Make Your Website Smarter & Build Customer Trust

Smart-WebsiteCan you imagine standing on a random street corner waiting for a stranger to walk by so you could stop him or her to propose marriage?  Sort of what happens with some websites…

The above is the intro from my most recent article for Upsize magazine.  Here’s a link to How to make your website smarter, to build customer trust.

standardSeptember 17Tom SalonekIT

6 New(er) Drivers of Growth

6-Drivers-for-GrowthThere was an interesting article on Inc.com titled “Up Next: The Greatest Era of Entrepreneurship and Small Business The World Has Ever Seen“.  It points out six trends that will drive growth and entrepreneurship:

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  1. Micro-entrepreneurs.  If you’ve sold on eBay, Craigslist, or Etsy, used Uber or Airbnb, or used a service like TaskRabbit, you’ve experienced micro-entrepreneurship.  Some estimates state there are as many as 15 million micro-entrepreneurs
  2. 3D printing:   3D printing redefines what it means to be a manufacturer.  The article shares the story of a teen who made a prosthetic arm for a few hundred dollars (vs. $50K)
  3. Crowdfunding.  To date sites like Kickstarter, have raised $3,000,000,000+. With crowd funding, capital is available to all.
  4. Free failure:  Between micro-entrepreneurship platforms, crowd funding, and free or inexpensive hosting and cloud-based platforms, the cost to try is almost zero.
  5. Boomers:  By 2030, there will be 70M people over 65 and a lot of them will keep working.
  6. Internet for all:  Today, 2B have access.  In 10 years, most of the world will have access.  That’s 5B more connected customers and companies.

 

standardMay 14Tom SalonekIT

Lessons on Learning

School-EnglandIn a recent article in The Economist, my favorite magazine (minus any that report on realty TV ;-)., has a great article entitled “A very British business: Some lessons from the success of Britain’s elite private schools.” The article notes three areas where business could learn a lesson from (essentially) K-12 schools in Britian:

  1. “The first is that ‘tradition’ and ‘innovation’ need not be mutually exclusive.”  In short, you can be in a business and still have enough vision to innovate/re-envision the business.
  2. “Performance measurement isn’t something performers are scared of. “I had a call today with a former long-term client.  His son is looking at attending a boot camp.  I shared to ask for scores and placement rates at program completion.
  3. “…insiders can make the best revolutionaries.” In the article, it shares that effective transformers can come from inside a business.  I agree.

 

 

standardApril 30Tom SalonekHappy Employees

Small Business State of the State

Small-BizThe state of small business, in my opinion, is pretty fascinating.  Here are some stats from a Business Insider infographic:

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  • The U.S. government defines small business as less than 500 employees and 50% of workers work for small businesses
  • 65% of new jobs since ’95 are in small businesses
  • Only 7 out of 10 new employers last two years, half last five years, a third make it 10 years, and only one out of four makes it 15 years
standardApril 28Tom SalonekSmall Business