Lifehack asks the group how to start a small business. Funny thing, I never wanted to start my own business. It means dealing with bookkeeping/accounting, legal stuff, marketing, and finding clients. But in 1999, after completing my certificate in Internet Technologies, I thought I wanted to do web design on the side. At the time, … Read more
I believe it’s true that exercising your brain keeps your mind sharp. Nintendo has released a handful of excellent games for its Gameboy DS that attract the Baby Boomers. Thanks to games like Brain Age and Big Brain Academy, my mom who never got into video games, asked for a Gameboy DS! Poor Mom, Nintendo … Read more
Having worked as a process manager and tech writer in software development for over 10 years, I ran into the problems covered in Five common errors in requirements analysis. Problem 1: Customers Don’t Know What They Want This is often true because much of development has to do with technology that’s beyond the customer’s knowledge. … Read more
Do industries secretly agree not to provide the best customer service so no one gets a competitive advantage? A little overboard, but it looks that way lately. Our arch in front of our house cracked — not unusual based on the way it was built without rebars. But it scares me whenever people come to … Read more
A person or a business can do everything right and still struggle to move to the next level simply because it doesn’t stand out from the crowd. Sam Horn opens with a great example of this from American Idol. Judge Simon Cowell told an eliminated contestant, “You have a good voice and you’re a nice … Read more
Pareto’s principle states that 80 percent of a company’s business comes from 20 percent of its customers. Therefore, businesses invest time and money into building and maintaining customer loyalty. Loyalty Myths says that organizations focused on traditional loyalty programs won’t succeed and explains why the 53 customer loyalty beliefs are myths. Businesses that work to … Read more
Businesses especially small businesses expect employees to do more than their main job and this often includes sales and marketing. Book Yourself Solid contains activities that business people most likely already know. However, Michael Port brings these activities together and organizes them using lists and questions to help the reader find the answers. The author … Read more
Here are the best books I’ve read in 2006 in no particular order. Beware that not all of these books published this year, but rather they’re books I read. * Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things: I haven’t written this review yet as I just finished it. Reading Norman’s follow up to … Read more
Thanks to Web sites and email newsletters, white papers have become a great way to market a product or service. A visitor can get a free white paper in exchange for signing up for an email newsletter or basic information. People can’t resist a free offer and white papers — when done right — can … Read more
Recently, a client who supported Web standards worked to design her newsletters to use cascading style sheets (CSS) for layouts instead of tables. Designers cheered. Readers jeered. One problem with this approach: email clients. Outlook may dominate, but how many of us have second or third email accounts with Web-based email clients like Yahoo!, Hotmail, … Read more