Can You Afford To Ignore Mobile Marketing Any Longer?
By John Joyce on March 24, 2011 | Comments (0)
This question is reminiscent of the discussions many of us had 10-plus years ago when business owners were contemplating whether or not they needed a website. In hindsight, it’s pretty easy to see that Bill Gates’ vision of “a PC in every home and in every business” has been realized and online search is now universally available.
So, before you ponder the merits of mobile marketing and your specific business goals, let’s first take a look at evolving online marketing tactics and the associated opportunity cost of excluding … [Read more at OPEN Forum]
What KPIs Should You Track?
By John Joyce on March 2, 2011 | Comments (0)
The only way for you to accurately understand which Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) you should track is to understand which answers you are seeking. Reports are useless if they don’t tell a story, give insights, and offer measurable/actionable tactics that help you achieve your goals. You must take a step back and develop a thought process that maps KPIs to your overall business strategy.
Here’s an example. Maybe you’ve recently deployed Google Analytics on your website and you’re wondering why you haven’t been able to leverage the great data that’s being gathered such as:
- Total Unique Visitors
- Pageviews
- Bounce Rate
- New Visits
- Traffic Source
- Average Time On Page
The New Small: Gain Leverage Through Technology
By John Joyce on February 16, 2011 | Comments (0)
How a New Breed of Small Businesses is Harnessing the Power of Emerging Technologies
Phil Simon offers a comprehensive view of technology past, present and future as it pertains to empowering small business owners to compete, adapt and grow as effectively as possible. Many of the stories and examples highlighted in the book include lessons learned from Simon’s past experience working with big companies – mostly how NOT to operate your business.
The New Small takes a holistic view of working smarter by identifying major technology trends and explaining how the landscape has changed and why you need to understand the impact on your business.
Employees can be only as productive as their company’s tools let them be. Even the hardest working person who requires zero sleep cannot move heaven and earth. Many New Small founders know from their previous jobs the frustration of having to make do with outdated technology. As such, they do not want their employees to struggle using inadequate tools. The New Small wants -and needs- their employees to be as productive as possible. Emerging technologies are crucial in this regard, especially collaborative ones.
Before giving you examples of successful New Small business owners (and there are plenty of great stories in the book), Simon explains the evolution of technology and the impact it can have on your business. Simon refers specifically to “The 5 Enablers” as follows:
- Cloud Computing
- SaaS
- Free and Open Source Software
- Mobility
- Social Technologies
Once you understand these “game-changing” technologies and the impact they can have on your business, and combine that knowledge with the real world examples in the book, you’ll be ready to enter the realm of the New Small. Kudos to @philsimon for combining technology and business insights in one book that is well written and so densely packed with nuggets of insight and inspiration that it will certainly become more of a “operational reference guide” in the future.
I recommend this book to any small business owner that embraces the fact that change is inevitable/ongoing and you must be ready and willing to adapt to the uncertain world around you.
5 Free Tools That Automate Your Business
By John Joyce on February 15, 2011 | Comments (0)
The challenging economic climate has taught business owners that it’s absolutely imperative they embrace solutions that will help them work smarter and focus on generating revenue. Of course, limited budgets make business automation solutions that much more difficult to evaluate and implement. If your number one goal for 2011 is to bolster lead generation, customer acquisition, or customer retention, you must ask yourself this question: How am I going to create operational efficiencies that will free up my time, give me leverage, and allow me to grow my business? Read the entire post over on OPEN Forum.
Your Small Business And Technology: How Do You Maintain A Competitive Edge?
By John Joyce on January 5, 2011 | Comments (0)
This is really the prelude to a book review that is forthcoming but I wanted to start the conversation about challenges facing small business owners when determining which technologies will have a positive impact on their overall business growth. The prevalence of open source development platforms has become a double-edged sword. The good news: Anyone can develop applications fairly easily. The bad news: Anyone can develop applications fairly easily.
There are so many choices that it’s impossible to keep abreast of new technology, new versions of existing products and new companies popping up in already crowded markets. The alternative, however, is to stick your head in the sand and be left in the dust by your competitors.
Phil Simon has written a book that offers real world examples of small businesses that are enjoying success by harnessing the power of emerging technologies. Please look out for a full review in the coming weeks and be sure to check out the book yourself.
