Business owners can often over complicate things. Here are two simple ways to maximise sales.
1. Be pleasant. This weeks New Stateman has an article about the local elections. A woman was comparing Tim Farron, current MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, with the previous MP, Tim Collins. Without the article to hand I can't take a direct quote, but it went something like this:
"Tim [Farron] came round and kicked the ball around in the garden with my son for 45 minutes. Collins would come, give it a kick, and then head off again in five minutes."
You can see why Tim Farron won the election in 2005? Are you pleasant and easy going with your potential clients?
2. Give options. Successful companies sell more than one product, because there is no magic item or service that can meet the varied needs of all their customers.
People, when buying service orientated products, can be keen on bargaining. Yet I bet these same people wouldn't do that if they walked into a retail store. When working as sales assistant in a bike shop, if someone couldn't afford a bike, I would show them a cheaper one. The link between quality, value and price was clear.
Make that link in your products. Offer more products, and the value of each one becomes clear.
Monday 30 April 2007
Friday 27 April 2007
Favourite Books - Head First
Ok Ok. If you like at my favourite books on the right, it does seem like a brand of books, started by Cathy Sierra, make up the majority of my book shelf.
Now I must start off by saying that I have not and will most not ever receive payment for this. It is actually because reading the Head First Java book brought me up to speed on Java in only four weeks, when others will still learning the basics (and still are) after three months.
The second, Servlets and JSPS, brought my 92% in a class test, and the third, HTML and CSS, gave me the skills to write a well structured, strict compliant, good looking website that meet usability guidelines (oh and the client liked it also).
The books quiet simply break the mould for technical manuals, though strictly speaking they are not manuals, but learning materials that life long teachers probably never manage to produce. So say what you will about my shameless plug for the Head First range, but they've brought me far and will do so for others who can't be bothered to wade through 500 pages of sleep inducing size 8 writing.
Now I must start off by saying that I have not and will most not ever receive payment for this. It is actually because reading the Head First Java book brought me up to speed on Java in only four weeks, when others will still learning the basics (and still are) after three months.
The second, Servlets and JSPS, brought my 92% in a class test, and the third, HTML and CSS, gave me the skills to write a well structured, strict compliant, good looking website that meet usability guidelines (oh and the client liked it also).
The books quiet simply break the mould for technical manuals, though strictly speaking they are not manuals, but learning materials that life long teachers probably never manage to produce. So say what you will about my shameless plug for the Head First range, but they've brought me far and will do so for others who can't be bothered to wade through 500 pages of sleep inducing size 8 writing.
Thursday 26 April 2007
Dreaming Versus Doing
How do you approach new projects? Do you start by thinking about what you can do, and then what you could do with those skills?
Or do you think about what would be cool? Or about what needs are there; personal, societal, commercial or otherwise?
Jeff Atwood stated that if you want to be a great programmer, you should put down the keyboard, put up the feet, and take a physical and mental step back from the code too:
Rather then think from the bottom up, dream for a bit. One day you'll end up drinking a martini (or whatever it is you like to drink) on the veranda on some beautiful island when that wild "only you thought of it" idea was turned into reality, and you made a bit of modest dosh at the same time.
Limit your self by your dreams, not your skills.
Or do you think about what would be cool? Or about what needs are there; personal, societal, commercial or otherwise?
Jeff Atwood stated that if you want to be a great programmer, you should put down the keyboard, put up the feet, and take a physical and mental step back from the code too:
cultivate passion for everything else that goes on around the programming
Rather then think from the bottom up, dream for a bit. One day you'll end up drinking a martini (or whatever it is you like to drink) on the veranda on some beautiful island when that wild "only you thought of it" idea was turned into reality, and you made a bit of modest dosh at the same time.
Limit your self by your dreams, not your skills.
Remote Method Invocation has Landed!
I have finally nailed (ok not not nailed, but more pinned down with a sturdy pin) Remote Method Invocation(RMI)
RMI
Unfortunatelly, the RMI lecture came straight after a class test and was thus promptly slept through by most students. Going back over the lecture slides, which are not meant to be read but worked through in class, were not much help. After much confusion, trying to work it out, going back to the Head First
Java book I finally tried the java website, and hey presto, found exactly what was needed, a tutorial
by jGuru.
To summorise how neat and simple RMI is (for the simple stuff anyway!)
The remote object you want to be available to a different JVM must implement an interface.
That interface:
The remote object:
Now getting that remote object "out there", which will be done by a server object, is so fantastically easy, once you see it in practise.
The server object:
The client, or the listener which wants to use the remote object as if it were on its heap:
Of course this won't make much sense without looking at some actuall examples, but it
is so straightforward that, like a lecturer said, you could put this all on a post stamp!
RMI
Unfortunatelly, the RMI lecture came straight after a class test and was thus promptly slept through by most students. Going back over the lecture slides, which are not meant to be read but worked through in class, were not much help. After much confusion, trying to work it out, going back to the Head First
Java book I finally tried the java website, and hey presto, found exactly what was needed, a tutorial
by jGuru.
To summorise how neat and simple RMI is (for the simple stuff anyway!)
The remote object you want to be available to a different JVM must implement an interface.
That interface:
- is public
- implements Remote
- each method signature defined must throw a RemoteException
- and for programming ease import java.rmi.*;
The remote object:
- again be public
- implement the interface above and extend UnicastRemoteObject
- supply a no arg constructor which throws RemoteObject and calls super()
- implement all the methods defined in the interface it is implementing
Now getting that remote object "out there", which will be done by a server object, is so fantastically easy, once you see it in practise.
The server object:
- does not implement or extend anything
- places all the work in try/catch statements
- imports java.rmi.*;
- makes an instance of the remote object to be made available to the world
- declares it to the world by doing such: Naming.rebing("rmi://hostname:port/madeupname", RemoteObject Instance);
- has a main method for starting the server
The client, or the listener which wants to use the remote object as if it were on its heap:
- Gets a copy of the class for the object it will use as a stub/ if one is not on that system
- RemoteObject r = (RemoteObject)Naming.lookup("URL same as above/madeupname");
- you can then use r as if it were on your system!
Of course this won't make much sense without looking at some actuall examples, but it
is so straightforward that, like a lecturer said, you could put this all on a post stamp!
Wikipedia and Money
I was looking at an article on the first round presidential elections in France, with a friend who wondered how the hell does Wikipedia make money?
According to him;
"I must be missing something here, but I just can't see where it gets any revenue from."
Now Wikipedia is part of the Wikimedia Foundation, a not for profit organisation. But what about Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger? Amusing disputes aside about Sanger's role with Wikipedia and Jimmy's18 edits of his own wikipage, something that apparently goes against his belief, how were they in the position to do this project for free?
According to Daniel Pink of Wired Magazine, Jimmy earnt his money by "speculating on interest rate and foreign-currency fluctuations" he had soon earned enough to "support himself and his wife for the rest of their lives".
Enough to invest $250,000 into Nupedia and $500,000 into Wikipedia. So what lessons should we learn from this? I'll leave this up to you to think about for now, but this has planted a seed for a new project in my head. so check back later for more info.
According to him;
"I must be missing something here, but I just can't see where it gets any revenue from."
Now Wikipedia is part of the Wikimedia Foundation, a not for profit organisation. But what about Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger? Amusing disputes aside about Sanger's role with Wikipedia and Jimmy's18 edits of his own wikipage, something that apparently goes against his belief, how were they in the position to do this project for free?
According to Daniel Pink of Wired Magazine, Jimmy earnt his money by "speculating on interest rate and foreign-currency fluctuations" he had soon earned enough to "support himself and his wife for the rest of their lives".
Enough to invest $250,000 into Nupedia and $500,000 into Wikipedia. So what lessons should we learn from this? I'll leave this up to you to think about for now, but this has planted a seed for a new project in my head. so check back later for more info.
Free Design Templates Are HogWash
..are too good to be true. I could understand people using this service, maybe five years ago, if they just wanted a personal web page to put gossip, photos and contact info up on the web.
With the advent of free and widely available blogs I thought they would have died off by now, being no use to business.
But the worrying trend, which I found out from a friend who admitted to buying one, is that these website template companies are now focusing on the needs they are most unsuited for - ecommerce and business presence.
Templates can be a learning tool for developers to see the underlying structure of some decent looking sites. But the majority of template users I know of are not developers, but wannabe web start-ups who do not have the faintest clue of how a web site it put together.
They are not able to change the navigational structure, nor are they able to tweak the look slightly. What happens if they want to add extra pages? What happens if they want to increase their content area to make room for more copy? What happens if they need to update it to match with the latest useability guidelines?
Unfortunately whilst these people may on the surface seem to be acting sensibly by keeping outgoing costs down, their business model ends up being limited and constrained by their website, because they are unable to change it to their and their customers needs.
You get what you pay for. I believe you should only pay for templates if you wanting to test the waters with a product for a short period of time. Are you a small business owner who has bought one? Did it last?
With the advent of free and widely available blogs I thought they would have died off by now, being no use to business.
But the worrying trend, which I found out from a friend who admitted to buying one, is that these website template companies are now focusing on the needs they are most unsuited for - ecommerce and business presence.
Templates can be a learning tool for developers to see the underlying structure of some decent looking sites. But the majority of template users I know of are not developers, but wannabe web start-ups who do not have the faintest clue of how a web site it put together.
They are not able to change the navigational structure, nor are they able to tweak the look slightly. What happens if they want to add extra pages? What happens if they want to increase their content area to make room for more copy? What happens if they need to update it to match with the latest useability guidelines?
Unfortunately whilst these people may on the surface seem to be acting sensibly by keeping outgoing costs down, their business model ends up being limited and constrained by their website, because they are unable to change it to their and their customers needs.
You get what you pay for. I believe you should only pay for templates if you wanting to test the waters with a product for a short period of time. Are you a small business owner who has bought one? Did it last?
Wednesday 25 April 2007
Can you think positively?
Jeff Atwood wrote an excellent article that resonated with my own experiences on what separates a good programmer from a mediocre one. His advice was to take a step back from the programming itself, and broaden your skill set; not through learning more languages but learning more about the user, the industry and the business as a whole.
Atwood quotes Bill gates from the book Programmers At Work rings so true;
It was clear, I hate to say, who the good and the bad programmers were on my Masters. Now why was it? Naturally, and rather immodestly, I counted myself on the side of the fence that shepherd the good programmers. But why?
I went through many similar questions, before finally finding the answer: I was patient and willing to learn.
Because I always assumed I would learn to programme, and programme well (which I still am doing - you never do stop learning), any time I came across problems I was able to surmount them while others stumbled, lost confidence, and eventually gave up.
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten wrote an interesting article looking at and comparing the thinking patterns of successful and unsuccessful entrepreneurs.
The attitude of the failing businessman matched exactly those of my failing classmates, who would focus on short term problems and not the final goal.
When I trained to do a static parachute line jump, pretty much everyone on the course were motorbike riders, including the trainer. When it was explained to us how to avoid not ending up swinging from a tree, the analogy of two motorcycles riders was used.
They are both going round a bend with a tree on the outside corner, the first looking at the tree he wants to miss, the other looking at the point on the road where he wants to come out of the corner. Which one hits the tree?
My fellow masters students who kept focusing on the hurdles, without keeping their eye at the end of the track, were the ones who fell.
Is the way you think, your attitude, the real barrier to your progress?
Atwood quotes Bill gates from the book Programmers At Work rings so true;
Does accumulating experience through the years necessarily make programming easier?
Bill Gates: No. I think after the first three or four years, it's pretty cast in concrete whether you're a good programmer or not.
It was clear, I hate to say, who the good and the bad programmers were on my Masters. Now why was it? Naturally, and rather immodestly, I counted myself on the side of the fence that shepherd the good programmers. But why?
- Was I that intelligent, other and above others? No.
- Did I have more experience then they? No
- Did i have access to more/better study materials? No
I went through many similar questions, before finally finding the answer: I was patient and willing to learn.
Because I always assumed I would learn to programme, and programme well (which I still am doing - you never do stop learning), any time I came across problems I was able to surmount them while others stumbled, lost confidence, and eventually gave up.
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten wrote an interesting article looking at and comparing the thinking patterns of successful and unsuccessful entrepreneurs.
The attitude of the failing businessman matched exactly those of my failing classmates, who would focus on short term problems and not the final goal.
When I trained to do a static parachute line jump, pretty much everyone on the course were motorbike riders, including the trainer. When it was explained to us how to avoid not ending up swinging from a tree, the analogy of two motorcycles riders was used.
They are both going round a bend with a tree on the outside corner, the first looking at the tree he wants to miss, the other looking at the point on the road where he wants to come out of the corner. Which one hits the tree?
My fellow masters students who kept focusing on the hurdles, without keeping their eye at the end of the track, were the ones who fell.
Is the way you think, your attitude, the real barrier to your progress?
Tuesday 24 April 2007
Top Four Blogs
A personal round up of the top four posts in the techyoung's sphere:
1. Coding Horror looks at open source market and makes some interesting conclusions.
2. What has Scobleizer been looking at? Google History knows.
3. The Worse than Failure are running a different kind of competition.
4. YuviSense has been sick But he's a better now and made a post about what everyone has been talking about.
1. Coding Horror looks at open source market and makes some interesting conclusions.
2. What has Scobleizer been looking at? Google History knows.
3. The Worse than Failure are running a different kind of competition.
4. YuviSense has been sick But he's a better now and made a post about what everyone has been talking about.
Monday 2 April 2007
Pays To Be Polite in Business
Presentation, from the suit/clothes you wear to how welcoming your offices are and the look of your website, are often carefully thought about by small businesses.
But how often do people take stock of they way they present them to clients, and potential clients, directly?
When you are in a rush, or have been putting in ridiculous hours for a deliverable with a deadline coming up soon, how polite are you when you pick up the phone or bump into a former client unexpectedly?
Being polite, and if possible, pleasent, will often have just as much, if not more, of an impact on the persons image of you and your work then the work you actually provide!
This may come as a shock - surely providing a need and adding value is what is most needed? Certainly; what you have to realise is that value and presentation should be given equal importance. They are not either or's.
Of course you must offer value, and it should be central to your business/organisation. If you customer is king, adding value to that clients life or business will naturally follow suit from that. But giving top notch value is no excuse for being dismissive or unhelpful.
I remember sitting in a dank tiny room in the last year of my first degree phoning round for information. I had a business idea I wanted to start and was looking for ways at vetting potential employees. I phoned up a business that turned out only took on clients who needed this service for a whole HR department over and above the 50 employee mark. They were very kind, told me that they wouldn't be of much help, but then preceded to spend half an hour on the phone with me.
I left that conversation not only knowing what needed to be done and how to do it, but thinking these people were top class gentleman. If this is how they treat people they are not going to do business with, I envy the excellent service their clients get.
Each person you come into contact with might one day become a customer, or know someone who will. If even the receptionist is rude, than that is a lost relationship, a lost sale.
The secret millionaire is a perfect example of this. A millionaire goes undercover and 'roughs' it out for ten days before deciding whom to bestow a lot of money on. Now I don't want to make comment on the show itself; i'm too busy too watch it. However it does just go to show that who you are speaking to may not be whom you think. They may in fact end up being a client, if you are nice enough.
So remember to put your clients at the heart of any strategy, any new initiative, and make sure you smile as you do so.
But how often do people take stock of they way they present them to clients, and potential clients, directly?
When you are in a rush, or have been putting in ridiculous hours for a deliverable with a deadline coming up soon, how polite are you when you pick up the phone or bump into a former client unexpectedly?
Being polite, and if possible, pleasent, will often have just as much, if not more, of an impact on the persons image of you and your work then the work you actually provide!
This may come as a shock - surely providing a need and adding value is what is most needed? Certainly; what you have to realise is that value and presentation should be given equal importance. They are not either or's.
Of course you must offer value, and it should be central to your business/organisation. If you customer is king, adding value to that clients life or business will naturally follow suit from that. But giving top notch value is no excuse for being dismissive or unhelpful.
I remember sitting in a dank tiny room in the last year of my first degree phoning round for information. I had a business idea I wanted to start and was looking for ways at vetting potential employees. I phoned up a business that turned out only took on clients who needed this service for a whole HR department over and above the 50 employee mark. They were very kind, told me that they wouldn't be of much help, but then preceded to spend half an hour on the phone with me.
I left that conversation not only knowing what needed to be done and how to do it, but thinking these people were top class gentleman. If this is how they treat people they are not going to do business with, I envy the excellent service their clients get.
Each person you come into contact with might one day become a customer, or know someone who will. If even the receptionist is rude, than that is a lost relationship, a lost sale.
The secret millionaire is a perfect example of this. A millionaire goes undercover and 'roughs' it out for ten days before deciding whom to bestow a lot of money on. Now I don't want to make comment on the show itself; i'm too busy too watch it. However it does just go to show that who you are speaking to may not be whom you think. They may in fact end up being a client, if you are nice enough.
So remember to put your clients at the heart of any strategy, any new initiative, and make sure you smile as you do so.
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