Mavance, LLC

A blog detailing the start and growth of Mavance, LLC

Archive for the 'Web Design' Category

Small business Web Sites in Limbo - Get Off the Sideline!

May 29th, 2008 by Kelly Hair

Having worked at large companies in a previous life, I have come to expect a base level of service and usability for maintaining web sites. In the marketplace, I have been exposed to so far, I have found a different story. Some specific observations:

  • Sites are not being updated regularly & not refreshed on any regular basis. It’s not uncommon to see a “Copyright 2004″ on the sites.
  • Small companies are forced into “content contracts” that force them to use the developer to update content. If you did not want to pay then someone in your company must know Adobe Dreamweaver or Adobe Contribute.
  • Small companies have no idea how their sites are making them money. A website is something they “have” and is seen as cost of doing business.
  • Small companies have little or no analytics/metrics of site performance. If they do have some sort of analytics then it’s generally a “check it occasionally” or the opposite - an obsessive compulsive “how much bandwidth am I pulling?”
  • Small companies have joined referral networks. These are generally niche but can cost upwards of $500/mo for a handful of contacts. Some have had good results and others have seen this as throwing money down the drain.

That’s what I’ve seen so far. What does it mean? It could mean that companies are not interested in maintaining their own content. Perhaps they want to focus on selling and servicing the customers. I think this is a fair point but it misses a major trend that has built since 2003/2004.

So, what’s happened since 2004? Well, namely, Web 2.0 has come into its own. The democratization of the Internet continues and Web 2.0 has entered the mainstream. It’s a user generated content world now. Content is king and if you don’t publish, or allow the ability for your users/customers to publish, then you’ll risk being left behind.

What does “left behind” mean? Namely, you’ll have to pay for you content to be served and opposed to customers discovering your content. It’s no secret that search engines love blogs. Blogs, or weblogs, are not new - they’ve been around since the late 90s. It’s only been in the last few years that they have entered the mainstream.

Some popular mainstream Web 2.0 sites:

There are countless other sites and the list above is only a taste. You can spend hours reading articles (and news feeds) from sites like Slashdot (/.) or TechCrunch to keep up, or, better yet, focus on your business. The problem with this approach is that lots of sites and tech just don’t pan out.

You may be thinking - that’s nice. I really don’t care about those sites. I think you may want to perk up before it’s really too late. Technology, like business, goes through cycles. A good illustration of technology cycles was documented in Everett Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovation (Amazon.com link) and modified by Geoffrey A. Moore in “Crossing the Chasm” (Amazon.com link). For the sake of this blog, I’ll keep it simple and use Rogers’ bell curve where the technology adoption cycle follows stages including:

  1. Innovators (2.5% of population)
  2. Early Adopters (13.5% of population)
  3. Early Majority (34% of population)
  4. Late Majority (34% of population)
  5. Laggards (16% of population)

A graphic representation of this can be found on Wikipedia. Not sure about you, but I’m a bit more visual. Text is nice but pictures are better!

Technology cycles do not follow a prescribed 7 - 10 year cycle. It really depends on the technology, the usability of the technology and the benefits participants gain from consuming the technology. Case in point - computer took multiple decades before they ended up in your house. I’d say it was very uncommon to have a UNIVAC in the garage in the 60’s. Oh, and the Internet - well - it was created in the 70s and 80s by the US government only to be opened to college students in the 90’s for “Research Purposes.” That’s obviously changed a bit…

So for Web 2.0 - I’d guess we are somewhere between the Early Majority and the Late Majority. Blogs are probably a bit further and are in the Late Majority. Blogging has been around since the late 90’s so it’s pretty mature now.

Perhaps some additional proof will help. A respected publication, BusinessWeek, who in my opinion, catering to the Early Majority & the Late Majority has an article about Social Media in the June 2, 2008 edition called Beyond Blogs. This article is an update to a 2005 article on the importance of Blogs. It

So, what’s a small company to do? Wait it out? When have you gone from waiting to being passed by? Wel, according to bell weather, BusinessWeek, it’s

Everyone’s needs are different but I think small businesses should have:

  • An easy way to update content
  • An easy way to update different types of content (i.e. - blogs, simple articles, forums, etc)
  • Receive appropriate contacts

Taking these issues into consideration, I think the best solution is to open up the content creation for small businesses. Considering I’m a big fan of Open Source and like some of the open source Content Management Systems out there, I’m interesting in promoting this directly to businesses in New Jersey.

  • Deploy an Open Source Content Management System (CMS.) Jargon aside, a CMS simply is a car that you can drive yourself. You don’t always need to have your expensive chauffeur drive you around.
  • The CMS should include some form of blogging or adding articles easily
  • The CMS should provide tools to classify (tag) articles as well as categorize them to provide both readers and search engines relevant content.
  • The CMS should pro

I am working with my partner to develop solutions based on an Open Source CMS called Joomla! Personally, I’m more of a Drupal snob when it comes to the Joomla! space but I can do more through partnerships than on my own so… Joomla! it is.

Joomla! may be too feature rich for the micro businesses/professionals. Wordpress is probably a better solution in this space and I am considering supporting this personally. I think there is a market that’s been forgotten about in this space. While the main focus is larger companies, I believe some professionals are being left behind. Sure, they can setup their own blog. It’s not that difficult but there’s something to be said about having a human there to help.

If you are a small business located in Central New Jersey and have been sitting on the sideline then reevaluate your position. Wait a second… if you are reading this then it’s likely you are not in this boat. Better yet, if you know someone whose business is sitting on the sideline then have them contact us.

If you work for a large company or want to manage the technology yourself then I’d recommend looking at these solutions:

I’m very interested in views - both supporting and outright flames. What do you think?

Category: Web Design, Web Development, eBusiness | No Comments »

Office Software Suite

March 17th, 2008 by Kelly Hair

One of the nice things about running your own business is the decisions you make on how you will work. In the past, I received a work laptop with a standard stack of programs that I must use even if they do not serve any useful purpose. Further, some employers disallowed the introduction of programs I found useful (generally freeware or open source stuff.) While I was able to run Linux on my laptop during a gig I had in 1999/2000, I have found most companies want you to use a standard laptop build of MS Office, Windows 95/NT/2000/XP, Notes/Outlook, MS Project and Visio/MS Visio.

It is very liberating to run whatever stack you want to run. I also decided that I would use my personal MacBook Pro as my work laptop. Before I went off a deep end and do things differently just because I can, I should consider what I need to run a business. Decisions on the following software products were required:

Office Suite
An office suite provides you with a word processor, a spreadsheet program and a presentation package to show off your brilliant ideas. Some choices you can run:

  • Microsoft Office - This software runs on both Windows and Mac OS X. It is the de facto standard for office suite functionality and true compatibility.
  • Apple iWork - iWork is a great alternative to MS Office if you are a Mac user. The presentation software, Keynote, is the real gem of the software package. Apple, the producer, has not ported this to MS’ operating systems nor Linux.
  • OpenOffice & NeoOffice - OpenOffice runs on a variety of systems including Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. NeoOffice is a Mac specific port that looks prettier and does not require you to run a copy of X Windows.

I’d like to use either Apple iWork or OpenOffice. The issue I have is that I must have true compatibility. The partner I have in Atlanta uses MS Word & MS Excel files for a good portion of the spec’ing process. While I use NeoOffice on the home PCs, I decided, that for business, I should use MS Office. Apple’s iWork is a close second in my book…

Project Management Software
Project management software is used to report on the progress of projects. I see it more as a communication tool rather than a management tool. Sure, you can use it to manage but I would argue that project management is more about reporting rather than doing.

Desktop products:

  • Microsoft Project - MS Project is the de facto standard in this arena as well. However, you must run a MS OS to run MS Project. Also, it’s very expensive so be prepared to dole out some cash if you decided on this product.
  • Gantt Project - Gantt Project is Java based an runs on any operating system with a Java VM (in other words.. pretty much any PC/Mac) Its usability is passable but not great in my opinion.
  • Merlin2 - Merlin is a great product if you are Mac shop. It syncs with iCal, has a nice bookshelf/set of reference materials and had built it workflows. Perhaps I should emphasize the sentence before last - if you’re a Mac shop then this is a great product and you should look at it. As an added bonus, during an evaluation, I threw MS Project files in both XML format at regular format at it. It was able to open both.
  • ConceptDraw Project - ConceptDraw is a great value if you buy all the ConceptDraw products. However, if you’re a Windows user I’d have a difficult time recommending it over MS Project. If you are a Mac user, I’d have even a harder time recommended this over Merlin2. So, where does this leave the product? A second, in my book, for both OSs.
  • OmniPlan - OmniGroup puts out really good software for Macs and OmniPlan is a good program. However, it pales in comparison to Merlin2 and ConceptDraw Project in my opinion.

SaaS/hosted:

  • 37Signal’s Basecamp - Basecamp provides task management/to-dos, simple project document management (pay versions only), whiteboarding and time tracking for projects. Basecamp is provided in multiple pricing tiers - from free to an “enterprise” max version for $149/mo.
  • Daptiv (previous eProject) - Not sure why they renamed it. Suppose Daptiv sounds fresh but eproject makes sense… Anyhow, I have not reviewed this product in detail. It looks feature rich. I’m listing it in the event you are in need of evaluating multiple product offerings..
  • SugarCRM/Netsuite/Concursive project management. These platforms offer project management as a tertiary feature if you’re having a good day.

Host your own:

  • DotProject - Dotproject is a great alternative if you have the time and resources to host your own server. It requires a fairly standard LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) server, a VMware image or you can host at a low cost provider. The major downside I’ve seen with DotProject is in the project planning stage. Yes, you can assign a project a prebuilt template. However, adding and manipulating tasks is not overly easy. If only the DotProject guys would get together with some Web 2.0 folks and worked out some nifty AJAX interface…

For my purposes, I chose Merlin2. I really like the interface and I’m in luck because I run a Mac shop. If I ran a Windows shop then I would have to think long and hard between MS Project and ConceptDraw’s Project though MS Project would probably end up being my choice. If my company expands to multiple location with multiple OSs deployed then I’d have to seriously look at hosting a DotProject server and centralize this functionality.

Planning Software
Before you can manage something you have to plan it. While some use a project management tool, a text pad or a text pad on their computer, I prefer to dump my brain using a mindmapping tool.

Software:

  • Novamind Platinum - Novamind makes great mindmapping software. It’s not cheap but generally the good stuff on the desktop side costs you (yes… I made a point of saying on the the desktop side…) The Platinum edition of this software provide screen writing capabilities (like I’ll ever use that..) and a really nifty presentation interface. A nice feature of the software allows you to dump the mindmaps directly to Merlin2 so you can kick off the project quickly. While this feature is touted for Merlin, it does work with other PM software as well…
  • Freemind - Freemind is Java based and works on just about any computer you’ll use in the wild. It has a development community that has developed some nifty tools like a Mediawiki plugin for displaying Freemind mindmaps in both Flash and Java. MediaWiki is the software that runs wikipedia.org..
  • MindJet MindManager - MindJet is one of the pioneers in the computer aided Mindmapping software. They have lots of experience on Windows platforms and have recently ported this software to Macs.
  • ConceptDraw MINDMAP - Again, ConceptDraw does a good job and this is, in my opinion, one of the better products they put out. However, it feels a bit clunky compared to Novamind.
  • Inspiration - Inspiration runs on both Windows and Mac OS X. I have not used this product but I thought I would include it if you want to evaluate it. I have heard good things about it…

I chose Novamind Platinum over Freemind. Having used Freemind for over a year on multiple platforms, and now Novamind for 6 mos, I can say Novamind’s product is hands down worth the price. In hindsight, I did not need to get the Platinum version of Novamind and could have gone for a cheaper Novamind product.

Presentation Tools
I am referring to tools that visually diagram processes and systems as presentation tools. Both mindmapping and Powerpoint/Keynote have been discussed previously so I will avoid talking about these again.

  • MS Visio - Visio is the de facto standard for diagramming. However, this only works on MS’ OSs and it is costly in comparison to the alternatives.
  • ConceptDraw - ConceptDraw is an excellent program that runs on both Macs and Windows PCs. ConceptDraw does a good job of importing MS Visio files. The interface is a little clunky to me though…
  • Omni Group’s OmniGraffle - OmniGraffle is an excellent program for Macs. It takes a bit of time to deprogram yourself if you are a Visio type like me. However, the importing of MS Visio files is not as good as ConceptDraw’s.

Since I run a Mac shop, Visio is not appropriate. Sure, I could use a virtualization solution like Parallels or VMware Fusion to run Windows program, or worst yet, use Bootcamp to boot into Windows on Mac. However, I think either option is looking to the past rather than move forward.

For Mac users, it’s a tough choice between OmniGraffle and ConceptDraw. In the end, I chose OmniGraffle since it felt like a better designed product. The Visio import feature on the professional edition is much better in the 5.0 release.

Collaboration Tools
Collaboration tools are growing very quickly. Collaboration tools range from desktop products including:

Web based tools:

I am certainly missing some great products in the list above. As I started typing up this note, I began to realize that I have looked at quite a few products over the past 6 months to a year. The software available on both desktops and online is truly remarkable and is getting better every day. At this point, I will highlight both the hardware and software stacks I chose.

eMail is still a killer app. However, I have distinct patterns of conversation depending on who I know. Many business conversation are in eMail but I have noticed a change here.

My Hardware & Software Stack

  • MacBook Pro with EVDO card (see this post for more info on the card..)
  • Microsoft Office 2004. 2008 is in the mail and I’m looking forward to the speed increases for the native Intel Macs.
  • Merlin 2.5 Project Management software.
  • Omni Group’s OmniGraffle.
  • NovaMind Platinum.
  • Apple Mail and Adium (iCal & Contacts used as well..)
  • Adobe CS3 software. This was not discussed earlier but I thought I would throw it in to have a complete list.

Wrap-Up

I’m interested in hearing about comments on this post or other tools I did not list above. The post became a whee bit bigger than I expected but I think it is important to see the alternatives.

Thanks for reading and feel free to drop me a line via the contact form if you do not comment on the page directly.

Category: Customer Relationship Management, Office, Project Management Tools, Relationship Management, Remote Working, Sales Force Automation, Startup, Task Management Tools, Tech, Time Management Tools, Web Design, eBusiness | 1 Comment »

Book Review- Do It Wrong Quickly: How the Web Changes the Old Marketing Rules by Mike Moran

March 16th, 2008 by Kelly Hair

Over the past three weeks, I have been reading five books. Yeah, I know it’s a no-no to read more than one non fiction book at a time… Anyhow, I finished the book this afternoon and really thought it was a top notch read. The author, Mike Moran, does a great job of helping the audience, present day marketers, understand how the direct marketing world has, and more importantly, is changing around them. The book is not a hands on howto book nor is it a book on theory. It provides a good mix of both extremes and I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking to gain a better understanding of Internet (Direct) Marketing.The rest of this review includes details of he book, a listing of the chapters and some takeaways from the book.

Book Information:

  • Title: Do It Wrong Quickly: How the Web Changes the Old Marketing Rules (Amazon Link)
  • Author: Mike Moran
  • Publisher: IBM Press, 2007, Edition 1, 408 pages
  • ISBNs: 0132255960 & 978-0132255967
  • Overall Rating: 4.5/5

The Chapters

The book is broken down into three sections. The sections break down to: 1) theory 2) detailed information 3) how to implement and stay on top of things.

  • Part 1 (’That New Fangled Marketing”) - Chapter 1 - “They’re Doing Wonderful Things with Computers.” This chapter discusses the old marketing paradigms and how they have shifted.
  • Part 1 - Chapter 2 - “New Wine in Old Bottles.” This chapter rights the ship and explains how newer marketing methods are similar to older ones - the main difference is - everything moves much faster.
  • Part 1 - Chapter 3 - “Marketing is a Conversation.” This chapter discusses how permission marketing (see Seth Godin for more info here..) and new media formats are changing how marketers discuss products/services with customers.
  • Part 2 (”That New Fangled Direct Marketing”) - Chapter 4 - “Going Over to the Dark Side.” This chapter is all about the conversion of customers.
  • Part 2 - Chapter 5 - “The New Customer Relations.” This chapter discusses how to engage in the initial, and follow on, conversations with your customers.
  • Part 2 - Chapter 6 - “Customers Vote with Their Mice.” You have to continue to experiment and understand motivations change. This chapter highlights how you can never rest on your laurels when it comes to marketing to your customers.
  • Part 3 (’That New Fangled You”) - Chapter 7 - “This Doesn’t Work For Me.” As the author puts it: this chapter borderlines on self help. The chapter is all about him trying to help you (and most importantly your mindset.)
  • Part 3 - Chapter 8 - “This Won’t Work Where I Work.” A chapter dedicated to organizational behavior. Anyone who has worked in a political environment will relate to this chapter. For some, this could mostly be skipped. If you decide to skip then I’d recommend you pick back up at page 287..
  • Part 3 - Chapter 9 - “This Stuff Changes Too Fast.” This chapter prepares the marketer for new mediums to consider including cell phones/mobile web, virtual worlds (like Second Life) and social networks (like MySpace). This area is still developing so you need to keep up with these maturing markets. The author provides his blog as the site to keep up with the changing times. This is the only plug within the book (that I caught atleast..) but there’s more resources than just his blog. I’ll put in an entry with some resources at a later date.

Points from the Book:

  • The Internet has changed Direct Marketing forever. Previously, you wrote copy, printed it up and sent/gave it to the customer. Your message was fixed for days/weeks and changes to the message cost $$$. With the web, this has all changed. Variations to the initial ads on web sites, blogs, search engine and email marketing channels can be changed quickly.
  • It’s far easier to measure the effectiveness of marketing messages on the web then in old days of billboards, flyers and commercials.
  • The author stresses a trial and error - do and measure - approach to your direct marketing campaigns.
  • Using New Media techniques such as blogs, wikis, podcasts and vidcasts to reach a larger audience than standard web pages.
  • Major site redesigns may not be the answer. Some tweaks over time is what you may need. The author later correlates this to a trend in project management - the move from big bang waterfall approaches to agile/iterative approaches.
  • Establish conversations with customers. The old style of marketing and advertising is fast dying. Customers are not interested in being given messages from a faceless corporation. You need to interact with your customers. Those who chose not to will suffer the consequences.
  • Allow your employees to talk with customers directly via web technologies. Sure, they might screw up but the level of authenticity added is worth the short term pain. The author, like others, suggests you establish blogging & communication guidelines.

In Summary…

  • The message is clear - do not be afraid to make changes and measure them. However, you must have resource available to make the changes or outsource to a search marketing firm. The value will be seen - you must give it a chance.
  • Analytics, and in a more complex environment, full blown Business Intelligence, packages are worth their weight in gold for measuring results. You could go the route of Urchin, Omniture/Hitbox/WebSideStory, WebTrends. Personally, I do not have a need for data mining/full reporting so I’m sticking with Google Analytics for the time being. It’s a good package to start with!

“Do It Wrong Quickly” is available at your local book store or read more reviews on my favorite e-retailer: Amazon (Link for Do It Wrong Quickly)

Category: Book Reviews, Marketing, Relationship Management, Web Design, Web Development, eBusiness | 1 Comment »

The Decision Process

March 10th, 2008 by Kelly Hair

I had a rough understanding of what I wanted to do and I knew going back to consulting for a company was not in my cards. I wanted to build my own company. My passion was in technology and I liked the idea of helping dynamic small and medium sized businesses solve their problems. Previous to working at a large corporation, I consulting with mostly middle market companies and their ability to get things done energized me in my past life.

I looked at opportunities including franchising, startups and partnerships. I knew my valuable technical experience should be utilized. While I was reading more business & marketing books from the likes of Brian Tracy (site, Amazon), Brad Sugars (site, Amazon) and Napoleon Hill (Amazon), I knew I did not want to go to far from the technology. Besides, I recalled how bored I was when I worked at a Wendy’s and a Subway nearly two decades ago.

So.. how could I exploit my experience while learning new skills and business systems? A technical franchise came to mind immediately. I will not get into the names of the companies I looked at, but they ranged from a “outsourced IT” approach to website design. The key issues I discovered were threefold:

  1. Having worked for a company obsessed with its branding, I understand the importance of this. With franchises, you are building the company’s brand. Your brand is simply a holding company/semi-independent entity.
  2. The fees the franchises were charging were a bit rich for what they provided. The range was between 10% and 18% of sales (read: not income). Again, I will not get into the names because I have NDAs in place with these companies.
  3. Territories overlapped in one of the cases. The nearest franchise owner was, literally, 3 blocks away. The franchise explained this as “it’s like having another McDonald’s three blocks away”. Well, I think McDonald’s would think twice about putting another franchise within 3 streets of another unless you are in a densely populated place like New York City.

On the plus side, franchises generally offer working business systems. However, I was not convinced of the virtual/home based franchise models. I did not see the benefit of growing someone else’s brand while taking the risk on myself. So… what, oh what should I do?

With sites like PartnerUp and BizBuySell and friends with ideas and contacts, I questioned if I should go the safe franchise route. I was not comfortable with either approach after giving it more thought. I chose a hybrid approach. While the partnership with AIS Media is similar to a franchise it differs in the following ways:

  • I will grow both their brand, AIS Media, along with mine Mavance, LLC
  • I am not limited in what services I can provide. I have a certain affinity toward Open Source (well.. and Apple stuff too..) If I want to be an Open Source VAR/SI then all the more power.
  • I have a partner who will fulfill orders. The ability to offload this allows me to focus on my clients.
  • AIS Media prides itself in providing winning web design.
  • AIS Media understands the nuances of marketing and I can learn strategy and tactics from them.

In summation, this approach allows me the opportunity to apply sales and marketing theory while having an established company to learn from. Additionally, it takes me out of the technical loop. While this is a strength, I already know how to do this. I need to learn new skills and continue to grow.

The next posts will go over the systems I have put into place. Yes, it’s fairly technical but systems are important. As Brad Sugars (and Michael Gerber, et. al.) will preach - you have to have business, people and technical systems in place to leverage your time. I have headed their advice and will share what I’m doing within the LLC.

Category: Startup, Web Design, Web Development, eBusiness | No Comments »