1. Pay Your Bill On Time. The biggest aggravation that any small business owner runs into is usually related to finances. To be frank, there are a bunch of customers who just don’t pay their bills. Then, as a small business owner, you’re wedged between a rock and a hard place. Do you charge a late fee and risk aggravating the client or do you stick to the terms of your contract? I say for habitual offenders, you have to charge the late fee. But folks, if you’re working with a small business – pay your damn invoices on time.
2. Not Showing Up To Meetings. In truth, this particular point is what drove me to write this post today (and I’m writing this on Friday, the day before it’ll be on the blog). I was supposed to have a meeting with a new client at 1:00pm today – he didn’t show. This has happened on a few occasions with other potential clients. If people want to know why some small business owners stay away from random inquiries, this is the reason. No one has time in their day to go to a meeting place, sit around for half an hour, and then leave. It’s insulting and probably crosses you off of that small business’ list of future clients.
3. I’m Not Your Tech Guy. My company designs and maintains websites. Nothing gets me aggravated more than when my clients call me and expect me to be able to fix the viruses on their computer. Look – you’re the idiot who either ran over to a porn site or actually clicked a link in the spam e-mail. Besides, my contract is to provide you with website services – not to be your tech guy!
4. You’re Not My Website Company. On a related note, I often get bothered by people who want to plug their limited online expertise into the services that my company performs. I’ll train my clients to work with their websites, but I don’t need you telling me how to do my job. At the same time, I absolutely hate it when small clients (nonprofits or small companies like my own) want websites that are as expansive as organizations 100 times their size. Part of my company’s purpose is to provide an online business for small companies and nonprofits – if you have plans on world domination, that’s fine. Using my company as a stepping stone in your plans.
5. Your Projects Are Different. Related to the previous point is this one, which comes up more than you would think. I often have clients who do one site with me, love my prices and my services, and then want to come back for another site or two. That’s fine – that’s actually great and it means that I’m doing my job. But when I create a small website for your small company and charge you a small fee, don’t think that when you come back with your website that is going to “rival YouTube” that I’m going to do it for beans. Frankly, I’m not going to do it because this company is my side gig and I’m really only in it to help the small guys out and earn a small profit on the side. I’m not interested in fighting the man or creating a better online profile site than Facebook or MySpace – and if I was, then you’d better damn well be ready to pony up the tens of thousands of dollars it would take to get started on that type of project!

Those are only a few of the aggravations of owning a small business. I post these here mainly for your amusement, but you never know – someone might Google this page one day and get something out of it!

One of my roommates and I went to get the box truck on move-in day at about 8:00am. We were back at the old apartment by 9:00am and the moving began. First we moved the heavy and awkward stuff like the living room couches (by the way, “moving” items meant taking them from the apartment, down the hallway, across the roof, down two flights of stairs, and then into the truck). Then we moved out our beds (more on this in a minute). And then it was time for the televisions.

I have a 27″ cathode ray tube (not flat screen – think old school) TV that we use in our living room. I’ve always been able to move this television on my own. Well, I went to move it and it seems that either I remember it being lighter or I’m not as strong as I once was…most likely the latter. At that point I got a little annoyed at myself because not only was I winded from moving a few of the heavy items down the steps, but I couldn’t carry my old television. I took the next half an hour or so to get myself mentally ready and I told myself that if I couldn’t move that television by myself then I ought to be really ashamed. After the mental preparation, I picked up the television on my shoulder and brought it down to the truck.

And that’s all she wrote.

I was spent. I told myself that even though I may like to go around thinking that I’m still a college-aged kind of guy – I’m really not. It was at one time both depressing and exciting. Depressing for obvious reasons (who wants to realize that they’re old?). Exciting because I told myself that while I may not have the strength of a college kid any more, I advise a bunch of college kids and I have some money that college kids don’t have. This is obviously a perfect combination when you need some muscle to make a move go easier.

To make a long story short, three of my undergraduates came over and the entire apartment was moved out of the old place and unloaded into the new townhouse in three hours. Incredible. The strength that those kids have is unreal. Very impressive.

Getting back to my bed – we moved my old full-size bed into the new place and after sleeping on it for a few nights, it just didn’t feel right. There were some lumps, some bumps, and some indentations. Here I am in this new townhouse which is only about 20 years old itself and I’m sleeping on a mattress that is about the same age as the building! Plus, it was a used mattress that I took from a friend. Anyway, I went out and bought a brand new mattress, box spring, and bed rack on Friday afternoon and it was delivered yesterday. The bed is a queen size and it is completely awesome!

All in all, a good move and a nice new place to start some new adventures and make some positive lifestyle (*cough* go to the gym *cough*) changes! I’m very pleased!

Let me digress… To me the best vacation is one where you’re away from the daily grind and away from the daily scene. I wouldn’t imagine vacationing in Nashville if all of my co-workers, their families, my roommates, their friends, my friends, and my clients all came down there with me. What a futile effort in relaxation! I suppose that repetition has rendered this manner of vacation to be customary for the New Yorkers. It’s their choice to vacation this way – I certainly wouldn’t do it like they do.

Anyway, after living in this miserable borough for the last few years my roommates and I will be moving away at the end of this month. We’re heading just a little bit west over Route 35 and past the Parkway to Tinton Falls. In my case, this will cut between 10 and 15 minutes off of my daily commute, thus giving me back about a half an hour each day (and untold millions in gas costs). The new rental is also a legit three bedroom townhouse as opposed to where we live now, which is a two bedroom apartment which was painfully converted into a three bedroom apartment with no common storage space and very little closet space in each bedroom.

We’ve toured the townhouse twice and I really like it. I admit, though, that I’m biased because I absolutely hate living in our current apartment. The new townhouse has two and a half bathrooms while our current apartment has one bathroom. With three professional guys living in one place and guests coming over every once in a while, it’s hard to argue against adding two extra bathroom areas to our living space.

The original listing did suggest that there would be an unfinished, small basement, but that turned out not to be true. Not that we expected anything big – probably a 10 x 10 basement where we could store some of our excess stuff. On the flip side, we do have a shared backyard in the new place and since we’re the end unit, we have the side yard, too. This should come in handy when we have our apartment-opening barbecue in a few weeks.

As far as other issues to deal with – I’m currently looking into the various Roman Catholic Churches in the area to see where I may wind up if I decide that my current parish is too far. We’re all in the midst of packing the current apartment – moving it over to the new place will be aggravating, I’m sure. I also have to call the vendors who send me bills/information to my current address and change their files to my new address.

All of that aside, I’m excited to be leaving Deal (FINALLY), I’m excited to be heading West to Tinton Falls, and I’m excited that I’ll get a half an hour back in my day.

Unfortunately for you, but fortunately for me, I have not had any ridiculous experiences at Work Out World (WOW) in Ocean Township. I’m sort of sickened that I’m going to another gym in Ocean Township since I do everything I can to NOT contribute to the town’s economy (I’ll always be bitter from how they treated my friends and I while we were college students – police brutality and destroying civil liberties definitely leaves a mark on you). The new gym is nice and I’m amazed at how packed it is at 6:30am in the morning.

One of the complaints that I read about WOW before signing up was that there are too many members and that there are times when the lines for equipment are half an hour long. I thought that I would experience this problem yesterday morning when I pulled up to the gym early in the morning and I saw a packed parking lot, but I didn’t have a problem getting on a treadmill at all. The early morning workouts have been nice so far, but I think I’m going to change up my training schedule each week or every other week so I’m not always working out first thing in the morning or later in the evening. I guess it depends on my schedule at work.

One weird coincidence popped up this morning, though. Yesterday I thought I saw some kid (I say “kid” but he’s got to be my age) who used to hang around one of my ex-fling’s houses. He looked different (older), but after Day Two at the gym I’m pretty confident that it’s him. So that was sort of weird.