We had to lay off Andy (CivilGrrl's CAD tech) today. It was one of the toughest things we ever had to do. It's just that CivilGrrl's long-term prognosis has taken a turn for the worst in the past six months given the long-term forecast for the housing market. So we had a couple of choices.
1. Give our tech a golden handshake, finish any open projects, and bid CivilGrrl a friendly goodbye.
2. Stick it out and hope for the best. Maybe things will pick up and we'll get new clients, or maybe things will dry up completely and we'll end up closing with a big mound of debt.
In the end, we decided that it just wasn't worth the gamble. After looking at Shelly's employment prospects (which are beyond excellent), we decided that it'd be better to leave the whole thing with a good taste in everyone's mouth rather than stick it out and take a chance on screwing people.
It's the honorable thing to do, but the honorable thing isn't always the easy thing. I wish I hadn't had a greasy lunch, because I'm currently suffering from major heartburn, given the condition of my stomach all day. I must be completely ulcer-proof, because if I haven't gotten one in the past year it's impossible for me to ever get one.
FWIW, we're following Stephen Pollan's model of business. Your business is not an extension of you. Your business is a tool for getting something you want done done, be it making money, personal fulfillment, or whatever. And you should no more think of it as a part of you than you should think of a hammer as an extension of your hand. And your business, like a hammer, should not be kept after you wear it out. When its time has come, you should shake your business's hand, thank it for what it's given you (in this case, money), and move on.
And that time has come for CivilGrrl. Like "Seinfeld", we're leaving on top rather than waiting for the seemingly-inevitable collapse.
On an entirely different note, vets are a racket. "Sentinel" is a great pill for dogs. It's a once-a-month pill that prevents heartworms and keeps fleas from infesting your dog. And it works really well. But it's expensive. Because I didn't wanna pay for a doctor visit every time I wanted to get some pills, I decided to buy 'em on 1800petmeds.com. But since Sentinel is a "prescription drug", they needed to clear it with my vet. . .who wouldn't authorize the sale.
The tasteless part, though, came when my vet called me to tell me why they wouldn't authorize prescriptions for online stores. . .followed immediately by telling me that they'd match the online store's price.
Seeing that their reasoning really wasn't "we're worried about people selling flea-pills on the street" but "Sentinel is a high-margin item and we don't want someone else making the profit", I declined the offer and bought 'em from Canada.
They're friggin' flea pills!
Sheesh.
