Day 25: Funding and (More) Follow-Up
A primarily service-based business like ours doesn't need too much in the way of funding... but there are times we need to buy this or that for the business. Sure, we've got a bank account and checks, but who buys anything in physical stores anymore? So we decided to apply for a credit card. Our main requirements were that it have no annual fee and that it have the ability to generate single-use credit card numbers for online purchases. We did some research. We applied (and applied... and applied some more...) And now we get to wait.
The one credit card company that offered an immediate response kept rejecting our application. I couldn't understand why it could immediately reject our application... but it couldn't tell us why for 7-10 days, and then only through the U.S. Mail. Some kind of privacy issues? One credit card's site was rendered useless because they do their weekly maintenance tonight. Another major site was designed such that if they offer business cards, I sure couldn't tell. So we ended up at the same company that's been sending us 0% APR ads for weeks now. Not by choice, mind you. It looks like a nice account, though, and we'll find out in 3-4 weeks if we were approved. Can't these folks add a little more automation into their system?
I also followed up on a few more things from SXSW. We've been discussing some possible business opportunities related to Wi-Fi, so I reserved several library books related to that. While I was at the library's site, I went ahead and reserved a couple of books about selling on eBay. I think that would be a good topic for one of the classes we plan on teaching. I also checked to see if the library had Maximum Accessibility. They didn't, but I decided it would be worth ordering. John Slatin was a panelist in one of my SXSW sessions, and based on that session, I think his book should really be worth it.
Finally, I'm thinking about making my word mixer design from yesterday into a cryptogram-style puzzle. I had to research the genre of course, and found two sites that I thought had very good user interfaces. Is there a downside to game designing? Sure, the coding phase is about the same as for any other application... but you just can't beat the research and testing phases!
Day 25: Crafty Goat, continued
Just a couple of minor updates on Crafty Goat -- one visible, one not.
I removed the drop shadow and added a bevel to the logo. Better, but I'm still not happy with the jaggedness of it. I've tried the various anti-aliasing options in Photoshop, but so far I have not seen a significant difference between them. I'll work on that some more.
Behind the scenes, I created my own Perl module to hold the functions that will be used throughout the site. That's something I've never done in Perl before. I basically followed this tutorial, and everything worked.
I'm a little stuck on the design. Primarily, I'm having trouble deciding where to put the navigation. We don't want to cover up the background anymore than necessary, but that limits my options. I just need to get something on the page, I guess, and see how it looks. But, that's for tomorrow -- it's late, and I'm tired.
Perhaps the hardest lesson to learn when one is starting a business is when to go to bed.
Week 2: Pets and People
I volunteered at Pets and People today. Billy and I had hoped to do some work on their website, but the lady I spoke with said they didn't need any help with that right now. She did say they could use some help taking digital photos of the cats. Sounds challenging! But I could use some practice taking good digital photos, so it sounds good.
Today I just spent time with the dogs though. They started me walking dogs in the puppy room. Cute little things! Some of them weren't quite sure what to do with a leash. Most of them thought it would be a fun thing to chew on. My favorites were a little dachschund mix, a little Bernie look-alike who liked chewing sticks, and a little hyper dog (Jack Russell mix maybe?) that loved running and even did one of those characteristic jumps. I had just gotten to one puppy that refused to be walked -- you know, the type that lays down and just looks at you with puppy-dog eyes when you try to drag it along -- when one of the workers asked me to wash a dog that had just gotten adopted. That went remarkably well; they've got a pretty good setup and a spot to tie the leash so they little guy can't escape. Would you believe they've even got a dog dryer!? You open the door, put the dog in, set the timer for 15 minutes, and viola -- a dry dog! I kept thinking of the cartoons, thinking this little beagle was going to come out as a big fluffball. Billy asked when I got home whether I remembered to put in a dryer sheet... oops! That poor thing will be staticy all day...
Overall, an enjoyable experience. I'm tempted to spend all my volunteer hours there... but I do want to spread my time around some.
