Chris Sharpe aka "Casper C." commissioned us to build his website in February of 2009.

Chris approached us with what he (at the time) thought was a revolutionary idea for a website. His idea? Chris wanted to create a website that would allow people to easily upload and share videos on the internet. Sound familiar? (cough, cough, YouTube!)

"No, my idea is different..." He explained. "...because people will use the videos to help sell stuff on Craigslist and eBay. I will call it C-IT First!"

"Wait, what?" I was thinking.

"C-IT First!" He explained. "The 'C' stands for 'Chris' and it also stands for 'See' because it's a video sharing site. Get it???"

So, against my better judgment we met with Chris and prepared a proposal. After shopping our confidential proposal to companies half way around the world Chris borrowed $2, 500 from his mom and http://CITFirst.com was born.

Here are the facts about Chris: He is a barely literate, middle aged man, who still lives with his mother, and does not own a bank account. In hindsight we never should have agreed to work with him, but, still fresh out of school, young, naïve, and eager to prove our skills we saw this as an opportunity to expand our portfolio.

The website was completed in 8 weeks. Despite Chris' odd requests we still managed to create a good looking and functional website. As of today, you can still see the website at http://citfirst.com/. Yup, that's Chris starring in the opening video - a real winner! As promised visitors can upload, embed, and share videos.

Matter of fact, Chris was so excited about his new website he wrote the following testimonial on 4/30/09 (in broken english no less):

"Dani Marie Design U are the greatest. Thank u so much for all u have done for me. Its so nice to work with u and Wendall.The process of building my site was smooth and very reliable thanks to both of you. I will be looking forward to working with Dani Mari Designs on my next project. U give me faith that their are good people out there. Thanks from Chris Sharpe with cit http://first.com"

End of the story right? Wrong! A couple of months later Chris found out that starting a business is hard, talking about it is much easier. The problem? Chris didn't do his homework. If he had he would have learned that YouTube is the 3rd most popular site on the internet. Beyond that YouTube is also backed by Google. Lastly, as if Chris needed any other obstacles, he didn't plan on maintenance, marketing, or promotion.

See, in his mind, a great idea like C-It First would revolutionize the internet transforming him into an instant millionaire. So instead of admitting that C-IT First was a failed get rich quick scheme he decided to start spreading rumors on the internet. Shame on Chris Sharpe and C-IT First!

The moral of the story? Get to know every prospective client before taking on new jobs. Heed the warning signs. Chris Sharpe was ripe with red flags!