We went into a Chinese restaurant a few nights ago, and I was pleased to see a lot of Asians in there. To me, if you go into a Chinese restaurant and there are no Chinese (or other folks of Asian descent) people in there, you're probably in trouble. It's like going into a Mexican food restaurant and not seeing any Mexicans inside, or worse - not seeing any Mexicans in the kitchen. It's almost as bad as going into a BBQ restaurant and not seeing any black people, though in a pinch, old, backwoodsy, country white people is an acceptable substitute *IF* they have been making and smoking their barbecue and making their sides for not less than fifteen years (preferably 20)*AND* they are from either Texas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi or Tennessee. Also, if the people (either black or white) are fat, wearing overalls, and/or missing teeth, that instills great hope. (Cajuns don't count on this one - that's a whole other genre.)
As you guys can see, all our computers are back on line. The final tallies?
Number of trips to Best Buy: 3
Number of network cards installed: 3
Number of network cards that didn't work: 3
Number of Operating Systems reformatted: 2
Number of viruses that rendered the computer completely useless: 1
Number of computers I installed antivirus software on: 2
Number of programs I had to reinstall: 4
Numbers of years of client data I lost: 6
Number of e-mail address books lost: 2
Number of projects that eventually failed completely: 1
Number of calls to Verizon: 7
Number of calls to Belkins: 3
Number of calls to Dynex: 1
Number of calls to Geek Squad: 1
Number of calls to Cousin Steven: 1
Number of calls to Brian: 6
Number of hours I'll never get back: 35
Our number one client is offering to come by and visit when he comes to the US. I don't know what to do about that. See - I was a little concerned about showing him our "facility" when I actualy had a facility, and now I'm afraid that if he sees that we're just two people making tests in our living room he'll drop us, but I don't want to lie. Also, I can't afford to take the guy (and his daughter) out to give 'em a good taste of Texas. Any suggestions on how to address this?
Anyway.....more tomorrow, huh?
804 for Tuesday
6 comments:
Just a word to the wise. The company I work for is very careful and particular about "vendor selection", and we even tell horror stories about the times we found a great product that appeared to meet all or needs, BUT, when we found out that the vendor was, literally, "two guys in a garage", Vendor Management refused to allow us to buy their product/services.
And, for the record, I did come by to help with the network issue at the designated time, but no one was home. Sounds like there was a lot more wrong with your system though, especially if you had a virus.
It was only 6? |rimshot|
Happy to help. Tho I'm sorry we couldn't get that first usb wifi guy to work.
Glad you got it figured out.
That stinks losing all that data, man. For something as pretty mission critical (as the dorky business guys say) for your company as your computer is for order history, billing, contact, etc. you should probably consider getting something set up for backups, mate. I could help you at some point if you want to bother with it..
Yeah - that's our biggest fear. Our game plan (so far) is to go and rent an office someplace for the few days he's here and stuff the company in that
And, for the record, I did come by to help with the network issue at the designated time, but no one was home.
Man - I sure am sorry about that. That's completely unacceptable on my behalf. What can I do to make it up to you?
To Bri: how much is a cheap but stable server?
Well, this will be my fourth attempt, either God or the devil does not want me to send this or it just may be the internet service here. But I do not like to feel defeated and since I do not know the answer to these questions I will try again.
My two cents: Truth is, the most important thing you can do first of all, is for you and Toni to take this situation to the Lord because he alone knows the best solution to this challenge. (probably do not need to tell you that)
Then consider what are your reasonable options are. He is already a vendor so you are not trying to solicit his business just keep it. As a vendor, would he say that Scott-co is meeting his requirements , as a supplier? Is he happy with the service you are providing him? Is he making money from your product? If the answer is yes, then it may not matter to him where your operation is temporarily located. And it is temporary, not a permanent fix as you are growing the business. It is also beneficial to your customers because of lower overhead, you are saving them money. Is he for sure coming? If so then if you knew when, you might be able to rent something for a month (have no idea if this is possible)
If you cannot do this then I would tell him out front that you are working out of your home temporarily as you are dealing with the current problems facing America having to do with the current financial challenges businesses are facing. If he actually comes to the house you can present yourselves and the operation in a very professional manner. I think relationships are as important in business deals as the products themselves. You already seem to have a good relationship with him.
You can always have friends and family come "work" on the day he comes. That is not being deceitful in my opinion.
Also, if you need for LJ to come since he is the chemist and your products deals primarily with chemical reactions, he can arrange to do that. He could answer any questions he might have concerning the chemicals.
We do all we can that is humanly possible but ultimately the results are in God's hands.
I would plan on taking them to lunch or dinner.
just do your best he will either keep ordering from Scott-co or not. either way you will survive.
Oh, oh, great idea: Tell him due to the nature of the service you provide to law enforcement, and the unsavory people that service tends to get riled up when they get caught, you are not able to divulge your physical location in order to prevent potentially violent retribution directed at you or, MORE IMPORTANTLY your employees.
But that you can arrange to meet somewhere to treat them to a dinner or something like that.
Oh, that sounds good. :-)
Excellent point, Steveo. Security problem. I like that.
To Bri: how much is a cheap but stable server?
Depends on what you want to back up space/volume-wise. I imagine if you're just backing up your pc, you don't need your own server. And the best backup solutions are offsite - you don't have to worry about theft, fire, etc.
So something like carbonite (http://www.carbonite.com/) would probably be really good. It's like $55 per *year* and includes software that syncs your important files (my documents, your billing software, etc.) automagically when you're not busy.
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