Am I Investing Enough in My Business to keep it Alive?

Blog JAN11, Issue 4
Part 4 of 4

Rechecking My Numbers with my Goals.
"Earth - Ground yourself in finding the true way" (Miyamoto Musashi)

Being in business as a web developer for a couple decades doing pretty much the same type of service, there are a few ruts you can fall into. I myself have succumbed to a few. In fact, early on - one particular rut is complacency. Although this doesn’t seem to be that big of a deal to a 9-5’er, to an entrepreneur and to someone who develops software – it’s a dangerous position to live. What woke me up from this rut was security. Enduring and overcoming my first hack, I really had to sit down and take a hard look at what my goals were going to be, especially in this new and scary world.

Having your server hacked is a terrible ordeal but I believe it’s necessary for a web developer and/or programmer in that it helps you grow, especially if you’re new hacker keeps coming back around. However it does make you realize there is a huge need of committed investment now to keep the business alive and growing. This realization prompted me to spend a dedicated amount of time in 5 main areas that today I cannot live without. They are: 1) Increasing and Adaptable Knowledge. 2) Sticking to my Goals and Game plan no matter what. 3) Being Teachable. 4) Being Flexible. 5) Rechecking 1-4.

As technology changes, search engines create new ways to index, databases and new code are proven to be vulnerable and new and improved ways to automate, process and deliver data are being discovered, a web developer must take the time to research, read and test and retest. Same holds true for being teachable as these new innovations and discoveries can sometimes contradict or even confuse already popularly used processes in applications. Check out SQL Injection for example.

Maintaining flexibility was that hardest thing for me in the beginning because I just didn’t want to submit to Google and Yahoo. I had some principles that felt how could they could tell us how to code to make their lives easier in including our websites and that some sort of other innovator would lead the way in search and prove this to them. But although that may happen, it hasn’t yet and once I learned to work with them, I benefitted anyway.

But the overall life-teaching guideline that has come back to haunt and taunt me through all these years is sticking to my goals and game plan no matter what. To be sure, not keeping in line with this has cost me and taught me some of the most painful lessons to date, even into my personal life. Knowing what your plan is first, but sticking to that plan will help you achieve those goals and it keeps you grounded when all the things around you change all the time.

Knowing the true way in the direction I set my path on is a day-by-day, minute-by-minute quest that I must press on towards to enjoy stability, financial success and personal achievement. And when I think I got it all figured out and I am doing ok, I need to always remember to recheck to make sure the steps I took and are taking are still in line with the with the game plan. Once your goals are set it also makes it easier to check all the things you need to ensure your success.

It's good to check and recheck everything. From my online presence to how I compare to my competition. From my profit and loss to a check on my goals and game plan. All in all it's hard work, dedication and review. It's tough not only in this recession but in this free market against my competition. However, the more I consistently do these things, the better I can interpret, direct and influence my success.

Am I Profiting Enough to Keep Going with my Website?

Blog JAN11, Issue 3
Part 3 of 4

Analyzing Expenses and Profit and my own Trends.
"Earth - Ground yourself in finding the true way" (Miyamoto Musashi)

Stop everything and figure out where your business is financially right now. If you were told that would you be able to do it? How closely do you monitor your balance statement? All these are very important questions for any business especially when the economy is as unstable as it is and unemployment on the rise. Knowing your business worth or whether you are in the black or red at the moment can save you from making some horrific decisions that can have irrevocable consequences.

The process can seem a bit daunting, but it is vital to know how you are doing in your business. Knowing can drive you, move you and even put you at ease. And ignoring it will not make it go away – especially around tax time. Your business numbers including profit and loss, sales and trends are the main arteries of your business. If you don’t monitor them your business could die.

Being an entrepreneur, I have entered into a handful of business relationships and/or partnerships that have not only ended terribly, have taken its toll on my customer base, financial status and personal life. Some of these could have been avoided by assessing past partnerships and knowing how it will turn out, others could have been avoided by looking at my current numbers and realizing I didn’t need a change as things were growing and going well. The “grass is always greener” or “just do it” without first counting the costs has spoiled many other opportunities for me and many others, when I should have stood by “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

The first thing you should look into is the right software for the job. Being a web developer I have created my own (if you need one give us a call). However as long as my data entry on current projects, expenses, revenues, etc… are in: at the click of a button I have my balance sheet, profit and loss, sales numbers and trends for the last 10 years. The trick is though – to keep it current.

Armed with this knowledge however I can track things that are important to my business. From sales figures and closing rates to profitability and upcoming hurdles. Knowing where I am also keeps me making the right decisions to fix problems that can alter and drive trends in a positive way. For example, slow sales might mean hiring, firing and/or a product or service adjustment. Rising expenses means seeking lower costs of utilities, finding unnecessary expenditures or abandoning marketing or other ineffective expenses that don’t pay for themselves. If we can determine what has changed, we can influence how to change them.

Of course record keeping is tedious and there is a tendency to overanalyze. However it’s harder to make decisions to fix things after the fact than trying to prevent them beforehand. Since I have forced a few habits such as checking my finances, knowing my internet position, knowing how sales are going and others – my company has sustained itself and overcome or avoided some pretty distressing hurdles in the economy, technology and through changing industries.

Keep analyzing for success. Whether a web developer, contractor, artist, programmer, architect, engineer or whatever service or industry you are in – knowing your position gives you the edge to make the right decisions in critical times that can make or break the next growth spurt or layoff within your company.

How Does my Website Compare On the WWW?

Blog JAN11, Issue 2
Part 2 of 4

Learning About the Other Shops in the Neighborhood.
"Earth - Ground yourself in finding the true way" (Miyamoto Musashi)

One thing I have always done growing up in any sport or activity I was involved with was size up the competition. Although in my adolescence, it was more of a survival tactic; as an entrepreneur it has helped me maintain relevancy as a web designer and a lead over many of the competing services I was involved in. As a kid it was what I needed to push or sway me from trying out, but today it’s become an essential part of how I run my business.

Now, to be real – not everything looked at is how it seems, and I understand that some things are just out of my league. For example, I don’t have the time or talent to rival Eric Clapton on guitar and I have never believed in an unmovable business giant that can never be toppled or replaced. However I have played and done well in a band and my business has been alive for almost two decades.

Sometimes though, when I peek at the genius of Eric Clapton, I do try to emulate or create my own music from what I’ve learned and similarly, I’ve paid close attention to my competitors making sure that what I offer and portray is relevant to the would be customers seeking out the services I offer. And I admit, there have been more than a few times I looked and said, “Wow! I need to do that too!” and adopted my own version as quickly as possible.

I have found that my successes or failures were not contingent on whether my ideas or inventions were unique and creative, it was dependent upon what my customer wants and needs and checking the competition will give you a roadmap for that. In fact, it’s a sure sign when a majority of your competition adopts a niche’ or service all of a sudden that you should probably look into it immediately. Just ask all the diehards holding onto cassette tapes when CD’s came in or all the web designers missing SEO opportunities because they just want to design. We all find that customers do not want to shop at 5 stores for 5 services when they can get it all at one.

There are always tools that will help when trying to keep track of things and even paper and pen are far better than not at all. I have found a handful of other websites and software that keep my comparative analysis on track which keeps me informed of everything from my rankings to who’s ranking around me; keywords I’m using and what they are using; screenshots comparing my website to theirs and believe it or not I actually visit their sites and fill out their forms to see what they do. Although this seems odd, we do it every day when we try out cars before we buy them or sample ice-cream even though we know what we want anyway.

As we gather information there’s one more place to look to see how we’re doing that has been used since the dawn of commerce but made easier and easier through social websites and that’s feedback. You want a real-time opinion of you website or services put it out there on blogs and ask. People are all too eager now-a-days to tell you. If you want to be more subtle, there’s the FaceBook “Like”, the customer ratings stars, etc… Even employ a web designer to give you a free evaluation. Whatever works for you - get it out there.

At the end of the day, what’s most important is are people buying from you. If they are not – you have to find out why to survive. If it’s “out of sight out of mind” – that’s easily fixed with PPC or SEO, but if it’s because you are out of date, irrelevant or in a dying market – the more you know the quicker things will turn around for you. It’s this information that will tell you to jump ship or keep rowing and it’s this information that will make you actually enjoy success again.

Why Monitor My Online Presence Religiously?

Blog JAN11, Issue 1
Part 1 of 4

Figuring Out What's Really Driving Responses.
"Earth - Ground yourself in finding the true way" (Miyamoto Musashi)

How often do you actually check your rankings? Or your social network followers? Or trends on your hits and statistics? Or even keyword trends on your web SEO’d (if your website is SEO’d) pages? Truth is, most people may get some of those but not all. However knowing EXACTLY where you are is a vital step to knowing EXACTLY where you want to go and EXACTLY if your current efforts are working.


Like the brokers with stocks, so often businesses throw money down the drain in the name of investing in marketing using irrelevant or unnecessary keywords for PPC ads, media announcements and purchased ads in virtual and printed media. This is done without any sort of reference other than the feel if sales are up or down but never quite knowing what influenced them.


The key to growth though is to know and to know precisely every little detail. I, myself ran into this same scenario as I purchased myself a shiny new PPC ad, using keywords that I so proudly researched and I threw the dice. For weeks I would watch the impressions go up into the 10’s of thousands, peaking at 100’s of thousands. And for that month, I got business through my website. I was excited and ready to dump in more money to get more customers… but something nagged at me.


Just for kicks I pulled all my reports. I got my hits report from my web stats; I pulled my PPC stats, I got my analytics stats and my “just in case” 3rd party hit monitor to compare them all and I was surprised to find that PPC did nothing but drain my funds. Now don’t get me wrong – I am not POO POOing PPC at all, in fact I still use them to keep traffic steady “over time.” However, in comparing my notes my PPC ad went live and started showing up AFTER all the business came in. Meaning something else was driving it.


From there I checked my Twitter stats, my Facebook, Blogger – everything I could think of to find out what made this sudden flurry happen. I found nothing. So I then scoured the internet for other tracking software for rankings and immediately, from what I could tell it was just good, plain old fashioned web SEO. I had managed to get 5 relevant keyword top 10 positions on Bing and Yahoo! Ironically, all the tools I used to get there was on Google and my ratings there are not as good. But that’s another topic. Currently my rakings are climbing there as well. Web SEO, statistically still leads all other forms of advertising – hands down!


I now have a handful of tools to do all the work I need to get accurate readings on my internet marketing efforts. From software to automate my social networking announcement life, to monitoring software that records every single domain destination clicks I know to the minute what is affecting what. I even wrote code so that every email I get from a customer tells me not only what page they were on when they contacted me, but which of my urls it came from. Confirming this with my keyword stats & history, I now drive my website, it doesn’t drive me.


Miyamoto Musashi said, “Ground yourself in finding the true way.” If you look at this and understand the depth of it – although I am finding some success at the “true way” in this one small instance, I also must learn to “ground myself” or to make it part of my everyday functions to the point of purposeful habit to continue to do this, always checking myself and verifying everything.


Tedious? Sure. Worthwhile? Well, consider this – with enough page one rankings on relevant keywords, how many tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars would you save omitting PPC, printed ads, and your other marketing efforts per year? I am currently tracking that too.