Late Nights

One of the consequences of working at a home business is that your schedule becomes your own, for the most part. You have client meetings scheduled and networking functions to attend, but when you get your work done is pretty much up to you, as long as you hit your deadlines.

I am a night person; always have been. This was one of the reasons I worked so well as a theater artist, because my workday began at 2 in the afternoon and ended at 11 at night. Unfortunately, a theater career paid a dismal salary, and the politics of the arts world just wasn't my cup of tea, so I abandoned that career in my early 30s.

So, of late, I have put in a lot of late nights while working on the ASC handbook, or working on the coding for some interactive part of a web page. I look up at the clock, and all of a sudden it's 3:30 a.m. and I didn't plan to stay up that late.

The night is cool and quiet, and I find it easy to concentrate. And when I go to bed, I am really tired, ready for sleep.

The past few weeks, every other night or so, a mockingbird has taken up residence in the trees across the street: not so close as to irritate, but close enough that you can listen to the varied songs it sings, up alone and attentive to its tune.

Summer is upon us. The rest of the nation has gotten the heat before we have, although there have been a couple days when it reached into the 90s. Mostly, though, we have a morning marine layer that works its way into the valleys and keeps the temperatures in the mid- to upper-80s.

Really, there's nothing much to report of consequence. I still have several potential clients who are on the edge of moving on new websites or website redesigns. I keep networking at the monthly breakfast and luncheon meetings at the chamber of commerce and following up with current clients, trying to not be an irritant.

At the chamber networking functions, they always have a raffle at the end of the meal, and last breakfast I won a 30-minute marketing consultation with (what else) a local marketing consultant. He sent me a fairly long form to fill out, but I have to sit down and write out some questions for him about how to approach marketing.

I want to get the reputation for being the design guy you go to with any problems, a senior statesman of graphics who can take a communications problem and create meaningful, satisfying and cost-effective solutions on a one-to-one basis. I'm doing good work on my own, but how to develop that reputation, I'm not sure.

I'm thinking of putting out another mailing with a purchased mailing list from one of the many list services available online. No free sticky pads this time, but a note inserted urging business people to contact me with their communication problems.

This is a very boring entry. I'm in a hiatus from work. The mockingbird is not at its nocturnal post. With all the potential of the future swirling just out of sight, I am oddly peaceful at the moment, but not yet ready for sleep.

I'm going to enjoy this slice of surcease, because things will start zooming about me soon enough.