First, my goals for 2010 were accurate as of the time of writing, though priorities changed over the year, and with good reason. To recap the goals, and my current status with them:

• Learn PHP and Zend to a reasonable degree of proficiency – this has gone well, and while I would hesitate to call myself an expert on either, I am comfortable programming a web application using those technologies. I’m still working on getting the turn-around time down, but it’s moving in the right direction.
• Launch Client Data Tracker – this has not happened, because priorities change. The project turned out to be significantly larger than I anticipated, and I put it on the side because I didn’t feel I could do the project justice.
• Continue side development until I’m doing in excess of 30 hours a week of billable time – this has happened, and I’m now working solely on a contract basis. Happily, I’ve been able to leave the corporate setting.
• Complete the work required for KNIRL.com – this has not happened, though we learned a lot of interesting pieces of information and technology working with it.

Overall, 2010 was a good year for business, and looking forward, 2011 looks like it will be even more exciting:

• Launch the product I’m working on for my primary client before the end of the first quarter;
• Learn the intricate details of a fairly large industry to determine how to be able to carve out a niche in it;
• Solidify my knowledge of certain technologies I use frequently to the point I would call myself an expert.

What are your goals? Do you have a way to measure yourself against them?

Related posts:

1. Goals for 2010
2. Goals and Fitness
3. 2009 Goals

The amount of effort required to bring something from “good enough” to “perfect” is rarely worth it.

My initial reaction to this, as well as the reaction of most people I repeated this to, was that clearly the author doesn’t take pride in a perfect piece of work. Reflection, though, indicates something a little different.

Define the term “good enough”.

For me, that may translate to one level of quality, to you, another. That level of quality that you consider to be “good enough” is what you should be striving for. That is, it should meet all the needs of the work being done, and leave you with some level of satisfaction that you have done a good job.

However, perfect is not subjective. Perfect means that an objective assessment of the work would conclude that there is nothing lacking in the job. While there are certainly jobs where the the subjective assessments need to come close to perfect (for example, safety procedures at a nuclear powerplant), most jobs do not. There is some degree of quality that is subjectively required.

The amount of work to bring a project from good enough to perfect will often far out-weigh all other effort for the project, though the benefits can rarely justify it. For my clients, they expect a certain level of quality. I do my best to exceed that expectation by producing something better for them. However, I rarely insist on perfection, because my clients in general don’t want to pay for that.

They want to pay for a certain level of quality, and that’s good enough for them. For personal and professional reasons, I do my best to exceed that level. However, perfection will rarely make a difference.

It should be noted that if working harder on a project to produce a better outcome would have a tangible difference, then the definition of good enough may need to be adjusted. But that’s just subjective.

Related posts:

1. Plan B? Support Plan A
2. Who’s to Blame
3. Out-sourcing and Risk Management

I was forwarded a talk by Jason Fried about Why Work Doesn’t Happen in the Office, in which he discusses where people like to go when they need to get some work done. Interestingly, the answers he got were pretty much anything but the office.

The question is the same as Jason’s question:

Where do you go when you need to get some work done?

Related posts:

1. Question: What Plans Have You Made for 2011?
2. When You Work for Yourself
3. Top Reasons to Work From Home and Make It Work

I then worked for an insurance company for three and a half years. At 2000 hours of work per year, that’s about 7000 hours of work. During those years, I continued to learn, though not at the same pace. The learning was different from school – while school tended to focus on theory, work focused on the practical. Where school focused on diversity of knowledge, work was concerned with specific topics.

The difference is very fundamental, and neither would suffice without the other. School is about teaching you how to learn, providing you with the basics in a given subject area to get you started. Work is about getting a job done, requiring more detailed knowledge in highly specialized topics. By having a solid education, you will learn how to gain the particular knowledge you need to complete a given job.

That being said, it would seem that I value school knowledge over work training.

That would be the wrong impression. I learned more from my on-the-job training than I did in school by a major factor. But it was significantly aided by the fact that I had a formal education. That being said, what I learned on the job is not taught in school, nor is there an easy way to do so. There is no replacement for hands-on training, which is, perhaps, the reason that there is such a focus on employment history and little on education when it comes to hiring.

Personally, however, I would prefer to hire someone with a formal education and little/no work experience over someone with the reverse. Why? I would rather have someone who’s been taught to learn over someone who may or may not be able to learn new skills easily.

Related posts:

1. The Road to Success is Always Under Construction
2. Pricing in Training and Fitness
3. Knowledge and Experience

What does all this mean to you? It is intended to serve as both a warning and as a motivator.

Like many people, I spent a significant amount of time reading about various get-rich-quick schemes, thinking that I would be able to plug into some formula and soon be spending all my time scuba diving in Aruba. I read through the posts about MLM schemes, about marketing other people’s products at significant commissions. But at the end, I learned a very simple truth – there is no way to get rich quick without putting in the work.

Granted, there are programs available that can change the nature of the work to something that you will enjoy more. You can change the number of hours that you will work. You can change the rate of return on your time investments. But the work itself cannot be eliminated.

The second reality I discovered is that the greater the payout, the greater the risk. Quite simply put, the opportunities I saw that had enormous potential to put large amounts of money in my pocket had a proportional chance of not only not profiting me, but also setting me back.

Is it all doom and gloom?

Not at all. The last reality I found was that every person has a tolerance for risk, though the level of risk varies wildly from person to person. But every person also has the ability to shape their own path to get it paved, to some degree, down the road.

As an example, my own risk tolerance is quite low when it comes to personal finances. I have responsibilities to my family, and so cannot (in my opinion) risk that responsibility even against a large payout. That being said, when an opportunity knocks, I can still recognize the opportunity and attempt to take advantage of it while at the same time mitigating whatever risk might be inherent in that opportunity.

In particular, I had an idea for several websites and applications. If I was more risk prone, I might have moved toward working on these applications full-time, and hope for the eventual payout. I might have borrowed money from the bank, or family and friends, to finance my dream of turning these ideas into a steady source of income.

I decided to take a different path. I continued at my day job. I did the occasional work for clients, sometimes more, sometimes less. But I also worked on my idea in the stolen minutes and hours in between my other responsibilities.

• I did my own legal research as needed.
• I did my own marketing plans.
• I did the software development.
• I used freely available templates for their graphics.
• I looked into different payment structures.

What I did, in essence, was reduce the risk by doing as much as I could, when I could. As a result, the projects have been moving slower than they might have otherwise progressed. It will take me significantly longer to launch, increasing the risk that someone will beat me to it. But this is a risk I can accept, and I’m enjoying the journey.

Rewards will come, of that I am sure. When? Perhaps this month, perhaps this year, perhaps this decade (that was a depressing thought). The reward will in some way be proportional to the risk it took to get it. The delay in reaching my goals can perhaps reduce the ultimate reward. But at least I have enjoyed the journey will striving for the big reward, and that too is a reward.

Related posts:

1. Take a Chance and Reduce Risk
2. Honesty and Consistency
3. Out-sourcing and Risk Management

You’re not charging enough.

The logic works as follows:

You want to earn $100,000 per year.

You think you can get 1000 billable hours.

Your hourly rate is therefore $100.

If you actually try charging $100 per hour, you’ll find that you’re overcharging for some work (basic PHP programming is not worth more than about $50 or $60 per hour), and undercharging for other work (needs analysis and process refinements and automation can easily be billed at $200 per hour or more).

If you try to average the fees and charge something in the middle, you’ll end up with the following situation:

People who need PHP programming don’t hire you because you charge too much for that.

People who need process refinements and automation also don’t hire you, because you charge too little.

What, someone won’t hire you because you charge too little?

But that’s exactly the problem. If you do work that other people charge two or three times your rate, then clients think they’re not getting the same quality from you as from your competitors. So they don’t hire you, not because they can’t afford you, but because they think you’re not as good at your job as your competition is.

The solution, of course, is to raise your rates. The catch, however, is that you won’t get people hiring you for the basic work, which you may need to reach your income requirements. So you do what I’ve just done – you split your fees.

Split fees

When you split your fees, you need to be careful not to give a quote too early in the process. The way I do it is by starting at my higher fee, and then working my way down. If a client wants to hire me by the hour, it will be pretty expensive, because the only fee I’ll quote up front is my higher rate.

When I look at the work, though, I have 2 fees – one for the work that the client is contacting me for, and one for the work that anyone could do, but it will probably be me. For example, if a client needs to determine how to automate a particular task, they come to me to figure out how to automate it. I will likely also be implementing that, but really, once they know the solution, they can hire a programmer for a fraction of my price to do that work.

To get that work as well, I offer to arrange for the implementation, and pass on the savings to the client. I may outsource the work, or I may do it myself. In any case, the price quoted will be competitive for the work being done. In the previous example, if the work could be done by a programmer charging $35 per hour, I’ll bill it at $40-$50 per hour. Whether or not I actually subcontract it depends on the type of work and whether or not I have time to do it myself.

From the client’s perspective, they’re only paying the premium rate for the specialty work I do. Using me as a go-between to various contractors helps ensure that the job is done properly, and they know that if my contractor makes a mistake, I’ll make sure it gets fixed.

Pricing is something that’s very difficult to get perfect – don’t charge enough, and you’ll need to work more to earn enough, charge too much, and you won’t be able to get clients. But if you can strike the right balance, you’ll have it made.

Related posts:

1. For the Right Price
2. Why Decor is Worth the Price
3. Why Not to Compete Based on Price

This was no time for play.
This was no time for fun.
This was no time for games.
There was work to be done/
The Cat in the Hat Comes Back by Dr. Seuss

Two kids, instructed to clear the snow from the sidewalk in front of their house, have their work interrupted by the Cat in the Hat, who just wants to have fun. In the process of having fun, he makes a mess of the house and yard, but at the end, of course, the snow is cleared, and the mess cleaned up.

Running a business is like that too. There are parts to the business that we like to do, others that we consider to be a chore. There are two ways to approach balancing the two portions of the business.

We can be like the two children in the book, segregating the work from the fun. We can try to do just the work or just the play. While this is often more efficient and productive in the short-term, it also generates a distaste for these required tasks.

On the other hand, we can be like the Cat in the Hat. We can try to have fun all the time, and along the way, get the work done. While this tends to be less efficient, it avoids creating a distaste for those chores.

If your business is large enough, perhaps this isn’t relevant. You can hire someone to do your chores. Don’t like maintaining your books? Hire a bookkeeper. Don’t like writing newsletters? Hire a copywriter.

If you’re still small, though, you likely need to do many of these tasks yourself, because it’s not financially viable to hire someone for all these tasks. So, while it may be more efficient to do these tasks in batches (for example, spend one afternoon a week bringing your books up to date), doing a smaller amount throughout the week may avoid turning those tasks into chores.

If you want your business to succeed, you do need to work hard, but you also need to have fun. You need to enjoy what you’re doing, or you may find yourself neglecting certain tasks that will prevent you from seeing your potential.

So work hard, but don’t forget to enjoy the journey!

Related posts:

1. Quiet Work and Make Work
2. Choosing to Outsource
3. When You Work for Yourself

Some people dream of success, while other people live to crush those dreams.

What I did last year was to post some of my professional resolutions for all to see. Whether or not that was a good idea is debatable. There is a study that shows that the more you share, the less likely you are to do. I don’t agree completely with that study, and so I’m going to do it again.

First, however, a follow-up to the goals for 2009:

• Only one of my contracts from the start of 2009 is still in development, and it is scheduled for completion with two weeks.
• I have not picked up one new contract per month, however, the past 3 months have been very good to me with 2 new clients and one returning client.
• I haven’t taken any courses this year, but am in the process of learning PHP and the Zend Framework.
• I have continued to use C# for some development, and am increasing my level of proficiency.

All in all, I feel good about what I’ve accomplished in 2009. While I haven’t met all my goals, I did strive to do so, and had I met all my goals, it would be an indication that I had not set my sights high enough. So, without further ado, here are my goals for 2010:

1. Learn PHP and Zend to a degree of proficiency whereby I can construct an entire website based on those technologies in a reasonable amount of time (i.e. in under 250 hours for a fully-functional site, and not including the design of the interface).
2. Launch the product I’m currently working on, Client Data Tracker, to beta in January 2010 and live to the public before the end of March 2010.
3. Continue developing my consulting to the point that I am putting in 30+ hours per week in billable time on various projects.
4. Complete the work required for KNIRL.COM and get the site up and running.

These are my goals that I’ll be using to measure my success against in 2010. What are your goals? How do you intend to measure success?

Related posts:

1. Goals for 2011
2. Goals and Fitness
3. 2009 Goals

The book, according to its back cover, claimed to provide all the answers to build a successful web startup. Joel Spolsky, in his foreword, claimed he learned something new on every page (there are over 400 pages in the book, which works out to about 5 cents per lesson. Considering I’m in the middle of developing two ideas into potential businesses, I figured this was the book for me.

I’m now reaching the end of the first quarter of the book, and already I’ve learned enough to write a review. The book was worth the money spent, even were I to read no further. So far, I’ve learned something about the history of creating software companies, the various ways there are to start a company, and what the pros and cons of each are. I’ve learned some questions to ask myself when looking at a potential idea. I’ve learned to be critical of my own initiatives, and to separate emotion from keeping ideas alive long after they should have died.

Bob mixes his lessons with interviews with various people. Don Dodge, Director of Business Development at Microsoft, discusses the differences between starting a company now versus starting one ten or twenty years ago. Rick Chapman of Softletter discusses the business model of Software as a Service and various billing systems used. These are just a few of the many (I counted 36, but I might be off by a few) interviews and e-mail exchanges recounted throughout the book.

The book is divided into 10 chapters, each of which focuses on another idea crucial to the success of a web startup. The first chapter looks at the history, which has shaped how such companies are built today. The next chapter focuses on the ideas that build your company – filling a need (and where those needs come from), having a new way to solve an old problem. The third chapter looks at platforms, and the various places you can put your idea (SaaS, PaaS, Mobile, and so on).

The fourth chapter discusses support groups and tools for founders. The fifth looks at money and financing. The sixth looks at how social media impacts your business (and it does, whether you realize it or not). The seventh chapter discusses the importance of clarity in your business. Chapter eight is about how to get all the pieces in place, and how to turn an idea into a business.

Chapter nine suggests several people you should listen to, who provide advice that can be invaluable to a new business. Chapter ten is all about where to go from here, now that you’ve read the book.

I’m not done the book, as I pointed out above. But Bob manages to deliver his points about starting a business in simple language, with relevant examples scattered throughout the book.

If you are thinking about starting a company, or already have, which has as its business model the sale or distribution of software, whether you’re a site that facilitates the use of a service, or selling desktop software directly, this book is for you.

Oh, and I did find a book on PHP – it was called PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript by Robin Nixon, and seems to be quite a good book as well. So now I’m two for two on Friday’s book purchases.

Related posts:

1. Book Review – Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good
2. Book Review – Trust Agents
3. A Novel Idea

For starters, I work as a Programmer Analyst for the Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company. This occupies me from 9 to 5, and occasionally beyond.

I am also the acting treasurer for my synagogue, handling the recording of pledges, collections, receipts, budget, and so on, as well as maintaining their website.

Third, I do occasional consulting for small and medium sized businesses on the appropriate use of technology and for the development of custom software packages.

Fourth, I am in the middle of developing two websites for launching in the first quarter of next year.

Fifth, I read an fair bit, from books to newspapers, magazines, blogs, and pretty much any form of writing that will stay still long enough. That reading is what provides the content for my two blogs, which is what I spend about an hour every two days working on.

Of course, I spend some time each day with my family, during which business is put on hold.

Related posts:

1. Business Research in Canada
2. Business and Social Media – Part 2
3. Business and Social Media – Part 1

Related posts:

1. Email Overload and Prompt Replies
2. New Edition of Site Published
3. Business and Social Media – Part 2

I have also been reading several questions on a variety of sites posed by people in a similar situation to myself – they have an idea, but no money to bring it to fruition in the real world. The questions tend to focus on team building and raising capital. The questions also indicate a lack of information on the process by which many start-ups have become successful. I am fortunate to be working with a colleague who has past experience in this field, and has been guiding me as I develop my own idea into a profitable business.

In light of the information I now have, I thought I would put up a basic checklist of steps to go through when developing a new product or service:

1. You think of a new idea for a product or service, so you write it down. Talk it over with someone else (be careful about confidentiality, and have that person sign an NDA if you think it is warranted) to make sure that you get an objective opinion about your idea.
2. Write down a short description of your idea. Explain what it is, who wants it, and who will pay for it. Do some basic market research to figure out what alternatives are currently available, and how much they are charging. What are people saying about your [potential] competitors? Briefly describe the business model for your new business (how will your business generate revenue). The entire description as outlined here can be short, perhaps a mere page or two.
3. Figure out what it will take to build your product or develop your service. Determine what the bare minimum is that you will need. Remember that if you believe in your idea, you should be prepared to take a risk, in that you will not be getting paid until your idea earns money. You don’t need a fancy office, or top-of-the-line equipment from day 1. This can be ramped up later. Work from your home on the old Pentium 2 that you never bothered throwing out. Buy equipment used when you need to.
   You need to remember that anyone investing in your idea will expect you to be responsible with the money, to save it when you can, and shop around for the best prices. You need to keep accurate records of your expenses and revenues. If you need some expertise that you personally don’t have (i.e. to hire someone) see if you can trade them equity to help you with the work, or accept a deferred payment.
4. Start building the product. Start writing a business plan (this can take over 100 hours to complete, and you will need it if you look to borrow money from the bank, or talk to an angel investor).
5. When you reach the point at which you need outside funds (for example, you have a legal bill for $5000 to incorporate your business and to handle your copyrights and patents, plus a $25,000 bill for equipment that is absolutely required, plus a $15,000 bill for marketing about to be incurred), figure out how much money you absolutely need, and add 20% as a contingency. Then use the following guideline to figure out who to talk to:
   • $0 – $50K: Talk to your bank, family, friends. Can you get a loan, or a line of credit? This will likely be the easiest and most cost-effective way to raise these funds. Beware of mixing family and business when borrowing from friends and family, though. You will be really unpopular if you borrow money from a friend and then your business collapses.
   • $50K – $500K: Look for an angel investor. You will have to give up equity in your business for this, and be prepared to have someone looking over your shoulder constantly to see how you’re spending the money. Also remember that this is the first round of investing. If you give up too high a stake in your company at this stage, you may face difficulties later on when trying to raise more money.
   • $500K+: You have entered the world of venture capital, and will need to read more detailed information on how to work with a VC. There are many excellent resources available online for the uninitiated.
6. Now that you have the money you need, finish the development, launch your product or service, and market it. Initially, take the revenues earned (all of them) and use them to develop your idea further, to improve your product, to increase your visibility in the market. Once you have a steady revenue stream, you can then think about hiring yourself to do more work on the idea, paying out a divided (which implies profitability) or upgrading your public appearance with fancy offices. However, before you do that, if you owe money for a loan or line of credit, make sure you pay that back first.

By no means are these steps to be taken as a bible. However, you may find this useful if you are thinking about starting your own business, or have an idea that you think might be viable as a means of earning money.

Related posts:

1. Clever idea… but are you the first?
2. It’s a Good Idea, Now What?
3. Slow Economy and Developing a New Business

I apologize in advance for what is about to happen. I’m going to be separated from the internet for about 10 days. So if you post a comment, it may take until I get back for me to respond. However, I will respond when I get back.

Recap

When I left off the series, our model business owner, Jane, had started a blog which she uses to hold directed conversations with her readers. She has also started a Twitter account which she uses to post news and links to her articles, and uses the account to see what topics are of interest to people, and then writing about those topics.

Facebook

The largest problem with blogging and Twitter is that conversations are generally one-sided. Jane acan pick a topic to discuss, and interact with her audience regarding those topics. Using Twitter, she can respond to short questions. What she cannot do (yet) is allow her audience to pose its own questions, to hold undirected conversations.

This is where the networking sites such as Facebook and Linked In become important. Both these sites allow groups to be created. The creator of the group can act as an administrator of the group, and encourage conversation and participation among the group’s members. However, each member can start a new conversation, a new discussion, on a variety of topics. They can ask questions.

This will put Jane back to the first stages of becoming involved in social media, in which she interacts directly with her audience, as a member of the audience, but now Jane is in control of the environment. She can market the sites to people who come to her store. She can start getting feedback from her customers on topics she didn’t realize were issues.

Conclusion

Social media is about personal interactions used as a means of promotion. The fundamental component of social media is interactions. Social media is built on socializing. In order to run a successful campaign, you must interact with your audience – respond to their questions and comments, start conversations, ask questions of your own. Everything else is merely a tool to help you interact.

Related posts:

1. Business and Social Media – Part 2
2. Business and Social Media – Part 3
3. Business and Social Media – Part 1

Note that any clients referred to in these articles are fictitious, unless I specifically indicate otherwise.

Applying the Concepts

The client described in the first post in this series can make good use of the previous article as she develops her strategy. Social Media is built around interactions, so Jane must decide what kind of interactions she would like to foster. She must also look at how each platform is constructed, so that she can play to its strengths.

The Blog

The first step for most businesses starting with social media is to write a blog. If the client is technically adept, they can follow the instructions here on how to set up a WordPress blog on their own site. If not, they can hire someone to set up the site for them. (If you are looking for someone to set up a blog for you, please contact me directly and I can refer you to a reputable company that does this for a minimal fee.)

Before going live with the blog, there are a few things Jane needs to do.

1. Choose a topic for the blog. As the owner of a hardware store, she may feel comfortable writing articles about how to fix some common problems around the house on a tight budget. The title and sub-line for the blog should reflect the topic chosen.
2. Set a schedule for posting. More important than posting frequently is to post on a regular schedule. It is tempting to post each article as soon as it is written, but that may end up causing the blog to die quickly, as the speed of your writing drops. My usual recommendation is to start with one article per week, posted in the afternoon of Tuesday or Thursday. As the number of viewers of the blog grows, the frequency of publishing can be increased to twice a week, then three times a week.
3. Prepare some articles. While Jane has selected a topic that she feels confident she can write about, she does not know how much time she will have available for writing. She should prepare about 3 months of articles (if she’s publishing once per week, that works out to 12-15 articles) and upload them to the site in draft mode.

At this point, Jane can launch her blog. Some companies (including the one I recommend) can do some preliminary advertising for her to increase the number of viewers quickly. Other plugins for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be installed so that new posts are automatically submitted to various search engines. Certain types of content will result in Google scanning the page earlier. A reputable company will help to explain and set up these components.

Jane should also be sure to monitor the number of viewers to the site, and respond to comments on her posts. Writing the article is only the first step – interacting with her readers is more important. While it may take time to convert a reader to a client, if she does not interact at all with her readers, then her blog is merely another form of traditional media.

Jane must also remember to tell people about her blog, and ask for feedback. A sign in her store can drive her existing customers to the site, and they can tell her, in person, what they like and don’t like about the blog. She can ask them for ideas for articles and for suggestions on how to improve her existing articles. They may tell their family and friends about the site. If Jane can establish her credibility as an expert on the blog, then people will be more inclined to come to her store when they need something, or need advice on her area of expertise.

Tweets – Part 1

Now that Jane has her blog up and running, she may want to create her first Twitter account. With this account, she can post links to articles on her blog, talk about those articles, and create an additional community of people interested in those topics. Using various tools discussed in a future article, she can analyze what people are talking about, and write relevant articles on those topics. With this Twitter account, Jane is trying to attract more readers to her blog, to increase the amount of attention on her writing.

What’s Next

In the next article, I will be discussing other uses of Twitter beyond driving traffic to a blog, and the benefits to creating a page on a social media platform such as Facebook.

Related posts:

1. Business and Social Media – Part 4
2. Business and Social Media – Part 2
3. Business and Social Media – Part 1

Note that any clients referred to in these articles are fictitious, unless I specifically indicate otherwise.

The Tools of Social Media

Social media requires, as a fundamental component, the ability for people to interact. Therefore, any tool claiming to be a part of the world of social media must include interactions between the provider and the audience. Each tool will therefore include one or more of the following components:

1. Comments – the ability for the audience to publicly reply to some statement
2. Forums – the ability for the audience to create a statement and then provide feedback
3. Messaging – the ability for people to communicate in real time

Looking at some of the common tools of social media, it is easy to see how they are making use of at least one of these components.

Blogs

Blogs, such as this one, allow their audience to provide feedback on any given article. In this manner, the provider can post a message of arbitrary length, and the audience can then provide feedback.

The distribution of information is weighed strongly in favor of the provider, as they usually retain the ability to edit or select responses to be posted. (As an aside, I do not edit comments to this blog, and only refuse to post those comments which can clearly be seen to be spam.) The provider can control the topic of discussion to some extent, and can choose to incorporate the opinions of the audience in future posts.

Twitter

A form of micro-blogging in which each post is limited to 140 character, Twitter allows its users to post short messages. Conversations can be held by tagging posts, or marking a post as a reply to another user (via the # and @ tags).

Facebook (and other social networking sites)

A page can be created on a social networking site, providing an online location for people with a common interest to congregate. Interactions are usually via a message board, although private messaging is usually available as well. In the example of Facebook, targeted conversations can be created as well using forums.

What’s Next

In the next article, I will be providing an explanation of how the sample client, Jane, can make use of each of these tools to promote her business, and what some of the other tools she may want to make use of to facilitate her use of these forms of social media.

Related posts:

1. Business and Social Media – Part 4
2. Business and Social Media – Part 1
3. Business and Social Media – Part 3

Note that any clients referred to in these articles are fictitious, unless I specifically indicate otherwise.

The Client

Harvey’s Hardware is a small store located on the corner of a busy intersection in a residential neighborhood. The original owner, Harvey, has retired, and the store has been sold to Jane. Jane has an MBA from a prestigious school, and is interested in running her own business after spending over 20 years working for a large multi-national corporation. She bought the hardware store using funds she has saved, and spent the first year after the sale becoming familiar with the store and its clients.

Jane is not technically illiterate, but her use of technology is limited to word processing and checking her e-mail. She is comfortable with her inventory management software.

Recently, a few of her customers asked if she had a website for her store, to which she had to answer no. However, she is interested in creating an online presence, and has heard about social media and would like to become involved.

The Problem:

The real problem, in this case, is that Jane does not understand what social media is, nor how it can be used to help her store grow its customer base. Her first step, therefore, is to learn about social media, and how it compares to the more traditional forms of media with which she is already familiar.

The Background:

Social media, as defined by Wikipedia, is “…online content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies… transforming people from content consumers into content producers”. In other words, social media makes use of the internet as a dstribution medium and is based on interactions between people, rather than simply delivering information.

Traditional media including newspapers, radio, and television, are based on information delivery. Information is collected and converted into a message, which is then broadcast to the audience. The audience may be able to provide responses to that information, but those responses are delayed, such as the letters section of a newspaper. Additionally, distributors of traditional media are faced with large expenses in creating and delivering the content.

Social media, on the other hand, relies on the audience itself to both create and distribute information. This has the benefit of incorporating feedback from the audience in the message itself, and in reducing the cost of distribution to a negligible amount.

The downside, however, is directly tied into the benefits. Traditional media, such as newspapers, go to great expense to distinguish fact from opinion, and to verify any facts to the best of their ability. This results in a quality of information that is difficult to find in social media. Since the control over information in social media is distributed among the audience, it is nearly impossible to ensure that all the facts will be accurate.

Another key difference between social media and traditional media is as follows. In traditional media, the creation and delivery of content is where the majority of the effort is. Social media, however, requires more work in following up on content than in the creation or delivery. This form of media bases its distribution on interactions – the more interactions there are, the more successful the distribution will be.

What’s Next:

In the next article, to be published on August 14, I will be giving an overview of some of the tools of social media, and how to use them successfully.

Related posts:

1. Business and Social Media – Part 2
2. Business and Social Media – Part 4
3. Business and Social Media – Part 3

1. Initial consult with a business: I meet with a business and determine what their target market is, and what kind of effort they are willing to put in to capture that market.
2. Goal setting: We determine what the objectives of the venture into social media is – sales from the website, drive traffic into the store, provide more information, etc. We also determine how to measure the success of the venture using specific metrics.
3. Background research: I investigate what similar businesses, both locally and around the world, are doing in terms of social media – which aspects of social media are being used, and what are they being used for.
4. Brainstorming: I come up with ideas of how social media could be used to bring the business to the attention of their target market.
5. Strategy Planning: I develop a plan to make use of the ideas generated in the brainstorming stage, and how each idea will work with the others, and the existing business model, to increase the visibility of the business in the target market.
6. Implementation: We take the plan created in the previous step, and implement it, while measuring the changes according to the terms defined in the second stage.

The hardest part, I have found, is coming up with new ways to make use of social media. Everyone wants to be on the cutting edge, and doing something different. What is key here is to see the ways innovation is changing the digital world, and how that can be harnessed for a particular business.

Related posts:

1. Business and Social Media – Part 4
2. Business and Social Media – Part 3
3. Business and Social Media – Part 2

“Is a recession, or slow economy, a good time to start a new business, and why?”

Before you attempt to beat the odds, be sure you could survive the odds beating you.

The first point to consider is illustrated in the image to the right. Starting a business is a risk, and you must first evaluate whether or not it is a risk worth taking.

Take, for example, an employee for a company who has fairly good job stability, a small reserve of funds in case he is laid off, and some money put aside for retirement savings in an RRSP. He is presented with an idea for which he has the necessary skills to turn into a successful business. However, in order for him to work on the project, he must quit his job so that he can devote all of his energy to developing the idea.

I will not attempt to answer the question as to whether or not he should quit his job. However, there are a few questions that the candidate should consider. Can he afford to quit his job? How hard will it be, should this idea be a flop, for him to find another job? Can his life tolerate the additional risk of working for himself.

Once he knows the answers to these questions, in addition to those questions which reflect his interest in the idea, he can make an educated decision as to whether or not he should take the risk. It should be noted, however, that in a slow economy, the likelihood of being able to find another job, should this business flop, is drastically lower than in a fast economy.

From a business point of view, someone who is starting his own business (that is to say, he has answered the previous question such that he decides to quit his job) will find that a slow economy makes for easy growth. Costs are reduced in such an economy, and being able to find cost-efficient ways of growing a business will be significantly easier. Operating costs will therefore be lower, and while larger companies use a slow economy to consolidate their operations, smaller companies can take the opportunity to absorb the cuts from their larger competitors.

The economy, in moving out of a recession, will benefit the bold. Those who used the time to perfect their product, to gain a foothold in the market, or to streamline their operations, will be far ahead of those who merely tried to cut costs and survive until the end. Such companies will find themselves struggling to catch up to those who innovated over the past year(s).

If you want to be on the leading edge of innovation, there is no easier time to get there than when the competition for the edge is relaxed.

Related posts:

1. Top Reasons to Work From Home and Make It Work
2. Business and Social Media – Part 4
3. Motivating Employees

A successful site will begin its existence as a concept. The designer, or creator of the site has an idea – wouldn’t it be great if there was a site that could provide this service or maybe something along the lines of I can’t stand using this website, but I need the service they offer, and there isn’t a good alternative. Many ideas reach this stage, and a few make it further.

During the next stage, the concept becomes more solid. For example, details of the service could be outlined, or the creator lists out the specific issues they have with a particular site. This part of the process can take minutes, hours, days, or years. The end result, however, is a description of a need, and how it will be filled. (Note that this is not specific to a website, it is the same rule that applies to any business.)

Finally, list in hand, general specifications outlined, the creator approaches the people who can turn the idea into something more concrete, and the work commences. Creation has been reached.

The reason I outline this is because some people do not understand the difference between the first stage (I hate using site qrt.com) and the stage where development can begin. Going to a developer and saying build me a site like qrt.com, but better will not become a success unless you can also specify what it is about qrt.com that you don’t like, and what special features you will offer as an improvement over the competition.

Related posts:

1. From Idea to Capitalization
2. Venture into Social Media
3. Slow Economy and Developing a New Business

Sometimes the best solution to morale problems is just to fire all of the unhappy people.

Once again, I have been reading questions on Linked In, and came across an interesting corporate culture. The end result of such a culture is well-reflected in the poster shown (courtesy of Despair Inc.).

The question asked how to motivate employees to pursue courses on their own time for use at the workplace when there was no money for training (but the courses were free) and no obvious means of encouraging employees to pursue the training. The author of the question wanted to know of alternatives to giving negative performance reviews at the end of each year.

To me, the fact that the author even considered using negative performance reviews as a means of encouraging behaviour shows a major problem with the corporate culture. First, this is essentially blackmailing your employees to do something. Rather than encourage them to do what is right, you are discouraging them from doing something which they may or may not want to do. The likely outcome from such a means of “encouragement” is either mass rebellion, with all employees refusing to take the training (and now on principle of defying management), or a mass exodus as employees leave to find greener pastures.

Second, performance reviews are held annually, which is not frequent enough to cause anyone to modify their behaviour. Some employees will attend a course the day before their review to avoid the negative repercussions of not attending, and then stop.

To motivate employees to do something, you need to use positive reinforcement (much like trying to encourage children to behave well). Additionally, you need to work as a team, with everyone on the team working toward a common goal (working for the paycheck does not count). Explain to the team why these courses are important. Get them to offer suggestions on how to integrate the content of the courses into the workplace. You need to make the employees WANT to take the courses.

Related posts:

1. Importance of Happy Employees
2. Business and Karma – An Ethical Decision
3. Slow Economy and Developing a New Business