It sounds kind of silly to talk about technology like it’s part of a science fiction novel, the wave of the future, and all that. The fact is, technology is part of our world today and it’s part of every venture, no matter how low tech you may think you are. Technology can make us work faster and more efficiently, and it can help us communicate. That doesn’t mean you need to drive yourself crazy or jump on every new trend in social networking or buy the newest computer to come out just because it’s there. But consider what technology can do for you. Embrace it and let it make your life easier. Because wouldn’t it be great to be a student, an entrepreneur, an athlete, an artist and still have time left over for some fun? Let technology speed things up where speeding up is possible, and carve out some extra time.
USE TECHNOLOGY FOR RESEARCH
You know when you get obsessed with a particular topic and you watch all the YouTube videos you can find about it? Well, that’s research. Since you’re already pursuing a business idea you love, doing research for your business will be just as interesting and fun! KNOWLEDGE IS POWER.
The great thing about this research is that you already have the skills to do it, thanks to every teacher who’s ever assigned you a term paper or a big project. How did you get the information about World War I for that report? Where did you learn the difference between arthropods and their insect cousins? By doing research. Now you can use that skill for something in the real world.
ANOTHER KIND OF RESEARCH: FIRSTHAND DATA. That’s the stuff that doesn’t come from a book—it comes from asking real people what they think or what they like. It comes from informal surveys, from conversations, and from your observation of the world around you.
USE YOUR CROWD. Crowdsourcing is just getting information from your “crowd” to help you decide on a book title or figure out which logo to choose. It means putting a query out to your community and asking them to vote on choices you give them or make suggestions themselves. Post a picture of your tote bags and ask your crowd to suggest names for them. You could even offer a free bag to the person whose name you end up using to incentivize people to participate and make it more fun. That’s one of the most important things we’ll keep telling you in this book: just because you’re in business, it doesn’t mean you have to give up on fun. On the contrary, the more fun you make it to start, grow, and run your own enterprise, the better it will be.
ESTABLISH YOUR ONLINE PRESENCE
Even if you have the most old-school idea on the planet, you need an online presence to promote it, get fans, publish updates, and even sell right on your own website. Setting up a site is easy and inexpensive. First you need to purchase a domain name, which can be your business name or your own name with a .com or .net on the end. Using GoDaddy.com or Squarespace.com, you can search to see if the name you’d like to register is available and purchase it on the spot for around $10–$20 per year. Then you’ll need to design your website, either by using templates provided by web design companies like Wix.com and Squrespace.com or by using tools provided by your web hosting company. If you’re including a blog with your site, you’ll find easy templates to publish through companies like Blogspot.com or WordPress.com.
Make sure you and your business are easy to find for anyone doing research and are appealing to anyone who comes across your website or postings. From Twitter and Snapchat to Tumblr and Facebook, there’s a social site to fit every need. You don’t have to be everywhere, but the more places you can have a presence, the more people who will know about your business. If you want to get really technical, you can even pay to have your website listed on a Google search or use Google Analytics to find out where social traffic is coming from.
MAKE TECHNOLOGY THE BUSINESS
PROJECTS BASED AROUND TECHNOLOGY ARE OUR FUTURE. We can do things from the comfort of our desks, in front of our computer screens, that we could never do in the past. That’s both exciting—there are more opportunities than ever to create something—and challenging in its own ways. It can feel isolating to work alone at a computer. Technology is also fast moving, and sometimes it can feel daunting to keep up.
BLOGGING IS FUN. It’s a great outlet for your thoughts, your observations, and your frustrations. And what if, after a while, you find that you have hundreds or even thousands of followers? Your blog is resonating with a consistent audience, which might mean you could field an advertiser or two. Or your six dozen blog entries might be the makings of a book. There can be serious money at stake, so keep an eye open to the business possibilities.
PEOPLE WHO UNDERSTAND TECHNOLOGY ARE ALWAYS NEEDED. Web designers, programmers, and quality assurance testers can offer consulting services to those who don’t get technology at all. Even if technology doesn’t form the backbone of your business, you will need to incorporate it into the way you run your company. From e-mail blasts to Skype conversations with business partners and buying supplies online, opportunities are endless.
BUT REMEMBER—TECHNOLOGY CAN’T DO EVERYTHING. There has to be a motivated soul behind it, pushing an idea or plan forward. Technology is a tool.
APPS
TODAY THERE ARE SO MANY USER-FRIENDLY WAYS TO BUILD AN APP, it can feel like everyone in town has an idea to create one. Depending on the type of business you have, it might be useful to have an app of your own. They can be used on the go, on a smartphone, all the time. They tend to work best for businesses in which your customers will need to book reservations (if you offer services or classes) or for business concepts built specifically for mobile use. This is where you need to have some intuition about your users and anticipate how they will find you and relate to your startup. An app isn’t appropriate for every startup, and it’s one more thing to build and monitor. But if it’s right for you, there are abundant resources for building apps.
BUILDING A SIMPLE APP IS, WELL, SIMPLE. You can build a simple plug-in e-commerce app for little or no money. Apple, Android, and Blackberry all have OS developer programs for use on their smartphones, or if you have a handle on HTML coding, you can work with companies like Appcelerator or MotherApp, which allow you to build apps that can run on various platforms. Some charge a flat fee and others charge you monthly, depending on what you need the app to do. Once you get into more complicated functionality, that will dictate how much help you need building the next iteration of your app. Just be sure the value you get from your app will support the cost. In other words, don’t pay a ton of money for someone to build you an app you don’t really need.
E-mail is still the most commonly used form of communication, especially in professional spheres, where it’s necessary to be businesslike and formal. That means watch your spelling, use a greeting and signature line, make sure you’re being respectful to the person with whom you’re communicating, and think before you send.
E-MAIL CAN BE TRICKY. On one hand, it’s quick and accessible—but then again, that speed and haste can be problematic too.
It may seem like there are universal rules of e-mailing—or texting, for that matter—but when you really think about it, we all have our own individual rules. Some people think it’s just fine to share personal and even shocking information via text. “We need to break up.” “I’m in the intensive care unit.” Other people think those are conversations best had in person, or at least over the phone.
LOL, TTYL, LMK may be de rigeur when you’re texting a friend, but they may not be right when you’re e-mailing someone you want to do business with. There are no hard rules when it comes to e-mailing. Ask yourself: will your recipient be offended if you don’t start your e-mail with “Dear Jane?” Will she think it’s rude if you respond to a question about startup cash in a one-line e-mail from your phone? The best way to avoid offending someone is to err on the side of caution, which means not being too terse. Until you really know the person you’re dealing with, go a little overboard with a nice greeting, a complete message in whole sentences, and a signature from you. You can save the quickly dashed-off shorthand for when you’ve been working together awhile. A good rule of thumb is to see how the person you’re e-mailing does it and follow suit. For example, if she capitalizes the first letter of every sentence and doesn’t use abbreviations, you should do the same. If she sends one-word responses “sent from my iPhone,” you can feel more free to be brief.
KEEP IN MIND that detecting a writer’s tone through an e-mail can be difficult. If you think your pithy sarcastic humor gets conveyed though your e-mails, think again. If you’re e-mailing someone you know well, your e-mail probably comes across in the manner intended. Your wink-wink diatribe meant to entertain might go awfully far awry if you’re writing to a person who doesn’t know your sense of humor. It’s easy to offend people by being too brief, too casual, and too sarcastic.
WHEN TO USE E-MAIL
There was a time when any official business communication had to be signed, sealed, and delivered by mail. Now whole business contracts are executed electronically. You can write an entire book and never print it on paper. Writing your name at the bottom of a return e-mail is as legitimate as signing it in ink, as long as all parties agree.
As a general rule, e-mail is a fast, universally accepted way of communicating. You should always save e-mails that have anything to do with your business: agreements over how much you’ll pay an employee, decisions about when something will be delivered, copies of contracts. You never know when you’ll have to refer back to the time your supplier said you could have a bulk discount if you ordered more than 50 items.
E-COMMERCE
The convenience of being able to shop from your computer can make it tempting to do a little more shopping than you might if you had to drive someplace and pay cash. Now that you have your own growing venture, it’s time to turn the tables and make it just as convenient for people to buy things from you.
YOU’LL HAVE TO DO A COUPLE OF BASIC THINGS TO GET STARTED. First, you’ll need to have a website where people can do their shopping. Make your website easy to navigate and use, and include details and photos. See the appendix for more on web design.
DECIDE HOW YOU WILL ACCEPT PAYMENT. You can do anything from having someone mail you a check and shipping out your goods once you receive it to taking credit cards right on your website. If your product is available in an online store, you can link directly to that store. For example, if you’ve written a joke book that’s available on Amazon.com, include a link to Amazon’s website and let the buying begin.
CREDIT CARDS offer security and convenience for your customer and for you. You’ll be able to sleep at night knowing that if someone has paid you by credit card, you will in fact be paid. No sitting around waiting to see if they’ll remember to mail you a check. If you want to accept credit cards—Visa or MasterCard, for example—you’ll first need to find what’s called an “acquirer.” That means you’ll have a contract with a merchant bank or financial institution that will act as the go-between for you and your customer. Essentially that acquirer will pay you after your customer buys something from you and will then collect the money from your customer. Visa and MasterCard have lists of acquirers you can contact and will give you everything you need to get started.
Once you get the nitty-gritty paperwork and approvals done, you’ll have a contract with Visa or MasterCard or Amex, and you’ll pay a fee for each transaction they process for you, generally about 2% to 5% of the sales price. That fee will be a business expense for you, and the convenience and security of being able to get your money from a reputable company will make it worthwhile.
A PAYMENT SERVICE LIKE PAYPAL charges a percentage and a fee per transaction. The basic package lets you put the service’s button on your website, which will link to their site, which is where payment actually takes place. PayPal and similar services offer other options, for a fee, that can give you more flexibility and convenience when it makes sense for your business.
JUST ONE MORE THING
THERE’S A LITTLE SOMETHING CALLED UPSELLING that you really need to know about. It means that when your customer has already shown serious interest in buying one thing, it may be a good time to interest them in adding something else. An impulse purchase—like that pack of gum by the cash register. You’re waiting to check out and it’s right there, very alluring and not too expensive, so why not? You can make that same strategy work in your favor as well. What’s the best time to sell something to a prospective customer? When it feels painless and easy for them.
Restaurants do this all the time. “Would you like fries with that?” “Can I start you off with some of our fresh-squeezed lemonade?” You can do the same thing. When someone signs up for your cake baking class, ask if they’d like to buy an apron before the class, or a cookbook once the class is over. You already have a captive audience interested in your business—now it’s your job as a business owner to do some selling. We know it may make you feel like the proverbial used-car salesperson, hawking anything and everything to make a buck. But you have integrity, and a good product, and you need profits to grow your business. Make a great product, offer a needed service, and you will be doing your customers a favor when they buy something from you.
