Adam McFarland

Finally at 11:50 AM a day later Detailed Image is up and running and orders started coming through immediately.  Having a dedicated server with a dual-core processor and 1 GB of RAM is fast…very fast.  I’m liking this already.  Considering when I started out with SportsLizard I barely could navigate my own control panel, I think I did a pretty good job under pressure to set up and config the server for the first time.

For the one issue I had, Liquid Web’s support passed the test - I received THREE emails from them between 4 AM and now.  The first was acknowledgment of the issue and a note that he was looking into it (not an automated response, but a real person!).  This was only about an hour after I submitted the help ticket.  Then - after the issue was fixed a few hours later - I got another email from the same person asking me if everything was OK and providing me with some info on what happened.  Finally, I just got a courtesy email from a customer support manager asking if everything went OK and how I was doing with the new server.  I’m impressed.

I am now about 1,000% more knowledgeable in less than a day of doing this stuff.  Every other issue I ran into I was able to find a tutorial or video to watch somewhere online to help me learn what I needed to do.  The best part is that now we’ve got all of this under our control and moving forward we aren’t relying on someone else.

Only bad news is that our business insurance doesn’t kick in until 72 hours of downtime, so we aren’t going to get much (if anything) from our claim.  Oh well, at least we’re familiarizing ourselves with the process.  According to George, the insurance company seemed to never have actually processed an e-commerce claim before.  You’d think that would be more common but I guess not.

Personally, I’m worn out.  There’s a lot of work left, but I’m going to take some time off and get away from the chaos sometime in the next week or two once everything is settled.

Before moving Detailed Image to the new server I decided to move PureAdapt.com.  The reasoning behind this was two-fold:  it would give me a test run with a site that wasn’t super important and it also was preferred to move this overnight because our email hosting with Google takes a little while to configure.

Around 10 PM last night I started running into issues with cPanel.  Of course, being a server newbie I decided I did something wrong.  I didn’t.  Finally at 3 AM I gave up and contacted Liquid Web support.  The good news is that they passed the test and fixed the problem with the server configuration within an hour.

So after a quick nap it’s now 7:40 AM and I’m finally getting to Detailed Image.  Should be up by early afternoon at the latest.

Side story - last night around 9 PM I decided to run to the grocery store because I was completely out of food.  With my mind pre-occupied, I basically ran around like a chicken with my head cut off, completely taking the longest possible route in the history of grocery shopping to pick up 11 items.  I couldn’t possibly have gone back and forth from one side of the store to another without forgetting something any more times than I did.

Today was just one of those days where everything that could go wrong went wrong.  When it rains, it pours, and the flood gates were open today.  The good news is that our server problems are now in our control:  the server is up and running so it’s just a matter of me migrating the files and databases and making everything play nice before changing the domain nameservers to our new server.

Last week - when I was in a decidedly better mood - I was thrilled that we finally “weathered the storm” and turned the corner.  I said “these are the times you live for as a business owner.”  Maybe so, but what we’re going through right now is what makes those times so great.  I’ve been working since 7 AM (now 7 PM) and I’m not going to bed until DI is up.  Armed with a four-pack of sugar-free Red Bull I’m as dialed in and focused as I have ever been…and it’s not going to wane as the night goes on.   In a way, I love the pressure.  I thrive under the pressure.  I want the pressure - it makes me feel alive.  The adrenaline rush that I get after banging out a time-sensitive task like this is second to none.

Since there’s lots of waiting when doing this stuff, I’ll try to post updates as I go.  Sort of like that wacky Twitter thing that the kids these days are all into

Sometimes owning your own business isn’t so fun.  I know it’s a total cliche, but if it was easy everyone would do it.

We had what we thought was a great situation for our web hosting. One of George’s friends from college runs a small hosting company. The server we are on has only a few sites in addition to ours, is blazing fast (4 GB of RAM I believe), and extremely affordable. While the company was a one man operation, we were generally satisfied with the level of service. All in all, nothing to complain about.

Unfortunately on Friday night one of the nameservers (that he does not control) went down….it’s still down, causing Detailed Image to load sloooooow. We eventually learned that the company controlling the nameserver was recently sold and our server manager was going through hell trying to get in touch with the people who could fix it. Not his fault, but a cause for us to re-evaluate our situation.

We decided that our sites are too large now for this to be out of our control. The cost of a managed dedicated server is essentially negligible for what we’re doing in sales. Prior to this we didn’t have a compelling reason to move. Now we do, so we did. After spending quite a bit of time researching, we pulled the trigger on a managed dedicated server from Liquid Web.

The next few days I’ll be scrambling to migrate our sites. Not the way I really wanted to be doing this, but the end result will be more control in-house of something that’s critical to our business.

As for the lost sales: our business insurance covers e-commerce revenue caused by forces outside of our control, so we’re already starting the claims process to recoup some of the lost revenue. Once everything is up and running again we’ll be profusely apologizing to all of our customers and offering discounts & specials.

Should we have probably done this prior to now? I guess so. But hindsight is always twenty-twenty. The best we can do now is move forward and continue to put as many systems in place to prevent future issues.

Back in February we made the somewhat difficult decision to self-fund our move and expansion by not paying ourselves for three months.  In retrospect, this was a riskier move than I think we all realized.  It’s really, really stressful to see your bank account dwindling without anything to replenish it.  It’s also really, really stressful to work 12 hour days and see nothing in return.  That said, it was the best move we ever could have made.

Taking no pay brought us together as a team - we united around the fact that we needed to work our asses off to get paid again. It also motivated each individual.  While stressful for me, the desperation of the matter made me block out the rest of the world for a while and dial in 100% to the task at hand.

And right around the launch of Tastefully Driven, it all started to pay off:

• We no longer had to commit time to moving and expanding
• Our initial warehouse expenses were gone and replaced with manageable fixed monthly costs
• The marketing we had worked so hard on has resulted in several months in a row of record sales.  We are consistently doing 3-4X monthly revenue from the corresponding month last year, which was on the high side of our estimations.
• We found a great new accountant to replace the unsatisfactory one we fired during tax season (who by the way seems to have cost us approximately $6,000 last year that we could have avoided….good accountants are valuable, lesson learned)
• We secured a large line of credit with our local bank.  We didn’t need it, but it doesn’t cost anything and ties in with our existing bank account, so it was a no brainer to apply for and have in our back pocket for future expansion if we need it.

All of this led us to the decision to start paying ourselves again early.  So yesterday, almost a month earlier than planned, I walked into the bank and cashed my first check.  Sure, I’m making exactly what I was a few months ago but it just felt so much better to cash this check, mostly because I know we’ve weathered our storm and are able to cover all expenses, pay ourselves, and profit - something we thought might take a lot longer to achieve.  We could have paid ourselves a raise, but we decided to play it conservative and do this for a few months just in case sales unexpectedly dip.  Come mid-summer, I expect we’ll be able to give ourselves another raise, which will be significant because it’ll give us each a little breathing room financially on a personal level.

Sometimes business risks like not paying yourself can backfire.  This one could have been the start of us falling apart if warehouse costs were more than expected and sales were less than expected.  Thankfully, a lot has gone right lately and everything paid off.  Looking back a few months, this post is probably the best possible outcome to our situation.  These are the times you live for as a business owner.

It’s easy to become jaded and begin to dislike your customers for askinng you the same questions over and over again. In a way, who can blame you: 99% of the interactions with customers that most businesses have are repetitive and don’t do much to make you a better business owner. Then - every once in a while - someone comes along and gives you a simple idea that’s so obvious you kick yourself and say “duh, why wasn’t that already on our to-do list?”

The other day in the comments field of a Tastefully Driven order someone said: “please include a card saying ‘Happy Birthday - Love Patty and John’”. My first thought was we don’t do that. Then we had a conversation and realized that not only should we do it, we should make it a policy to allow our customers to do it for free with any order.

See, Detailed Image’s holiday season is the summer, when people obsessively care for their cars. In the past it hasn’t really been a traditional holiday-driven e-commerce site like most. As volume has picked up we’ve become increasingly aware of holiday-specific marketing. We also quickly realized that many of the products on Tastefully Driven are great gifts and that TD needs to capitalize on holiday orders to be successful. We were planning on starting with Father’s Day next month but hadn’t really talked strategy yet.

This order sparked that discussion, and it became pretty obvious that allowing people to include a custom card at no charge was a no-brainer decision. We figure that as long as we do a good job making our customers aware of this service they will take advantage of it on holidays/birthdays. I think we’ll also probably give them the option of having it shipped without the receipt in case they don’t want the recipient to know the price.

Yesterday morning I ran to CVS and picked up 10 blank cards for ~$6. We decided that was too expensive to pay for a card if we were going to offer this for free. After looking around online at blank cards, we decided it would be far cheaper to use our wholesale printing account where we can get 1,000 custom tent cards (3.5″ X 4″ with a fold in the middle) for $54.99, or ~5 cents a card. Below are the designs that we’re having printed up. We will then hand-write the message on the inside of the card…check that, Mike will hand-write the message because the rest of us write like a five year old.

The long hours and constant stress of running a business are offset by the fact that after working a 12 hour day George and I can go back to the warehouse and play a fierce game of warehouse hockey at 10 PM…using our shipping dock as a goal.

Lately I’ve been realizing just how fast technology changes. In December I wrote an article about our company embracing the open source software alternatives:

So we came up with a plan. We would have a set of desktop workstations (one to start) that have the full Adobe Creative Suite Master Collection (the $2,500 one) and Microsoft Office Professional 2007. Our laptops would then use the OSALT (open source alternative). Aside from that warm and fuzzy feeling you get from using great open source software, this move will save us thousands of dollars each year. We figure that 95%+ of tasks can be complete with the OSALT, but when we need to use the standard software for better performance or file compatibility we’ll have desktops at our disposal. The only way this really breaks down is if the 95% doesn’t hold up (in which case we’d probably buy a copy of the software needed for that individual) or if too many people *need* the desktops at one time.

In the comments Anthony from Xonatek and I had a great back-and-forth about taking our mentality a step further utilizing Google Apps and free web based software.  Ultimately, we didn’t change our plan at the time but the conversation left the thought in the back of my mind.

Just before we moved into the warehouse George’s computer died and we lost all of his data.  I personally was doing an OK job of backing up my files, but we didn’t yet have a company backup plan (something I planned on doing once we settled in).  The more I thought of it, the harder the idea of a backup plan became because we’re always on the move.  You can’t set your laptop to auto-backup at midnight if it’s in a different location each night at midnight.  What happens if it’s suspended or shut down?  If it backs up as soon as you boot up that could bother you and prevent you from performing a time-critical task.  If it skips the backup that defeats the purpose.

More and more I decided the route to go was not to back anything up, but to have everything stored on the web.  Aside from not needing to schedule and perform backups, you can also work from any internet-ready device at close to full capacity.  The downside of course is that if you have a slow internet connection many of the apps straight up suck.  We combat this by having the open source alternative installed on the hard drives on all of our computers.  We also still purchase software when necessary:  for example, Mike has a copy of Adobe Photoshop CS3 that isn’t really replaceable  with an open source alternative for the graphics work he does.  We also sort of killed the idea of a super duper master $5,000 PC - what’s the point when almost everything is online anyway?

Here’s how we have it set up:

• We use Google Apps for:
  • Email hosting through Gmail.  This is for our @pureadapt.com emails.  For the rest of the emails (sportslizard, iprioritize, tastefullydriven, etc) I use the mail fetcher to take a copy of each incoming email off of the server and put it in an appropriate folder.  It leaves the message on the server for me to download in Thunderbird (still my email client of choice), acting as a great auto-backup.  I also set it up so I can reply from any of those email accounts via Gmail if I’m on the road and don’t have access to my Thunderbird on my laptop.
  • Docs, Spreadsheets, and Presentations for our office suite.  We’ve already had quite a bit of great collaboration on some docs and spreadsheets that otherwise would have been emailed back and forth a bunch of times.  Far more useful than I anticipated.
  • Google Sites to replace our Wiki’s.  We have one wiki for just the owners that has critical info in it and a second wiki that employees will have access to that has all of the important processes (like how to pack and ship an order).
  • Google Calendar to manage our schedules.  We don’t use it much, but it’s an easy way to set up a meeting with everyone without having a big chain of emails back and forth.
  • The company start page where you can access all of these things.  I can’t over-emphasize how nice it is to have one login for everything.
  • The Remember the Milk plugin for the company start page as a shared task manager (ironically, I had someone email me the other day ripping Remember the Milk and saying iPrioritize was far better…maybe so, but iP doesn’t have a plugin like this…suppose that’s my fault…)
• Xdrive for storing other files like our Quickbooks backup, database backups, PDF files, PSD files, etc.

So far it’s going great.  The coolest part for me has been that it has opened up a whole new world of devices away from my laptop where I can work.  I went from working solely on my one powerhouse laptop (dual core processor, 2 gb ram, etc) to now sometimes using my desktop for its 22″ monitor when I need more space.  I even pulled the trigger on an ultra portable Eee PC for when I’m on the go.  For $399 I figured I could reduce the wear and tear on my current laptop (especially the hard drive - the Eee has a solid-state hard drive which is much better for traveling) and reduce the amount of stuff I need to carry on a regular basis while still remaining almost as productive as I would be on my lapper.  Linux took some time getting used to, but with the help of EeeUser.com I’ve become addicted to hacking up this little device.  I’d say at this point I could work solely from the Eee PC for a few weeks with very little productivity loss.  I wrote a full review over on the Tastefully Driven blog, but take a look at how much smaller it is compared to my current lapper:

Random happenings not worthy of a full post…

• This weekend I’ll be moving to a new apartment so the posts might be slow for the next few weeks.
• Check out this little analysis I did over on TD:  Gas Prices Got You Down?  Buy Online…Really
• Thanks to the NBA and NHL playoffs my sleep schedule is all f*cked up again. I’m still getting up at 6, but going to bed really late means I need to take a nap in the afternoon….which kind of sucks.

“For everything you have missed, you have gained something else; and for everything you gain, you lose something else.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

The word sacrifice is often associated with entrepreneurs. Young business owners like myself often get peppered with questions about making less money or living with their parents or spending less time at the bar with friends, all in the name of their company. As you get older you usually have to deal with paying a mortgage, balancing a marriage, and spending time with your kids.

It’s easy to second guess your decision to start a company. One truth that has always helped me: it is not humanly impossible to have everything in life. There are always tradeoffs with every decision you make, every day, large or small. Some people might look like they have it all together - they don’t. I’m sure you envy Michael Jordan for all of his fame and success…but I’m sure he envies you for being able to take a stroll in the park with your girlfriend without getting mobbed.

We’re in an interesting position with our company right now in the sense that our large development projects are done and DI/TD sales are good enough that we can all take our foot off the pedal just a little bit. From this point on I think we could each work a 40 hour work week (or probably a little less) and the company would still grow. In the 2+ years since I left my job I’ve never quite been in this position. It makes you really, really think about your choices and how you spend your time.

Adam Gilbert did a series of posts about How to Tell if Someone is Full of Shit a while back. His way of finding out what is really important to someone: take a look at their calendar. We all have a finite time to spend on earth and how we spend it tells others what we truly care about.

A lot of people always talk about what they want to do, what they want to accomplish, what they meant to do, their intentions, how they want to change the world and on and on and on.

It seems as though everyone has intentions of doing big things. Clearly, sadly and unfortunately, that’s not the case. Most people are talkers, rather than doers. Let’s face it. It’s a lot easier to talk than do.

In a world where people are moving a million miles per minute how can you actually tell what someone really cares about?

Look at their calendar! It’s that simple.

Your calendar never lies. All we have is our time. The way we spend our time is our priorities, is our strategy. Your calendar knows what you really care about.

I never understand people who work 20 hour days yet preach about how important their family is to them. Really?

I’m not trying to say that running a business isn’t hard or doesn’t require tough decisions (read any random five posts on this blog and it’s evident we’ve gone through our fair share of struggles as a company and that I’ve had many of my own personal frustrations). My point is this: stop saying “what if?” and “I wish I did that”. Think really hard about what’s important to you and find a way to spend time doing that. If you factor that into every decision to make, there’s no reason to second guess yourself. “Failures” are learning experiences just as much (or more than) “successes”.

Every once in a while I ask myself “what if” about an array of topics (business, sports, life, relationships) and I always come to the same conclusion: I’ve spent my time doing what I love most, each and every day. Several times I’ve even written out my “ideal day” on a sheet of paper and each time I realize that it pretty closely resembles my real day right now…how cool is that? Sure there are other things I’d like to do. Sure I’d like a little more work-life balance. But how can I call what I’ve done “sacrifice” when I’ve gained so much in return? Just because what I do is different from what most people do in their twenties doesn’t make it any harder or any easier than the norm. As I age and priorities change, my ideal day will change and in turn so will my real day. In the meantime, I’ve met so many great people and had so much fun building our company that I can’t imagine anything making me happier.

Like most companies we use our business credit cards quite a bit. In turn, we get quite a few rewards points which result in all sorts of gift certificates. A little over a month ago we got a $40 gift certificate to NFLShop.com. No one else really wanted it, and there was a DVD for $39.99 that I did want, so my partners were nice enough to let me use it. I placed the order and when it arrived it was the wrong DVD.

Freeze it right here. In this situation, here’s what we would do: have the customer ship us the item back, immediately re-ship the correct item, apologize profusely, and throw something extra in for free/give them a credit towards a future purchase. If they need the order by a certain date (say to do a detail) we will work with them to overnight them their order…on occasion we even let them keep the wrong order and expedite the correct order. It’s our mistake, and we go above and beyond to make it right with the customer. It’s what any person or business should do: apologize and make amends.

So what did NFLShop do when I called? They told me to ship the item back, but that they only accept returns (not exchanges). They said they would refund my credit card and I could place the order again. Only one problem - I paid via gift certificate. Couldn’t they just ship me the correct DVD once they got my return? Nope - they had to re-issue me a new gift certificate which took about six weeks. A few days ago I got my new gift certificate. Yesterday I placed my order again, and I should finally get my DVD almost 2 months after the initial order.

Hey NFLShop - great job turning a simple exchange into a complex process. Even more kudos for making no effort whatsoever to correct your mistake.

Why do some companies have such a hard time with simple business policies that should seemingly be so intuitive?