Act III:The Resort

…Me, I guess.

I worked my way through college framing houses as a carpenter. I graduated (at least I think I did) and…well…just kept doing it. My degree was in English, and the big joke in my family is that every time a college-bound family member says they’re going to major in English, someone says, “Oh, so you’re going to be a carpenter.” Ha, ha, ha.

So, I’ve been a contractor, general contractor, home builder, investor, house flipper, landlord, but all of that still involves being a carpenter. I can do other things—quite a few, actually—but there are only a few things I do well. Carpentry is one of them—sort of. And I say sort of because there are a lot of different kinds of carpentry. I can do most all carpentry, but what I’m good at is framing. In other words, you might not want me to build your cabinets, but you would want me to frame your house. I always liked the big heavy boards, and I’m happier with a sledgehammer in my hand that a trim hammer.

Here I am at age 64. I can lay tile, insulate an attic, simple plumbing, simpler electrical. I can change the battery in my car, trim a tree, back up a trailer. I can speak some Spanish. I’m not saying I’m good at those things but I can do them. So really, the only things that come to mind in ‘the really good at’ category is framing houses…and…driving a stick shift. In the United States, cars with stick shifts have become obsolete, and at 64, those big heavy boards have become really big heavy boards.

Unfortunately, being really good at framing houses and driving a stick shift doesn’t help much when it comes to designing a website or doing accounting things. 20 years ago, I was computer literate but in the world of tech, 20 years is about 4 lifetimes. And social media? Forget it! I have succumbed to the common baby-boomer strategy of asking my kids.

The person who always knows what he’s doing isn’t doing very much.

Nelson Algren

The website is critical to the resort’s success. It is the first impression, the single most important marketing tool since all other marketing ultimately sends one to the website. It is the spot that the decision to come visit us gets finalized. It’s where the money gets put down. So, it’s important to get it right.

Hey…I know, let’s have a carpenter do it!

Okay, so I might be overdramatizing a bit. We have hired a web designer person to actually do it. She is building the site, performing all the cyber hocus-pocus to make things look and work right. I don’t think she quite knew what she was getting into when she took this—took me—on. She probably didn’t believe that it was humanly possible that a person in the year 2023 could be as cyber illiterate as I am (I just had to ask my wife how to spell cyber). And, believe it or not, I know more about computers than social media.

There are (in my mind) two parts to the website thing. One is the glitz–the promotional and informational stuff. The website, first and foremost, needs to look good—or more specifically make the resort look good, and it needs to convey to people solid information–how to get here, what to bring, what kind of weather to expect. It needs to make people feel like we know what we’re doing (Although since you’re reading this blog, you know better).

The website’s second part—I think they call it the back-end stuff—is the accounting. We need to have a calendar that shows available dates and allows people to book those dates. We need to be able to take deposits, generate receipts and invoices. People need to be able to contact us with questions and comments.

I am pushing to get the site done because we need it now. There is a slew of other things we need done ASAP and I started to list them but it gives me an upset stomach. In my opinion this is the most important and I know when the site goes live, it will still be a work in progress—which bothers me but can’t be helped.

We have sold many houses over the last few years, and one thing I’ve learned from our fabulous real estate agent is the importance of paying for professional photographs. We will have to use the pictures we have for now, but hopefully in the not-to-distant future we can get a few things remodeled and redecorated and get a professional photographer to the island (any volunteers?) and make the site sparkle.

The general layout of the site will be similar to what most of our competition has. Is that the best way to go? I don’t know, but it’s where we are going to start. Once we get the website live, we need to focus on the marketing of it—driving traffic to the site, social media stuff (oh boy) then we can double back and start tweaking the website.

So, carpenter or not, I’m the guy who plopped down all that money to buy the resort so I’m the guy who must get this done. It needs to be done like yesterday since right now we don’t even have a way to take someone’s deposit or payment. And, I’m the guy who’s really bothered by that.

Imagine that!

By the way…I have learned that computers and sledgehammers are a bad combination.

Not knowing is better than pretending to know.

T.J. Klune

I cannot recall getting myself into trouble by not knowing something. I can recall multiple times getting myself into trouble by thinking or pretending I know something when I don’t.