Strictly Business

Check out the business cards for the new joint venture I’m in:

Obviously I did not design them; after all, they are beautiful. Which is exactly why I gave up the solo freelance life and joined up with some friends; I’m good at certain things (like CSS and usability), while my friends are good at other things (like PHP, MySQL, Rails, Javascript, and graphic design). With our combined skillset, I can finally be proud of the work that I show off.

And now that we are back on campus, it’s back to business. For example, yesterday we decided to hit up the Cornell Clubfest. This event involves over 200 of Cornell’s student organizations lined up in Barton Hall so that new students can talk to them and sign up for their mailing lists (more on it later). Considering that we really want to market ourselves to student organizations, this was a perfect opportunity to tell them about us. So we put together a little flyer:

Then it was just a matter of walking up and down the rows of clubs and introducing ourselves. I had a little less than half the clubs to talk to myself (must have been about 90). My pitch went something like this:

“Hello. I’m running a web design business with some friends at Cornell. We design websites for student organizations. If you need any work, our contact information is on this flyer.”

I thought it was pretty good, and so did most of the clubs I talked to. I would say at least 10 were very excited to hear about us, and told us about their specific needs for website work. They didn’t even mind the prices I gave them on request. At least 70 others were nice about it and thanked me for the flyer. Then there were clubs that either had their own web person already and didn’t want the flyer or just weren’t at all enthused and treated me like a salesman. I was fine with all of that.

But there was one guy who was definitely not cool.

He was representing Students for Massa and Arcuri, a political action group that doesn’t have a website. I gave him my usual pitch and he took my flyer. He then responded with, “would you like to sign up for our organization?” to which I gave the only possible answer: no. At this point he simply handed my flyer back to me. I kid you not.

I said nothing to this jerk; he wasn’t worth my time and I had a lot of far more intelligent people to talk to. I just can’t understand, even now, what he was honestly thinking. Does he really think that he has a fair expectation? Doesn’t he realize that I could not possibly sign up for every organization I talk to, just so that they will accept my flyer and allow me to work for them? Can you imagine my inbox flooded with e-mails from 90 different student organizations if I did that? He probably wasn’t thinking much at all, except he must have felt really smug and smart, thinking he ‘outwitted’ a peddler with his clever little move. About as clever as a block of wood.

And let’s not even start talking about the amazing job he did in promoting his cause. I never vote in NY state, but if I did, I certainly wouldn’t have a positive feeling about Massa and Arcuri right now. If I had the time for it, I would probably send a message to the president of the organization, detailing the lousy treatment I received from this guy and chastising them for taking this attitude with another student offering a valuable service… but I don’t have the time, because the e-mails from student organizations we talked to yesterday are already coming in. After all, out of 90 organizations I spoke to, 89 were nice and well worth the effort. So to that one group that tried to ruin my day, I can say with confidence: your loss, not mine