Why are we in business?  Why are we doing anything.  A company that is just in business to make a buck is as compelling as a man that’s just alive to eat his next meal.  I heard horror stories–from the guy that paid $20,000 for a web design only to find that the designer retained copyright–to a guy that was unable to cancel a monthly fee after months of trying.   When I started getting beyond “helping people sell stuff,” and getting to the big damn “why” question, I found myself carving a different spot from other folks.  I want to be better (not just different).

BloodHound s have a meme.  There are lots of parts to it, and I don’t know ’em all (and probably don’t agree with everything, either).

So, together with Ian, we came up with a meme.  My company is called Flat Rate Web Jobs, and we are Flatties.

What flatties believe:

We believe in accountability.  Everything we provide has a 100% money back, “no dirty looks” guarantee.

We believe you are in charge of everything.  You own the copyright on all of the work we do for you, and you can use our work however you see fit.

We believe you must measure ROI in social media.  Everything we offer helps you increase your return.

We believe in adding to everything we touch.
We believe you should understand exactly what you’re buying, what your benefits are, and when to next steps will take place.

We believe in small businesses, salespeople and professionals.  It is our honor to serve you.

We believe it’s our duty to put our customer’s interests first.

We don’t believe in fads.  We don’t try to make a quick buck on buzz.

We believe in including more than you thought you paid for, every time.

We believe independent thinkers create the best work.

So, that’s my company.  We currently have a decent array of products we sell.  The point is the “we’ve got your back,” ethos that I love.

The point is that we’re different.  All people are invited to come figure out why–I’m doing a free “hands on” webinar on how you can make boss google around and tell it how to give you customers.  It’s tomorrow, that’s late notice, but we decided to give away free training every day till it stops making sense.  When we educate our customers on what we do, it benefits everyone.  This thing is powered by GoToWebinar, so the first 1000 people will be there.  You’re competing for spots with Ian’s social network, mine, as well as a few hundo in PPC dollars.

Hope to see you there.  Would love comments on my meme.  It’s a normative, aspirational document, and we’ll find ways to express it in the marketplace.