If you ask my employees what one characteristic describes the essence of Eric Bort, they might tell you “He’s a complete genius and rules with an iron fist of Quality, Integrity, and Honesty”. Seriously, that’s what they’ll tell you. 

I’ve gone by gut instinct a lot in the past when quoting projects (alongside line itemed excel sheets); custom training is notoriously difficult to plan out, as everything is potentially up to artistic interpretation and there’s no way to guess how many rounds of revision or approval a project might take. When looking around into competitor’s pricing guidelines I get the feeling they feel the same way. 

So what am I getting at? I honestly feel that this year we are developing and delivering some of the highest quality work we’ve ever completed as a company, and yet our project prices always seem to stay in check. In talking with my employees during the quoting process there’s a bit of a struggle to find that spot where we make enough to survive and prosper, but not charge any more than we have to. Our skills and the love of what we do compels us to make quality projects, designs and solutions for each of our clients – but that doesn’t mean we need to jack up the price. I feel a lot of developers have it wrong – they seem to be charging an immense amount and delivering sub-quality work. I want to be known as the company that delivers a $40,000 course for $12,000 – while putting in detail and creativity that no one else can offer. As my one client put it: “You’re not cheap… you’re high value!” 

I seem to watch a lot of CNBC Bizography at night, and noticed at the end of the George Foreman special his dream in life was to be thought of as a nice guy. Here’s someone who makes millions, is everywhere in the public eye, and in the end his priorities are family and kindness. Doesn’t that tell you something?  I get an immense amount of joy working with the people I meet, and working on a wide variety of projects. It really is my honor to work with the clients we have here, and I hope it shows through that more than anything I strive to run an honest and open business where creativity and innovation are what counts. Staying on budget and meeting deadlines count too, they just don’t make for very inspirational blog posts. 

In the end it really is all about passion, drive to learn something new and knowing tomorrow is a new challenge. We are amazing; because you give is amazing opportunities to shine. Yes I’m on my 6th cup of coffee, but you should still have a tear rolling down your cheek right about now.