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At first, the World Wide Web had no boundaries. It was exhilarating. I remember downloading a file from Antarctica – I could’ve loaded the file from San Francisco, but I chose Antarctica because I could. There were portals to the web, AOL, Compuserve, Prodigy. I socialized and made friends with people around the country, and occasionally, from other parts of the world. Then came the crash. And survivors created Web 2.0. Chat became less important, blogging, comments, forums, BBS became the new point. People could make homepages. With RSS, they could get news from anywhere and put it all together in one place. Google became big. Yahoo became big. Amazon, Ebay became big. A new website showed up called MySpace. And it grew big. And then came Facebook, and then Twitter. And AOL became small. Broadband changed everything – always on, now rich media. People were no longer audiences, chatting among themselves. They provided content, they became part of the websites. They now had tools to connect, and Web 2.0 had a name, Social Media. The web reached 1 billion people. It was huge. And money started flowing. Businesses jumped in. Large companies, and small mom-and-pop outfits put up E-commerce sites and sold to people around the world. It was like Las Vegas, the Web was open 24/7, with lights and bells going off everywhere. And in this time, another website, not as flashy, not as noisy, Craigslist, lay the foundations for the next step.

People asked, what’s next? Higher bandwidth, movies on the web? Video everywhere? Craigslist had the hot, killer app for Web 3.0.

The web gone local.

The local web is happening now. People searching via Google. The richness of the content has replaced the URL as the main navigation across the web. People search for what interested them. People seek those who share values, and become activists in causes. And when that happens, people’s eyes turn to home. Not the home page, but the home they live in. People now use the web to find services, values, entertainment, activity, involvement within their communities. Combining the always on, always there web, with what’s here.

Which means, when you as a local small, small business promote yourself, you now have local web services to use – local directories or yellow-books that let you select what city (cities) you advertise in. You can add yourself to Google Map and Google Earth. You can blog locally, and post in other local blogs. People today are more likely to use Yellow Book online rather than the Yellow Book on your doorstep. And if you position yourself, they’ll find you and walk in your door. By sharing your values, you can meet people who live in your community on the web, build relationships, and when they walk in the door, you already have their business.

The Web’s gone full circle. Worldwide, and local. Are you ready?

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With the business world moving to a global 24/7 environment, we are no longer tied to our desktop computers to conduct business and communicate with our colleagues. Cell phones, PDAs, and other mobile devices are fast becoming the digital companion for the business person. At the same time, leaps in technology have empowered us far beyond the traditional email, scheduling and text messaging apps that have been the staple of our mobile existence. New apps are coming online daily that will continue to change how we work, play and interact with others.

It is important for the small small business owner to recognize this transition and migrate their web offerings to this new platform. The mobile arena is the wild wild west of technology and there are tremendous opportunities for the entrepreneur, the innovator, or the business owner willing to take the next step in the ever evolving technological future. Are you ready?

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Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Interviewed by Tom Kaneshige, CIO.com

In a recent interview for CIO.com, graphic designer Steve Yamaguma talked on the subject of iPhone App Logos. In the busy, mobile business society, time is of the essence and getting information quickly without a lot of hassles is paramount. With over 85,000 apps and counting, the jungle of iPhone apps continues to explode making it perplexing for the business person needing good information and resources on the go. It is clear that well-designed iPhone app logos will facilitate the understanding of what the apps do as well as make it easier to find them in your ever-expanding library. Within days of getting my iPhone, I had close to a hundred apps that I downloaded. I’m now at a point where I try an app, and if it doesn’t perform to my expectations, I discard it to make room for another. (of course, many of those are free). A few guidelines for future app logo designers:

Remember that it will be on a black background in a field of other apps. 
Make it simple – not cluttered
Communicate the functionality of the app
Use good color, contrast, form
Have synergy with your existing branding and marketing collateral 

In the end, the old design principals prevail. You can’t have good design without the chaos of bad designs.

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Without a doubt, we, the “small small business” business owner, have the cards stack against us. When a large customer asks us to jump, we not only jump higher, we try to fly. When there’s an impossible deadline, we barrel our heads down and we make it possible. And, when we need a timely response from our client in order to push their project through, we bite our lips off patiently waiting for them to “get back to us”.

With limited budgets and time, we weather the harsh criticisms and take satisfaction in the fact that we got the job out the door and we’re still in one piece, ready to take on the next battle.

And as brutal the process is, we keep going, and going and going. Yes we have to be smarter than the competition. Faster. Hungrier. More savvy. Yet flexibility, patience and a thick skin are attributes they don’t teach in school. You learn it on the frontlines of everyday business. A business plan, a strategy, and setting goals are important first steps in the process of building a business. But how you deal with the daily, moment by moment challenges builds the character of your business and sets you apart from the competition.

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The W3C, the web standards body just released a new standard for the semantic web, SKOS. The Simple Knowledge Organization System is a common data model for organizing knowledge /data structures in a way that’s both human and machine readable, allowing queries across different databases and data structures.
There’s been a quite revolution in search lately what with new browsers and search engines, Wolfram Alpha (bringing the computers of Star Trek closer to reality) Google Squared, etc. parsing data better leads to business advantage. A standard implementation of semantic standards is important, it will effect the way you do business

Some of what it will mean for you and your business is better search, better data mining and business intelligence and more work for your web guy.

For more detail: http://www.w3.org/2009/07/skos-pr

Another real game changer will be the open video standard, keep an eye out.

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Go2Tradeshow is designed to be a place for people involved in running, designing, supporting, and participating in Tradeshows and Conventions to network connect and explore ideas. Venues, Chambers of Commerce, Unions, Local Service Providers, Marketing and Advertising all are welcome!

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=692937
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=64914153880

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Changes is good, sort of.  Google announced that it has updated it’s search technology, faster, better, smarter etc.

These are good things, but they can cause problems for small businesses that rely on search for all or part of their revenue. A change in ranking can significantly impact business.  Check your site, has your standing changed?

We’ll have to judge the impact over the next week or so to see.

Tom – SSB Science Tuesay

Because Technology Drives Silicon Valley – Being aware of what’s happening can effect your Bottom Line

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Nowadays most every small business has a website even if nothing more than an online business card.  It helps people find you,  gives them directions and talks about your product or service, maybe you even have a storefront and sell products or take payments.  A website gives your business credibility.  It’s expected.

That’s important but if that’s it, you’re only tapping into a fraction of the potential to grow your business by leveraging the internet.

How do people find you online?

Potential customers in your local area are searching for your products or services every day!  Can they find you when they search in Google or Yahoo?  Probably not.

So the first question is how do you get found? ….and that’s what this series is about Search Engine Optimization and Marketing SEO/SEM,   Stay Tuned as we’ll cover some simple but powerful techniques to get you noticed and grow your business.

Cheers!

Tom

First in a Series on Search Engine Optimization for Small Business

Tom Butler, Marketing and SEO Analyst at Small Small Business

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Loyalty is one of the 7 Traits in Bushido. But enemy Samurai have been known to forge short-term alliances to battle a common enemy.

Your business is small. Your staff already has a full plate. And then, the opportunity comes along – a customer needs a full-service website, and is willing to pay for it. It’s a huge project, one that will take months. The risks are high, but the prize higher. Opportunity like this does not come along often, and if you turn it down, your nemesis down the street might take it. But your place is already cramped, your staff swamped, and you simply do not have the bandwidth.

What do you do?

Hire a 1099 team that will do its work remotely. You will be the prime contractor, they will be the sub-contractor.

What is 1099? It’s the IRS designation for a contractor. You can contract for a period of time, and have contractors work onsite like any full-time employee. Or you can hire a contractor for a single project, spend hundreds of hours communicating with them, and never meet them in person your entire life. Normally, 1099′s are local, and you meet them at points during a project.

You don’t have to pay benefits. You can terminate at any time depending on the terms of the contract. But they can terminate as well. If you like the contractor, you use them again when another project comes up. They can do web-based work from their own home or office.

It is in the wind. Small Business have traditionally been responsible for the largest chunk of of the labor force in the US. The problem is, business comes in bursts, intense and slow, yet you have to pay your full-time labor whether there is work or not. Vacations help, but what do you do the rest of the year? Now that small businesses have greater opportunity to grab larger projects thanks to the Internet and technology, a burst can hit your business like a rogue wave.

1099 is a perfect solution. If you have a big project, build a team to handle it. When the project is done, pay the 1099 team and they go their way until the next project comes along. 1099 lets you scale up, and down, as needed, to match the business. Setup and teardown is really easy. The first time, you fax an NDA for signing. You fax a contract signing page. The Contractor faxes back the signature. You provide access to websites, and they can start working that very same day.

Two important caveats: You must document your project’s requirement diligently, and spend a lot of time making sure the contractor understands what you want; you must assign someone as the manager to make sure the contractors delivers new work, and fix defects.

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Along the Bushido Business way are many grave markers.  Lonely placards for the businesses that never became.  Some are the final resting places for businesses whose time have yet to come, some for whom the time should never come.  But most are forsaken ideas buried in foot after foot of words.

Every business started with a conversation.  But conversation is a treacherous thing.  It is Business Bushido to turn idea into Action.  An entrepreneur who follows this path will use the conversation as a tool to create a plan out of a probablistic cloud of ideas.  It is the Business Bushido way to take control of the conversation, and never let it take control of you.

What to watch out for…

Comfort Food for Thought.

People love to talk.  In bad economic times, people are brimming with ideas and excitement.  A good conversation gives you a rush, it leaves you excited, and it makes you forget that you are 2 months behind on your bills.  Some people call this the Pink Cloud. It’s comforting, it’s like cotton candy – all sweet but no nutrition.

Taking action requires risk-taking and work.  Not comforting.  You want to launch a business, but some of your partners just want to talk, take control.

Chasing your own Tail.

When you are figuring out your business, you need to decide on a market, a product and service, and what will make customers choose you over the competition.  A change in one changes the others.  This can lead to circular chases, chasing your own tail. This is the most perilous point – you need to explore the possibilities, but if you cannot crystallize a plan from the cloud of possibility, your business dies.

It is the Business Bushido way to take a risk by committing to a single principle, and building everything on that principle.  At some point, you will have to decide what your market is, what your audience is, and what it will take to make customers choose you.  For good or ill, at least you get to choose your masters.

The downsides.

Sometimes, you will encounter a flaw in the idea.  Sometimes, it’s a showstopper, and the only action is to terminate the conversation and move on to another idea.  But sometimes, a downside is an opportunity.  If you can solve the problem, and your competition hasn’t, you have an edge on the competition.  Sometimes, just changing a detail makes the problem go away.  Sometimes, just living with it will work, because then the flaw is a barrier to entry preventing competition.  Sometimes, the flaw is handled one way by a current competitor, and you can take advantage of some better way to handle it now because you have mobility while your competitor does not.  Sometimes, you have to accept imperfection in an imperfect world.  But do not let it paralyze you, leave it or proceed, both are actions.

Toeing the water.

Everybody at your table is committed to action.  You’ve crystallized your plan.  At what point do you take action?  You are on the brink, but nobody is ready to make the first move.  At this stage, you may run into the nagging flaws in your plan.  Now is the time to come up with a date and action items.  Whoever is still with you when you reach the date will become your business.

The Bride.

The toughest hurdle of all.  Your sexy business idea is now a very real, very sobering responsibility.  You have a lot of work ahead of you, and stress, worry, crises.  And excitement, victory, and the first dollar.   And now when everybody around you is still talking, you have taken your Action.  This is the life for the Bushido Business, and food for future columns.

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