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Tomorrow (Wed. 11/28) is the LAST day to register for the BAP ASMP SB2 free tuition contest!

Lest you forget, details and entry links here.

New Creative Lube podcast is available. Download it now! Available also on iTunes, of course. Free, as always.

After taking a few days off, I’m back. I’ve mentioned before about the need for vacations and, while I didn’t go anyplace, taking the days off was very helpful.

One thing I definitely noticed was how difficult it was to “come down” from the usual stress of running my own business. Monday I felt like I had things I had to do (though I did not do them). Tuesday, same thing. Wednesday, by the afternoon, I started feeling less like I needed to do X or Y, but it was still there in the back of my head. Thursday was taken with other things to do (family stuff, of course, it being Thanksgiving) and by Friday I started to feel like I might be getting a break. That gels pretty well with what people who study work, vacations, and productivity and/or stress have found–that is that it takes at least 4 days before you even begin to feel the reduction in chronic stress in your body.

Yes, I got emails and calls for work. Yes, I ignored them. And yes, the world (my business, that is) did not end because I took some time off.

For many of you, this is a slower time of year for your business. Take some of that down-time to plan for next year (like planning on going to the ASMP SB2 event near you and/or booking a private consultation in those cities with me) and then take some time off to recharge your physical and emotional batteries.

As for me, I’m back and ready to work! Look for lots of posts and info from me soon (like a new Creative Lube podcast VERY soon). 🙂

…I’m going to be out of the office all next week. I’m taking some time to recharge my batteries. You won’t see posts from me until Monday the 26th so you’ll have to find something else to do with your time. 🙂

So, a bit early, Happy Thanksgiving (to the US readers)!

Look for a new podcast about the same time as my return, too.

By the way, when was the last time you took time off? It’s one of the best things you can do for your business. You’ll be more productive and energized.

There is a great rant by Harlan Ellison going around on video (for all of you who have emailed me about it, yes, I know about it already).

I don’t like to link to it because I don’t know if the people who posted it on YouTube had the rights to do so and don’t want to encourage IP infringement. The gist is that writers should be paid and he says, less politely, that he never does anything without getting paid.

Good advice for all creatives.

Btw, NPR yesterday was discussing the WGA strike and said that in polling across the US the general public is overwhelmingly on the side of the writers. Yipee! This is great news for all creatives.

It’s important for all businesses to have a set of ethics. For some photographers, shooting for tobacco is right out while for others it’s fine. There are no “right” answers to setting your ethical rules, but set them you should and, more importantly, back ’em up with action.

Sometimes, walking your talk is difficult. It can mean not taking an assignment when you really could use the money, for example. Or, as so many of us don’t like confrontation, it could just be really uncomfortable to do the “right thing” as you self-define it.

I just encountered the discomfort of standing up for my business’ ethics AND the loss of potential income. I had a photographer contact me about working together. One quick glance at this person’s website made it absolutely clear that this business sold royalty-free stock and that, for me, is a big problem.

I had a choice to make: be honest and tell the photographer that I don’t work (at least knowingly) with RF-selling photographers or weasel out with some lame excuse or pursue the job. The last option was impossible for me. The second one would have been easier on my nerves, but the first option was the best one.

By being honest, I have honored my business. It wasn’t easy and it wasn’t fun, but it was, absolutely, the right thing to do.

Don Mirra sent me this link to a TED presentation by Richard St. John: 3 minutes on what leads to success. You’ll notice some familiar themes here…even the word crap appears (one of my favorite words), though I wish I had thought up his definition. 🙂

You’ve heard me say it a billion times. You’ve heard others say it too. Here’s another fantastically respected expert saying it again: make it your strategy to be unique; making everyone happy is the road to failure. Read the Strategy Means Saying “No” article here.

I have two free tuition prizes for the ASMP SB2 event of your choice to give away. That’s up to a $300 value (depending on your membership status) and, to be clear, it’s ONLY to comp the tuition–no travel or lodging or additional consultations included. ASMP has donated these scholarships.

Here’s the rub: I’m reserving one for those people on my mailing list as of November 28, 2007 AND who let me know they want to be in the raffle. If you’re not on my list or do not wish to be added to my list, you have only one chance to win. But if you are on my list then you have one chance with your peers and one chance with them and anyone else who enters.

Yes, that means people on my list have two chances to win. 🙂

Btw, the actual odds of winning depend entirely on the number of entries in each group.

For everyone, here’s what you need to do to enter. Click one of the links below to send me an email. Regardless of which one you choose, make sure to include the following in your email:

Full Name
Mailing Address
Work Phone
Email Address (if different than sending account)
ASMP membership status (member or not)

INCOMPLETE ENTRIES WILL BE THROWN OUT!!!

Click Here to enter AND to be added to my Free Manuals in Your Email list.

Click Here to enter and NOT to be added to any list (your data will be deleted after the drawing)

Click Here to enter if you are already on the Free Manuals list.

One entry is all that is needed. That means, if you want to be on the list (one entry for members’ only drawing) and enter for the general drawing, just clicking the first link will enter you in both. Or, if you are already a member of my list, clicking the 3rd link will enter you in both drawings.

You will receive an auto-generated reply acknowledging your attempted entry. THIS IS NO GUARANTEE of entry, however, because, like I mentioned earlier, if you don’t send all the contact info, you’re entry will get dumped. But I will try to contact you if that is the case so you can fill in the missing data and still be entered.

The drawings will be held on December 5th, 2007. We will literally be drawing out of a hat so that everything will be equal and as fair as possible.

ENTRIES WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED after 11:59PM PST November 28th, 2007.

Winners will be informed via email and their info will be passed on to ASMP National for confirmation and further info/instructions.

This is going to be a fantastic learning opportunity. If you’ve already signed up to attend one of the events, you can still win, too!

Good luck to everyone!

I’ve been an Intuit user for years. Quicken, Quickbooks, and even TurboTax (because my taxes are simple–a CPA is better for most of my readers). One thing I never do, though, is sign up for the automatic renewal. I can usually find a deal somewhere on TurboTax and so I prefer to buy it when I’m ready. Last year when I purchased the product and did our taxes, I carefully selected to “opt out” of the automatic renewal.

Imagine my surprise when I got a letter from Intuit announcing that my automatically renewed product would soon be available. I immediately went to the company site and changed the settings (which were wrong) to delete the automatic renewal.

A couple of weeks later, I got an email stating that the product would be ready within days, and when it was my card would be charged and I could download the product. I tried to call the customer service number, but it was after hours, so I, after digging through the Intuit site for hours, resorted to again deleting my info and canceling the auto renewal. I received an email confirmation to this effect.

To be sure, I also posted a question on the Intuit forums, under the Customer Service heading. That resulted in someone else posting that they were in the same boat, then the moderator writing, I’m not making this up:

The forums are for people to help each other. We don’t have the necessary information or tools to help you with situations like this. Please Contact our sales and service team via the shopping and account info link here…

What, pray tell, is the purpose of a Customer Service Forum if you won’t serve your customers?

It doesn’t matter, the story gets worse from here.

Today, I got an email announcing that my auto-renewed product is ready for download.

What the…?

I called the customer support number. Customer service is only available between 8am and 4pm PST, so I thought I might actually get someone with the company. Nope. Some poor Indian wage slave had to deal with a terribly irate me. Imagine trying to get someone who can barely speak English to understand “Burns-Dell’Acqua” as a name. Ugh.

This poor shloob did understand English well enough to say that my account had never been canceled. When I said I had email proving it, he tried to say that I must have made a mistake. This went on for some time. Finally, he said that he would cancel everything AND send me an email confirming that. I was to receive the email withing 2 hours of the call.

That was 6 hours ago and counting.

Well, guess what I’m now advising my clients? Stay away from Intuit products.