2XL Networks

As a small company, you don't always have the resources to take every job. How do you decide what projects to say "no" to?

Some of the criteria we tend to think about:

• Is it for a past/existing client or a new client?
• Do we have the time to do it right?
• Do we have the resources/people to do the project?
• Do we risk not completing the project in time, and is that worse than saying "no"

I've known some people who will say "yes" to any project that comes there way, even with the tightest of deadlines, and then either charge appropriately (higher rates) or end up hiring out a smaller company (or freelancers) to do the majority of the work. These are two options we really don't like to use. We prefer to have enough time to do the job right, but in a rush situation, higher rates can be acceptable to both parties. As far as hiring out the job for someone else to do, we've often found that it can create just as much work managing things and making sure it's done right. Unless you have a pool of people you trust and are very comfortable working with, and you're confident as to the quality of their work, it can be more trouble that it's worth.

So when do you say "yes"? When an existing client needs something, and you can provide what they need. You say yes. Otherwise, we feel "no" is an acceptable answer.

We've been investigating using Drupal as an extranet, a site that clients can log into and see the progress of their projects, including images and photos if needed. You'll find a lot of questions from folks looking to do this, which is great, but the trick to it is pulling all the bits and pieces together and managing to build a site that is easy for the owners to manage, and easy for their clients to use. As we make progress on this, we'll try to write up what we do, and hope it can serve as a guide for others.

We've used a Linksys NSLU2 in the past to provide a small, easy-to-use, Network Attached Storage device (or NAS) for a small office, and it works fairly well. A NAS is basically a very simple file server that just provides disk space on the network for file sharing, backup, storage, etc. In the case of the Linksys NSLU2 you just plug in one or two USB drives, start up the device, and after some simple configuration and formatting, you've got storage space.

The NSLU2 has a few nice features. For instance, if you have two drives connected, you can choose to use them both for file storage, or you have one automatically back up to the other on a scheduled basis. This way if one drive goes bad, you have another one with all your data.

While the NSLU2 is a small device that uses very little power, one of the complaints about it is that it can be slow. Another concern is that it only supports FTP (File Transfver Protocol) and SMB. (SMB is typically used by Windows computers.) If you want a NAS that supports AFP (Apple File Protocol) as well as other protocols, you might look at something like FreeNAS. We plan on doing some testing with FreeNAS to see what it can do. It seems a bit more full-featured than the Linksys NSLU2, though the question is, do we trade simplicity and stability for a device that requires much more power but offers more features?

Do small businesses need a wiki? Can they find value in a wiki? I think many of them can... (For those not in the know, a wiki is a web site which anyone (with permission) can edit.)

At 2XL Networks, we have an internal wiki which can only be accessed by us, and on that wiki is all the information we need about server configuration, our customers, our process, and anything else that people working in remote locations may need. John and I both work on laptops and desktop machines, so the wiki is an excellent way to have a central repository we can both access – and edit – as needed.

But do other companies need such things? I've introduced wikis to many companies over the years, and I've personally found them to be extremely useful when it comes to storing information you want easy access to. One of our customers has just started an internal wiki which keeps track of all the little details about their network, and product serial numbers, and client web sites.

Overall, wikis are a simple solution to put in place, and the value you can get out of them all depends on what you put into them.

Running a web development and hosting company is interesting, as is doing freelance web site development. I've been doing both for a long time, and I like to think I know what I'm doing.

But do the clients think I know what I'm doing? I hope so... I hope that the quality of the work we do is apparent. Sure, there is still the idea some have that the web is easy, and you can set up a web site in 10 minutes. Well, you can! But like anything of quality, it takes time, and it takes knowledge to do it right. Amazon didn't just buy some desktop application and click through a few wizards to build what they have today.

I've been involved in the development of at least 100 web sites since 1994, I believe that gives me some insight into things. That is part of the value you get when you work with 2XL Networks. That knowledge doesn't come free. I've spent countless hours researching and testing, and building things, and knowing as much as possible about what I do... that's what you are paying for. I know when to use (and not use) Flash and when to use images and when to use text to best maximize the results of your site in search engines and in the maintenance issues that don't end when the site launches. That's part of what you get. And, yes, we need to charge you for that, or the company makes no money, and disappears.

The thinking for this all came about when a customer said they were a bit surprised by the invoice for our work. Yes, you can hire people that work cheaper - that's always the case - but we think competing solely on price is a losing game. We feel that as professionals in this industry, we provide a great value to our customers, and out rates reflect that.

We do work with a lot of small business, many that are just starting out, and are a bit tight on cash. We aren't out to make a quick buck, we are building a company, so with that in mind, we're flexible and understanding of the issues. (We're a small business, we know what it's like.) So when a customer asked if they could take four months to pay off their invoice, I told them to take six. We're investing in them as much as they are investing as us. That's how we think business relationships should work.

I've been kicking the idea around for a while now, and mentioned it to a few people but Blake Hall is the one who really took the initiative. He has set up a wiki to start the planning of a DrupalCamp in Wisconsin for 2007.

Visit the DrupalCamp Wisconsin wiki if you are interested in attending, or sponsoring, or participating in any way. We still aren't sure if it will be in Milwaukee, or Madison, or halfway in between. Join us and help figure those things out. (2XL Networks will most likely sponsor the event in some way.)

For a Drupal site with well-designed URLs, the Path Module is essential.

Clean URLs will allow you to have http://www.example.com/node/2 instead of http://www.example.com/?q=node/2. You'll want to enable Clean URLs.

The Path Module takes this one step further, and allows you to have http://www.example.com/about instead of http://www.example.com/node/2.

Being able to control and design URLs is just one more feature of Drupal that makes it a great content management system.

Hey, we've got a web site!

Sure. we're a web development & hosting company, and we've been around for many years, but we've always been to busy doing client work to develop our own site, but at some point you've just got to do it.

We've chosen Drupal as our CMS for the site. We've worked with a number of content management systems over the years, but with the latest release of Drupal, we're really excited about what it can do.

So what can you expect to find here? John and I will be blogging about whatever issues we come across running a web hosting company, this may include software development, methodology, usability, design, customers - anything and everything - it's a blog after all. :)