Common problem, apparently – when you try to run the upgrade, you get a server error stating that your server is running an older version of PHP. Here’s the exact error I received:

Your server is running PHP version 4.4.9 but WordPress 3.2.1 requires at least 5.2.4.

In researching this wording, I learned that possibly editing the .htaccess file might be the fix. But, the exact line of code to place into the .htaccess file seemed to be different for every web host.

So I fired off an email to Blue Gravity, with whom I’ve hosted websites for almost 10 years (most of them on WordPress), not expecting to hear anything since it was, after all, Sunday morning.

Lo and behold, the pro’s at Blue Gravity not only got back to me within 20 minutes, they also steered me to my hosting account dashboard, where I was able to click through a few easy steps to force my websites to run on the needed version of PHP.

So – for anyone else who runs into this error and uses Blue Gravity as their webhost, here are the steps to fix:

1. Go to www.bluegravityhosting.com, click on “Account Manager,” and log in to your hosting account.
2. Scroll down to the “Website Settings” tab, then click “PHP Settings.” You should then see a list of your sites.
3. Click the word “Settings” to the right of the website you wish to update, then scroll down a bit to the “Update PHP Settings” area.
4. From the “PHP Version” drop-down, just select the version you want to run. I picked 5.2.* . Then click the “Update” button to save your change.
5. Repeat for other sites you wish to update.

That’s it! Less than two minutes to fix what I thought was going to be a booger of an issue!

And by the way, if you aren’t using the WordPress Automatic Upgrade (WPAU) plug-in to upgrade your WP version, you should be! This awesome little plug-in has been working flawlessly for me for several years.

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WordPress 3.2.1 upgrade fix for PHP version

When I was 40, I learned to ride a motorcycle. It wasn’t difficult to learn, but there did come a point where I hit a roadblock. I was doing something wrong which caused me – twice – to drop the bike at slow speed, when pulling away from a stop sign. It totally blew my confidence, even though I was a licensed rider. It took me months of talking about the problem and reading and getting encouragement from other women riders online – all of this while not riding at all – to finally figure out the problem.

And then, the time came to get back on the bike. My husband rode my bike for me to the high school parking lot and my daughter tagged along. I found myself sitting on the bike with the shifter in neutral, exhaust rumbling, and tears running down my face. Scared that I was going to drop my beautiful bike again, and fail at something I really wanted to do. My self-talk went something like this:

“Self, you can either do this, or not. It’s up to you. But you have to decide. If you’re not going to do it, you have to sell the bike. And you know what? You CAN do it. You’ve already done it. You have a license that proves you know how to do it. You just have to drop that shifter into first and roll forward. Just go.”

As I sat there, I happened to look over at my daughter, sitting on the curb and poking a stick around in the dirt. Perfectly happy to spend her Saturday watching me go in circles in a parking lot. And I thought, “If I give up just because this is really hard, what does she learn?”

My desire to set a good example, to be a lesson in perserverence in the face of uncertainty, won out. I pulled in the clutch, dropped into first gear, and rolled forward. After an hour-long practice session in the parking lot, including plenty of turns from a stop, I hit the streets – newly confident and ready to ride. And I haven’t dropped the bike since. Well, at least not for the same reason.

I share this story because being an entrepreneur is a little like learning to ride a motorcycle at age 40. You understand the risk, and take it anyway. You realize that we don’t just persevere for ourselves, but also for the example it sets for others – including our kids.

Have you noticed that kids seem to be born with the entrepreneurial spirit? With the desire to be self-sufficient? It manifests itself in lemonade stands, lawn-mowing gigs and babysitting jobs. But somewhere along the way, that spirit gets – if not crushed, certainly back-seated to the notion of working for someone else. That a job is stability, and that owning a business is crazy-talk.

As a business owner, you have a unique opportunity to nurture your kids’ natural sense of entrepreneurship. To show them that their talents and interests hold at least as much potential as that job at McDonald’s. As summer approaches, what will you do to teach at home what’s not being taught at school: that entrepreneurialism is at least as rewarding as building a career with an employer – and in many ways, moreso? That risk – especially calculated risk – is good? That sometimes, you just have to take that leap of faith and roll forward?

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Nurturing the natural entrepreneurial spirit

Now Shaq may indeed be a Twitter super-user, and he might even coin more words than Seth Godin. But recommending him as your one must-follow was a waste of an opportunity to give real, sound advice.

The person you should follow on Twitter, if you’re a business owner and really only have time to follow one, is the person in your industry who has taken the time to become a resource for others. This person:

• Posts a ton of links to relevant reading material
• Re-tweets useful stuff – not fluff
• Engages with those who reply to them
• Follows proportionally to their followers
• Blogs passionately about the industry and links out when appropriate to their own incredible blog

Having established that setting goals is “the most important thing” you can do when getting into social media, I’d say that the second most important thing you should do is make sure you’re not wasting your time by connecting with people who can’t help you meet them.

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Bad Twitter advice from Advertising Age

The first time, the entire staff of a small ad agency was called into the conference room and the President read a statement which began, “We are forced to cut our staffing by half. The following seven people are fired…” I survived that one, but took on the duties of two other people in addition to my own work.

The second time, my job was eliminated and my employer offered me a clerical position that came with a 30 percent pay cut. I took the “consolation job” and hung in there for a year.

The third time, my position was eliminated in a re-organization effort and I was escorted to the door by a security guard, told to make an appointment to come back and get my personal belongings, and given a small severance package.

When making a decision to leave a company, employees are always counseled not to “burn bridges.” Sure it would be satisfying to holler “Take this job and shove it!” on the way out the door, but that rarely bodes well when you need a reference in the future.

Well I think the same goes for the business owner or manager: when you are forced to let someone go, don’t burn the bridge with undignified or insensitive methods. You are the leader, after all, and leadership isn’t always easy.

If you treat people decently – which you will do if you take even five minutes to think about and understand the impact your decision is having on their lives – they may just continue to sing your praises even after they’re gone. Treat them like crap, and you may find that while customers speak highly of you, past employees denegrate you repeatedly in their daily conversations. And that sort of “word of mouth” gets around just as quickly as the kind spread by customers. Maybe faster, given the “small world” nature of peoples’ personal and professional networks.

Being a “good company” is not just about good customer service – it’s about good and fair treatment of those who commit to you their time and talents. In short, how you fire someone impacts your brand and you should take the time and trouble to make sure you have a process that meets your needs as an employer but that’s fair and dignified.

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How you fire someone can impact your brand

The Pampered Chef is a direct-sales company founded in 1980 by Doris Christopher, who at that time was a stay-at-home-mom and former home economics teacher. Doris sold the company for a bajillion dollars in 2000 to investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. She currently serves the company as Chairman. Pampered Chef products are sold by individual consultants via the in-home party method, and consultants earn money not only by selling products but also by recruiting, training and guiding new consultants to their own successes.

In the late 1990’s and again in the early 2000’s, I was a Pampered Chef consultant. I thoroughly enjoyed almost every aspect of working for this company. I loved the story behind the founding of the company. I loved the principles upon which the company was built. I loved setting up “kitchen shows” in my friends’ homes and showing them how easy it was to prepare simple and delicious recipes for their families. I loved using the products. I loved going to training meetings. I didn’t even mind doing the paperwork for each show once it all was computerized and I didn’t have to do manual math to tally my orders.

If I could have gotten over my one stumbling block, I would have loved to become a Director for this company, recruiting and training new consultants and coaching them in the marketing of their own businesses.

But there was one aspect of the job I didn’t like: I found it very difficult to convince people to be “kitchen show” hostesses. My first six shows – the six I needed to complete my “new consultant commitment” – were hosted by personal friends and family members. Each of them invited people from their own personal and professional networks to attend a show, and what should have happened was that a few of the people at each show should have volunteered to host a show in their home, with me as their consultant. The problem was that often, no one wanted to host a show. And I was extremely uncomfortable pressuring them into doing so.

As any Pampered Chef (or any other direct sales) consultant will tell you, a consultant without hostesses is pretty much dead in the water.

Let me be clear: I don’t blame The Pampered Chef for this shortfall. It was a classic case of not having the right personality for a key part of the job.

So here’s my challenge for you this week, coming as it does from personal experience: take a good look at the parts of your job or your business that you aren’t well suited for (c’mon, you know there’s one or two), and consider how you might ask for help in overcoming those weaknesses. And then, invest in yourself the time and money it will take to solve the problem. Or, consider whether it’s time to bring someone else into the business who can fill that role for you.

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Am I right for the job?