Online Success – Is it really about the technology? Part 1

Recent conversations with some small business owners have highlighted for me the confusion that these people have about developments in technology and the online world.

And for me, the confusion that these people feel is frustrating. Does it really have to be this way? Should these intelligent, articulate business owners be feeling left out in the cold, not know the “right” decision to make?

We are at a place (in the western world at least) where access to technology has never been so plentiful and the opportunity to establish and operate a business so real for so many people – BUT – it seems that jargon, “technology snobbery” and an over-abundance of options is landing many small business owners in a quagmire of decisions.

Should I have a website or a blog? Or both?

Should my website use tables or CSS?

Is Typepad, Blogger or Wordpress the best option? What about Drupal?

Should I upgrade to the new version of MS Office or look at one of the new web suites available from organisations like Google?

What do I do to ensure that my business is findable on search engines? Should I hire a SEO expert? (What is SEO in the first place?)

What is VOIP and how do I take advantage of it?

These are just some of the technology choices confronting small business owners. When there is limited time to operate your business and achieve a good level of online and offline success dedicating time to deciphering these questions can seem like being stuck between the proverbial rock and hard place.

If you are like my online friend Rosa Say you might be asking yourself something like she did last Thursday in a post called Learning 101 in Web 2.0 and Globalization 3.0-

Innovation-speak gone nutso… I’m confused too. What does it all mean, and do we really have to learn it?

But is success in the online world just about the technology?

In my opinion the answer is NO! My experience, and the experience of many others, shows that having a successful business in the online world is more about developing conversations with your market or community and less about what technology you use to do it with.

Does your market really care about the technology? If so then you are probably already spending time keeping up with the latest technology. (You may even be contributing to the conversations that are confusing other business owners).

Hugh Macleod over at GapingVoid got it spot on in a post last week -

The web is not about technology. The web is not about a new media to market one’s wares in. And the web is certainly not about you.

Remember the following line, first coined by Jeff Jarvis; you will need to rely on it for the rest of your life:

The web is about people.

And he also added :

The end result of this is, with the advent of the internet and various forms of social software, suddenly highly savvy networks of people are springing up in their millions. They’re talking to each other. With or without your permission.

Read that last sentence again – the one about the fact that conversations are happening with or without you.

If you are a business owner then there is something I want you to do today – STOP listening to the experts about what is in and what is not, what you should be doing to be on the first page of Google results or what you just have to do to have an internet business that allows you to retire (those things may or may not be worthwhile).

What I want you to start doing ia finding a way to have conversations with your marketplace via some sort of online platform. It doesn’t have to be perfect, expensive, pretty, or “in”. What it does need to be is active, interesting and thoughful.

This is enough of me ranting for now (I promise to pick this line of thought up though). In the meantime I am interested in what you think about the demands that the world of technology has on you and your business. Is it working for or against you?

Tags – technology, small business, conversations, online success

And the Winner is …

You may (or may not) have noticed that during May there was a survey of small business women running here at Working Solo

Winner of 5 months Online Business Manager services valued at $2300
Uchenna Okoye – Gloucseter Road Smile Centre

Winners of 12 months Help Desk Support valued at $600 each
Andrea Warr – Olos Careers
Kristine McKinley – Beacon Financial Advisors

Winners of 6-week Personalised Technology Training Programs valued at $480 each
Chris Owen – Pink Apple Connections
Lucy McDonald  -  www.marketingyourprivatepractice.com
Marina Hutchinson – The Australian Consortium of Nannies

Congratulations to these 6 lucky women!  An email has been sent to each one of you with more details.

Thank you to everyone that completed the survey.  Stay tuned for a summary of the results.

Tuesday Tech Tip – Getting a Hard Return in Excel

For whatever reason there may come a time when you want to insert a carriage return in a cell in Excel. 

You might be using Excel for something apart from a spreadhseet of numbers (eg. just today I had a client using it to draw out an org chart – yes I know there are other ways of doing this but she was fine with Excel).  All she need was to be able to insert a hard return in a couple of the cells.

If you are in such a place the answer is straight forward -

Alt-Enter (or Option-Enter for Mac users)

Happy line breaking!

The Web is #1 Media – Is That Important to You?

According to a recent report by Online Publishers Association the web is the #1 Media in the workplace and #2 at home.

“A conservative estimate from the study says 17 percent of overall media is consumed via the Internet, and Horan notes that other researchers like Forrester have placed that number even higher.  Yet, studies have shown that only about 8 percent of advertising goes to the
Internet, Horan said.” -Cnet reports

This study is backed up by a report by Pew Internet and American Life Project published a report that found more than 50 million Americans per day in 2005 used the Web as their primary news source.

What impact does this have on you as a small business owner?

You may have up till now thought that wacking up a website was enough to show that your business was in touch with the online world.  But is that no longer enough?

These reports are showing that your clients are becoming more comfortable with technology and are using it to gain access to information that is cheap, flexible and delivered when they want it.  Your clients are now able to aggregate just the information they want to see and filter out the rest.

If you are using traditional media then you may be on a slippery slope to irrelevance.  Is your traditional media message getting filtered out or are clients and prospects finding a way to engage with you in the online world?

Start asking yourself, your team, your advisors but most importantly your clients “how can I have a conversation with you that provides you with the value you seek and in the timeframe that works for you?”

Technology is no longer the exclusive domain for young geeky 20-somethings – your customers are comfortable with it and use it as their primary media source.  Do you fit into that picture?

Record Your Skype Calls for 20% Less

Jeremy Hague at the Skylook Team is offering a 20% discount to all my Skype and blogging buddies until June 30th.  The discount code below will get you 20% off any Skylook license if redeemed by the end of June 2006. 

If you haven’t heard of Skylook before, here are some of the things it can do for you:

• Skylook can simplify your life by channeling all Skype communications to your Outlook inbox.
• Never miss another Skype call – Skylook answers calls for you when you are away through a digital voice mail box and puts them in your Outlook inbox.
• You can keep track of all your conversations – Skylook records Skype calls as MP3 to a special Outlook folder (some of my clients love the fact that I can record our calls and then send it to them for their future reference).
• Save time spent jumping around between applications – Skylook lets you make Skype calls to your Outlook contacts directly from Outlook.

The discount code you need to use is : SKYPALS06

Definitely worth a look!

Tech Tip – Turning Off Your Windows Sounds

You know about turning off your mobile phone and pager in meetings, workshops, and other events that unwanted interruptions were frowned upon.  I thought it was time we started asking people to turn off the sounds that the Windows laptop plays while they are taking notes during meetings.

I know that many people believe these sounds (cute or otherwise) are just part of the laptop that they have no control over – but I am here today to dispell this myth.

Here’s how you can turn off the sounds that Windows play when you start-up your laptop or log into Windows.

Go to Start > Settings > Control Panel then select the Control Panel "Sounds and Audio Devices".

Click on the "Sounds" tab (it’ll look something like the image on the right here).

In the box under the title "Program Events" you will see all of the options that Windows can play sounds for.  If there is an image of a small speaker on the left of the event then there is currently a sound selected for that event.  If there is no speaker then no sound will be played.

To minimise the distruptions in meetings when you start up your laptop, scroll down just a bit and you’ll find Start Windows and Windows Logon.  These are the two main options you want to either 1) change or 2) disable entirely.

To change the Windows Start-Up option, click on the pop-up menu at the bottom (labelled Sounds) that currently says "Windows XP Startup" -

1. To disable go to the top of the list of options and  select None
2. To change the sound you can select another option from the list, or use the browse button to find another audio file on your PC that you would like to use instead.

To change the Windows Log-on click on Windows Log-on in the programs events box and then go to the sounds pull-down menu and make your selection.

Click on Apply to save your changes

You can use these same instructions to change or disable sounds for other events – closing programs, existing Windows, the exclamation sound when you do something that Windows doesn’t understand.  It is up to you what you want to play with.

You will then be able to start your laptop in the middle of meetings without everyone else knowing what you are doing.

PS.  If you don’t want to fiddle with all of this stuff you can always mute your speakers )

Anatomy of a Carnival

As Friday afternoon draws to a close here it has been an interesting week in many regards.  First and foremost was that the week kicked off with a bang with the hosting of the Carnival of the Capitalists at Working Solo.

I can’t remember exactly what the date was when I put my hand up to be a host but I seem to remember that it was something like 6 months ago.  At the time the hosting appeared a long way off and I didn’t pay it too much attention until a few weeks ago.  And then all of a sudden BAM! it was on me.

Thankfully there was one thing that I did that stood me in good sted – and I would recommend it to all hosts of future Carnivals (or the Capitalist variety and others) – put aside a good chunk of time where you can avoid being distracted.  It will make all the difference.

So what was the Carnival of the Capitalists (CotC) experience like for me -

• total duration to read, reference, format and compile the Carnival 4.5 hours
• total number of submitted posts – 46
• total number that fit the criteria of CotC – 42
• regular average of weekly visits to Working Solo – 180-210 (definitely not A-list and not wanting to be either)
• number of visits since posting on Monday – 1068 (90% of those where visits to CotC).  These are actual visits to the blog as tracked by Typepad and don’t count subscribed readers).
• most of the comments and trackbacks were from bloggers that were higlighted in the carnival

So was it worth the time?  Unequivocably, Yes!

I was introduced to a number of new bloggers and their work and have struck up a conversation with a few of them.  And that’s what blogging is about to me – a conversation.  If you get the opportunity to host Carnival of the Capitalists or another carnival in your area of interest then my advice is take the plunge.

“We will return to normal programming next week.”

Enjoy your weekend.