unfortunately you cannot currently edit Google docs on the iPhone but I can write any updates in my Evernote and paste it over later.
Buy keeping key things digitally I can access it anywhere mostly from my iPhone when out. Also I’m going back to carrying at least an index card on me in case there is no power in the lifeline uh er iPhone.
One more application I’ve been using more of is DropBox comes in handy for keeping files synchronized over multiple locations.
Also I have a book on hand near buy in case I run out the door so that I’ll have some sort of learning with me in the case of waiting rooms or just down time.
I’m focusing on trying to simplify and prioritize this year and I’m curious to here what methods and systems you use to achieve this.
All the best and much success in everything you do! Frank Deardurff III - That One Web Guy!
It is Thanksgiving evening, November 26th 2009 and is my yearly tradition to reflect on the past year.
Over the past month I’ve been trying Google Docs I’ve used it in the past in a pinch but recently I decided to use it on a more regular basis. My goal for this year is to “simplify” and doing that I’ve been looking at ways to be able to work more readily where ever I need to and by using Google apps have allowed me to do that.
Over the past week I’ve ran into some unavoidable interruptions in my daily procedures. 
on the iPhone but I can write any updates in my 
