That still cracks me up every time I hear those hands clapping. So, welcome to 2D Web Solutions episode 12 where you ask questions and we find solutions. Thank you so much for being here, for this episode of aspects of design and development. I’m Kerry Carron, founder Ultimate Solution, LLC.

I am Arelthia Phillips, founder of PinTop Solution,s LLC. Today’s episode format is going to differ a bit from what you’ve seen during season one. Normally, we asked up to five different design and development business related questions from our visitors. This is our 12th episode, I mean – I can’t believe it… that it is our 12th episode, but it is and so we’re going to be recapping the 2D Web Solutions season one in its entirety and discussing next season’s expectations.

But fear not – you can still have your questions answered and discussed for future episode by visiting our website 2DWebSolutions.com anytime and submit your question over there. So, without further ado – let’s get started.

Alright. So, Kerry, this is our 12th episode. It seems like just yesterday that we did our first episode where we talked about “Getting to Where You Are”.

Wow, so – episode 1 was “Getting to Where You Are”. What are some of the things that we talked about during that episode? Was that the one where we discussed the different aspects of… the differences between a designer and developer?

Um, I think it was. You know, it was like basically that… it’s about that once you decided you want to be in business… um, how do you decide if you’re a designer or developer. I think that’s what we talked about.

Right. And if I remember correctly the takeaway from that one was “designers and developers are problem solvers” and so, we gave that as one of our image quotes. We also talked about, you know, knowing… and moving toward knowing what you want and where you are.

Okay and so that one, that was like wow… um, so we went from there to… I think the next episode we talked about seeking the advice of a professional.

Right. Right.

And so basically, in that episode, you know – that was like what I like to call just a disclaimer episode. You know, it’s always, “ok seek the advice of a professional.”

Yeah, so smart. So, when they’re seeking the advice of a professional… of course… there is so much, so much that has to be said to that. Um, I’m trying to remember all of the little details of that. I know one of the questions we had was, you know, when did you decide to build a business entity? And how did you decide which entity to use and all of that sort of thing. But the main takeaway from that episode, was protect yourself and your business with professional advisers.

Yes. Yes.

So, did you have… you have many people come up to you since doing that episode and I ask you for additional information and where to find that help?

You know, that’s one of the areas that I don’t know – maybe people just tend to pay attention to me a little bit too much online and notice not to ask me those kind of questions. You know, I don’t seem to get a lot of questions about stuff like that. I tend to get more questions related to like the next episode. The episode that came after that actually, which is like the… I think it was like setting yourself up for success. I get more questions related to how to set up your systems and everything and get everything organized in that way.

I get more questions related to how to set up your systems and everything and get everything organized in that way. ~ Arethia

Right. What was our episode after that one, then?

Which episode?

I think… what are we on? Are we on are we up to number four already?

Number four? Um that was about… uh number four. Was number four about attracting to keep an ideal clients, or are like my numbers off… I’m thinking…

Yeah, no I’m looking at mine, and I’m like, I can’t remember the order either. And I’m thinking… what is it? Setting yourself up? No we just… you said you were setting yourself up for success which was the next one that was after that. So you said that was the one that you get a lot of the, a lot of the questions on. And the takeaway from that episode was make working smarter part our business process.

Ok, alright. So we’re on episode… what episode number are we on? Like tonight I’m having… I mean like…

We’re on episode five.

Five and we’re talking about clients, keeping clients, maintaining clients, um and what do you do to keep those clients. How do you get them and keep them.

Right. And I think what we decided was the most important takeaway when it came to attracting and keeping ideal clients is, provide clear expectations that have boundaries. And so we talked a lot about, you know, making sure that you keep those communications open… And how to have some follow up with them… As well as setting yourself and your business up with some boundaries so that your clients know exactly what to expect. Now, I remember in episode 6, one of my favorite things about episode 6 was the image that we had that went with that episode – that silly-looking horse.

Yeah, I think we used that horse in multiple places because it is just so… it just grabs your attention, it gets your attention. Yeah.

Alright, so what’s next?

I think that’s when we received the question about, like, the whole process of creating podcasts. How do you create this podcast? We know, I mean, people like, ask questions like, “you all make – oh man y’all doing so much, it sounds so great, what are y’all doing – all these steps?” And so, we finally did a podcast on how do you create podcasts.

That’s right. That’s right. That one had a lot of useful information in it. And I know for a fact we had a number of listeners who were specifically interested in that and got that information. I don’t… I have no idea – I’d like to know any of our listeners out there have actually started a podcast. So if you did, leave us a note and get back to us and we’ll add you to our listen list and check you out. So, for the podcast, the takeaway for the podcast was basically, just do it. Just, you know, create your podcast and make it happen. I’m having trouble finding… I’m looking all over… trying to find where we have that specific quote. Let me take a look maybe it’s on the next page. And… nope that one went back. I guess we’re not organized today. Alright so, what do we have for the next episode? And I think your video is having a little bit of issues I hopefully it’s not on the entire podcast. But let’s see, where do we go from there. After the podcast we had some fun with… Let’s keep going. You can… oh I have it on my phone. After the podcast – oh it was shiny objects. How to approach shiny objects. And I think we lost Arelthia, so I’m going to just keep going and make this happen. We talked about what a shiny object was. OH, she’s back, that’s great! Hopefully, we’ll have her jump in with some sound. Are you back Arelthia?

I think, I might be back.

I think you are! Alright, so like, I tried to keep it going best I could. I left off with the podcasting and that – podcasting helps others learn from your experience – was the final quote on that one. And then I introduced our approach to shiny objects. Ok so we’re talking about shiny objects and, you know, how important it is to know exactly what your business needs – when your business needs it – and how to kind of take a look at those. Do you recall what the takeaway from that one was by chance?

The shiny object one, the takeaway from that if I remember correctly, don’t allow shiny objects to distract you from your business objectives.

Yeah, that’s what I remember too and you had that funny, funny picture that rabbit.

Yeah, you know, it’s like when you watch the rabbit or squirrel run across and so you’re distracted. No! You can’t let any objects do that to your business.

That’s right. That’s right.

And then from there, Kerry… oh,  that was the next episode – where we talked about discovering your hierarchy of needs.

Yes. And I think this is another one of my most favorite episodes of the season. Because it’s so important, you know? The takeaway from that one was, you know, make sure that you build upon what is stable in order to get to the top. And I think um…

And guys if you have not seen…

If you’re combining and using the episodes that we put together starting with episode 1 and, you know, building upon our episodes really gets you established or at least gives you somewhat of an idea, you know, where to go in a business when you’re first starting up. But as we look back at the entire year, Arelthia, which of the episodes that we had, did you enjoy doing the most or which is most important to you?

I think that I enjoyed the episode about, probably… the one where you talk about like, setting your business boundaries. I enjoyed that episode a lot. I also I enjoyed the episode about the actual process of creating a podcast. Um… cuz sometimes when you do things you don’t always think about what you really do. How much it takes to do something, complete it, and get it out there so that everyone can experience it. And it just helped me realize that we’re doing something that – it takes a lot of work. And it’s something that not everybody’s necessarily willing to do, you know? But I’m glad that I’m, you know, that we have this partnership that allows us to put this together and get out there.

Well, one of the things that I’ve noticed over the last year is… even our process in putting the podcast together… you know we are taking the time to do the research and find out all of the information. And not only are we sharing it because we’ve been doing it all of it all along, but we can reevaluate where we are at and reapply what we already know and grow and become even better at what we’re doing. And that is is pretty big for me. As far as a favorite episode, I agree with you. I love the episode of about setting boundaries. One of the most common questions that I get from different web designer and developer type of clients that I have is, you know… structuring your business and, you know… what to set up where and what to address when. And it’s an ongoing morphism, for lack of a better term, for how, how I do things. You know, I try things. And it works until it doesn’t work and then, once it doesn’t work, I reevaluate it and I find something to make it work better. And then I just move on from there.

One of the most common questions that I get is about structuring your business. What to set up where and what to address when. ~ Kerry

So, what is your biggest take away that you have been able to apply in any of your aspects of your business throughout the season? Oh, we lost the sound on you again. Alright, well we’re going to move on because I can’t hear Arelthia. So, the next thing on our agenda… Oh… well I asked, Arelthia if … she’s texting me here, so I asked if – what in our episodes have you been able to apply in any aspect of your business?

Yeah, I think the biggest thing, I think you may have mentioned this, even though I was cutting in and out, is that it has caused me to look at some of my practices a little bit closer. Especially, sometimes we do things, just our tradition or because that’s the way we’ve always done it. But once you start to verbalize it to someone else, you start to think, why am I really doing it the way that I do it? And it helps me to think about, um you know, my process is a little bit more.

Yeah, I agree, I agree. And that’s kind of an ongoing thing too. I don’t think that ever stops in any business. And I think that if it does, your business stands a chance of becoming stagnant and old, and you know, no longer interesting so…

I think so, I think so. Yeah, yeah. And you know the interesting thing is that when you talk about things getting like old and stagnant and you want to make changes to it, one of the things that we’re going to change is our site. If you noticed, we already started making some changes but for season two we’re going to make even more changes in how it looks and how its organized. Just to keep it fresh, make it easier for you to find content, not just current content but, uh, past episodes as well.

And if you guys as out users are finding anything that’s difficult for you, we appreciate your input because we want to make it as easy as possible for you. And we are always open to making changes that are going to help you have an easier time using our resources for your solutions. So, feel free to submit your comments, as well as any questions you might have on the website to help us in that aspect of it.

Yeah, and speaking of questions, Kerry… Um guys, here are some things that we got from you that you would like us to focus on in season two. So um, one of the things we got from you was that you want us to focus on the social life of an entrepreneur or as some of you all may know, the lack of social life.

Isn’t that the truth? In fact, I think that is going to be what our first episode of season two is going to be. So if you’ve got any specific questions that you want to address in reference to the social life of an entrepreneur or some suggestions, if you are an entrepreneur of how you have a social life and how you stay involved with others, let us know that as well. In addition to that, we have questions coming from you guys in reference to business practices and roles. So look forward to that in season two. What else Arelthia?… I think we lost you again. So, we also have some input from you guys in reference to a client interaction, and business positioning. We’re also going to go into some very specific tools and how to use them so that you guys can get some hands-on experience using some of the same tools that we use within our businesses. And… we are going to do some, dealing with change and how to – when things… if you’re using other people’s products, and perhaps you are an affiliate, how to deal with if their project changes how to make… how to adapt your business in order to accommodate other people’s changes. Arelthia, are you back with us? I’m still not hearing you on this end so, I’m just going to keep going and feel free to interrupt if you do get back online. We’re going to touch on some additional resources that we use in our business. And we’re going to go into personal and business development as well. And providing support – in other words, like when to use a band-aid and when to make an actual fix. Because there’s a lot of band-aids out there that don’t actually fix problems, they just make them appear to go away – and there’s a big difference. So we’ll touch on that a little bit too. So, I’m going to wrap this up pretty quickly here because I’m not certain that Arelthia is still with us? Can you hear me, Arelthia?

Yes I can. Can you hear me, Kerry?

I certainly can. Let’s go back to you, and let you tell us today. What is our tip of the day to tweet?

Our tip of today to tweet is – create your plan, take action, and experience your success!

Fantastic! That is a, that is a really cool, really cool tip.

Yes. But before we go guys, we do want to hear from you. We encourage you to leave your comments on our website located at 2D Web Solutions dot com so we can continue that conversation over there. Next time, I think Kerry already mentioned this, but guys we’re gonna be talking about the social life entrepreneurs. How you can have a social life.

Absolutely! And remember when you ask questions, we find solutions. So, while you are over on the website be sure to submit your design and development questions so that we can address them in a future episode.

And if you’re really ready to take action towards building yourself successful design and development business, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel or a podcast which are currently available through iTunes, android, RSS, email, and stitcher.

We’ll see you on the next 2D aspects of development episode. Until then, we’ll see you later.

Bye.

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