Financial people all over the place recommend that you don’t get them, but supposed there is another option to “just say no”.

Say instead “Hmmm… how much is it?”
The sales person says something like “$89.95.”

Then instead of saying yes, you say “I don’t think so…”
And as soon as you’re out the store you write a check for your SAVINGS account for 90 bucks.

You’re going to end up doing exactly what the store will do with your money. You’re going to make interest on it and hope something doesn’t break. (And in the cases of some stores, they hope something doesn’t break before the receipt fades completely away.)

If nothing breaks, you’ve got the 90 bucks PLUS INTEREST.
If something does break, chances are it’s going to be less than your savings to repair or replace it.

OK, so there is a little risk. But if you put money in YOUR savings account every time somebody tries to sell you a service plan or extended warranty, the odds are very good that you’ll have enough in your savings to cover almost any eventuality.

OK, this is simple stuff that everybody should already know.
But stuff that in the stress of Black Friday shopping, it’s easy to forget.

At first, we’re going to focus on Do It Yourself Web Stuff, looking at tools and toys to build stuff that people actually want to look at, and that might even sell some of the stuff you’re trying to sell.  It used to cost one arm, one leg, and 226% of your sanity to get a website up and running.  You had to deal with propeller-heads who spoke in bits and bytes and widgets… then fork over large amounts of money on a regular basis.  All that has changed!!!!  You can get a basic website up and running for as little as … FREE … with the purchase of a domain name.  Or you can now, with a little bit of time and effort, have a pretty decent site for around $10 a month, or less.  NO I DIDN’T FORGET A ZERO!!!  If you look up web hosting in Google, Yahoo, or any other search engine, you’ll find SCADS of places that will host websites AND give you tools to build them for $10 a month or less.

All you need is a high-speed internet connection, OK you can do this with dial-up, but the waiting time will KILL YOU!  (I digress.)  All you need is a high-speed internet connection, a relatively current PC (can be Mac, can be Windows, can be Linux) and some time and creative energy. 

About Planning:

When you went to your banker, or the SBA to get the first loan to start your business, he asked for a copy of your BUSINESS PLAN.  — What? You say.  A Plan? — Yes, business plan.  Getting your web presence established requires the same kind of planning.  You can begin the right way with a good plan, and you’ll be flying into cyberspace, or you can dive in without a plan — like swimming in the north Atlantic in October without a wet suit — and set yourself up for an endless conflagration of chaos. 

My recommendation is the planning part… but whatever toots your horn…

If you think planning is boring and useless and just aren’t interested, stop reading now, and come back in a couple of days.  But if you don’t want to spend phenomenal amounts of time and money FIXING STUFF THAT COULD HAVE BEEN DONE RIGHT IN THE FIRST PLACE, continue on…

First off, you have to know where you want to go.  Let’s say you live in Boulder, Colorado, and your headed off on vacation.  You drop of the dog, stop the paper and the mail, fill up the car (of course since you live in Boulder, it runs on corn meal or something), and pile in the family.  You pop on Highway 36 heading east, through Denver to I-70.  You take the Limon exit heading east and drive like a bat out of hell toward Kansas… anticipating all of the beautiful flat country ahead of you.  Six hours out of Denver, your daughter asks from the back seat, “How much longer ‘til we get to San Francisco?”  “Day after tomorrow,” you say.  Then you realize that YOU thought you were going to Indianapolis while the rest of your family packed their ‘gnarly surf togs, dude!’

OK, so what does this mean?  It means that you need to ask yourself some questions.  And no, TALKING TO YOURSELF IS NOT ALWAYS A SIGN OF INSANITY!  Ask questions like:

• What am I trying to sell?
• How will I get it to my customers?
• How are my competitors using the Web?
• What is my budget for doing this?
• How much time will I have to keep things up to date?

WRITE DOWN THE ANSWERS so you don’t forget.  See you next time.

 

The Two Pocket Protector Nerd.