Andrea Kranitz is one of those clients you love to have. She is incredibly intelligent, professional and loyal almost to a fault. She also happens to be one of the best communicators I've ever met. So, when she asked me for some assistance with a business card and developing a website for her company, Integrative Business Solutions (iBiz for short), I assumed the projects would be a slam-dunk. Andrea would have everything organized and mapped out. She would know exactly what she wanted and have plenty of great ideas to accomplish it. And she did. Well, she thought she did.

You know what Bobby Burns said about "best laid schemes?" Andrea's a whiz at integrating financial operations, software systems and back office functions. Ask any of her grateful clients. Ask her to explain any arcane QuickBooks procedure and she will carefully, patiently lead you into the light. However, when faced with the challenges of promoting her business—and herself— like most of us, Andrea wasn't entirely sure of her ground.

We spent some time together working on the look and feel of her logo, business card and website. Andrea wanted to strike exactly the right tone, accurate and professional, but also friendly and accessible. We discussed color and font style, layout and navigation and, especially, content. We looked at a variety of websites she found appealing and at those of similar businesses and competitors to see what they were doing. Armed with these discussions, I attacked the projects with vigor.

The business card was pretty straightforward. When I provided a couple of quick variations, Andrea promptly chose the one she preferred. The website was another matter. After reviewing several of my attempts at getting it right, there came a day when Andrea shrugged her shoulders, frowned a little and said, "Hmmm . . . I don't think this is what I had in mind. It's just not saying what I mean it to say."

She was right. I'd gone off on a tangent, relying on a "toolkit" motif that distracted from the real message she wanted to convey. I had also injected some unnecessary humor that did nothing to move Andrea's story forward. After acknowledging the error of my ways, I said, "Okay. What, exactly, do you mean to say in this website, and how do you want to say it?"      (more)