Chris Pirillo » Business

Happy Days are Here Again

Chris — Mon, 25 May 2009 05:36:32 +0000

Happy Days are Here Again is a post from Chris Pirillo

Ok, so sue me. I couldn’t think of a title for tonight’s link roundup! It’s true that a lot of my time is spent reading what other people are doing online. I consider it a part of my job! I define what I do as information sharing. How else am I going to know what’s hot – what’s important – what’s NOW – if I don’t read what the rest of you are saying? Do YOU take the time to read what other people in the world have to say? Or are you too busy worrying about your own thing? If you fall into that latter category, I feel bad for you. You honestly need to expand yourself, and get out of your own box. See the world… right from your computer.

Should Neighborhood Community Businesses be Online?

Chris — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 04:52:24 +0000

Should Neighborhood Community Businesses be Online? is a post from Chris Pirillo

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BizBuzz, LLC was a presenter at Live Pitch 2008 in Seattle recently. BizBuzz has one goal: to unite all businesses within a community under one umbrella resource. Having a centralized community location for all businesses, people will be able to find what they need faster. Businesses will also be able to network much easier, to better meet the needs of their communities.

BizBuzz, LLC

Business Category: Tech Startup
Founder: Nancy McManus
Inspiration for Product/Service: I was looking to give myself, my friends, and my neighbors a vehicle to access the incredible local resources that exist in our community. Previously, these resources were outside our grasp, as there was not a well-known centralized place to turn to find the answers.
Target Customer/Audience: The businesses and the neighbors in a single neighborhood of a big city.
Synopsis of Product / Service: BizBuzz, LLC is a unique community-driven website that cuts through the chatter of Internet congestion and allows you to garnish the best (and often unknown) resources of your own community… while also enabling every business to have a indexable web presence.
Main Company Contact: Nancy McManus

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Technology Jobs in Smaller Communities

Chris — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 07:31:16 +0000

Technology Jobs in Smaller Communities is a post from Chris Pirillo

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I grew up in Iowa, and I was a big Evangelist in Iowa as far as helping to bring small businesses to Iowa. Mike sent me an email, asking what I thought about Iowa enticing Microsoft into building a DataCenter in DesMoines … especially in light of the recent Class Action Lawsuit against Microsoft.

I think it’s a great idea for any business to go into a location that is stateside which doesn’t necessarily have… well. Maybe DesMoines isn’t as “sexy” as San Fransisco, LA or Chicago. However, that weakness is also the strength. The costs are much lower for nearly everything. The people are more down-to-earth in general. This makes it easier to attract and keep good employees for the long-term.

Microsoft has said it must have a good supply of energy, water, workers and certain fiber optics. So the location would have to be near a power plant, have an available network of “dark fiber,” have a substantial water supply, and be along an interstate. Iowa lawmakers are trying to fast-track a set of tax breaks for Microsoft through the Iowa House this week. The legislation would offer a state sales and use tax exemptions on purchases of computers, equipment and electricity necessary for use in a Web portal business with an investment of at least $200 million in Iowa. And the technology equipment inside the building would be exempt from property taxes. The tax breaks are the same as the ones lawmakers passed last year to lure high-tech giant Google.

Overall, I think ANY big business would benefit greatly by opening up off-shoots in smaller communities.

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Good Business Guidelines

Chris — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 07:41:13 +0000

Good Business Guidelines is a post from Chris Pirillo

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I’ve owned and operated my own business for many years now. For the most part, it’s gone very well for me. Yes, of course I’ve made mistakes. But… I’ve also made some excellent business decisions. I don’t see myself ever working for anyone other than myself again. I love working with vendors, helping people save money by passing along savings. I love the interaction from my community. This is just something that I truly love. I received the following email the other day, regarding business.

Recently, I saw the “Investment” video you posted, in which a 19 year old set up a business in Philippines. So i reckoned, now people know how to start up a business, why not teach them how to make it last. I’ve been looking into business since the age of 15. I have picked up tips and advice from businessman and women all over the world through different conferences. I have summed up ten values in which any organization should have in their organizational culture in order to last. I tried to do a top 5 list, but 5 just weren’t enough. Here are the 10 values:

Loyalty Always be loyal to your organization, employees and employers. This can help you in the long run with relationships with your colleagues, bosses and family!
Commitment This has always been one of the key values that drive a business. Recently, I’ve read your post on “How to Start (and KEEP) a Blog”. This also adds on to the facts on commitment to a certain task.
Respect Always have healthy respect for your bosses (positioned above you), your peers (beside you), and your subordinates (below you). This is achieved by having humility in everything you do. Humility is shown in the actions you do, the words you say and most importantly, your attitude. Always guard against sedition (elevating yourself to the position of whom you are working under).
Accountability Always be accountable! Whether to your bosses or colleagues. This is one of the things to watch out for in working in an organization. By being accountable, you are indirectly building up on your connectedness with others.
Family Never neglect your family members. Your relationships you have with them means more than your job post in the long run! Take time off from work to spend quality time, if not some time, with your family. Whatever happens at home can clearly be reflected in work performance.
Love Being a loving person is always beneficial to either yourself or others. Be forgiving, have mercy on the poor soul that just burst your blood vessels. It ain’t any good to yourself or the other party if there are any hatchets that aren’t buried yet. Having love in the organization results in better service in the case of service industries.
Faithfulness This can also include trustworthiness. If your clients don’t trust you, and your subordinates don’t trust your business plan, what is there left in your organization? Trust is essential in any business. Here are 3 things you have to be faithful in:
- Little things (if you can’t be trusted with a small project, how can you ever expect to receive a huge project?)
- Other people’s belongings (if you can’t even be responsible for your neighbor’s things, how can you be with your company’s?)
- Finance
Hard work/Diligence Where will you get your profits if you don’t work hard? A start-up will always have it’s hiccups. But if you work hard enough, you’ll get guaranteed results.
Integrity Crucial! Always be truthful in your dealings and actions. No matter whatever losses you’ve made through truthful dealings, people will still trust you more.
Generosity Generosity begets generosity. If you are generous, even in small amounts, you’ll eventually receive the same treatment.

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Making an Investment in Yourself for Business

Chris — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 06:42:31 +0000

Making an Investment in Yourself for Business is a post from Chris Pirillo

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Robert has sent in some excellent tips for going into business, saying: “I will say I have learned all this and more since opening my first business in the Philippines which was a Drinks shop and I’m only 19. Its been open for just under a year and I’m soon to open my second one.”

Market Study – See what your local and Global markets desires,wants and needs are. If you introduce a business that delivers a product or service for the minority of people that have money you will either fail or have a seasonal income.
Dont put all your eggs in one basket – Simply you believing that your business will work is by far not enough. Have thoughts and considerations to alternative business lines you would be happy breeching into. Sure business is going to put a big hole in your pocket but this is exactly the one reason why you should have more than one pocket. Putting all your money into that one business and then leaving your self financial broke without any backup plan or way of ever continuing life without that business is why many early entrepreneurs fail and leave them selves in worse off conditions than before they ever began.
Mind your own Business – I will give credit to the title of this tip, a Robert Kiyosaki the author of ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’ and it is simply about minding your own business. Not in the sense that you shouldn’t know or take interest in what peoples personal affairs are but more that when you have already established your business, Never for one moment let your mind slip on how your business is being run. Small errors and little mistakes end up being big hassle when it gets to you. Then at the end of the day your the one loosing and your the one to sort it out. Keep records and keep track of everything that happens with your business. Money transfers, incoming stock, out-going stock the list is endless and the list depends on your line of business. The success of your business starts with the correct management and since its your business you have to be the manager.
Reinvestment – Although at the end business is about money never expect to make fast money in your first opening years. Another top reason for entrepreneurs to fail or quit is the unclarity of the return investment. Most inverters expect a fast return and this simply cannot be. What you should be doing in your first year is reinvesting in your business. For example the profit you make out of your products or service should go into: a) Expanding the range of products or services you have to offer, b) Promoting and advertising your business to places that may not know already, c) General maintenance to your equipment/Building etc, d) maintaining a reliable service for your regular and non-regular customers.
Staff / Employee’s – Just picking up anyone from the street that wants work and doesn’t mind what they get paid is asking for trouble. Also the adverse of that, finding an over qualified individual can be just too much hassle. Here are a few pointers in finding the right staff:
- Check their history before employing them, most times if there is a criminal record attached to them they don’t tend to loose there trade
- Check their personal appearance, if your gut reaction is bad imagine how your customers will feel being greeted by that person
- Trust, this one is urned over time but one mistake of bad trust and there should be no hesitance for you to get rid of that person straight away
- Have them trained in the way you would like your customers to be treated and make sure this training is thorough to every little detail. For example if one of your customers accidentally leaves his wallet in your shop, your staffs standard procedure should be to take that wallet and pass it to the front desk, most likely that customer will come back and wont have to worry about his wallet ending up in the wrong hands
- Lastly keep your staff happy and let them enjoy working for you, keep an open mind of being equal with them but also letting them know your still the boss and should be respected. Happy staff can equal a satisfied customer so keep this in mind when it comes to the personalty of your staff, although you can never really change the personality, you can always change the person.

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Why Your IT Department Doesn’t Love the iPhone

Chris — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 07:25:41 +0000

Why Your IT Department Doesn’t Love the iPhone is a post from Chris Pirillo

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DC wrote in to say he and his colleagues feel that Apple should try and market the iPhone to IT and corporate professionals, because of the obvious increase in revenue. Here is his list of reasons why IT Departments hate the iPhone.

Doesn’t natively support push business email or over-the-air calendar synchronization The iPhone can sync with Microsoft’s Exchange and IBM’s Lotus Notes over IMAP and SMTP ports, but your server and security admins have to configure their infrastructure to do so or purchase a mobile gateway from Synchronica or Azaleos.
Doesn’t accommodate third-party applications, including those internally developed This is a show stopper for companies with enterprise mobility initiatives that require line-of-business applications like mobile sales force automation or an industry-specific application like mobile claims.
Lacks a hard keypad that provides feedback, which isn’t ideal for rapid and accurate input Many respected journalists have come to the conclusion that ultimately the keyboard “is a nonissue,” but only after five days of use. In speaking with enterprise-class mobile device users on a daily basis, the vast majority have found that they need some form of tactile feedback from their QWERTY or numeric keyboards.
Lacks a removable battery, so when the battery kicks it, so does the device Apple does not sell replacement batteries for the iPhone. So when the battery dies, so does worker productivity.
Is only the first generation Even Apple enthusiasts admit that there are some weaknesses they’d like to see fixed in future generations, like making it easier to activate the device, improving the battery life and sound quality, and, most importantly, allowing it to connect to higher-speed networks (3G).

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I Heart Closed Systems

Chris — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 02:00:15 +0000

I Heart Closed Systems is a post from Chris Pirillo

Why do companies hate their users? No, seriously – there’s an enormous disconnect between marketing and business affairs across every single industry on the planet. Believe it or not, this isn’t a rant specifically about Microsoft or Apple.

Someone sent me a link to How to Quit the Gym (or Anything) the other day. “Once they’ve got your credit card number, charges on subscriptions, services and memberships can seem impossible to stop.” This really worries me, largely because Ponzi buys every subscription that dangles in front of her face – then she forgets about them and we wind up spending money on services that never get used.

We’re had already been paying for an URGE account – on top of a Napster account – yet that didn’t stop Ponzi for purchasing access to the same goddamned album through another goddamned music service a couple of weeks ago. Jebus! Enough! I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I read the options that one might excercise when trying to escape a contract:

Death (with proof)
Military service (again, with proof)
Pay more

Really?! There should be a law passed that makes it just as easy to get OUT of a contract as it is to get INTO the goddamned thing. Why do companies hate their users so much? Seriously, why?

How to Handle Remote Tech Support

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:30:00 GMT

Using GoToAssist is the easiest way to view and control another person's computer online. Use it to provide instant technical support to family, friends and customers. Start a session with just one click, and instantly connect with the other party.

Network Tools for Windows

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

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Get Your Own Web Site

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

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VMware and Parallels for Virtual Machines

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

It doesn't matter if you're running on Windows or Mac OS X - every power user needs either Parallels or VMware (or both). There's never been an easier way to test software without destroying your primary operating system's stability. Think of how many times you wish you could press a 'reverse' button on your computer. Plus, there's no easier way to try new Linux distributions - see what all the fuss is about. Run Windows in OS X, run Linux in Windows, but the best way to do either is with VMware and/or Parallels.

Coupons for Online Shopping

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:56:13 GMT

This feed is fueled by Lockergnome Online Shopping and Coupon Codes

Before you shop next time, see if we have a coupon first.