Recently I received a “supposedly handwritten sales letter” from a local online business directory. At first I thought, this guy has very neat handwriting, but then I looked closer and realised by comparing the same word on two diferent pages over a lamp, that it was just a downloaded font. I suppose the fact that he didn’t even bother to personalise the letter should have been a hint.

Handwritted Letter - NOT

To see the actual letter click on the image. Here is the first paragraph;

I just got this very impulsive idea… I had to jump on it and print this handwritten note before i had a chance to get it typed and think it all out clearly, So …Before I change my mind – I want to make you this “UNBELIEVABLE OFFER”

For me, if they are not being honest about handwriting a letter, then what else are they not being honest about? As to their service, check out this post about Local Online Business Directories.

Basically it boils down to;

• If you want a top quality job done fast, then it won’t be cheap.
• If you want a top quality job done cheaply, then you are going to have to put in a lot of time.
• If you get a job done quickly and pay very little, then the quality will be suspect.

He also told me that it was important to keep this in mind when dealing with both Customers AND Suppliers.

Anyway, two weeks ago I got a brand new HTC Desire with Android 2.1 and a data plan from Meteor. Having used several smartphones pevoiusly I was slightly sceptical about the real benefits, but my mind has been changed. The HTC Desire with it’s 3.7 inch screen and 1Ghz processor has been well able to handle any of the business talks I have thrown at it.

The first thing I checked out was the wifi and browser. My experience with previous phones and browsers had not been great, so I was very pleasantly surprised that the phone found the office wifiand connected without problem. The browsing experience with the large hi-res screen and pinch-to-zoom make this phone very usable for surfing the net.  I have been able to login, to non-mobile sites and manage systems remotely (saved me several car journeys and carrying my laptop around with me).

The second thing I checked out was the News Feed eaders and Social Media. I use Google Reader to keep track of News Feeds, so I downloaded a free widget from android Market and within a few mins had access to all the feeds I follow from the phone. In another few mins I had downloaded Hootsuite to keep track of Twitter and Facebook for android. Now when I sitting in the car waiting to collect the kids I can use the time productively (or not) keeping up to date with what’s going on in the business and computer sectors.

The third thing I setup using the preinstalled app was get assess to my email, which was very straight forward. I also synced up with my Google Calendars.

I then installed WordPress (this post was created from the phone). I can now blog from anywhere.

Oh, yes the phone handels phone calls and text messages very well (something that not all smartphones do well).

For me the phone has paid for iteslf already and I would regard it as an essential tool for the Small Business Owner. And yes I know that all these things could be done on the iPhone also.

These events are well attended and are a great way to meet business people from North Wexford.

Seems to focus very much on the practical thinks you need to know about running a business in the hospitality sector. Very good as a reference tool.

What is Cloud Computing? Here is how Wikipedia defines Cloud Computing, but it’s much easier to explain with a practical example.

Courtown Sailing Club is a small club that is run on a completely voluntary basis.  The club has a very active cruiser racing program and also runs children’s sailing courses for eight weeks during July and August, so it’s computer and administration requirements are not untypical  of most small sports clubs. The biggest problems are that the volunteer committee changes from year to year, so it’s difficult to have consistency with essential club documents relating to policy and procedures, and it’s also difficult to transfer those documents to new committee members.

The second problem relates to the necessity for committee members to share information, particularly relating to the co-ordination and bookings for the summer sailing courses.

The first thing the club did was to set up a Google Documents account and upload the club’s essential documents relating to policies and procedures, the club’s constitution, membership forms, booking forms etc. This means that any new committee member who has access to the Internet and the appropriate access rights, can get access to these documents. It also means that finally the club’s documents have been retrieved form the various members PCs and are now stored centrally.

The second major benefit relates to the co-ordination that is required between the Secretary, Treasurer and Dinghy Course Organiser, to run the summer sailing courses. Because the spreadsheets and databases relating to applications, payments and the allocation of course places are instantly and centrally available to everyone at any time, it has dramatically reduced the confusion and more importantly the phone calls. These people no longer spend their evenings ringing around or more like the driving around trying to sort out Club issues.

The  reason Cloud Computing and Google Docs has been so successful for Courtown Sailing Club is that they, very wisely, kept it as simple as possible. So if you are a small business who needs to deal with flexible work practices and needs to effectively share information then maybe cloud computing is for you.

]]> http://blog.glasgorman.com/2010/04/clouds-cloud-computing-on-the-horizon-welcomed-by-courtown-sailing-club/feed/ 0 http://blog.glasgorman.com/2010/03/goreylinks-launches-updated-business-directory-for-gorey/ http://blog.glasgorman.com/2010/03/goreylinks-launches-updated-business-directory-for-gorey/#comments Wed, 24 Mar 2010 11:23:06 +0000 admin http://blog.glasgorman.com/?p=333 [...]]]> GoreyLinks have launched an updated version of their Local Online Business Directory for Gorey, Co. Wexford, Ireland. The new site looks great and has a very effective and easy to use Search Facility. A quick check on Google will show that a search for anything related to Gorey will have GoreyLinks as the first or second entry.

Also check out Do Local Online Business Directories Deliver Value for Money

As I was in the area I called out at lunchtime. When I arrived I was told that a guy had been installing a broadband connection the previous day and had done something to stop the main printer working. I quickly established that the new broadband connection wasn’t linked to the network and assured her that this had nothing to do with the problem. I then discovered that the printer had lost it’s network address and working with the printer supplier, reallocated the printer address and the printer started to churn out the queued print jobs.

I thought, great, it’s all working and was about to head out the door when the secretary stopped me and asked what was the cause of the problem. I quickly checked with the printer supplier and explained that we didn’t know, but it was all working now. The secretary then quietly but forcefully insisted the problem was caused by the broadband installer  as the last time somebody worked on the broadband the printer also stopped working and that we needed to find out or it would happen again.

Reluctantly I investigated further and low and behold discovered that the broadband installer had indeed disconnected one of the servers and not only was this the cause of the printer problem, but was also causing the backup to fail among other things.

Tail between my legs I headed back into the office to explain to the secretary that she was quite right and it was the installer that had caused the problem and it would have caused a lot more problems if we had not found the Root Cause of the problem.

While this was a relatively minor incident in a small school, if the same approach was taken in a larger organisation, there could have been much more serious consequences. No matter how small the problem is, it’s critical that you find out what caused the problem and put systems in place to insure it doesn’t happen again. Not just because it’s Good Practice but because it will save your business a lot of time effort and most of all money.

A wise man once told me that We have two ears and one mouth and they were designed to be used in those proportions. If I had listened to the secretary in the first place I could have saved everyone a lot of time and effort.

This very much backs up what I’ve been hearing from several SME’s, that they are generating more business from Facebook than any other form of advertising. So get your business on Facebook now and start building your contacts.

Well the 10 billionth entry (commonly referred to as a Tweet) recently went up on Twitter. Below is a graph showing the dramatic rise in the use of Twitter. Note how high Ireland is on the list of regions.

So now we know that Twitter is popular, who uses Twitter? Well you would be suprised to know that most Twitter users are over 30. That’s the age profile of most of the business owners in Ireland.

While Facebook and Bebo are favoured by the younger age group, the business community has adopted Twitter.

So now that you know that you should be using Twitter, where do you start. Here is a simple guide from Adrian Wreckler on how to start using Twitter.

Twitter for Beginners

Now that you are up and running with Twitter, check out some Businesses in Gorey and North Wexford who are on Twitter.