The other day I had one of those experiences that has become common in this far-flung digital age: I met someone with whom I’ve worked for months face-to-face for the first time.
Nicole Fende has been, in turn, a collaborator, consultant and friend and it was great to finally get to see her and talk in person. Over lunch at the Rosemont Holiday Inn, we chatted, planned and laughed a lot (frankly, I felt bad for the tables around us 🙂 ).
As I sat down to write my post this morning, one part of our conversation stuck out in my mind. We were talking about the book I’m writing and I posed this question to Nicole: “Why do you think many businesses have trouble figuring out what they should be doing online?”.
The question was rhetorical in that I had an answer prepared and here’s what I said:
“Many businesses are overwhelmed when they go online – there are just so many things they can do, so many ways they can do them and so many people telling them what, and how, they should decide to do.”
“But most businesses have faced this before,” I continued. “Before opening their door for business in the offline world, a business owner must make hundreds of decisions where there are many options to consider and many folks trying to tell them which options are the best ones to select. So why can’t they do that online?”
“The answer,” I said, “is technology.”
“In the Old Days…”
You see, back in the dark ages (the 1990’s and early-to-mid 2000’s), getting things done online was hard. You needed to know techie stuff like coding and design just to get the most basic things, such as a website, up and running.
In those days, I worked with huge teams, building highly-functional websites and applications from scratch. We built news and information portals, online marketplaces and content and process management tools because there was no way to get those things unless you built them for yourself.
Yes, we walked uphill to school both ways. In the snow.
Businesses both large and small found themselves spending a lot of time and money on web projects and, even if many of the projects did not fully pan out, all of that work created the technology, processes and standards which allowed something new to happen: the cloud and software-as-a-service (SAAS).
Tech Skills No Longer Required
Thanks to the arrival of the cloud and the development of SAAS solutions, a whole world of “ready-to-go” business functionality awaits businesses online today.
From building a website to project management to managing customer relationships, these web based software programs can help you run your business more efficiently and for less money.
Unfortunately, many folks still remember the web when it was a “tech-skills-needed” zone and therein lies the problem.
Now that a business CAN do what it NEEDS to do online without requiring many (or any) technical skills, it’s time to shift the prevailing business mindset.
The web needs to be viewed as a “no-tech-skills-needed” zone so that more businesses can feel comfortable using the web, as a valuable addition to their offline efforts, to achieve their goals.
Get Started Now!
Helping businesses realize that the web is waiting, and that little-to-no tech skills are required, has always been a primary goal of this blog.
To help you get started, below are some links to content that will help you use the web to market your business, sell your products and services, run your business and manage your business relationships – no tech skills needed!
Have fun and, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below!
Market Your Business
- Online Solutions for Building a Website
- How to Market Research on Twitter
- Matt About Friday: The “How to Make and Use a QR Code” Edition
Sell Your Products and Services
Run Your Business
Manage Your Business Relationships
Weekly Link Roundup
Each week, I collect the 10 (this week I have 9) best posts that I’ve read and share them with you here.
These posts focus on small business solutions or resources online (or both!).
Enjoy!
How Effective Is Your Homepage? [Infographic]: Love this detailed and useful tips sheet for creating an effective website homepage!
The Top Five Mobile Marketing Mistakes: As mobile marketing grows in importance, here are 5 things to avoid when implementing your own strategy.
How to Fix Internet Embarrassments and Improve Your Online Reputation: Step-by-step walkthrough on how to deal with threats to your reputation on both Facebook and search engines.
100 Awesome Accounts that Every Entrepreneur Should be Following on Twitter: Great people to follow for news, insights, advice and more.
7 Quick Ways to Turn Your LinkedIn Profile into a Social Media Marketing Workhorse: 7 hints for improving the effectiveness of your LinkedIn profile.
Infographic: The Social Network Decision Tree: Handy tool for figuring out the best places for your company’s messages.
How to Increase Conversions on Your Website: Conversions are king – here are some tips on how to measure and increase the ones that occur on your website.
Have You Backed Up Your Gmail?: This was a chilling story – I am getting a backup plan in place today!
3 Stats to Think About When Crafting Your Social Media Campaign: Eye-opening facts that just might change your current social media efforts.
It was great finally meeting in person Matt. I can’t wait to see the book, you have such great insight to offer small business!
Back at ya’ Nicole and thanks for your kind words!
I posted this elsewhere but it bears repeating here. Just a quick injection here – have to say Matt About Business has become not only one of my favorite blogs that I check religiously but most practical, useful and immediately beneficial.
I’ve been selling online since 1995 so I know the hard work this field lays out for anyone working in the space and I *really* appreciate your dedication Matt to get things right and present such concise, quick/short and intensely researched info…You really stand apart from 99% of the biz blogs I come across and, dude, if you need a virtual hug on a bad day, this stranger in Colorado will be here to extend it out and get that chin set back up in the right position……
The info above here is pure gold for anyone just starting out – If this kind of information was around when I started out two decades ago, the process would have been easier to navigate. Difficult still – as running your own business will always be that – but still wrought w/ a bit less stress in some areas.
I also posted this elsewhere, but do not mind saying it again :):
I am not having a bad day, but this comment really made my week (maybe my month and year, too)!
I’m truly grateful that the work I’m doing is helpful and that folks like you are able to put the information I provide immediately to use (actionable is my favorite word these days 🙂 )!
Thanks for taking the time to let me know how I’ve helped you move forward. I promise to do my best to keep doing the same for years to come!
-Matt