Sickness and Closed Doors

During the early morning hours I woke up to a familiar movement at the foot of my bed. I didn’t even open my eyes I just waited until I felt a soft body press against my side. But this time the body felt warmer than usual. The entire length of the body was HOT and I sprang up immediately, eyes still half closed and walked to the bathroom. I opened the cabinet and found the thermometer then I walked back to my bed to see which child was running a fever.

My eyes adjusted to the darkness and I saw that it was my 5 year old son. “Are you okay?” I asked him.
“Yes I am.”
“Well, you’re very hot right now. Let me take your temperature.”

A minute later I give him some tylenol and we both go to sleep.

In the morning my hand finds his forehead and I can tell his fever has not broken. He says he’s fine but I’m getting worried. For some reason I’m thinking, “Am I doing something wrong as a mother? Why do my sons keep getting sick?”

I don’t get it. It seems like they are sick often because there are two of them. I have to realize that there’s nothing I can do to prevent some sicknesses but I constantly blame myself for anything that goes wrong.

He’s in the bed now resting. His fever still hasn’t broken and I’m nervous. I called the doctor and he said to medicate the fever and watch for other symptoms and to bring him in on Monday morning if he’s not better.

The Cute Group, not so cute
Review of The Cute Group Design Team

To add insult to injury I got an early morning email from the designers I have been working with on my site. I’m reading it as I watch my son’s temperature get higher.

I have decided that I am thoroughly dissatisfied with their services and we have dissolved our relationship. It kinda got me down for a minute. I don’t have much money and dumping my money into this project was a big investment for me. They didn’t refund all of my money saying that they would keep a portion for services rendered. Huh? I asked for a web site design and hosting. I did not get that.

I do not recommend working with The Cute Group unless you are going in with a completed design idea and a wealth of knowledge about the web design business. Those of us who know nothing about the process will get lost in their impersonal back and forth communication style.

My suggestions for the company:
1) Develop a contract for new clients detailing packages that you offer or a list of services and their prices BEFORE you accept their money. It wastes time to begin and then realize that what you are actually offering for the price quoted does not meet the needs of the client.

2) Make a work plan. This outlines what will be done in what time frame and also lets the client know what they need to do to make the process easier. Ex: Day 1- Theme: Client will provide ideas for a theme and colors any photos and an outline of the pages they wish to have included. Designer will present two drafts of design to choose from.

3) Assign each client ONE designer as the main communicator for the project. Others may contribute behind the scenes but when multiple people are interjecting their thoughts, communication styles to a client via e-mail, there is much room for a misunderstanding in tone and intention.

4) Introduce yourself by telephone and introduce the other members of your staff that may contact the client. I would receive emails from people I had never heard of and it made me feel like my project was being thrown around between them.

5) If the client is not satisified with the design or services NEVER try to blame the client for the experience. I was told, “But you didnt (ask), so we were sure that you, just as others that we deal with, knew what you were getting and more importantly what you were wanting.” Don’t assume, make life easy for both client and service provider by explaining even the most simple details. Or ask, “May I explain the process to you before we begin?” I knew exactly what I wanted on each page, but as far as design, I hired the group to do that. Show me what you can do and let me give feedback.

My concern during this process was that I have no experience in design. They asked for ideas and I gave them to them. Two ideas to be exact but they were completely different. I asked them to do drafts of the two so that I could choose and I was told that mockups take too much time. They asked for pictures. I told them that I would take some. When I gave them the pictures they asked me if I had any with plain backgrounds. I was annoyed. If you wanted pictures with plain backgrounds you could have told me and that is what I would have done.

This company assumes that the client will know just what to do and what they are getting without the aid of any written documents. I told them upfront that I did not know a thing about any of this or the program that they were going to use to design it. I suggested that they draft a contract so that I could see what I’m getting. No response on this suggestion.

When I worked with Courtney, she was a gem. We actually got a design that I was falling in love with. She even went the extra mile of adding me to her IM so that we could chat while she designed. I loved that! But another person, whose title and position still remains unclear to me, named JR was often curt and asked me if I wanted to consider working with someone else as if he was annoyed by my questions.

All in all I am sad that I had to pay them $100 (the portion of the money that they are not refunding) just to have some email conversations and a bad attitude. I chose this group, because the owner is a blogger in our community and she’s Black and I wanted to support other bloggers in whatever way I can. I realize now that when it comes to business, that wasn’t a very smart move. Business decisions shouldn’t be made on emotions. But I am quite sure that this door is closing with all of it’s limitations because another one with more to offer, will open soon.

New website To Be Announced in the Future!