Turtles get a new tank

Well as the turtles keep growing we have moved them from the 10 gallon tank to a 55 gallon tank. They have loved the extra space and we added some goldfish which gives them some exercise trying to catch them.

Unfortunately, as I expected it only took a few days for the tank to start getting cloudy despite having two filters on it. This was not unexpected but I did hope to not have to go invest in a heavy duty filter.

I installed the new filter last night to my chagrin. In getting it going the one hose came loose because I did not have it tightened properly. This caused the hose to pop and water went everywhere. (This one does pump 1200 l/hr.)

To make a long story short I may be out of the dog house sometime in the next couple of weeks but that is still up in the air

How does this tale help you with your business growth?

Maybe you started your business as an affiliate and are recommending products to a list that you built. It works but you need to keep finding products to promote and keep driving traffic to your squeeze page to continue the list growth.

Now you are ready to create your own product and set up an affiliate program to leverage the work of others. Now you pick a script and install it or get it installed to handle your affiliate program.

There are expected costs there but don’t be surprised if you quickly find that the few dollars you saved, or the mistake you made in the set up or any number of things come back and you need to be ready to adapt.

Are you prepared?

You need to be and then even as you do this you need to be thinking about the next step. I have already started looking at an outside pond as the turtles grow are you looking for the next step in your business growth?

Are you investing in your business?

Your questions and comments are welcomed.

The Turtle Dad

Technorati Tags: business building, business planning, expand business

The lovely little turtles are growing at an amazing rate and thus the 10 gallon tank they reside in has become a bit small and we need to get a bigger tank for them.

The boss was out at a new thrift shop and came across a 30 gallon tank with three filters for sale at less than $20. Now I have looked at getting a new home for the three of them and figure that the cost for something similar will be about $300.

Now I don’t know about you but but we love a bargain so I got a call to come with the Jeep to bring this home. Go down and bring it home and a few days later decide to check the filters on our existing set up to make sure that they are working properly.

They worked fine so I cleared a spot for the new tank (it filled a table) and set up the stones for the bottom, added in the various houses etc and set everything in place.

Then the fun started. Started adding in the water, 5 gallons, 10 gallons, 15 gallons and all was great. Was sure that the turtles would have a new home in a few minutes.

Well when I started adding the next 5 gallons the bottom seal let loose.

I now have about 17 gallons of water leaking into my office area (the new site of their home so I can watch them more) with all the computers near by and the fun started.

Needless to say it was scary for a bit but I finally got it all cleaned up. Now back to buying them a new home at retail.

How does this tale of woe apply to your business?

As you find the need to expand you will look at trying to do it on the cheap. Sometimes it will work and other times it will come back to bite you in the you know what.

This is one of the reasons that it can be very costly to your growth and make you have to go back to step one when you get bit.

Just a couple of the things where I have seen it happen that you can avoid is going cheap on your autoresponder and your hosting.

My first autoresponder was free and part of a membership. The problem was the delivery sucked. Less than half my mail got out and no reputable service is going to allow you to import a list without reverifying it. This will cost you most of the list so you are back to step one.

That is why I strongly recommend you use a good quality paid autoresponder service no matter how tight your budget. Aweber is my choice and the best in my humble opinion.

Now hosting can also bite you hard. There are lots of relatively cheap services but…

What happens if you are actually successful? Have you planned for it?

Nothing worse than running out of bandwidth or having your site down just as you have a ton of visitors coming to your site. All that work and you with egg on your face. One of the reasons I recommend Zoot Host is you can reach Jon and get the service you need to get up asap if you do run into problems.

Always check out the support of any host you decide to use and if you can’t get support when you need it pay more for better service. The difference will come back to you many times over.

That’s all for this post and your comments and questions are welcomed and appreciated.

The Turtle Dad

Technorati Tags: autoresponder, business building, hosting, save money

One of the things you quickly find out once you truly embrace marketing is how you find lessons in every day life.

This is one of the keys to finally “getting it” and this blog will follow the travails of raising the red eyed slider turtles named Gizzy, Gizmo and Gizzard. Then we ally what is happening there to what happens when creating a business.

The surprises, the shortcuts all can teach you a lesson and help you to avoid it in your path.

Hope you enjoy the ride it should be a fun one.

The Turtle Dad

Technorati Tags: business building, marketing, three turtle