Searchable Sites

Posted on 2011/07/28 by rubens

A prospective client recently came to me with a problem: his new website, which looks great, isn’t performing at all on search for his keywords.

This is a problem I see very frequently. Most of the time I can assist by simply providing some advice about improving onsite Search Engine Optimisation factors and acquiring backlinks as well as writing new and unique content; but on this occasion the issue was a lot deeper.

The whole site is a collection of images. The designer who built the site did not place any searchable content on the page!!! What’s more he/she charged quiet a lot for the site.

This is a warning: A website that cannot be searched is as useful as a rained on catalog stuffed in a random mailbox. No. It’s worse!

When you are planning to launch a new website, or to refresh your existing site, make sure that the designer/developer knows how to make the site searchable. Ask him/her lots of questions. If you don’t understand his/her answers ask them to explain.

The worst thing that can happen is you spend a few thousand dollars on a new site and no one ever finds it!

If you need advice on your particular project a business consultant can assist.

Google+ and the alleged Photo Search feature

Posted on 2011/07/23 by rubens

I really hope this isn’t for real. For the first time in my professional life I actually hope that an account has been hacked. The Google Plus Page on Facebook posted a status on its wall that has left me (and a lot of others) very concerned.

Google+, Google’s latest foray into Social Media, has announced on Facebook that it has a new upcoming feature, “Google Plus Search by Image”. The new feature is allegedly designed to allow users of the service to search for people to follow/befriend by nothing more than their picture! If that’s not scary enough, take a look at how the new feature was broadcast:

Google+ Advert for alleged photo search feature on Facebook Wall

The Facebook Notification

There’s no denying that this sort of facial recognition technology is amazing! It really is breath taking. The feat of engineering required to complete this is astounding. If Google can actually pull this off on a massive scale (Google+ already has more than 10 million active accounts) then it is something for them to be really proud of.

Unfortunately, it is also the biggest mistake Google could possible make with its new fledgling network. Google has, in the past, struggled with social networking and privacy issues. This latest feature would add a massive strain to the ability of users to maintain privacy of any sort.

This new supposed feature is a great example of innovation for innovation’s sake. It will add little to the actual usability of the service but may prove to be a major negative impact on the continued uptake of it. Innovation that drives customer satisfaction is great, but when it exists as an end in itself it can be a wasteful use of resources or worst detrimental to your offering.

I really do hope that this is not real.

What’s Market Orientation?

Posted on 2011/07/23 by rubens

In business it is fundamentally important to know the answers to these three factors:

What you do and why.
What your customer’s want or need.
What your competitors are doing and why.

A business that only looks to one of these factors is doomed to fail in the medium to long term and the reasons are simple:

Failure to know what and why you do what you do lead to a lack of direction. This in turn leads to issues such as Borders faced, ie focusing too strongly on real estate investments when its core business was the provision of books. This lack of a focus on core competencies (what you do well) results in sub-standard goods/services being offered.

A failure to know your customer and that he/she needs or wants results in disconnection and a failure to be able to meet expectations. A consistant failing in this will ultimately lead to customers seeking alternatives to your business. The best businesses know there customers so well they can deliver what the customers will want in the not too distant future, an example being Apple.

Not knowing your competitors ultimately leads to your competition out maneuvering you strategically. If you are not able to predict there choices you will fail to meet and counter their offerings to the market, possibly leaving your business in a position of having to play catch up.

Market Orientation is the marketing strategy concept of incorporating these three elements into the very fibre of your business. It is not just a tool for planning but it must become an integral part of the way you do business if you are to grow and succeed.

A business consultant can assist you in formulating systems to assist you in keeping your attention on these three elements. The next time you have a coffee, take the opportunity to have a think about the three elements of market orientation.

Strategic thinking: It might have saved GM – What does it mean to you?

Posted on 2011/07/21 by rubens

HBR Blog Network yesterday published Roger Martin’s “Cool Alone Won’t Save Your Company“, a counter argument to Bob Lutz’s Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business.

Lutz asserts that General Motors downfall in the US market was a result of “Bean Counters” being allowed to run the company with out regard to the consumer wants; that is, it lacked consumer focus.

GM was plagued by core rigidity. Its culture had long been one of “car guys” for almost all its existence and it had developed a name for itself as the All American Big Car Company. It failed to adapt to the environment. Toyota, its main competitor in the US market, made a vast majority of its profits from small and medium cars. GM failed to reply to this with its own product offerings in the space.

Strategic thought is a simple concept but it appears, again and again, to be the achilles heel of even the largest corporations. Strategy requires the ability to adapt to one’s environment and a medium to long term orientation. Most of all successful strategy requires market orientation.

Lutz argues that the “bean counters” were too focused on short term profitability to see this. Martin argues, and I agree, that without the “bean counters” there would be no accountability to shareholders.

GM could have saved itself had it reoriented itself when it saw the changes in consumer wants.

So what does all this mean to small business? Simple:

Pay attention to your customers. Know what they want and give it to them.
Mind your competitors. If they are doing something that works work out why.
Look to the future, not just tomorrow or the years’ end. Steady long term growth is better than fast short term growth followed by stagnation or worse.

So, next step? When you find yourself having your next coffee break have a look at your competitors. What are they doing that works? Can you do it better? Leave a comment below to let me know how you go.

About Stagnation & Core Rigidity

Posted on 2011/07/20 by rubens

Borders, the bricks and mortar book retail giant, is closing its doors. They’ve been in trouble for a while and many have predicted this demise. Why then did it still happen?

Borders’ President argues that the “rapidly changing book industry”, the “e-reader revolution” , and the “turbulent economy” are to blame. Yes, these to play a significant role. Yet none of these are the real reason for Borders’ ultimate demise.

Amazon, in the April 2011 quarter, saw sales rise by 38% year on year. Borders saw there sales drop by 11.5%. Both companies provide the same product through drastically different channels.

Amazon, a tech company, embraces change and opportunities. Borders resisted change. Its corporate structure failed to adapt to the changing environment.

Borders president’s argument that the “rise of the ebook reader” formed one of the lynch pins to Borders’ liquidation is naive. Ebook readers have evolved over time, in fact there was talk of ebook readers as far back as the 1970′s. Borders simply failed to adapt in time.

Failure to adapt leads to stagnation. Evolve or stagnate to paraphrase Craig Charles. A company’s inability to adapt due to its own corporate structure is an example of core rigidity.

In business, the ability to adapt is paramount. All plans/companies/businesses need to incorporate this into their structures lest they find themselves “caught by surprise”.

Sources:

Getting it done

Posted on 2011/07/20 by rubens

If you are anything like me you have about one hundred ideas running around in your head for businesses, apps, growth strategies etc. We can’t really help it, it’s the way we’re wired I suppose

This is a great asset a lot of the time. It means that we are seldom stuck for what to do next or for something to investigate. It also means that we are often well placed to take advantage of opportunities as they present themselves.

But sometimes, just sometimes, you may find yourself with a myriad of opportunities which you want to get started/done/moving all at the same time. That’s when this technique helps.

The first thing to do is ask yourself the question: “Is there something else I ought to be doing that will yield a direct return?” This means: is someone/something or something needing my attention? If the answer is yes, go do that then come back.

The next step is the fun bit: Right all of your ideas down. I use Evernote but a pen and paper are great for this. This sort of brain dump often sorts a lot of the raw/half backed ideas from the more well considered ones.

Next: Read all the ideas you’ve come up with and sort them into a system that makes sense to you. Like: Quickies, Medium term or Long Term Ideas OR New Business / Business Growth.

Now you’re getting to a place where you can apply some discernment. How much time do you have? What do you really need right now? Another revenue stream? Or would bolstering your current clients be better for you? Through this process one (maybe 2) ideas will become an obvious contender for your next project.

The last step: Plan it out. A simple process of “Why do this?”, followed by “objectives” which are measurable, and then a break down of the steps from now to finish (a little timeline may be helpful too). Remember to include a revision to make sure that objectives were met. If the plan of action looks good, start; if upon reflection the idea isn’t that great or it’s just not right for right now save all the work you’ve done and come back to it next time.

With this process you’ll be able to tackle the best project for you at the time. It’ll also help you to write down your ideas so you don’t lose them.

Beware “Business Solutions” which lack foresight

Posted on 2011/07/18 by rubens

A friend of @RachaelStott proudly launched her new site at the end of last week. She’s a florist, and a great one too, she specializes in wedding floristry and has ran a successful side business for a number of years using Facebook Pages and word of mouth referrals. So this new site is a big move for her, it symbolises her business’ growth and it really does look great!

So what’s my issue? The mobile redirect built in by the website’s developers redirects to a “Get Flash” place holder!!! RAAAARRR

I know Flash has it’s place, and I don’t want to be a Flash basher, but the site in question can just as easily (if not more easily) be developed in web standards. That aside, with great javascript libraries like jQuery Mobile, I cannot understand why a company would not build a mobile redirect to a HTML/CSS based page using the XML data it has already generated for the Flash page.

It’s not Rachael’s friend’s fault, I place the blame here solely on the companies who offer “Business Solutions” which lack foresight! In a world where consumption of information happens in a fragmented environment we cannot take non-standard formats for granted.

Aussie Developers are hurting: Apple’s New App Store Pricing

Posted on 2011/07/15 by rubens

Apple’s App Store price cut yesterday brought the Australian App Store to practical parity with the US App Store on the lower priced apps. Actually, when you take into account GST, the lower priced apps are now actually cheaper then they are in the US. This is great news for consumers! With the Australian Dollar at or better than parity for the past several months this was one area that was really irritating a lot of people.

Unfortunately, these price cuts leave a lot of developers in the lurch. Apple pays developers about two thirds of every app sale. It’s a pretty sweet deal when you consider the cost of the micro-transactions (bank fees on credit cards etc) & the platform which Apple provides. Unfortunately, developers then need to pay their GST obligations on that 66%, so at 99c an download, developers get 66c and then pay 6c in GST leaving 60c to cover all development costs associated with regular updates etc.

Before the price cut developers would get 71c for every download. Doesn’t sound like a big loss right? Now consider the cost of development, hours of coding, continuous support and updates. These all cost money, and quiet a bit.

Small businesses, some of which have full-time staff and fixed costs, just lost up to 16% of their revenue without any input into the equation and that really smarts!

(Article inspired by Delimiter article: iOS price cuts catch Aussie developers off-guard)

The right tool for the job

Posted on 2011/07/13 by rubens

“Do I need to get coffee cups with my store’s name on it?” Anna asked me as I was paying for my coffee. “That depends on what you want to achieve” I said. She had hoped for simple yes or no, she wanted me, as a “marketing guy”, to simply tell her what to do about advertising.

Anna runs a small and growing coffee shop & bookstore in Cronulla. When she first asked me this question she worked 7 days a week from 6am to 7pm at the store and employed 5 par-time staff to assist her. Anna was burning out.

I asked her if she wanted to have a chat about her business and so we set a date. This was really the first time that Anna had thought about her business in the two years that she had been running it. She’d been too bussy working in it to work on it.

At our meeting we worked through her goals & her objectives. In the end Anna realised that advertising on her coffee cups was not the most important thing she could do to grow.

We worked on an action plan, obtained some missing data and were able to make some sound decisions which have freed Anna up to continue to grow and to spend time on her business rather than in it.

Anna didn’t need advertising and media buying advise, she needed someone to help her to see the big picture.

5 Things I do to Grow My Business Everyday

Posted on 2011/07/08 by rubens

These are 5 things I do to grow my business everyday:

Talk to or email an existing\past client;
Write down a fresh business idea;
Read at least one business related article;
Spend 30 minutes to 1 hour on a special interest project;
Ask myself the question: “Am I doing what makes me happy? If not, why not?”

I have these 5 to-do items on my desktop background as a constant reminder. They are habits on Habit Factor on the iPhone and written in permanent marker on the white-board.

What do you do to grow your business daily?

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Category Archives: Business