Simon O’Rourke - CEO and Founder of EIRCA Ltd Online hideout of Simon O’Rourke

So, what’s next?

The short and not-so-simple answer (though rather sweet) is: A heck of a lot!

In the past few weeks I have undertaken my first real stand-alone project; PA Electronics. In the next three weeks comes my second, though I’ll have a lot of assistance from various sources on that one.

In addition to PA Electronics, the Sanfire and This Is Hosting introductions went beautifully. Sanfire has me all excited simply because it’s a return to what we know best and what other people say we know better than anyone: H-Sphere.

The project that will go live in a few weeks is not related to Electronics or web hosting, believe it or not. I can’t say much about it because 1) I don’t want to jinx it and 2) there’s a chance some prying eyes may try and copy the idea before it’s even come to fruition.

My now annual hunting trip turned out as was expected: No Deer but plenty of squirrels, chipmunks, birds of all shapes and sizes and even a mouse or two. After I arrived back from hunting, I made PA Electronics official and then something rather bizarre happened.

In stark contrast to my expectations, I received a rather sneaky email from a competing retailer under the guise of an “anonymous onlooker”, basically lambasting PA Electronics and playing up his own business in a transparent but still rather amusing manner. regular visitors to my site and those who know me know exactly how I took this email (and those that followed, including the one where I called him by his real name, probably much to his surprise):

1) I am something of a workaholic. The last thing a competing business wants/needs to do is give me extra incentive. I must admit that I actually did have some respect for the guy that emailed me, prior to his email anyway. Now he’s just some guy that toots his own horn when I should really be playing a violin to him.

2) My responses to him remained professional, polite, but with fair warning. In the past five years I have treated competing (and often bigger) providers with massive respect. I don’t believe in telling a customer what to do; I believe in letting them make the choice on their own. If that choice is influenced by one of my companies making the better presentation then so be it. That’s how business SHOULD work. The better business, or most sensible (are they the same thing?) will usually gain the accolades somewhere down the line.

It’s often urked me when I see competitors pulling a fast one. If someone has a problem with someone else, they should tell them in person; upfront, frank, and brutally honest. Cloak and dagger tactics just annoy me: there’s no need for them.

Anyway, the cool thing from that little tete a tete was my satisfaction that PA Electronics had hit at least one nail on the head. After all, it apparently warranted a pretty nasty and unprovoked email from a competitor who I can only assume thought “aw, crap!” when viewing our offerings. That can only be a good thing. And, hey, the feedback received for PA Electronics thus far has been outstanding..but the best compliment was, quite possibly, the email from the competing retailer.