When the Parade Passes You By

The busy schedule over the past couple of weeks, exacerbated by a round of mid-season flu this week, has had my blog reading on hold for a couple of weeks.

And so one of my regular reads, the Carnival of Entrepreneurship, has been through 2 very different hosts over the past couple of weeks.

Edition #4 was over at Dane Carlson’s Business Opportunities Weblog
Edition #5 was hosted by Jeff Cornwall (Director of Belmont University’s Centre for Entrepreneurship) at his Entrepreneurial Mind blog
Edition #6 (this week’s edition) is over at Nathan Moore’s Moore Thoughts blog

All 3 of these hosts have put time and thought into bringing us 7 blog posts each week that give another view on what it means to be an entrepreneur.

Take some time to drop by and visit them – you might bump into something or someone interesting and useful.

Get Out and Get Low Tech

There are many times when I encourage clients and colleagues to leave the technology behind and go low-tech.  The most common time I advocate this is when it is time to do some planning/brainstorming/strategy sessions.  Personally I don’t care what it’s called I am more interested in the outcomes it can bring.

Too few small business women take time out – from the business AND the office – to get the creative juices flowing.  When business is going well it can be very enticing to just keep focusing on the business to take advantage of the surge in interest.  On the other hand there is also the excuse when business is not going so well to hunker down and spend more time on doing whatever is required to bring the business in.

But when you are "doing the doing" you are generally not focused on where to next or how to make the business better.  When you are in the middle of doing the creativity almost always seems to dry up.

And creativity is just what you need when you are doing some forward planning!  So get out of the office!

Need further proof on what it can do for you?  A coaching colleague and fellow LinkedIn Blogger, Patsi Krakoff, recently wrote a post about the benefits of an off-site planning day that her and her business partner Denise Wakeman had for their Blog Squad collaboration.  This off-site strategy session even birthed the idea for The Blog Squad’s latest marketing effort – win an iPod.

Sidebar – in fact Patsi’s blog is this week’s LinkedIn Bloggers focus site.

You don’t have to hire office space like Patsi and Denise did, taking the low-tech option and heading for a favourite park with pen and notebook in hand can be just as useful.  In fact I would encourage you to leave the lists, projects plans and spreadsheets for another time.  All you need to have with you are -

• Your vision for where you want to take your business in the next 12-24 months
• Large sketchbook and pens (coloured ones if that is your preference) for larger mindmaps or diagrams
• Notebook to capture words, content and information
• An open mind
• A ready supply of refreshments
• Anyone else that will positively contribute towards you creating a clear, creative plan for the future of your business

Even if you feel that taking a full day our is a luxury, then 3-4 hours every month or so will do you and your business the world of good.

Become an Online Centre of Influence

One of the ways in which business women can grow their business online is to become an Online Centre of Influence.

According to Dave Taylor, author of “Growing Your Business With Google” says -

They (people browsing the internet) look for people and web sites they can trust. You’ll channel this fact to your advantage by positioning yourself as an online center of influence; by developing Google-friendly content, you’ll boost your search rankings while earning the distinction of “trusted advisor” to your target market.

There are many ways that you can become that centre of influence.

1. Moderate a group where you can share your wisdom with people that are in your target market
2. Publish a regular newsletter/ezine
3. Write a regular blog that is packed with information useful to your market
4. Review and comment on issues and trends in your industry
5. Set up a Q&A website (much like Dave has done with Ask Dave Taylor)

Think of, and position yourself, as a central hub of information and knowledge with your target market. Don’t just expect people to fall across your website and your business. You will do much better getting out there and participating in the online world of your customers.

Even Blogs and Blogging Need PR

Many small business women I have been speaking with recently are asking me about all the extra talk about blogs – they wonder where all the hype is coming from.

In a traditional industry the hype that we are seeing for blogs would have come from a PR agency somewhere, but for blogs most of the buzz is coming from the writers and readers of blogs themselves.  Blogs are not the overnight phenomenon that many of these business women think.  Yes blogs do come and go (they take care and feeding like many areas of a business) but they have been around for quite some time.

Even if the "blog buzz" is coming from those participating in the "blogosphere" you will still find and evangelical PR person or two helping to educate the business world on the benefits of blogging.

Through the LinkedIn Bloggers forum that I belong to I have come across a very witty Belgian PR  professional by the name of Philippe Borremans and his blog, ConversationBlog.  In 2 days time, on March 24 he’ll be giving a hands on blogging workshop at the headquarters of Agoria
, the multi sector federation of the technology industry in Belgium. 

For those of you not closely linked to technology industry in Belgium you might be wondering why this might be note-worthy to you.  Well what was most attractive to all people with a sense of humor (irregardless of location) was the cartoon from the blogging seminar invitation.  Even if you don’t speak Dutch I think you will get a chuckle.

Just in case you were wondering, and needed a translation, Philippe kindly provides one.

The cartoon shows "the invasion of the blogs…" The lady: "Help ! The
world is getting flooded with blogs" – the man "and thousand of blogs
are created every day…"

Who said that the "blogosphere" is full of self-important people without a sense of humor.

Do Specs Really Sell?

Why is it so hard for computer marketers to get that the majority of people don’t understand much of the content they waste advertising space on?

Have a look at the extract of a computer supplier’s brochure below (click on the image to get a better look).

Who are they writing these ads for?  IT staff?  Aeronautical engineers?  Rocket scientists? The 15 year-old geek next door?

If so then these suppliers are advertising in the wrong place.  This ad appeared in a consumer targeted brochure and is also reflected on the supplier’s consumer targeted web site.

If the studies and statistics are true then women will have a significant impact on the purchase of any products in a home environment.

According to a Deakin University study – Last year Australian retail
turnover was valued at just under $200 billion. ‘Women make 60% of all buying
decisions and participate in over 90%. This makes them an extraordinarily powerful
part of this market,’ Dr. Minahan says. ‘Women are directly involved in deciding
how $180 billion is spent each year.’

And when it comes to women business owners (and they are currently making up almost 50% of the Australian small business environment) the computer purchasing decisions would be 100% theirs.  But the fact is many women struggle with trying to deciphier the gobbledy-gook of technical specifications.  As women we could always feign at being women and "not understanding this techo stuff", but we don’t want to play dumb (because we are not).

Curious Question – How do you guys handle the excuses for not understanding computer specs?  If the rumours are true then all the tech understanding (and map reading) is built into your genes.  So what excuses do you use?

I know that the concept of plain english technology advertising is oxymoronic but how hard would it be really.  So what might happen if there was some true plain english statement in technology advertising? People might actually buy what they needed and not be lead towards purchases that were irrelevant or excessive.  Maybe they would actually understand what they were buying that it aligned with the purpose of the purchase.  What if the were actually happy with their purchase and felt empowered in the purchasing process?

What would happen if technology advertisements looked a little more like this?

Until the day comes when buying a computer was as easy to understand as this, then I am glad that my clients have access to someone like me who will give them truthful advice on which product can serve them best.  But I would much prefer to know small business women that the I work with have a much clearer understanding, and play a much strong part, in the technology purchases they are making.

The Carnvival of Entrepreneurship Turns 6

Even thought it is only 6 issues old the Carnvial of Entrepreneurship is continuing to gather a useful package of practical tools for new and experienced entrepreneurs. 

This week David Daniels has wrestled with challenges thrown at him by Blogger to present issue 6 of the carnival.  I seemed to have been on David’s wavelength today when I submitted a post to the carnival about taking care how much of your business that to share with Google.  Thankfully David got the carnival underway hosted on his Global Market Development blog.

A couple of other entries also caught my eye in this week’s carnival -

Pamela Stewart from Escape from Cubicle Nation writes a "caveat emptor" on becoming an entrepreneur in Top 10 Reasons NOT to go in business for yourself.

Mark T. A. W. of MarkTAW.com proves why not quitting your day job helps you to succeed when starting your own business in Why Most Businesses Fail. And as David recommends make sure you read to the end for some great tips.

Thanks David for an interesting array of articles.

Will You Google Your Business?

Most small business women and entrepreneurs are often looking for ways to appear at
the top-end of the Google search results.  That can be a good thing!  But just how much of your business do you want to appear on Google?
With Google making more in-roads each day into what some industry pundits are calling their “Web Office Suite”, do you need to be making a more active decision about how much of your business information will be stored on the Google servers?

Most medium to large business would shudder at the thought of storing their information on another company’s server.  Small business owners on the other hand, who are often working from many different locations, want to selectively share information with clients, contractors or collaborative partners without having to install costly enterprise level software and hardware.  Google is marching ahead with more services that allow small business owners to achieve that collaboration and reach, but at what cost to security.

Apart from the much loved Google Search, you will find Gmail (Google’s very popular web based email service), Google Talk (for chat, voice and instant messaging), Google Maps & Google Earth, Froogle (online shopping), Google Pack (collection of free Google software), Google Desktop (indexes and searches for information on your computer and presents information via a desktop panel).

And in the wings – GDrive (an online storage to web users,
creating a mirror image of data stored on consumer hard drives – more details), and CL2 (Google’s online calendar program that allows you to share and integrate your calendar with others and with public calendars and email – more details on TechCrunch).

Through the Google Labs you are also able to test some of the other Google offerings – including a web page creation tool.

Wow!  Those Google guys & gals ARE prolific.

But where do you start to weigh up the benefits, bells and whistles against the amount of personal and business information that you place on a public server.  Do you want some things about your digital life unknown (if that is possible)?  Or do you even care?

There are many things about some of the Google services that I personally love.  I am a strong user of GMail (Dave Taylor has a good post outlining some of the benefits) and Google Search is a part of my everyday use of the web.  But I am thinking that somewhere I will draw a line.  I decided that I didn’t want to install Google Desktop (because there are somethings I ddn’t want Google’s ever growing tentacles to be able to see).

What will be your choice for keeping the digital aspects of your business secure?

Skype Add-ons

As I mentioned yesterday there are a few add-ons that I have been trying out with Skype – Skylook and Unyte.

With Skylook I was an early adopter (are you really all that surprised) and installed a trial version back when they were just in beta-testing mode.  My initial reason for investigating Skylook was to enable  recording for my Skype calls (in mp3 format) – I had many clients who took large amounts of notes during a call and thought that it would provide an additional level of service if I could provide them with a mp3 copy of the call.

Over the next few weeks I will be starting to use the recording capabilities of Skylook to record some of the teleclasses that I will be running, making these available to clients and possibly packaging the mp3 recordings into a future product.

There have since been a number of other features that I regular take advantage of -

• built in voicemail capability to answer Skype calls depending on status or non-answer (this is a fee-based service if you choose the Skype-based voicemail)
• logging of all voicemail messages my Outlook inbox
• logging of unanswered text chats (if not answered within a predetermined time) and logging of the message within my Outlook inbox
• integration with Outlook so that calls can be initiated from within Outlook (and no program swapping is required)

The real benefits of Skylook to me has been an integration of my electronic communications – keeping my Skype chat, voice calls, email and recorded calls all in one place.

If you want more information you can drop by and visit the Skylook website.  The company, Netralia, is run by a couple of very nice, helpful and interesting countrymen of mine, Jeremy Hague and Paul Andrews.

  As for Unyte, I am still in the process of testing this so I will drop a review of it when I have a better view of more than just the features but also some of the benefits.

Is Skype Right for you?

If you have spent a small amount of time reading the small business media (blogs, magazines, journals, etc)  you will have probably heard the term VoIP flung about.  Many small business women I know are looking to keep their costs down but don’t know what all the fuss about VoIP is about.

VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol and is a way of using the communications pipes that travel between computers to send voice-based telephones calls (instead of the regular copper and fibre optic cables in the street).  Corporate businesses with large amounts of telephone traffic between major sites have been using this type of technology for well over a decade.  Now VoIP is becoming available to small business and consumers.

You will find the some telephony service providers are selling a service (and equipment) that connects into your regular telephone at home.  In Australia these are service providers such as iinet, engin, and iprimus (just to name a few).

One of the other services that small business owners are jumping to use is Skype.  I am one of the many that have been using Skype, and have found it has helped minimise my interstate and international telephone costs. By using some add-on services it has also allowed me to provide additional levels of service to my clients.  One of the reasons that Skype is attracting small business owners is that the software and the calls between Skype users are free.

That being said Skype is not all "milk and honey".  I have found that the quality of the calls varies on a scale from "better than the normal telephone" to "ground control to mmmmmmajor tom".  There can be delays or even complete drop outs.  Most users seem to console themselves with the fact that they are not paying for the call.

Not paying?  Well that is not quite true …..  Skype will cost you in a couple of ways -

1. In order to get maximum quality you should have a headset (or special USB based VoIP phone)
   that plugs into your computer.  I use, and am very happy with, the Logitech Premium Stereo Headset (I decided to spend a little more – $39.95 – as I had other things I wanted to do with the headset).  There are a number of other options open to you for computer headsets (a good way to research is to head down to your local Officeworks or Dick Smith store)
2. Another cost involved is making a switch to broadband for your internet service (if you are still on a dial-up service).  Skype is really only a viable option with a high-speed service (although it has been known to work on a dial-up service).
3. The other way that Skype will cost you is in bandwidth.  Each call that you make will use up some of the download allocation that you have with your ISP (Internet Service Provder).  This will depend on the length of your call and the amount of information that Skype processes during the call.  If you have a limited amount bandwidth each month with your broadband service then you will need to keep an eye on this.  If, like me, you have an unlimited bandwidth broadband service then you can be a little more relaxed.

Even with the challenges of cost and quality, I have found that by using Skype I can reduce my monthly telephone bill for interstate and international calls.

I’ll drop a post together tomorrow about the extra services that I am getting by using some Skype add-in products/services.

If you have a question, just drop me a comment below.

The Old Email Challenge

One of the daily technology challenges for small business women like you and me is trying to keep the email monster under control.  You know how it is ….

overflowing inbox, hard to find emails, folders that are all over the place, no folders at all …

This is when good straight-forward advice can come to the fore.  Even though I spend a good deal of time advising clients on how to get the best from Outlook (the email program of choice for so many small business women) I always enjoying tapping into the wisdom of others.

Through my participation in the LinkedIn Bloggers group I came across Itzy Sabo and his blog, Coping with Email Overload.

In Itzy’s own words -

Email programs have not changed much in the past decade, but the amount of email we get has grown by a tremendous amount. The average information worker gets far more mail than s/he can cope with, and an increasing number of people suffer from “email overload”. The blog analyzes the causes of email overload, discusses strategies to cope with the constant bombardment, and provides practical tips for getting the most out of our email programs.

In particular I hopped onto a new idea for keeping track of important emails from a recent post of Itzy’s – How to Colour Code Your Email Messages. This will come in very handy on the busy days.

If you are an Outlook user then this is definitely as blog for you to add to your list of regular reads.
And as for the LinkedIn Bloggers group that both Itzy and I are part of, this post and Itzy’s blog are a big part of what can happen in an interesting vibrant social networking group.  Itzy’s blog was chosen (by random number generation) to be the first “cab off the rank” with a new networking study (what can happen when a significant number of people in your community blog about you and link to your site).  The basic premise is each week a member blog will be chosen and other members of the LinkedIn Bloggers community will be talking about the chosen blog.  What a wonderful group of people!  A special thanks goes to Des Walsh (my coaching colleague from the Gold Coast), Dave Taylor and Dennis McDonald for moderating this group.