Are You Guilty Of This?

“Every truth has two sides; it is as well to look at both, before we commit ourselves to either” Aesop Quotes

This has nothing and everything to do with marketing, it's totally about who we are as enlightened humans being in a world that we have created.

Sometimes as business people we need to step back from whatever we are engaged in and evaluate ourselves. We need to examine what we are doing to our reputation and character by the little decisions we make in our daily lives. By themselves they are by no means life changing decisions but they always define who we are and how the rest of the world perceives us.

It's the little things in life that really count. Like how some people behave with a waiter/waitress in restaurants that gives invaluable insight into their own character. In business, these same behaviors determines how we are perceived by others.

Our word, that is our oral promise should be "as good as gold" or even paper money.

Of course we must always leave allowances for the unexpected, it’s why pencils are built with erasers because everyone make mistakes: in judgment on completion times, returning calls, emails, meetings or even promises for payment. As humans, we plan and it is said that "God laughs" at our plans, but that's no excuse not to communicate.

Communicating after making an oral promise is not something we do "if we have the time" but should become a personal obligation/commitment to, at a minimum, explain why we could not or did do what we promised to do. The promise does not evaporate into the universe, being known as not having a "good word" destroys the character.

Allow me to put it into perspective. This came up because of the experiences I have had recently with web designers in and outside of Trinidad. Yes, consider this a request for your services if you meets the criteria below.

You may or may not be aware, I have been in a continuous search for a Web designer/developer for the last couple of months after a very strange experience with someone I trusted. I will not go into that here but suffice it to say that has happened was surprising and an enlightening experience which I will share in another post. It's no wonder that the web design/development industry continues to be so nefarious with a saturation of wannabe designers who all claim to be able to build anything. There are designers and Designers.

What am I looking for? Not much. A designer for sure but there are other qualities that, after my experience, are much more important. I call it character. Fortunately we all have one.

But before we go there, let me share some background so you can appreciate
why the urgent need for a designer with certain predispositions.

Team players

In my function as a Business Web Coach assisting business owners to establish their web presence, it’s essential that I have a pool of designers/Developers to design websites for clients.

The coaching includes all aspects of web development starting with the initial concept, story board, structure, copy, business model innovation, traffic generation and one-on-one or group training after the launch. The intent is to bring to the table online experience and marketing strategies to develop a viable revenue generating web site for the business.

My plan is to host a one day seminar titled "Getting Started Online" This seminar promises to embed a marketing mindset into the participants enabling them with foundational knowledge to establish their web presence and possibly a web site.

With the web coaching service I prefer to begin at the concept stage and not have to do an extreme marketing makeover on a website that is already published. I know very little about web design, coding or graphic design. It is therefore very important that I work with a web designer. But not just any designer, I'm looking for designers with two enduring qualities apart from their ability to design a professional web site:

Professional Integrity

This requirement is at the top because it is extremely important the designer/developer understand that this can make or break our relationship. This has nothing to do with being a honest person but more with character. In my humble opinion, behavior as described above does not show a lack of character because whatever they do is their character. It demonstrates a blatant disrespect for the value of "their word" when given as a promise.

From time immemorial oral communication has initiated business it's indeed a sad day when everything must be in writing. Imagine putting a simple promise like, "I'll call you" in writing.

Mind you, this relates not only to designers/developers but too many professionals are beginning to behave like politicians and lawyers. Granted, It may be a little thing to some people but expeditiously making repeated unfulfilled promises is wrong. Not only wrong in business but in any social setting.

If you are a designer and you don't agree, I'm so glad you are reading this because I hope I never do business with you.

Experience and Creativity

The designer must be self motivated and creative. He/she must be able to reproduce an idea and essentially make it look good online. The nature of the industry, i.e. overpopulated with semi-professionals, makes it important that the designers/developers have a registered company and preferably a design staff.

There skill must include all the necessary coding capability to develop a self contained eCommerce site with content management system and accommodate a merchant account platform. I am also looking for someone with an entrepreneurial spirit, someone who is willing to invest in their own future and to gain experience in developing websites that generate revenue.

If you meet these requirements, I would love to speak with you, send me an email.

In the interim, because of my experience I have used my limited knowledge to host my domain on a wordpress blog platform. If you are serious about online marketing click over to the blog, review it and make a comment or give some feedback. Done without the aid of a designer, it's not professional but it meets my needs until better can be done. Take a look at it and leave some feedback. You can find it at Here