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!

Michael Geist’s recent post explains why you should care.  Read the key points from his post below.

By Michael Geist

While there is little that Canadians can do to influence U.S. legislation, there are many reasons why I think it is important for Canadians to participate.

First, the SOPA provisions are designed to have an extra-territorial effect that manifests itself particularly strongly in Canada. As I discussed in a column last year, SOPA treats all dot-com, dot-net, and dot-org domain as domestic domain names for U.S. law purposes. Moreover, it defines “domestic Internet protocol addresses” — the numeric strings that constitute the actual address of a website or Internet connection — as “an Internet Protocol address for which the corresponding Internet Protocol allocation entity is located within a judicial district of the United States.”

Yet IP addresses are allocated by regional organizations, not national ones. The allocation entity located in the U.S. is called the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN). Its territory includes the U.S., Canada, and 20 Caribbean nations. This bill treats all IP addresses in this region as domestic for U.S. law purposes. To put this is context, every Canadian Internet provider relies on ARIN for its block of IP addresses. In fact, ARIN even allocates the block of IP addresses used by federal and provincial governments. The U.S. bill would treat them all as domestic for U.S. law purposes.

Second, Canadian businesses and websites could easily find themselves targeted by SOPA. The bill grants the U.S. “in rem” jurisdiction over any website that does not have a domestic jurisdictional connection. For those sites, the U.S. grants jurisdiction over the property of the site and opens the door to court orders requiring Internet providers to block the site and Internet search engines to stop linking to it.

Should a Canadian website owner wish to challenge the court order, U.S. law asserts itself in another way, since in order for an owner to file a challenge (described as a “counter notification”), the owner must first consent to the jurisdiction of the U.S. courts.

Third, millions of Canadians rely on the legitimate sites that are affected by the legislation. Whether creating a Wikipedia entry, posting a comment on Reddit, running a WordPress blog, participating in an open source software project, or reading a posting on BoingBoing, the lifeblood of the Internet is a direct target of SOPA. If Canadians remain silent, they may ultimately find the sites and services they rely upon silenced by this legislation.

Fourth, the U.S. intellectual property strategy has long been premised on exporting its rules to other countries, including Canada. Spain’s recent anti-piracy legislation that bears similarities to SOPA is the direct result of U.S. threats of retaliation if it did not pass U.S.-backed laws. Canada has a history of similar experiences. The same forces that have lobbied for SOPA and PIPA in the United States are the primary lobbyists behind the digital lock provisions in Bill C-11 and the recent submission to the U.S. government arguing that Canada should not be admitted to the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations until it complies with U.S. copyright demands.

Moreover, the Wikileaks cables documented relentless U.S. pressure in Canada including revelations that former Industry Minister Maxime Bernier raised the possibility of leaking the copyright bill to U.S. officials before it was to be tabled it in the House of Commons, former Industry Minister Tony Clement’s director of policy Zoe Addington encouraged the U.S. to pressure Canada by elevating it on a piracy watch list, Privy Council Office official Ailish Johnson disclosed the content of ministerial mandate letters, and former RCMP national coordinator for intellectual property crime Andris Zarins advised the U.S. that the government was working on a separate intellectual property enforcement bill.

SOPA virtually guarantees that this will continue. Not only is it likely that the U.S. will begin to incorporate SOPA-like provisions into its IP demands, but SOPA makes it a matter of U.S. law to ensure that intellectual property protection is a significant component of U.S. foreign policy and grants more resources to U.S. embassies around the world to increase their involvement in foreign legal reform.

The SOPA/PIPA protest tomorrow offers people around the world the opportunity to add their voice against dangerous legislative proposals that could eventually make its way into international trade agreements and domestic lobbying pressures. For Canadians participating in the protest, consider this three-step process:

1) If you have a website or blog, turn it dark for the day with information on SOPA, Bill C-11 and why this issue matters. If not, consider adding “Stop Sopa” to your Twitter or Facebook image.

2) Write to your Member of Parliament to register one more objection to the digital lock rules in Bill C-11. The digital lock rules are the Canadian version of SOPA — overbroad, ineffective legislation that targets technology and that is widely opposed by most stakeholders. While many are frustrated by the sense the government simply ignores these objections, the SOPA protests are attracting attention and it is important to remind Canadian politicians of the similar concerns here.

3) Speak out against the copyright provisions in the Trans Pacific Partnership, particularly the plans for copyright term extension and the digital lock rules. The government consultation is open until February 14, 2012. All it takes a single email with your name, address, and comments on the issue. The email can be sent to consultations@international.gc.ca. Alternatively, submissions can be sent by fax (613-944-3489) or mail (Trade Negotiations Consultations (TPP), Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, Trade Policy and Negotiations Division II (TPW), Lester B. Pearson Building, 125 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0G2).

Follow Michael Geist on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mgeist

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.

• 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?

Typically, our set-up for websites ranges from 3 to 5 digits.  Asking initially about cost is similar to asking what it costs to buy a car or a house. It depends on many variables. For web the most important question is  “What are you trying to accomplish?”   Once that’s clear you can work out the time and money you’ll need to invest.

Many times though, people want to start climbing a ladder without much thought of the wall they’re climbing.  I spoke with someone yesterday who built a 100-page site on a platform that turned out not to work. Ugh.

Before you charge up a ladder, it’s advisable to stand back a bit and plan. Consult others who may have the eyes to see what might not be obvious to you. If needed, pay them for their expertise. It will be a lot cheaper and less frustrating than getting to the top of the wall, looking around and hearing yourself say “Ugh!”.

Done well, strategic web design can have dramatic effects. A new client landed $200,000 worth of measurable sales after only a few months. The steps are:

1.    Discover the niche

2.    Know the target audience

3.    Build and optimize the website inserting measurement tools

4.    Plan and execute a coordinated on and offline marketing strategy

5.    Measure and adjust.

6.    Go after additional niches.

Smart businesses have always known that marketing isn’t about cost – it’s about return. This client spent $1,000 per month to drive traffic to the website. Even after adding in the cost of the website, the return on his marketing investments were substantial. It’s not just about having a great website. It’s about ensuring you get results with your whole marketing strategy.

They need a website
They need to optimize that website for search engines
They need to have inbound links to their website
They need to update the site regularly
They need a blog
They need to be on Facebook and do regular updates
They need to be on Linkedin and have many connections
They need to be on Twitter and tweet regularly
They need a Facebook Fan page and have lots of people “Like” them
They need Yellow pages offline and online ads
They need ads in newspapers and online
They need to do Google Adwords
They need to do search engine marketing
And on and on and on …

Talk about overwhelmed and confused!  So what do you do?  And, who has the time? Is doing all this worth it or is it just a distraction?

It always comes back to this:  You don’t count – your customers and prospects count.

So, what are your prospects using to find companies like yours? What do they want?  How are your customers engaging with your company and companies like yours?  Answers to those questions will guide what you need to use.

Is your info important to you or your audience? Are you sending it out just to remind people of your existence? How can you ensure that your info will be read and appreciated?

1.     Make it personal, practical and ideally timely for the target audience. Ask yourself “Would I really care about this enough to read it?”

2.     Keep it very short. Who has time to read nowadays? But we like to stay on top of events, trends etc. If required, hyperlink it to the full article on your website or blog. If it’s important to me and I have the time I will read it.

3.     Think about your audience. There is only one person on the other side of the monitor/screen. Write to that person.

Sound easy? It’s harder to do than you think. Start observing what you are receiving and what you actually read.  Then, do unto others …