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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.

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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.

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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

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Last night I attended the first Entrepreneur Unplugged event sponsored by Philly Startup Leaders. I think it’s a great idea; people from the front lines sharing war stories. Insights and advice abounds. From their description of the event:

Entrepreneur Unplugged will extend the spirit of Founder Factory by bringing successful Entrepreneurs “on stage” to share their personal stories of risk taking and decision making. The format will be a 30 minute presentation followed by question and answer. The series will be streamed live, recorded and distributed online.

The first presenter was Boris Silver who, along with a partner, built a series of fantasy sports Facebook apps under the banner Sport Interactiva. Their apps grew to over 1 million users, had ad deals with big names like Adidas and Time Warner, and sold it off 9 months after quitting school to work on it full time. His blog title says it all: “20 year old, sold a company, and now an undergraduate student re-enrolled at The Wharton School.” Helluva resume for not even being old enough to have a Bachelor’s.

Boris provided a very insightful hour and a half, and was open to just about any question on his experience (he couldn’t comment on the financial details of the sale). Some of the key ideas I jotted down from his talk and Q&A time…

• Surround yourself with people who are “genuine, honest, and long-term.”
• Stay fanatically focused on your product, to the point of ignoring related opportunities. A startup demands all your attention, and it’s easy to over-leverage yourself.
• Really know your working partners. Boris didn’t do adequate upfront investigation into his partner. Later on, he realized how lucky he got, as the entire business could have tanked had their relationship gone sour.
• Avoid the all-star CEO, CTO, etc. You got into your business because you really understand it and see an opportunity. There’s no one out there who will know your business better or do a better job running it. Seek advice, but never release the reigns due to a perceived lack of ability.
• Contrary to the stories out of Silicon Valley, being an entrepreneur is not a glitzy job. It’s a huge amount of time and work. Your friends don’t get it, and you don’t have time to spend with them anyway, so it’s lonely. Startup ideas naturally go against accepted trends in an industry, so you are typically your only source of confidence, making for an emotional rollercoaster. To top it off, there’s absolutely no guarantee of financial success; you could be left with nothing to show for the effort.
• Commitment to starting a business must be a “binary decision:” success or failure. Take it all the way until one or the other manifests itself. Halfway isn’t good enough.
• When dealing with advertisers and the inevitable back-and-forth push, at the end of the day you get their money, making them the customer. All the usual rules for treating customers properly apply.

For my part, it was great to see concrete proof that age means absolutely nothing in business. Here I felt wary of my chances starting out at 27! If you know enough to get started, that’s good enough. It’s obvious from Boris’ extremely intelligent responses to detailed business questions that you can learn a lot as you go.

The only point of contention I had — if you can call it that — was in Boris’ evaluation of what happens if and when a business fails. He seemed to be of the opinion that you walk away completely empty-handed. Financially speaking that may be true, however the experiences gained are often worth their weight in gold. A failed business teaches a lot about what doesn’t work on a plethora of levels: expansion, hiring, capital, customer service, delivery, internal structure, the list goes on. And unless you were completely incompetent, you probably picked up a few things that worked really well too. You also cannot discount the new contacts and networking, which often lead directly to the next opportunity. Again I’m not sure Boris discounted these ideas entirely, I simply would have mentioned them.

So hats off to Boris for providing an example of success, we all need them to keep going. Overall it was a very informative evening, and I’m looking forward to the next one.

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