The Ideas Bus: Pimping Everybody's Ideas: March 2008

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Have you backed up your backyup?

If you think that having one backup system to protect yourself from loss of information is enough, think again. For a lot of business owners out there, they save their information on a local hard-drive either on their PC/Laptop or on an external hard -drive. Yes, they are doing a great job in protecting their information from loss, however, this may not be enough. Imagine if there was a fire, or a flood or some other natural, accidental or even a planned disaster, this would potentially wipe out your business's backup systems. Have you thought about backing up your information virtually? or taking your external hard-drive off-site? or sticking your external hard-drive in a fireproof safe?

Some of these ideas may sound a tad unnecessary or even whacky, but only as whacky as a few of the insurance policies out there. It's only when you lose something, you realise how 'unwhacky' the insurance was and that is exactly what backing up your backup is, a form of insurance. Backing up your backup is to ensure you have your important data/information at your disposal in case it gets disposed. It will likely take a little bit of time out of your day but it will save you days, weeks or months to get back on your feet again.

There are a few reliable virtual backup system alternatives out there from Gmail, to this list I gave in a previous post:
1. www.omnidrive.com
2. www.esnips.com
3. totoexpress.com
4. www.fluxiom.com
5. www.safeme.co.uk

The point is, backup your backup today before its too late.

Own a website? Here is a list of 59 Internet Marketing tips

If you own a website or are looking to launch a new website, go through this internet marketing tips list by Ian Lurie to ensure you are giving your website the best chance of doing well online. This is just one list, there are many more but it's a good start.

Read more here -->> 59 Internet Marketing Tips

Friday, March 21, 2008

I got scoops on how to market your blog.

If you are just starting out in the world of blogging, then save yourself time and learn from the best on how to market your blog. Here are some HOT tips for you from Darren Rowse.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

WE are all guilty of this!

We are all guilty of focussing on what we want to see, use to seeing and not taking the time to stand back and reflect on what we may not be seeing. Reflection and honesty are very important to surviving in business. Try standing back a bit from your business, get people to honestly critique your business like 'mystery shoppers', so you can identify ways to improve or else you could be missing out on massive opportunities to grow your business.

A lot of business owners don't like hearing that they're doing something wrong or that they are doing poorly. You only have to watch the business owners on a Gordon Ramsey show to see what I mean. At times, the truth can hurt and that's ok. The test is to bite the bullet, listen to the advice, make the changes and deliver. Then audit yourself again to ensure you're not doing the same old stupid things. Your customers can be your best 'advisors', so listen and learn.

It's amazing what you can see with a fresh perspective.

Look at this video:

Ignore emails, phone calls, and other communications at your peril.

Have you ever made several emails seeking information for a service or a product and got no reply? Then you try again and send out a followup email and still no reply from all the businesses in the same sector? This happened to me recently when I needed quotes for a large job. I sent out over 20 emails to various companies in New Zealand, Australia and the USA and received only 2 replies!!! My initial thoughts are, "are these businesses crazy?", you bet they are. Although the 2 replies that I received couldn't help me out, at least they told me and one of them even gave me a referral to their competitor who I emailed and received NOTHING!

I had it in mind to let all my friends know about my bad experience and name every single company that ignored my email but I thought I would give them a second chance. Always remember, bad news travels faster than good news and when people share the negative experiences with their friends and family, this is a 'viral campaign' of sorts. The power of word of mouth should never be underestimated. If people don't feel that a business is not addressing their needs, they will move on and likely do business with your competitor. If these people tell others of your bad service, you have the potential for a lot of people leaving in their droves to your competitors. Just look at what happened to Bear Sterns this past week! I know it's a little different to what I'm talking about but the issue is the same. If people lack confidence in your business due to bad communication or lack of, bad investment decisions, bad management, bad customer service, your customers will leave.

When you ignore any form of communication from your customers and potential customers, you could be missing out on lucrative cash flows. If you won't help your customers, your competitors surely will. Always think of new customers as customers for life and not one off transactions. It's the repeat business that will sustain and grow your business. Without that, a lot of businesses will suffer financially.

Try looking at it from your own perspective as a customer then think, why is that you only buy certain brands. Why do you drive long distances to service your car? Why do you use the same plumbing service and not anyone else? Why do you usually fly on the same airline carrier? Why do you buy mainly one type of sports shoe? Why do you use only one brand of computer? software? search engine? If you didn't receive an email or a return to your phone call to a business on an urgent request, wouldn't you be disappointed? Yes there is more to it than just replying to a customer's email, phone call or personal request but don't forget, for a lot of people this is what they value highly. It relates to your reliability as a business and businesses should see these communications as opportunities to build trust and long-term relationships.

How do you ensure this doesn't happen? Try a couple of these simple tips:

check your emails regularly and answer them within a couple days max. Not longer. If not, get a 'virtual assistant'.
if you cant help someone, say it! People really don't mind. They simply need an answer. Just make sure you reply either in person or via email. Give a referral if you can. You are there to build trust with people.
exceed your customer(s) expectations at every single point of contact/interaction

why? there are several reasons why.

your customers will remember that experience positively and will likely come back
your customers will likely refer someone else to your business
because when you do, you are inherently building up 'goodwill' and customer loyalty. You are investing in a bank of 'positive credits'. If you experience a bad situation, your loyal customers are likely to forgive you and stick with you through rough times.

ignore your customers and you might as will find another business

So don't be afraid to let your customers know that you can't help them. Tell them that you can't and if you can, send them to your competitor or provide alternative solutions to resolving their issue.

There is nothing worse than a business that doesn't respond or say anything at all!

Saturday, March 15, 2008

50 ways to go GREEN

If you ever wanted to jump on a wave that will generate a massive opportunity to generate extra income for your business, then you need to jump on the 'green' bandwagon. Not only is green business the way to go, it's the only way to go as we look for ways to protect our environment and create sustainable eco-friendly businesses. There is money to be made in green business as consumers have become more informed, aware and socially conscious of the consequences of their purchase decisions. If Wal-Mart and other larger companies are looking to save money and invest in green technologies, products and services, then why don't you?

Read more about how to green your business here -->> 50 Ways to GREEN your business

Thursday, March 13, 2008

If you are closed, your competitors are open.

Imagine this...you want to buy something. You make your decision, you jump in your car, you drive to the store. You look for a carpark, you jump out of your car and you walk to the store. You get there and it's closed. You look for the store's opening hours and there it is in white painted font on a clear background which you only just pick up. That's only if you're lucky! Sometimes, the opening hours are waaaay below eye level which most people will not notice unless their child is scratching at it or sticking gum against it. Other times, you may get to the store and they are closing early without notice. You tell them you'll be quick and they turn you away. There is a better way!!!

If you are in business, it is because you fulfil a need therefore you have paying customers. However, this process of consumerism has to be an easy and smooth one. Once any business gives the consumer an opportunity to leave, the chances are they will. The hardest battle for you will be getting them back. This can be a costly exercise.

When you have one interested consumer at your doorstep, don't turn them away if you can. Ask them exactly what it is they need and if it's a quick sale, shuffle them inside to make the sale. If you really don't have the time to make the sale, point them to your competitor who can help them out. If they don't buy from you now, at least you improve the chances that they will in the future. You just helped your customer resolve a problem. People remember that. So it's important to note and recognise that when someone goes shopping, they are usually motivated to buy something. Plan, design and implement systems to ensure a smooth process for purchase.

Businesses can help themselves by doing a couple of these things:

Let people know exactly when you are open and when you are closed.
Save the consumer time from getting out of their car to find that you're closed.
Save the consumer money from spending on unnecessary gas to get to your place of business.
Fit into their schedule not yours.
Plan around your target market(s) lives
Have your "Opening Hours" in LARGE PRINT in dark font on a WHITE BACKGROUND on your storefront.

if not, have your OPENING HOURS in HUGE PRINT above your store so
people can see your opening hours as they drive pass. This will also help people plan or stop by on impulse.
if your customers see your large signage with your opening hours frequently, you will improve the chances of people learning this by wrote.

Have your OPENING HOURS on your website. Add your Opening Hours with your location information on the mapping services.
Have your OPENING HOURS on your business cards if you want to.
If you're a web-based business, you still should have your opening hours on your website so that if your customer calls for information, they don't call when you're away from your business.
Add your TIME ZONE on your website so that I can plan to call you when you're open especially when I'm in New Zealand and you're in New York.
If you're a customer, let the business know that you're calling from a different time zone. This will help the business fit their services around your schedule.
If you have a HUGE sign outside displaying your Opening Hours, make sure it has LIGHTS!

there is such a thing as night time ;-)

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Why blinding your customers is bad for business.

So how do you get somewhere without being lost anywhere? You look at a map! With the advent of mapping applications online like those below, it is amazing how many businesses don't list their address and contact details. Your customers and potential customers might as well be blind. Help them see and find your location of business and increase the chances of a sale.

I recommend every business inform people on how to find their place(s) of business. Take a leaf out of the larger companies around you. The chances are they are doing it. The more information you provide, the better. It is not that hard to do and doesn't take that long to work out.

In a lot of these mapping services, you can add photos of your storefront and your street. Anything to help your customers find you is a good thing. If they can't, they will go to someone who will and you don't want that to happen.

I recommend you go to these websites, add as much information as you can about your business (address, contact details, photos etc) , download the 'embedding code' from the mapping service and add to your website. Just choose one of these mapping services to use for your site (like Google Maps) and use the others to compliment your marketing efforts. This effort should help you be somewhere as opposed to being no where or you might as well be a billboard in the middle of the Sahara ;-)

Don't lose business by doing this!!!

Have you ever sent out an email only to find that your client hasn't replied? and you wait and wait and wait with no luck. This is such an elementary mistake a lot of people make. They fail to follow up with either these 2 things: another email from another email address (ie. with a popular domain extension like gmail.com or yahoo.com) and/or a phone call to check if the client has received their email. The chances are that if the client hasn't got back to you, your your email is sitting in their spambox. This will happen if the sender(s) email is not recognised or has a strange domain extension.

So make sure you always followup or you will potentially lose a lot of business ;-)

Monday, March 10, 2008

Look here for 50+ ideas on how to save 1,000's of dollars annually on your business costs.

Are you looking for ways to reduce your operating costs and save money on software? Maybe you're looking to enhance your productivity levels of your business? Or possibly you're looking to improve your marketing efforts and saving costs at the same time? Well, there are a lot of alternatives out there on the web to help you achieve and exceed any of these goals.

Organisation:
Are you looking to really migrate from proprietary technologies like Windows Office to using much more affordable solutions to experience huge cost savings? Try all these online applications out as I'm sure you will like them and see how easy they are to use. See this list of highly rated alternatives to your Microsoft Office:

WORD PROCESSING:
See this list of highly rated alternatives to Microsoft Word:

COMMUNICATION:
In this networked world, businesses have the ability now to shrink space and time and save costs on communications. For businesses that are looking to consolidate their communications platforms to allow their people to 'chat', 'share' and 'collaborate' with each other, these applications below will allow them to increase productivity through more efficient and effective communications. See this list of highly rated alternatives to Yahoo Instant Messenger or Hotmail's MSN:

DIGITAL STORAGE AND REMOTE ACCESS:
Are you looking to backup your files online? Then look no further than these robust and secure solutions. By uploading files online, you get to backup any work that you may have and you also get to have access from any computer connected to the web. Imagine leaving your important work at home and freeing up space on your hard drive. Simply log on to the web wirelessly or via landlines and access your files online. See this list of highly rated alternatives to your local hard drive and in-house servers:

Events:
Have an event you would like to promote to your customers and wider public? See this list of highly rated alternatives to your calendar notification application:

Mapping:
Looking to create a map for your clients to find you? Use these online mapping applications to help people find your location. They offer really extensive information from pictures of your building, your street, satellite pictures, landmarks (gas stations etc) as well as time and distance information. See this list of highly rated alternatives to your current offline map books:

Marketing:
Have you ever thought how to meet and exceed your marketing objectives using cost effective solutions on the web? See this list of highly rated alternatives to your current emailing application, brochures, offline ads:

Music:
Well, some say that music helps improve productivity especially if it's classical so I thought I'd give you guys a few links to sites to plug into. See this list of highly rated alternatives to your iPod:

Podcasting services:
In today's world with all the competition in business, it is very important that businesses know how to stand out from the crowd. Part of that process is communicating with your clients and staying in touch with them. One of these tools is podcasting. By using podcasting, businesses are enabled to develop their presence in the minds of the customers as the experts in their respective fields. See this list of highly rated alternatives to your using radio or television to push your message to your clients:

Social Networking:
If you're not social networking, your competitors are!! Join up to these social networking sites, add your friends, make new friends, meet new people and create a conversation. Build trust and bridges with people and let them understand what you do. Use these social networking services as another channel of communication to reach your clients. Always remember the golden rule, people buy from people they trust. See this list of highly rated alternatives to your normal email list of friends/family/networks etc:

Travel:
Are you looking for the best travel deal on the web? Save money for your business by looking no further than this list of highly rated alternatives to your normal list of travel sites like Expedia , Cheap Flights , or Travelocity

Good luck!!...and give this a DIGG to share the lurrrrve ;)

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Let me show you how to get $100,000 worth of advertising for FREE!!!!!

How do you get $100,000 worth of advertising for FREE? Watch the video below and this is an example of how to exceed your marketing objectives with a little bit of imagination, sound planning and a decent budget. However, it doesn't have to be that way. You can make more than a dollar out of 15 cents if you hit the 'sweet spot' as they say in tennis.

With the shrinking of our world now through social networking sites and inexpensive communications, anyone can compete against the large advertising agencies with a lot more imagination and very little money. Just have a sound plan, a perfect execution, a video camera, record, upload then shout from the hills to let everyone know about your stunt. If your film package is intriguing, interesting and memorable or topical, people will let others know about it. Effectively, it will spread like a virus. Simply look at the will.i.am 'Yes We Can' video or the top viewed videos on YouTube, Revver, or Metacafe. These people get it by default or with a detailed plan.

You may have heard of the terms, viral marketing, buzz marketing, or guerrilla marketing, they are all related and very similar in objective(s). They either want 4 things:
1. to create maximum exposure for very little money to increase brand awareness,
2. to drive traffic to a physical store or website for sales,
3. to develop a call to action like signing people up to a petition/organisation/business or to organise a rally of some sort
4. to entertain

At the end of the day, it's mostly about maximising your return on investment (ROI) and getting more bang for your buck. HOW people execute their "viral buzz guerrilla marketing" or "VBG" campaign is where they differ. Essentially, the raw ingredients are the same.

Watch the video below for some inspiration of how to capture eyeballs and to get people to talk about your product/service.

...but if you want some advice on how to develop a "VBG" campaign, then contact me. I may be having a great day and I may shoot some quick FREE ideas your way ;-)

Now how much are these ideas worth to your business?

Monday, March 3, 2008

Why Netvibes/Pageflakes/iGoogle is like Walmart but better

WalMart, the great one stop shop where everyone gets a bargain. If you're not from the USA, WalMart is basically a gigantuan discount shopping colossus where you can buy almost anything at really cheap prices. You may recognise Wal-Mart as Walmex in Mexico, in the UK as ASDA, and in Japan as Seiyu. But why do I say Netvibes/Pageflakes/iGoogle is like Walmart but better? because it is ;-)

If you think of the Internet as analagous to WalMart with all the information in one place at the reach of a click, you can spend a lot of time in there looking, reading, viewing, probing and inquiring. You go in and you usually end up spending more time in there than you planned and leave with more than you bargained for. With personalised pages like Netvibes/Pageflakes/iGoogle, if you imagine these as shopping carts, you simply click, choose your reader and add the feed to your page. You the surfer get to use RSS technologies to create a platform of what information you want to consume. This is much better than Walmart because your cart can grow on your Netvibes/Pageflakes/iGoogle page through the addition of extra pages and you can file all your feeds accordingly.

....and you know what the best best best top top top thing that makes Netvibes/Pageflakes/iGoogle better than WalMart? Customisation. You the customer get to select and choose exactly what you want, when you want it and how you want it...and guess what? your ocean of information is growing every minute and getting smarter every minute as well. Also, Walmart is comparably very limited in that it can only stock so many products due to its physical limitations. The Internet is not limited in space or time. It is a live 24/7 organic mega mega network of WalMarts storing many different products, services, and information at your finger tips across many different time zones. If you know what you want, you will likely find it and you'll find all the complentary products, services, and information around it. The beautiful thing about the Internet is, it will get updated by the minute, hour, daily, weekly or monthly. Your personalised pages is a live platform for all your informational needs and will refine and define itself as each feed updates itself.

As an idea, WalMart could ask or even force it's suppliers to create short online ads for their site which their customers could choose to view and get a more detailed insight into the specs of the product. With food, they could integrate a cooking video, with laptops, a detailed spec on its features, with fitness equipment, an instructional manual on how to lose weight using the apparatus.

I even have many ideas of how to challenge the might of WalMart....or well at least make a little dent in it's bottom line ;-)

Now how much do you think these ideas would be worth?

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Would you drink recycled toilet water?

After watching a small news segment on a new water sanitation plant in Orange County (USA), it piqued my interest that the news reporter drank the clean recycled water, which is the result of recycled and sanitised sewage waste, after closing out his story. Now I thought that was gutsy! I had a couple thoughts from "ewwwwwwwww" to "wowwwwwwww" once I saw the potential in this new sanitation plant for other parts of the world. If this reporter could drink it, then why not introduce a system to every city. Clean water is becoming a scarce commodity and why not take advantage of this new sanitation system to conserve our fresh water levels.

The sanitation process is very environmentally friendly as it prevents a lot of the sewage discharge from the treatment plants. In fact, they were talking about 85% of the sewage discharge into the oceans being recycled back into the household. This is truly an amazing statistic that will make a huge difference in keeping our oceans clean and our water reservoirs optimised. Singapore uses the same system as well as Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. If you've been to Windhoek, you will know why they would need such a system. It is in the middle of nowhere, more 'nowhere' than Las Vegas.

I guess the proof is always in the pudding and if this reporter can drink it, then why can't anyone else. It can't be any worse than some tap water I've tasted before. One could always put the recycled water through a home filtration system and 'voila'!!...even more fresh clean water to quench your thirst.

Hmmm, maybe one could start a water bottling business and add some essential plant food nutrients to it and call it "TAP - recycled goodness, your plants will love it" or simply sell the fresh water in bottles domestically or internationally at really cheap prices to developing countries that have very little fresh clean water.

The Ideas Bus: Pimping Everybody's Ideas