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- Putting Wheels on a Dream
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It’s with a great sense of anticipation that I write this post. The last 4 weeks have been filled with lengthy family discussions, meetings with bankers, accountants, and salespeople. There have been more “What if…”, “What about…”, and “Who will….” type questions asked in our family than ever before. We don’t yet have all the answers to all the questions, but have worked through enough of them that we are finally ready to put wheels on a long-time dream, and can finally tell you about it.
Sometime in the fall of 2010, we (my wife, 13 year old son, 12 year old daughter, and myself) will turn over our house keys to someone else, seat-belt ourselves into an RV, shift into “drive” and hit the road for roughly a year of travel, sightseeing, work, exploration, making new friends and visiting old ones. And yes, I fully expect that time will also include arguments, short tempers, frustration, mechanical breakdowns, too-little personal space, and homesickness.
But mix all those together and we think it will fully define what we are after as a family - a true adventure.
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- Boyink.com Relaunches
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On February 3, 2000 I had a cushy corporate IT job at a Fortune 500 company, a couple of toddlers at home, and the first dot-com bubble was just peaking. On a whim one day I checked for the availability of my last name - Boyink - as a domain and found it available. I bought it mainly because I thought it would be cool for my family to have personal email addresses of our first name at boyink dot com—especially my kids as they got older. What I did not know is that a couple years later the site would become the platform for a new business and a whole new way of life. Since becoming a business site Boyink.com has had at least 4 different visual designs, and I’m very proud to have launched the 5th yesterday.
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- Boyink on Video
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The video of my presentation from the 2009 ExpressionEngine/CodeIgniter Conference has been posted online by the good folks over at Whoooz! Webmedia. You can view it on the Video Page from the conference website, or on Train-ee.com.
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- Back from the Netherlands
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Over the past week I was in the Netherlands for a bit of work and a bit of pleasure. Well, actually the work was pleasurable as well - in that I was speaking at the first ExpressionEngine Conference. I had a great time at the conference and then did a couple days of traveling and sight-seeing in the Netherlands. You can read my full review of the event on the Train-ee blog.
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- How Much Are You Looking to Spend?
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I spend a fair amount of time developing quotes for websites. Heck - I’m even travelling to the Netherlands to talk about my approach for quoting and planning ExpressionEngine based sites. One of the tougher aspects of quoting work is that initial feeling-out of the prospective client. Do they want steak on a hamburger budget or are they realistic about the costs involved for what they want?
You’ll often get the advice to ask about their budget early on. Prospective clients don’t always have one, or aren’t always willing to share one if they do, but often you can get a response with a number that does a good job of letting you know if it’s a conversation worth continuing. Put another way, you should ask potential clients: “How much are you looking to spend?”