2011 Wrap Up

What an interesting year we have had. The start of the year started out steady, but it ended in a chaotic array of new ventures.

I will be sure to post new updates of the upcoming ventures as they are announced. But they will be interesting and you can look forward to some new web apps coming early next year from us.

They are going to be a bit different to activcart. Which is still in active development, as large as the system is, it just keep getting bigger!

But to help fill the gaps from our long absences online. We will be releasing two new web apps next year. Keep checking back here every few months for updates.

Until then...

Saturday 22nd October is International Stuttering Awareness Day!

The Sunshine Coast Speak Easy group is part of an Australia wide not-for-profit Association which supports adults and adolescents who stutter. The group welcomes the Sunshine Coast community to share this awareness day with them in a fun outdoor setting.

The event will feature an evening screening of The King's Speech, a recent release starring Geoffrey Rush as a speech pathologist, and Colin Firth as the infamous King George VI who lived with a debilitating stutter.

The afternoon will begin at 3pm at the Sunshine Coast Grammar School venue, where there will be live music, guest speakers, information stalls, activities for the kids, and a BBQ. For a gold coin donation, you and your friends and family can enjoy a day out, and support a wonderful local cause.

For more information email speakeasysunshinecoast@gmail.com      

We look forward to seeing you there!

What you can learn from your dog

My 2 Year Old Border Collie, Bailey

Dogs, I believe, are some of the most intriguing animals on the planet. Some of the most valuable lessons I have learned about dogs has come from reading the books by Cesar Millan. One of Cesar's messages is that dogs are a mirror to us. If we are feeling down, you dog will show similar signs, if you are happy and excited, so will your dog be. Much of your own behaviors reflects your dogs.

Much like you and your business.

Dogs don't hate, they don't know anger (although aggression could be mistaken for one of those two), and most importantly, dogs live in the moment.

A simple example of this is when my 2 year old red border collie plays up, he gets discipline for not following the rules. And the discipline depends on the level of how much he is playing up. Barking too much might get a "Hey!" from me, which is usually enough to snap him out of it. More severe behavior deserves more severe discipline (don't mistake discipline for punishment, those are two different things). And he knows he had done something I disapprove of, and it shows in his behavior immediately after, it is as clear as the words you are reading.

But no more than 30 seconds later, he is happy and playing again, without a care in the world. You see, that moment is now gone, and he is now living in the next one. He doesn't review the past and doesn't plan for the future.

While you may be wondering what I am talking about, bare with me. A point is coming.

Even though he lives in the moment, doesn't review the past or future, events in his past help shape the animal he is today. If he has a bad experience with the post man (he is frightened by the motor bike engine) he remembers each day when he hears the engine that it is something to be frightened about, because no one has shown him that the motorbike means nothing.

In life we go through the same experiences, you eat something bad, you don't want to eat it again, fair enough right?

A business is much more like a dog than a person, a business lives in the moment, it doesn't review the past or plan for the future, you do! A business shows you what is going on right now. If your business is doing well, that means you are doing well, if the business is doing poorly, you are doing something wrong. It couldn't be more simpler.

For those who blame environmental factors, financial crisis or other outside force on your business bad performance, it's not your business but you that is doing something wrong. There are far too many opportunities available to us all that it sometimes blinds us. But if we think like a dog, and live in the moment, both our business and ourselves can have better clarity today, which helps you make better decisions based on today and then you'll have a more prosperous tomorrow.

Note: My dogs name is Bailey, and he is one of the most obedient, intelligent and loving creatures I know.

Juzebox - Email Convergence

I just wanted to take a moment to talk quickly about a new project that is up and coming called Juzebox. This system is going to make managing multiple email accounts a breeze. I have been waiting for an application like this for the past few years.

If you are like me, you have around 10 email accounts you check daily. And managing all of these is accounts is a bit of a nightmare, so I am personally looking forward to the beta release.

If you would like more information check out www.juzebox.com and signup for the beta release.

Web apping our lives

With the launch of Chromebooks, web apps have never been more important. If this is the future… wow.
Apple say “there’s an app for that” well I say, there is also a web app. What is great is that there are so many innovative applications out there on the internet that are truly unique and fantastic. And the more you look, the more you find.
If you don’t know what I am talking about… shame! Website developers are working hard to bring you beautiful, innovative and streamlined applications to your browser to make your life easier. If you have never seen a web app before, jump over the 37signals.com, the king daddy of the web app world.

Originally Published on our Raven Culture Blog

There's value in a simple solution!

Here is the premise. A client wants a web development solution, the developer says "no problems, that's simple." The client thinks, "Great, that means it's cheap!".

So, in saying that, the web developer has effectively removed all value from the proposal. While to him, it is a simple solution (he has done it before time and time again), and the client wants to hear this (they have never done it), but the mistake is for that developer to think of the solution as simple, and not to look at the value of what has been learned from past experience. When looked at from that angle, the solution isn't as simple as it seemed to the client.

For that client to start from scratch and learn how to make that solution simple would be far more costly than to have the developer do it and use that past experience.

But I digress from my point. What I am trying to communicate is that the value of the simple solution is not in relation to cost. And for those web developers that charge based on how simple it is for THEM to build it are taking the wrong approach. If you assign value to experience and not the solution you can better communicate confidence in the client, win a higher valued job and become the "go to" person for any future issues. Building experience and confidence in a client is what makes you an expert in their eyes.

Remember a client wants a simple solution, building websites is very taxing on a client who doesn't understand the web. And you can make it simple for them while applying value to your experience, communicating confidence and charging according to your experience, and not how simple a solution may be to build.

Use the simple solution tactic as a benefit to expand on confidence building. Not as a pricing point.

I've got work to do

When you think of what you do as work, you're really saying, "I've got something boring to do". I think of my work as something interesting, exciting and challenging to do. If you change the way you think about doing work you can get more fulfillment from it.

Try it.