Category: Business
Posted by John Sundberg in Business Tuesday, 7 September 2010 View Comments
A couple weeks ago I was approached by a sales team from a large company about adding a potentially profitable, tech-related service to what Black Hills Web Works is already doing.
There is a definite need for the service I’m referring to. Having additional “revenue streams” is an attractive idea. But in the end I turned it down (for the time being, anyway) because of time, which is only available in limited quantity, at least for me. I decided that Black Hills Web Works is still deserving of and needing as much time as I can give it, and to take on another business opportunity at this point would not be wise.
Now that the dust has settled and I can focus again on what I need to be focusing on, I can’t help but feel that I passed some sort of test – the sort of test known really well by “bootstrappers” and entrepreneurs.
Posted by John Sundberg in Business Monday, 6 September 2010 View Comments
While doing some research for the now-in-process redesign of the Black Hills Web Works website I ran across a blog post by another website agency that mentioned The Bootstrapper’s Bible in passing. I’m familiar with Seth Godin and have read several of his books, in whole or in part, but I hadn’t encountered this one yet. As it turns out the book has been distilled into this manifesto that I discovered this morning. Seeing how this is Labor Day, I thought it worth my time to spend an hour or two reading through the 103 pages in this PDF, and I wasn’t mistaken.
I’m not going to attempt to “wax eloquent” about The Bootstrapper’s Bible, or even toss out any highlights, other than to repeat Godin’s purpose for writing this manifesto:
You can use the information in this manifesto to make any company more focused, more efficient, and more grassroots. Throughout this manifesto, though, I’ll be primarily addressing the classic bootstrapper: entrepreneurs who are working their butts off to start a great business from scratch with no (or almost no) money.
I am going to recommend that you do yourself a favor and read it – for yourself. I’m pretty sure you won’t be disappointed. And if you’re a “bootstrapper” who is still in the process of pulling up the bootstraps of your very own company or small business venture, it may be just what you need to hear at this time in your life.
You can download a free copy at this link or by clicking on the image above.
Posted by John Sundberg in Business Saturday, 3 April 2010 View Comments
I brought Seth Godin’s book Small is the New Big home this week and have been doing some reading. Not all at once, of course, since that’s what he advised in his “Warning” preface: “Don’t read this book all at once. It took eight years to write, and if you read it in one sitting, it’ll give you a headache.” And so I’m taking his advice.
One chapter towards the end of the book is called “Start Now – Hurry!”, and though I haven’t read the entire book yet it seems to me that several paragraphs out of this chapter capture the essence of his message, or close to it. Here they are:
Here’s the crux of the matter: Organizations where the people doing the work are the very same people who are making the decisions are more likely to succeed in the long run. Just about all the sins of American business (from environmental despoliation to accounting fraud) can be pinned on the anonymous bureaucracy. Entrepreneurs can’t be anonymous — it’s your decision, your policy, your work, your business — and so you’re fast and honest, or you’re out. There’s nowhere else to pass the buck.
Is it scary? Well, just for a second, consider the alternative. You could work for Motorola or Adelphia or even AT&T, always wondering when the company is going to downsize at the same time that you are busy doing whatever the boss asked just to be sure you’ll be the last to get fired.
Sounds to me like running a tiny business is totally safe in comparison.
I’ve been “running a tiny business” or two for the last ten years, and even though there are plenty of challenges and hardships, when he puts it like that, I’m going to have to agree with him. Here’s to all the “tiny businesses” and one-man (or woman) shows out there in the business world!
Posted by John Sundberg in Business Wednesday, 3 March 2010 View Comments
If nothing else, this strip shows the importance of business systems and the challenge of keeping things, such as vendor contracts, organized and current. Beyond that, I thought it was pretty funny.
Posted by John Sundberg in Business, Marketing and Social Networking Friday, 29 January 2010 View Comments
The February online edition of Entrepreneur Magazine has an article titled “What You Don’t Know About SEO,” which you can find at this link. The subtitle for the article reads, “It’s essential to understand SEO before you spend thousands hiring consultants you may not even need,” and is a good summary of the substance of the article. SEO, an acronym for Search Engine Optimization, is the process of optimizing a website to be most visible to search engines like Google.
A Real Example
Included in the article is a “case study” of a marketing agency that, incredibly, “hired and fired roughly 20 SEO firms in the years after opening its doors in 2005.” Twenty different firms? That’s amazing and alarming, all at the same time. What’s more amazing is that they were paying as much as $12,000 per month for these SEO services. Sounds like SEO consulting is a lucrative business to be in, if perhaps not an especially honest business. According to Peter Kent, author of Search Engine Optimization for Dummies, “The SEO business is 80 percent scam.” Wow.
