Labor Day seems like a good time to talk about working at home and taking time off.

Officially, I'm "off" today. It's a national holiday, and I almost always take those off ( I use the bank as my guide - if the bank is closed, I'm closed.)

However, that being said, I also answered two business e-mails this morning, sent out one proposal, and sent out a questionnaire for a project that just booked.  In addition, I'm writing here in the blog.

So am I really off?

The answer is "not really", and that's one of the defining characteristics that make an entrepreneur. I have not taken a "real" day off in 7 years. To me, a "real" day off (or weekend off) is one where you don't do *anything* for work. Where you leave the office Friday, and don't do anything for the job until Monday morning.  

I never get one of those. Ever. Not even when I'm sick - I haven't taken a "real" sick day either.

It's one of those things that people not in business for themselves have a hard time understanding. Unlike a job, I do not get paid whether I produce or not. I *must* produce, or I starve (and trust me, I have a big appetite!)

In addition, no work simply appears for me - instead, it all comes from me. To give an example of what I mean, I'll mention a story I put in my book... There's this one episode of Seinfeld where George gets an undefined office job. He shows up, and on day one, they hand him the "Penske file" to work on. Of course, George does no work on this file, but that's not my point - the point is, he showed up, and the company provided him with work to do. All jobs do this. Except when you own the business - you have to CREATE THE WORK.

In a nutshell, that's why you can't take time off.

Now, don't get me wrong - I am "off" today in my mind. I won't do any real client work. I do not want to give the impression that I am a workaholic - I'm not. I do not feverishly work my fingers to the bone . But I can't ignore my business, not even for one day.

Ok, off to the X-Box!! :) 

I haven't looked at my competition in a while. I mean REALLY looked. Tonight I did.

All I have to say is "wow".

As recent as two years ago, there were a few websites/writers that I considered good competition. Like 3 or 4. No biggie - plenty of work for us all. However, tonight really opened my eyes - there must be 20 websites that I would consider strong competition. Of course, this is met by an increase in potential customers, but still, it was eye-opening.

What this means is I am likely going to make a few changes to my website / message in the next month or so. In the past two years, I've evolved to become all things to all people writing-wise. And it was good for that time. But maybe it's time to rethink that, and get more on message to my strength (friendly writing that people understand and react to.) Nobody is going to hire me to write their annual report anyway (and truth be told, I have no interest in doing such.)

My opinion has always been that in the face of little competition, it is wise to expand and branch out. In the face of strong competition, it is sometimes better to seek your niche and hammer it.

Content Management Systems (CMS) for the web have been around for awhile. This blog is a good example of one. 

They were originally designed so users could easily enter new content without knowing HTML. And you know, for things like this blog and such, it works fine. It's nice for a user to be able to upload a new article or such without knowing HTML. 

However, CMS is starting to grow beyond that, where entire websites are now CMS based. And I'm not really a fan of that.

Here's what I just posted to a business forum I frequent: 

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"I want to weigh in here on "WYSIWYG" CMS sites.... I don't like them. And I mean from a customer / web surfer standpoint.

It's hard to explain exactly why, but I do know that I can almost always "tell" a CMS type of site as opposed to a "regular" HTML-based one. It's akin to the difference in camera lenses / filming techniques when watching tv and movies - even if you know nothing about camera lenses, a TV show just "looks" different than a movie.

To me, CMS sites usually seem a little... I dunno.... "off" (This is hard to describe. Perhaps someone with more expertise in web design can explain it better.) Many CMS sites also give me a very slight form of motion sickness. Not sure why.

I do know when I see a typical CMS-type site, my initial thought is "small time" or "cheap". I'm probably in the minority here."

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Anyway, that's my feeling on it. Useful for blogs and articles and such, but bad for your entire website. If you must go "easy" or "cheap", get a template, learn a little HTML and edit it yourself. Or, just hire a professional. This is your business, after all.

I notice a lot of fledging or startup websites do business with "Joe C"

"Joe C" loved his new website from a startup web development company. "Joe C" loved the dog collar that Sue's Homemade Dog Collars sent him. "Joe C" was also thrilled that XYZ computer repair got him up and running. And of course, "Joe C" (along with on again off again girlfriend "Mary P") was just tickled that Marty's Mealworms has such fast shipping.

Ok, enough kidding. I'm going to make this crystal clear - testimonials without one of these are largely fake:

- real last names with a company and/or city

- website links 

I say largely because not everyone provides a city or such, or has a website. Even I have a testimonial or two without a link. But that's the exception, not the rule. I likely have around 20 testimonials listed. Probably 80% are linked to the real website I wrote copy for.

But if all a website has are testimonials from "Joe C" and the like, they are lying. They are simply making up the testimonials.

And really - do they think we don't know? If Joe C was so thrilled with a web development company, why isn't there a link to Joe's site? You would think one would exist.

Just a little pet peeve of mine. I abhor dishonest business practices, and fake testimonials are about as sleazy as it gets.

Moved to new blog at www.danfurmanonline.com