Got Back Up?
Today’s guest post is from Heid, theCEO of ProVim. They are our web host, not just for Roundpeg, but every website we build for our clients. More than anything else, we work with them because of their service. Things don’t go wrong with websites often, but when they do, I am glad we work with Provim!
Got Back Up?
Every once in a while we’ll get a call from a customer frantically describing that they accidentally just deleted their website (with no backup
in hand). Thankfully, for these customers, we’ve had backups of their sites. In the event that the abominable happens, backups serve to be a
safety net for your valuable digital resources.
How many times have you lost an important document or photo due to a hard drive crash, software error, or usb flash drive failure? I’m sure it’s
happened at least once in your life, right? Events like this teach us the importance of personal data backups. However, even with the knowledge
gained from these horrible events, it can still be easy to blank on making a backup. This is why backing up a website at the server level is important,
and is something we do with every site hosted.
Seven Weeks and Seven Tips To Be More Productive 2010
Today’s post is by a very special guest: Productivity Expert and All Around Interesting Guy: Robby Slaughter. He writes about the things we can be doing now to create a more productive 2010!
Seven Weeks and Seven Tips
Go look at the calendar. It’s mid November, which means there are a mere seven weeks left in 2009. Now is the time to look forward and prepare to make 2010 your best year yet. The secret to making improvements is planning and enacting change. Here are seven tips for seven weeks to get you started:
Social Media for Business: It Has To Be Fun
Guest Post by Michael Reynolds of Spin Web
I meet a lot of business owners and department heads who are curious about social media. Some embrace online tools and immediately see the value. They enjoy using social media to promote their businesses and make connections. Others approach it from a different perspective: it looks like work to them.
As I educate others and evangelize social media, it occurs to me that there is a missing element in most people’s approach to social media for business: fun!
Yes, social media for business must be fun or it’s not going to work. If you approach it with an attitude of “I don’t have time for this,” or “this sounds like one more thing to take up time in my busy day,” then it’s going to be a chore. However, if you approach it with an intention to integrate social media into your habits and lifestyle and make it an enjoyable experience, you will achieve much greater success.
Remember when you first started your business? Think back to the excitement of getting your first customer, building your first website, setting up your first office, and bursting to tell the world about it. Or maybe it was that shiny new job as marketing director of a great company. Think of the passion you had for promoting your product or service and how you could barely keep from bringing it up in every conversation. That’s the kind of passion you need to succeed in social media. You have to genuinely enjoy what you do. If you are having fun at your job, then social media will only amplify that passion.
It should not feel like work. You should want to look for opportunities to talk about your business on social networks. You should enjoy telling people what you do and how it helps others. Telling stories about the value you bring to your customers should make you happy.
Marketing your business using social media is fun. Does it take time? Yes. Can it lead to increased business? Definitely. When approached correctly, it is a remarkably scalable extension of the passion that you should already have about your business. Let it come naturally. Don’t work so hard at it. Don’t over-analyze it. “Play around” on Facebook. Have random conversations on Twitter and see what happens. Make connections on LinkedIn simply because you want to learn more about someone. Let your social instincts take over and the business benefits will come more naturally over time.
If it feels like work, there is something wrong
VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF BLOGS
My guest blogger today is Rhoda Israelov, a long time friend, Rhoda has done many things in her life, and many of them are connected to writing. Today, as a professional ghost blogger, she writes under many names. Today she is writing for Roundpeg as Rhoda Israelov of Say It For You
Whenever there’s an activity you’re doing again and again over time, it helps to change things up a bit. If you’re a blog writer like me, varying your approach goes a long way towards keeping the work interesting. On the reader end, variety certainly goes a long way in keeping blog visitors engaged. Sometimes I reflect on the fact that in business, we get so tied up in manufacturing a good marketable product, or in selling and delivering a great professional service, we forget how much help the right words can be. In fact, when it comes to web-based communications, words, along with images, are a business’ only tools.
Who’s Your Travel Agent & Other Leadership Problems by Dale Collie
My friend Dale Collie, left Indy for the warm of N. Carolina years ago. But we stay in touch electronically and I love reading his newsletters and updates. I enjoy smart, no nonsense approach. I hope you will too!
Leadership Edge: Savvy leaders provide the right tools to do the job right.
Is anyone still using a travel agent to book air travel? I just booked tickets to Rome for an Eastern Mediterranean cruise and spent an inordinate amount of time searching the various on-line booking sites. After way too much research, I found that some on-line sites cannot be trusted (duh!) and that no matter what the displayed price per ticket, they all pretty much wind up in the same range once taxes and fees are added.
Finally, I went to the airline site and booked the ticket. Sounds easy. Right? Well, not so fast there … when I entered my credit card info (as I’ve done many times with this airline), an alert screen came up saying I needed to enter my credit card data (which was also shown on the screen just as I entered it). So … now we have to call the number shown and work through the Mash One for English (that’s NC talk for Touch One), answer yes and no a few times, Mash other numbers followed by the pound sign and finally get a live person.
Oh … we’re not done yet … so he takes all the info (I wish he could have Mashed One), then he tells me, “Oh, I must transfer you for international flights.” And we go through the Mashing and Pounding thing again.
Just as the international customer service assistant (very nice southern voice with no Mashing) started to help me, the confirmation email arrived – while the alert thingy was still on the screen.
We’re almost finished … now we need to select seats because the seat thing “wasn’t available at this time.” So I request bulkhead seats (for a real reason), and I’m told she can only assign bulkhead for domestic flights, I’ll have to wait until I’m at the airport and request for the international flights …
How do you spell that word … Sheeessh!
The point of all this is — give your team the right tools for the job. Saving pennies by booking my own flights is counterproductive when there are many more important things I could be doing.
- Ask your team members what new or old technology you could provide to help them be more productive.
- Review your own routine to see where you’re wasting time and effort 3. Put the changes in the budget if you can’t afford them right now
And if you work with a travel agent, I’d sure like to have the contact info.
Copyright 2009 – All rights reserved – Dale Collie
What Dora Can Teach Businesspeople
Popular guest blog poster Josh Brammer of Spinweb has provided roundpeg with excellent insights into the world of Indiana business. Today, he gives us some business advice with the help of the young, adventurous, animated -cartoon character, Dora.
My almost-2-year-old bounces on the couch each morning as we turn on Dora The Explorer. Once the excitement turns to focused attention, Dora takes us on a daily adventure. I have a background in writing and video production, so I’ve often been interested in the dynamics that make children’s television so intriguing. What can I say, it makes watching any TV show into a bit of research.
A few years ago, I made the transition into the “Business-world”, so I keep an eye out of tips that can help bridge the world of business for the rest of us without a business degree. As I watch Dora, I find myself saying “Hey I should remember that at work today.”
To spare you the need to fire up the children’s television, here is a quick list of the things Dora has taught me about business:
- Make sure your team knows the destination. It’s hard to make fast-paced decisions in your business if you don’t know where you are going. Everyday, Dora and friends check the map to see where they will end up. The Map tells
them 1) where they are 2) where they are going. Everyone knows the destination, which leads to great problem solving along the way. - Work as a team. Everyone should know the plan. Teams don’t work when you aren’t on the same page. Dora always takes time to talk out any new problems, listens to new ideas, and make a new plan. Then the team gets to
work. - Enjoy detours. Detours will come up, but you can easily get back on track if you know your destination and work as a team. Shipments get lost. Distractions appear. Last minute meetings get called. Talking monkeys loose their boots.
But having a solid team that knows where they are going and can tackle new problems, really can take the stress out of surprises. - Be willing to help. Dora is a friendly little girl, so it’s not surprising that she makes new friends. But how about you? Are you just “cordial” to those you interact with or do you really take the time to get to know people? It only takes a
minute to talk to someone and look for ways to be helpful. While “Help Big Red Chicken” is not clearly marked on The Map, Dora makes it part of her daily agenda. Ten minutes of sincere help can go a long way. - Give encouragement often. Don’t fluff people up with fake encouragement if you don’t mean it; people see through that charade. Instead, learn to verbalize your praise and give it often. Adults may think about patting people on the back, but rarely open their mouths and say “Great Job!”
- Celebrate success. At the end of each episode, Dora and friends celebrate the day’s adventure by singing “We did it! We did it! We did it! Hooray! When’s the last time you heard that around much excitement around your office?Celebrating your successes as a team doesn’t mean you have to sing & dance, but it does mean you must stop, reflect on what went right, and cherish the moment. Too many adults “Keep Trucking” when they should really take a
few minutes to smile, share some encouragement, and enjoy the fact that hard work relaly does pay off.
Author: Josh Brammer A process thinker, Josh Brammer helps knowledge workers balance work and family life through workflow and habit management. Josh Brammer is VP of Operations at SpinWeb and believes: Character + useful technology – distractions = saving time without becoming a robot. In his spare time, Josh enjoys his family, good films, making outlines & creating more spare time. Josh shares a personality with Walt Disney & Ben Franklin (ENTP), which makes life much more interesting. If not behind a Mac, you’ll catch him reading or enjoying double espresso macchiatos. Contact Josh at josh@spinweb.net or 317-324-1100.
Think Team: 5 Tips for Better Delegating
osh Brammer from Spinweb has become one of our most popular guest bloggers. Today Josh returns with suggestions on improving delegation techniques, a must-read for small business owners!
Delegation can be a difficult skill to learn, but often your tasks cannot be accomplished by yourself. When breaking down your tasks into smaller chunks, often youʼll find that
you need to ask someone else for something small to keep the task in motion. Be a team player, make delegation easier by remembering these 5 tips:
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Ask someone for help. People cannot help unless they know there is a need.The first step is to ask!
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Match the task to the person. Any time a task is delegated, make sure the team member can actually accomplish it. The key to delegating is matching skills with work that needs to be done. If training is needed, will the time involved training pay off? If not, rethink who should be delegated the task.
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Write it down on your list. Delegation doesnʼt mean you are no longer responsible. It only means that the action is being done by someone else who has better skills / resources for the task. Take ownership of the task and donʼt fall into the “Delegate it and forget it” trap.
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Set a timeframe for completion. Never delegate without telling the person when you expect it to be completed. ASAP is a horrible phrase, as it could mean different things to each person. Use specific timeframes that both people agree on.
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Followup with a smile. Consider this; someone else just did something for you. That should make you happy, so donʼt be a jerk when you followup.
Small business relies on people — so keep an eye on your team and treat them with respect. Keep in mind, there is always someone else who is better than you in certain areas. Thatʼs the beauty of teamwork! The key is to hire talented people, treat them well, and make them a valuable part of your team.
Author: Josh Brammer 
A process thinker, Josh Brammer helps knowledge workers balance work and family life through workflow and habit management. Josh Brammer is VP of Operations at SpinWeb and believes: Character + useful technology – distractions = saving time without becoming a robot.
In his spare time, Josh enjoys his family, good films, making outlines & creating more spare time. Josh shares a personality with Walt Disney & Ben Franklin (ENTP), which makes life much more interesting. If not behind a Mac, you’ll catch him reading or enjoying double espresso macchiatos. Contact Josh at josh@spinweb.net or 317-324-1100.
How Women Do Big Deals
Today’s post is written by Barbara Weaver Smith. I met Barbara through Twitter, and have had a chance to connect F2F as well. She is as much fun in person as she is on Twitter. I am delighted to share her post today. This is her second visit to Roundpeg, and it won’t be her last!
My new eBook, Whale Hunting Women, is about how women do big deals in business and community. What do women do instinctively that makes us good whale hunters?
Women learn early to practice certain habits that are good for sales—habits of listening, learning, mentoring, empathizing, and teambuilding. These are behaviors for which we are rewarded and may also be natural preferences that we’re born with. In the 20th century economy, which in the west was built on ruthless competition, women were encouraged to “unlearn” those habits and become more aggressive and self-promoting in order to succeed in the business world.
It didn’t work for women then, and it doesn’t work for anyone now. Today we work in a global, information-based economy that thrives on collaboration and cooperative deal-making. Women need to know this and allow our socialized skills and preferences to make us successful.
Big companies, which I define as “whales,” do not often buy from a single salesperson. Anything of substance that they buy involves the concurrence of a team of inside buyers—the procurement agent, the financial person, the IT leader, as well as the end users of marketing or software or legal or customer service or HR services, for example, or those involved in using manufactured products of all kinds.
Today the sale is not a good-old-boy back-slapping kind of sale. It is a serious, professional, somewhat distanced interaction. Buyers want to meet and interact with the people who will actually deliver services to them, not only the sales reps. So the nature of how the whales buy means that companies need to sell as a team. They need to involve subject matter experts in the sale. They need a salesperson who is a teacher and team choreographer, not a rock star.
In my work with entrepreneurs, I have found that women leaders are often especially devoted to (and good at) empowering their team, mentoring others to step up to new responsibilities, and orchestrating rather than commanding. Those practices come naturally to us, and we have come into a time where new business rules favor the so-called “soft skills” that women bring to their work. So let’s work that advantage and do some bigger deals!
Excerpts, reviews, and download link on Whale Hunting Women at http://www.thewhalehunters.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17. Special price during my virtual blog tour May/June 2009
Author: Barbara Weaver Smith, Ph.D.
President and CEO, The Whale Hunters
To learn about Whale Hunting Women & to order your copy today, visit http://cli.gs/WHWEbook
Thank you for visiting this post about Barbara Weaver Smith and Whale Hunting Women. Two people who comment during the tour will be entered a giveaway – post a comment on any post about the tour and you will be entered. The winners will win a three-volume audio set of Whale Hunters Wisdom. Volumes include I: Mind of a Hunter, II: The Hunt, and III: The Whale Hunting Culture ($90 value). Barbara Weaver Smith’s website – http://www.thewhalehunters.com
Barbara Weaver Smith’s blog – http://blog.thewhalehunters.com
Order your copy of Whale Hunting Women – http://cli.gs/WHWEbook
To see the tour schedule visit http://virtualblogtour.blogspot.com/2009/04/whale-hunting-with-barbara-weaver-smith.html
Smarter To-Do Lists
Josh Brammer, of Spinweb, has provided us with many useful insights on our guest blog over the past few weeks. Today Josh gives fantastic tips on making better to-do lists!
You have stuff to get done. Stuff that requires phone calls, emails, trips to the bank, the list goes on and on. So how do you organize your to-do list in a way that is helpful and easy to manage? Start make making smarter lists.
The major goal of a to-do list is to organize your actions in a way that is easy answer the question “What should I do next?” But often lists are nothing more than quick jotts on paper that donʼt really capture or explain the task in a way that is meaningful.
At SpinWeb, we often talk about to-do lists using this philosophy: Make the smart part of your brain tell the lazy part what to do. In a practical sense, this means taking extra time when creating your to-do list. Try these tips for smarter, easier to accomplish to-do lists:
Think Action. Have you ever seen a to-do list that looks like a list of random words? Instead of single word notes, take an extra moment to add a verb to all of your to-dos. Instead of “Jim”, write down “Compliment Jim on his excellent jazz hand technique.”
Think Downhilll. Itʼs not that you are lazy, but when you are overwhelmed by stuff to do itʼs helpful to have a clear next action available that doesnʼt require mental energy to plan or stress about. Phrase your to-do in a way that makes tasks easy to digest andthink “I can do that!”
- Good: Find cookie Recipe.
- Better: Find cookie recipe online at Kraftfoods.com.
Think Baby-steps. If you have a large task to accomplish, break it into smaller chunks. “Buy Paint for Living Room” may be a daunting task, but consider these smaller tasks:
- Take sofa fabric sample to paint store
- Select paint and buy paint sample
- Paint sample section of living room wall
- Fall in love with the paint color (or go back to the store and try again)
Think Team. Delegation is a difficult skill to learn, but often your tasks cannot be accomplished by yourself. When breaking down your tasks into smaller chunks, often youʼll find that you need to ask someone else for something small to keep the task in motion. Make sure to keep a reminder on your list, so that you can followup
Remember, the to-do list should make your life easier — so take the time to make a smarter list. Next time we will focus more on teamwork with 5 Tips for Better Delegating.
Author: Josh BrammerA process thinker, Josh Brammer helps knowledge workers balance work and family life through workflow and habit management. Josh Brammer is VP of Operations at SpinWeb and believes: Character + useful technology – distractions = saving time without becoming a robot.
In his spare time, Josh enjoys his family, good films, making outlines & creating more spare time. Josh shares a personality with Walt Disney & Ben Franklin (ENTP), which makes life much more interesting. If not behind a Mac, you’ll catch him reading or enjoying double espresso macchiatos. Contact Josh at josh@spinweb.net or 317-324-1100.
Three Questions to Ask a Prospective Web Designer on the First Call
Today’s guest post is by James Paden of Xemion Web Design. He has shared some practical questions you should ask before beginning a web design project.
Your website is most likely your most powerful and cost-effective marketing tool. It’s obviously extremely important that you select a professional web design firm that can see the big picture behind your company and your marketing strategy. Obviously, you should closely examine their portfolios and contact some of their existing clients, but there are also three key questions you should ask these designers before you entertain their proposals:
What makes a great web page?
You want your web designer to highlight ideal aesthetics and function. It’s important that they view your website not simply as a page of information, but as a marketing strategy that can be directly tied to your bottom line. If they have a little background knowledge on your company, the designer should be able to translate this knowledge into specific recommendations or ideas for your business. They will need time to come up with a comprehensive site plan, but hearing their ideas off the cuff will be an excellent glimpse into the philosophy and perspectives behind their projects.
How much experience do you have working with other companies in my industry?
This is an important question because within different industries a web presence can mean entirely different things. For example, if you’re in a technology field you will have vastly different site requirements than if you run a children’s clothing boutique or a natural cosmetics site. Different industries often require different functionality and marketing tactics. Don’t let the fact that a firm has not worked with a similar business stop you from working with them, but do take it into consideration. You want to be sure that the designer you hire understands your target audience and what motivates them.
How do you see your ongoing role in relation to my company?
A web designer may be an independent contractor or service provider, but when they work on your website they are a part of your team. It’s important to find out how they plan to work with you to develop the site, maintain it, and keep it updated. A professional web developer should have some suggestions for regular meeting intervals, and they should be able to outline a process that is always kept updated, fresh, and in good working condition.
These questions will not provide the total picture of the design firm, but they may help you weed out the desirable web developers from those who will waste your time and money. Once you’ve found a designer that answers these questions to your satisfaction, ask more questions and if it’s a local company, schedule a face-to-face meeting. Then you will want to check their references, examine their portfolio, and consider their bid.
Remember: a web designer is helping you to represent your company to the rest of the world via the internet. Choose wisely and you will see your business thrive. Choose poorly and you will have wasted time and money. And then you’ll interview design firms all over again.
This is a guest post by James Paden, owner of the Xemion Web Design Company Directory. Before creating Xemion, James ran a successful web design company. In addition to running the directory, James works with small to medium sized e-commerce companies on improving website sales. If you have any comments or questions on this post, please contact him at James@Xemion.com.
