Author: Melissa

I’m working on a web site using a content management system called CMS Made Simple. Unlike some other CMS packages I’ve used, this one is nice and straightforward. Full admin control over the layout (no having to modify obscurely hidden files), smarty tags for content, nice admin control panel that clients can understand.

My client wants to send newsletters to her customers. This CMS has an add-on newsletter module, called Newsletters Made Simple. Like hell it’s simple! I’ve spent an afternoon on the users forum trying to find out why bits of it don’t work. I discovered a lot of the functionality is wishful thinking. Such as adding html templates and sending mail in html format. Still, I can’t gripe too much since it is open source. Will be a good module if development continues on it.

In the meantime I have to find another solution for my client. We currently have phpList set up for her, it is very powerful with a lot of features (that work!) but it is not very user friendly. I don’t know if she has used it, she didn’t give me a straight answer. I know I find it awkward to use, because I installed it for another client and she always asks me to send her newsletters out!

I’m about to try another list manager called Dada Mail, written in Perl. There is a free version with links back to them, and a pro version without the links. Hmm.. I like this feature:

Visitors to your list can also browse past messages sent with Dada Mail, a complete, dated archive is available to your visitors. Every archive screen also includes a subscription form to allow your visitors to subscribe to the list right there if they like what they’ve read.

It sounds pretty good, let’s test it.

You’d think with many years in support type roles at work I would be able to get past personality clashes a bit better. Particularly since it is pretty important to my survival in business. I have this book, Attracting Perfect Customers which I haven’t read yet but as soon as I get past my current reading list I’m getting stuck into it (so many books, so little time.)

I have this one client with whom I always seem to end up getting into an argument. We just seem to rub each other the wrong way. I’m feeling better about him today, because we just carried on a very productive and insightful conversation for once, without either of us getting defensive.

It’s all about WHAT is communicated, not HOW it is said. Although the ‘how’ is sometimes mixed up with the ‘what’, I have to remind myself not to misinterpret what is being said. If I assume, I am dead! It is always better to seek clarification than get into heated argument and feel like a huge idiot once the air has cleared.

Met up with a possible new client yesterday, a married couple in business, and was amazed at the problems they’ve experienced.

They distribute a very good, very unique specialty product that they and their customers absolutely love. The aggravation to date has been lack of support from their supplier. It isn’t your typical corporate greed, they are dealing with an individual who seems paranoid about anyone making money from his product.

The supplier sells the product through his country-based retail shop, his web site and through a small network of distributors who sell on commission through the party plan method (like Tupperware).

The couple negotiated a different deal with him, where they would purchase the product wholesale and sell through their own channels. They were convinced that a shop front in the city was a good idea and organised a lease.

The shop has really proven to be their undoing. Fearful the couple would make more money in their city shop than he makes out in the country, the supplier raised his wholesale price. Six months on they are getting very little walk in trade at the shop, they are doing more business at weekend markets and home-based parties.

It’s a nightmare situation, they have little or no margin on the product because they are competing with the suppliers retail prices. They are locked into an expensive city shop lease which is eating into their capital. The wife runs the shop single-handed as the husband works full-time (with my husband as matter of fact) and they can’t afford to pay an assistant. She is spending less and less time at the shop because they get more business out of the shop than in it.

To make matters worse they handed money over to someone to build a web site for the business, and it wasn’t finished. The guy just skipped. They then paid someone else to finish it for them, but it was poorly done and is still not what they want.

That’s how I first got involved about a month ago. H bought some product at work from the husband, and they got to talking about the web site. The husband asked me to do a tidy up of the site – fixing some terrible coding and spelling errors, in exchange for more of the product.

The couple recently had a break, and a hard think about what they are going to do with the business.

They have decided to get out of the shop, although they still have to pay the rent there until another tenant takes over. It is likely they will dump the current web site and I will probably be building them a new one with the focus on booking the parties, re-order of product and extending their sub-distributor network.

They have good ideas about marketing the product and are still committed to work hard with it. The parties are where the business is, and the good news is they’ve successfully negotiated better pricing from their supplier.