What works for me is taking some time away from writing, and letting topics come to me. As with writing in general, when you push too hard, you just come up blank. For me, I like to go for a walk, and not even think about writing. When I stop pushing, I tend to have ideas.
I was recently at RooSites’ Dunedin Florida location and was walking along this beautiful old street by the Gulf of Mexico. The street consists of all these gorgeous homes, many of which are over 100 years old. Almost every single one is meticulously maintained. Whenever you walk by, someone is either tending to the homes or to their outdoor space.
Then it hit me!
What is beautiful for one location, may not work for another. These houses are so beautiful as they really fit the neighborhood, they reside in. However, take one of these homes and try to stick it in Boston, New York or other Metropolitan areas, they will look out of place.
Good question!
I was recently working on a new site for an attorney who specializes in helping families with special education. The attorney asked me for some examples that she could look at in order to put together her content. This is when it hit me. Showing her great sites that have nothing to do with her field of endeavor really aren’t helpful, and although some sites are beautiful to look at, they won’t work in her area of expertise.
So as with those gorgeous homes which fit so nicely along the Gulf of Mexico in Dunedin, Florida, they wouldn’t look too good in the Beacon Hill area of Boston or in my current hometown of Foxborough, Massachusetts.
Then as I mentioned, the properties were meticulously maintained. This of course made me think of website maintenance, which as you know is a specialty of RooSites. Although these homes are quite old, their care and maintenance have allowed them to remain standing through numerous storms and other factors which typically destroy homes of this age. Well, I am here to tell you that this is the same with websites. I manage and host many sites which are several years old. Because we never miss a beat in terms of updates, the sites remain viable and have saved their owners a lot of money that they would’ve needed to suspend to build a new website. As with those old homes, a newer replacement would NOT have been an improvement. In my blog post: Sometimes it is better NOT to build a new website we covered this very topic. Don’t get me wrong, there is a point where your site has outlived its usefulness and new technologies allow you to do things better, faster and more efficiently. But you should get years out of a new website, before needing to do a total redesign. Proper maintenance will allow you to have a long lifespan for your website.
When you are thinking about a new website, you tend to look at sites that you like for inspiration. This is fine, but make sure that design also fits your type of business. I typically recommend looking at your competitors, but also look at companies who are similar to yours throughout the county for inspiration. In terms of maintenance, make sure you work with a company who not only will build you a nice site but will also maintain your website, so you can be sure your site is up and running and secure. Unfortunately, a lot of companies like to design sites, but few want to do the maintenance. This is where RooSites can help. We specialize in website maintenance and have service plans for every company’s budget and needs.
My wife asked me if I wanted to play golf last Friday. I was busy but decided to take a break and play nine holes at a local par 3 course.
As it was a Friday and a workday, we did not call for a tee time, we figured we’d stop by and see how crowded it was. When we got there, there was nobody on the tee box, and the back nine was empty as well. My wife went in to pay and there was a young man at the desk. He said, the best I can do is get you a tee time in an hour or so. My wife said: “There’s nobody here!” He again said sorry, I can’t let you start for an hour. She again said, there is nobody on the tee or even waiting in the parking lot. Well, he said sorry, you’ll have to wait an hour.
What did we do? We left.
Imagine if I stood on the street with a fist full of hundreds trying to give them out, would you take them or would you say no? If you don’t respond to calls and emails, that is exactly what you are doing.
I know, that’s an exaggeration, but it truly amazes me that companies actually turn away money in the form of customers/clients.
There are lessons learned everywhere if you pay attention. Unfortunately, most of the time we learn those lessons from watching what not to do. Always put yourself in the place of your customer/client. Think about how you would react to a situation. In Friday’s debacle at the golf course, they did everything wrong and lost potential customers. With Covid, so many things are still up in the air, and you cannot afford to lose any business.
Note: I purposely left out the name of this course, as I am not trying to be vengeful. Hopefully this was a one-time error, but I probably won’t find out in the near future.
