August 23rd, 2009 Chris
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August 9th, 2009 Chris
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August 2nd, 2009 Chris
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July 26th, 2009 Chris
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July 24th, 2009 Chris
OK, I know it’s software…
So, about two months into the development of our software application, we had the inevitable one month slip once everyone understood the requirements. And it was pretty much all my fault…
Because we kicked this off while we were still in Miami, I went through great lengths to define requirements in gory (ie. requirements document) and somewhat intuitive (wireframes) ways.
However, two months in, we realized that myself and the small team here in Ottawa weren’t quite on the same page. What it took was a long white-board session in which each major functional area was walked-through and dissected.
Again – not a huge surprise that there are hiccups in the development of a new app. But what struck me is the only reason this got back on the rails was the fact we could sit down in person and sort it all out.
That lead to another question: how does a micro business not blow their brains out outsourcing development. I mean at the end of the day someone needs to be local who understands what you’re trying to accomplish. Perhaps that’s why often it’s more often Q&A work and more “mundane” dev work that gets farmed out…
All I can say is saving on outsourcing, 30% (maybe). Looking your developers in the whites of their eyes… priceless.
C.
Posted in Development | No Comments »
May 14th, 2009 Chris
As I said last week, I’m getting back into software. And to answer the question I got from several of you, I’m not yet disclosing what it is going to do. We’re still a few months away from launch and I don’t want to tip any potential competitors…
One of the biggest fears I had in getting into all of this was the tremendous investment I feared would be required to actually develop the code. I came from the world of big enterprise software where development is slow and expensive.
Not that the developers weren’t fantastic – they were talented and opinionated, very opinionated 
It’s just that the paradigm was different. Big software releases happened every year or two, had tons of new features, had to run on multiple platforms and had to be bulletproof.
So when I first developed the concept on the app we’re developing, I assumed that it was going to cost a lot to build – originally I assumed at least $50k – $100k. What I soon discovered gave me the encouragement and cash to go ahead with the project…
Two key aspects of our project substantially reduced the development cost:
1. Software as a Service. We wanted to build this app as a service versus the old fashioned download-install-run model. That meant no multiple platform requirements, no installer, etc… All the stuff that adds tremendous cost without value for the customer.
2. Built in Product Manager. We were not looking for a full-service development house that had project managers and extra layers of overhead. I wanted the type of relationship I was used to: me as the product manager and our hired development guns as the development team. That eliminates a lot of overhead cost.
So I did up my specification (more on that in a later post) and went out to collect a couple of bids… And was blown away by how little this was going to cost!
I should note, that I didn’t go off-shore as I wanted to see the white’s of the team’s eyes. I wanted to sit down over a beer and make sure we all understood the requirements. I want to sit down over a coffee and make sure that the schedule is one I can count on. I was worried that remote development would add a bunch of barriers to communication that would counter-act any cost benefits.
In the end, I found a great team right here in Ottawa who gave me an aggressive but credible bid. And we’re off to the races.
Of course, this is software development so schedule and requirements churn is to be anticipated. But because I’ve got the right team and the right price – I know we’ll get there in the end.
In fact, this model is quite liberating. With the barrier to develop so low, the consequences of failure (from a sunk cost perspective) is also quite low. Which means that if one project doesn’t succeed for one reason or another, you can always try again with your next great idea…
Although that won’t be the case for us – this one’s a winner!
C.
Posted in Financial, Technology | No Comments »
March 11th, 2009 Chris
Like many micro-businesses, we use the Internet to add to our prospect base – basically getting people to come to our site through various mechanisms and sign up for our newsletter. Whether it be a referral from a partner, someone reading one of Colleen’s articles or Google Adwords – we take advantage of their visit to try and get them more engaged with the business.
We do this by offering them a free newsletter subscription and a ten day eCourse. That is, ten emails in ten days, each with a great sales tip. All they do is give us their name and email address and we’re off to the races.
The page where we make this sweet offer is often referred to as a squeeze page in that we are trying to squeeze their interactivity down to a specific call to action (and only that call to action). In our case – it’s that Newsletter and eCourse sign-up.
As you may suspect, our goal is to maximize the number of folks that sign-up and so we look at the conversion rate – the percentage of those that visit the page that do indeed sign-up.
And figuring that out is half art and half science. I say half art as, often, the stuff that influences visitors to sign-up is not intuitive. It’s tied to psychology and what motivates us to take action. And it is generally to complicated for me to figure out. That’s where the science comes in.
Just like advertizers that conduct all sorts of market testing, the key to maximizing the conversion rate of a squeeze page is trying different approaches and measuring the results. For example, one thing that we’ve found that improves conversion rates is providing more graphical cues on the page. Here’s an example…
We took that squeeze page for sign-ups and added the following graphics:
To measure the actual impact, a great tool is provided with Google Adwords (although only measuring traffic that comes from Adwords – still very useful). It allows you to measure the effectiveness of different versions of your squeeze pages. It does so by randomly sending Adword clickers to one of your pages and keeping track of the conversion rates of each.
So what did the extra graphics do on the page conversion rate. Lets compare the original page (Original) with the new one (Variation 1):
As you can see, adding the graphics almost doubled the conversion rate from 8% to 16%! That ultimately translates is a halving of customer acquisition costs and doubling of sales! All by adding some graphics…
It’s worth taking a look at where you are asking customers to make decisions on your web site and asking yourself, is it pretty? And then test the heck out of it…
C.
Posted in Marketing, Web, Web Site | 2 Comments »
January 28th, 2009 Chris
As many of you know, I have grown to despise all things winter: dark, cold, snowy, etc… And so Colleen and I escape to South Beach as a respite from the deep freeze here in Ottawa. That’s one of the great things about having a micro-business without a brick and mortar presence: we can literally work anywhere.
Typically though, being away from home brings angst that the business will suffer. One of the standard challenges is how to keep in touch with partners, customers, etc… without giving up a level of service and without paying Bell or Rogers too much money. As far as I’m concerned, we are routinely asked to bend over here in Canada when it comes phone services.
That’s why I was excited when one of our customers, Tim Welch from Talkswitch, introduced me to this magical little box that we’ve just finished installing. A magical little box that not only provides us the ability manage multiple lines, have voice mails, auto-attendants (press 1 to get closer to – yet never quite reach – a human being…), etc…, it also can help you stick it to the phone company.
The really cool thing that the Talkswitch box supports that makes this all possible is VOIP. Now – I remember travelling all over the place back when I worked for my former employer and using Skype. Pretty good but with the occasional line drop, poor quality, etc… Not particularly conducive for trying to close a deal. We tried to use it last year when we were down South and it was definitely hit or miss (mostly miss).
When Tim told me about their VOIP support, I was thinking it would be the same as Skype. Well – it’s very different. I turn my computer into a phone – like Skype – but instead of connecting to the big cloud of competing-for-bandwidth-calls-from-every-corner-of-the-earth, the Talkswitch box is our own dedicated VOIP hub. In other words, I can pick up my “phone” from my computer anywhere in the world and I’m hooked up to the box in our office. From there, I can call other extensions or call out – just like I was in the office.
And the same applies for inbound. Someone dials my extension and it automatically rings at my local computer (before going to my normal voice mail or being forward to my cell – however I configure it).
And best of all – the quality is great (usually better than normal phone lines). And we save a ton on long distance charges. And we get all the stuff we’d get from a normal small business PBX (which of course you need anyways if you have more than one or two employees and a fax line).
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So, if you have the flexibility to go somewhere more fun or warm in your micro-biz, take it! There are tools there that can help you continue to work seamlessly and don’t have to be expensive!
C.
Posted in Telecom | 1 Comment »
