Right on!

Just been reading the Diva’s blog where she links to the article : Tech Pros: The Next Dinosaurs? Here’s the take away for me:

“Managing tech equipment and maintaining older systems will become decreasingly important. Identifying the best new tools early on and figuring out how to get them into the hands of the people they’ll benefit will be the more important skill.”

If you haven’t got your head “into” cloud computing yet then be prepared to go the way of the dinosaur, because those savvy users are already well down the path to implementing it without you!

The E-Myth Contractor – Book Review

Like the E-myth revisited from Michael Gerber this book is a must read for anyone running their own business. The big advantage of this book over the E-myth revisited is that it is more concise.
This books takes the best bits from the E-myth revisited and condenses them into an easy to read, thought provoking way of looking at a business. In essence, most people in small business spend all their time doing the work, rather than building systems that allow other people to do the work for them. As a result they struggle to achieve the success and happiness that they desire.

If you want a quick introduction to the methodology that is the E-myth then this is a great start. It will start you thinking about working on your business rather than in it.

Who the hell designed this?

I’ve ranted here before about stupid e-commerce systems that were designed by people who have NOT IDEA how real people actually buy stuff. Guess what? I’ve found yet another example.

So, I order something recently and everything appears to go swimmingly. I get an email saying that everything’s in progress and my order should take about 10 days. Yesterday I think – “Hey, where’s that widget I ordered? It’s been longer than 10 days”. So I return to the web site and check the status of my order and here’s what it says:

Order Status
Order Status Description

ORDER
Your Order has been entered and will be processed overnight.

ISSUE
Your Order has been processed and fulfillment is in progress.

REDEEMED
Your Order has been confirmed as fulfilled and will be delivered within 10 working days of the Order date.

REJECT
Your Order has been rejected due to insufficient details provided at the time of Order. Please submit your order again. You have been recredited for this Order.

RETURN
Your Order has been returned. You have been recredited for this Order.

RECREDIT
You have been recredited due to a cancelled Order.

Now reading this I’m sure most people would assume that I’ve made a mistake during ordering and thus the order has been rejected. Ok, so I go back and re-enter the order for the same item. Everything looks good, no errors. I receive an email confirming that I’ll receive my purchase in 10 days BUT this time I check the order status and guess what? My order has once again been rejected with the exactly the same text as you see above.

So I now place a call to the business to find out what the hell is going on. When I get through to the service representative I’m told that the text above actually means the order has been correctly processed. “Say what!” is my response. “Oh, we get a lot of complains about that message” say the service rep, “and we keep telling the IT people but they never do anything about it”. “So where the hell is what I’ve ordered if everything is as it is supposed to be?” I counter. “I’ll escalate the issue and hopefully……” replies the Service Rep.

I have no idea what I was told after because I switched off. Look, now call me an idiot (which I get a lot) but doesn’t this line:

Your Order has been rejected due to insufficient details provided at the time of Order. Please submit your order again.

Sorta suggest to you that there is problem with the order? Maybe the message is in Japanese rather than English and that’s why I don’t seem to be able to grasp it’s true meaning.

Who the hell designed this e-commerce system? Why am I told my order is rejected when it’s not? If lots of customers complain about something a smart business would probably change things so people wouldn’t complain. Don’t you think?

We need to start designing systems for the human being that actually use them. Gee whiz guys. What good is technology that doesn’t make things simpler and easier? I would think this is really simple stuff but clearly I’m in the minority because I see this sort of stupidity everywhere.

And, by the way, I’m still waiting for my order. Last time I order there.

Going to SMB Nation? Me too!

For many years I wanted to attend the SMBnation Conference presented by Harry Brelsford in Seattle. Why? Well, it appears to me to be the premier SBS/SMB event in the world and features an amazing collection of knowledgeable SBS’ers as well as many who are starting out in the business. With the upcoming release of SBS 2008 and EBS 2008 I reckon there is going to be plenty of great technical and business content.

As luck would have it, I’ve also been asked to do presentation on Sharepoint. Here are the details:

GS1: Utilizing Sharepoint to improve your business
You can’t expect to sell Windows Sharepoint Services unless you are actually using it yourself. This presentation will take you through how an IT business like your can use Sharepoint inside your own business to improve productivity. The session will also look at how you can leverage your own internal Sharepoint experience and development to add value to existing customer relationships and attract new business.

This presentation will show you practical ways that you can start simply with Sharepoint and then grow your system to a CRM style solution for your business. You’ll receive practical tips on how to most effectively get your system up and running.

If you are planning on selling Sharepoint services then you must attend this session to discover what works and what doesn’t inside a business and how to leverage that knowledge to produce better business. (Monday 6th of October, 10.15-11.45am Bay Auditorium located on the third floor of the conference center)

So if you are coming along to SMBnation then come up and say “Hi” and let me know what you’re doing with Sharepoint inside your business and for your customers. If you get a chance to attend my session then I’d also really appreciate that and am pretty confident that you’ll get something out of it. Also, since I plan to be in Seattle from the 1st of October till the end of SMBnation, I’m more than happy to catch up outside SMBnation as well.

So if you’re planning to be in Seattle for SMBnation then I’d really love you to come along to my Sharepoint session. If you can’t and still want to catch up with me then just send me an email (director@ciaops.com) and I’ll make sure I arrange something.

Thanks Wayne

I recently gave our resident SBS Guru and MVP, Wayne Small, a look at my Windows Sharepoint Operations Guide so he could give me some feedback based on his own extensive experience with Sharepoint and publishing technical material. I am pleased to say that he has written a nice review in one of his recent blog posts.

In it he says:

“It gives great overview in how to perform many of the tasks that you will need to do in a SharePoint installation, along with real world experience where it varies from the official Microsoft line. I’d suggest you check it out if you are doing work with SharePoint as it will save you time and money.”

I’d just like to say thanks to Wayne for taking the time to firstly have a look at what I have created and secondly to give my work such a positive wrap, I really appreciate it.

Small Business Specialist Certification

Came across this interesting video interview with Harry Brelsford. In it he says that his business, SMBNation, is packaging up his Small Business Specialist training material and delivering it as a set curriculum that “anyone” can use to obtain their Small Business Specialist Certification. He cites the examples of high school kids as well as community colleges as the intended targets for this material.

Like most technology certifications, it is clear that the Small Business Specialist qualification is now far too common and no longer could effectively be used as a differentiation point for your business. Sure, it is good that the qualification perhaps ensures all Small Business Specialists have a minimum level of qualifications but is that really true? I’m pretty sure, like most other technology qualifications, you can still obtain the certification without knowing anything about Small Business Server.

Combine this growing legion of Small Business Specialists with the greater simplicity of SBS 2008, now what is your businesses point of differentiation? Most claims along the lines of “we do it better” or “we fix the mess others leave behind” don’t seem to work. Once an owner has been bitten by a bad technology provider they are going to be pretty gun shy of the next one who comes along, no matter how good they are. In many cases you as the new technology provider is going to be lumbered with the residual poor installation implemented by the previous incumbent. Worse than that, chances are the business owner isn’t going to want to spend much more money “fixing” the problem, simply because they have already shelled out a pretty penny for what they already have. So beware, following some previous IT provider into a business, you may simply end up being the whipping “boy” for an owner is looking to take their previous frustrations out on.

As a technology provider you are generally selling status quo. That is, today nothing happened on the server just like yesterday and the day before and the day before and so on. Most customers don’t understand the value of this and therefore get lulled into a concern that they are “paying you for nothing”. Its hard to sell the status quo, especially when you look and sound like everyone else claiming to sell it. So what’s your “secret sauce” (as Harry Brelsford would say) that helps you stand out from the crowd to customers and prospects?

You need to help prospects and customers understand the VALUE you bring to their business. If you simply “fix” technology then there are others out there who’ll do it cheaper, quicker and against whom you don’t stand a chance if you fight on their terms. Why do people but something like a Mercedes when a Fiesta basically does the same thing? Understand that and you are well on your way to understanding VALUE in the eyes of the prospect or customer.

Minimizing expenses

In a previous post I talked about how more focus needed to be placed on generating a business profit. So what’s the first step you can take? Well, if Profit = Income – Expense you can either increase your Income or decrease your Expenses. So which do you think is easier?

If you picked reducing your expenses then you’d be right. Why? Simply put, expenses are something that you already control. Finding additional income means you have to obtain something that is currently outside your control. So, the easiest step you can probably take to increasing the profitability of your business is to examine your expenses.

As a business grows, like most western human beings, it puts on additional weight and doesn’t do enough exercise. Result? These additional expenses (or kilos) tend to become further ingrained and with each passing year become hard and harder to shift. Like improving your fitness, reducing expenses in your business requires discipline.

You should be regularly examining all your business expenses to determine whether (a.) they are still necessary and (b.) if there are alternate and cheaper options. I once heard a good saying about expenses, if you can’t see how an additional expense is going to generate you more income then you shouldn’t incur that expense. A good example is the recent changes I made to my broadband connections. I sat down and determined that I really didn’t need every connection I had and for those that I did I found the best deal I could. After making the changes I couldn’t be happier and have also saved a packet.

I’m not saying that this process will be easy but it is like improving your fitness, you gotta do the hard yards to reap the benefits. Sure, there may be some pain when you no longer have a treat or go through the process of switching accounts to a cheaper provider but your goal is the longer term improvement of PROFIT. If you aren’t committed to that then don’t fool yourself that you are. That’s why I said in my previous post that you need to be committed to having a business not a hobby. If you want a hobby there are no problems with that, just don’t fool yourself into think it is a business. Much like walking down a road, walk on the left it is safe, walk on the right side it is also safe but walk down the middle and sooner or later you’ll get squished! You gotta choose one side or the other.

As the cliche goes – the first million is always the hardest but each one after that becomes easier. The same is also true about fitness, the fitter you are the easier it is to maintain. Why? The most simple answer is probably that to achieve this stage (a million dollars or being fit) you have already achieved a new mental discipline that makes the whole process easier. As they say, it is all in your mind.

Therefore, if you want to make greater business profits, start first by looking at how you can minimize your expenses. With that done, you can then turn your attention to increasing your income.

Giving prospects every reason to choose you

We all know that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover BUT you are a fool if you don’t understand that people, especially business customers, DO judge a book by its cover. They say that when you meet someone, the first impression you form of them generally is one that stays with you, rightly or wrongly. So it is CRITICAL that when a prospect come’s a knock’n you give them every reason to engage your services.

A good example is something as simple as how you answer incoming calls. How many times have you rung some business you deal with to be greeted by someone at the other end who doesn’t care, is having a bad day and so on? How about when you call a business and all you get is “hello”? Look, as trivial as it sounds, things like this are REALLY, REALLY important because they leave a lasting impression on people and in most cases you only get ONE chance with a potential prospect. If they feel uncomfortable about your business, chances are they’ll move elsewhere. Don’t believe me? Think about how you go looking for new products and services (as opposed to those you have been referred to). If you went through your local Yellow Pages, whom are you most likely to do business with? What process would you use to determine who’ll get you business? It would be nice to conduct a methodical selection process to reduce the risks but in this day and age? C’mon, who has the time for that? End result? Your choice is going to governed by your emotions. Whom do FEEL most comfortable with?

In this increasingly competitive world you need to be looking at every possible way you can to give prospects reasons to engage your business. Take the time to stop, look and learn from good businesses you use and respect. What makes them good? What can you copy and adapt? It really isn’t that hard, all you have to do is STOP, OBSERVE and THINK.

Like any relationship, a good first impression makes all the difference between you getting the nod or getting the flick. Smart people do everything in their power to ensure they have the most chance of getting the nod. What are you doing?