1. Revenue is great, but it’s what you keep that is more important.
2. Cash flow, cash flow, cash flow. Did I mention cash flow?
3. No sales, no business … period.
4. Where you start is not where you end up. So. don’t fret about the small stuff early on.
5. It’s about the business model – the system of making money.
6. There are good decisions and bad ones, but the worst decision is no decision. Those keep you up at night.
7. It’s the people that focus on price and discounts that cause you the most grief.
8. If you can, only deal with people you like. They refer nicer people and life is just happier.
9. It’s okay to fail. You learn more quickly and you’re not afraid to try new things.
10. Have good advisors around you, the ones that have been where you are.

Have any? Please add to the list!

We are fond of the saying “in God I trust, all others show me data.” When it comes to advertising, data wins over the hype of advertising salespeople. Our website analytics and in-house tracking shows us where all our online leads come from, but I was guilty of being too busy working in the business rather than on the business. One day something angered me so I decided to look closer at the data specifically relating to our print advertising. Boy was it sobering. What had worked well in the past was simply no longer working.

Sure writing the periodic article and seeing our name in a traditional print newspaper was great for the ego, but was it generating business? The data said “no”. In fact the data was so telling that in January we shifted most of our print advertising dollars online. And let it be noted that the online marketing we did was no longer with the old traditional media. They’re busy trying to put a glossy online look to old methods.

So what was our result? Less money spent on ineffective advertising and more results from online marketing activity.

If you haven’t looked at where your business is coming from, do it today. You, like us, might be wasting a lot of money on ineffective advertising simply because of old habits. And be wary of old media with shiny new offerings. They may simply want to take advantage of your old buying habits.

That’s an important skill to have especially in this online world. People can smell BS. They want authenticity as well as personal and practical information that speaks right to them. Writing needs to be real. And to be real you need to develop a thicker skin.

When it comes to writing, it’s time to make it personal & practical.

As a web design company living through the initial iterations of building Facebook pages for business, we highly recommend heeding their advice.

• Phishing scam using images for CIRA website
• Internet phone system hacking

What is Phishing:

Phishing is a way of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication (Source: Wikipedia).

Phishing scam using images from CIRA website:

There have been reports of a phishing scam using images from the CIRA website. CIRA, is the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, the organization that manages Canada’s .CA domains.

If you own a .CA domain you may be targeted so remember the following:

• CIRA will NEVER ask for credit card information through their website as registrations are done through Registrars such as CMS Web Solutions.
• CMS Web Solutions would never request that you provide your credit card information via email or through our website.

Internet phone system hacking:

There has been a recently reported incidence of voice mail fraud on a VOIP internet phone system. The system is only as secure as the voicemail passwords of individual users. In this case, a hacker was attempting to guess voice mail passwords and access the outgoing call feature of the voice mail system to place long distance overseas calls.

How could this occur? Well often passwords default to things like: 0000, 1234, 4321, or “Password” and never get changed.

Remember to check your settings to keep your passwords set to a random number and security will no longer be an issue; at least for now.

What do customers expect from a professional business website?

To address this question it’s helpful to understand what your visitors are looking for in the first place. Here is a useful checklist. It shows the top six things that web visitors want to know when they reach your site and the content you need to provide to give them what they want.

Get these six things right and you’ll convert more prospects into leads. Get them wrong and they’ll click away confused.

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes: does your website pass the test?

The Customer Test for your Website

Can I quickly find the answers to the following questions from your site?

Question 1: “Am I in the right place?”

Your customer wants to know: “Is this relevant to me? Can this company solve my problem? Can I see immediately what they do and is this what I’m after?”

Answer

Make sure your website includes the following information, written in language your audience will understand:

• A very obvious description of what you do – the client should not need to dig for this.

Question 2: “Are you credible?”

Your customer wants to know: “Does this company work for people I respect? Do other people like what they do? Do they say good things about the company’s work?”

Answer

Build trust by including this type of social proof:

• Client names
• Customer testimonials – real quotes from real customers
• Up-to-date case studies/success stories
• Press clippings and articles will increase your credibility considerably
• Awards are powerful

Question 3: “Could I work with you?”

Your customer wants to know: “What sort of company are they? What’s their background? What’s their mission – is it something I buy into?”

Answer

The web is very impersonal. Give your customers a sense of the company behind the website with:

• Interesting information on your team in the ‘About Us’ section, with photos
• A (passionate) account of why you’re in business and what you set out to do (see ‘What’s your crusade?’)
• Ways to follow and connect with you to find out more: a newsletter and social media feeds give them this opportunity

Question 4: “Are you an expert?”

Your customer wants to know: “Do they know what they’re talking about? Can I learn something?”

Answer

Make sure your website includes well written, relevant and regularly updated thought leadership content. Here are some options:

• Articles and blogs
• White papers
• E-books
• And even a business book

Question 5: “Will they make a difference?”

Your customers want to know: “What’s the benefit of this service? What results will I see? How will this help me and my business?”

Answer

Include:

• Up-to-date case studies/success stories that clearly show results and business benefits
• Information on the likely benefits in the ‘Services’ section
• Customer testimonials that talk about results

Question 6: “How do I contact you?”

Answer

Make it easy for your customers to get in touch. (This sounds obvious but many sites fail to achieve this.)

• Put your contact details (phone number and email) on every page
• Make these very visible
• Don’t just use pre-structured registration forms – if it’s complex they may not bother getting in touch

Does your website pass the Customer Test? Try it. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Can they find the information they want?

Luckily all ended well, however, it brings to light the fact that in an Internet connected world, a website and email are vital to a company. And having your website down for a long period can impact your search engine results.

Many business owners don’t realize that they don’t own or control their domain name. Without that control, a business is almost helpless if things go wrong. In this economic climate, many web designers are going out of the business or worse, disappearing.

WARNING: A tech lawyer once told me that a web design company he worked for specifically and strategically took control of a company’s domain whenever they could. Personally, that makes me queasy, but in the wild west of the Internet your ignorance is someone else’s gain. We’ve seen companies, big companies, with their domain name on businesses cards, posters, vehicles, advertising etc., lose control of their domain name. It’s not pretty, especially when one hears the words, “sure you can buy the domain from us, it will cost you hundreds (sometimes thousands) of dollars”.

So how do you ensure you are in control?

Check your domain whois to ensure your company is the registered owner as well as having your email address listed for the administrative contact. All emails pertaining to the domain name go to that address. Ensure you use a reputable company to look after your domain renewal. Have them automatically renew it so no one needs to worry about your site or email going down. And if you notice you don’t own it change it right away. You wouldn’t sign your company ownership to anyone, why sign your domain name over?

Like most things connected to the Internet, one thing leads to another. So after watching the movie, I headed over to YouTube to watch interviews with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and LinkedIn’s Jeff Weiner.

Key insights about the social network

Facebook has a massive audience and it’s not done growing yet. 50% of it’s 500,000,000 users log in daily.

Mobile is driving tremendous growth in social media. 40% of Facebook status updates are done via a mobile device. Mobile can’t be ignored anymore.

There are many different social silos. LinkedIn is just one good example. It’s where business individuals hang out to enhance their professional network and recruiters visit to find qualified candidates for job openings.

Social media has begun making two way communication the accepted norm. Mobile makes it virtually instant. This sharing of information will continue to grow as mobile smartphones become the norm. Mobile is growing at an incredibly fast rate around the world and that growth is expected to accelerate. If your business isn’t looking at mobile it needs to start.

Newsletters are a way to tell your customers about new products, special events that might be happening at your business or special offers and discounts.  People sign up for your newsletter and want to be informed of important information and deals via email.  Newsletter programs like Constant Contact are great for designing and sending out your newsletter.  These types of programs usually come with tracking that helps you analyze what works and what doesn’t in  your newsletters.

Blogs, on the other hand, are best used to focus on industry specific information or information that can help your customers solve problems. You can share useful articles, but to be a real resource,  you need to offer your perspectives or insights. The more personal and practical you make your blog post, the better.  A blog can be a stand-alone site or preferably integrated into your main website both for usability and search engine optimization.   Many of your visitors will choose to subscribe to your blog and may not read it as soon as it’s published so any time-sensitive information should become part of your email newsletter broadcast.

Newsletters and blogs are both great ways to stay connected with your customers and engage new ones at the same time.  Be sure to use the right one at the right time to get the best results.