Tag: Work Posts

One of the hardest aspects of being a business owner is being able to come up with a metric, even an internal one, for what it means for that business to be successful. For some people, that goal is completely monetary – i.e., if they can sell the business for 1 million dollars within 10 years, then that represents success for them. As an example, one of my good friends recently sold his business. While it was always his dream to build a popular retail business, at some point he realized that the excitement, and the dream, mostly involved building a business, and not really running one. So even though the business was turning a monthly profit (which for some people would amount to owning a lifelong lifestyle business) he decided that it met his own definition of a successful business, at which point he sold it and cashed in […]

If you do the math, that’s January 2nd, 2010 2011. If all goes according to plan, that’s the day I’ll head out (with only a single backpack in tow) on a little adventure. While I still have a lot to plan for and get ready before then, I’ve set a date to hopefully give me the motivation to finally follow through on it. I don’t really know why, but I’m always a bit hesitant to travel. Maybe it’s all the time I’ve spent living out of suitcases in hotel rooms, or all the trips I went on that were work related (that usually involved 60 hour weeks, and then nights by myself in a hotel). Other than a few all inclusive trips, I’ve never really been anywhere with the purpose of exploring a new area, or possibly taking in the local culture for more than a few days. Right now […]

Ahh yes, the end of a long weekend. And not just any long weekend, the last long weekend of the summer. So long summer of 2009, it was nice to know you. My niece and nephew head back to school tomorrow, which is sort of exciting for them. I always liked going back to school for some reason. Maybe it was buying a whole new batch of school supplies, or seeing some of your friends again after a summer apart. Granted, after about a week I was sick of the new year, but that first week was usually fun. As for me, I took it pretty easy this weekend. I was originally supposed to go camping, but opted out of that at the last minute due to weather. Instead, I cleaned my apartment, moved a few things around, and ate most of my meals from the comfort of home. Tonight […]

That’s probably the hardest question to answer nowadays for me when crossing the border. My life and my job are pretty intricately mixed nowadays, that it’s often hard to differentiate between the two. For example, when I went to WordCamp San Francisco, I was asked that question by the border agent. The conference I was attending definitely interested me on a personal level, especially since I have a personal blog, but clearly I can extract some business value out of it as well. So is it a business trip, or one for pleasure? The problem with going down the business line is sometimes the border guys get a bit pissy when you eventually tell them you have US clients. Technically that’s fine, but sometimes they guys/gals can be a bit anal, and start asking to see contracts or what-not (if the client is near your destination city). My friend Dragos […]

Pretty good article I read today about the importance of slowing your life down. I think it’s relevant since it’s basically been the direction I’ve been taking my life for the last seven months. Read the goods here.

You see, I have this friend. This friend of mine, well, he was screwed out of a lot of money for a client job he did. There’s a substantial email chain verifying that the work was requested, and the price was agreed upon, so he says. But unfortunately, when it came time to pay, the client became unresponsive and has since disappeared. Normally my friend would be quite content to write off the amount owing, and chalk it up to bad debt. But in the process of trying to get a contact number for the client, he discovered someone else who was owed money by the client. And after talking to that person, he found another person owed money by that client. And then soon after, yet another person. In total, nearly $10k of money owed to various small businesses, all of which did the work in good faith. In […]

I briefly went into town this morning to water my plants, take a shower, and get a few groceries. I also managed to hook up with the guys and gals down at Hawk FM for a follow-up interview to the blogathon one I did on Friday. Other than that, I spent most of today sitting shirtless on my picnic table, trying hard not to melt in today’s heat. Thankfully I was in the shade most of the day, but man oh man, when that sun hit it sure was hot. My sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew came up for dinner, and just left a few minutes ago. So right now I’m catching up on a few emails, and probably going to do a few hours of work before bed. I’ll probably head back into town again tomorrow for the morning, and then head back up to the lake again for […]

I left Vancouver yesterday afternoon to head into Chilliwack and pick up the keys to my new apartment. On the way, I stopped and met a really old friend of mine from high-school, and we had a few beers and a plate of nachos. I have to say, it was a rather strange feeling being in my apartment all alone after the landlord left. I sort of just stared around at the empty apartment, trying to digest just how I felt. Without a doubt, I am excited. I am definitely looking forward to what the next year or two will bring, and to enjoying life at a slower pace for a while. I spent the night at my dad’s house, then returned to my apartment this morning to coordinate furniture deliveries as well as TV and internet installation. My apartment actually has a patch-panel on the wall, so I can […]

Just waiting for a shirt to dry, and then I’m heading into the office for my last week of work. Hard to believe it’s coming up so soon to be honest. I have a few meetings this week where I’ll finalize the hand off on a few of my projects, and then I’m done. On Wednesday night (two days!) I’ll be heading out to Chilliwack and getting the keys for my new place. I haven’t even really thought that far ahead yet, but somehow I’ll end up out there and my car will stay there going forward. I haven’t even really begun to pack yet, so this will be interesting. I’d like to take my laptop in to be fixed, but I can’t really do without it currently, and they said they’d need it for a few days. Also, I plan to load my car up with electronics prior to […]

If you still want to be eligible to win a Nintendo Wii, then make sure you go fill out the survey. TODAY IS THE LAST DAY!