Slowing Down in the Technological Age

            I love the week between Christmas and New Year’s.  I love it because I get to slow down.  I get to think.  I get to read.  And I get to write.

            For much of the year, technology drives my life.  And I’m not even as wired as many people.  I haven’t taken the plunge and purchased a tablet, although I do look longingly at them and think about it.  I do not have a smart phone, and I don’t look longingly at them.  But I have a PC and a laptop.  I receive and send text messages and email.  I keep up with social media both socially and for my job.  And I teach college classes online.  Technology drives my life.

            Yes, I know.  I am using technology by typing this using my word processor programming and by posting it online for you to read.  But this week, I am in the driver’s seat.  Technology is under my direction instead of dictating what I do and when.

            For the week between Christmas and New Year’s, I get to read for pleasure and for the love of knowledge than strictly for need or to meet the next deadline.  I get to hold a real live book and let me eyes glide over the pages instead of staring at a screen and making sure I blink enough and look away occasionally.  My eyes get a much needed break.

            I can ignore my cell phone and return calls when it’s convenient to me.  Hell, I can even turn off my cell phone or leave it behind for a while.  The same goes for emails because I can take time away from my office.

            So this week, I get to use technology for pleasure when I want, and I get to ignore it at my leisure.  I’m in the driver’s seat, and I’m slowing down and enjoying the scenery.

Network Solutions’ Website Builder Tool

            Recently, I had a client who wanted a site designed that he could makes changes himself.  He had already transferred his existing site to Network Solution (NS), and I promised that I could design his site NS’s features.  It was a new realm for me, but in spite of my trepidation because I had always designed sites myself from scratch, I threw myself into it.

            My first hurdle was making sure that I could design the new site without affecting the existing one.  Fortunately, the content management system (CMS) allows for this, so I felt a lot more free to experiment and learn what NS’s Website Builder Tool offers.

            First of all, it does help if you know HTML and Web development, but it’s not necessary.  It is necessary that you are not afraid of technology and taking chances.  You have to be willing to play around with things and start over if you make a big mistake along the way.  It’s part of the learning process.

            Although you have to select a template, and you are limited if you stick to free templates, once you have selected one, you have a lot of flexibility in changing colors, fonts, placement and much more.  You just have to make good use of each of the features and make sure you try more than one, so you find the most of efficient and best way to make the changes.  I do recommend staying away from CSS and using the Master Changes instead.  It is much simpler, and you are more likely to make the change you actually want.

            Overall, this has proven to be a good CMS, and I am willing to use it again for any clients who come my way and ask for the ability to manage their own site.  While it’s not as flexible as doing it yourself, it should work well for the majority of small business sites out there.

Is CMS the Only Way to Go in Web Design Services?

            I went to a very interesting workshop last Friday.  Of course, it was really a sales pitch for a Web design firm – yes, a competitor.  But it was really interesting and informative.  I know as a small Web design firm, I need to change my business model in order to compete with the changing market, but I have put some thought into one thing they said more than once:  We have to move into content management systems in order to remain competitive.

            Although more and more people are interested in the ability to change and add content to their sites themselves, there is still a big segment of small businesses who want someone else to do it, or they change their content so infrequently that they would rather pay someone else to do it.

            Who wouldn’t really benefit from CMS? 

Companies with static Web sites:  If a business’s Web site changes infrequently, the extra cost of a CMS may not be justified.  For instance, how well do you remember how to do something that you do infrequently?  I would be frustrating for someone who is not too tech savvy to go in and relearn each time how to change a site.  So if the site is really just an online brochure with contact information, a CMS isn’t an advantage.  I have one client who comes to me about once every 5 years and has me make a bunch of changes.  Someone else designed the site long ago, and they contract with me when they want to make changes.

Companies whose owner just isn’t interested in doing it himself:  Many of my clients just don’t want to have to worry about changing their Web sites and learning yet one more new thing.  They want to concentrate on growing their businesses and they don’t have the staff to delegate the job to.  Whatever their reasons, I respect them, and I value their business.

            So while, I am moving towards offering sites using CMS, I will still continue to offer traditional Web design and maintenance for those clients who prefer I do it all for them.  After all, I’m a business owner who wants to stay viable and wants to have customers.  Customer service is what I offer.

Low Tech Has its Place in My Life

            I have to admit, I love gadgets.  And I wish I had the money to invest in a lot more of them, but I spend so much of my time looking at technology because of Web design and teaching online and my membership with the Carroll Technology Council, that I forget to mention low tech tools that are useful that and I simply won’t give up.

Whiteboards

            In our kitchen, I have a whiteboard next to the kitchen door where we write notes to ourselves, list grocery shopping items and the money owed our kids for the chores completed.  I used to clip lists to the refrigerator, but it started looking junky and disorganized, so I went to the whiteboard instead, and we have all been happy with it.  I used a whiteboard in my office too for the same sort of things.

Monthly Planner

            Now, my high tech friends make fun of me for this, but I still have a paper monthly planner that I lug around to meetings and refer to often in my office.  I do make use of Outlook’s calendar and tasks features especially for paying bills and other things I need to remember far into the future.  But I like the old fashioned paper calendar because it give me a visual cue for time – I have a better sense of time when I can see the whole month at once.  I also like how easy it is to erase or cross out a change.  And I love that I can take it anywhere or leave it behind.

Spiral Notebook

            Again, my tech savvy friends mock me, but I find inspiration in spiral notebooks. With a piece of paper, my creativity comes out.  I don’t concern myself so much with how many clicks to get where I want.  Instead, I can scribble, doodle, draw, cross out and just plain creative with a pencil or pen.  I write constantly.  Sometimes a computer will do, but other times, I find myself more peaceful and creative with paper.  That goes for graphic design as well.  My hand is so much more steady with a pencil than it will ever be with a mouse!

Business Card

            Yes, I know all the rage is electronic business cards, but there’s nothing wrong with old fashioned business cards.  One clear advantage that they have over any of their high tech cousins?  You can write on the back of a traditional business card and add any type of information you need on the spot for your new contact.

            None of these low tech tools cost me efficiency or slows me down.  They are all familiar and dear friends, and I haven’t yet found a high tech gadget that works better than any of these.

Google Cloud Print Is a Good Solution for Businesses on the Go

            A friend of mine who runs a landscaping business asked me an interesting question.  Much of their office work is done in their house by her – bookkeeping, billing, accounting… You get the picture.  Much of their business is run out of their shop where they keep most of their equipment.  It is also the place where their crew gathers before the work day begins.  Every morning, she and her husband give out the job assignments for the day, and their workers go out to the job sites and work.

            There are some mornings when she would like to skip going to the shop and give out the written job schedules remotely.  She wanted to know if there was a printer out there that would allow her to print from her computer or iPad at home to their shop.  She had found HP’s ePrint, and the idea was born.

            She was onto something, although as it stands, HP’s ePrint can’t do it alone.  ePrint will let one print from anywhere in the home from any electronic device.

            What she needed is Google Cloud Print.  Google has technology that allows you to print from anywhere with any device to your printer at home or at the office. 

            One of the interesting aspects is that you don’t even have to have the printer hooked up to a PC or laptop.  Google Cloud Print can work with a Cloud Ready printer – a printer that has the ability to connect directly to the Web without requiring a PC.  In fact on Google’s site, they give you a list of Cloud Ready Printers by HP, Kodak, Epson, Canon, Samsung, and FedEx.  The FedEx option is a whole other benefit.

            It looks like these days, there is a solution for just about any option a small business might come up with that won’t break the bank.

Is WordPress Good for Web Sites?

            Although WordPress was originally designed as an open source blogging tool, many companies are now using it as a CMS for their own Web sites.  CMS stands for content management system, and it’s a tool that allows a person to go in and manage the content of his Web site without necessarily having to know the language of Web design.  There are many good things about using WordPress.

            The number one reason that WordPress is so popular is that it is free.  It’s a quality CMS that really does not cost anything.  It also has a lot of support.

            One thing that users can do is change themes easily without changing or harming the content of their site.  That means that a small company can change the entire look of their site without having to go through a major overhaul.  Another thing that WordPress allows you to do is easily install plugins, so you can easily add more functionality to the site such as a directory or a slider graphic.

            One blogger, Don Campbell (http://www.expand2web.com/blog/why-use-wordpress-to-power-your-small-business-website/), feels that small businesses would do well to consider choosing WordPress as the CMS for their Web site. 

            The key as he sees it and I see it, is that companies can easily manage their content without having to learn and know HTML.  So if you have a company that is constantly offering new deals to customers, one person can go in and add the information, and all that’s needed is good content that is error free (that has nothing to do with Web design).  A person can literally type the content on their word processor, proof it, and then copy and paste it onto the site, hit a button and publish it.

            Of course, a company may still want a Web site designer to set it up, but the beauty is that once it is set up, someone in-house can do the updates and only call on the Web designer for more complex updates.

            If you have a need to update your site regularly, maybe WordPress is the way to go.  http://wordpress.com/

Meeting Customer Expectations

            How many of you take the time to figure out what a potential customer would anticipate if he hired your company? Have you taken the time to consider what the customer comes in expecting?

            This past spring, I went to my high school reunion.  It was better than I expected, and I actually had a great time seeing old classmates and trying to catch up.  Like many reunions, we had a photographer who took a class photograph and was selling us copies for $20 apiece.  I thought it was a little pricey, but I bought one.

            What was my expectation?  Well, I expected a clear glossy photograph of all of us.  I actually didn’t put any thought into it when I paid for it at the reunion, but for things like this, I did have an expectation because I had bought photos in this manner before.

            What did I get?  I got a photograph on 8.5 X 11 sheet of paper – matte finished.  It was obviously printed on an ink jet printer.  It wasn’t centered and in fact a little crooked.  Many of my classmates had an orange cast, and it was a little dark.

            I was deeply disappointed and felt like I had been ripped off.  Correction:  I had been ripped off.  This photographer didn’t meet my expectations, and I won’t be recommending her in the future.  I spoke with a few of my classmates, including one of the organizers, and they felt the same way.  They certainly won’t recommend her to anyone either.

            What did her product do for her business?  It did worse than absolutely nothing.  She actually damaged her business.  There are some 30 people who probably feel as I do about that photograph, and they won’t be recommending her to anyone.  In fact, they may even spread the word not to use her services.

            At some point in that small community, her business will dry up because she isn’t giving people what they expect when they purchase a photograph from her.  Sure she saved a couple of dollars per photograph, but she has damaged her reputation by being penny-wise and pound-foolish.

            So when you offer a product or service, take time to think like a customer and ask yourself if you were purchasing that exact same thing, what would you expect as a customer, and that is exactly what you should deliver.