Top Ten Reasons Small Businesses Fail - part eight

Cash flow

It's odd: the purpose of starting, running or working for a Small Business is making money. Yet managing money is almost universally the one thing most neglected, ignored or feared by Small Business owners, operators or employees .

Quite often, you'll hear some variation of the phrase "I'm not really in it for the money" - as if a focus on the financials is dishonorable or morally objectionable. But if you consider it for just a moment, that's like a doctor saying "I'm not really in it to help people". Whether you're a Scrooge-like materialist or a post-modern hippy at heart, the purpose of starting, running or working for a business is profit.

Many people, regardless of their financial status, avoid dealing with their finances. Debt consolidation commercials fill the air, and stories of multi-million dollar celebrity bankruptcies have almost become cliche. But managing Small Business financials doesn't require advanced calculus skills -- just an understanding of basic accounting skills, and a strategic use of technology.

You have to manage your money -- Small Business financial management is more than having a positive bank balance. Cash flow becomes critical when there is a delay between the money you're owed (accounts receivable) and the money you owe (accounts payable). This is where many Small Businesses experience cash flow problems -- they know they've got the money coming in, but they miscalculate and end up overdrawn.

That is, after all, why it's called cash flow -- it's dynamic, and fluid. The informal running total many of us depend on to manage our personal finances doesn't scale effectively, and bouncing a check to a distributor or supplier can affect your credit rating, or worse, the survival of Your Small Business.

Below is a short list of software & websites to help you manage Your Small Business financials:

• Mint.com
• QuickBooks Simple Start Free Edition 2010
• FreeAccountingSoftware.net - (Windows XP only - not for Vista or Windows 7)
• DWMBeanCounter.com accounting tutorial

Of course, technology is not a magic bullet. The best accounting program is useless if you don't... use it. This is why I recommend starting by creating a Mint.com account.

Mint.com allows you to reverse-engineer your budget: you provide read-only access to your bank accounts and credit cards, and it automatically categorizes your deposits and expenses. After a few months, you have a graphical breakdown of your cash flow: once you see where your money goes, and what your spending patterns are, you can then properly manage Your Small Business budget going forward.

Mint.com is run by Intuit - the company behind QuickBooks, the de facto standard in bookkeeping software. If you have fewer than twenty active clients (so far), QuickBooks Simple Start Free Edition 2010 allows you to manage your billing and invoicing in the same format used by most accountants.

Using QuickBooks requires an understanding of basic accounting principles, which is why I've included one of the best introduction to accounting tutorials as the final link in the short list, Dave Marshall's Bean Counter website.

The Bean Counter site has been online for eight years, and is the simplest introduction to basic accounting principles you'll find without taking a course or buying a book. As with the software, it's only useful if you actually use it.

Which is a choice only you can make. But your cash will flow, either way. The question is... in which direction?

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Series inspired by "Top Ten Reasons Why Small Businesses Fail" by: Connie Holt, E.A. cholt@henssler.com
The Henssler Financial Group Position Paper
© 2004 The Henssler Financial Group | www.henssler.com

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Related articles

• 10 common tax mistakes for small business to avoid (bnet.com)
• How to Use Quickbooks: Learn the Basics (brighthub.com)
• You're the Boss: A QuickBooks Alternative for the Accounting-Phobic Owner (boss.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Rising Above the Recession: 5 Small Business Strategies for Beating a Bad Economy (smallbusinessbranding.com)
• The Battle Against Slow Payers (online.wsj.com)

Top Ten Reasons Small Businesses Fail - part seven

Location

You may be familiar with the age-old expression that the three keys to success in Real Estate are "Location, location and location". Clearly building family housing in the middle of an industrial zone is not likely to attract buyers.

Similarly, Your Small Business must be located, well... as close as possible to prospective customers. A tattoo parlor in a retirement village might attract curious onlookers, but probably not enough buyers to keep you in business. A shop specializing in infant and toddler wear in a location populated by childless professionals is likewise doomed to failure.

The strategic importance of location in the physical world may be somewhat obvious, but what about in the virtual world of online business? "Location?" you might ask. "Isn't online everywhere??" Well, yes and no. In the case of launching an online business, location applies to the likelihood of your website being seen and visited by your prospective customer or client.

"If you build it, they will come" applies only to that baseball movie starring Kevin Costner. Many online Small Business owners and operators make the mistake of believing that once they've built their shiny, "Web 2.0" site, their work is done. The stark reality is that merely having a website, however well-designed, simply isn't enough to guarantee a steady stream of paying customers. A website in the forest of the Internet that has no traffic makes no money.

There are more active registered websites than there are human beings walking the planet. That's "billions", with a "B". This means that many websites languish in obscurity, receiving no traffic whatever. Clearly, steps must be taken to increase the likelihood of attracting potential clients to your site.

Here's a short list, by no means exhaustive, of traffic building tips:

• Register your site with the major search engines (you can do this yourself - don't wait to be noticed)
• Use "meta tags" and keywords properly (click the links for guidance)
• Create a Google Places listing (this is the equivalent of a listing in the local phone book white pages)

Just as you cannot take your existing clients or customers for granted, you can't take your potential clients for granted either. Businesses, Small and large, depend on the steady flow of activity from clients old and new to survive. 

The Internet, fast, interactive and virtual, allows Small Businesses to compete at a level that may be impossible if they are required to maintain a physical facility. But even a virtual storefront must be properly maintained, or it will soon display the digital equivalent of a "Going out of Business" sign.

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Series inspired by "Top Ten Reasons Why Small Businesses Fail" by: Connie Holt, E.A. cholt@henssler.com
The Henssler Financial Group Position Paper
© 2004 The Henssler Financial Group | www.henssler.com

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Related articles

• How Analytics Can Help Small Businesses (fastgush.com)
• How Small Businesses Are Using Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC] (fredzimny.wordpress.com)

Top Ten Reasons Small Businesses Fail - part six

Versatility

Though many Small Businesses are one-person operations, in today's economy, none can afford to be "one-trick ponies".

Even if you can't diversify your staff (especially if you work alone), you'd do well to diversify your skills. Every solopreneur has a specialty, but don't focus exclusively on the thing you do best. What happens if the market shifts, or your existing clients have had their fill of the good or service you specialize in?

Begin by ignoring the voices in your head that say "I can't...", "I don't...", or "I'm only...". You are an entrepreneur - something you may not have imagined being even a few years ago. Whether it was always your dream, or the result of a layoff due to the "Great Recession", here you are! Don't let the challenge of expanding your capabilities defeat you as success draws near.

Next, consider improving your business-critical skills, such as:

• Business communications
• Planning
• Financial management 
• Networking

There are many courses available, locally and online, designed especially to assist Small Business owners, operators and employees in enhancing their business related skills. Locally (New York City), I highly recommend NYC Business Solutions' FastTrac New Venture course. This is a free, month-long course designed especially to, as their website states:

"...help you perfect your business concept, write a strong business plan and access resources to complete your launch."

If you're in New York City, and are in the first year or two of starting your Small Business, you MUST enroll in this course. The benefits are immeasurable - and how can you beat the price?

Consider also what you are good at that you could do for others, perhaps on an informal or advisory basis? Are you a good writer? Lend a hand to fellow solopreneurs and Small Business owners/operators/employees by proofreading drafts of their business communications.

Better at managing money? Although you may not be an accountant, you might have advice, tips, spreadsheets, or prior budgetary management experience that would prove useful to friends or colleagues struggling to stay on top of their financials.

Success in today's economy requires more than focusing on your core specialty; it increasingly involves thinking beyond direct financial compensation. Lending assistance to those who may benefit from your versatility is an excellent way to gain word-of-mouth recommendations and/or discover referral partners.

It's basic human nature to help those who help us. And unselfish devotion to others, as contrary as it may seem, is an often overlooked component of professional and financial success.

As we've mentioned several times in this series, business is about relationships. As with any relationship, sincerity is a key aspect of forming those which last and flourish.

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Series inspired by "Top Ten Reasons Why Small Businesses Fail" by: Connie Holt, E.A. cholt@henssler.com
The Henssler Financial Group Position Paper
© 2004 The Henssler Financial Group | www.henssler.com

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Related articles

• Survival Tips for Solopreneurs (inc.com)
• Kauffman FastTrac Provides Entrepreneurial Training Programs that Result in Business Start-ups and Job Creation Across the Nation (kauffman.org)
• 21 Selling Strategies for Growing Your Small Business -- Interview with ... (adriansjournal.blogspot.com)

Top Ten Reasons Small Businesses Fail - part five

Employees

Many Small Businesses are "solopreneurs", so this post won't apply to them... now. Hopefully, many of these one-person enterprises will expand, and gain staff members or working partners. But there are those Small Business which have employees: managing them well can determine the difference between success and failure.

Your employees are the face of your business - usually the first people your customers and clients will have contact with. To most of them, your employees ARE your company. How well your employees understand the mission and focus of your business, and whether these employees treat your clients with courtesy and respect, shapes the reputation and public image of the company and brand you work hard to establish.

Just as you should never take you clients for granted, you cannot afford to overlook the importance of training and managing your employees. Treat them like mere "workers", and they will only be in it for the paycheck, unconcerned with the effect they have on your clients who, without exaggeration, ARE your business. You must treat your employees as the partners they are - enroll them in the dream, the long-term goal, and not just the short-term pay-off.

It has been well established that people will take a job that pays less if they feel they will be treated more respectfully, included in the decision-making and provided greater challenges and opportunity to prove themselves. They'll actually work harder and longer if they feel they have a stake in the ultimate outcome.

Think about it: How many times have you dealt with the rude bank teller, the argumentative customer service representative or the condescending auto mechanic?  Is this the type of person you want to be the face of your business? An employee treated as a mere "worker bee" is likely to be frustrated and spend each day watching the clock, feeling miserable and unappreciated. It costs you nothing to treat your employees with respect, courtesy and interest.

Satisfied employees are your ultimate promoters - their enthusiasm will be infectious and have a powerful impact on your customers, face-to-face, over the phone and even in email communication. An involved employee instinctively understands the value of quality customer care, and won't have to be constantly reminded to follow up and follow through.

The return on investing in your employees will be have a measurable effect on your bottom line, your customers' satisfaction and client retention. By contrast, a dismissive attitude of "my way, or the highway" is the surest way to guarantee that both your employees and your clients take you up on your offer... to take their time and money elsewhere.

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Series inspired by "Top Ten Reasons Why Small Businesses Fail" by: Connie Holt, E.A. cholt@henssler.com
The Henssler Financial Group Position Paper
© 2004 The Henssler Financial Group | www.henssler.com

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Related articles

• Leadership Tips for Small Business (thinkup.waldenu.edu)
• Small Business Employment Continues To Leak (247wallst.com)
• The Effects of Your Employees on Your Bottom Line (blogs.constantcontact.com)

Top Ten Reasons Small Businesses Fail - part four

Clients

Every Small Business owner, operator or employee should be aware that it costs much more to acquire a new client than retain existing ones.  But old or new, client management is essential to your Small Business economic health.

A key reason Small Businesses fail is that they fail to appreciate the distinction between clients and customers, or they take their clients for granted, chasing after the sale but never following up after the payment clears. Yet there are a few simple, low-cost activities that can help you turn customers into clients, and find new business with your existing clientele, such as:

• An informative, interactive website
• Customer satisfaction surveys
• Email campaigns (and autoresponders)
• Cross-promotions and value-add upselling
• Favored client discounts
• Client loyalty cards, coupons or programs

Business is about relationships - court your clients like a romance.  Remember: there is much more to client management than the sale. Otherwise, it's just a customer relationship. A well-established brick and mortar shop can survive on "one and done" customer relationships; a service business, a startup or an online venture must attempt to capture clients - those people (or companies) that will do business with you on an ongoing basis.

Clients will support your business, well beyond spending their money with you once, and moving on to your competition (usually, without notice). To cultivate such a connection, you must get to know your clients' needs. Examine your financial records, invoices and communications to determine:

• Who your best clients are
• How much business they do with you, on average
• What goods or services they purchase most
• What related goods or services might appeal to them.

"Customer service", even though we're really talking about clients, is one of the single most important overlooked practices of Small Businesses. We're not just talking about handling complaints, and correcting the occasional error in order fulfillment. This is about developing lasting relationships that can make the difference between prosperity and bankruptcy.

These relationships BEGIN with the sale, but do not end there. If, for you, a successful purchase is the end of your active concern... that may be why your client retention rates are lower than they could be.   Just as your relationships with family, friends and loved ones can go cold from neglect, you must put a sincere effort into nurturing your client relationships.

Find new ways to relate to them, but be careful of crossing into the "spam zone".   You want them to appreciate the constant contact, not dread and avoid each new phone call or email. Focus on the value you add to their lives and businesses; it's okay if this takes some time and effort.

What have you got to lose -- except opportunity, revenue... and clients?

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Series inspired by "Top Ten Reasons Why Small Businesses Fail" by: Connie Holt, E.A. cholt@henssler.com
The Henssler Financial Group Position Paper
© 2004 The Henssler Financial Group | www.henssler.com

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Related articles

• Client Retention is Easier with This 5 Step System (bettercloser.com)
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• Small Business Growth: Reach out, get connected, and get educated (blogs.constantcontact.com)
• How Insider Perks' Brian Searl Got 9,000 Twitter Followers (businesspundit.com)

Top Ten Reasons Small Businesses Fail - part three

Marketing

A handful of business cards and a no-frills website are no longer a sufficient Small Business marketing strategy.

The word "marketing" typically brings to mind expensive media campaigns, billboards and the services of highly-paid advertising firms. Clearly many Small Businesses have neither the time nor the resources (money, personnel, expertise) to take this approach to marketing, but that doesn't let them off the hook.

Many Small Business owners and operators either have prepared a business plan, or know that they should. But many are completely unaware of the the need to prepare a marketing plan. New clients won't find you just because you want their business, and even existing customers and clients would benefit from an understanding of your full range of goods or services, and a constant reminder that they are available.

Small Business entrepreneurs and "solopreneurs" are quite busy, especially in today's economy. It's easy to consider a marketing strategy a "nice-to-have", rather than a "need-to-have" element of doing business. But consider this: why do well-known, successful corporations spend millions of dollars each year on marketing? Even though we are already familiar with the coffee shops, fast food restaurants and supermarkets we do business with, they still expend a lot of energy reminding us of their brands, their offerings and the overall "feel" of their products and establishments.

Marketing is not advertising, although advertising is a component. Advertising is about what goods or services you offer, price and availability. According to Wikipedia, "Marketing is used to identify the customer, to satisfy the customer, and to keep the customer." While Small Businesses may not have the budgets of large corporations, they have a greater need to focus on acquiring new customers, and retaining existing ones.

McDonald's or Walmart can survive a considerable decrease in clientele (not that they would enjoy it). For a Small Business, losing even a few clients can spell disaster. Since they don't enjoy the regional or national visibility of major firms, they cannot depend on product or brand recognition that brings in customers at random.

Look to as many free or low-cost resources as possible to promote your business and market your offerings. Social media, such as twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and such are not just for kids: they can provide a range of exposure once available only via television or radio advertisements. Low-cost "real world" techniques, such as focused flyer distribution, bulletin boards and well-designed business cards are not to be overlooked.

Email marketing sites such as ConstantContact.com and  MailChimp.com are a hidden treasure: MailChimp allows you to create mailing lists of up to 2,000 addresses, and send up to 6,000 messages each month. With templates, autoresponders and video tutorials available, it's a secret weapon I recommend as an indispensable Small Business marketing resource.

You still need a strategy, which requires more detail than can be provided in a blog post. These tips, however, can help point you in the right direction:

• Determine the focus of your offering
• Identify the value proposition to the customer
• Maintain a consistent message
• Develop a memorable catchphrase or tagline

Remember: marketing is about the impression you make in the mind of the existing or potential client or customer. Business is about relationships - marketing is the conversation.

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Series inspired by "Top Ten Reasons Why Small Businesses Fail" by: Connie Holt, E.A. cholt@henssler.com
The Henssler Financial Group Position Paper
© 2004 The Henssler Financial Group | www.henssler.com

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Related articles

• Survival Tips for Solopreneurs (inc.com)
• Don't Look Now, But Small Business Is On The Brink Of Something Big (businessinsider.com)
• Small Businesses Cautiously Optimistic About the Future (blogs.constantcontact.com)
• Allocating Resources to Help Small Business Grow (blogs.constantcontact.com)

Top Ten Reasons Small Businesses Fail - part two

Competition

Are you the best at what you do? Among the best? Anywhere close to the best?

Wherever you rank in comparison to your competition, are your existing or potential customers or clients aware of how you compare? As importantly, how accurate an assessment do you have of where you rank amongst your competitors? Remember: our ideas are like our children - we love them because they are our own.

But as any honest parent will tell you, sometimes we must face some brutal truths about ourselves. Before you can match or exceed the competition, you have to understand who the competion is.

How many competitors do you have?  This is not an abstract question about hypothetical competitors "out there, somewhere"  in your chosen field: this is about who your potential clients might consider in addition to, or instead of, you? More importantly, it's about who your existing customer or client might consider doing business with instead of you.

To remain competitive, you have to assess the competition: the "business school" term for this is "competitor (or competitive) analysis". Who else is doing what you're doing? How saturated is your market? Even if you don't operate from a physical (brick and mortar) office location, most of your customers/clients are probably local.

Examining the competition is also helpful in determining whether your pricing is too high or low for your market, and is a good source of ideas for new goods or services to offer.

You have probably heard the phrase "there's no loyalty in business anymore". This is usually said in reference to employer loyalty - gone are the days that "noone gets laid off at IBM", and such. There's no such thing as a guaranteed steady job, regardless of trade.

There's also no such thing as automatic customer loyalty. Just because they've "always done business with you" doesn't mean that they'll be back tomorrow, to replace the product or renew the contract.

Business, especially in today's economy, is about relationships. Just as apathy and ignorance of other potential suitors can lose your sweetheart's affection, inattention and unawareness of competitors can lose business. Make no assumptions, and court your clients, existing and potential, as if you were a newlywed on honeymoon.

In many ways, the stakes are even higher...

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Series inspired by "Top Ten Reasons Why Small Businesses Fail" by: Connie Holt, E.A. cholt@henssler.com
The Henssler Financial Group Position Paper
© 2004 The Henssler Financial Group | www.henssler.com

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Related articles

• Keep stroking clients, or they'll flee (theglobeandmail.com)
• 3 Keys to Competing (blogs.forbes.com)
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• Startups: Dealing With Competition [TNW Entrepreneur] (thenextweb.com)
• Being Different Isn't Just "Cool," It's Necessary To Survive; Part 2 of 2 (blogs.constantcontact.com)

Top Ten Reasons Small Businesses Fail - part one

Procrastination

You're only as good as your word. Missing deadlines, arriving late for meetings, forgetting to follow up or follow through - these are all symptoms of procrastination, and key factors of Small Business failure.

As a Small Business owner, operator or employee, you cannot afford to slide down procrastination's slippery slope. Since word of mouth is the most effective low cost marketing strategy (and a rich source of revenue and referrals), you must be perceived as someone who:

• Keeps their word
• Honors their commitments
• Values their customers' and clients' time

You may be familiar with the expression "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail". Here is its procrastination-related corrolary: "If you fail to show, you show to fail". Free yourself of the voice in your head, which is telling you some variation of the following: "I work for myself, therefore -

• Noone is the boss of me
• I set my own schedule
• My time is my own
• Why must they nag me - I'll get it done (eventually)

The phrase "it's only time" is a complete falsehood: time, to a great extent, is all there is. As an independent entrepreneur, or as an employee, you either bill for time directly, or the time required to perform your task (or make your goods) is a major factor in your compensation. Time is, in many ways, your most valuable asset.

Timeliness is also an aspect of quality, which is a perception in the client's or customer's (or employer's) mind, NOT an objective quality of the work performed or goods created. As a computer service professional, a hard-won lesson is that the job isn't done until the client perceives it as done. I could have fixed it weeks ago, but if I wait for weeks to tell the client, only at that moment is it done as far as they're concerned.

And let's face it -- the person paying for the job, not the one performing it, is the one who must be satisfied. Don't take too long to understand that, if you want to stay in business...

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Series inspired by "Top Ten Reasons Why Small Businesses Fail" by: Connie Holt, E.A. cholt@henssler.com
The Henssler Financial Group Position Paper
© 2004 The Henssler Financial Group | www.henssler.com

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Related articles

• You're the Boss: Top 10 Reasons Small Businesses Fail (boss.blogs.nytimes.com)
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• About Company Strategy (thinkup.waldenu.edu)
• About Starting a Small Business (thinkup.waldenu.edu)

Put the web to work

In a down economy, Small Businesses need to exploit every possible advantage available to them.

An often overlook and underutilized Small Business asset is the good ol' company website. Websites are nothing new, and nearly everyone has one by now (there are by far more registered websites than human beings on the planet). Most Small Businesses easily have multiple ways to launch a website for free. How many of these websites are effective business assets? 

To truly assist Your Small Business, a website must, at a minimum, do three things:

1. Burnish your brand
2. Generate leads
3. Increase revenue

Burnish your brand: in today's economy, a website has to be more than a digital business card. Business cards are cheaper than dirt, and you hand them out like toothpicks. Not much ROI there. Your website is your first, best chance to:

• Introduce yourself
• Promote your business
• Establish your qualifications
• Create your online identity
• Build a reputation

The old saying "you don't get a second chance to make a first impression" is especially true of websites: the "Back" button is just a click away, and you have about five seconds to convince the site visitor not to... click away.

Generate leads: Does your website have a form for customers to contact Your Small Business? Don't assume the site visitor will actually take the time to pick up the phone, or open their email tool and compose a message. Visiting a website is like an impulse purchase - if you site does capture their attention, you must make it as easy as possible for the potential customer or client to move to the next step, and contact you right NOW!

Increase revenue: Many of your existing clients may not have discovered you by an Internet search, but that doesn't mean you can afford to ignore the power of the web to find new business with old customers. It's a well know fact that it costs more in time and money to acquire a client than to retain one -- what are we doing about it?

Does your website cross-promote goods or services, especially to those currently doing business with you? Do you offer special deals or discounts to favored customers? You could have special content for registered visitors to your website, and create login accounts for your existing clientele - again, don't assume that they will take it upon themselves to sign up on their own. They are just as busy as you are, so you've got to make it almost effortless for them to do more business with you.

This is not the same as spamming them with unwanted messages - they already do business with you. Everyone likes to feel special, and be treated with special regard. Make sure your focus is the added value to their lives and businesses, not your desire for more of their money.

Review your records and invoices -- what goods or services have they already purchased in the past? What else do they want, or need, and how can you let them know that you can provide these quickly, conveniently and affordably?

Remember that a "down" economy is always an opportunity to invent new possibilities - use Your Small Business website to create as many new opportunities as possible, and you'll find undiscovered wealth right inside your web browser.

Related articles

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• PR For Small Business Starts With Your Own Web Site (smallbusinessmavericks.com)
• Web Video Accounts for Nearly 7% of Small Business Website Landing Page Behavior (reelseo.com)
• Small Businesses and Large Business Find Advertising on the Internet Affordable and Effective (prweb.com)
• Small Businesses Better Able to Compete in Online Market with 'Small Biz Web School' (prweb.com)

Rapid Development: Swift but not Hasty

14 September looms imminent, but I feel confident that we will meet, if not exceed, our expectations. My client and I have established an extremely effective workflow with our screen sharing/conference call method.

Image via WikipediaThe first time I was involved in such a meeting, it was in a corporate conference room with a projector, a dedicated data line and a bunch of folks on each end of the line -- a one-to-one connection, even for the corner-office honchos, was just too expensive to consider.

Now, the screen sharing is free, and cell phones make better speaker phones than the dedicated desktop models we used back then. That's real progress, I suppose...

Speaking of progress, we made great headway duting yesterday's conference call. The look and feel, based on modifications to the selected template chosen in the previous meeting, was approved. We spent most of this session getting into high-level "function and flow" stuff, such as:

• Site participant roles - visitor (anonymous user, not logged in), member (non-paying, logged in user) and subscriber (paying member)
• Site staff roles - contributor (columnists & bloggers), editor (1st level content approval, layout & design) and publisher (final approval for posting content, full control over all layout & design elements
• Logical functions - such as "subscribers view posted video blogs immediately; members view with one-week delay; visitors view teasers only"

 The rest of the call focused on the first real consideration of the front page, more in terms of what will be there, than what it will look like. A rotating graphical element for latest news, blog post, etc - but done via JavaScript instead of the usual Flash animation.

This both minimizes page loading time (important to avoid losing impatient visitors) and enables the content to be scanned by search engines (important if you want any visitors in the first place).

Our brainstorming session gave birth to one fantastic idea which, again, is a challenge to deliver by launch date, but it's doable. We decided to have polls (as many sites do), but use the results of the poll to deliver focused content, links and associations to the viewer based on their responses, rather than just posting the results (as if anyone is really that interested).

Basically disguising surveys as polls. Genius. Drupal, powered by the modular capabilities we've installed beneath-the-hood, can do all that. The question, of course, is can we, by September 14th?

Stay tuned...

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For Rapid Development, Slow Down

Another conference call in our quest to a 14 Sep website launch. We've really established a successful workflow, which will server me well as a model for future client relations. One of the first things we established was the need for more meetings before actual launch day:

•  Look & feel, navigation, initial site layout - 22 Aug 
•  Roles & workflow; preparation for transfer to live site - 26 Aug

We quickly decided on the overall color scheme & font selection. The font, not a standard web font, will have to be imported - which means I will have to learn how to do that. More homework, but then that's why we're applying the Pareto principle with our conference calls.

The generous nature of the Open Source community provided us with a template acceptable to our end goals and compatible with our color scheme, boosting our progress and reducing the design effort by... well, about 80%.

Image via Wikipedia
Having done her homework, she provided two reference sites that gave me a good idea of her internal picture of the finished product we're aiming for.

The key thing I'm learning is that it's possible to not be in the same room, but to really be on the same page. In fact, the screen sharing sessions coupled with the telephone calls, with her on speaker phone and me wearing an earbud, actually helps us focus by removing visual distractions and eliminating the need to "shoulder surf" while attempting to share the same computer screen.

We're each in our own work environment, on our own computers. And we're both focused on the task at hand. With each "meeting", we get a clearer picture of how much work we've done (the demo site looks more like the finished product), of how much work we have left to do (the demo site doesn't work like the finished product) and how best to close the distance (we have a finite number of days until actual launch day).

Spending hours on the phone, taking the time to talk things through, being able to review the same computer screen together, is what enables us to get so much done so quickly. In many ways, the cell phone and screen sharing will end up being the real technological heroes.

That is, assuming we have cause to celebrate.

Back to work. More to come...

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Site Unseen

Many businesses pay a lot of money for someone to make a website for them. Yet from the huge number of poorly designed websites out there, it doesn't look like a good return on investment for the most part.

Not counting incompetence and outright fraud, there are still too many bad websites out there which were supposedly designed by professionals. In this age of free technology and even freer information, how can this be? As I venture into offering website design as a Small Business server, I've thought about this and came to the following conclusion:

Many businesses, especially Small Businesses, spend lots of money on two things which, while both useful, are not website design.

The first and more common is web hosting. These business owners or representatives will meet with someone who ideally should report to sales, who claims to assist in "site design". What they actually end up focusing on, however, are low-level technical concerns, like bandwidth, storage, and the programs available for the client building their own site.

Image by Getty Images via @These are all useful things, but they don't make a website. They are the components of a website -- good enough, if you can build your own website, which most Small Business owners and operators cannot.

The next common mistake is hiring a graphic designer as web builder. These guys are usually very helpful at creating logos, banners and a website's overall visual design. They may even create basic functions, like login, with a database back-end if you're really lucky.

But, again, this is not a website -- this is a collection of nicely designed web pages. Today's "standard" website should be more than pretty pages, sitting there. Successful websites must have function, and be as advanced as the space shuttle is from the original Wright Brothers' motor-powered glider. Pretty pages and a clever Flash menu simply won't cut it.

An effective modern website, without being fancy or complex, should

• Have fresh content, lots of it, and be easy to update
• Include all media -- sound, images and videos -- with no expert assistance needed
• Include the ability to create user profiles, login, post comments, upload media and create relevant content
• Allow website users to interact without outside intervention to "discuss among themselves", and create the premium content that will add real value
• Enable users and content to be categorized so that the right people get the right information

Neither web hosting services nor graphic designers masquerading as website designers can provide this level of basic functionality without the old-fashioned, 20th Century attempt to lock you down with customized code which is difficult to update and keeps you held hostage by the original programmers.

This is where Open Source stops being a geek buzzword and becomes relevant to Small Business owners and operators. Content Management Systems -- tech-jargon for "website building applications" -- like Drupal, Joomla! and Wordpress are free to download and are provided by most major web hosting services. Their value to the Small Business owner is not simply because they're free.

Because they are Open Source, it means the knowledge of configuring them, and building working websites is widespread, and standardized. Built on a modular model, functions are easily added not by hiring another programming specialist, but simply by plugging in and configuring the appropriate module for the required feature.

Features once the work of high-priced consultants are now easiliy and affordably provided. Provided, of course, that you hire the services of an actual website designer -- someone who will consult with you, get to understand your business, your workflow and your needs, and create a website that doesn't just display pages and pictures, but one that is the ideal online resource to serve you customers, and represent the best efforts of Your Small Business.

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Rapid Development

14 September.

It helps to have a deadline. An internal sense arises that helps steer me away from false starts and time-wasting fascination with useless details.

As a techie, it's easy to waste hours with the "gee whiz" aspect of things that won't actually be used in this phase of the project. A deadline helps set a time limit on mental wandering.

I just recently completed the second conference call with the online magazine publisher who is my website client. Our first conference call, last Tuesday (10 Aug), I used the free "DimDim" screen-sharing service (I do not name these things) to show her the prototype Drupal website, and a variety of themes so we could get a baseline of the "look and feel" she desires.

This week, she e-mailed me PDF samples of her magazine for an idea of the fonts and color scheme, and we discussed various aspects of the behind-the-scenes pre-construction concerns such as:

• What information would we collect from people who visit the site?
• What content will be visible to everyone?
• What "premium" content will only be visible to those who sign up and log onto the website?
• How will the site integrate with social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and twitter?
• How will we catalog and categorize user information and site content so that we can cross-reference information, and present customized views to each user?
• How will the website communicate with off-line site members (email/SMS/twitter/et al)?
• Can/will there be Google Apps integration?

and so forth. A dozen plus years of corporate IT support taught me that to successfully complete complicated projects quickly, the 80/20 rule means

80 percent of the effort is the work done in the first 20 percent of the project

It's all in the advanced planning. Drupal, like Joomla! and Wordpress, give Small Businesses the ability to do nearly anything that can be done with a website, cheaply and easily. Cheaply and easily, that is, if you plan what you want the site to do first, then determine what information and configuration you'll require to accomplish that.

This means you do the heavy lifting -- database mapping, form building -- before you worry about things like appearance and layout. Once you make sure everything works properly, you not only can take your time arranging it, but you'll find it's easy to arrange things when you're not inventing them at the same time.

By taking this top-down approach, we ended our call with a series of milestones mapped to the calendar:

• Look and feel final conference - 18 Aug
• Soft launch (moving site to production server) - 28 Aug
• Meet with site editor & content contributors - 1 Sep
• Content freeze and performance shakedown - 6 Sep

A pretty aggressive schedule, but the only way we can actually launch a site that doesn't exist yet is to determine precisely the tasks and sequence of actions required, and strictly adhere to a no-nonsense schedule. Which you don't tend to do when the due-date is months away, or more.

It helps to have a deadline... or so goes the theory...

More to come

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FREE is the new GTD

Image by philcampbell via Flickr

Image by Régis Gaidot via Flickr

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

I have always attended business networking events as an essential part of my Small Business growth strategy. They are a marvelous source of innovation, inspiration and comraderie.

There are also, of course, the occasional cash-paying business prospect. But much of the value is, well... free, but it's also priceless. Recently, I've learned from these meetings that barter is an effective method of exchange, given the right partner in the trade.

One of the members of a Small Business networking group I attend monthly has an online magazine that's going from quarterly to monthly. She wants a new website built, using the Open Source web building app "Drupal". I've worked with Drupal, and certainly appreciate the challenges and benefits of working with this platform.

So she will get a cutting-edge website, and I will get the experience of building one, and a reference site for future paying clients. Of course, while she is leveraging my expertise, I am basically providing professional services for FREE. Even if we accept that the skills developed in real-world conditions will eventually have commercial value, how can I afford to do the actual work, while also having to service my paying clients?

That's where the value of Open Source technology proves itself. From the start, I have saved literally hundreds of hours by downloading a pre-built Linux server running a Drupal website from Bitnami, and run it in my free virtual computer environment provided by VMware.

No additional hardware cost. In addition, I've leveraged the efforts of installation and configuration experts, for FREE! And all this is just the start of how free technology makes this barter more than a fair trade for me.

In upcoming posts, I will journal my efforts from prototype to live website. I will explore the actual software and technology used in my Open-Windows blog.

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