Hot Koehl

I hate using the word “solution” when it comes to software: it implies that it solves problems. Software never solves problems, quite the opposite in a lot of cases. At best it can only augment stuff you already do in other ways; at worst it can make tasks more difficult.

Here’s a real world example. On a recent PSL discussion thread, Jason Meinzer from CityRyde asked for suggestions for task management systems. Simple enough question, and a pretty common need. However in the additional comments we find out that they have already reviewed and considered several services…

Google tasks don’t work because you can’t share them, and solutions like WizeHive, RememberTheMilk, Manymoon, BaseCamp, etc. don’t seem to work because nobody wants to rely and commit to them because they each have their frustrations and inevitably don’t jive w/ somebody’s task management method. It would be great if there was a tool that enabled everybody to keep doing what they are doing and simply sync their “tasks” comprising of a description, due date and owner to one central portal for all to view.

They’ve pretty much argued themselves into a corner. It seems that every existing market offering presents an issue to someone on the team. “We need task management, but task management won’t work.”

Sound familiar? I see this happen time and time again when businesses seek out technology to handle real world issues. The intent is perfectly fine and logical; they’re on the right track in fact. However the stumbling block isn’t compatibility with the available options, but rather the staff’s reluctance to do something new. CityRyde doesn’t have a technology problem, they’ve got a people problem.

If you find yourself in a similar situation, here’s some food for thought.

No piece of software will ever please the entirety of any team. As the saying goes, you can’t please everybody all the time.

It’s important to consider the perspective of each team member, but never at the expense of the business’s perspective. In CityRyde’s case, Meinzer and the rest of his team should consider their company’s unique task flow in addition to employee preferences. Ask questions like…

• How does work present itself?
• How do tasks get taken care of?
• Is there anything you want to change about the flow as it stands right now?

From a technical perspective, I think that most any of the services that Meinzer referenced would meet their needs, they simply need to pick one and run with it. Answering those types of questions should hopefully reveal a product that best fits their style.

People will always complain, but we naturally crave structure. If you make a decision, set it in stone, and execute that decision ruthlessly, people will go along with you. You see this all the time in other businesses: “I’m sorry, but those are the rules, and my boss will kill me.” When it’s decision time, you must be that killer boss (so to speak).

Don’t forget that you can always shake things up if whatever you pick doesn’t work out, get 6 months down the road and re-evaluate. But don’t be surprised when the same people complaining about your choice now are complaining when things change again!

I said as much in a response, and I think Meinzer’s follow-up confirms this analysis…

In actuality, over the past 2 years we’ve “6-month” tested about 3 different… don’t hate me… “solutions” with varying degrees of success in terms of efficiency which we have tracked and which is what brought me to this quest. We are all about efficiency, and while we recognize there isn’t going to be a perfect tool out there we are just hoping to get some thoughts on one’s that have worked well for others that fits into our culture and methodologies that could prove a bit better than the one’s we’ve worked with in the past. I’m sure we aren’t the only one in this boat…

3 completely different packages and no dice? There’s (almost!) no way that all three were unworkable for their situation. They either lack the gumption to set a course, or one or more employees are being especially verbal on the matter. Either way, they have enough information to make an informed decision. All that’s left is to determine the best possible option and go for it!

I can’t fault CityRyde for the situation, it happens all the time. I wouldn’t be writing about it if I didn’t see this sort of thing over and over again! So when find yourself in the same boat, remember that when software-related problems arise, the software often plays the scapegoat, but is rarely the true source of the trouble.

Update: The author gave me permission to use his company and name, so I’ve updated the post. Jason and CityRyde both welcome any comments you may have, so feel free to email him directly.

Got some questions from a PSL member via email the other day. They are pretty common questions for anyone starting their first ecommerce website, so I thought I’d share the questions and my responses.

Any recommendations on a cheap payment processing solution to use with Zen Cart since considering order volume may be quite low and sparse to start.
I’ve learned that “cheap” and “payment processing solution” never go together, and you should run the other way if they do. If you go with Zen Cart, I’d recommend Authorize.net. They run about $30 / month in standard fees, plus a $100 setup fee, but their per-transaction fees are lower than Paypal. Zen Cart is already equipped to handle Auth.net, you simply need to plug in the right values to the payment module configuration.

If you gawk at the $100 setup, you could consider Paypal’s Website Payments Pro package, which provides transparent checkouts (i.e. no redirect to Paypal’s site) for $30 / month with higher per-transaction costs. You also sidestep all the “merchant account” nonsense, just provide PayPal with an existing bank account to deposit your payments. That alone can make it worth the extra money in some cases.

Putting my money where my mouth is, I’m using Authorize.net for my own startup, Fwd:Vault. Plus, because it’s a subscription service, I have to purchase additional modules to handle the recurring billing. The standard monthly costs are still going to total less than $100, and puts me in a better position for growth (at some point the Paypal per transaction fees counter-balance the monthly savings).

Have you used/what do you think of [insert any hosting company here]?
Whatever hosting route you go, my litmus test is ensure the package allows you to use a dedicated SSL certificate. That means that you’ll have a dedicated IP address, which is important because sharing an IP address with others puts you at risk for being blacklisted. It only takes one moron using an unpatched forum package. Plus shared SSL certs can be a pain in the butt to configure.

I’ve found Virtual Private Server (VPS) packages to be an excellent middle ground: more secluded than shared hosts, less expensive than a dedicated box. They act like dedicated servers, and thus require server admin skills, so don’t go this route if you don’t have a technical background. If you don’t have the technical chops, or can’t afford to hire them, the newer cloud solutions, like Media Temple grid service and Mosso Rackspace Cloud are pretty sweet.

I was quoted in another IT World article last week discussing how mentoring occurs in open source communities. Below is the full text I sent to the author, in case anyone wanted more background on my comments.

In my experience, mentoring in open source projects occurs between the project leaders (i.e. artisans) and their most active community members (i.e. journeymen). In other words, rarely does the complete newbie directly benefit from the knowledge of team. They must first absorb what the team has to offer in the form of their project code — prove themselves worthy, in a sense — and then join the high-level discussions.

I have a perfect example from my own experience. The Zen Cart project fosters a vibrant support community, however direct, unscheduled contact with team members is strictly prohibited.

Unfettered developer access to the team is limited to a select few community members who are proactively contacted by the team, instead of the other way around. I was fortunate to fall into this category, but it required serious upfront work.

I taught myself the Zen Cart platform in order to launch my then-employer’s first ecommerce site. During my time launching and maintaining the site, I developed several utilities for the program in order to fill some holes in their functionality. For example, the available accounting reports were lackluster, so I built a custom reporting tool to output all the sales figures our accountant would need. I released this and several other modules back into the community as a “thank you” for all the support they had provided. Attention from the team followed, culminating in an offer to join them as a support team member.

Here, (finally!) begins the mentoring. The team shared their private development plans so I could coordinate my my modules with the release schedule, and offered direct advice on how to improve my offerings. In turn, I provided feedback on my experience with the program, offering recommendations on future areas of improvement.

But the relationships quickly extended beyond the Zen Cart project itself, and today I consider the team members professional colleagues. I contact the team members any time I needed advice or support on my projects, Zen Cart-related or not. I just had a phone call with one of them last week to discuss online billing setups for my current project. Who better to seek help with online payments than the programmer who’s checkout code has reached “featured cart” status with PayPal?

In this ecomony, these relationships are invaluable. They have made themselves available as professional references if I need them which, according to one interviewer, just makes my resume levitate off the pile.

The article is chock full of additional insights and perspectives, so be sure to check it out.

Vindication! I gave up on the keywords meta tag long ago, but plenty of “SEO gurus” say you should still fill it with a moderate amount of garbage loosely relating to your site. Like I said the other day, anyone can do a decent job at SEO by utilizing some common sense and elbow grease.

This video was posted yesterday to the Google Webmaster Help Channel on YouTube.

Matt Cutts has spoken, that is all.

Are you planning to attend a trade show or expo to showcase your product or service? Costs surrounding these events tend to run into the ridiculous category, even for established companies. If you’re a startup, it’s quite the juggling act.

We recently had a very lively discussion on the matter on the Philly Startup Leaders mailing list, chock full of hints, tips, and suggestions from those who have been there/done that. First here’s the original inquiry…

We’re going to be attending our first tradeshow this November and need to figure out how to put together our booth on a budget (or lack thereof). We’ve got a 10×10 booth along with a few hundred other vendors. Thankfully, we managed to snag a decent location on the floor.

We ultimately need something pretty simple. We plan to bring 4-5 workstations for people to use our website and put a 50″ LCD on the back wall to run some demos. The whole goal is to get people in the booth, on the computer and signing up.

Everyone we’ve talked to is saying it is going to take more than $10k to build and deliver a booth (this is to buy, not rent as we’ll likely be at several more tradeshows over the next year). We literally don’t have a budget for doing this, but we’ll figure out how to do it somehow, and we do plan on having as professional a presence as possible. Does anyone have any suggestions and/or good exhibit companies they have worked with before? Typically, are exhibition companies willing to negotiate on price?

Also, if anyone has any practical advice on tradeshows that they’d like to share, please do. We need to gain as much exposure as possible.

– Jameson Detweiler, Green Konnect

And here are key excerpts from the discussion (edited for content, spelling, etc)…

The most important part of show prep is to write down your measurable goals for the show (X number of leads, X number of orders, etc.) and to plan your follow up process for during and post show. Also think about pre-show marketing and which prospects and clients to whom you want to send a free pass. And consider any p.r. opptys you can create while you’re at the show. The post show work is critical in my mind. Otherwise any money you spend on the show is wasted if you don’t plan your follow up and execute on it. Can’t tell you how many companies I’ve seen waste $’s for lack of follow up.

For the booth, shop around online. When I set up the trade show program for one company I think we spent about $2500 to buy our very good quality 10×10 booth, plus some amount for the artwork for it. It was a basic concave back w/ basic lights. That was 4 years ago so I don’t know where prices are now. I think I used Exhibit Deal. The short answer is that you want your booth to look professional, not like one of the companies that can’t afford to be at the show (they have no chairs, no carpet, no lights and use a cheap back drop).

To do that, make sure you go thru the exhibit book carefully to see where you can shave costs. The exhibitor companies typically hit you for everything, electricity, carpet, daily cleaning, chairs, tables, fabric, etc. Also if you’re in a union exhibit hall you’ll have to read the rules carefully to figure out how to package your samples and stuff so you can load them yourself and not be crushed by the union rates.

We rented the table w/ fabric and carpet, paid for the electric outlet, were allowed to plug in our own electric devices and not have the union electrician do it b/c we were a small booth, and brought out own good looking folding chairs. We also brought our own booth box w/ all sorts of stuff that came in very handy.

We also spent money on logo’d button-down shirts for a booth uniform, booth shipping, product samples, marketing collateral, air fare, hotels and meals for 3-5 people over 4 days, 1 rental van and other incidentals.

[...]
I’d take a careful look at the exhibit rules to see if they say anything about using computers and video screens. While you can figure out a way to get a 50″ big screen set up w/o buying the expensive backdrops needed to hang them, the set up you describe – 50″ video w/ lots of computer terminals – is the kind of set up that would require union workers. Make sure you see if that’s an issue for you as you shop for a booth. That killed our plans to do the same kind of thing.

– Bruce Segal, E*S*Q Unlimited

My wife and I built a 10×10 trade show on a budget. It was super simple, but only cost $2K to make.

• Postcards to hand out, $185 (from modernpostcard.com)
• Fabric for table & sides, $50 (from Jomar’s in Philly + my wife)
• Sewed big pieces together really quickly
• 3 Posters (2 with lights), $1560 (from postergarden.com)
• Fishing line held the software boxes up

– Gabriel Weinberg, Duck Duck Go

Also, I would recommend having some good swag. It draws people into your area.
– Tracey Welson-Rossman, Chariot Solutions

I would recommend against trying to mount a 50″ display on a pop-up. You’re going to have some stability issues. Instead, get a floor standing monitor mount. Here’s a cool one with place for keyboard/mouse at a decent price. You’ll also need a table for your workstations. With a handful of workstations, you’re going to need some room.

Cramming all of this in to a 10′x10′ space is going to be very tight. Of course, it also depends on how many people you plan on manning the booth. Generally, shows prohibit you from lingering in the walkway between booths. So, let’s say you have the booth back, the floor stand with 50″ monitor, a table with 5 workstations and 3 people in the booth, you’re going to be tight for space. Add 2 or 3 attendees and you’ll literally be on top of one another.

As far as show strategy goes, it always helps to have something interactive going on (more-so than just your product). Having some kind of gimmick, giveaway, contest, prize, game, etc., goes a long way to drive more traffic in to your booth. Now, of course, you don’t want this to be the main attraction of your booth. Nor do you want it to be tacky – so as to detract from your presentation or harm your brand.

Here’s a good example of bad interactive execution. I was at a show about a year ago and outside of a 20×20 booth, lingered an attractive, scantily clad female, who was encouraging attendees to come over to the booth and take a whack at a golf ball with her putter and land one in the hole to win a prize. I stood there and watched as one person after another lined up to take a crack. What I found interesting was that once the attendee took a shot at the ball, they disappeared instantly… wanting nothing to do with what the company had to say about itself. Also, not one female approached the booth. It was a disgrace.

So, some ideas for things you can do that will draw attention, give you a chance to talk to an attendee and avoid detrimental branding:

1. Grab 10 ipod Nanos and give away one every hour on the hour. Ask attendees to drop their business cards or sign up with one of your pre-printed entry forms. This way, you can talk to them while they’re signing up to win – you can talk to them again if they come back later to see if they’ve won… and you can tell them to come back every hour to enter again if they don’t win. You’ll get a lot of repeat traffic. Also, word of mouth will spread around about the contest.
2. You could have a grand prize – for example, everyone that “signs up” on the spot for your product/service gets entered for an end-of-conference/show giveaway where you give them the 50″ TV from your booth.
3. Give away a decent show bag. While attendees almost alway throw away 99% of what they stuff in to those bags, if the bag itself is nice, they will keep it. I probably have 10 of them at home in my closet. (Good for groceries, etc.) This way, your brand sticks around with the attendee for an extended period of time (post-show).

If you want to look professional and do this right – I would expect to spend ~$6k-8k. I don’t think the $10k estimate was off base. For the last big show I did with a client (show in DC with ~20K attendees), the client spent ~$55k on the booth, $10k on personnel in the booth (we hired actors and put on a whole production in a 20×30 booth), and ~$15k on giveaways, prizes, take-homes, etc. We also put in four small movie rooms inside the booth, where attendees could sit down and watch a short video presentation we created about the product. They could pull the curtain shut and enjoy a few minutes alone. This went over very well. This client wanted to go all out for a new product/brand launch and make a big splash, which they did. Microsoft’s booth was right next to them, and the Microsoft guys were jealous of all the attention they received.

Another one of my clients used to have a singing Elvis in their booth every year. They did this for about 8 years straight (until I came along and got rid of him). It was interesting, though… people remembered the singing Elvis and would come back to their booth year after year to hear him sing. It got attention and was memorable (just not the kind of attention I wanted for my client).

If you do something creative, something different, you will get attention.

– Aaron Haydn McLean, Eight Eleven Inc.

Check the prices on anything you plan to rent or ship, chances are that you’re find that many items can be purchased locally near the show for less than the rental/shipping. This goes for most furniture/supplies and even some LCD displays. We did CES a few times and typically arrived a little early to buy a lot of stuff locally versus renting or shipping. Also, we bought a used booth at a local booth maker which saved us a lot of $ and dressed it up with new artwork.

– Rick O’Brien, SemperCon

Hand-me down wisdom from an advisor with many startup success stories:

Don’t get a booth – just go and sell to people with booths. Still have the same goals in mind, but only pay for a day-pass to walk around the exhibition areas. I don’t know if that helps, but it’s worth considering going commando.

– Jordan Epstein, Philly Startup Leaders

Update: And if you happen to be in the social networking or registration businesses

Try working out a deal with the conference, such as being the official networking site for conference attendees.

You would pitch the conference on the value to attendees, show them what they would normally have to pay, then offer to provide it to them at no charge or a discount. You’ll do all the work and the attendee marketing. They would just need to send you the attendee list with e-mail addresses.

We’ve worked ticketing deals like this with success. It gets you better exposure than you could pay for and shows off your product doing what it does best.

If they are interested, be sure to ask for the extras that don’t cost them anything — including a booth in a premium spot, a speaking opportunity, ads in the program, on the web, etc, and a final attendee list so you can continue marketing to them.

– Blake Jennelle, TicketLeap

I’ll admit it, I was real lazy getting on the SEO train. It took starting my own company for me to finally start paying attention. SEO for my previous major site work was handled for me. ClassicWines had other staff dedicated to the issue, and Destination ImagiNation had such a huge network of affiliate sites that the SEO literally handled itself.

Even this blog went unattended in the SEO category. I had posts tagged, I submitted the site to the search engines and Technorati, I installed Platinum SEO Pack, I figured that was good enough.

It came to me shortly after the early soft launch of Fwd:Vault. I had dutifully installed Google Analytics to monitor traffic. I logged into the service for the first time a few weeks after things were rolling, and my search results sucked. I showed up for one term: “fwd”. I used their keyword tool to see what they were primarily pulling off the site, and most of it was the legalese from the policy pages. That’s when I knew this would require some serious attention.

If you find yourself in the same position, you owe it to yourself to get educated. The benefits for a startup are obvious, and I don’t know an existing company that wouldn’t like more traffic. Plus SEO knowledge/ability is a great resume booster.

On board? Great! Here’s how to get started.

First some reading. These are all SEO-related blogs that currently reside in my Google Reader setup.

• Awesome intro article from NETTUTS
• Google Webmaster Central Blog
• Google Webmaster Grab Bag videos
• chrisbrogan.com
• Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO
• SEOmoz Blog
• SEOBook.com Blog

Now that you’ve got the info, let’s get our hands on some utility sites. I’m not going to explain how you use these sites, that should be obvious from your self-education outlined above.

• Google Webmaster
• Bing Webmaster
• Yahoo Webmaster (you’ll need a Yahoo account first)
• SEOmoz tools
• Google Analytics
• Google Trends
• Google search-based keyword tool
• Google Website Optimizer
• SEM Rush
• SEOBook Tools
• SpyFu
• Website Grader (part of a group of tools, this is by the far the most useful)
• HotWords.com

So there you go. Take all that stuff, add a few weeks of study, and you’ll know all you need to do a decent SEO job.

Sidebar: hiring outside help
I really do mean “decent.” SEO specialists can claim they know the voodoo better than you, but most of that is smoke these days. SEO is not quite the wild west it was in the late 90′s and early zeros; effective practices have become more standardized and the tools to maximize that effectiveness more available. Speaking practically, most will provide access to network relationships you can leverage for link sharing, subscriptions to the more expensive SEO tools (the Enterprise version of SEM Rush costs $500/month), and their own cocktail of page optimizations.

Nonetheless, they definitely bring a wealth of experience to the table, just as any other expert would. So you should look at hiring an SEO specialist just as would any other position. Just as small businesses keep their own books until they’re big enough to warrant an accountant, you owe it to yourself (and your wallet) to give it a shot. Look for outside help if your own efforts prove fruitless. If nothing else, you’ll be more educated and ready to negotiate with your SEO specialist.

A recent computer repair delivery left me with a huge box full of packing peanuts.

This turned out to be a pretty fun toy for my cat Fox this afternoon, despite his reluctance…

When I was a Comcast customer, the cable quality itself was decent but everything around it sucked. Everything cost way too much. FYI, all the prices you see them advertise — you know, the ones that actually sound reasonable? — are introductory rates, and skyrocket after 6-12 months (though I hear you can keep them indefinitely if you call when the rates expire and threaten to cancel).

Getting support meant a huge telephone system to navigate, long wait times, and typically routed you to India. Never had need of a guy on-site (thank god!), but I did have to wait in a DMV-style line for close to two hours once to return the set-top box and transfer the account to my roommate when I moved out. Honestly, couldn’t I just mail the thing in and transfer the account over the phone? It’s not a bank account, why do I have to do it in-person?

So after I got married, I decided to try my luck with Verizon. No cable service obviously, so I had to go with DirecTV for television (Fios still not available in my area). Cheaper than cable, but unreliable in windy or stormy weather. DSL connections are okay, also cheaper than cable, but are a pain to use with a home network. PPPoE is garbage.

This past week, the home phone line dies. We had no dial tone, and anyone calling in got a busy signal. Interestingly, the DSL keeps working, but sporadically drops out. I learned that a disconnect in the middle of a Rambo-inspiring killing spree in Team Fortress 2 is the most infuriating way to get bumped off the net.

After their online repair request system completely flopped — submitting a help request would tell me that my session expired, despite logging in 15 seconds before — I used an automated phone system to request a repair (not sure if I like or hate that). This was Tuesday; Ms. Automaton promised me that the problem would be solved by Friday (today) at 8:00 pm. Ms. Automaton follows up with me on Thursday, saying I had to be available all day Friday for the technician. Super…

They come rolling in around 7:00 pm, and I only know that because I called the service department an hour beforehand to ask if they forgot about me. It seems that damnable Murphy decided to jump into the fray on this one, as the technician called saying he had a dial tone. I pick up my handset and, sure enough, I hear expletives coming out of my mouth.

I reiterate how that hasn’t been the case in over a week, hoping he’ll investigate further. He says it will be no problem…for the technician who will pick up the case tomorrow morning…before noon…which almost guarantees that I’ll be getting a call before I’m out of bed. Apparently that 8:00 pm deadline includes the time it takes for them to drive the truck back to the service station, pack up, and go home.

Don’t let me keep you!

Oh and did I mention that this is the second time this line has given you trouble?

Okay, now I’m pissed and wondering, “Couldn’t I just drop their service, keep the DirecTV, and get a basic cable modem package?”

Why share all this, aside from venting? To illustrate an opportunity.

Out of my fury, the question presents itself: “Would I leave my current provider(s) to go to one that may not offer as much, but definitely treats me well?” Personally, I know my answer is a resounding yes, and if I had the means I’d be willing to bet that a good portion of you guys agree with me. I don’t, so that’s an opportunity for someone else.

Everyone has horror stories from the phone and cable companies. No one likes dealing with them because they are big bureaucracies that make everything way more painful than it needs to be. This is a massive opportunity for differentiation. Any one of them — or a new player — could step up with a halfway decent product offering while nailing the customer service element, and make serious inroads to the markets of the others.

You are likely not a cable or phone company. If you are, quit fighting over your stupid “value adds” and focus on delivering cheap, effective service. We all know your “bundle” deals are a load of crap. Major market share to the first one who can figure out that selling cheap internet access by itself is a good idea!

Here’s the takeaway for anyone else: If you’re not happy with something in your world, chances are you’re not the only one. Take a step back and see if you can do something about it. I try to apply the same approach to every pain point in my life. I look for the opportunity in what’s wrong or missing in a given situation. Do it enough, and you’ll eventually find one that you’re in a position to try and solve.

Aside: This is also why I’m not a big fan of government involvement in anything. The regulation reduces or eliminates the opportunity to try something new, different, and possibly a whole lot better.

Update 9-19-09: They called at 4:00 pm to let me know that they’ve identified the issue “in the Verizon network,” but it won’t be fixed until Monday. My gut tells me the lazy-ass I chatted with on Friday probably could have done what this guy did today, allowing today’s guy to actually fix the problem.

In my life as a full-time employee, I ran a membership management system for an international non-profit that organized over 40,000 volunteers at the local, state, and national levels in almost 30 countries. It coordinated physical material deliveries (part of the system was a full shopping cart installation), managed electronic documents, and delivered news to all those volunteers. I built the system myself from scratch (minus said shopping cart), and ran it on my own for almost three years.

When I wasn’t coding it or maintaining the server, I provided tech support for the office staff and customer support (including phone calls) for volunteers.

I was the only technical person in the whole place.

I can count the number of times that system went down as result of anything other than a hardware issue on one hand.

Much as I love it, I fail to see how a minimally configurable 140-character obtuse message board can fail so often!

Update: Alright, it’s back up. Good recovery this time, but you still have to reset the “Days since an accident” sign back to zero.

Living in a Philly suburb, I never thought my Philly proximity would have any effect on my startup, Fwd:Vault. However that was before I discovered the Philly Startup Leaders.

Comprised of small businesses at all stages, manned by people of all experience levels and backgrounds, the mailing list we share alone is invaluable. When you add in access to startup events and conferences in the area, not mention original events like “Entrepreneurs Unplugged” and the totally unique “Fishbowl” event, and you’ve got a must-have tool for any bootstrapper who considers Philly the closest major city.

If that includes you, what are you waiting for? Go sign up!