INSIGHT / DOMAINS & EMAIL
Boss Encounters: Episode 1, “Sir, I Want to Speak to the Boss!”
A business owner storms in: three websites down, the IT guy vanished, and no document proving he owns the domains. A short story about what ownership means.
It’s a regular Wednesday morning. The coffee’s hot. The servers are stable. Life is good.
Then the door swings open.
In walks a man: shirt untucked, eyes fierce. Let’s call him Mike. MD, business owner, and judging by the storm he brings, probably the janitor too.
He marches up to the front desk:
“I want to speak to the BOSS!”
The receptionist (an angel in human form) asks:
“Is there a matter I can help you with?”
“NO. Just the BOSS.”
They call me. I walk in. Mike sees me and suddenly, like magic, he calms down.
We step into my office.
Me: “How can I help you?”
Mike: “My websites are down. All three.”
Me: “Why are they down?”
Mike: “Paul took them down.”
Me: “Paul?”
Mike: “My IT guy. He’s… disappeared.”
Me: “Do you know why?”
Mike: “Not really. We had… a misunderstanding.” (Translation: Paul wasn’t paid.)
Me: “Can you prove you own the domains?”
Out comes a CR12, his National ID, company stamp, and a Certificate of Incorporation that looks like it saw the Mau Mau war.
Me: “Do you have any written agreement or authorization showing Paul was acting on your behalf or he was your employee, etc.?”
Mike: “No. He just used to do everything.”
At this point, I have to say the dreaded words:
“Mike, without formal documentation or control over the domain records, we’ll have to maintain the current status. The sites remain suspended.”
Mike pauses. Looks at me dead in the eye.
“I’ll sue you. You will hear from my lawyer,” then he walks away.
Your turn: how would you handle this?
- If you were in my shoes, how would you have handled Mike?
- What would you advise business owners like Mike to do differently?