08.11.08 Technology & Business
www.ISBO.biz
Quote of the Month:
“The secret of success is to know something nobody else knows.”
—Aristotle Onassis, Turkish shipping magnate (1906-1975)
Bill Dotson has a rare combination of skills. He’s a people-person who knows about business and technology. A native of Carlisle, Ky., Bill majored in Asian studies and philosophies at UK. Today he’s a consultant and tech guru. In 1997 Bill started a company called TransDigital Solutions, which he sold to NetGain Technologies. He was involved in two other startups before starting his own consulting business.
The most common questions he gets on a daily basis are “How do I do this” and “Is there a better tool to help me with that?” His suggestions for your office, online tools, and tips for your own site are applicable for companies of all sizes, but primarily small businesses. First, some axiomatic principles from Bill:
۠۠۠• Being busy is not being productive
• Live each day well
• Staying on top of things is part of your job
There are 11,000 working days in an average lifetime, from age 22 to 65, Monday through Friday minus some holidays. That would leave 5,000 days of not working. “In small business we love what we do,” said Bill. But if you’re working just to make money and not because you love it, is it really worth a lifetime of twice as many workdays as non-work days?
Here are some tips for keeping your office running proficiently. Use Outlook or another reminder system to help you with these timetables.
Daily or weekly: Run a backup of your computer, update your antivirus program(s), look at your financials.
Monthly: Purge old project files.
Yearly: Archive documents into a 2008 (2009, etc.) file structure, including your legal and financial documents.
Every three years: Get a new computer and programs. “It costs more money to fix an old computer than it does to buy a new one,” said Bill.
Bill recommends NetSuite to integrate various parts of a larger small business, including accounting, e-commerce, and customer relationship management. “If you have multiple salespeople in a company, this will track how many leads turn into opportunities and how many opportunities turn into sales,” said Bill. The software provides a dashboard of all back-and-forth communication so you can track how many times a client asks a question. The program also sends invoices and receipts to the client upon payment. On a smaller and less expensive scale, FreshBooks is great for billing and time tracking. It’s around $14 a month.
Phones
If you’re paying more than $119 a month for cell phone service, Bill says you’re paying too much. “Get a flat-rate mobile plan if you use your phone for 3,000 minutes or more each month,” he said. He recommends AT&T for overseas connections. Skype is a good way to stay in touch with people, via audio and/or video. When you travel, take a headset with you or everyone in the hotel lobby will hear your exchanges. If you still have long-distance phone service, SaveonPhone.com shows you a comparison of 350 plans. Need a conference call with up to 96 people? FreeConferenceCall.com is pretty self-explanatory. Want to talk to a real person at any given company? Bypass the phone trees with GetHuman.com.
E-mail and IM
Bill loves having a Gmail account to handle domain e-mail at no charge. “The anti-spam system is phenomenal,” he said. You can set up a business account and get your e-mail from anywhere in the world. It’s fully integrated for Blackberry use also.
Google Sites will let you create and share Web pages and has an internal how-to guide. “It may not replace Microsoft Office completely but it’s close,” said Bill. You can sign on to your instant message accounts from anywhere with Meebo.com. Have online meetings with anyone anywhere at GoToMeeting.com.
Calendars and Contacts
To synchronize all of your electronic calendars, try SyncMyCal.com. You can send people a link to show them your free times and busy times, which makes scheduling a meeting much easier. If you are a member of LinkedIn there is a toolbar within it to update other members’ information with your Outlook contacts. “So you don’t accidentally e-mail the wrong address or call someone by the wrong title,” said Bill. Fonebook transfers your contacts from Facebook to Outlook.
Backup Tools
For about $50 a year you can have unlimited backup capability through Carbonite.com (Windows only). The backup is automatic and you can access any of your files from any computer anywhere. Too cool. Bill has Carbonite.com installed on three machines. “It has zero impact on my computer and never loses processing power.” KeePass.info keeps your passwords and logins in one place. “Don’t use the same password,” Bill said. “User different user names and passwords.” But how to keep track of them? He recommends KeePass.
Graphics and Video
GetPaint.net is a no-cost site for photo editing. SnagIt is a screen-capturing system. “If you work with people who do design or layout, you can go to the same screen and mark it up,” said Bill. You can share whatever’s on your screen with someone else so everyone is on the same page. Another image management system is Picasa, a Google photo organizer. “It’s a piece of cake to use,” said Bill.
Spice up your proposals with stock photography from iStockPhoto.com and Flickr.com—just be sure to read their copyright information first.
Bill isn’t a fan of “the Adobe money-making machine,” but he is a fan of PDF files. “FoxIt is a great reader alternative,” he said. It’s a no-cost reader and there is a professional version. “Without this program I would waste an hour a day.”
Receive faxes via TIF or PDF format, even on your mobile device, from eFax. It’s around $150 a year. Bill bought a corporate account and scanned several thousand faxes into digital PDF files.
Distribute videos to multiple sites at TubeMogul.com.
Document Sharing
Share PowerPoint presentations and other material with anyone via SlideShare.net. Webex.com is another site for sharing your desktop with someone else. Find and share professional documents at DocStoc.com or scribd.com.
Bill uses copilot.com to troubleshoot computer issues for his mom and other relatives “I can see her screen and fix what’s wrong,” he said.
Fun Stuff
VLC is a portable media player to use “with a laptop and kids,” according to Bill. “I don’t have to have the in-car video system; my laptop will play everything.”
Making Money
According to Bill, PayPal.com does credit card processing at one of the cheapest rates around. He uses Jigsaw for sales contacts. Become an affiliate partner at Commission Junction and get paid for referring people to certain services.
Upgrades
“Office 2007 is worth doing,” he said. “I’m a big fan of upgrading.” One example of the new 2007 is that Excel captures tables from Web sites.
Tips for Web Sites
“Keep the code updated,” Bill advises. Also keep a backup of everything on your site. Get a how-to guide from your designer and/or host (how can I change an image, etc.) “People forget things and they won’t remember your site if they do hundreds of them,” he said.
Make it easy for people to contact you. Make sure your phone number is on each page of your site. Set up a Web site optimizer with Google Analytics to find out which pages of your site are drawing the most attention, along with lots of other data.
How effective is your site? Get a scorecard from WebSiteGrader. It shows you how your site looks to search engines. If you think mobile phone users are going to be visiting your site, make sure the pages look right on those mobile devices.
“Don’t leave your site static,” said Bill. Add a video. What with all the non-verbal communication in humanity, a video is a great way of presenting yourself to potential customers.
Market Yourself
In June 2007 Bill took a screen capture of a sales proposal he had created, uploaded it to YouTube.com and got 903 views with no promotion except one week of Google advertising. “It continues to bring business to me,” he said. He has gotten a 700% return on a $50 investment.
“Those few who do take action reap benefits,” he said.
We thank Bill for his presentation. Feel free to contact him with any questions.
Bill Dotson
www.billdotson.com
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RECOMMENDED READING:
The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures
by Dan Roam
Globality: Competing with Everyone from Everywhere for Everything
by Hal Sirkin, Jim Hemerling, Arindam Bhattacharya
Make Your Contacts Count: Networking Know-how
by Anne Baber and Lynne Waymon
Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000
by Pete Blackshaw
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WEB SITE OF INTEREST:
Online think tank
http://www.verasage.com
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Have a fabulous month!
KS
Kathie Stamps Contact me
ISBO.biz Web content and meetings
Charlotte Caldwell Contact me
ISBO.biz Web design and technology
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This is a recap of the August 2008 ISBO.biz luncheon in Lexington, KY.
We meet the second Monday of each month and would love to see you at a lunch meeting. Please e-mail us for more information.
If you notice any typos or broken links, please let us know.