Technology New Year Resolutions
In the 1967 movie, The Graduate, Dustin Hoffman's character, Benjamin Braddock, is the center of attention at a party his parents are throwing in honor of his college graduation. One of the most famous lines in the movie is when a friend of the family comes up to him and says, "Ben, one word: plastics."Consider this article to be our conversation during your small business graduation party, and I have one word for you: technology. Those of you who have been part of my broadcast and online community for a while are probably saying, "Oh, no! Don't get him started on technology."
It's true. Technology is one of my soapboxes. Several years ago I identified technology as one of the three most important levers small business owners can use to grow their businesses in the 21st Century, and ever since I have been encouraging you to incorporate technology into every aspect of your operations.
In case you're still not convinced, answer these two questions:
• Would you like to compete straight up with the big guys?
• Would you like to do business with the big guys?
If you answered yes to either of these questions, I have one word for you: technology. Below are some technology resolutions I want you to think about in 2002.
Technology Resolution One: I resolve to acquire a web site for my business, or make my current web site even better by updating and upgrading it with more capability for my customers and employees.
>With a traditional storefront, you make products and services available in your market to anyone who happens by, or happens to look for you. With a website, you create a virtual storefront to the world, where you are literally open for business, 24/7, to millions of prospects around the planet.
Here's a tidbit that might surprise you: The amount you pay for signage, brand imaging, and printed brochures to reach the thousands of people in your market is likely to be more than you would pay to create a website, which could connect you to millions. Still think it costs too much to have a website?
If you have a website, you've no doubt found that it's like a baby: relatively easy to make, but once you have it the maintenance is a little more involved. Here's a trick question: Is your website working for your organization and your customers? If you don't know the answer, or if you know the answer but you don't like it, I want you to do three things:
1. Take a test drive of your own website, as if you were a new visitor;
2. Ask some of your customers how they find your site, and what you could do to make it more valuable for them.
3. Check out the competitions' site.
All three exercises will be illuminating. Take that information and begin install the appropriate improvements. You don't have to do it all at once. Just get started.
Technology Resolution Two: I resolve to learn all I can about the e-commerce opportunities that are available to my business, and carefully begin implementing them.
Like the proverbial dog that chased the car and caught it, now that you have a website, what are you going to do with it? Someone once said that the way to wealth is to make money while you sleep. For small business owners, that way is e-commerce.
For most of us, our first website probably is more of a two-dimensional brochure than anything else. The next level is a transactional site, where you make content available and begin to build a community. The hat trick is e-commerce, where you make it possible for members of your community to actually lay their money down on the barrelhead in your little corner of cyberspace. If you have something to sell, figure out a way to let customers buy it online.
E-commerce is getting easier and less expensive to implement, but it's a moving train. Every month that goes by without at least learning something about how e-commerce works, or how to improve current e-commerce capability, is a month of lost competitive advantage you can't afford.
Talk with your current web hosting company about the e-commerce resources they offer. Also, talk to other business owners who are ahead of you on the e-commerce learning curve. And of course, read all you can about this MOST important topic in the life of your business.
On a gratuitous note, we cover this topic several times each month on my show, which, as you know, is available on the Internet, if not in your local market on radio.
Technology Resolution Three: I resolve to increase my understanding of how technology can improve operating efficiencies.
• Are you doing your accounting on computer?
• Are you managing prospects electronically?
• Do you have an automated inventory tracking system?
• Are you buying postage and overnight courier services online?
• Can customers check availability and order status without talking to one of your employees?
If not, I have one word for you: Why? All of this capability, and much more, is not only available RIGHT NOW; it's actually very mature capability.
The quantum leap for small business, in terms of the bottom line, will come when you incorporate technology into your core operation. When planning to grow, if you begin thinking of technology first and adding staff second, that pressure you will feel is the Gs you're pulling as your business leaps from 30 to 60 in one motion.
Growing the top line of your P&L is nice, but what you're really after is making the number on the bottom line bigger. The quantum leap will happen when you grow sales AND improve operating efficiencies simultaneously through technology.
Basic technological operating capability is no longer out of reach for small business. It's available, it's affordable, and it works.
Technology Resolution Four: I resolve to look for Application Service Providers who offer Internet-based resources my company can leverage without having to capitalize and build the infrastructure in-house.
In years past, all of the really cool technological capability was owned exclusively by the big guys. The reason was because cool meant customized, which was only available on a large scale. Translation: very expensive. Which is one of the reasons small business couldn't compete with the big guys - we couldn't afford the bells and whistles.
One of the most exciting things to happen to small business since the PC is the ASP. Application Service Providers are companies that make those cool capabilities available in bite sizes, when you need it, and priced incrementally. Translation: Bells and whistles you can afford.
If you want to take your company to the moon, you don't have to create and fund your own NASA; you can buy a ticket on somebody else's ASP rocket ship that's going there right now. And if you don't need to go again until later today, or next week, you don't have to make an investment, just buy a ticket.
Write this on a rock... One word: technology. Any questions?
