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Sorry for lack of posts, been a very busy day. Typically I get a chance to post here, but I honestly didn’t have any time yet.

It is 1:15 (EST), been up since about 5:30am and the only thing I have eaten all day were two Granola bars (which I just ate).

Back to work…

I have become a stickler for being on time for scheduled business calls. I really really get annoyed when I have a scheduled call for a certain time and that person is not around for the call, when we scheduled it.

There are two cases of these calls.

(1) The person is suppose to call you and calls you an hour later or never calls. When this happens, I always want to tell the person - we had a call scheduled for X and I cannot talk now. But often, I stop what I am doing and take the call anyway. But it really makes for a bad impression.

(2) I am suppose to call the person and he/she doesn’t answer when I call. When this happens, I always leave a voicemail saying, it is X time and we had a schedule phone call. I hope everything is okay. Please call me back at ###-###-###, thank you. Again, leaves a bad impression and really bothers me.

I am an extremely punctual individual about most things. I am the type to be 15 minutes early to everything. I call people exactly on the dot, when scheduled. I actually often make sure to clean my plate before expecting a phone call or meeting. Otherwise, I might be distracted during the call.

In addition, I am much more in favor of scheduling phone calls as opposed to just calling “whenever.” It allows me to devote the necessary attention to whom I am speaking with. Otherwise, I can be involved in 5 different things and one of those five things can get lost in the pile (although that rarely happens, I hope).

Of course, that is my nature and not everyone has this type of mentality. What type of person are you? More laid back or not? Here is a poll:

I was at the bank today, depositing a few checks - like I do a few times per week and I noticed a promotion for “Remote Check Deposit.” A way to deposit money from your computer, without having to go into the bank!

I have heard about this mysterious but yet fascinating invention before, but blew it off as a folks tale.

Seriously, many banks now offer this to companies. I go to the bank a few times a week, in fact, I send my partner to go also, I send my wife, and also, I often send my mother. I am sometimes too busy to go, but the funds need to be deposited to keep the business operating. Today, I went and I saw the promo for Remote Check Deposit.

The teller wrote down the branch manager’s name and telephone number, so I can get more information. The second I got back into my office, I called the branch manager. He looked up my account and said I qualify and might be able to get the scanner for free, plus a reduction in the monthly fee.

He then gave me the fees without any reduction and promised to call me back with my rates. Here are the fees without any reduction:

• $866 for the scanner - one time fee
• $125 per month for the service
• $0.09 per check

The 9 cents per check is fine with me but the $125 per month is crazy, at least for my business. Let’s do some math…

If I go to the bank 3 times per week, let’s say there are 45 weeks I go to the bank (52 weeks per year). 135 bank runs per year. Now, if each bank run costs me more than $12 or so, then it makes sense for me to buy this service, at the retail cost. Let’s say, it takes me 15 minutes to do a bank run and I am worth $300 per hour (am I?), then the 15 minutes costs me $75? So I would be saving $63 per run by getting this device.

See why they call this fuzzy math? In reality, I don’t think it is worth $125 per month for me to be that lazy. In fact, why are they charging me for this? Think of the amount of money they can save by having businesses process their own deposits and not have them come in and take up the teller’s time? One day, this service will likely be free - it just makes sense. How much would I pay for it? I don’t even know if I would pay $30 per month for it - just doesn’t seem worth it and I do need to see the sunlight on some days.

How much would you pay for this service?

Remember my post from a several months back named I’m Not Nice: Cold Calls From India Programmers?

Well, I am so much worse now. Here is my new scenario:

(1) Phone Rings
(2) I say, “Hello”
(3) There is a three second delay…
(4) “Hello, my name is Joe,” is heard in an Indian accent from far away (i.e. VOIP line).
(5) I said, “I assume you are looking for us to outsource to you?”
(6) There is a three second delay…
(7) “Yes.”
(8) I say, “Not interested, Goodbye.”

I don’t even have patience to wait for the person to tell me what they do. I ask them straight out…

I am sick, sorry for lack of posts around the web.

I am sick, sorry for lack of posts around the web.

So I have been sick since Saturday night/Sunday morning. I typically get sick on holidays or weekends, not sure why - but normally when I get really sick, it happens on days I am off anyway. Sometimes, these sicknesses linger into work days - I hate when that happens.

Monday, I was off for Passover. Tuesday, I was hoping to come back, but I was too sick. My wife made me go to the doctor - who happens to be in the same building as my office, so before and after the doctor visit, I spent some time in the office (with fever). In fact, I actually interviewed a new PHP candidate for a job, in person.

Today, I think my fever is beginning to break. I got into the office after 10am. I am absolutely exhausted already. What is with these flus that they not only kick you when your sick, but linger on and on with being weak days after?

I hope I get back to 100% (if I was ever a 100%) soon. Not being able to be quick quick quick, is really bothersome.

Since I was sick most the week, I figured maybe I’ll just pick up the routine blogging next week…. I started back at the other blogs, but maybe ill take a holiday for this blog…

So see you Monday and happy last days of Passover!

Dare I admit it? In the house chore department, I got it easy.

Why admit it now? Well, this weekend, was the last two-days of Passover. We had my in-laws and family over for the full two-days. My wife also invited over my parents, my sister and kids and my brother and kids for a Sunday lunch meal (they are all in walking distance - well, not parents, but they were at my sister).

Preparing a house to house, room, clean, feed, etc nine people is a chore. I barely did anything myself to help. I did my part by staying out of the kitchen and staying out of my wife’s way. I believe she had help from her family, but I am not sure how much help. In any event, I, for the most part, stayed out of the way.

I did have a few things to take care of, such as the lighting (which I messed up on), timers for certain appliances (which worked for the most part) and fixing some things prior to the holiday. But I had no say on food, rooms, bedding, cleaning, etc. All I did was go to work and stay out of the way. In fact, I rarely ever do the wash, clean the floors, make any food or anything - things magically get done some how.

My wife doesn’t like when I talk about her here, but I do need to say that she did a wonderful job this holiday!

I learned a while ago that I cannot expect my employees to work as hard as I do for my company. It is my company and the more I put into, hopefully the more I get out of it. But in reality, hard work does not always pay off (don’t tell your kids).

But I don’t expect my employees to work as hard as I do. I do expect them to work hard and they do. But I don’t expect them to work as hard as I do. I figure, you set an example and hopefully it encourages them to work harder. I do have some employees that work incredibly hard, maybe two that work as hard as I do. Since they read this blog (yes, I know you read) I won’t name names…

BUT… I do expect that if I work for someone they work as hard as I do. I expect that. If it is your business, you should care more about your business then I do. Sometimes, be it with clients or other work, I get the feeling that I care more about their business then they do. That bugs me, it really does. Why should I work my brains out and pick up the pieces when they care less than I do?

Anyone ever feel that way?

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