Well, I’m going on a rant… yet again. I find it amazing that when people drop the ball when it comes to their own business, they always look for somebody else to blame. Well, you can look no further than your mirror because the person you’re staring at is the ONLY one to blame.
True story. A guy over at a forum where I hang out made a post about how his hosting company screwed up by not sending him an email about his domain renewal. As a result, the domain lapsed and he lost it. Well, I don’t mean to be a royal pain in the backside but there is only one person responsible for keeping track of when your domain comes up for renewal… you! Not only that but I have at least 100 domains at many different registrars and I’ve never not been sent MULTIPLE emails telling me my domain(s) is about to expire. I can’t believe there is a registrar out there that doesn’t send at least one reminder.
However, even if they didn’t send an expiration reminder, I have a spreadsheet with all my important pieces of info, including logins and passwords, domain renewal dates, commissions owed and due, and so on. I don’t leave anything to chance or in the hands of others. It’s my business and ultimately, I’m the one responsible for making sure that my business doesn’t crumble to dust because I forgot to watch over it.
It’s kind of like needing somebody to remind me to feed my kids or give my animals water. Well, duh! It isn’t anybody else’s responsibility to remind me to feed my kids or take care of my animals or business… or anything else in my life for that matter. Ultimately, I am the only one responsible. In other words… the buck stops here.
What about you? Do you take care of all the things you’re responsible for? Do you keep track of domain expirations? Do you track your commissions that are owed you? Yeah, I know it would be nice to have the merchants pay us on time, but when they don’t, it’s up to us to contact them and say, “Hey, what’s the deal? Where’s my money?” Nobody is going to do it for you, that’s for sure.
Show me a person who is very successful and I will show you somebody who takes care of his own business and doesn’t leave it to others or to chance. That’s a surefire way of losing your shirt.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some deadbeat merchants I have to get after for commissions that are owed to me.
Hey, somebody’s gotta do it.