old faithful

I had one of those days...you know..the type that you run like a fool the whole day and get almost nothing done.

Why? We are currently running 3 businesses in our premises (and 2 outwith) with a very bare minimum of staff (just 5.5 in our studio). One of the services we offer in Rocket-Print is a large format fine art reproduction service for artists using the giclee method.

This was installed a few years ago at the urgent behest of the youngest studio partner who said he would look after it......so of the original four involved in the project, I am the one left running it, and I was the one who didn't particularly want it. Haha..typical !

However, after the oh-so-insistent one, who had so desperately wanted it, had left the studio for yet another venture, I was still left with this expensive bit of kit and a growing client list for it. Solution! tag it onto Rocket-Print as an added service, with a couple of people running it.

But really! I must give off this signal! Every time I'm alone in the studio, with everyone off at lunch or even at 3 in the morning, the phone rings..sucker here picks it up..and behold....it's an artist wanting some work done. Not one of the eccentric, fun, ones, or any of the good friends I have in the local art community .....oh no no...it has to be the semi-depressed, introverted ones. You know..the ones that having a conversation with is like sandpapering your eyeballs ...and STILL i can't get them off the phone '

Today I came up with the solution - 'sorry' says I, ' must go..I'm smelling something really hot here, I think I'm on fire' Would she take the hint? Like hell! This woman kept on asking inane questions about this and about that. I just let nature take it's course, kept muttering 'hmm' in the right places, and eventually the ordeal ended.

My day hadn't though, and with concentration shot to hell, I once more cursed, silently, the ex-designer who had started all this.

Serves me right for not sticking to my guns!

business is business and all that - an addendum

So irresponsible blogging will not reign. Shortly after my last post the offending article was taken down, and replaced with a short diatribe about high ethical values, and how sometimes people will get hurt 'but the truth must out'

How many times has this been said in history?

business is business and all that

Cause and effect - a practical example. A person was recently almost sacked as a result of someone else writing lies on their blog.

How did it happen? I used to consider this blogger a friend until he attacked me in a personal manner on his own blog. I was accused of bad-mouthing him and the company he worked for, and apparently, while he worked with, and for, me, he heard me regularly backstab and generally 'do down' clients, business rivals etc...... I saw red and decided to fully investigate. I discovered that this piece of nonsense came from a new employee of one of our associate companies, who regularly plays football with said blogger. Apparently, he decided that the said blogger's boss (oops sorry, co-director) was being maligned and that he would report the (coloured) nuts and bolts to his mate. The only problem was that he seems to have embelished what was, basically, a strategy meeting, and decided to 'big' the whole thing up to his mate. The blogger (renowned for exageration) then wrote said nonsense on his blog and 'hey presto' this man's boss carpeted him for being unable to keep confidentiality ...was this fair? Unfortunately, I think so, especially as I just recommended this blogger's company to one of our clients that very day ... no more, for sure.

Problem is - morals and ethics go out the door when a good profit is sniffed. For our part, we try our best to be straight-forward and honest in our dealings - even when we are falsely accused... especially when it's by the same company that hit our website over 5,000 times an hour, with a testing script, when we first launched rocket-print.

So where does the 'business is business and all that .....' come from ?

Apparently this is something that I have regularly said - in fact for years (so the magical blogger says) .....the only problem is that NOT ONE of my family, staff or friends has heard me say this, ever. It's true though 'the internet is shit' or can be .... especially when it's used as a device to blacken peoples reputations unnecessarily.