Little steps turn into giant leaps.

Having the responsability for the children I went back to collage on a part time basis to brush up on Maths and English, teaching methods have changed a great deal from my schooldays, the refresher was just the thing to help the children with their homework and education in general.

This is also a help with my writing having been into computers from the 1970s using American spell checkers in the UK for years created serious confusion with spelling, not that I was good with spelling in the first place.

Knowing I needed to get the business back on track, I also had the time to reflect on what I could have done better, after all I was virtualy starting from scratch. Most of my lists were gone and my sites with the exeption of the hosting were in disaray.

The first thing was to get better organized with my computer files, I came across a fantastic piece of software called the

IM Index

. Just the job to have all my information, programs and scripts in a very easy to find format. as I have never been the most organized in filling, I estimate this little program has saved me hours every week with now being able to find anything on my computer with just a couple of clicks

Having done some programing and it is a good compliment to hosting I purchased a ready made re branded resell rights site

http://www.fivedollarscripts.com

along with some exclusive scripts to start rebuilding the business.

I also realised very quickly the promotion methods I had used previously were now much less effective, I needed to retrain myself.

THE PLAN

Education is the key:
Having used, bought and promoted training courses in the past, some very good, some not so good I had to find a way to go for the courses that would give me the greatest benefit. Having spent years in isolation behind the keyboard when the opportunity arose to attend my first live event in the UK, tickets bought hotel booked away I went to the Focus marketing seminar. The prime objective to find a good mentor.

After Sheila’s passing, I was an emotional mess, I had the good sense to arrange for two of my lovely grandchildren to come stay with me, Charlene (15)

charlene at 15

and John (10)

John at 10

Without them I would probably have been joining Sheila within three months,

Having my grandchildren to look after (or were they looking after me?) Parental mode kicked in and life started rebuilding, with what focus I could muster being directed toward school life and parental guidance for the children.

The business killer came in May of 2007 when my main hosting company was attacked and the server and backup were destroyed. My hosting business disappeared along with all my own sites. Total loss of business.

One huge lesson learned ALWAYS keep a current backup of your server away from the host.

Sods law dictates!

The same week my hard drive also packed in (now partial data recovered) but thankfully not before I managed to upload some (but incomplete) parts of my own sites back to a new server, I lost all but two of my hosting customers (only to be expected) In my grief depressed state; I had neglected my business.

Thankfully, as I had been doing some things right cash was not a real problem, as I was still deep in depression work on resurrecting the business was slow.

The recovery starts… Part 3 to follow.

It was just two years ago today so suddenly, and unexpectedly I lost my dear Sheila, about 00.30 Sheila had gone downstairs for a snack, I suddenly woke to a strange noise, jumping out of bed and running downstairs I found Sheila chocking on a nutragrain bar of all things, despite me performing the Hinderic manoeuvre then manually clearing her throat and performing CPR, I could not revive her.

Sheila was the love of my life, sole mate, wife and best friend. She had been so supportive in all things, even when in 1999 I started the long journey into online marketing, working full time then sat at the computer often until 3 in the morning and up again for work before 7.

Sheila and I the last photo

Sheila would proof read all my typing despite having poor eye site, correcting my grammar and spelling mistakes she knew I would make it on line. 2002 found us together 24/7 when at last I could go full time on the internet.

The next four years were good despite various health problems and family tragedies we supported each other in every aspect.

Although I consider myself a strong person on Sheila’s passing grief depression set in a big way, for months it took me all my time to just scan my email, thankfully I received very few customer service requests as even the simple ones appeared to be a huge amount of work, I had no focus at all.

Part 2 to follow the business killer…