Friday, May 1, 2009

I now know why I haven't moved in 14 years

I had hoped that I would begin my first blog talking about how we came to the decision to go virtual. Unfortunately, I'm not in the mood to talk about that right now. I realized that after 14 years in one place, a business can amass a ton of junk. Somehow we were able to store junk in every nook and cranny. The little here and little there has taken three weeks to clean up. I hope this weekend will be my last tour of duty at 777 Sinclair as we remove the furniture that we were lucky enough to sell.

Aside from the cleaning and clearing, dealing with new the technology has been challenging. As Brian mentioned in his post, we've instituted about four major pieces of technology. In each case we've had some challenges implementing them. Nothing major, but all in all, it has caused me a huge amount of stress. We had the opportunity to test it out in our office for the last week and a half and we believe that all the kinks have been worked out. The technology now appears to be working great.

While the new technology is going well, the connectivity from home has been a bit slow and that is why this blog is late in posting. A couple of us, myself and Brandi, have been experiencing technical difficulties to say the least. Brandi as we speak right now, is waiting for AT&T to come fix her dsl line. It's frayed and is causing on and off connectivity issues. I, on the other hand, found myself up until 2:30 am this morning wrestling with a new modem that wouldn't talk to the router. At the end of it all, the culprit was one small field that I had filled out that apparently should have been left empty. I figured this out around 10:30 am. Needless to say, it's been a long first 24 hours of being virtual.

I want to thank all our clients and vendors for their support in this endeavor. We were concerned their might be some opposition or concern with our move, but we have received nothing but well wishes from most and envy from some. I also have to thank my staff for the insanely great work they have been doing. Last week was a crazy week. We had three major creative presentations, a major proposal, packing and working with new technology. Despite a month's worth of work crammed into one week, I am proud to say that not a single ball was dropped. I'm definitely thankful for this team and the work they do.

I know this post sounds a bit whinny, but I'm entitled to whine a little bit, as I have been working endlessly for the last three weeks. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and I am extremely happy about that. After moving for the last three weeks, I hope that I don't have to do it again for another 14 years.

3 comments:

  1. hello edward, jeff here !! is that you under the bridge ? you forgot your troll hair !! KIDDING. im jealous . you guys rock on. keep up the good work !! im excited about our shoot next week!!

    jeff, dow

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  2. Hi Ed,

    I can feel your pain my friend. You think you had it tough.. I just did the exact same thing with RedHotFranchises.com. We moved the offices to Asia... Which is where i am right now...

    Wish all the best for you!

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  3. Congratulations on the grand experiment. I'll be curious how it all works, as I have been headed this way as a solo consultant for five years now. That's changing as I add a partner to the firm and we continue to operate potentially from home. I do use sub-contractors that really could be networked and already travel with a virtual office in tow.

    The biggest asset is portability in a powerful laptop with an air-card (not wifi) -- works like a cell phone. No faxes anymore -- it's all done via scanning online. Smartphones and syncing - constantly.

    Personal issues are great, but some draw backs. Good stuff -- working directly from home, no commute saves lots of time. Learn to zag when the community zigs -- shop when they are at work, work when they shop. Exercise during the day when clubs are light. Bad stuff -- learn to get out of the house -- living and working in the same place drives you nuts. Guard your personal time and keep your work area separate from personal stuff. Stay out of the kitchen -- you will all eat more now. Make sure you all get together regularly to keep the camaraderie up -- virtual doesn't cut it.

    Good luck.

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