What happened to Kodak?

The main thing that killed Kodak was an inability and unwillingness [...]]]> Yesterday, Kodak filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy and took in a $950 million cash infusion from Citigroup to allow it to trade on the stock market. The once mighty company who once dominated the photography market is now basically insolvent.

What happened to Kodak?

The main thing that killed Kodak was an inability and unwillingness to adopt to digital photography. They were originally the technology leader in digital photography (a Kodak engineer invented the first digital camera back in 1975), but they felt that it would cannibalize their film business and decided to abandon it.

Eventually, Japanese competitors developed inexpensive digital cameras that made Kodak’s business obsolete. Kodak made a mad dash to try to catch up, but by then it was too late.

What can we learn from Kodak’s misfortune?

My takeaway from the Kodak story is that you should never assume that your business model is sound and that you should always be looking ahead to the next trend.

I look at what Tribeswell is doing right now: Website Design, Email Marketing, Social Media Marketing… I wonder what the next big trends will be. Website design is basically a commodity. Even mobil app development is being commoditized. That doesn’t mean that good businesses can’t be built around them, but eventually these technologies will be replaced by something new.

If you’re not on the cutting edge of your industry, I think you should really be thinking seriously about where your business is going. Will there be anything left for you when the thing you’re doing becomes obsolete?

So we were recently turned onto a Nest thermostat and their gorgeous website. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a new product by a collection of ex apple and google employees who together coalesce into a dream team of functionality and design experts.

Right off the bat this site strikes you as [...]]]>

So we were recently turned onto a Nest thermostat and their gorgeous website. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a new product by a collection of ex apple and google employees who together coalesce into a dream team of functionality and design experts.

Right off the bat this site strikes you as downright beautiful in how minimal it is. The center image grabs your attention right away and practically begs you to click the video link, which we recommend you do – the video just gives further appreciation toward the care for design.

Whenever we design sites we do our best to make sure the site stays out of its own way. Meaning, we want the user to access the information they want as quickly as possible. A site like this shows the mastery of usability and functionality. Absorbing content isn’t just painless its enjoyable. Scrolling through the ‘our thermostat’ page is fun not to mention easy on the eyes. The high quality graphics and effective placement of information allows you to understand the message without getting bogged down by the content.

Websites like these get webdesigners like us all geeked up. We become inspired and want to bring the enjoyable experience to other users through our projects. So don’t be surprised if you see nuances from Nest’s site in our future websites. Here’s to bringing the web into the future and creating web sites people really want to use and enjoy visiting.

As a business student I’ve been in the process of being groomed to meet the demands of the business world for the last four years. Or at least so I thought. To their credit, my professors taught me a great deal about business theory, ethics, problem solving, and communication. I always thought I would [...]]]>

As a business student I’ve been in the process of being groomed to meet the demands of the business world for the last four years. Or at least so I thought. To their credit, my professors taught me a great deal about business theory, ethics, problem solving, and communication. I always thought I would stroll out of business school and rock whatever job I walked into on day one. What I wasn’t prepared for was how terrifying and sometimes overwhelming it can be to manage clients and/or customers.

Getting hired at Tribeswell was easily one of the best moments of my life. In the last 6 months I’ve learned roughly 10x more about business then last 4 years of business school. There are simply things that school does not prepare you for. Losing, for instance, is one of them. My first time trying to sell a website was borderline a disaster. And my first few opportunities to work with clients proved far more challenging than I ever anticipated.

In an industry like web development and technology, there are a great deal of things people simply don’t know that they don’t know. And trying to sell a service that they don’t understand while not coming off as pretentious or patronizing is an incredibly delicate balance, especially as a 22 year old with a semester left in college. Thankfully Colin, and the Tribeswell crew have been really patient and supportive as I learn the ropes.

In addition to communication and client management, Tribeswell has given me the opportunity to express my passions of business, technology, and design simultaneously. Everyday is different. That’s what I love about the technology industry. Contributing to that market has been incredibly rewarding as I learn about web design, and help develop new solutions to meet our clients needs. I’m excited to come on full time in May, and more excited to see how I develop as both a business person and web developer.

Most of the people we currently work with [...]]]> I don’t lose a lot of clients. We’re extremely good at what we do and we take care of the people we work for. However, it is inevitable that if you stay in the game long enough you will lose a client or two along the way.

Most of the people we currently work with worked with someone else before they worked with us. I would guess that about 60-80% of the business we have came from wooing the client away from another design shop or marketing firm. So, I don’t get mad when it happens to me.

I DO get mad when a web designer contacts me out of the blue and says “So-and-so is now my client, I need ftp access, DNS settings, wordpress logins, etc.”

I get really mad.

This is incredibly unprofessional! If a client wants to work with someone else they should contact me DIRECTLY and let me know that the new company will be contacting me and authorize me to release their information.

Here’s the thing…. Client’s don’t know that they should do this, because they’re not in our business. You have to TELL them the right things to do and not just go shooting off emails.

Be a professional. Think about how you would like to be treated. Give some respect to the other guy (or gal). It’s our job to make sure that things are done the right way and that our industry maintains a hight degree of integrity.

Back in December of 2009, I wrote a post titled, ‘Why I Love My Netbook’. I mentioned its compact size and [...]]]> Maybe I’m getting older. Maybe I’m getting smarter or more sophisticated. Maybe my tastes are just changing… But I used to really love the concept of Netbooks, and now they really seem pretty useless.

Back in December of 2009, I wrote a post titled, ‘Why I Love My Netbook’. I mentioned its compact size and cool appearance and how it forced me to be productive and not multitask.

So, when Steve Jobs announced the iPad basically said Netbooks were crap, I obviously disagreed.

I recommended Netbooks to my family and friends. My wife bought one. My mom. My sister-in-law… And guess what we all have found…

You Can’t Really Do Very Much on a Netbook

Netbooks are not bad for surfing the net. If you just want a highly portable and cheap way to get online and check email and social networks, then by all means get a Netbook. But, if you need to actually DO anything else, forget about it.

Netbooks generally have bad keyboards, so they’re not that good for heavy-duty word processing (or blogging). They have tiny screens and underpowered processors, so gaming is out as well. In fact there aren’t ANY apps at ALL that are optimized for Netbooks. Netbooks make EVERY app worse.

Even the computing industry has pretty much abandoned the idea of the netbook, turning towards the new UltraBook platform of thin bodies, fast solid state drives, and supercharged processors.

If you had asked me in 2009 if netbooks would be going away, I would have told you that you were crazy, but my experience is that Tablets and Ultrabooks and cheap traditional laptops are pretty much eliminating the need for Netbooks. Thoughts?

What I want to talk about is unleashing an Execution Virus. And the reason for this is that almost every idea has already [...]]]> It’s been several years now since I read Seth Godin’s “Unleashing the Idea Virus”, and for the most part it still holds true. But that’s not what I want to talk about today…

What I want to talk about is unleashing an Execution Virus. And the reason for this is that almost every idea has already been thought up. Actually basically every great idea has been thought up and I can prove it.

• Facebook was one of dozens of social networks that came out in the mid 2000′s… they just made it cooler by only allowing college students to join and more useful by requiring people to use their real names.
• There were already TONS of search engines on the market when Google came out. Remember Lycos, Altavista, and Yahoo (Yahoo no longer does its own search).
• Automobiles had been out for at least 30 years when the Ford Model T was released.
• Computers have been around (arguably) since the mid 1800′s, but it took Apple to create one that the average person would actually want to buy.

As you’re doing your holiday shopping this year be aware of the malicious and nefarious corporations that are out to steal directly from your wallet. I know that sounds dramatic, but its true. What businesses am I talking about specifically? Best Buy of course.

Coming home for Thanksgiving means upgrading my parents computer and [...]]]>

As you’re doing your holiday shopping this year be aware of the malicious and nefarious corporations that are out to steal directly from your wallet. I know that sounds dramatic, but its true. What businesses am I talking about specifically? Best Buy of course.

Coming home for Thanksgiving means upgrading my parents computer and installing a new Solid State Drive so they aren’t stuck in the 90′s in terms of computer power. Of course after buying a new SSD, video card, and RAM I forgot to buy a SATA data cable to connect the new hard drive. My mistake.

Given the small town they live in, I had to drive up to the nearest mall to buy a cable from Best Buy. After getting strange looks from three employees I finally found someone to show me where the hidden SATA cables were. The final asking price? $20!

For those who aren’t computer hardware junkies like myself, this is a total crime. The average price on newegg.com is $4. Yes you read that right. 1/5 the price Best Buy charges its poor, uninformed customers. And Newegg ships it free to boot.

So as your buying your electronics this Holiday season, please remember to stay far, far away from Best Buy. I know that 50″ television looks cheap this year. If you have to, get it, and get out. No cables, especially HDMI. In. and Out. Everything else, look online. Trust me on this. Together we can stand against this tyranny and bring down the evil empire of 5x markup.

I popped on to Google+ today to find a dialog box stating that gchat had been added to the service. My first reaction was that it was pretty cool. It instantly added the conversation I was having in Gmail to Google+, which is kind of convenient… Your conversations go with you [...]]]>

I popped on to Google+ today to find a dialog box stating that gchat had been added to the service. My first reaction was that it was pretty cool. It instantly added the conversation I was having in Gmail to Google+, which is kind of convenient… Your conversations go with you wherever you go.

However, I’m friends with lots of people on Google+ that I’m don’t necessarily want to talk to every day and now they’re all added to my Gmail chat list. I would prefer that this hadn’t happened. I use Google+ and Gmail for very different purposes. Gmail is all about productivity, connecting with clients, and staying in touch with close friends. Google+ is more about media consumption and staying in touch with what’s happening in my extended network.

Add to this the fact that Facebook has already had chat for a while and it TOTALLY SUCKS and I’m not sure that having your chat client and social network all in the same place makes that much sense.

I’m sure there are some settings I can change to get it exactly how I would want it, but still…

What do you think? Do you like the new feature? Was it a good move for Google+ to take?

The fact is… with today’s technology, almost ANY small retailer should be able to EASILY compete with the big box stores. The other fact is… a lot of small retailers [...]]]> I’ve been seeing tons of “buy local” ads lately, and honestly it makes me a little worried about the future of small business in America.

The fact is… with today’s technology, almost ANY small retailer should be able to EASILY compete with the big box stores. The other fact is… a lot of small retailers simply choose not to use social media, ecommerce, or location services to effectively acquire new customers.

I love small business. Most of my clients are small businesses. I am a small business. However, we all need to face the realities of the world. There are big companies out there that have huge buying power, huge marketing budgets, thousands of stores… they have a lot of advantages over us.

But… we are faster, we can execute new ideas more rapidly. So, here are 10 strategies that the average small business can adopt to start being more profitable right away.

1. Get to Know Your Customers – Start using a CRM & Email Marketing

If you are a small retailer, then you have a lot fewer customers than a big box store. That means that in order to be really competitive you need optimize the relationship you have with each and every customer. Then you can send targeted marketing messages via email (which is an extremely inexpensive way to send marketing messages), and sell more to each customer.

High tech email marketing software (like Mailchimp, which is what I use), can help you organize your contacts, monitor who is responding the most to your marketing messages, and optimize your campaigns and lists for continued success.

Best of all, it is super-easy to get started. Go to your locally-owned dime store (if your town still has one), and buy a notebook. When customers come in, ask for their name and email address and write it down. Tell them you’ll send them a coupon just for signing up for your super-exclusive gold-star customer program.

2. Become a Master of Ecommerce

The cost of running an Ecommerce site has dropped pretty substantially. A lot of small retailers could drastically increase their business by having a good website built that can also sell products.

There are a few pretty obvious advantages to selling online.

1. The location of your customer is irrelevant, you can sell to anyone anywhere.
2. It’s always open. If your customer wants to shop at 3 in the morning they can.
3. You can suggest related products, offer free shipping at a certain order size, or any number of other tactics to increase the number of products each customer buys from you.

3. Sell Your Products on Amazon

Last year, like many other men out there who don’t like shopping, I did the majority of my Christmas shopping online. Particularly on Amazon. Instead of driving around in the freezing cold for hours and going from store to store, I kept a tidy list and bought everything all at once from Amazon in the comfort of my home office. It was heavenly.

One thing I noticed was that most of the items I bought were not shipped directly from Amazon, but from smaller merchants.

Amazon is a great equalizer. If you get good at selling there then you can let Amazon do the marketing for you and simply ship product whenever orders come in.

This post explains how to get started selling on Amazon.

4. Master Location Services like Foursquare or Facebook Places

Millions of people regularly ‘check-in’ at the places they visit. If you can get more people to ‘check-in’ at your business, you can greatly raise your brand awareness, and get more customers in the door.

The key is to create incentives for customers to ‘check-in’ at your location. You can offer discounts, or put customers who check in into a drawing for a gift certificate. Use your imagination, and if that doesn’t work, go on Google and type “foursquare small business promotion ideas”… there are 279,000 pages of results. I’m sure you’ll find some great ideas.

5. Create Information Products

If you own a small retail business, you probably have a TON of knowledge about the stuff you sell that the average person would find useful. If you create an eBook with this knowledge, you can sell it to make some extra money, or give it away in exchange for people’s email addresses and you can then add them to your email marketing software and sell them products down the road from your online store (some of these ideas work better if used in conjunction with each other). Here are some ideas:

• If you own a furniture store, create a home decorating guide.
• If you own an archery shop, create an ebook full of bow-hunting tips.
• If you own a record shop, create an ebook with information about turntables and vinyl maintenance tips.
• If you sell cameras, create a comprehensive guide to taking great pictures.

6. Feature Your Best Customers

If you feature a customer and tell their story in a blog post or on Facebook or in your Email marketing (ask their permission of course), they will share it with their online friends. It is likely that their friends will share their interests and some of them will likely become customers.

Here’s how I recommend executing this strategy. First, get a website that has blogging functionality. Then write the stories of your best customers (with their permission). Having this content on a website that you OWN will help you get more search engine traffic.

Then share links to the story on Facebook and Twitter and include a short excerpt in your email newsletter with a link to the main article. Internet marketing works best when your website is the hub of your marketing system with all other sources driving traffic there.

7. Become a Total Social Media Ninja

Get good at social media. Connect with your customers on Facebook and Twitter. Post cool and useful links. Post your ideas.

Social media websites are free. Using them effectively is not brain surgery. Start with Facebook and Twitter. Just don’t talk about your own company too much. Be real. Be normal. Don’t be a marketer on social media. Just be a person.

If you have a large following online (with high-quality followers), marketing your business will be a whole lot easier.

8. Make an Online Documentary About Yourself

Online video is not just the wave of the future… it’s also the wave of the present. You can buy a pretty decent video camera for 500 bucks, a Mac (for video editing) for $1200, and you can take a video editing class as well or just look for free tutorials online. Basically you can get up and running with a full video production setup for less than it would cost to do a commercial on your local cable station.

Today’s video tools are really good, really cheap, and really easy to use. If you get really good at creating video content (also it would help to become a total Social Media Ninja), you can get a ton of traffic to your website, tons of exposure for your brand, and lots of new customers.

9. Become an Early Adopter

I noticed a trend when Twitter came out, and I’m noticing it again with Google+… If you are an early adopter of an online social network, you will have a lot of influence, because it is less crowded.

Keep your eyes open for new technologies and social websites. Don’t be afraid to jump on the bandwagon and try something that isn’t proven. The fact is… once it’s been proven, it will be crowded and thus, more difficult to get exposure.

10. Become a Photojournalist for Your Business

You can buy a really nice professional camera (preferably a DSLR) for $500 – $1000. Use it to take pictures of everything your business does. Post pics on your website, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or anywhere else online that your customers might see them.

You can also get really good at taking product pics for your online store or Amazon store (or Etsy store or Ebay store, they didn’t make this list, but those are two more great places to sell your products online).

DSLR cameras also take awesome video, so you can use one camera for both still shots and video. The key to getting good is to practice, read online tutorials, or take a class at your local jr. college.

Some Final Thoughts

None of the ideas on this list are free. They all take money or time or both. The real question is whether or not your business can afford to NOT take these ideas seriously.

The world has changed. Those who choose not to adapt will likely go out of business, or at the very least see their profitability diminish.

You can either use the Internet as the most powerful small business marketing tool that has ever existed (which it is), or you can ignore it and let the big box stores roll over you like a steam roller.

The choice is yours.

For example, right now I’m getting a lot of traffic for the term merry christmas. I don’t really sell any merry christmas [...]]]> If you’re monitoring your website analytics closely (and you should be), the chances are good that you will win search engine traffic for things that you didn’t intend… especially if you blog regularly.

For example, right now I’m getting a lot of traffic for the term merry christmas. I don’t really sell any merry christmas type products or services. I just wrote a post 2 years ago called “Merry Christmas from Tribeswell – Free Christmas Music Download”.

Chances are, few people who come to my site from this search term are in the market for ANY of the services I provide, but that doesn’t bother me, because…

The more traffic you get, the more traffic you get.

The more hits you have on your website, the more social shares you earn, the more links you obtain… all of this will pump up your other content. I’m not saying you shouldn’t have a blogging keyword strategy or take care in writing your posts… you should, but the fact of the matter is, these random traffic spikes are still beneficial.

What about hits that are out of your geographic range?

Many businesses that I consult with work in a defined geographic range. When they write a blog about something, it might get views from all over the world. This is still a good thing. It increases the likelihood of links and social shares, and the authority of your blog or website.

Traffic is always a good thing.

I wouldn’t have a business without wordpress. World class CMS, thousands of amazing [...]]]> This is a follow-up post to my ‘top 10 productivity apps’ post that I wrote a few weeks ago. These are my top 7 apps that my team uses every single day and we couldn’t live without.

WordPress

I wouldn’t have a business without wordpress. World class CMS, thousands of amazing plugins that do almost anything, a massive development community… WordPress just keeps getting better and better. At this point there are few websites that make sense on any other platform.

Mailchimp

Eight words… Free accounts for lists up to 2000 people. This is the killer app for email marketing. It is beautifully designed. It has tons of unique and useful features. It’s actually fun to use. Beautiful templates. I can’t say enough good things.

Facebook

Have you heard of it? There are amazing things that you can do with Facebook pages these days, and amazing ways to integrate Facebook into your website for marketing. Facebook continues to be a great source of traffic for this site and all of our client’s sites.

Youtube

If Youtube were JUST a place where you could upload HD videos (in an incredibly intuitive way), and embed them on your website, it would still make this list… But, it also has an awesome social community, it’s the world’s second biggest search engine, and is supported by every major mobile device. For me it is the only solution for online video.

Google Analytics

There are a lot of ways to track your website traffic, but few that are this good, and NONE that are this good and this FREE. There are very few sites that need more features than you get for free with this product.

Hubspot Website Grader

Need a quick snapshot of how effective your website is at any given moment? Go to www.websitegrader.com. I use this tool every time I start working with a new client. It pulls data from all over the web to let you know exactly what you need to do to start increasing your marketing effectiveness.

iStockPhoto

If you’re going to be doing a lot of Internet marketing, you’re going to need a steady supply of quality stock photography and artwork. iStockphoto is the biggest and the most cost effective.

It seems to [...]]]> Starting a business, running a business, managing people… it’s no walk in the park. It takes a crazy kind of person to even start something in the first place, let alone endure those months where you have little to no income and what can seem like a mountain of problems and worry.

It seems to me that doing things that are hard, and pushing through and finally succeeding, makes it a lot easier to persevere through the next obstacle. Plus, you can start doing things that are harder and harder and build something that you never thought was possible.

So, here’s to the obstacles… the hard things we entrepreneurs have to persevere through on a daily basis. Here’s to our scars and callouses. Here’s to the ‘tough’ that makes us tough enough to build something great!

So I decided to unplug….

I packed up my wife [...]]]> A few weeks ago I realized I needed a serious break. My phone was giving me a notification every 15 minutes for one reason or another. Email was out of control, and it seemed some sort of media had infiltrated every crack of my existence.

So I decided to unplug….

I packed up my wife and son, set an out-of-office on my email, changed my voicemail message and then powered down my phone, tossed aside my laptop, and took off.

We decided to visit the farm where I grew up. There is a cabin there that is warm and cozy and also NOT hooked up to TV or Internet. We enjoyed the beautiful fall weather, went hiking at local nature preserves and state parks, visited some friends, and even hit a flea market.

So, what was it like?….

It was pretty weird at first. I experienced withdraw symptoms similar to when I quit smoking. I was anxious and on edge. Apparently I have a pretty serious media addiction.

Eventually, however, I started to feel better and I really gained some much needed clarity. I bonded with my family and it was amazing to not have the distractions of email, facebook, or TV. It ended up being an amazingly positive experience.

So, what did I miss?…

The best part was that when I got back and powered up my email I hadn’t really missed anything at all. No fires, no floods, no disasters… I had successfully gone without any sort of media for 3 days and 3 nights and everything was fine.

It was an incredibly great experience. I’m now planning to unplug for at least a few days once a quarter.

Seriously, thank god for dropbox! In an era all about cloud computing it takes the crown as the most insightful, useful, and downright innovative solution on the market. As a person who is constantly strung between multiple computers its vital I have access to the documents I’m working on wherever I am and with [...]]]>

Seriously, thank god for dropbox! In an era all about cloud computing it takes the crown as the most insightful, useful, and downright innovative solution on the market. As a person who is constantly strung between multiple computers its vital I have access to the documents I’m working on wherever I am and with a quick save to my dropbox folder it’s done. It couldn’t be easier.

For those of you who don’t know what dropbox is, its a cloud computing solution that involves a folder on your local machine that syncs with a server over the internet and syncs back down to all your computers. You can even access the files you save via dropbox’s website. Have a word doc you’re working on at the office and need to have the most up to date version while working from home? Dropbox has you covered. I save entire project folders so I can work from home, the office, or anywhere and constantly have the most up to date versions.

It’s done wonders for my productivity and saved my life on occasion. These days I basically live off it as I run between all my devices. So do yourself a favor and go get dropbox. You get 2GB free, plus additional space for anyone you recommend. After that you can get 50GB for $10 a month or 100GB for $20. Share your space with other dropbox users and get your collaboration on.

[Dropbox.com]

Now whenever you go to a web page you can hit the “Reader” button and it shows you just the text and images from the page. It looks [...]]]> This morning I finished installing Apple’s iOS 5 on my iPhone4. One of the features I was most excited about was the new “Reader” feature in Safari.

Now whenever you go to a web page you can hit the “Reader” button and it shows you just the text and images from the page. It looks really awesome.

However, if you’re a marketer this is a total disaster. Now your visitors won’t see your ads, forms, or other calls to action. Luckily there is a solution.

If you simply create a mobile optimized version of your website, the user will be unlikely to use the “Reader” function. You’ll be able to better control the experience of the user and you’ll maintain the integrity of your online branding.

• Click here to find out more about Tribeswell mobile website design services.
• Click here to set up a free consultation.

Ads still provide value. If they didn’t, then people wouldn’t buy them. The thing is, we actually live in a world where you don’t NEED to buy ads any more. Sure you can buy them, and they will be effective, but today there are a lot of alternatives.

Enough is enough. It has been months now and Google+ is still not available for my Google apps email. What is the deal, Google?

I set up a Google+ profile a while ago with my personal Gmail account, but unfortunately I can’t have both open in the same browser. So to use [...]]]>

Enough is enough. It has been months now and Google+ is still not available for my Google apps email. What is the deal, Google?

I set up a Google+ profile a while ago with my personal Gmail account, but unfortunately I can’t have both open in the same browser. So to use Google+ I have to switch to another browser… or log out of my email (which I never do).

This is lame! I like Google+ and I would use it a lot, but screw this. It’s not convenient. And frankly it’s not worth aggravation.

There, I said my piece. I’m out!