Last week, Pemaquid’s first intern, Jordan Warren, officially became Pemaquid’s new Creative Services Coordinator, and we are really jazzed about it.

Jordan’s responsible for managing all the “air traffic”: working closely with our Clients to make sure we’re meeting their needs and that they always understand the status of their project. She also works with the creative staff and subcontractors to make sure that your friendly neighborhood Webslingers understand what they need to do to get the job done right.

Have a question or concern about your Web site project? Jordan’s your gal.

Jordan and I met in April, when I gave a guest lecture to her e-commerce class at the University of Southern Maine. Afterwards, she asked if Pemaquid provided internships. She said she wanted to learn as much as she could about Web design and usability and didn’t care if she got paid.

Music to my ears (the part about learning all she could).

So I signed her up as our first intern, and the rest is recent history. Jordan has read the books, written the blog posts, set up the Delicious links for other aspiring Web designers (and learning in the process) and coded the HTML, CSS, PHP and SQL. She even set up Pemaquid’s Facebook fan page.

When her internship ended this past September, Jordan stayed on as a part-time designer. As she finished up her final semester, she has gotten to know many of our Clients quite well.

And the word, from at least one last week: “We like Jordan”.

That rocks. Jordan’s cheerful disposition, ingenuity and attention to detail are making a positive difference. That’s the kind of person we want to have around.

Please help us in congratulating Jordan on her new gig. We’re eagerly looking forward to great things from her in 2010!

Open House/Social

May 19th 5:30 – 8:30pm – Free pizza, beer and wine provided by Portland Pie (our landlords; they run their business out of the ground-floor space. We’re up on the top – 3rd – floor). Map »

Staff writer Avery Yale Kamila has a great piece on coworking in the Maine Switch featuring Pemaquid Communications and our endeavor to create a coworking space at 28 Maple Street, what we sometimes jokingly refer to as the “Fab Lab”.

Coworking Links

Photos of 28 Maple Street (Flickr) – taken recently when it was occupied by the previous tenant, a Portland ad agency.

Coworking Survey – Take our quick survey and let us know what you’d like to see in a coworking space here in Portland, Maine.
Coworking Wiki – share ideas on coworking with people who are operating similar spaces in other cities.

I have a file for quotes, aphorisms, and other sayings that I like to pull out from time to time to help me stay focused on what really matters. I came across L.L. Bean’s Golden Rule for creating a successful business. I deemed it worthy of a post. So, for your consideration:

L.L. Bean’s Golden Rule

“Sell good merchandise at a reasonable profit, treat your customers like human beings, and they’ll always come back for more.”

What is a Customer?

• A customer is the most important person ever in this company – in person or by mail.
• A customer is not dependent on us; we are dependent on him.
• A customer is not an interruption of our work; he is the purpose of it.
• We are not doing a favor by serving him; he is doing us a favor by giving us the opportunity to do so.
• A customer is not someone to match wits with. Nobody ever won an argument with a customer.
• A customer is a person who brings us his wants. It is our job to handle them profitably to him and to ourselves.