OnQ

On Domains

Today was domain issue day. Two separate issues from two separate clients both ended up related to Active Directory and domain problems.

One client had a laptop that had been getting the infrequent 1030 userenv errors (no 1058 errors, just the 1030's). Today, she changed the password on her account, and suddenly she was unable to access resources on the server after a reboot. Plus, some lovely 1080 userenv errors started appearing. A quick remove from the domain and a rejoin took care of it.

I had another client with a number of strange errors related to DNS and domain activity on a server that had been promoted to a DC in his SBS network. After digging around in the event logs, it looks like the initial dcpromo never really took the first time, but there were no outward signs that the process had failed. A dcpromo down to member server status and a dcpromo back to a DC should take care of it.

Just seemed a bit odd, that's all...

On Resumes

I apparently need to pull my old resume off the net, wherever it might be. I got a call this evening from someone who wanted to screen me for a position in their company. Within a few seconds, I found out that an agency had sent my resume to this company and noted that it was an older resume, but apparently it was still impressive enough for the company to want to talk to me anyway.

Here's what is really interesting - the company wanting to screen me was Microsoft. The last time I updated my resume was before I went to work at Microsoft. I guess that means it wasn't a fluke that Microsoft hired me the first time around...

On Completion

Talk about a relief! 100% of the initial writing of the book was completed this past week. 24 chapters, an appendix, and an introduction, all done. The actual time span of the initial writing took just over six months, due to a lot of time conflicts. But, the source material is done, and 75% of the initial review has been completed. Still should have the book out in December.

So I can take a moment to celebrate reaching a small milestone in the project. Well, I guess it's more than a small milestone, but it's not the end of the project by a long shot. Still, I don't have to worry about having more chapters to write.

On Upselling

How sad is it that I've become so used to being upsold every place I go that I hardly notice it any more? I just know that at the end of my desired transaction, whether it's at my favorite drive in ("Would you like to Sonic size that combo?") or at a technology reseller ("Would you like to purchase service protection for that iPod?") I'm used to saying "No" a few more times at the end of every transaction I make. I've been known to try and upsell my customers, but only to provide them with a service I think they need, not one that I make a huge profit margin on.

But the other day, I heard upselling like I never thought possible at a place I never would have expected it:

The US Post Office.

First, I had to wait in line for 20 minutes to get a single stamp to mail an envelope to Canada (from which you can deduce that I do not live in Canada, eh?) and heard the two postal service agents that were working the line offer multiple upsells to each and every customer they had. Are things so bad for the Postal Service that they have to try and upsell every single person that comes through the line? Seriously, I heard one of the agents trying to upsell a package shipment from First Class to Priority Mail at a cost of $6.95, and the package might get there a half day earlier. To her credit, the customer said "No," but she had to say it twice. Another customer was subjected to four different upsell options before the agent finally closed the transaction.

I was steeled for the upsell onslaught when I got to the agent and asked for my "one first-class stamp for this letter to Canada." I was disappointed. I got my stamp and a "thank you very much" and I was on my way.

I did come away with one positive, though. One of the agents told a customer never to come in on a Monday. Mondays and the first day after a holiday are the worst times tom try and come to the Post Office, according to the agent. That, I figure, he probably knows something about...

On Updating

Sometimes installing the latest and greatest isn't the best move to make. I've followed this mantra for years when it comes to NIC drivers on workstations and servers, and I almost always test updates before rolling them into production.

Apparently, that didn't help when it came to updating my blogging software. Here's what happened:

I've been running Movable Type for a little over a year now. When I first installed Movable Type to run the Lessons Learned blog, it was right after they released version 3.0, and the installation went really smoothly. Over the next nine months or so, there were several updates released for Movable Type. The "upgrade" process wasn't a really smooth one, so I passed on several of the updates. I did finally break down and upgrade to 3.15 to try and help cut down on some of the comment and trackback spam on the blog, but eventually just turned off comments and trackbacks altogether.

When I set up OnQ with Movable Type, version 3.17 was available so I installed that. The installation went well, but I still didn't see a need to update Lessons Learned. However, about a month ago, Movable Type 3.2 was released, and it had some significant feature changes. So, this past weekend, I opted to upgrade to 3.2 from 3.17, especially since the upgrade process looked much simpler than before.

That's where I was wrong.

Through no fault of the Movable Type install, once I got the new code up on my site, it failed to run. The codebase changed the way it operates IIS servers, which is what WebHost4Life, the hosting service I'm using for this site and a few other, runs on. Fortunately, I'm smart enough to do a complete backup of the blog data and the Movable Type installation before I get started just in case something goes horribly awry. Unortunately, I burned several hours trying to realize what was going on.

So, the blog is back online (well, it was never actually off-line, I just couldn't add any posts to it) and I'm moving forward again. Is there anything I could have done differently to make the transition to the new software easier? Not really. But I certainly need to remember that everything is not always as easy as it seems, and what looks to be a 30-minute process might take a little longer.

On Reviews

Not surprisingly, there has been a lot of activity in the SBS2K and SmallBizIT Yahoo mailing lists regarding the SMB Nation conference that about 500 of us attended. There's even been some banter about one of the presenters that preceded the event and is still going on. Several folks posted their comments about the conference directly in the list (David Schrag, Larry Lentz, Tim Sullivan, etc.) and others summarized their positions in their blogs (Vlad Mazek, Anne Stanton). I personally have done a bit of both. I blogged on my thoughts during the conference, and I've responded to several posts on the mailing lists. Rather than give yet another summary of what I thought about the conference or any of the topics at the conference, I thought I'd share this instead:

It's not about the technology, it's about the people.

Time and time again, I keep waking up to this realization, and I guess it's what separates me from a majority of technology folks out there, SBSers excluded (they seem to "get it" too). Perhaps that's why I've been singled out for senior/management positions when I've been in tech gigs, I don't know. But what I do know is that the number one priority in my job right now is helping people. Sure, I generally focus on solutions for their technology issues, but the bottom line is that the focus must be on the person, not on the box.

You heard echoes of that throughout the conference. In Susan and Dana's security presentation the message was "you must have the policy in place before you can use technology to enforce it." In the marketing and sales presentations, the message was "listen for the pain points and answer those, don't just spout technology for technology's sake." Even in Jeff Middleton's plan to start rebuilding the small business infrastructure in New Orleans, the focus was not on getting the technology in place for the businesses, it is getting the people taken care of so they can pick up the lion's share of the rebuilding process themselves.

Those who never get this insight will be destined to be technicians forever, and I don't just mean in computing. You can excel at any trade (construction, jewelry design, accounting, HVAC, financial planning, secretarial, mechanic, etc.), but until you realize and live the "people first" aspect of your trade, you will continue to be a tradesman. And if your goal in life is to work in a trade for another company, more power to you.

But if you choose to work with small businesses, no matter what aspect of business you plan to support, your number one priority should be people management instead of trade management. If you own a security alarm franchise, you don't install alarm systems, you help businesses protect their physical and human resources. If you run a telecommunications outlet, you don't install phone systems, you help business people communicate effectively with their clients. I could go on and on, but you get the idea. Or at least you should.

Arlin Sorenson nailed it on the head during his portion of one of the sessions. Listen to the customer. Hear what their pain points are, and let them know you can help ease those pains by working with them on the solution.

When I was in academia, the running joke every year was that if it weren't for the students, our jobs would be so much easier. I overheard someone say essentially the same thing at the conference - if it weren't for his customers, his work would be so much simpler.

I take a different stance. I love working with people. It's something I'm really, really good at. That I happen to be a technical whiz is a nice attribute, but I really take pride in my ability to listen and help put customers at ease. I listen outside the box to try and find ways to ease their pains that have nothing to do with my trade. But I'm not alone in this. I spoke with dozens of folks at the conference who, just based on my interactions with them, get this. These are the successful people I will be aligning my business with, according to the great advice given by Anne Stanton. I know that if I'm going to be successful in this business, I need to surround myself with greatness.

And I found a whole bunch of that at the conference...

On Redundancy

OK, I've figured out that my hosting site is in Los Angeles. And it's down because of the power blackout in LA. Not all of their sites, only about half. Guess which half I'm in...

So I've found out the hard way that my web host (http://www.webhost4life) doesn’t have redundant sites. Bollocks. I'm going to have to really have a chat with them about this…

On Access

One thing I've learned on this trip to Seattle is that it's amazingly easy to get internet access from just about anywhere. The Marriott Town Center rooms had both wired and wireless access in each room (and we got a discounted access rate with the conference, too), Microsoft provided amazing wireless access to the conference attendees at their Executive Briefing Center, and I was even able to get internet access at the Seattle Tacoma airport.

Well, sort of. Let me explain:

My wireless detector popped up and found the Cingular wireless network, and when I opened my browser, I got the logon screen to set up my WiFi access account. I got through the process just fine, even entering my credit card number and setting up the account password. But when I tried to access the account, my connection was refused. Finally I gave up and called the WiFi support number – they already had my payment, like hell was I going to pass on getting access. It turns out that the password I selected was TOO secure. Even though they insisted in the signup screen on a password with special characters, I had used two special characters, and the friendly English-speaking phone representative told me to just use one special character. In fact, I should only use the ! as a special character.

Ummm, OK.

Once I finally get online, I realize I can't get to my web site to update my blog posts. Ugh. Thinking it might be related to this silly wireless service, I RDP into another box I manage and tried to load the page from there. Natch. Nada. Nyet.

Hmph. My site is down, and I'm about to be in the air and really can't do anything about it. Well, I will as soon as I land, if it's not back up by then. And no, I'm not hosting that site on an SBS box or even on a box on my local network. I'm paying someone to host it for me. And boy are they gonna hear about this...

On SBSers

As I wrap up my Redmond trip and get ready to head back to Texas, my initial observation about the conference attendees still rings true:

The SBSer is a unique beast.

Looking back over the conference, I recall interacting with very few individuals who came across as just "geeks" or "nerds." Instead, I found a group of people who remind me of many of the other small business owners I interact with on a daily basis. That should be no surprise, because that's what most of the attendees of this conference really are - business people with a passion for the technology.

The sense of community shared by most, if not all, SBSers was made perfectly clear in yesterday's MVP Roundtable discussions:

Several comments and questions were discussed regarding SBS user groups during the session. One gentleman (whose name I didn't catch) raised a concern about why he should get his competitors involved in a user group. The consensus from the remainder of the group could not have been clearer - the true SBSer does not view other local vendors as competition but as an opportunity for growth. Once the local community is established, anyone whose actions are counter to the good of the community will no longer be welcomed by the community.

So don't wait for an annual conference to hook up with a community - if there's not already an SBS users group in your area, take up your mantle and start one. The community is there to help you with this as well.

On Fortunes (Part 2)

How successful has this trip to SMB Nation been for me? Besides getting to meet in person lots of different folks I've come to know electronically for the past year or so, besides getting to spread the word about the upcoming book, besides getting lots of great info about how to grow my practice, I've apparently got karma on my side, too.

I've already mentioned the fortune I got last night that basically told me I'll be attending SMB Nation Amsterdam (or whatever it will be called), I picked up another fortune from a delightful Thai restaurant I went to with my family tonight:

"You have an important new business development shaping up."

OK, OK. Put down the sledgehammer. I get the hint...

On Closure

Wow. It's hard to believe it's been three days of conference. In some ways, it feels longer, in others, well, it's just flown by. I just got back to the hotel from the Microsoft Conference Center and am waiting on my stepbrother and his family to come pick me up for dinner. I plan on being back in time to join the rest of the crew for the evening festivities, since I don't have to get up until local time tomorrow.

While I wasn't at full steam today, I at least managed to accomplish the following:

Had breakfast with several of the SBS MVPs and a few others. Gavin and Kevin Weilbacher traded sharing video clips (including Pink Five and the Ford Sportka bird meets hood ad) following a discussion of Monk, Spinal Tap, Best in Show, and other Christopher Guest vehicles.

I stuck with the marketing track all day. In the first session, I sat next to Christopher Rue and Marie McFadden and right behind Anne Stanton. At least this time I wasn't worried about Anne throwing things at me from behind. The session material was pretty good, but nothing to write home about.

In the second session, Amy Babinchak came to the back of the room to join us. I also realized I was sitting in front of Vlad Mazek, so I got nervous about flying projectiles again. This session wasn't as impressive, as the speaker kept trying to explain technical processes to us (like anyone in the room wasn't familiar with GoToMyPC). On a side note, did anyone else notice that the laptop featured in the promo for GoToMyPC was actually a PowerBook? Priceless.

Amy and I headed off to lunch, and for the longest time, we were the only two people sitting at our table. I almost had a high school flashback of sitting at the "uncool" lunch table, which would have been completely wrong anyway since Amy and I both possess the cool gene. Mike Turczyniak (one of my clients actually) joined us, and finally the table filled out. Thanks for breaking the potential curse, Mike.

I was expecting the highlight of my day to be Jeff Middleton's session at lunch, talking about Katrina and what he's hoping to do moving forward. This was the first time I had heard Jeff speak, but he lived up to his reputation. I still can't fathom what has happened in that part of the country, much less what it must be like for Jeff. Don't worry, Jeff, as we've already discussed, I'll help out in whatever way I can, whether it's in New Orleans or Ft. Worth.

I headed next into Anne's presentation on making business affiliations. What an amazing presentation. Anne is so good at what she does, and she's a polished speaker on top of that, so the presentation could be nothing short of outstanding. Did I work in enough superlatives, or should I add some more? And right after her presentation, when I should have headed over to the next slot but instead decided to pester Anne, I bumped into Jonathan Spoer from LA. The meeting would have been just a footnote except that Jonathan has a client in my hometown of Denton and has spent quite a bit of time there, and will likely be back soon. Jonathan and I will talk about the possibility of me being a local backup for him in the next week. Just reinforces Anne's topic.

I sat through the repeat of Susan and Dana's security presentation and, no offense to either, could not focus. I think it's more related to three days of solid sessions and a few late night (well, late night for me) activities, but I was just spent.

The MVP Roundtable was enjoyable, but you could tell by the sparse attendance (most people had left already) and the lack of energy in the room that everyone was gassed. Still, it was a fitting end to the conference, and I managed to pick up a few good tidbits there, too.

After dinner, I'll hunt down those who are sticking around for tonight and hang out with them. But for now, it's time to go hang with my new nephew. Oh, and his parents, too...

On Day 3

Got to the conference center with much less fanfare this morning - apparently they got the message (loud and clear) that the information about the bus times didn't get out to the attendees.

One of the sessions has been cancelled, and the voting has started for the "mystery repeat session" to take place at 3pm. (I'd look at doing that differently next year, but that's just me.)

Here's what I think I'm doing today:

Session 9C - SonicWall (not that I'm very interested in SonicWall, but I'm far less interested in the other sessions)
Session 10A - Creating Marketing Messages that Work
Session 11A - Creating Successful Partnerships
Session 12 - the magical mystery session

Late breaking news - the cancelled session has been replaced with a VoIP session - mayne I'll do that instead...

On Fortunes

I started hearing about SMB Nation Amsterdam today, and my first thought was "How can I get around to justifying that trip and conference fee?" I haven't been to The Netherlands in nearly 20 years, and I owe Marina and Mariette a visit. Besides, it might tie in well to pitch the book overseas as well.

So, in my usual mode of thinking, I say yeah, nice idea, not happening. But then I stopped into a local Chinese restaurant for a snack and open my fortune cookie: "You will step on the soil of many countries."

Hmmmm...

On Timepieces

I just realized my watch isn't working.

Oh, sure, it tells me the correct local time (I changed the digital portion to read PDT, but left the analog portion alone) whenever I look at it. But I realized at dinner this evening that there is a chance the time might not be exactly 100% dead accurate.

It's because I'm too far from Colorado.

Yes, I have a watch that syncs itself every night to the atomic clock broadcasting out of Colorado, but it has a limited distance range. Go figure that I'm close enough in Texas to get time synced every morning, but I come to Redmond, WA, which some might claim is a technical Mecca of sorts, and I can't get a signal. To the atomic clock.

I guess I'll wait until I return to Texas to recover those 3 lost nanoseconds...

On Summaries

The "official" part of Day 2wo of SMB Nation 2005 is over, and I'm about to head down to the "unofficial" end of the day activities.

Today was a mixed bag for me, but still very much on the positive end. No doubts at all about the worth of coming to this event.

Things I came away with today:

Had a great chat with Christopher Rue of JMF Consulting while we waited on the 7:00am bus to arrive at 7:45. (OK, we found out much later in the day (at lunch actually) that the first bus out was not scheduled until 7:45 so we were just early. But that's going into my feedback - transportation is still not as smooth as it could be.)

Had a great breakfast with Henry and Ryan, which has already been blogged.

Sat through a good session on Service Contracts. Would have liked a little more detail on the "how" and not just the "why", but it was still encouraging and informative.

I ended up sitting through the SBS roadmap presentation, not because I really wanted to, but because I got to talking with Jay Weiss and before we knew it, the session had started and I did feel like trying to find the other room. Cal McLennan was late getting back to his seat, but otherwise there were no major disruptions.

I finally met Amy Babinchak, and we had a good chat at lunch. Also got to see Larry Lentz and Ian Watkins at the lunch table, then Vlad Mazek dropped by and I got to show him that not all Mac folks are ultra-evangelists. What he doesn't know, of course, is that I started spreading Mac-DNA to him when we shook hands. Hahahahaha.

Amy and I then went to see Wayne Small talk about mobile technologies with SBS. If you have a chance to see him in action, take it. Outstanding speaker, and he really knows the product. I was able to hit him up later with an EAS issue I've been working around for a few months, and he gave me a good lead on the true cause/resolution. Thanks, Wayne!

I went back and forth about sitting through Susan and Dana's Security presentation. I finally decided to stay with it, and boy do they make for an entertaining presentation! I'd love to say I learned a lot from them, but my brain was on overload at that point and just missed out. Not for any fault of theirs, however.

Note to self - sitting amongst a bunch of MVPs watching another MVP and a should-be-MVP was interesting in itself. This is a rowdy crew.

I got to meet many more folks whose names I've seen in various places, and I experienced that unsettling feeling several times when folks walk up to you and recognize you, but you have no idea who they are. Had a good chat with Les Connor about business growth and opportunities. Thanks for the encouragement, Les!

Now to track down the headache pills so I can survive through the evening. Should be fun, will report more later...

On Recognition

I was blown away by a comment last night. I was referred to as "the" by someone I had just met. As in "the" Eriq Neale. As in, this person walked up to me and said, "Hey, you're 'the' Eriq Neale."

I was humbled by the experience. I wasn't expecting that type of reception, and I certainly don't compare myself to the other "the"'s at this conference ("the" Susan Bradley, "the" Jeff Middleton, etc., etc., etc.) But at the same time it was kinda cool. Now if only I can train my neighbors to give me the same courtesy...

On Attendance

I've attended a session each time one has been made available (I finally broke down and sat through Wayne Small's mobile presentation) here at the session, and I admit I've been a very bad student. I've been reading e-mail, IMing, and blogging while I've been sitting through the sessions. Still, I've been able to pick up a bunch of good info and materials to review when I get back.

I also learned that they're doing SMB Nation Amsterdam in 2006. Gotta start saving pennies for that flight...

On Macintosh, Microsoft, and SBS

I'm sitting in the SBS Roadmap session, and someone asks if there will be any better Macintosh integration with SBS 2003 R2. Oh, wait, it wasn't me!

The short answer: no.

As explained by Charlie and Willie: You can get Entourage (the Mac e-mail client of Office 2004 for Mac) with your license of SBS, but you still can't get the CD with the boxed set. You can get the Connecting Macintosh white paper, but your better bet is to get the SBS 2003 Unleashed book for the best integration information.

Hey, at least they answered the question and didn't say, "We're not interested in Macs."

On Vegemite

So I was having breakfast with Henry Craven (SBS MVP, Melbourne, Australia) and a vendor, and the topic of vegemite came up. I've had the opportunity to try the stuff (which is a nice way of saying that I was tricked into trying it for the entertainment of those around me) and didn't like it (which is a nice way of saying that it was the most vile tasting stuff I've ever put in my mouth), but the vendor had never even heard of vegemite. I guess he'd never heard Men at Work, but we won't go there.

So about five minutes after the vendor rep left the table, Henry found Ryan Spillane who, as it happens, had a tube of vegemite on him. It's a small, small, small, small world...

On Service

Maybe customer service isn't a lost art after all...

I did a horrible job of packing for this trip. I got my camera and digital video camera packed, but neglected to bring the USB and FireWire cables to transfer the data. I brought the flyers for the book, but neglected to bring business cards. I brought shaving cream, but no razor.

This morning, on a whim, I called the front desk at the Marriott to see if they had a disposable razor I could buy from a gift shop or something like that. Not only did they say they had razors I could have at the front desk, they are also sending up a valet with the razor and travel shaving cream.

Why didn't I call them yesterday?

On Day 2

I'm having a little more trouble getting my sessions lined up for today that I had thought. Yesterday I made one change at the last minute, and was glad I did - I went to see Chad Gross' presentation on InfoPath and SharePoint, and boy did I come away with some great ideas. I also learned that he's leaving Seattle early this morning, so that was pretty much my only chance to meet up with him.

Here's what I think I'm doing today:

7:00am - head over to the conference center by bus
8:00-9:00 - breakfast, possibly a session with the Extranet Portal guys
9:00-10:15 - Service Contracts
10:45-12:00 - SBS Roadmap (I'll need info on this for the second edition of the book)
12:00-1:00 - roundtable lunch
1:00-2:15 - completely undecided, although I might to Wayne Small's Mobile presentation
3:00-4:15 - Securing SBS (how could I not sit through Susan/Dana's session since I heard them rewriting it last night?)
4:15-midnight - completely undecided (I've got offers to hit the Mariner's game in town, but lots of other stuff going on as well)

On Media

One of the things I learned a few weeks ago at one of my networking meetings was to take the opportunity to interact with the media at every opportunity you can. Jeff Crilley pointed this out in a session where he was pitching his Free Publicity book. So when a gentleman with a camera stopped me and asked if I had a few moments to talk with him about SMB Nation.

Of course I did.

http://www.smallbiztechnology.com/smbnation05/index.shtml

Yes, I've already e-mailed them about the spelling of my name.

On Equipment

So, the first lesson learned today was this:

Bring your laptop; bring your laptop; bring your laptop; bring your laptop.

The Executive Briefing Center at Microsoft is a nice facility. The interior design is similar to the design of the buildings I worked in at the Las Colinas site, but it's obviously on a much larger scale. The meeting rooms, especially the Kodiak room (where the largest presentations were held because it will seat over 400), are very well laid out. Each row of seats has a large table spread in front with power jacks for hooking up the multiple laptops. Which everyone else had. OK, not 100% of the attendees, but I was conspicuously without computing gadget.

Tomorrow, the PowerBook comes with me, and I'm certain I'll be the only SBSer present with a PowerBook. But, since I've got wireless built in, I'll be able to get on the wireless network along with everyone else and be able to check e-mail and blog in real time. Just what every conference attendee aims for, right?

OK, so I did ping Anne Stanton by e-mail when I was sitting right behind her in the keynote session and she was putting together a mail out for one of her groups back home. The network coverage on my PocketPC Phone was really good inside the facility, which did concern me a bit up front. But not any more.

So, if you happen to be looking for me at SMB Nation tomorrow (Saturday), I'll be easy to spot. I'm the weirdo who brought a Mac onto the Redmond campus.

On Day 1

Those in the Pacific Coast Time Zone by nature are not up yet, at least not those who are here for the conference. There are probably several Central and Eastern time zoners who are already up. Good morning, good morning, good morning.

I've got a few book-related issues that I need to deal with before I shower and get ready to start the day at the conference. The buses start leaving for the facility around 7am PDT, so I've got an hour or so before I have to really get kicked into gear.

Today's' schedule includes (from the Conference Schedule Page):
Breakfast and Registration (7am-9am)
Keynote Speaker (9-10:15am)
Session 2A (10:45am-noon)
Round table lunch (noon-1pm)
Session 3A (1-2:15pm)
Session 4A (3-4:14pm)
Small Business Specialist Community Overview (4:15-5:00)
Mariners Game/Roundtable/Networking (TBA)

Not to mention anything else that comes up. We'll see.

On Grammar

OK, Microsoft Word must be as tired as I am. It caught a "grammar mistake" that's not a grammar mistake.

Unfortunately, Movable Type does not have a built-in spell checking tool (if it does, please point this out, because it's been driving me nuts) so to make sure I limit my typing errors, etc., I copy my text into Word, run it through a spelling and grammar check, and get my corrections done that way. I guess all my years of writing I've come to rely heavily on others (proofreaders, editors, etc.) to catch my mistakes so I don't look too heavily for them myself. Interestingly, that's not the case when I proof other people's work, but I digress.

So as I'm putting the final wraps on what I thought was today's last post, Word came back with something that just boggled my mind. Here's the sentence it checked:

"It's incidents like that that remind me how proud and fortunate I am to be an American citizen."

Word told me that "I am" should really be "I is."

Eh?

It didn't catch the double "that that" from the sentence, which I later went back and changed to "this that", but it somehow saw that "I am" would be better served as "I is."

Interestingly, when I change, "that that" to "this that" Word decides that "I am" is actually OK.

Whatever...

On Arrival

Fortunately, the flight landed without incident. We had several servicemen on the flight, and the passengers let them off first with a loud fanfare. It's incidents like this that remind me how proud and fortunate I am to be an American citizen.

Kevin Royalty was kind enough to squeeze me into his rented vehicle for the trip from the airport to the hotel, and I had a chance to visit with him, Allen Miller, a person whose name escapes me completely, and Tim Barrett, one of the authors on the book.

I'd say Seattle has changed a lot since I was last here, but considering I spent my entire honeymoon within walking distance of downtown, I can't compare since we drove nowhere past downtown to get to the Marriott in Redmond.

By the time I got to the hotel and got the key to my room, the Xanax was working in full effect, and I knew I had little time left to be conscious, so I headed downstairs, had a lovely New York Strip Steak (on the company account of course) then headed back up and barely figured out how to place a wake up call request before crashing. There was some big to-do in the hotel dining area that was probably full of conference attendees, but I was too exhausted to even try to see if I knew anyone by name or by face. That's what tomorrow is for.

For now, to catch some Z's. And wait for that 4am local time wake up call...

On Entertainment

This trip hasn't been completely dull, especially once my Xanax kicked in. I had the fortune of not watching the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. The clouds began to clear over the Rockies, so I got to see some terrain from my window seat. I had the opportunity to visit briefly with an armed service man returning to his home in Seattle from deployment in Iraq, and it was uplifting to hear his stories, but most exciting for him is that his 9 year tour of duty with the army is complete in November, and he will be retiring from the service at that point will his retirement benefits.

But most importantly, I'm not white-knuckling the flight. it's been mostly a smooth flight and we've only got about an hour left. Unfortunately, no food. Now I just have to figure out how much of the eating I'll be doing this weekend can be written off as business expenses.

I'm sitting right on the wing, so as soon as I can find a USB cable for my camera (shouldn't be too hard where I'm going). I'll up load the pictures as well as the blog posts. You'll get to see lovely shots of my wing view. Whee.

On Time

Two hours from departure time, and I'm finally wrapping up everything I need to do to get out the door on time. I'd better run through my list of stuff I need:

Clean underwear - check
Toothpaste and toothbrush - check
Appropriate outerwear for Seattle - check
Plane ticket - check
Identification - check
Hotel reservation confirmation - check
iPod, earbuds and power cord - check
Good engaging mystery novel - check
PowerBook, fully charged - check
Cameras and batteries - check
Cell phone - check
Cash - hmmm, better get to the bank with a - check

On Preorders

Sams Publishing, who is publishing Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 Unleashed, is running a special promotion for those who preorder from their site. Until December 15, you can preorder the book at 35% off the $59.99 cover price. Also included in this promotion is free shipping in the US. Several of the authors, including Amy Babinchak, Susan Bradley, Javier Gomez, Chad Gross, and Anne Stanton, will be pitching the book at SMB Nation coming up this weekend. If you prefer, you can also preorder the book on Amazon.com instead.

On Deadlines

One of the tenets I have tried to follow my entire professional career is this: keep the commitments you make. The converse is just as important: don't make a commitment unless you can keep it. This week, I got to experience problems with this tenet on both sides.

A couple of weeks ago, I ordered a piece of equipment for a new client and we made plans to complete the installation over the holiday weekend. I received a ship notification on the product this past Monday, so I confirmed the schedule for installation with the client. By Thursday, when I still hadn't received the equipment, I started asking questions. I didn't get answers until Friday, and those answers weren't what I needed to hear: the shipment got lost.

I was mortified. Fortunately, my client was more understanding than I would have been. I'd already lost one client earlier in the year from a similar situation, and I would have understood completely if this client had chosen to look elsewhere for equipment and service. Fortunately for me, he's opted to stick with us for his long-term service.

In a completely separate but simultaneous scenario, I have been waiting on delivery of product from a couple of different vendors. Each of these independent vendors has been promising delivery of the product for weeks, and every time they have been contacted, the response has been that delivery will happen in a "day or two." Each response has obviously been a false promise designed to get me off their backs and buy more time.

I've been witness to a steady decline in customer service from just about every market over the last 20 years. Some companies, it seems, don't seem too concerned about providing good service to their clients, because they already have so many that the loss of one or two will not hurt them financially, or they are able to gain new clients so easily that, again, the loss of one or two clients will not hurt them financially.

In the time I've been working for myself, I've had the pleasure to get to know many other small business owners in my area, and we all seem to have one thing in common - we're small enough that we genuinely do care about providing outstanding service to our clients. In some cases, that's as simple as returning phone calls. In others, it's making a client meeting on time and well prepared for the meeting. As I continue to grow my business, I will keep this notion in the forefront of everything that I do. As I partner with other companies, I'm already finding that I'm leaning more towards the smaller businesses as partners instead of the giant ones. In some cases (local phone service for instance) I really do not have any choices in whom I can use, but in others, I’m looking locally for business owners who share my thoughts, ethics, and ideals in how they approach their business.

In the long run, I expect that this attitude is what will guide me to success rather than my technical savvy or management prowess. And I'm glad it's a lesson I've learned earlier rather than later.