Adding video to tell your small business story

I’ve been intrigued of late with adding some video to my company website.  Something to welcome the user or add some of the personal touch that may be lacking.  The problem I’ve had is that I had no clue what to say.  What else could I say that isn’t already on the site?  I could tell some of the technology war stories that all developers, programmers, and architects have, but that only communicates to the technophile and not the small business owner I want to engage.

I definitely wanted to communicate my level of honesty but what would I do to express the emotion I have for this line of work.  Well, now I know.  I found this blog post, Are you asking these 11 stimulating interview questions…, by Tom Clifford.  Thanks Tom!  Tom encourages you to interview your employees using 11 common questions.  From those questions, you will get genuine responses that could then be edited together into a very effective message.  Great stuff!

Independents week has me geeked!

If you haven’t seen the news (or the web page), June 30 - July 6 is Independents Week in Arizona. The basic premise: take the pledge and buy local.

For me, the challenge is: how many ways can I find to shop local? Let’s see…

1) I need a new windshield (thanks to the Arizona heat and yet another truck with a blowout on the 101). I guess that means a call to Diamond Auto Glass.

2) I need an AC checkup. I guess that means a call to a guy my wife met who is just starting out on his own.

3) I need groceries, so that means a trip to Bashas. This is doubly enjoyable because a neighbor manages a store and I’ll give his store a little bump too.

4) I haven’t played golf in something like 2 months, but I absolutely love the municipal course at Aguila, so count me in. The city and state governments need your help too.

5) The neighbors want to go eat Italian (hey, their from Philly), so I think we’ll go to Amano Bistro. A simply beautiful restaurant with the freshest food south of downtown.

6) One of my clients downtown is overdue for a courtesy call. Luckily, they are within walking distance of Athenian Express.

7) I’m ready to make another advertising buy, so I need to make up mind between one of the local papers, a magazine published by Republic Media or a direct mail campaign. I can do the printing for direct mail locally, but the postage might violate my 100% local pledge. Tough one.

Third party controls haunt old systems

Recently had the opportunity to bid on a new project for a potential client.  During my first conversation with this company, they had an MS Access front and back end.  During my second conversation, we discovered it was a Visual Basic 6 front end application with a MS Access back end database.  No matter, just another application, right?

Wrong.  An email thread was discovered between the potential client and the original developer of the software.  The title:  What you asked for.  Well, not quite (in my eyes).  The contents?  3 custom controls from 2 different companies, 3 freeware controls from freewhereville and Crystal Reports 8.  Crystal I can live with, as it was a fairly standard reporting tool in VB6, since MS never really offered a good one.

As is par for the course, the original developer owned the licenses and not the customer.  This is a complete disservice.  If you are a developer, you embed these controls in an application and you don’t let your customer know, you as a developer are at fault.  The customer deserves the opportunity to weigh the pros, cons and long term impact of their choice.

So here we are.  No original developer.  No licenses for the third party controls.  Difficulty reviewing the design of the original system.  No chance of deploying an update to the old system.  The customer and the (potential) new developer left with few choices moving forward.

Looking back on a career (or entrepeneurship)

Although this article from Marshall Goldsmith focuses on successful leaders looking back on their careers, the lessons learned apply directly to entrepeneurs as well.  The findings he discusses, as discovered by John Izzo while researching his new book include:

1)  …people don’t regret their failures and that most people wished they had risked more…

2)  …if you think your work-life mix is out of whack it probably is…

3)  …the importance of being true to self…

 

Entrepeneurs need convincing…

If you are a wanne be entrepeneur or even a part time entrepneur, I encourage you to read this great post from onstartups.com.  If you’ve been straddling the fence for too long now, this article will help.  I’m especially fond of #4 on the list;

Unless you have some compelling evidence that things are going to get easier later to do something more entrepreneurial, chances are, they’re not (going to get easier).

Searched for a domain name lately?

Every once in a while, I do some free thinking.  Usually, I spend so much time thinking about or working on my client needs, I rarely get the chance to let my mind wander (or wonder).  Honest.  Often times, this free thinking leads to small business ideas.  Yes, I really do have this stuff on the brain.

It’s easy to have a small business idea.  One game you can play, and I can’t remember where I heard it, is to write down for one month straight, all of the little things that annoy you while carrying out your day.  It’s said that… it won’t take a week to come up with at least one idea or problem solver that others will pay you for.  Try it some time.

The hard part is naming your enterprise.  Any name you dream up, you have to be able to buy the domain name too.  Searching for the domain name is easy, all of the domain hosts make it easy, but finding an available name is tough, with a capital T.

I recently had one of these eureka moments where I came up with new business idea.  After kicking it around for a bit, I decided I had better search for a domain name.  The domain name availability is/was more important than the name itself.  I could care less what the business name is, as long as it’s marketable and easy to remember.  As in, easy to type into a search engine or use direct navigation to get to once I have spent my dollars and hours marketing said name.

Long story short, the domain names I bought (of the very few available) were a long, long stretch from my original ideas for a name.  It just gets harder and harder every day to search or buy a good domain name.  Maybe making that task easier is a business idea unto itself.  I wonder if www.domainnamehelpers.com is available….

Organic leads for your business

This article from the Duct Tape Marketing blog really hits home for me.  The point they make that

“Prospects that come to you by way of your information machine, that have logically progressed down a path of education, are probably ten times more likely to be ideal and equally more likely to close than those that you go out and try to convince to buy from you”

is just SO true.  For the past couple of years, I have dabbled in traditional advertising as well as buying keywords on search engines and monitoring every aspect of my campaigns and website.  Truth is, the majority of quality leads I get are from businesses doing their own research and finding me.  I call these organic leads.  It occurs through circumstances largely beyond my control.  It required almost no effort, beyond building and maintaining the website and offering my extensive knowledge for hire.

I also concur that, there is no more satisfaction than picking up the phone when it rings, rather than picking up and dialing all the time. 

Why I love IMAP!

As someone who provides a service, i.e. my technical know how, to whomever and whereever the customer may be, here in Phoenix, I am very mobile.  As a consequence, I may be answering an email using my phone (Treo 700wx, which I love), using the Internet at a client site or sitting right here in front of the laptop in my office.  I may be answering an email on a thread that is many days old.  I may need the content of an email I sent 3 weeks ago, right now, right whereever. 

IMAP, the internet message access protocol, makes my remoteness entirely possible.  You see, in the good old days, web hosting companies only provided POP3 which required you to download the email to answer it.  Get it?  Download.  As in, download to my PC, to my phone, etc..  After that, you better have that same download device around if you need to dig up that email thread.  Same goes for emails you sent.   IMAP uses the client-server model to manage your email.  In other words, no download.  It all stays on the server, every day and every where.  Thank you, IMAP!  In one small way, you make my small business better.

Joining LocalFirstAz

As I spend a lot of time in downtown Phoenix assisting clients, I am inevitably in all kinds of independent restaurants, bars and coffee spots lending my support to local businesses.  I’ll save it for another post but supporting local businesses is the the only way to go about your business if you own a business.

Anyways, I’m always picking up fliers, reading bulletin boards and picking up as much info as I can.  One of these was the Small Wonders map published by Local First Arizona / Arizona Chain Reaction.  I can’t begin to tell you how much recognition and support these small businesses deserve.  This map is just scratching the surface of the number of great services available to all of us.

Even though the map is only a start, I seriously RESPECT the effort put forth by Local First to do something, anything.  This has lead me to do my part and join Local First Arizona / Arizona Chain Reaction and I encourage you to as well.

Could your business use a data wall?

Recently, I was introduced to the concept (or application) of data walls while attending a conference.  My definition of a data wall:  Graphical tools used to engage stakeholders in focused discussion.  Perhaps a picture or two would help…

This is a picture of a school displaying student performance on a standardized test.  Each grade is represented by a color and there is one student name per post-it.  It’s displayed in a private area, due to confidentiality concerns, but that private area happens to be the teacher lounge.  Can you imagine a better place to spark discussion among experts, i.e. the teachers themselves?

This is another picture of a school were data driven decision making is being applied.  In this case, the information is, without a doubt, being used to motivate.  The student themselves can see their progress as a whole, perhaps against prior year measures or against themselves.  Check out this article for more info.

Could your business use a data wall?  Perhaps you already have something similar on a smaller scale?  A chart of quality control defects per month near the quality control office and a chart of gross sales you present at quarterly employee meetings?  Why not publish all of this information and more, in a place where your employees congregate?  What insights into your business might you gain from sharing information?  An insight into cyclical events, an opportunity to reach for greater goals, just imagine the possibilities.

I’d encourage you to use a data wall to increase the transparency in your business.  Your employees have the same goals as you do, such as doing a great job, moving ahead and increasing the value of their time spent at work.  Sound familiar?