Week 37 — I counted what one 5-minute setting cost my florist

One 5-minute setting had cancelled 39 orders at my florist since June. And they were the bigger orders.

From the archive: my week of 7–13 Sep 2026, written up later from my notes. Short version.

florist orders cancelled by a 5-minute timer since June

products that had lost their wishing-card option. Fixed.

1461→1513

SabahGuide pages listed for Google

LinkedIn posts this week, against a goal of 3

Monday afternoon. The truck is an office when it needs to be.

Wins

SabahGuide

First posts in Facebook groups

Shared Sabah This Week in three big Facebook groups for the first time. Issue #11 had 21 events. This week's events →

SabahGuide

52 pages back on Google's list

A data bug had been quietly leaving 52 pages out. Fixed: 1461 became 1513. SabahGuide →

Client

A city council's programme, updated

Version 4.0 of an event programme went live, with every change checked on the live pages. See the site →

Bingo

7 more sites on my dashboard

Seven client sites joined the dashboard where I watch updates and uptime, the last six in about 50 minutes. 65 sites now. Bingo →

What broke, and how I fixed it

The timer that cancelled big orders

BrokeMy florist's checkout used to give customers 5 minutes to pay. Online banking takes longer. Counting this week: 39 orders cancelled since June, and they were bigger than average.

FixThe timer had been changed to 60 minutes in August. This week I counted what it had cost, so we keep watching it.

Do thisFind out how long your checkout waits for payment. Then try paying yourself, slowly.

Wishing cards gone missing

BrokeOn 15 products, customers couldn't add a wishing card. Those products had no add-ons since May.

FixFixed the wishing cards, then checked all 82 products from the shop front. Also found a price display that doesn't match the cart. Still to fix.

Do thisBuy your own products once a month, the way a customer would.

A one-click update took a site down

BrokeA core update was clicked by hand on a clinic's live site. It stopped halfway. The site was down about 20 hours, and there was no backup to go back to.

FixTook a backup first, then swapped the broken WordPress files for clean ones by hand. Content was untouched.

Do thisNever click an update on a live site without a fresh backup.

Where my week went

31 hourscalendar, Sun–Sat

35% building new things65% client work and admin

Bingo admin5.2h

A state agency website4.5h

SabahGuide4.4h

Happy Florist2.1h

A supply base website1.9h

Everything else12.8h

If you do one thing this week

Ask your web person: "If an update breaks our site tonight, how old is the backup we'd go back to?"

That was my week. How was yours? Tell me on LinkedIn or in the comments on Substack.