Your Home Page - In 15 Minutes

Recently, on some community web site I noticed couple of discussions that were directly related to the topics of this blog. First was telling a story about some good looking girl sitting in the mall in the booth that stated “Your Home Page in 15 Minutes” (hence the name of the post). Another discussion’s focus was on coming changes to web site builders’ pricing in view of global economy crisis. As you can see, the two are very interrelated (and many participants had it noted).

So what’s the story with Home Page in 15 Minutes? Will this fast-food web design prosper in times when every single company is looking to cut costs and therefore subject itself to services of much lower niche of web design studios? How would the whole market look like in a year or two?

Well, yes - and now. Obviously, if you can pay less for some service you don’t particularly understand - most likely you will. After all, the old adage of sergeant reminding his soldiers that their weapons were made by the lowest bidder hasn’t gone anywhere yet and is still around. Even more so, it’s much easier to convince a small business owner to shed off $99.95 (or whatever small amount you can think of) for basic web site then to make him pay anywhere near what the job might cost if done on a scale large enough. In fact, Zealus has web sites that ultimately cost from less then $2,000 to over $50,000 - both extremes being small business operations.

The “no” part is a little trickier to understand. Once you reach certain level of revenue as well as certain level of community recognition - you just can’t afford to have that free purple on pink template on your web site anymore. More so, your demands for web site grow with your business. You want different flash presentations for different products. You want to add some interactivity. You want to be able to adjust prices when you want to, not when your web design company has time for it. So you go for CMS-driven web site, or some e-commerce solution. Costs rise, and one day you realize your web site isn’t done as “McDonalds”, but more like a restaurant in downtown. You might even end up with several web sites for each branch of your products, so think “Olive Garden” or “Uno”.

I am not making a prediction here, but I want to digress a little. Once I’ve learned how easy it is to set up and populate a store on Yahoo or eBay or any other “free” platform, I stopped making my purchases there. The rationale is simple - this could be a fly-by-night shop I don’t know anything about. It’s not like I haven’t seen my share of nicely designed credit card traps on their own domains, it’s just that the risk is so much higher that I prefer to pay a few dollars more at Amazon.com then to risk the entire amount beign charged off.

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Economy Surefire Fix Recipe (continued)

Part 2. Click for part 1.

Now would be a good time to ask me where is the fix? All I’ve been talking about so far is why we are in the mess we are in

From the entrepreneurial perspective - we have ineffective management. It’s everywhere. Not only the government suffers from this - major companies are settling for ridiculous levels of idiocy in their decisions. Probably because that’s what pays the most - immediately. In the long run, however, it’s not all that bright and shiny.

The big three automakers can’t get it into their system that people buy American trucks simply because people need them and there’s little to no alternative to them. And people buy Japanese cars because people want them - for higher efficiency and reliability for the same (if not lower) price . Out of the curiosity and nostalgia I always rent a different American car when I cannot travel in my own car. So far the experience is next to horrible. These cars have less sex appeal than President Bush and are less comfortable than a torture chair. I’ve been through Pontiacs, Fords, Chryslers and Chevrolets, varying among cars, SUVs, vans and trucks.

The outsourcing of high-tech jobs, R&D and pretty much anything where you have to use your brains damages the overall state of economy. I closely work with people who either manage outsourced teams or do clean ups after outsourcing’s epic failures. For every story about successfully outsourced project I hear two about failed ones. From the short-range-profit point of view the outsourcing is great, but when you take longer terms into consideration - outsourcing is less effective and costs just as much if not more. There’s a reason why business owners prefer working with people locally, and that is - easiness of communication, staying in touch and fast resolution of issues, which in the long run costs less than just cheap execution. Talking to someone, who’s English is a second or third language and who’s only incentive is to work for as long as they can so they can suck all the money they can will hardly yield anything useful. Besides, this is just handing our own competitive advantage to our competitors on the silver plate with a golden rim. And we are even paying for that!

So all that we need to do is create more jobs in the country. More people in the country will make money (and more people will be making more money than they are now), so the blood of the economy will start circulating again. This is not a short term solution, nor it would benefit all people at once overnight. But it’s surely a way to go.

If lawmakers, instead of passing a bailout (which reminds me of the old saying that you can’t heal a dead with a poultice) should concentrate more on having a law that will reward (with tax breaks maybe?) companies that create and maintain jobs in USA and punish those that dump them overseas. From my perspective - it’s a matter of language of the law how it’s done, as long as it’s done.

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Economy Surefire Fix Recipe

Part 1. Click here for part 2.

Obviously I am not an expert on our current economy situation. However, as a small business owner I feel the pain of crisis and, as any other entrepreneur, is anxious to offer my own fix on the situation. Here it goes.

First, let me introduce a little example. For last two weeks there’s a full-size truck standing in front of the Battery Park. They sell some shoes that, supposedly, could not be found in stores. For the first week the line was long. By the end of the second week the line shortened threefold. There were couple of people in line when I checked on Friday. This morning - that’s almost third week over - there was no line at all. In fact, there was, apparently, a surplus of sales people over clients. This, if anyone missed their Economics 101, is market saturation. When you sold your product to everyone who was ready, willing and able to buy it.

Now, what happened to the mortgages is that they were sold to everyone who were ready, willing and able. Of course, the market was fluctuating, but not out of proportion. It was saturated. Then some geniuses read some marketing books and decided that they need to create a new market. This coincided with high-paying jobs being outsourced and people’s incomes going down. Or, maybe, there were no geniuses and no reading. Just someone noticed that same people who were buying houses, like the well-paid IT guys, can’t afford houses anymore, because they don’t get those big salaries, because of some starving Indian guy in poor Bangalore who claimed he could work for food and shelter.

And some real estate guy went to some mortgage specialist friend or something like that happened. And we got mortgages for the poor, when guys who make $50K a year could buy a $500K house in sunny California or in prestigious neighbourhood of Brooklyn, Manhattan or Jersey City.

This idea bombed. Obviously, there are far more guys who make $50K then those who make $250K. Even more, the average guy (or gal - it’s irrelevant to the story) who makes around $50K is much more guillible, than one who makes five times more. I know, because I’ve been there too.

So what happened next?

Demand for houses (and, therefore, mortgages) skyrocketed so high that banks didn’t know where to get so much money. So they started selling those weird papers, repackaged deals and did other smart things (see CDS, derivatives) to come up with money and profits for themselves. I am not saying it’s bad to turn a profit. I am saying that the average $50K Joe can only live off his credit cards for so long. After they’re maxed out, he has to either stop eating or move out. Hence the foreclosures became the hot topic, once more and more $50K Joes got sucked into the buying houses from same $50K Joes who got into the same whirpool a little earlier. Imagine a huge crowd, rushing and squeezing into wide open, but very narrow doors. Once the members of the crowd successfully squeezed in, the fast stream carries them into the watershed and spills them into oblivion. That’s pretty much how the system worked.

Since all these guys had problems giving back the money they’ve borrowed on one hand and demand for more credit from clients on the other hand, banks were under a continuous stress of producing more and more money so that the public can keep borrowing. That’s when it hit really hard.

Now, same guys who were fast tracked through the whirlpool and those who didn’t are splitting the bill for the fun ride. The only thing that sort of bothers me is that guys who get paid $20 million for 2 month of work (see WaMu) wouldn’t have a problem with their part of the payment. In fact - they wouldn’t even notice it.

Part 2 - keep reading!

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Portable PC? Oversized Phone? Laptop? Desktop? What!?

It looks like the manufacturers for ultramobile PCs, oversized phones and ultraportable laptops are struggling with a dilemma. They have manufacturing capability but they don’t know what to manufacture. Will there be a demand for overly smart phones? Or ultraportables? Or laptops with phone headsets? What is it they have to jump on?

Well, I have a solution for them. It’s easy. I have a solution for every one of you.

Let me build my ultra portable, over powered, uber-universal but still very personalizeable computer. Make it modular. Make it Lego blocks sticking together. Stop thinking Apple all-in-one, start thinking Microsoft one-for-all. It’s a great concept, if you only think about it.

Let me have a CPU/RAM unit/module where I can plug in a screen (24 inch when I am at home, touch-sensitive 7 inch when I am on the go, 12 inch when I am at the conference or on the plane and so on), keyboard and storage unit. Let me plug in media unit when I need to burn couple of CDs or DVDs, audio unit for high-quality audio output, external monitor or projector for presentations, beefier video for gaming and throw larger battery with that.

Make parts interchangeable - when I need to upgrade CPU everything else still works. If I need a larger screen - it’ll just stick. Replace the hard drive? No problem. New video? Just stick it in and have fun.

Need more incentive? Take hotels. Create a set up with large screen, keyboard, mouse, media bay and high-speed network. Guest just plugs in his CPU/RAM module and he’s good to go. Sell this to colleges and doctor’s offices. Sell this to rental office space owners and travelers.

We have the technology. We have the people. We have demands on the untapped markets. Let’s put it all together. This idea, as far as I remember, pops out in one form or another, every year. Just get to it!

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D’You Want Google With Dat?

McDonalds, move over, your days are gone. Now, instead of “Do you want fries with that” you’re supposed to ask “Do you want Google with that?”.

New times, new times…

P.S. Picture is the courtesy of TechCrunch.

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Microsoft Commercials Are Not What You Think They Are!

There’s no place like home. Especially, when you have a cozy couch where you can cuddle with your loved one in front of the TV. When your loved one, who’s as far from the whole IT stuff as humanly possible, starts commenting on IT-related commercials, it only gets better.

Last night a Microsoft’s commercial popped up, one of the latest “I’m a PC and I was made into a stereotype” ones. My girlfriend somehow missed the introductory phrase, so she only caught the part where a bunch of people say “I’m a PC and this is my cubicle” pointing to couple of icebergs or “I’m a PC and I sell fish”.

The question she immediately asked me had fallen like a hammer of doom. The question was: “Is this a commercial to stop outsourcing? Have all these people lost their jobs to India and now have to sell fish or work on icebergs to feed their families?”.

Having argued that Microsoft had delivered their brand-shaping marketing message quite clearly I got puzzled. The message was, of course, delivered quite clearly. It was also obvious that my girlfriend isn’t the target market for those commercials - she’s not involved in IT-related decision making. However, it was a nice revelation to see how such people react to the imagery used in the ad. Without the online hype, without knowing all the IT stories and how Microsoft is getting back at Apple using similar-looking guy and all that buzz - how would these commercials be perceived.

Now I know. These are the commercials about IT guys who lost their jobs. I’m a PC and I sell fish. How much… ?

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About Yahoo Image Search

Nobody promised anything, but if you have an image search function it better produce some meaningful results. Since Google Images somehow managed to get blocked at the place where I am sitting right now (probably doing too good finding what you’re not supposed to be looking at), I use Yahoo Image search for blog posts.

Boy, is that a sad picture. No matter what I am looking for, Yahoo Images just dumps dozens of result pages from Flickr. If you run a search for “microsoft commercial“, guess what would you see on pages 2 to 16? A whole bunch of images of military airplanes and helicopters - all from Flickr. Only starting at page 16 there are some easily recognizeable Microsoft-related images.

Given that Flickr is blocked here as well, it’s just an exercise in futility to find any sort of images. But this was worth mentioning, because if it wasn’t for a problem with Google Images I would’ve never thought there is really no alternative.

And you thought Yahoo was doing a good job too, right?

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Good Customer Service Equals Bad Sales!

Huh? How come? Hear me out, matey! During today’s lunch I went to both J & R and Staples - they are right across from each other in this part of town. There are plenty of sales representatives on the floor. However, whenever I enter J & R the most I get is a little longer then usual eye contact from one of the sales reps. As if he’s saying “Are you sure you don’t need any help? No? Okay, I’ll leave you alone”. Having a professional PC tech background I really appreciate such behavior. Besides, sometimes I just need to dive into the store and look around, touch things. Something I have been missing with the increasing role of web stores in my life.

When I enter Staples the picture gets totally different. Whenever in Staples I always get followed by one or another floor sales reps. They pretend to be adjusting things on the shelves and just pass by me (constantly) avoiding any eye contact whatsoever. Sometimes (probably) the bravest ones approach and ask if there’s anything I might need a help with. When they get my polite decline they still stick around like bad spies from the bad spy movie.

So, today, when I got into Staples, I was immediately followed by yet another sales person. He wasn’t afraid to make eye contact, so I rewarded him with couple of requests of things I was looking for (namely Microsoft Explorer Mouse and specific Fellowes CD tray/shelf that seem to be discontinued). Given that Staples didn’t have neither of things, I thanked and walked out. Perhaps if I wasn’t annoyed that much, I might have spent a little more time in the store and actually bought something (I’ve been known for spontaneous purchases of wired Logitech mice and blank CDs).

Such an experience at Staples has generally made it very undesireable for me to visit their stores. There are still some things that I prefer to buy “live” instead of just ordering them online, but Staples increasingly have made it difficult to indulge.

Given that my supply of stationary hasn’t changed much for last year and half, by the time I will need to visit Staples again - they might be already out of business.

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Small Business Will Step Up… Later

There was an article in Sunday NYTimes - Economy to Entrepreneurs: Turn Back (link) discussing how small business owners and entrepreneurs seek refuge in corporate life at the harsh economic times. Given the high fuel cost and tight budgets it is no wonder the profits are shrinking. For small businesses, that operate on much thinner margins now the suffering could be fatal.

However, once the economy will hit the bottom and start getting back up, there will be plenty of opportunity to shine. Seeing successful startups emerging here and there, recently converted corporate types with get back into their entrepreneural mood. Sure, many will decide to remain attached to the safety net and many who did not venture into entrepreneurship before will decide to do so. That’s a whole new market opening.

For years there have been coaches and consultants who suggested how you should run your business. It was, however, a pretty daunting task, since any entrepreneur (especially a newcomer to the scene) is mostly a one man show. Accounting, operation management, general management, sales - everything falls on a single pair of shoulders. That is exactly where the new opportunities arise.

Advising new businesses on tools, techniques and methods, assisting in research and helping with promotion have been around for a while. With internet, web sites, blogs, social networks, various advertising models and ways to reach and serve the customer the ways to do business have changed dramatically. Whoever will catch this ball at the earliest and will run with it will probably reap the biggest reward.

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Useful Language-Changing JavaScript

Recently I had to quickly make a copy of the same web site iin a different language. Instead of coming up with complicated solutions (the web site isn’t that big and the second language was long overdue) I decided to copy the contents into a subdirectory and just substitute the contents in English with the same in Spanish.

The thought behind was that I can alternate between each page using simple javascript routine. So there I have example.com in English, example.com/sp/ same thing in Spanish. Same pages are named the same, so it’s example.com/about_us.html and example.com/sp/about_us.html - otherwise the script it useless.

The function is fairly simple:

function langChange() {
var pt = location.pathname;
var hs = location.host;

if (pt.length < 4) {
newloc = ‘http://’ + hs + ‘/sp/’;
} else {
if (pt.substring(0, 4) == ‘/sp/’) {
newloc = ‘http://’ + hs + ‘/’ + pt.substring(4);
} else {
newloc = ‘http://’ + hs + ‘/sp’ + pt;
}
}
window.location.assign(newloc);
}

Pretty universal, works everywhere. Set in as an onclick() event for your language changing butn and you’re good to go.

P.S. If you have much faith in Javascript - feel free to add ajax call to database for current page to figure out the counterpart in a different language.

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