Cory Miller | Adventures in Entrepreneurship

On Professionalism and Ever-Shaping Culture

Cory Miller — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:38:42 +0000

I shared this post with our iThemes/WebDesign.com team today …. and as always I want to share things I encounter in the adventures of being an entrepreneur, manager, and leader. As a side note, we’ve tried to blend and balance professionalism with a fun atmosphere. And we’re still working on it as a 1.5 year old startup.

Here it is as posted in our intranet (BaseCamp) …

I’m writing this post to clarify and define some things about our office culture. We’re a young company and as such are going through a lot of growing pains. Posts like these are necessary to help us define and refine what and how we do things.

So, before I go on, let me first say …. We’re all adults here. We go from the assumption that everybody here is an adult and should act like an adult … and likewise should be treated like one too.

But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t clarify and teach our values about work. So part of our process is on-going teaching about what it means to be a professional — to be a valued team member and employee.

These were written not because of any one instance or person, but because we’re learning and growing together and as such, always need to stay focused on our core goals as a business.

So here are some values to keep in mind as a professional and team member here:

Have fun, but with boundaries — we want to create a fun work environment, one where you will enjoy coming to work, know that you are an important part of the team and are happy to be here. We like to laugh and smile and value those qualities here. That’s a good thing. But we need to always be careful not to go too far and cross important boundaries. The other principles here should help you with those boundaries. Particularly, the next one ….
Be productive — the bottomline is: get your work done. Don’t let clients or your fellow team members down by dropping the ball. The work we do pays the bills, and your salary.
Be on time – respect the office hours set by the company; if you’re going to be late or gone, tell someone, but being late is unprofessional and has negative consequences for you and our team
Be focused — while you’re at work, be focused on your work. Obviously there are times when life can cause distractions. If there is an issue causing problems with your focus, please let us know so we can work with you on it.
Meet deadlines – do everything in your power to ensure you meet deadlines as our business depends on it — clients want their projects delivered on time, so do sales people who get asked where a project is, and ultimately, if we don’t deliver, we don’t get paid. Sometimes this means working late, coming in early. We’re accountable to each other and our clients.
Dress accordingly – yes, we want to foster a relaxed and fun environment as long as it’s not at the expense of getting projects and tasks done, or makes your fellow team members uncomfortable in any way
Communicate well — communication is a never-ending skill that needs constant refinement. Everybody communicates differently. Confusion crops up because of wrong perceptions and mis-communication. Make it a priority to continually hone your skills with your team members and clients. Most problems can be remedied by simple and effective communication.

Any questions, suggestions, please let me know!

–Cory

Fun Times at Dallas WordCamp 2009

Cory Miller — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:19:30 +0000

The iThemes team has been on two roadtrips and every time it’s a blast. I’m very thankful to be a part of and lead a passionate team of people who love what they do and enjoy life together!

This latest trip was to Dallas WordCamp 2009. Chris Jean and I have been twice now. It was my fourth WordCamp and it’s always great to meet new people and deepen relationships with existing ones.

We took our OKC staff, including Matt Danner (aka Hiccup aka Twitter-er Extraordinaire aka The Newlywed), Chris Jean (manning the Genius Bar), James Dalman (aka Designated Troublemaker) … and met our new sales consultant for WebDesign.com, and iThemes customer, Bryce Raley.

Here are some fun pics that show how truly goofy we are:

What Kind of Customer Service Do I Want?

Cory Miller — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:06:59 +0000

Ronald van Weerd, our amazing support forum moderator, and I were talking about our customer support at iThemes today and he really got me thinking about customer service when he asked me, “When the roles are reversed, what kind of customer service do you expect?”

It reminded me of my experiences of the last week ….

My awesome Mac laptop went bellyup. I was out of town when I found out, trying to get work done and it was a frustrating experience knowing your key tool for working is dead.

I spent the entire morning trying to get it back up. I even had one of our guys search for the answer!

When all that failed, I got my wife’s laptop, fired it up … only to find out that the people we were staying with (grandparents) didn’t know the password to their secured Wi-FI.

ARGH!

Fast forward … I go to the Apple store on a Saturday. I schedule my appointment. The guy’s super nice, starts looking it over, then gives me bad news. Hard drive is done. Needs a new one but that’ll take a couple of days.

I think to myself … how nice would it be to have someone to take out my frustrations on.

But then I realize something …

I’m not that kind of person. I don’t like acting like a spoiled brat in public, typically.

And although I’m irritated, it’s not his fault, or even Apple’s. Crap happens. And I don’t like blaming people. And certainly on the other end, I don’t like being treated that way — as a place to vomit someone’s anger. (Practice the golden rule, people!)

But seriously, I really try to be patient with people … and realize that sometimes people have bad days. The people I try to treat the best are waiters and waitresses. People dump on them all day. I like to leave at least 20% tip, even if they suck.

Tangent, sorry … fast forward again … I buy a new laptop (I can’t be down for 3-4 days), I start installing my software … I get to one of my only “extra” pieces of software — Adobe. Stalled again.

My old laptop still had the Adobe software activated and I had too many activated and it wouldn’t let me activate a new one.

It’s important software for me. I need it almost every day.

So I surf around Adobe’s site … do the Q&As, documentation, everything I can find (not much for my problem specifically) ….

Finally, I find a support contact system and submit a ticket. (Still haven’t heard anything.)

A couple of days later, I gotta get something figured out, so I call Adobe.

I realize, I’m talking to someone in India perhaps.

I realize … I’m from Oklahoma and people from Chicago laugh at my accent, and I’m afraid she can’t understand me because English isn’t her first language like it is for my Chicago friends. But I quickly realize, I’m having trouble understanding her as well.

BUT … she gave me a new activation code and I got Photoshop running!

OK, where is all this going?

So … customer service …

Question: What kind of customer service do I want personally and expect as a customer? (Not the business giving the service but the end user/consumer of products and services.)

I want something that works – I read this a while back: people want products, especially technology to just work – out of the box, no hiccups, glitches, just running smoothly. When it doesn’t work, I want to throw it. And my American impatience gets the best of me. (We’re working on ways to get customers going fast with the themes they buy from us without having to go looking for it.)
I want to easily find answers to my questions – I surfed Adobe’s site and felt the frustration some of our customers have expressed when they can’t find a solution to their problem in our forum. (We’re really working on a better search solution, I promise.)
I want to get a response – I never got a reply ticket from Adobe and I remember many times when an email gets dropped by me or someone else on our team and why people are frustrated. (I’m sorry for that.) But I realize that ANY response (something Ronald’s said to me many times over and over — “just tell them you’re working on it at least”) allows that person to feel a sense of relief and move on. I think even if someone says, “Buzz off,” people will be less mad sometimes because they’ve been acknowledged.
I want to deal with nice people – The guy at the Genius Bar was cool and nice. He wasn’t over the top at all. I don’t think he smiled, but I liked him and he was helping me. Ronald is a SUPER nice guy. Most days I’m a pretty nice guy, until someone starts off by venting on me without a warmup kiss. Then I’m not as nice, but still try to be nice. But I think even if the guy was neutral (he kind of was), I’d still feel great.
I want to be pacified in some way – I want to be bribed, don’t you? I mean, I’m one of those dumb Americans who somewhere at the core thinks I’m entitled to something. (I really hate that actually, and try to snuff it out in myself.) I want something free thrown in because of my “hassle.” And let’s be honest, who doesn’t? So I was SUPER happy when I wasn’t charged $400 for my hard drive replacement, even though I didn’t have the extended warranty. I love Apple even more. (But seriously Apple, don’t be evil! Just because you know I’ll pay $2600 for your products doesn’t mean you should hold me ransom. Every now and then, you can actually lower your prices on it when I’m thinking that Dell is like $1500 cheaper. Reward me, baby!)

All this to say … I’m taking these lessons and trying to implement them into our business to make it better, easier, nicer for our customers. Experience is everything.

But … we’re a work in progress!

Why Google Should Matter To Your Small Business

Cory Miller — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:15:28 +0000

We’ll be elaborating on these things once we launch WebDesign.com, but in the meantime, here are my rough draft thoughts on why Google should matter to your small business — even if you’re a one-man/woman shop!

People are looking for the products and services you offer … online! Are you being found?

Watch the video here

I Heart Open Source

Cory Miller — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 12:38:16 +0000

Over at the iThemes blog, I just announced we’ve made the decision to switch our licensing model to the same one that WordPress is released under – GPL.

I say this a lot: I love open source. I love WordPress and am thankful for the open source contributions over the years that have helped make it the best online software for managing blogs and websites.

I’ve always sincerely meant and believed that …

But now … we’re putting our money where our mouth is …. and aligning ourselves with WP and open source philosophy.

Go read our post on it and make a comment there: iThemes is going GPL.

More WordCamp Chicago Photos

Cory Miller — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:47:15 +0000

Lisa Sabin-Wilson, renowned author of WordPress for Dummies, person who gave free shirts and Skype headset, and oh, conference organized for WordCamp Chicago, has posted her photos here.

Here are the goofy photos of me …

5 Ways to Survive a Conference

Cory Miller — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 15:16:57 +0000

It’s the final day of WordCamp Chicago and I’ve had a blast being here, doing a little sightseeing and just hanging with some online buddies I don’t see in person often (or ever) ….

So here are a couple of ways I’ve survived (and thrived) in this conference and am excited to come back ….

Laptop – This is obvious I know, but 90% have a computer fired up; this obviously allows most other fun
Internet - A great web connection is vital to making the laptop usable; if I went to conferences or traveled like this more often, I’d get a wireless broadband card as a backup
Chat - It’s a blast chatting with people at the same table so you don’t get busted for talking while the speaker is
Twitter – the real fun is chatting in public via Twitter – loved lobbing jabs at each other via Twitter; commenting on or requoting speakers; and using hashtag’s to follow the whole conversation
Great Friends – Without a doubt, it’s just nice knowing people, meeting ones you’ve talked to online but not met face-to-face, and hanging out together after, between, during, and online later when we all return home

Chicago Day 2 – Photos

Cory Miller — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 16:08:23 +0000

We walked down Michigan Ave., went up to the John (aka Herbie) Hancock Observatory, and Millennium Park, took our photo on the Jelly Bean (the wierd mirror blob) and of course eat at Giordano’s Pizza.

Chicago Day 1 – Photos

Cory Miller — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:49:33 +0000

My wife and I are in Chicago for a couple of days to attend WordCamp Chicago …. here are some photos I took from my fuzzy iPhone camera …

We’re staying at the Allegro Hotel (some of these are the cool decor of it), then also our walk down Rudolph and State …

Our Newest New Venture: WebDesign.com

Cory Miller — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 13:37:59 +0000

For the last couple of months, we’ve been working behind the scenes to launch our next venture. Not talking about it openly has been extremely hard as we’ve been so excited about it.

We’ve acquired the category-defining domain name for our new venture: WebDesign.com

For those of you familiar with domain names of this caliber, you know opportunities like this don’t come around very often. And as such, we believe this venture (domain name) represents the future of our fledgling company and is in line with everything we’ve done the past couple of years.

For example, over the last year and a half or so in particular, iThemes, the company I founded in January 2008, has built over 30 high-quality WordPress themes that are geared for websites. We’ve concentrated on building CMS-type themes and showcasing WordPress as a CMS because that’s how I started using WordPress personally (a low cost, easy alternative for web design).

Now … we’ll take all that knowledge we’ve accumulated as a team (from design to development to SEO to content writing/blogging) and put it into action to help small businesses, churches, non profits and others launch affordable, attractive and effective websites at WebDesign.com.

More details are still to come … as with anything, there are still some things to work out … we’re working hard to offer the best web design and hosting packages for you.

But in the meantime, you can subscribe to our announcement email, or also follow WebDesign.com on Twitter to be the first to know what we’re doing and offering.