2009 September | Navigating the I.T. Minefield

Archive for September, 2009

The Gift of Trust

Monday, September 28th, 2009

What would happen to your team if you gave each member the gift of trust? Not the type of trust that requires proof…but an authentic trust…a willingness to put yourself in their “hands with the complete and deliberate awareness that you may be disappointed?”[i]

Interesting question, isn’t it? You might be thinking, “You can’t do that. Everyone has to prove themselves. I won’t trust so-and-so until they prove they are good at ________. “ Do you realize how frustrating it is for your employees (or other significant relationships) to wait for you to decide to trust them? Do you realize how much more work you take on because you are unwilling to give authentic trust? Do you realize that as a leader you are impeding the growth of your business, organization or team (or family)? How can your team grow if you only trust them to do what they have proven they can do?

High performance teams cannot develop without the willingness of the leadership to bestow authentic trust on each member. Trust empowers the recipient, creates the space for them to step up to meet your expectations and discover their full potential. Trust also frees you to focus on other important tasks, allowing you to be a more effective leader.

If you are in a leadership position today, chances are someone took a chance on you. You didn’t necessarily merit the chance. Remember that feeling? A little anxiety as you took on the task. A sense of accomplishment and pride when you succeeded. That one person’s trust made a difference in your behavior and your life. The greatest reward though came through the relationship with the one who trusted you. It expanded and grew deeper. Remember that feeling? BTW…did you ever say Thank You? It isn’t too late.

Only an authentic leader can bestow authentic trust.

[i] Degraffenreid, Blazing a Trail to Success: The New Art & Science of Acknowledgment

Tags: leadership, small business, trust
Posted in Business | 4 Comments »

5 Essential Practices of the Best Data Backup Services

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

You’ve probably seen or heard ads for data backup solutions. Someone in your area offers the service. Some of the major computer manufacturers provide a solution. Who do you choose? Data backup is important! After all, the loss of critical information could close your business for a few days…or permanently.

In order to play in the industry, all services must:

- Provide a physically secure facility.

- Encrypt data prior to transfer.

- Provide notification of backup failures.

- Provide an easy to use and understand interface.

Those are the “must haves”. What sets the best apart and how do you know which provider to choose? Select a vendor:

1) With at least two facilities separated by 50 miles or more. Why? First, these vendors use their facilities as backup sites for each other. If one burns down, the other has a copy of the data and can continue to function. Second, the distance between them reduces the chance that both are overtaken by the same disaster (think Hurricane Katrina).

2) That regularly tests their disaster recovery process. It is one thing to show the process works on paper (SAS-70 Type 1 audit). It is another to show you can successfully recover from a failure (SAS-70 Type 2 audit).

3) That offers a variety of storage options to manage your costs. Online storage is for crucial files only. Near-online storage is for less critical files. Offline storage is for files you rarely access but need to keep for archive or regulatory purposes.

4) That understands and accounts for your industry’s legal requirements (e.g. SOX and HIPAA). You can be fined for a data loss or failing to protect the data. Choose someone who understands how best to protect you.

5) That willingly discusses their process for transferring your data to another provider. We don’t like to think about changing service providers…but it happens.

Many services are do-it-yourself, the best usually aren’t. They will provide guidance on which files to backup. I don’t object to you installing a vendor’s application, setting the parameters and then monitoring your data backup. Most solutions automatically backup MyDocuments. You must specify the other files and directories to backup. If you’re a solo-preneur this might be sufficient. However, if you have not told your employees where to save files, then you (or your IT service provider) need to take the time to look at each hard drive and discover the directories where users are storing their work files. If you are not aware of these files, they will not be backed up.

Once you have chosen your provider and are up and running with your new backup. Test them. Rename a critical file so you don’t lose it. Then try to restore the file using the backup from the service provider. Did it work? How long did it take? Better to discover the problems before you have a real problem.

Wishing you a safe passage through the I.T. Minefield!

Leslie Knight is a small business consultant with over 20 years of experience in Information Technology management in Fortune 500 companies. She applies her experience in Corporate America saving them millions to smaller entrepreneurial enterprises. She is also the author of Navigating the I.T. Minefield.

To download the sample chapter “When Disaster Strikes” from Navigating the I.T. Minefield: Straight Talk for the Small Enterprise, go to http://bit.ly/zAcdl. To purchase your copy, please visit http://bit.ly/SNL4W.

Tags: disaster recovery, DR, Information Technology, IT, small business
Posted in Business, Information Technology | 3 Comments »

5 Keys to Improving Employee Morale (without spending a penny)

Saturday, September 19th, 2009

Corporations spend a lot of money on employee morale and retention…celebrations, trinkets, new benefits, pay increases, etc. Unfortunately, these measures often fail to have a lasting effect. Once the “good feelings” wear off, morale falls again, creating an endless spending cycle a small business can’t afford.

You can have a permanent and positive impact AND it won’t cost you anything except a little time and effort to master the language of acknowledgment. After years of working on employee retention issues, Scott Degraffenreid distilled his insights into a new book, Blazing a TRAIL to Success: The New Art & Science of Acknowledgment. Scott observes that acknowledgment is not “saying something to make people feel good” or giving them a token of appreciation. It is the voice of gratitude and expresses the abundance in our lives.

I decided to consciously put TRAIL into action while working with a team of volunteers. Watching that team respond and the relationships grow was truly rewarding. Here are the five keys:

Trust: Trust without proof of someone’s capability to do the work is a very powerful acknowledgment. Given the space to do so, they step up and perform. Trust also means being willing to be disappointed without anticipating failure. When they fail ask how do we do it differently and move on.

Respect: Respect means to take into consideration the feelings, thoughts and input of another in such a way that they recognize you have done so. Respect is so subtle that we don’t realize when we disrespect someone. Little things mean a lot: timely response voice mail and email, being on-time to a meeting, turning off the cell phone, deferring to another’s expertise. Leaders, you get what you give. Do your employees feel respected? BTW…if your suppliers and customers are complaining about service, look to yourself and your management team. Your employees will treat your customers/suppliers only as well as you are treating them.

Appreciation: Appreciation is a sincere compliment…but you have to know what the recipient wants you to notice. If you compliment their organized office and they want you to notice their project management prowess…you blew it! How do you know what to compliment? ASK them! They’ll be blown away that you asked and impressed when you follow-up.

Interest: Interest “consists of being open to another person’s life and thoughts beyond the immediate context of the relationship”. As a leader, what do you know about their life away from work? What do they do for fun? Birthday? Anniversary? Kids’ names? Favorite food/dessert? Take the time to get to know them. If you need to, get an index card for each one with the pertinent information and act on it!

Listening: Listening isn’t just paying attention to what someone says; it also entails being aware of how you hear them. What are you thinking about while you are listening? “Oh no, another whiner” or “I’m glad Henry is so concerned…” Do you ask for input and then ignore it?

Acknowledgment is a skill that takes time and conscious effort to master. Yet this one skill, when used properly, can strengthen and deepen every relationship. I highly recommend Blazing a TRAIL to Success: The New Art & Science of Acknowledgement. You may purchase a copy at http://bit.ly/LyJxJ.

Tags: employee morale, employee retention, small business
Posted in Business | 3 Comments »

How Important is I.T. in Your Business?

Monday, September 14th, 2009

Just 25 years ago the most important business tool was the telephone…not the sophisticated iPhone™ or Blackberry™, but POTS, the plain old telephone system. Combined with the Rolodex, it was a powerful tool that linked the business to the customer. Twenty-five years ago, and even today, AT&T and the “baby bells” were known for their reliability. The chance of the phone system going down was very slim. You definitely were not going to close the doors to your business for good if the phones were down for a period of time.

Today, the indispensible tool is the computer and the network to which it is connected. Together they facilitate communication with clients, manage complex business processes and maintain financial and client information. Unfortunately, an outage with computer systems or the network could easily force you to close your business for good. What would happen to your business if either one was unavailable for an extended period of time? Would you lose money? Would your company’s reputation suffer? Would your inability to supply your product or service damage another company’s reputation? Could you recover?

While all businesses need some level of disaster recovery planning, most small business owners have not given much thought to the possibility of a disaster! Wake up, small business owners! A disaster could be as small as spilling a drink on a critical server or your laptop or something as spectacular as Hurricane Katrina or a security attack. If the event keeps you from conducting business for an extended period of time, then you need a backup plan that answers the question: How do we conduct business if a critical resource is unavailable?

Think for a few moments about your business and consider these 3 questions:

1) Which processes are critical to your business? If these processes are unable to function, your business doesn’t function.

2) What are the technology components upon which these processes depend? Do you have a critical file, server, or other piece of hardware?

3) How long can your I.T. environment be unavailable to you or your customers before the business begins to suffer?

Answers to these three questions are the beginning of disaster planning. The next step is to begin to reduce or eliminate the risks that impact your business (the subject of another post).

Best wishes for your success!

To download “When Disaster Strikes” from Navigating the I.T. Minefield: Straight Talk for the Small Enterprise, go to http://bit.ly/zAcdl. Yes, I require your email address…but that’s to keep the spam bots from taking over. Good people won’t abuse the content J

Posted in Business, Information Technology | 1 Comment »

Rant on Computer Hardware Manufacturers

Saturday, September 12th, 2009

Twenty-five years ago (yes I’ve been in the business that long…ouch) IBM, Dell and HP were the major players in desktop/laptop hardware. Dell was the young upstart. They made a name for themselves by producing a high quality, customized product in less time than their competitors. IBM and HP were overtaken. All of the manufacturers were trying to outdo each others. When the dust settled, Dell stayed on top (with a brief loss of share to HP).

Today, the major players have changed a little bit. But if you’ll notice their ads, they are all competing on price. A computer is for the most part a commodity. The insides are very similar, but the external case has a different name stamped on it. There is very little differentiation between Dell, HP, Lenovo, Gateway (Acer) and the other players. Computer quality is about the same with each major vendor. Customer service is dependably mediocre (at least I have not heard any rave reviews in a while). Small businesses are the fastest growing segment, yet they have not figured out that they key to winning the entrepreneur is the experience they create for us, not their old brand image.

Ask anyone who has had a laptop stolen or otherwise destroyed and they’ll probably tell you they bought the replacement at a big box retailer because it would take too long to order what they really wanted from the manufacturer. No begging, pleading, calls to sales or letters to the CEO would cause the manufacturer to move any quicker on their order (14 to 30 days to receive a new one). The message “As an entrepreneur or small business (20 or fewer computers), you are not that important.” Unfortunately for us, our computers are our lifeline. They are as important to our business as they are in a large company. Since we are small, we don’t always have the option of stowing duplicate hardware for later use. So, we’re stuck.

I wonder if there is an up-and-coming manufacturer out there who will actually carve out their niche in the small business or entrepreneur segment…and treat us like we are as important as those business that buy a few hundred computers at a time. IF they do it right, word of mouth referrals could easily suck business away from the established manufacturers.

Tags: Information Technology, IT, small business
Posted in Business, Information Technology | 3 Comments »

Are Small Businesses Repeating I.T. History?

Friday, September 11th, 2009

George Santayana is credited with the quote, “Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them” (the original is quite different). After 20+ years working in Corporate America for Fortune 500 companies, it pains me greatly to walk into a small business and see that even the most basic of the lessons learned by the large companies have generally not been implemented in smaller businesses. The IT environment and work processes remain undocumented. Many still don’t have an effective data backup scheme…definitely no business continuity plan. I believe this is happening for three reasons:

Small requires less mentality. The term “small business” now suggests a home office or small office, something substantially less than the government definition of 500 or fewer employees. In some local economies, small businesses represent more than 50% of the area businesses. Of those 75% or more have fewer than 10 employees, and most have only one or two employees. These businesses drive the economy and employ more than 50% of the workforce. Service providers and business owners alike seem to think that small means less is required to manage and maintain them from an I.T. perspective. In reality, these businesses require processes and protection that are as robust as those of the Fortune companies. How do you view your small enterprise? Do you see it as a long-term, growing business concern?

Lack of awareness. Part of the problem stems from the plug-n-play simplicity with which most computers and applications integrate into daily operations. This often hides the complexity and criticality of the operations they support. Consequently, most small business owners are simply unaware of the risks I.T. poses to their business. What are your business critical processes? How dependent are these processes on I.T.? Can your business survive if the computers and network are not available?

Conscious decision. In some cases, no matter how important it might be to take action, the business owner simply does not have the financial wherewithal to implement a suggestion from the I.T. service provider. It might be less expensive to allow the business to close after a significant I.T. failure than it is to protect against the problem. That’s a decision you, the business owner, will have to make. Are you armed with enough information to make an informed decision?

How do you view your business? Are you aware of the risks I.T. poses to your business? Have you done what you can to reduce or eliminate those risks? This is the first post in a series. I hope you will return as we explore the risks for startups and established businesses, possible solutions and then share your experiences.

Best wishes for your success!

Leslie

To download “When Disaster Strikes” from Navigating the I.T. Minefield: Straight Talk for the Small Enterprise, go to http://bit.ly/zAcdl.

Tags: Information Technology, IT, small business, startup
Posted in Business, Information Technology | No Comments »

Brag on Your I.T. Service Provider

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

I see and hear about a lot of the I.T. horror stories from clients, friends and other consultants.

I would like to hear a few people brag on their I.T. service provider. What stories do you have to share about how they helped your business?

Tags: Information Technology, IT, small business
Posted in Business, Information Technology | No Comments »

Turn Every Client into a Referral Source

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009

Every once in a while, I find a good book that will help a small business owner and I’ll use my blog to share. I first read this book five years ago and it is still relevant today. I hope you find it useful. ≈ Leslie

In today’s economy, we are all looking for ways to increase business without increasing our expenses. Yet we all overlook the one free resource available to us: our clients. How would your business look if every client became a referral source? What would it take to turn every client into a referral source?

I highly recommend for your reading The New Art & Science of Referral Marketing. Scott Degraffenreid has a 100% success rate of increasing the referral business of his clients without incurring ongoing out-of-pocket expenses. In this book, Scott reveals why referrals work better than all of the traditional advertising media and then explains how to build your message to drive referrals.

So, what are those elements of a business that make it easy for someone to refer a product or service? It’s the N.U.D.E. model – Novelty, Utility, Dependability, Economy. While I won’t go into great detail about each one, suffice it to say that all four elements must be present and their perceptions managed to drive your business based on referrals. A N.U.D.E score of 315% can result in at least one referral from each of your customers. The good news is that if often doesn’t take much to reach 315%. At that level, the referrals alone can sustain a business. Who doesn’t want that?

Viral Referral Marketing in action: I have had the pleasure of listening to Scott teach and getting to know him over the years. I also know that most businesses struggle with marketing and generating referrals. So here we have an example of NUDE: Novelty…the NUDE method itself (even established businesses can develop a perception of novelty); Utility…knowing people who have a need; Dependability…Scott’s reputation as I perceive it. Economy…I fully expect a favorable return on my investment and effort. I probably know 100 new people that can benefit from Scott’s expertise within my Twitter following and elsewhere. Considering the people I know and they know, at the first two levels alone, 10,000 people will hear about Scott and his book in a very short period of time. That’s the power of Viral Referral Marketing and the N.U.D.E model.

Reader Comment: In The New Art & Science of Referral Marketing, Degraffenreid “quantifies the power of word of mouth and lays out the main characteristics of a word-of-mouth message needs in order to reach runaway levels. It shows how to change your product and message to something people will want to talk about. This is priceless. At $1000 it would be a bargain.” – George Silverman, author, “The Secrets of Word of Mouth Marketing”

To purchase a copy of The New Art & Science of Referral Marketing please visit http://bit.ly/JrWBq.

Best wishes for your success!

Leslie

Tags: marketing, referral marketing, small business
Posted in Business | 1 Comment »

The Power of 1000: Twitter Wake Up!

Sunday, September 6th, 2009

First of all, “Thank you, Twitter Tech Support”. All 900+ of us who experienced the follow/unfollow & block problem that persisted from August 29 – 31 appreciate your efforts. Why did we have to wait so long for a resolution?

The problem began sometime early on the 29th. At 9:44 pm CDT, help@twitter.com received an email to inform them 40+ users were affected. This was followed by 5 more emails documenting escalating counts of users impacted with the last one at 1:56pm on August 31, with 800+ users impacted.

Finally, around 3pm CDT on August 31st, Twitter posted a status page update:
“Working on problem whereby some cannot follow or unfollow: A small percentage of people are currently unable to follow or unfollow others. We are aware of the problem and the root cause. And we’re working to fix this as soon as we can.”

This was the only indication of your awareness of a problem. Your users knew it Saturday afternoon. When several people experience the same problem in a short time frame, the issue is systemic, not user specific. Your reporting and monitoring processes are inadequate. You were slow to respond and slow to acknowledge the problem. You support a global community but act as though they are local to California. No wonder your tweeps are unhappy (view sample comments @ http://bit.ly/1Wsdn).

Then, you gave us “attitude”. “A small percentage” as in “you’re not really that significant”, but we’re working on this now. Granted, 1000 out of 1.2 million customers does represent a very small percentage (.08%). However, consider this: What would have happened if all of them were small business owners who then dropped your service and then their followers left? If 9 levels of followers leave taking 2 friends each time, the Twitter community would be decimated, leaving the porn and spam bots.

Wake up Twitter! You have a bright future. However, you need to be faithful as a free service provider in order for anyone to take you seriously as a fee based premium service provider.

As a business owner new to Twitter (about 2 weeks) I am assessing your viability as a means for quickly delivering a message. I would be one who would consider paying for enhanced services. However, I can see why the typical user only stays for a month before abandoning the service. Your community presents interesting challenges. Do yourselves a favor and don’t aggravate your customers with poor support.

Finally, don’t underestimate us. Insignificant percentages can be quite powerful. Reports of bad service spread like wildfire in a small community. These 1000 people are customers who can and will leave you. If enough of them leave at once and take their followers, you have a problem. Eventually, poor customer support will impact your ability to attract new investors and customers.

Best wishes for your success! I’ll be watching.

Tags: customer support, Twitter
Posted in Twitter | 4 Comments »

How do YOU feel about Twitter’s Response to the Follow/Unfollow/Block Problem?

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

Aside from not being able to follow friends or unfollow/block offensive users, what did you find most frustrating:
1) The length of the outage?
2) The lack of communication?
3) Something else?

Here are a few sample comments from twitter users:

“This just gets better!! I’m giving them until tomorrow morning and if I check it then and it’s not working then I’m leaving Twitter. Not that they will care!” — R

“I too have had this issue for 2 days now. Apparently many other users have it as well. I don’t have 2000 followers so it’s not as if I reached my “limit.” I find it incredibly frustrating that a “social” site like this does not have a tweeter on hand to address issues affecting so many of people.” – J

“I am having the same problem for over 24 hrs. Twitter support sucks. A legit website would have somebody in charge to deal with personal issues.” – SP

“I thought I was alone on this, ’cause I couldn’t find a trend or something that told me that this was a general problem… like some of you guys I tried to delete cookies, switch browsers, pretty much everything I could do locally. I think I’m going back to good ol’ facebook.” – H

“Still having the same issue! Haven’t heard anything in the news or from Twitter about the issue.” – J

“I use facebook too and thats constantly crashing these days too so I’m getting used to things not working! But at least I can use FB where as this is useless to me if I can’t add people!” – I

Post your comments here.

Tags: follow/unfollow, Twitter, twitterfail
Posted in Twitter | 3 Comments »

Archive for September, 2009

The Gift of Trust

5 Essential Practices of the Best Data Backup Services

5 Keys to Improving Employee Morale (without spending a penny)

How Important is I.T. in Your Business?

Rant on Computer Hardware Manufacturers

Are Small Businesses Repeating I.T. History?

Brag on Your I.T. Service Provider

Turn Every Client into a Referral Source

The Power of 1000: Twitter Wake Up!

How do YOU feel about Twitter’s Response to the Follow/Unfollow/Block Problem?

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