Solopreneurs and the Unexpected

As a solopreneur (a pretentious made-up word I despise that is nonetheless accurate) I hate when people talk about the downsides of working with a one-(wo) man show, but when it happens to YOU, as it has to me, you are forced to acknowledge that there IS a downside.

Small shops and freelancers have a lot of advantages over the big boys--we usually have more creative freedom and flexibility, we tend to think outside the box (if we didn't we'd be happy working in someone else's box) and, because of our significantly lower overhead, we are often a more wallet-friendly choice.

The downside? There's only one of me. When I get sick, I work anyway, unless I'm in the hospital--and I've been known to beg for a laptop and work from there, too. Sometimes, though, things beyond our control happen, things that take us so far outside of our normal lives that we simply have to drop everything else and try to deal with it. The death of a loved one is one of these situations, but not the only one, and what constitutes a crisis of this magnitude is different for everyone.

The long and short? I've been out of commission due to circumstances beyond my control for a little while. I am back at work today because I told my clients I would be. While I try to balance the business and the personal I am working reduced hours, 9a-1p CST, through 7/11/08, and possibly for longer.

For those of you who have stuck by me, thanks. For those of you who feel you need to move on, I understand. For those of you who have sent messages of support, thank you!

The best way to get in touch with me is still via email & I am responding to messages within one business day. For those needing phone time, it may take a day or two to set up since I am playing catch up right now.

And the Fun Never Stops!

*sigh*

Upgrade begets upgrade is the way of the world. In order to sync my calendars I have to upgrade my Outlook. Upgrading my Outlook is only $100 cheaper than upgrading my whole MS Office package, so I bit the bullet on that one today.

Tonight, we have fun with Microsoft installations :-S I'm not a huge MS fan anyway, as anyone who reads my posts on the OffAssist blog already knows, but I am really dreading this. MS installs never go the way they are supposed to. I married an engineer, so he and I have been the whole family's in-house tech support team for almost 15 years and these things never go as planned.

Wish me luck!

Oh, and to clarify yesterday's post, I am RECEIVING email regularly (actually, I'm getting 2-4 copies of everything, it's driving me batty!) I just can't SEND email. So if you need to get in touch, that's still, for the moment, the best way to reach me.

Unless you like to text. New phone has unlimited texting and a real keypad. Woot.

6:14pm - U P D A T E

Finally get all the important stuff backed up, it took ALL day. Then I couldn't get the ruddy box open. Check it out, I had to find a photo tutorial just to OPEN the box. I'm afraid now.

Update, Upgrade, Upheaval!

Ink Think is doing respectably well these days, after a long slow start, and I decided to reward myself this weekend. My old business (cell) phone has been having a harder and harder time taking a charge--the battery was fine, but the little connector thingy in the phone wasn't connecting unless you laid it down just right and held your mouth so. It was very WordPerfect 5.0!

After much thought and inner debate I decided to upgrade to a PDA. I denied myself 3 or 4 years ago when I got my last phone, unable to justify the expense for my tiny writing business. Now, though, I need it. I can edit documents while waiting for school to get out and not have to re-enter the hand edits on the soft copy when I get home. I hope. So I did it.

A cringe-worthy amount of money later me and my PDA headed home, a big grin on my face and a brand new picture of the kiddo, taken in the phone store, on my desktop.

6 HOURS later I finally got the ^&*%^# Windows Mobile syncing to work right and suddenly all was right with the world! My computer could see my phone.

Just not my email.

10+ HOURS later, and that's labor hours, real time is closer to 20 and yes, I did only get 5 hours of sleep last night, the process of migrating back to Outlook from Thunderbird is complete. Sort of. The messages are all there, and some are even sorted into the right folders, but some got lost, some ported over (a nightmarish 3-5 step process that either Microsoft or Mozilla needs to make easier!) blank, or were there but hiding in reams of code...

If you emailed me this weekend, well, it may have gotten lost in the shuffle. If I haven't replied, it's because I can't. I will be spending Monday on the phone with tech support, no doubt, figuring out why I can't seem to send through any of my SMTP servers. If you really need me, send me your Skype ID (or Yahoo, AIM, or MSN--pick an instant messenger) id in the email and I'll get back to you that way.

I wish this was it, but sometime this summer Ink Think will be migrating to a new computer, too. I must be nuts.

The Library Doesn't Open Til 10am!

and my DSL was down when I tried to check email at 7am!

The horror. I fought with it on my own, rebooting this, rebooting that, until 10am. Then I started calling the in-house tech support (my husband) at work every 20 minutes til he called me back.

"Honey, the Internet is broke."

He walked me through all the things I'd already done and a new trick or two, then told me to give up and call the ISP tech support people.

They made me re-do all the things I'd done on my own--again--then ran some line tests of their own. The line failed. Oh, no!

To top it off, their trouble ticket system was down - Could I call back in five hours and give them my case number & someone would schedule a person to come out and check the line?

I gave up hope and packed laptop and child off to the library after school. There I checked my email, did a little research, and, of course, borrowed some Dr Seuss & the animated version of "The Hobbit" that she and I were watching when dh got home from work.

I made him call tech support back.

The new tech people intimated it might be our modem and if we replaced we could be up and running tonight. Faster than you can say, "Raid Night in the World of Warcraft" he was off to the electronics store.

I'm posting this, so obviously it worked...

But still. If you work virtually, your Internet connection IS your business. What would you do if your ISP failed you? No matter how many managers you spoke to or people you were pleasantly firm with about your problem, if you faced being without connectivity for one or more days, what would you do?

I'm lucky. Austin is one of the most connected cities in the world and I pay my ISP a little extra (about $3) a month to be able to access wireless in ANY public location where they are the wi-fi provider, places like McDonald's, UPS stores. If I'm really desperate I can drive my car up to the park & ride up the street. It has wireless, too.

In fact, had dh not fixed us up I was going to do that later tonight. Put the small person to bed, reply to the emails I downloaded earlier, then pop down the road (literally about 2 miles) to send. Then I could swing by McDonald's for coffee in the morning to check for replies...

It's not a perfect plan, but it is a plan, and one that doesn't require any great outlay of cash while my ISP is down. So, for now, it works for me.

IF your ISP goes down for 2 or more days, what will you do?

A Day Off

Sometimes we get a day or a few off, when we would rather not (like my recent hospital stay!), and can't take one when we wish we could.

Today, I got lucky. I (finally!) got completely caught up with the things that needed doing while I was in the hospital and the things that didn't get done the month before I went in while I was sick.

So, today I:

- chaperoned a fossil-hunting field trip with 48 kids 5-8
- had lunch with a good friend I don't see often because she lives a ways out of town (but relatively close to the field trip)
- went to the yarn store and picked out yarns for a gift project for my dad, who is retiring this year after teaching science for the past 24 years
- went to the library just to wander...
- got to be first in line to pick up my child after school!

By about 2pm I was jonesing to check my email, and by the time we got home I was ready to kick her out in the backyard and get some work done. Normally, especially on days I help out with her class, by 4pm I just want some Calgon. Today, I feel refreshed and rarin' to go!

Confession

Sounds juicy, eh?

Sorry to disappoint, but I do need to get a few things off my chest.

F I R S T -

Oy have I been sick! I started feeling it Friday and by Sunday I was cheerfully hoping for my own death. Then came Monday and I was sure I had died and someone forgot to tell me. Yesterday was a bit better, but, well, I now have an overwhelming urge to redo my bathroom since I've spent the past five or six days staring at it.

If you are waiting on anything, I'm running a little behind, but plan to be caught up by the end of the weekend. The family is headed out of town to give me some quiet time to work.


S E C O N D -

Yea, this is the confession part. I'm a writer and a reader. Kind of a solitary person. I am totally happy in my own little part of the world doing my thing. I am not, unlike the wonderful Lana at Virtual Business Solutions, a touchy-feely kinda gal. Kind of one of the reasons I love working virtually--I only have to see people when I want to.

Which sorta roundabout brings me to my point. I work well left to my own devices. If I give you a deadline, assume you will have it by then, earlier if possible, but, well, that's why it's a deadline. Unless I have a question or a problem, you likely won't hear from me between initial setup and transfer of materials to be worked on and first draft or completed project. I'm just not a constant contact person - which is probably why I don't have much truck with salespeople.

I am not ignoring you. I did not take your money and run (never have, never will). If I ~ever~ do miss a deadline and it is my fault, I will cheerfully offer to return your deposit or write off the balance for he remainder of the work to be done.

So, if you don't hear from me, don't worry. As Martha would say, "It's a good thing."

My Office Exploded

Maybe not literally, but it sure feels like it!

My husband added some new equipment in his office, which also housed my printer, and we found out yesterday that wasn't going to work. I went to print something about 6pm yesterday and blew the breaker for that entire side of the house (NOT the side my office is on, incidentally).

"Come and get yer *%@&* printer, honey!"

I did. And the stand it was on. Which also held a TV and video games, etc. Essentially I've been moving plugs, shelves, furniture, electronics, books, and filing cabinets ever since. I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel (and my carpet, yay!) but, well, if I was supposed to get back to you today about something, I hope you'll give me until this evening or tomorrow morning.

Thanks!

I may never wash dishes again.

Why? Because I usually do kitchen chores in the early morning while waiting for the almighty bean to bestow its nectar upon me (aka waiting for the coffee to brew). If I don't do the dishes and laundry then, I usually catch them later in the day when I go downstairs for a refill.

Of course, the latter was affecting my productivity since if I was downstairs doing chores I was ~not~ upstairs writing and editing and networking and filing and doing all those other self-employed kind of things.

No More!
Like my motivational note from Jay? I thought I was supposed to be sending those to her, not the other way around--not that I'm complaining, mind you.

I may never wash a dish or fold another pile another laundry again. I'm debating the necessity of ever going downstairs, but am fairly sure the school will call and be ugly to me if I don't go pick up Jay in the afternoons.

In the meantime, Imma work on emptying that full pot you see in the picture :-)

Oh! And if anyone should decide that they think I am just the awesomest, I always need pods for the Senseo ;-)