01.28.08

Reaching the target market ..

Posted in small business tagged , , , , , , , , , at 10:11 pm by Mainely Technology

Being a website development business, we tend to push the “every business needs to have a web presence” issue. I am naturally drawn to articles in business publications which mirror this practice. It would appear that Fortune Small Business (CNN) feels the same way. In a January 28th article, a writer asked for suggestions on how to reach (what he believes) the target market he feels he’s missing. The advice given by William Rice, President of the Web Marketing Association: “Start by taking a good long look at your website”. Optimization of your website is important because search engines send out “bots or robots” all the time to search for websites that don’t meet the “friendly” category. If you have a website that has a log of Flash Animation, search engines don’t like them and will be blocked by them. He also states that use of key-word advertising will help your website get higher ranking on search engines such as Google and Yahoo. You can also purchase banner ads on websites within your targeted industry or field states Marla Schrager, Executive Director of Business Marketing Association in Chicago.

One of the biggest mistakes people make with their websites is not having enough analytics on their website to give the owner an idea of where the user originated from. You want to make sure you know how consumers are getting to your site and whether these users are being converted into actual sales. Rice also states that eBay is like a silver bullet because of the number of people who pass through eBay as consumers and sellers. He states that advertising on eBay through ebaybusiness.com could “work like magic.”

Some web developers, like ourselves, develop websites with all of this in mind from the beginning. It is important to keep up to date on the latest trends in search engine optimization, from a programmer standpoint. It is also extremely important to keep the search engine “bots” happy by verifying your website through the W3C to ensure you are complying with standard. Any good developer is going to automatically do this for you and is a good “trick of the trade”. When someone creates a website on their own, they are typically creating a visually appealing and cost efficient web presence for their business. What they don’t realize is that if that website is not search engine friendly, their potential target market might never be reached.

Resource: http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/24/smbusiness/target_customers.fsb/index.htm?postversion=2008012518

01.15.08

Couples in business, good practice or not?

Posted in small business tagged , , , , , at 6:59 pm by Mainely Technology

I’m not sure that I understand the recent hype over couples going into business with one another. Speaking purely as one half of a couple owned business, we enjoy being able to work together and feel each individual outlook on the business structure makes it a stronger business. CNN posted a story on January 14, 2008 “Unlimited Partnership: Couples in Business” which states that couples going into business are one of the ‘dynamic and unexpected forces in small business today.’ Personally, I consider this to be a compliment. The number of women owned (at least 50% ownership) businesses are rising, counting 10.4 million in 2006 alone! Twenty six percent of businesses owned are partnerships, however the report states it is unknown how many of that 26% are spouses. In the year 2000, 3 million out of 22 million small businesses, were couple owned.

The report also states that most of the (what they call) mom and pop shops are professional rather than retail, global more than local and likely that “mom” derived the business idea solely. This is a definite turn of events from older generation businesses owned by husband and wife. The trends also show that the days of the man starting the business and bringing the wife in to run the office and/or handle the billing are gone. Most couple owned businesses are 50/50 across the board with as many men running the office as women.

So, what is the appeal? Isn’t it difficult to be around your significant other 24/7? Don’t difficult business decisions get in the way of friendly and casual conversation? Not if the limits are set from the beginning. As with anything you do, there need to be limits and boundaries with which things happen. For us, we rarely talk about business outside of the business. I mean, sure a subject might come up now and then which needs prompt attention or discussion, but when we leave the office, everything stays there. Most couples state the boundaries are what keeps everything in order without thinking about it. Does it always work? Not always. In fact, some couples need to break themselves away from the business in order to salvage their relationship. We believe that it can be as successful as you both want it to be and it adds another dimension to the relationship.

So, what the answer? If you are a couple wanting to go into business together, speaking from experience – set the ground rules ahead of time. Factor in all the “what ifs” so that there are no false expectations or surprises along the way. Sure there is bound to be things that come up that you hadn’t thought of beforehand, but you are both less likely to get stressed or frustrated if there’s an occasional thing or two that you need to figure out over time. Be yourself. Your relationship is probably something you are very proud of and that will shine through in EVERYTHING you do, whether personally or professionally. My husband and I get complimented all the time on how well we appear to work together and respect one another. We set our boundaries such that I don’t tell him how he should perform his part of the business and he doesn’t tell me how I should perform mine. We set up bi-monthly meetings to go over status and updates and business issues and when we are done – that’s it. For us it works.

Resources:

CNN Report: http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/08/smbusiness/entrepreneurial_couples.fsb/index.htm?postversion=2008011414

01.07.08

Career Fair

Posted in small business tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , at 11:36 pm by Mainely Technology

On Friday January 4th, Mainely Technology was a presenter at the Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce Career Fair held at Central Maine Community College in Auburn Maine. It was the first time presenting at such an event and it was very interesting. Sophomore students from the area high schools attended, which was nice that it wasn’t just students from any one particular school, and were invited to sit in on presentations of careers they were interested in pursuing. As a presenter, we were to provide the students with an insight as to what the career entails, education needed to get there and any other information we deemed pertinent in their decision-making. We encouraged the students to ask questions as we held our presentation extremely informal. We presented in two separate sessions, the first session had three students in attendance and the second session had eight. I must state that these kids for the most part, had a good idea what they wanted to do AFTER high school with a couple of the students in attendance stating they chose our profession because they didn’t really see anything else interesting to them (and they already knew what they would be doing after graduation.)

There was one student in particular who had already been designing websites and earning money for it. He also won a website development contest. It was good to talk with him and gather information on his approach and try to stress the importance of diversity in the field. Diversity in the workforce will reward in many different ways. I tried to stress that when I am looking at a prospective employee, I am not only looking at how well I think he/she will fit into the scope of the organization, but how much value is he/she able to bring to my organization. We tried to stress that especially in this field of work, learning never stops. We stressed the value of continuing to learn new things and stay up to date on the new techniques and applications coming into the technological field, because they will be your friend when you least expect them to be.

Never brush aside the opportunity to be a mentor to today’s youth. Even though you may not see that twinkle in the eye or the spark of interest when you carry on the conversation – but you will generate an added value they didn’t have before they walked through your door or sat down at your table. Out of the three or four students that were there “just because”, we received some excellent questions related to the different types of development that can be done as well as the different types of graphic arts that can be incorporated into a design. Oh yes, we also received the question on everyone teenager’s mind …. “how much does it pay?”

01.03.08

Design vs. Development

Posted in Website Development, small business tagged , , , , , , at 8:48 pm by Mainely Technology

Many people consider websites to be designed, and in many cases that is the truth. The main difference between having one designed and having one developed is the way in which the content is loaded. Design is more about look and feel. This can be accomplished using a variety of tools that generate html, but rarely lends itself to easily make changes and often looks very different on browsers other than the one it is designed for (i.e. Internet Explorer, Netscape, Firefox, etc.). Developing a web site involves not only design but also includes putting methods in place that allow expansion in the future and easily incorporating changes that are a part of any active business. The ability to provide domain name registration, hosting, e-mail, and maintenance in a manner that provides for installing changes quickly is all a part of the development process. It’s an approach that has greater long term advantages than if the developer only focused on design.

When considering the cost of website development keep in mind the end result and how the website will reflect your business. We’ve all seen the websites that look like they were done on the spur of the moment by someone who wished they were doing anything else BUT this (at that point in time). Is this going to be a professional extension of your business? Probably not. It is important to remember that when your business grows, so should your website. Move things around, introduce a new product line, promote chances for prospective clients to meet you at a tradeshow or seminar you’ll be attending as well as enhance staff information. All of these items fall under the part of developing a website considered to be ongoing maintenance.

Another difference between designing a website and developing one – recurring costs. Because ongoing maintenance is probably not the designer’s specialty, you are apt to run into additional costs each time a change is needed or an update is wanted. For companies who predict few changes throughout the year, this can be costly. At Mainely Technology, we believe that updates and changes are expected to happen with your website. Taking this into consideration, we offer a maintenance plan to companies who know they will have product that is continuously changing or monthly newsletters they want to provide on their website. It is our hope that this will create a solid relationship with the client and entice them to want to include new product or include a newsletter on their website. With the website being developed for ease of updating and adding/subtracting content, we can assure the client that he/she can view new material in a matter of days rather than a matter of weeks.

01.02.08

Small businesses need websites too

Posted in Website Development, small business tagged , , , , , , , at 11:04 pm by Mainely Technology

If you are like me a lot of your time is spent on the computer. When I hear of a new company or a new product, I instantly go to the computer to conduct a search to find out more about them. Now, what happens when you find nothing on this company? Most consumers when searching for a company to provide services or product, will contact the company which resides closest to their local area. As a business owner, I don’t want to lose any potential new customers to my competition. I can’t afford to! What’s the solution to the problem you ask? Get your business a website.

Let’s look at what happens when someone searches for your business. Suppose as a business owner you’ve paid “big bucks” for a radio ad campaign. Your hope is to reach a targeted audience in a wide network area. Your goal is to draw in prospective clients with whom you can sell your product and close a few sales. Right? So your ad plays on the radio station I’m listening to while I’m in the car running errands. I’ve got a thousand things going through my mind when I hear (in part) your business ad. In all my thoughts and ideas, your business name and product/service is what sticks. Since I’m driving and can’t safely write the name/product/service down, I think to myself “I’ll just look them up when I get back to the office.” When I search for your business, what do I find … ? A listing from the phone book with an address and phone number and no website listed.

Folks, today’s consumers want to “check you out” prior to contacting your business. It affords a level of credibility and assurance that you are indeed a legit business. Having a website developed for your business (big or small) does not have to be an outrageous expense, in order to gain your business a credible presence on the web. As with advertising or marketing agencies, researching your options for web development will work in your favor and give you many different scenarios from which to choose. There are two ways to look at this situation. On one hand you can design a website yourself for a fairly reasonable cost or you can hire a professional web developer to develop a professional site for you that will reflect you and your business in the way it should be. Now, there’s definite truth in the saying “you get what you pay for” in that creating a website yourself might be cost effective, but it requires a lot of time maintaining it and updating.

Notice that I used the term “design” when I mentioned the do-it-yourself option and “develop” when I mentioned hiring a professional. I will discuss the difference between the two in an upcoming blog, so watch for that. The mission of our business, Mainely Technology, is that no business is too small to have a presence on the web and that even a basic one or two page website will give your business an added credibility which is a great compliment to the money you just spent on the advertising campaign for your business.