Post #4: Dealing with Stress when Dealing with clients

So, this post is actually a direct response to comment that I had on my second post saying that I looked stressed. So, although it's true, that's an awful thing to hear; also an awful thing that your clients will notice and NEVER say to you.

You've definitely heard it from your friends and family, but that's the last thing that you want to hear from a client. The first thing that you need to remember is that Professionalism is made up of more than just talent. A wise friend of mine lives by three keys: Talent, Attitude, and Appearance, what may be the holy trinity of dealing with your clients. Stress is important to deal with, but deal with it on your own time. When your clients can see it, it's been a problem for too long.

So what can you do to make sure that it doesn't get in your way?

One of the things that I make sure to do is put myself in the right frame of mind before I meet with a client. Sometimes being just a little bit early to a client meeting can give you just that little bit of extra time to de-stress. Whatever you can do in two minutes to put you in the moment and out of your head: do it.

I'd love to hear from you to figure out what all of you do as your two minute break to get you back in the moment.

Thanks again for joining me in the Executive Lounge, and have a great weekend.


If you live in San Diego, be sure to check out what's happening this weekend with Ari from Red Rope Reviews at www.redropedaily.com or head straight to www.redropereviews.com to score your guestlist to San Diego's finest clubs and venues.

Post #3: In the Heat of Political Change

I'm not sure that this is the venue for any of my political rantings and ravings, so I'll avoid that issue and speak purely on the business side of things.

What you may have noticed with the economy is a general slowdown on decision making. Not just the fact that we may [conclusively are] in a recession, but also the fact that we're changing over our executive and legislative sides of government. In other words, if you in any way provide consulting to the government, you probably noticed that everyone is resting on their laurels to figure out where the budgetary spending will go in the first 100 days of the presidency and what gets passed in this, the first week of Obama's term in office.

What does that mean? Well, for those of us which provide services to others, we are always at the whim of how healthy our clients are. In other cases, we're at the whim of how healthy our investors are and what may be coming down the line fiscally in the next two to four years. This time presents the very special case, turning from a fiscal conservative and heavy military budget to what may be the most socialized budget ever. [*cringe*]

The storm will subside though. People will begin spending money again, don't worry. Your waiting is almost over.

Post #2: Oh my god, Client Billing Hell

So here we go with our second Executive Log of the evening.

Let's sum up a little of what I have to say, client billing is hell. Going to a client that pays on time, always, is heaven. Chances are, you're going to be in purgatory.

So what am I trying to say here? Essentially, I have some of the best clients out there! No doubt. But sometimes it gets tough for them, and I can't draw water from an empty well. Letting it get to you just won't be healthy.

That's the first thing to really stress. Screaming at a client is _NEVER_ going to help you. Sending angry or threatening letters isn't either. Well, I'm assuming it won't, because I don't think I've ever done those things. But let's get real: if you've ever had a call from someone because you were late on a payment that you forgot to mail, you're apologetic because it really was your fault. Now imagine that instead you've got fifteen of these guys calling you asking you when the mail is gonna get delivered. It's going to get stressful.

Try to make the billing process easy for the customer. Especially if they're late, which, inevitably it will happen in your business. If they're late, they aren't trying to screw you over. Shit happens.

Bottom-line.
You want to treat your customers with the same respect that you _don't_ receive from the tech-support at unnamed IT company bla based out of Izywhatsitstan.

VPost #1 : Welcome to the executive lounge

Welcome to the Executive Lounge

A short introduction.
My name is Patrick. I deliver New IT Solutions for New Business Problems. I'm introducing this blog as a way of chronicling my time putting together a new business and the struggles moving from a management and development position _into_ the position as owner and the different types of decisions that I have to make on that side.

I think I may use this as a way to get a day to day feel of what it's like as a small business owner and see what the pitfalls are that come from it. This should also give some insight into what goes into managing yourself independent from a company and whether you _really_ go out on your own.

Who is this targeted toward? This is really targeted to those who have been in industry for awhile and are thinking about getting into the business side of the industry. Over the last eight years I've seen quite a bit of the Project Management side of the business, managing clients and client relationships on top of the standard development of product and IT strategy.

Then again... It may just be another form of ranting