Words from the Heart

Just a quick note to apologise to you for not issuing Words from the Heart this week. We are in the process of moving our website to a new server as today we maxed out our bandwidth from our old provider.

We have been significantly growing and increasing the number of subscribers to our blog and newsletter, so we have had to grow our IT to match.

Like many growth spurts in business this has not been without the odd pain. Our website will be out of commission for up to 72 hours as part of the move. The good part is that this should be the last move for quite some time as we went for a host with massive room to grow.

What lessons can you learn from me at this point? 

Well we knew the bandwidth was getting close to the limit for a few months, but when the site was closed down last night for hitting the maximum we were forced to act quickly.

By not truly understanding the importance of the indicators we were looking at and the impact they could have, we were forced into catch-up/damage control mode when the inevitable happened.

I suspect I am like many businesses who see the warning signs with things like staff performance, profit and loss statements and don't fully grasp that action is needed.

My other huge lesson was shop around for your IT. I found packages varied dramatically in terms of what they offered and their pricepoint. What I bought for $120US per year costs up to $150AUD per month in Australia.

Also it pays to do your research on companies before you take them on as your supplier. Some look brilliant on "paper" but when you start looking into forums and reviews you find major customer service flaws.

So - I am in for a few very interesting days with my IT!  Look to your email box next Friday for your next Words from the Heart when all will be back to regular "viewing" she says hopefully.

Until next week - have a brilliant week

exuberantly yours

Ingrid