A minute of your time | Project Update

Hello RCD readers,

Waiting room

As I have a couple of hours for myself. I'm guessing why not write. My blogwebsite has taken a backseat in my work. Because I haven't made it profitable yet. But it does give me exposure for my blog and my business.

A look back

This blog started in 2016 and became a website in 2020 but the business became a reality in 2022. So in reality it was quiet a journey. 4 years for a kind of website and 6 years for my blogname to become a businses. I'm kind of proud of it. It's far from what my dream journey is but I actually was consistent.

August content was an bust

August I hadn't posted consistently like I'm use too. With that I mean. Posting real time. I made content from end of July and beginning of August to this month's content. I thought it would be more consistent looking. But sometimes it felt a little boring. 

No good deed goes unpunished 

And Facebook did not help by giving me restrictions for stupid things that were false. I helped out a good friend who was really there for me. His cousin was in an accident. Now we aren't really that close anymore. But I wanted to share. He will always mean a lot to me. So I shared and ofcourse Facebook took that as fraud and misinformation etc. Which made me almost loose my page and they made sure my viewing went drastically down. I could get stressed out that my marketing strategy for those weeks were not going as planned. And may have not gotten the potential client viewing I wanted this month.  But I shook it off. And just kept working. I focussed on instagram and the viewing were the highest numbers of new people ever. 

September is my planned break

You see this month supposed to be the busy month for getting client's. September is the month I take a breather and slow down. I have actually no idea what I'll do on my break. But I've told two of the ongoing project's that I have a break. Mostly I don't want people to be surprised and one of my business values is transparency. That also means being honest with your time. I plan out my work and try to make sure that I'm done on time.

Work August 

Let's talk about some ongoing project's in August.

Project MVDJ

July ended with me starting with a interior design project. OMG. I loved this. I hated to not go further in the designing mostly because after talking to the client I knew she just needed an idea.  I could be a rip off and ask her for entire design process which she didn't need. The carpenter's would already give her a design for free if she took them to build it. So I didn't want to do that to her.  It would be a waste of her money that she could've used for making the design a reality. I gave her numbers of two people. A contractor I've worked for and with. Also a carpenter who was not that expensive but fair. I finished her 3D drawings within two weeks. And I spread the work time so that was not behind with any of my ongoing project's.

Project building permit

First one was a client that was a little bit unethical.  But I wanted to stay professional. I had to pray a lot to have productive convo's with him. He had another project after I polity excused myself from working on further project's with him. And ofcourse the building department had feedback so I did my best to explain to him how this works and that it doesn't mean that he won't have a builing permit. You just make the corrections and you'll receive the building permit. I stayed professional because this is still my job. I mean I made the drawings. It's my responsibility to finish this project correctly and fix what the feedback was. So I did that twice. With him thinking after the building permit he could contact for another project.  And giving me an nickname really didn't help and was unprofessional. 

Second one is another of my favourite client's.  Mostly because we work well together. She asked something that I'm not used to actually. This is still in motion. Because something was incorrect

Project July

This was a Facebook follower who decided to use my services. That month I saw the site. I finished the 3D model in which we had to switch it because the electrical pole infront of his potential house design. I thought everything would go smoothly but life. It happens. Not everything is in our control. So this month I just finished the preliminary technical drawings and waiting for his feedback.

Project EB

This is a client that I have much respect for. He actually enjoys the process.  Which means our design meeting goes way over time. Yes I know I should start billing people for things like that. But these years are building RCD client roster and that means creating relationships. In August I did my best to finish his preliminary technical drawings the first weeks of August so we could discuss it and I could go over to the engineer meetings plus construction drawings. But we have a hurdle.  I could act like it's nothing move further with the design. But if somebody is working really hard to make this project successful. It's my responsibility to make wise decisions that gets him saying this is perfect. Instead of easing him into me just finishing a project and getting my money.

Finished project HVLP

This project was finished in July. But I choose to double check each drawing again before the building permit phase. God gave me time. Because my client has to come back in Suriname to give me the right documents.  And from my end I want her to get the perfect drafts. 

Project B

This is a waste of my time. Everything that could go wrong is going wrong. The client is not the one that pays and ofcourse she is the one who contacts me the most. But I haven't been paid yet for nothing. I sent the first draft.  While they said they would pay end of July. And when I sent a reminder. Ofcourse the one that suppose to pay never responded at all. Which annoys me because I made clear to give a response if they approve the price. So now nobody contacts at all. I finished my work weeks ago. But I would be the idiot to sent something when nobody ever paid anything. 

Bamboo masterclass

I did something out of the box. I went to an introduction course of bamboo.  This  construction material is so fascinating.  This is also why I invested in myself for this. It was informative. Nobody I sent it too was interested so I went alone and saw some people I know.

So that was work wise. Personally. 

August I choose to indulge myself with actually going on multiple girl dates. I had a little scare but only people that I told was my brother. We as a family went through it together. I also helped my dad every Monday with cleaning out some old stuff his. And I found peace of mind in an entirely different way. I made a new friend who makes me laugh and weirdly knew I was not okay. Which not a lot of people ask. I've noticed he doesn't ask a lot of people either. I like making new friends. A fresh mindset is always good for my own growth in life.

So for September my checklist is:

- get building permit

- get a yes to start definitive rapport for project july

- get feedback and finish preliminary design for client so that the engineer can begin (project eb)

- mail project b and close this project professionally 

- correct the finished project HVDLP

- do last follow up to all potential clients. 

- spoil my mom/ keep having fun times and relax