Posts Tagged ‘business’

If you think about the way certain people within your company work, you’ll realize that it’s easy for employees to be removed from customers and even their companies’ own products and services. In a lot of cases, I think the most removed people are in marketing, IT, and senior management.

While it’s not realistic to close the entire gap on this problem, I envision a new work environment where as many people as possible will be forced to eat their own dog food. What if you set up your business to make it a customer of its own products and services? Let’s think about it a little.

Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: adobe, business, contribute, contribute cs3, customer, customer experience, e-commerce, ecommerce, experience, help desk, information technology, it, marketing, product development, support, Technology

I’m working on building an elaborate marketing and e-commerce system. I just don’t feel like anyone has done it right, so I’m taking a stab at it.

Here’s why I think the other software vendors have done such a poor job: lack of design in their process. I intend to make a system that’s pleasant and easy to use, that “gets out of the way” of users’ tasks. And I’m not going to get there without design. Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: business, design, management, mission, Strategy, vision

Yesterday, Seth Godin spoke to over 2,000 listeners about the principles of his new book, Meatball Sundae. If you’re in business and haven’t read any of Seth’s work, you need to start now, grasshopper!

Instead of trying to recap it myself with few notes, I’ll have to defer to Chris Hoskin’s recap of the webinar. Really, this recap tells it how it is. Read and learn.

I must repeat the question once more: What can you start doing today that will make a huge difference 10 years from now? Humble yourself and leave your thoughts in the comments.

Ramble: It’s weird to hear myself say that I’ve attended 2 excellent webinars in 2 weeks, but it happened. These webinar folks must be learning that droning on about uninteresting topics is yesterday’s news. Either that, or I’ve learned how to screen out the bad ones!

Technorati Tags: business, chris hoskin, marketing, meatball sundae, raw stylus, seth godin, Strategy, webinar

When you start an online store, sales will start out slower than you could imagine.

If you’re off to a slow start in your e-commerce venture, rest assured that it took Amazon 7 years to report a profitable quarter.

Who else had to hang in there? An archived Google Answers topic shows that these companies had to have their share of patience. Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: business, profit, success

I’ve become all narcissistic and decided to release a list of online tools that I find very useful. The good part: most of them are free!

Recommended online business tools

Software companies like Google and 37signals are lowering the cost of starting a business. You can sign up for free or low-cost software to track Internet marketing activities; draft documents, spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations; and even invoice your customers.

One caveat. Be wary of what you are paying in exchange for free software. I’d argue that 37signals offers free trials in order to “hook you” into signing up for paid versions. But what is Google’s motivation for providing free analytics software? Are they using your data in order to make Search better? What does that mean for your site?

I’ve made the trade-off in all of these cases to get my free beer. But always remember these possible implications and their impact on your strategy.

Technorati Tags: 37signals, business, free, free software, google, software, web 2.0

If you’re in business today, you need to know an awful lot about technology.

Let’s play some Buzzword Bingo:

• email
• web sites
• RSS
• search engine optimization
• Google AdWords
• banner ads
• blogs
• high availability enterprise service oriented system architecture

As the tech workforce grows, a lot of people are learning how to use these words to sound smart.

The problem becomes a reality when you need to start trusting someone else to do your marketing and technology. When you go this route, you get a lot of possible outcomes. Incompetence, fear tactics, a damaged reputation in Google. Or maybe you get lucky and hire the right people to do the job.

While I’m growing my own company from an “I” to a “we,” I want to help you out. As large IT companies bully you with stories about the complexities of technology, I’m crying bullshit! The stories will change. Business technology will become increasingly friendlier, and I want for us to be a part of that.

I am of the mind that your technology and marketing should be run by smart, competent people. Everyone has a nightmare to tell about the ego that forces everyone to use crap technology for their company Intranet. Somewhere along the line, people are let in that don’t make very good choices anymore. I want to help you avoid this.

It’s so easy to write a blog about technology and leave most people out. I want for you to understand what great tools and methodologies are out there without confusing you. So come back in a day or 2 and see what else I have to say.

Technorati Tags: business, it, marketing, small business, Technology