Oregon Catholic Press

Although my contract at Oregon Catholic Press technically ended late 2008, I’m compelled to mention what an encouraging, growing and fun time that 7 months was. I’m so glad I went for that job and experienced the fantastic teamwork of a well oiled group of likable and extremely talented people. My confidence in my programming and website creation abilities was greatly boosted and I’m thankful for the quality training I received from Matt Gifford, Paul Raspa, Mark, Ryan Snyder and again Jared Markell (who steadily challenged and educated me in the months prior while at Oregon Web Team).

A quick note for those stepping out of full time employment and considering contract work… Consider your risks. If you are not good at saving in the event of an employment lapse, or you don’t already have at least a month of savings in the bank, be extremely careful. Likewise, if you are looking at freelancing on your own, get some good wisdom about how to manage cash flow and understand how many clients you need to have before your monthly work will be consistently full.

My own business!!! Oregon Web Services is born

In January, God provided a job in the form of a business opportunity. Looking back, it was perhaps one of the biggest career blessings of my entire life. Long story short, I stepped into owning a business which had existing clients to give me work for the rest of the year and position me for growth in 2010 and beyond. I’m not saying it wasn’t hard work and didn’t have some challenges, but most of those challenges have been worked through and I’m very excited about the future. I greatly appreciate Laura Holzbach having the confidence in me to take that role and run with it. Laura has always been extremely caring and kind to me and my family and her encouragement has been appreciated!

A few quick things I have learned as a business owner that I will write here mainly to solidify in my memory:

• If you get paid by the hour, get a quality hour tracking tool and discipline yourself to use it efficiently. Freshbooks.com has been an incredible tool for me in that regard as it has helped me not only track hours but invoice with extreme efficiency and also evaluate total hours related to projects with ease.
• Join a networking group. I’ve found both the Gresham Chamber and Gresham BNI to be extremely helpful tools for growing my network and also for training me in various aspects of my business. I’ve heard recently your networth is equal to your network. Thanks goes again to Laura Holzbach for not only encouraging me to get involved at Chamber, but also for purchasing my membership!!!
• Get business insurance. Long story short, you never know when you’ll need it. You don’t think you will and you shouldn’t “need” to get it. But as I learned this year, not everybody does the due diligence that they should and you don’t want to be on the receiving end of that lack of due diligence.
• Work on your business, not in it. That’s hard to do in a one man operation, but it’s a necessity. In my case, I didn’t do as well as I should have in 2009 and am determined to do better in 2010. I’m going to be diligent at tracking my proposals and making those as efficient and effective as possible. If I loose track of a proposal that I could have followed up and brought to completion, I’m shooting myself in the foot and forcing myself to have to give more proposals. If I spend the extra 5-15 minutes proofing and using “strategery”, there’s an exponential potential growth that I will sell that proposal and not waste the hour meeting I had prior.
• Working on two businesses at the same time is very difficult. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but as of right now, having had photography take up much of my time in 2009, I’m deeply considering taking a large step back from that so I can focus my efforts and feel more focused.

Speaking of photography

I had a few extremely enjoyable photoshoots this year. Unfortunately, Kristi wasn’t able to come with me on most of the shoots in 2009. It became increasingly difficult to line up baby sitting for photoshoots AND dates and of course dates take the priority. In fact, Kristi was only able to come with me on one photoshoot. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that that photoshoot was not only my favorite photoshoot of the year, but my favorite photoshoot of my life! I wasn’t able to get a new camera this year, perhaps when I do, I’ll be more motivated to continue forward in learning the art of capturing people in portraits.

Men’s Fraternity

This year I’ve had the privilege of attending a men’s study on what it is to be a man and how to become one. It’s called Men’s Fraternity and is a video series put on by Robert Lewis, author of Modern Day Knight. I’m absolutely thrilled with the study and am very much looking forward to it starting up again a week from Wednesday. I have learned much about my past and understand myself much more. I have learned the definition of a man and what a man should look like in a family.

A man:

• Rejects passivity
• Accepts responsibility
• Leads courageously
• Looks to the greater reward

Without going into specifics, allow me to get extremely personal for a few paragraphs. I have experienced grace and mercy this year beyond what I deserve. I am compelled forward by it and encouraged by it but at the same time mournful and discouraged as I look back at the need for it. I have learned that my wife is the most amazing woman you will ever have the privilege of knowing. I have learned that her love and grace for me is a direct result of God’s love for her. I have learned that my ability to love and serve my family comes directly from God, his work in my life and what he has done on the cross. I’ve always known that but it hit home hard this year. More specifically, I have to turn my heart towards him daily, hourly and by the minute to seek his will in my life and to ask him to:

Psalm 119:35-37
Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight.
Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain.
Turn my eyes away from worthless things, preserve my life according to your word.

I’m thankful for friends such as Jeremy Anderson, Rob Reiterman and Tim and Heidi Thomas who encouraged me and Kristi and challenged me. I’m also very thankful for Mark Driscoll, a pastor from Mars Hill Church in Seattle. In a few of his sermons we’ve listened to this year, I was knocked on my proverbial knees.

And onto another regret I am compelled to write about again mainly for the sake of me solidifying the lessons I learned through it. I’ll be vague in general but will outline what I learned from it. Conflict is good, but conflict can be handled very poorly. When there is conflict involving many people, take head of these verses before you do ANYTHING:

Proverbs 26:17
Like one who seizes a dog by the ears is a passer-by who meddles in a quarrel not his own.

Proverbs 26:20
Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel dies down.

When you have a quarrel with someone, go talk to them quickly. Eyeball to eyeball. Tell them how you feel without pointing out blame. Tell them you want to restore your friendship with them and that you value them more than the issue that has brought about the feelings.

If you are sticking up for a friend, tread lightly as though you are walking over thin ice. You are now speaking for others, relating things 2nd hand, dabbling in the gray area which could be defined as gossip if there is not extreme caution. First encourage your friend to speak directly to the person. If that doesn’t work, suggest a wise mediator. If that doesn’t work, suggest another wise mediator:) If you step in between as the mediator, recognize that you are risking the friendship of BOTH parties involved. Only do so recognizing the extreme risk involved.

I’ll probably add to this note throughout the day but wanted to start my day of planning by looking a bit back on 2009 so as to straighten my gaze on a very straight and narrow path for 2010.

or something like that.