Back in January I hired two people that may have changed my life. This redesigned Web site and business was part of that process. The contracts that I take are incredibly varied. Right now I'm working on a Web site redesign of Bazaar, a membership Web site for the Healthy Breast Programme (site is being redesigned too), I'm the technical editor on a new Drupal book and I'm developing training videos to accompany my first book, Front End Drupal. In my volunteer time I'm "sprinting" four hours a week with the Drupal Documentation Team in anticipation of the D7 code release on September 1.
From that last paragraph, my guess is that a lot of my favourite clients understand only a few things: two people changed my life, I redesigned my business and September 1. I didn't like that I was getting further away from the clients I loved working with. I decided to do something about it. As of this spring, the HICK Tech brand is now my primary focus. I will continue to do "bigger" things, but they will be split into their own space. HICK Tech will now focus building Web sites and training for solo-preneurs and designers.
So who were these people that helped to shape the new vision for HICK Tech? The first was career coach Mike Murray. We worked together in January to help me define my clients and corresponding services. He asked hard questions and made me think. I hated it. Months later I'm still referring back to the notes I took during those phone calls to help shape the direction for my business today.
The second was graphic designer Cynthia Frenette. She created the exceptional new logo that you see on the top of this site. I told her I wanted something that made technology seem easy. I wanted it to be humane. And she absolutely delivered. I see the new logo as a tree, others see it as a dandelion, but everyone "gets" that there's nothing corporate or stuffy or hard-edged about it.
In the new world order for HICK Tech I've done some pretty serious thinking about services that I want to deliver. I thought back to the things that have worked for my clients and things that have been a bit of a failure. One of the things that kept popping up is training. I've done everything from classroom lectures to conference presentations to online workshops and webinars. Sometimes there's a fit between the students and the delivery method and sometimes there isn't. When Lullabot launched their new online training course I was intrigued. I know how hard it is to deliver and to receive online training. Online training often falls completely flat and is rife with technical problems. When it works, it's like green tea ice cream. And when it doesn't it's like a bacon and ginger stir fry.
I thought about the kinds of people that I want to help--they tend to be solo-preneurs. They are their own IT department, marketing department, accountant and whatever it is they actually do for their business. They don't necessarily feel comfortable with video streaming and some of them don't even have the bandwidth for it. To many of them, "Webinar" sounds like something you'd want to have your doctor remove. I realized that in the past I had failed some of these clients because I let technology get in the way of learning.
It's time to try something new.
As of this fall I will be offering teleclasses on topics that I would normally teach face-to-face or in a Web environment. Yes. Classes on the TELEPHONE. There will, of course, be a supporting Web site for participants, but the content will be delivered using the convenience of distance ed and the ease of a phone. I am really excited. I know it's not very fancy or very sophisticated or very Web 2.0-y. But y'know what? This is HICK Tech. I hope you'll join us on the next part of this new adventure.
