Many people don’t think about it specifically, but know it intuitively: if you want good customer service, skip the big guys and go to a small company. In Small Business’ Competitive Advantage, I discuss that Customer Service is the magical pixie dust for small business. Think about your normal daily experience: if you need to [ Read More ]
In Deck the Halls with Pink Slips I discuss the November round of layoffs at several big companies. Of course, part of what brought these to my attention is that a dear friend of mine got caught in the pre-holidays cut-backs at Adobe. Even worse, however, was the fact that my friend loved working at [ Read More ]
I have recently started writing a blog series as part of my work with online small business management client, WorkingPoint. Aside from the fact that I think WorkingPoint has the best solution for small businesses, the reason I really like this series is because WorkingPoint is really making a strong statement about being a true [ Read More ]
Jonas and I continue our discussion regarding content strategy for entrepreneurs, and what that specifically means when it comes to SEO.
Here is the recent video I did with Jonas Lamis from Tech Ranch, about the services we provide around strategy and project management consulting to entrepreneurs. We discussed personal branding and how to advance both your self and your business through online marketing strategies.
As the old joke says, “There are two kinds of people in the world…” In my corner of the universe, there are those who love working in/with startups and those who don’t. Those to love it never question why someone else likes it. Those who have either never done it or who have low tolerance [ Read More ]
I had an interesting conversation yesterday after I gave a presentation. I was talking about the necessary functions — particularly when it comes to communications, documentation, change management and entry/exit criteria — of project management in an Agile development process. The “interesting” conversation I had afterward was because one of the attendees (in a private [ Read More ]
What do FreshBooks, Shoeboxed, BatchBlue, MailChimp and Outright all have in common? Aside from being Web 2.0 businesses who serve the small business market, they are also the founding member organizations of The Small Business Web. An exciting initiative that launched earlier this year, The Small Business Web is a partnership of businesses dedicated to [ Read More ]
The second annual Interactive Austin Conference has wrapped up, and in true social media fashion, there is no shortage of online accounts of the day’s activities (with more to be coming over the next few days, no doubt). Online already are keynote coverage posts by Ricci Neer, for each Dion Hinchcliffe, Sam Lawrence and whurley. [ Read More ]
The former CMO of Jive Software, Sam Lawrence, spoke to a crowded room at Interactive Austin this morning. His message was on the lessons needed to specifically apply in order to make social media work in your business. How We Say What We Say One of the challenges social media evangelists face is based on [ Read More ]
This is something I’ve been thinking about more and more recently. The fact that we started off as a services company is what allowed us to get started and to avoid having to rely on outside funding. But it was transitioning to a product company that allowed us to grow and scale, and to ultimately [ Read More ]
Ask anyone who got into an internet-based business prior to 2000, and you’ll hear nostalgic “good old days” stories, the way my grandparents talk about ‘when Kennedy was President.’ It’s hysterical to hear, and it saddens me endlessly to think about how long ago that was, but it really was an exciting time — and [ Read More ]