Welcome to Chez Cliff!

As a consumer, my priority in entering a store is usually to purchase something. Small-talk with the seller is kept to a minimum. I could careless how many minutes their cellphone calling plan has. Nor do I want to know how many Twinkies they can eat in 2 minutes.

Sitting in with my Mentor on business meetings, at least 50% of the time was spent just shooting the breeze. This “breaking of bread” process confused me because we just didn’t talk business and then get out. Cutting the small talk would cut the meeting time in half.

It finally dawned on me during my first business transaction the importance of this small talk.

Scenario: The name of my online business site matches the domain name for the site. What a coincidence! Unfortunately, the domain name was already taken. As luck would have it, the current owner was willing to sell the .com, .net and .org for the domain name.

When first calling the seller, that little voice in my head told me to just chat with him. During that first 15 minute conversation, “talking” took about 10 minutes and “business” took five minutes.

The ten minutes of chat creates a rapore. “Can I trust this person? Do I like this person? Do I know this person?”

My Mentor is fond of saying “You can’t build trust into a contract. You either trust someone or you don’t.” Now that comment is fully understood.

If a potential business partner turns out to be a racist, neo-nazi pig who bites the heads off small dogs and steals books from libraries then it doesn’t matter what kind of contract exists between him and you. If his business model includes screwing people over, he’ll screw you over.

Per our agreement, I would send the first portion of the payment. Upon receipt, the domain first name would be released to me. Hitting that “Send” button in PayPal made all kinds of doubt surface. He could take the money and run. If he lived in another state, how would Small Claims court work for getting the cash back? But those first few conversations help put my mind at ease. The first payment was sent.

Within two hours of receiving the money, he released the first domain name to me. Very nice.

Now that the trust was established the rest of the transaction went smoothly, without the anxiety.

Facts are a persistent buggers. They have this way of percolating up, no matter how far down they may be buried. One day, and usually the wrong day, the facts pop up and are difficult to ignore.

Last week, my finances were long overdue for a hardcore brutal analysis. Some self-denial prevented this from happening sooner because my Spidey-sense told me that the results would be as appetizing as Roachel Ray’s pop-corn soup.

My prognosis: Negative.

In a near recreation of the Bears and Stern model of last week, my situation required consulting higher authorities. People smarter than me. Friday afternoon was the conversation with the Real Estate Agent. Saturday was spent with my Mentor. The results of both conversations were predictable if not simple: time to sell.

Project#1 will remain in my stable for years to come. Project#2 will make the sacrificial nose-dive into the market. The asking price was determined, based on other properties that are currently in escrow or have sold within the last 4 months. It’s a decent asking price: by decent, I mean break even.

Before, the announcement was made that this project would be a return of 30%. When I scrutinized that number, little pesky things such as taxes and realtor fees weren’t included. With all the expenses accrued, it’s possible the write-offs will stave off a loss. More than likely, the situation becomes a “break even” proposition. It pains me to admit as much. This blog however was created to document both those things good and bad. The first project was a rounding success. The second project: not so much. The best course of action now is to seal the hemorrhage and get out.

Everything involves some level of risk. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. It’s the nature of the game. Some expensive yet important lessons were learned from this project. A real wake-up call. Perhaps that is what I needed.

No no no this has nothing to do with the Latte Factor.

If you haven’t read “The Richest Man in Babylon” then you’re missing out. It’s a great little read. It’s message: save 10% of your income.

Oftentimes putting 10% of my income into a savings account is tough. Rent checks come in at the beginning of the month. Mortgage payments drain the account towards the 15th. Stack on some other bills, a few nights out at dinner and suddenly 10% isn’t as cut and dry as that.

With all the renovations, the crazy contractor swap game, the savings plan kind of fell by the way side. With all the extra expenses, suddenly getting 10% into a savings account became difficult. Last November, I set my mind to the task of figuring out a way to get that 10%.

The Bread Crumb Savings Plan.

Maybe a new book for Oprah . . . The Bread Crumb Savings Plan, the Cheeseburger Factor . . .

Rather than hack away 10% all at once, I wondered if it was easier to give a little bit at a time.

Example: The objective is to save $200/month. Divide that by 4 weeks. $50/week. Next step, program the high-yield savings account to automatically withdrawal $50/week from my checking account. At the end of the month, $200 winds up stashed.

As I stated, this was something implemented back in November. Upon checking a few weeks ago, the high-yield accounts had increased quite nicely. My savings goal has been achieved and sustained.

Little victories count too.

We’ve all gone for an interview. We prepare ourselves for questions such as “If you could be a hostess treat, which one would you be and why?” One aspect of the preparation process: making ourselves look good.

Guys climb into their suits. Women get all “dolled up” with dresses and heels.

Why? Because the interviewer will decide within seconds if they will take you seriously or not. From our standpoint, we want to look professional and trustworthy.

Websites work the same way. People are extremely superficial and judge swiftly. Within a matter of seconds, people decide if a site warrants their time. If it feels like amateur hour, no visitor will give up their information.

In brick and mortar terms: think of it as driving to a store. If upon arrival, you notice they are filming an episode of Cops with naked crack-heads running around the parking . . . would you actually stop and go into the business? OK ok ok so maybe in Detroit this is normal. But the rest of the world, you’d drive away.

The site has to function. The site has to look good. With that being said, the business site will constructed using Wordpress.

Looking at sites that have (1) high volume of visitors (2) large numbers of subscribers (3) large newsletter distribution, 90% of them are using Wordpress with various plug-ins. Reinventing the wheel is not necessary.

Fortunately Wordpress supports all my requirements. The problem: I’m not a programmer. Each time I look at doing something with Wordpress, lines of code need to be added to various templates. Scares me to death. If something goes wrong, how am I to know where it broke?

But really, how scary can it be? I’ve jumped out of perfectly good airplanes, ate cow-face, and used the men’s restroom where I work. As long as I don’t have to french-kiss a tarantula then I’ll be alright.

**Edit** This morning I was sent a file about setting up WordPress, including all it’s plug-ins and AdSense setup. For those that are interested, click the magic link.

Hat Tip to my old buddy Matt.

A few years back, I had a problem with the Perfect Tenant. She wanted to break her lease 4 months early.

Prior to that, a ‘For Sale’ sign had been placed in the front yard. Her reasoning for breaking the lease was predicated on the ‘For Sale’ sign in the front yard. Even though her lease clearly stated that a ‘For Sale’ sign did not constitute a breach of contract, she felt she earned the right to get out.

What ensued was a few days of pure chaos. Lawyers got involved, multiple negotiations occurred. It did make for some great blog entries.

In the end, the agreement reached was releasing 2 months early.

The tenants from Property #1 called. Their lease was renewed until June. He had put an offer down on a condo and was waiting to hear back if it was accepted. He was wondering what my thoughts were on breaking the lease a month early.

“I have no problem with that. Congratulations may be premature but I’ll give it all the same!”

These tenants paid their rent, on time, for nearly a year and a half. Hardly ever any complaints. They have taken good care of the house.

Also, they’re departing right before summer. Summer is one of the busiest months for tenants to find new places to live. No “For Sale” sign decorates the front lawn. It is still a great looking house. Getting it re-rented should not be a problem.

This may be a good sign. My intuition tells me the new tenants for Property #2 may not stay past June in the new property. Their lease expires the end of June.