One of my favorite aspects of doing this job is the proposal process. That moment of introduction where the client is feeling us out and we are doing the same. It’s sort of like the interview process with a new hire, both parties are usually amicable and share their vision of the future which usually reveals their level of understanding about the project. For us, this initial meeting and the discussions immediately after are the basis by which we develop our proposals by using the following 6 factors.

1. Are We a Match: I don’t believe in doing work for the sake of generating revenue. We want to work on projects we can get excited about. If the project isn’t exciting then it’s going to be a real drag to work on. I shouldn’t have to motivate the team to work on the project, rather the work should excite and invigorate the team to get the very best results and creativity.

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It’s not often that I can give props to two Denver area companies, but today the Imulus crew went out to lunch to one of the frequent stops, Spicy Pickle. Before we entered the store we were greated by a guy obviously trying to solicit business for something; this time it was Boulder based Mocapay. His sell was compelling: send a text message to this number (I forget the number) and you will receive a code which will give you an $8 credit on your next purchase inside Spicy Pickle. Not afraid to sell our souls for marketing purposes, Bruce and I decided to partake.

To my surprise it worked as sold. I ordered my Athena Pizzette plus a Half n Half Ice Tea and my grand total of $10.23 only cost me a $2.23 after the $8 discount. If you complete the account setup and deposit $10 in your account, you’ll receive $700 total of promotional offers, not bad!

Once I had a chance to digest both my pizzette and the Mocapay service, I came to the conclusion that just swiping my credit card was a bit easier. The cell phone was a nice convenience but usually I have my wallet handy and that seems to work fine for me. I really think Mocapay’s target market is the youth between ages of 10 and 16. That age group often lacks credit cards but more and more they are carrying cell phones. Perhaps mom and dad can load their kids up with Mocapay moolah rather then giving them plastico-fantastico. I haven’t completed the account setup yet, but it appears to be a pretty sound service, which I’ll likely mess around with in the future.

The Denver Business Journal has reported that two area interactive agencies have now merged to form Xylem CCI. I admire both companies and I feel that the merger will be good for them, the city of Denver and Imulus.

By joining forces, Creation Chamber brings it’s web development expertise to Xyleme which has been an area leader in Flash based interactive microsites. Creating a powerful union between design, development and complex interactive.

For the city of Denver, it helps to further strenghten the image that the  Denver / Boulder area is quickly becoming a real player in the marketing / advertising space.

For Imulus, we lose two high-end competitors and it creates more space at the mid-sized project level.

All in all, great news!

Now in our 5th year of business I’m starting to learn the difference between working more vs working smarter. It seems that with each passing year our careers keep cutting into our private time. Our latest technology gadgets seem to help extend the work day and cut a bit deeper into our private time.

With respected companies like Google and Microsoft averaging a 60 hour work week it becomes ease to feel that 40 hours just ain’t enough. Countries like Mexico, Korea, Germany and Japan all work more hours then the United States. It’s as if we have an inferiority complex telling us we need to put in more hours or we are just “slacking off.”

There is a major difference between quantity vs quality. It has been my own experience that for the weeks where I’ve put in well over 40 hours, I’ve felt drained. I love my job but I also don’t want to sacrifice my family life or my personal health.

By constraining my hours to 40 hours per week it forces me to make each hour count. To schedule my time and to ignore distractions. All of these actions help to increase productivity. If I know I’ll be in the office for 12 hours instead of 8 then I start to lose motivation and I’ll let tasks increase to the time I have available to me.

In my book, working smarter is always better then putting in more hours and I refuse to believe that you can sustain 60 hour work weeks, high-productivity and remain well balanaced in life.

In this line of work we are approached by all kinds of people with the next get rich quick online business idea. I’m not talking about existing businesses looking to add services, build custom web-apps or redesigning their website. I’m talking about individuals or small groups who think they have something really hot, but I know in my heart that it is likely doomed.

I love to encourage business ideas and I really enjoy uncovering new ways to do things. However, how do you professionally shoot a business idea which is ultimately going to die a slow and painful death?