I love my new faucet

Greetings,

I hadn't planned on posting again til the new year but I as I was washing my face this morning, I had one of those light bulb moments - I LOVE my new faucet. I love it.

And it struck me how relevant my new faucet story was to the path of getting a new website.
So pay attention.

My Mom loves to home improve. And I like it... to a certain degree. Certainly not as much as my Mom. Some people like technology, others LOVE it.

So my bathroom looks the same as it did 10 years ago. And while everything was functional, the tops of the faucets...those H and C plastic things, would fly off each time I turned them on, and it was one of those models with a lot of detailing and would therefore collect a lot of soapy "crud" on it that I hated to clean off.

Frankly I didn't spend a lot of time looking at it because it wasn't pretty.

Anyway, I saw a nice one with clean lines in the Home Hardware flyer on sale, a really really good sale. So I bought it - in August.

And then I went on with my life, and it sat in it's box on the counter judging me. And lingering in the back of my mind as basically a $50 investment in a box of parts.

Finally last week, I used Facebook to find a friend willing to help me install it, so I could move it from faucet investment to faucet usage.

And I loved it from the first time I turned it on.

It's fantastic. It turns on with one finger. And the aerator is saving me water. And it looks so shiny and new. And it came with a sink stopper mechanism! (Before I just had a hole and a rubber stopper plug - which I never used because who knows where the plug is hiding)

So the new faucet needed a new mirror to go with it, and so I installed that this weekend.

Lessons I've learned from this:

1. It feels so GOOD to finally complete a task that is sitting in the back of your mind. So if you're contemplating a new site or updates or changes, just DO THEM! It's so refreshing to take steps forward.

2. Improvements are great. There is always a new technology, even in faucets, that will make your life easier and save you time (or water). While there was no learning curve involved with my faucet, there will be with a new website. As you learn to use it, the joy and time saving will come and you'll wonder why you ever stuck with that old technology for so long :)

3. You don't need a Cadillac. I mean my shower is another story, and the bathroom floor ... terrible. But I made a small stride, and am reaping the benefits of the improvement. Get your game plan set and make a few improvements to your site this year, with targets set for the following years. Ask for the basic model website and add a feature each year. It can be really overwhelming to add too many new technologies at once. Add them one at a time, when you are ready to fully commit to them.

4. Reach out to others. Find other operators who have a website you like and ask for a reference for their developer. Take the Tourism Technology mentoring session. It's the best $125 you'll every spend. We can help you find the focus and develop the game plan you need to succeed online.

5. Try it, you might like it. So where my Mom would have gutted the bathroom, I started with the faucet. And while there were no frantic trips to the hardware store during the installation, I know that like website development, some improvement jobs hit snags and you just have to have the determination to keep going!

6. BE OPEN TO CHANGE - it's so easy to stay the same. Change is scary. But once I had taken that first step, I found the courage to hammer up a new mirror! And I'm internet educating my self on installing a new floor. My spring project. If you're open to it, it's so much easier to learn new things.





Have a Happy Holiday


Take care,
Beth