Hi everyone,
This is definitely not going to be your traditional business post.  But I need to share with the vast majority about our obstacles as it’s meant down time for the business and an unavailability period spanning into October at this stage.

For those who have been watching our journey over the last 8 weeks, you may have noticed a drop in the number of projects we’ve releases or spoken about via social media, you may have noticed the drop in  communication and others instances – for example not being able to reach us by phone or email. 

We have been working through a number of obstacles – particularly with Telstra,  but things have been given a whole new level of extremity.   We’ve been in negotiations with Telstra since early July trying to get a new phone line in and internet services installed as there have been problems with the ones we currently had.

After several dates with Telstra and estimates to when we’ll actually have services again and what needs to take place we’ve been told it won’t be until late september -early october that we will be back in action with Telstra contractors expected to be out to trench the lines putting new  lines down in order for us to get the services we need to continue operating. 

Originally, we were told it would just be at most a few hundred  $$ and a fortnight and we’d be underway,  I  expected this to be the case and had been working with several clients on jobs and planning projects with the expectation of it being a fortnight before we’d have solid adsl internet at the office. 

I took on several projects and started on some new training materials and planned to work when I could using the internet from my mobile and head down to the local cafe’s and setup camp down there whilst we got things sorted. It meant that turn around times were increased but we were getting there slowly.

Things spanned into the 4-5 week mark and we started getting phone calls from clients who were unhappy with the wait times and needed to move on with their projects. Which gutted me to be honest. I have prided myself on great turn around times, communication and quality service. After 5 emails and phone calls and being unable to keep up with demand, we have sadly had to assist several of our clients with moves over to a new web development team. 

With a small family or any family with young children and working from home, you know yourself that you work around the commitments of your family. Having no solid internet at home, meant we’re restricted to  10am until 2pm  work time to be back in time for school pickups, if you include going to consultations during the day and travel time – my business hours are cut in just over a 3rd of my regular dedicated work time.  I love my job, I love my business and I love being able to help my clients put two and two together and  business a solution that suits them…  my regular hours span most often –  from 10am – 2pm for consultations and general business and then 9-12pm  sometimes 1am-2am depending on the projects being developed and the tasks we’re required to complete.

It’s now going on 7-8 weeks and  today alone I have worked through several emails with clients needing to take the next step on projects that we’ve carried from the ground up and having to notify them that if they can not wait until we’re back on track, that they’ll need to move forward with another developer.  A number of those emails have been sent negotiating with other  developers. 

I will admit,  I am very much at loss with all of this , business is business and I completely understand where a lot of my clients are coming from, and there are absolutely no hard feelings regarding them having to move forward.   I wish them all the best with their business. It’s just disheartening to see your own business that you’ve built from the ground up  suffering a loss at the hands of another business.

It’s expected that we will be back in full swing in October, and I will do my best to negotiate a plan of action with every business we were or planned to work with over the next few months. I am exceptionally apologetic to anyone who has been impacted by this inevitable decision, but I can’t continue operate the business under the current conditions.  Until we know exactly what’s happening I do not want to see anyone else let down by invariability of our current obstacles.

As zig zigular says – “when obstacles arise, you change your direction to reach your goal — you do not change your decision to get there”. We’re just moving in a different direction, and I  will be in touch as soon as we are back on track and able to offer services efficiently. 
Thanks for your patience everyone.

Kind Regards,
Natalie Crowe & team here at Natalie Crowe Designs