The Eye of the Beholder (14)

[Edith Glass]

Cary nodded as he read the email from Kelly Moriarty. He wasn’t surprised to find out that Moriarty wasn’t based Winterfield. In point of fact he’d have been surprised if he, or she, had been. As far as he was concerned the fact that all their business would have to be done by phone and computer would make his life a bit easier. Face to face meetings, Mr. Rickerson’s view to the contrary, had always struck Cary as a waste of valuable time as there were always the ‘niceties’ to get through, the offers of coffee, the ‘How’s the family?’, before the real business of the meeting could be addressed.

‘In re your most recent email’ he typed in reply. ‘The prices you listed for the various steps in the process are acceptable. In fact they seem to be below the going rate these days. I have visited your website and see that you accept both e-checks and credit cards for payment. We can handle either method or mail you a check. For the later I would need your address of course.’

Cary shook his head as he talked about payment methods. He and the finance department had gone round and round about both the budget he had for this venture and how payments should be made. After reading Moriarty’s email he knew he’d be well within the budget but they wouldn’t be ecstatic about paying on-line. The man in charge was old-school and didn’t trust that online payments were safe. “I swear,” Cary had grumbled as he’d left that meeting, “I’m going to drag you into the 21st century kicking and screaming if I have to.”

‘Mr. Rickerson, the owner, is interested in either the second or third of the designs you presented. He finds the first one a bit too, in his words, Geared to the twenty-something’s. Ours is an old, established firm albeit a small one. We work primarily with people over the age of thirty who are looking to make their money grow for retirement purposes. I’m attaching copies of our sales brochures that we email to prospective clients so that you have an idea of what I’m talking about. Feel free to incorporate anything you find in it them that you think would help sell the company online.’

Re-reading what he’d written so far Cary decided it covered things adequately for now. He ended by telling Moriarty that he would go to his site and pay the preliminary cost for final mock-ups of the two designs Rickerson was interested in once he heard back that Moriarty was willing to accept them as a client. From there they would make a choice and then they’d want to see a working model of the company site. Upon accepting that, final payment would be made. He had a sudden thought, adding, ‘Will you be the one monitoring and maintaining the site once it’s up or will you expect us to do that from our end?’

After one more read-over he hit ‘send’, and then sat back feeling a sense of relief. Maybe, finally, with a decent website business would pick up.