Yo Ho Yo Ho A Start-Up’s Life For Me
November 18, 2009
The beauty of a start-up is that you can make changes quickly… it can also be the pitfall of the start-up. How do you prevent the beauty from becoming the pitfall?
Communication is first and foremost, just because everything is running at light speed, and you are zooming about, remember to tell everyone else what is going on, to avoid the feeling that things are “dropped over the fence” to the rest of the team. Encourage people to “ring the sales bell” not only for external triumphs, but for internal ones as well – CELEBRATE successes.
Build strong teams – if you can’t roll up your sleeves to pitch in, show your appreciation when everyone else is hip deep in alligators. Assign tasks playing to the strengths of each player – you don’t see coaches using their running backs as defense against someone 2 times their weight. If you don’t know the strengths of your team go back to communication – ask them!
Oh and BTW, this approach works for established companies as well. Go figure…
Zig When They Zag – And Stand Out by Scott Bywater
November 7, 2009
Zig When They Zag – And Stand Out
Copyright (c) 2009 Scott Bywater
Copywriting That SELLS
http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au/
The internet has become all the rage these days.
Don’t send a letter, pop it on an email.
Don’t mail the customer anything, pop it in an email.
In fact, let’s forget about letters altogether and do everything
electronically.
I’m as guilty of this as the next person.
But recently I received a thank you card and it made me think a
little differently.
You see, I receive (and appreciate) a bundle of emails every week
thanking me for the emails I send out.
And nothing makes me feel better than knowing that as I write
these emails from my lonely office, someone is reading them and
hopefully applying them.
However a couple of weeks ago I received something in the mail
which really stood out.
It was a thank you card from a guy called Greg Kumanovski from
Global Pictures. All it said was…
“Thank you for your regular emails with all the helpful ideas.
Have a great day”
But I’ve had that card sitting on my filing cabinet ever since
he sent it to me.
And I think there’s a lesson here for all of us.
Whether it’s thank you cards or anything else, consider sending
the hard copy version over the soft copy version.
In other words: when everyone else is zigging, why not zag and
stand out from the crowd.
After all, mail order should be far more effective these days
because nobody else is doing it.
For instance, yesterday I was chatting with a guy who sent out
his proposals via email.
He was getting a lot of proposals requests coming in every week
and would pretty much churn back a standard response with a
quotation.
I suggested he set up a system where he could send them out via
mail instead.
We worked out that all he would need to pay for the cost of the
mail is a 1% increase in response.
My bet is that he would get it.
Especially when all of his competitors are probably doing
everything via email as well.
So take a moment now to think of how you can do things
differently… and use alternative strategies to stand out from
your competition.
———————————————————-
Scott Bywater is a direct response copywriter with extensive
experience in B2B and B2C writing. Mr Bywater is the author of
Cash-Flow Advertising and More Customers Made Easy. You can gain
access to his copywriting and marketing tips via his entertaining
and eye opening “Copywriting Selling Secrets” newsletter
available at http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au/
Sometimes “Free” really IS Free
November 1, 2009
Surfing around the net this morning, in a frantic bid to catch up on my reading – a technical generalist’s job is ever shifting – I found some sites that offer tools and information that I just HAD TO SHARE, because let’s face it – when you find a treasure that is FREE, you ought to share the wealth! And these tools are FREE, no requirements to join something or sign up for something – just plain old free.
My fave of today is at: MakeUseOf.com. This particular posting has 15 .pdf manuals to download that range from Audiophile guides to free music and services, to Linux for Dummies. Literally something for everyone there, and all concise and well-written.
A service that my co-worker, Afsheen, turned me on to is SocialOomph.com – it is not a pretty site, nor is it especially easy to navigate – BUT – it allows you to automate some of the Twitter activities that busy professionals might like – for example – you can set an automated thanks for a follow; you can set to automatically follow people who follow you; and most brilliantly of all – you can set up scheduled Tweets! That is what I call ROCK AND ROLL!
If you are looking for a free alternative to Photoshop, check out Photoscape it is freeware with lots of power. Not completely as versatile as Photoshop, but for the amateur – it is a pretty powerful tool – and allows photo collage and layering.
I will post stuff as I find it – drop me a line if you are looking for something in particular and if I stumble on it in my virtual travels, I’ll share!
Does size really matter?
October 23, 2009
I am, of course, talking about networking… and there are many schools of thought on this topic. If you are an “open networker” then size (and therefore reach) does indeed matter. There is an art and a science to Open Networking just as there is a methodology for “Closed” or relationship leveraged networking.
The real question from a business development standpoint, is how to make use of both open and relationship leveraged networking to the best effect. This means cultivating different behaviors and tools for each type of networking and choosing which to use in particular cases for specific results.
As in the case of all such exercises, making sure you can measure the effectiveness is important, so you can hone your skills and fine-tune your results. The two styles are not mutually exclusive, and many times we are not conscious of employing one or the other style.
As an example, even the most avid open networker will ask his or her trusted personal friends for introductions, and will do so in a completely different style than the mode in which they ask their open network.
Size matters in open networking, quality matters in relationship networking (and yes, there are overlaps)- for best effect, use both - two two two styles in one! While all this may seem obvious, it needs to be a consciously planned exercise, because without being able to measure the results, you are still shooting in the dark.
Friday Miscellany
October 16, 2009
It has been a long and somewhat crazy week – between issues – like dishwasher replacement in my apartment and co-workers out with the flu – yet I have had a little time to wander through some of my favorite spots on the net and catch up on some reading.
First I have to applaud R. Bazinet’s “Accidental Technologist” blog – his latest post can be found here, he is an accomplished technologist, and an excellent writer… and he has a great customer issue (complaint) tracker called CustomerFu – check it out.
Also, I spent some time on SocialMedian which I admit is occasionally a “guilty pleasure” because not all of what I clip is related to my work. And Venturebeat, Techcrunch, Slashdot , Mashable and ReadWriteWeb are always good too.
And I spent a great deal of time this week troubleshooting for IE8 users, since our application was built before IE8 was being generally adopted, we (like MANY other applications) have had some users who have issues. That is always a challenging exercise – from both the customer’s standpoint and the tech support standpoint… it is not easy to get people to update their browser settings. The general sentiment is embodied by the quote from one person as “I don’t care that IE8 is the issue – make it work or I will go do something else.” That is from the non-tech users. The tech-savvy will usually assume it is the new browser and sometimes research and fix on their own. We live in a world of extremes… I am hoping that we are helping to create a happy medium with our support and our tool.
A gal can hope… 
Embracing Change – Ouch.
October 10, 2009
Theodore Roosevelt is oft quoted as saying “Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.” Never a truer word spoken when applied to technology and new applications.
As a culture, we have evolved from Teddy’s time, to wanting everything to be easy and fast. Our attention is lost on anything that throws any kind of hurdle our way, because there are ten other items that are easier which will rise up and capture our attention. This goes for relationships as well. We want a profile, a summary, and quick references on everyone we meet, rather than taking time to get to know someone. If we could we would fast forward through introductions to get to the “best part of the show”.
So it isn’t surprising that embracing change is a big “Owie” in most organizations. What can be done about it – well, to start, take smaller bites. Or Bytes. Change taken in small “baby” steps is equivalent to Quick and Easy. And like the babies we are emulating, we are gonna fall and go boom every once in awhile.
Not the Target Market
October 6, 2009
Recently I came across a blog posting about Web 2.0 advising people, that this technology isn’t going to go away and that if the audience’s excuse for not getting with the program was that they didn’t feel they were “the target market”, that they should get over it.
Now, I am a lover of technology (I hear the “No Duh” out there). I want the latest gadgets and play with things to learn them before resorting to opening the manual – and to be honest I have only a passing interest in target markets – but this one statement caught my attention and I have been pondering it for a day or so… it stuck with me so much that I am writing to share my thoughts on this concept.
First – where technology is concerned, I believe the “target market” is slim… we “early adopters” pave the way for mainstreaming technology and an “early adopter” in this field is either a young person or a seasoned tech person – there is a very narrow available demographic with the mindset to embrace the tech changes and nuances.
Second – once something is mainstreamed it is no longer leading edge, and the people who use it just want it to work – they don’t really care why or how it works nor do they want to do much to make it work.
Third – technology changes. If you wait long enough (and the wait time is getting shorter and shorter) something better, faster, simpler-appearing will show up. It is the nature of the beast.
What doesn’t change, as much, is the demographics of the people in the Target Markets – the market segments may inflate or deflate but the specifics are fairly steady. What does this mean? Basically, if a person declares that they are not in the target market – take them at their word. Which is really good manners anyway…
Reaching out – A Best Practice of Networkers
October 2, 2009
One of the things I try to maintain is “reaching out” to my friends, and colleagues. It is something that is not just a great tool for business, it is a requirement to maintain relationships in this high tech – high diversity – far spread society!
Some of the folks who “reach out” to me, do so in the form of forwarding massively long emails (long because everyone else has forwarded them, and not bothered to cut out the long addressee list)… but still, I recognize that it is the fact that the person thought of me that is the important portion of that. Side note: This is a source for spammers to scrape addresses – so one should strip out the addresses and footers/signatures when forwarding if you can, and you think of it. And when forwarding, it can also be construed as spam, so be careful.
Others use the various services that allow you to forward an article from a site, to share… or let’s you clip an article which can be shared with followers like socialmedian.
Still others actually do it in “snail mail” – sending me articles of interest. I admit that I still enjoy receiving actual hard copy paper mail…. LOL.
I tend to do all three and love the ability to share online articles – both to my Facebook Page and to individuals I think might be interested. The key is to let people know you are thinking of them, know them well enough to know that the item is of interest or entertaining to them, and opens the door to further communication. (There is also an article on the WhoDoYouKnowAt blog about this today…not bad.)
I even love the connectivity of Twitter! It is a great way to reach out into the vast beyond and see what you get back! Follow me on Twitter by clicking here.
Whatever way you “reach out” do it with relevance and value, and you will find that the connections become of increasing value to you! You never know what opportunities, information, or entertainment will come your way simply because you thought of someone and let them know.
A spam by any other name
September 30, 2009
First let me say that I do acknowledge, that Spam, like Beauty – is in the eye of the beholder.
I am “linked” to many self-proclaimed “Open Networkers” with hundreds and thousands of contacts – from whom I receive emails frequently – advertising their areas of expertise, their classes, their events. I view these as celebratory announcements, because I view receiving these as part of opting in to an Open Network.
I do not report them as spam if they are from someone I am connected to – if it is something I don’t want to read I simply delete it. I receive upwards to 500 emails daily in my various accounts, and while I would love to have less, I have found some gems hidden among the unsolicited emails that I would not have had exposure to otherwise.
An Open Networker that I am connected to recently reported my email to them announcing the launch of the application I have been working on, as spam. Again, I understand that it is in the eye of the beholder, I would have liked the benefit of the doubt, though.
Many other folks who were not sure if the email was really from me, emailed me and asked – which is probably because I used an html template for my email – and I was happy to hear from them, and know they were being cautious.
But this does illustrate one of the challenges with “Open Networking” – there is an implied consent when you join an open networking tool or community, that you can contact each other. If this is not the case, why be open? The answer is that the Open Networker wants a wide reach… but then, if you don’t want a zillion emails you have another challenge – which is how to deal with them all.
Which brings us back to spam. If you think you have been spammed, and it is someone who tells you that you are connected in some group or another – check first, and if you are connected – grant them the benefit of the doubt, or remove them from your connections and ask them to do so as well.
Spam is serious business, none of us want to do it – and none of us want to be financially dinged by being blacklisted at the ISPs either, especially when we are reaching out to people we thought we could reach out to ….
I doubt if the gentleman who decided my email was spam will read this, although I have read all the emails he has sent to me… and I have now removed him from my connections on Linkedin, and asked him to remove me. Hopefully now that it is formal, I will not receive any more from him either… but if I do, I will simply delete them.
After DemoFall2009
September 27, 2009
What a wild ride! Demo.com and San Diego – what a fabulous combination. I must say that the Demo.com folks are an amazing group! Totally organized, very friendly, helpful, and super high energy! We were thrilled to be launching there amidst so much tech talent and brainpower.
I was particularly impressed with Emo Labs www.emolabs.com from my old stomping grounds in Waltham, Mass. and Web on Weels at www.weelscorp.com a great keyboard-free browser developed by talented undergrads. All of the wonderful companies can be seen at Demo.com the DemoFall2009 alumni.
Plus it is a relief to be out of “Stealth-Mode” and be able to talk about our private, enterprise focused business networking and development tool! As our Founder and CEO says: “We do one thing well – Relationships, Relationships, Relationships, Relationships…..”
SOME OF THE BUSINESS PROBLEMS WE HELP YOU SOLVE:
• Think of all your contacts in your Outlook? Which ones are outdated? We help you keep them up to date – automatically.
• Can you name ALL the people in your company that have a relationship at another company you are interested in? Now you can find out, without having to upload them into your company’s contact database – so you control your relationships.
• How would you like access to your trusted colleagues contacts in a mutually agreeable manner, remaining private and anonymous if desired?
If you’d like to try us out – use coupon “NCORRES” when registering – choose Gold Membership. You’ll get three months free Gold Membership. Visit us at www.whodoyouknowat.com.
