RSSDecember 23rd, 2008
Studio430
Around here we just LOVE company names with numbers in them. Chalk that up to all the good domains being taken. Studio430 is the home of Jared McDaniel, one of my very closest friends, and the guy behind about 98% of the design work we do. Jared makes all of us look good.
Several months ago, we started working on a new site for his company, which also does unbelievable identity/branding, packaging and print work. Studio430.com is the result.
It’s always fun to do a site every once in a while that can be a little more edgy and unique, so we decided to go horizontal. It was really fun, but doing horizontal layouts is not for the faint of heart. Be warned!
From the screenshot, you may notice a new and improved Project83 logo. I’m really excited about how our company is growing, and look forward to finishing some on-site remodeling in the near future as well.
So check out Jared’s site and be sure to consider Studio430 for your next big print or branding project!
Posted in Project83, Showcase - No Comments
December 17th, 2008
Getting Rid of the Noise
We live in a world that is more intrusive and distracting than ever. It takes more coordination and concentrated effort to complete a list of tasks in a productive fashion than ever. Getting a project done without at least one interruption of some sort is seldom at best.
I’m even being interrupted as I write this article … excuse me while I take this call.
Okay, I’m back, sorry about that!
In order to be happy with your personal productivity, you have to control distractions. The first step is to minimize noise. Incoming emails, instant messages, twitter updates and text messages ALL make noise by default, and it is literally killing your productivity.
None of these communication methods are ways to inform someone of anything urgent, so why do we feel the need to stop what we’re doing and go check something every time we are summoned by the noise? Here’s a thought … turn them off!
That is my challenge to you: turn noises for email, instant messaging, twitter and text messages OFF for a week. Check them on your own time, not when it causes you to be less productive. I am willing to bet you will like the change of pace, and get more done in the process.
The only noise I am willing to stick with is the phone. Everything else can wait until you are finished with what you are doing. If it’s urgent, believe me, they will call.
Posted in Business - 1 Comment
December 12th, 2008
SHOWCASE- Merchant Plus and Ergonomics Made Easy
Although we have been hard at work on various projects over the last several months, the Showcase area of our website has been neglected. Today it gets a minor update with 2 projects that have launched recently.
Ergonomics Made Easy
This was a really fun and challenging project for us, as it is probably the most advanced eCommerce integration we have done thus far from beginning to end. The company (obviously) sells products for people in some sort of pain at work. They sell everything from keyboards to foot rests to office furniture. Here is a quick before/after comparison:
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Merchant Plus
I had the privilege of sharing an office with the swell people that run this company over the summer in New York. Merchant Plus is OUR merchant provider, and services thousands of other companies with the BEST in customer service. It was a real pleasure work with them on the new site.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Posted in Showcase - 1 Comment
November 25th, 2008
4 Ways to Rock Out Thanksgiving
I can’t help but be excited about this time of year. It’s a lot of fun. However, if you end up wasting (all) your time being lazy and getting fat over the break, you will indeed regret it. So I present 4 ways to make the very most of your thanksgiving, while still enjoying plenty of downtime.
1. Get Organized
Find one big room or project that you can clean out and organize from top to bottom. Throw stuff away, donate to Goodwill and bask in the unique feeling of accomplishment that comes only from a clean slate. For me, the project will be my office. I can’t wait!
2. Read a Non-fiction Book
Find something you are interested in and get better at it. This does not have to be related to your work, but the book does have to be non-fiction. Learn how to build something, or learn about new technology, or better yet how to become a better person. It does not matter, just learn something of value and look to apply that knowledge in the near future.
Over the holidays, How to Win Friends and Influence People is always a great book to read again or for the first time. I will be reading Mobile Web Design by Cameron Moll and listening to Tribes by Seth Godin.
3. Reflect, then Take Action
Make it a point to spend time alone, without any distractions, reflecting on the past several months. Both personally and professionally, how could you have done better? What can you be thankful for? And most importantly, what decisions can you make or goals can you set that will have a positive impact on your next several months?
Aside from personal reflection, I love to spend time thinking about work with a “big picture” mindset. I focus on how we can do better creative work, how I want to spend my time and how I can interact with our team and clients better. For me this is a great way to visualize the next several months and how they will play out, then get fired up about it.
And by the way, if you are NOT fired up when you visualize the next several months in your life, make sure you write down the steps necessary to change it.
4. Have a good attitude
Hanging with extended family for long periods of time is not always the easiest or most comfortable thing to do. However, being a team player and having a great attitude is a difference maker. Try to be active in conversation and help out with food, decorations or shopping even though lying lifeless on the couch is much more appealing.
For many of you this may be easy, but being an introvert myself, they are things I can struggle with. The first 3 things are easier for me, but the fourth thing is the most important.
Do these 4 things and you are guaranteed to feel better about this week when you get back to the daily routine on Monday. Have a fantastic Thanksgiving!
Posted in Business, Fun - No Comments
October 31st, 2008
Product Review: Ooma
By nature I am not an early technology adopter. I purchased my first iPhone just last week, and only started twittering about 5 months ago. However, due to utter frustration with traditional phone companies, I tried Ooma very early.
Ooma is a Palo Alto startup with hopes of changing home phone service for the better. Buy the hardware (an Ooma Hub and Ooma Scout @ $229.99
They have two things going for them that are game changers in my opinion: the business model and the product. Ooma does both incredibly well.
The business model is obvious. Who can argue with free phone service after paying a one-time price? They also have a service called Ooma Premier that I will use, at $99/year. It simply adds some additional features and capabilities that are well worth it, and by the way have never been available with traditional phone service providers. For a full list of the great features out of the box and with Premier visit http://www.ooma.com/learn/ooma_features.php.
The physical product is very well done, and no other mainstream VOIP companies have figured this part out. The design and packaging is Apple-esque and ease of use is refreshingly simple. You can access multiple lines, voicemail and phone settings, all from 8 little buttons on each unit. The scout and hub work with any normal phone, too. From the web interface, you can access voicemail, add new numbers and more.
As for the actual service, this is no Vonage (which is a good thing). I had Vonage for a while, and it was really awful. I could never talk on the phone while uploading files, or even watch a streaming video, without the call breaking up or disconnecting all together.
Ooma has somehow figured out the dropped call thing. It’s amazing, I have purposely tried to max it out by uploading big files and streaming a few videos at the same time, and the call is NEVER effected. The cute little blue light turns to red if service is interrupted, but that’s never influenced by how much bandwidth you are using on your computer.
Right now my current setup is still with one traditional line for the business, and I have 2 Ooma lines (one business, one personal). I can access all 3 from one phone. Using the system is worry-free, and so is setup.
The really cool part is the Ooma Scout. One or multiple Scouts can be in any other room of the house/office, separate from the Hub. It does NOT require a direct internet connection. Simply connect the Scout to the phone, and to the phone jack (no router or modem required) and it works. Don’t ask me how, but it does.
So what’s the downside? The service has not quite caught fire yet, a little more than a year after launch. They are slowly making their way into retail stores and homes around the country. However, the startup is well funded (one investor being Ashton Kutcher, actually) and should come out on the other side.
I give Ooma an overwhelming recommendation for those out there looking to save money on phone service while enjoying an expanded feature set. My savings after Ooma expenses will be $570 in the first year, and $900/year after that.
Posted in Reviews, Web Development - No Comments
September 30th, 2008
Coming Soon
“Coming Soon” is a perpetually bad habit I see on the web. There is no doubt you have seen the following many times over …
- “New website coming soon”
- “This website is under construction”
- “The store section of our site is coming soon”
Why do we feel the need to tell users that something bigger and better is on the way? In any case, “Coming Soon” sends a bad message about you …
1. It sets expectations. 9 times out of 10 when people say “coming soon”, they don’t have a definite time that they expect whatever it is to be ready. So why set expectations with users when most times it leads to a total letdown? It just makes you look bad.
2. It’s a waste of time. Those two words provide no substance or benefit to users, so why say it?
If you don’t have time to build a site or add a new feature, that’s no problem. Throw up your logo and a couple paragraphs about your company on a page and leave it at that until you have something else of value to provide.
A classic example of using “coming soon” as part of your public strategy on a large scale is with Microsoft and Apple.
Microsoft, for example, LOVES coming soon. They love talking about the future, and all the great products they are working on that will change our lives … soon. Forget the here and now, it’s all about what’s coming. And more often times than not, once the product hits the shelves it does not live up to the hype.
How about the Microsoft Surface computer? They have set incredibly high expectations by touting videos and demos all over the place for months, but the product really makes no difference to me until there is a DATE when it will be available for public consumption.
Apple, on the other hand, has mastered the art of hype and keeping secrets until they are worth sharing. They worked on the iPhone secretly for years, and never said a peep about it until they had a release date. Looking back, I believe their strategy resulted in an unprecedented demand for the phone.
I believe my mother said it best when I was a kid, “some things are just better keeping to yourself”. That is, until they are worth sharing.
Posted in Web Development - 1 Comment
September 23rd, 2008
Winning in a Slow Economy
Slow economic times are good for business.
Feel free to re-read that sentence and let it sink in, then I will explain why.
A (temporarily) struggling economy is capitalism’s way of “balancing the scales” so to speak; ridding this country of greedy executives, companies that have made far too many poor decisions, and those that forgot profits are not necessarily what brings about long-term success.
The beauty of capitalism is that customers are the boss. They choose who wins. Companies that trade in their loyalty to customers for stockholder value end up paying the price eventually. For many companies, this is their time, and rightfully so.
I don’t care what business you are in — failure is a choice companies make when they stop putting customers’ best interests first. And I can prove it. Take 2 industries that are struggling a great deal in 2008, the mortgage industry and the airline industry. Housing and energy are sure to be of grave concern in the upcoming election.
The housing industry slump is quite simply the result of subprime lending (see in Wikipedia). Big banks began selling mortgages to people that quite frankly could not afford them. They knowingly approved loans for people that would not be able to pay, and attached a much higher interest rate to the mortgage because of the risk involved. Banks screwed their customers, but most importantly found a way to increase profits. It was a winning plan until people could no longer afford to pay their mortgages.
Companies like Countrywide were so highly leveraged in subprime mortgages that they simply ran out of money. Screwing their customers practically crushed their business, or at least forced them to be bailed out by another big bank.
Subprime lending is a choice, and not all mortgage companies thought it was the right thing to do. Take Hudson City Bancorp, for example. This 140-year-old New Jersey company chose not to write subprime mortgages and their shares have gone up 50% in the last year. Or how about ING Direct? They made the same call, only lent money to those that could afford to re-pay it, and in approving over 100,000 mortgages have only had 15 foreclosures to date. (more in this article)
These two companies made decisions that were best for their customers, and have thrived during a tough time in their industry.
We are all aware that the country’s biggest airlines have lost their focus over the last several years. Company executives have been so busy bloating their capacity (more carriers, more planes, more routes) that they forgot about customers. When fuel prices rose, the big 6 airlines lost roughly $6 billion in the 2nd quarter of 2008.
Is fuel really the problem? Or has it simply magnified everything else that is broken about these companies? Again this is why slow economic times are good for business. It is time to weed out companies that have forgotten about their customers in exchange for companies with better values.
Despite rising fuel costs, leaving customers in the cold was a choice made by most airlines. Southwest Airlines did not make that choice, and consequently earned their 69th consecutive profitable quarter this year (to the tune of $121 million). While other airlines got fat, Southwest started hedging fuel in preparation for a storm. They are committed to customers with policies like free baggage checks, and are now rewarded by carrying more passengers than any US airline.
By no means are economic times like this enjoyable. However, they are necessary to keep our capitalistic society in check. Love your customers and you too can win BIG in a slow economy.
Posted in Business - 1 Comment
September 9th, 2008
Follow-up: The Leap to New York City
In late June I moved to New York with my wife and two dogs for the summer. In a previous article I laid out reasons for taking this leap of faith, and what I was hoping to accomplish. Now that we are safely back in Nashville, I wanted to write a follow-up and talk about how the experience went.
Overall I could not have asked for a better experience. I learned a lot, met some really great people and found ways to continue building our small companies. After all, New York is full of people that are the best in the world at what they do, so it was incredible to be in the middle of it. The energy everywhere you look was enough to get me up and to the office right next to Wall Street each morning.
Here is how I stacked up on my 4 objectives:
1. Take Advantage of Proximity (B-)
Meeting new people and trying to earn new business cold turkey gets me out of my comfort zone very quickly. So I will admit, I did not make the most of potential work available in the city. However, I did make the most of existing relationships, and find ways to build our business as a result.
Along with getting a couple of new projects/clients we will be revealing in the near future, I got to start new projects with existing partners like Whiteboard Media in Philadelphia, Voxel Dot Net (our hosting partner), Merchant Plus (our merchant partner), Ubersmith and Twistage. These are all great companies that make sense for us to partner with. Just being there was enough to generate new and exciting projects for the next six months.
2. Enjoy the Commute (A)
It was a transition to travel to work every day, as opposed to working from home. Overall I REALLY enjoyed it, so much that I came back inspired to seek out an office space for our team. As long as you minimize distractions and find ways to get in a productive “zone” (I recommend headphones), being in an office with others is a huge plus. I got more done, and was able to relax much easier at home.
The problem in returning from the New York office commute is that the newly-acquired habits did not stick. I’m back to working more, working later and struggling to make the most of my time for an entire day. Once we find the right office space maybe I can look forward to enjoying the commute again.
3. Blog More (A+)
I am proud to say that I DID make blogging a higher priority while in New York, and I think it will continue that way. This is my 9th post since the initial article about this trip, which is a really great pace for me. At least one article every 10 days is my goal, and I love doing it.
The thing with blogging is MAKING time for it, because you will never HAVE time. I really love it, and come up with a new idea for a post it seems almost every day. This was a great goal that I am pleased to have accomplished.
4. Launch a new Application (A+)
This is a really funny goal to look back on. I actually moved to New York with plans that we would launch an application we have been using and working on slowly for about a year. However, that never happened. Over brunch a couple weeks after moving, a lightbulb went off and I pitched the guys on Feed My Inbox.
Less than a month and only about 3 days of development later we launched, and are now tracking over 3,000 feeds for people through email. The future is very bright as we continue working on new features for Feed My Inbox.
So YES, we launched a new application. It was just not the application I was talking about in the original article. It’s a good thing we don’t plan more than a week in advance for hardly anything, or else Feed My Inbox would not have happened.
In Closing
If you find yourself contemplating a LEAP of faith today, whether it be leaving the 9-5, taking your business in a new direction or simply moving somewhere to see what happens, ask yourself one question: “other than fear, what is keeping me from taking a leap today?” Chances are, the answer is nothing, and the rewards on the other end of a successful leap are great. Make it happen!
Posted in Business, Project83 - 2 Comments
September 2nd, 2008
What We’ve Learned in 3 Years at Project83
On Monday, we celebrated Project83’s 3rd Birthday! As with most any birthday, we had the opportunity to reflect on how the company has grown, talk about the cool stuff we have achieved and dream a bit for the future. Although the photo below may be slightly confusing, these are green, blue and grey (sort of) cupcakes my lovely wife made to celebrate.
I’ve been lucky to partner with fantastic guys from the beginning that make our work something to be very proud of. A huge thanks goes out to Denny and Jared, also my partners in our little software startup. I also owe a great deal of thanks to the newest member of our team, Jack Behar. I am continually challenged by these guys every day, and they make what we do a lot of fun.
In order to create value with this post, I wanted to talk about a few things learned over the last 3 years. So here goes …
1. Get Serious About Customer Service
People in our business are not always very good at customer service. Usually it’s a mixture of pride, procrastination and bad communication skills that give geeks in our business a bad name. I continually struggle with the first of these things, but luckily I have been taught the importance of customer service.
I don’t really care how smart you are or how good your work is. Success is still measured by your ability to help people and deliver on what you promised. We’ve never spent a dime to market this business, and have always had plenty of work solely because I take it upon myself to make sure the customer is happy.
We have clients that would probably be happy to point out that I am not perfect, but I believe they could all agree that I give everything I have to helping them succeed on the web.
2. Learn from Mistakes
I have never worked for a web company other than my own. Some might consider it a rather daunting task to start something with no real understanding of how the industry works. I saw it as an extraordinary opportunity to make a lot of mistakes, and learn quickly from them.
Everything I know about managing projects, doing proposals, writing contracts, designing comps and building websites is the result of trying different things and making mistakes. In order to properly learn from a mistake and take action, keep in mind you have to recognize it as a mistake and not make excuses or blame the client.
We have learned something new in every project, and after 3 years of making mistakes, I think we are really starting to do fantastic work. What we have learned by doing in 3 years could never happen by reading textbooks or working at some big agency with silly rules. Just get out there, and savour every single opportunity to learn from a mistake.
3. Promote Yourself!
I see companies all the time that are so mixed up in client work and other priorities that they have no time to spend on their own brand and long-term vision for the company. Why is it that marketing companies always have the worst websites? Why don’t they practice what they preach in marketing their own business? I for one would never hire a web company that did not have a website I really liked.
Fact is, your website, your logo, your copy and your other stuff is the best opportunity to gain new business and make a great first impression. Don’t get so mixed up in the here and now with client work that you forget to always be making your own stuff better.
We are actually working on a re-design of this site right now. It’s hard because it takes a ton of time and does not bring in immediate income, but seeing the big picture means knowing how important the new site will be in attracting our ideal clients down the road. It is a great long-term investment and gives us the opportunity to work on a project where WE are the boss.
Here’s to many more years of helping people, making mistakes and trying to improve all that we do to promote our services.
Posted in Business, Project83 - No Comments
August 19th, 2008
LAUNCH: FeedMyInbox.com
“What’s a feed?”
I hear this question at least a few times per week. In short, feeds are the future. A feed is a document that keeps track of updated content on a website. Blogs and news sites are the most common places to find feeds since the content is updated pretty often.
When you subscribe to a feed, you can be notified when the content is updated without having to visit the website. Geeks use feed readers, like the one google has. I personally follow about 60 different feeds from my reader. It is much more convenient to have all the new content from those sites on-demand rather than visiting the sites individually.
Since experts say that only 3% of people use feed readers, we need a way to bridge the gap and help people figure it out. Feed My Inbox is our solution. When a feed you have subscribed to is updated, we will send you an email with the new post(s).
About Feed My Inbox
The concept is designed to be as easy as possible for the 97% out there that is figuring out the feed scene. All you have to do is enter a website, and enter your email on the home page. The application will go to the website, find any available feeds there and subscribe you. Simply click the link we email you to confirm the subscription, and it’s all set.
It literally takes 30 seconds or less to add a feed. No new software or learning is required.
Each time the feed is updated, you will be notified through email. However, if a feed is updated more than once in a 24-hour period, you receive one email with all the updates. This is designed to keep your inbox tidy, as no one wants more email than they already get.
How Long Did it Take?
I talked about this a lot on my twitter feed, but we tried to create this entire application in 1 day. All in all it took a little over 2 full days, but all the design and front-end stuff was done within the first day. We just wanted to make sure the technical side and emails were done right, so that part took a little longer.
Building something this way is great for a number of reasons:
- We built ONLY features that were absolutely necessary to launch, then added the rest to a list for “someday maybe”.
- All working together, 100% focused on the goal for an entire day, was a great source of momentum. We all pushed each other, and as a result, things happened quicker.
- After only a couple full days of work, we have an extraordinary sense of accomplishment! You can’t beat that with a stick.
I Thought You Built Websites, not Software
We DO build websites, and thoroughly enjoy it! However, we like to work with our own ideas too. It keeps us sharp, motivated and always learning new things. So to make these ideas a reality, I partnered with the same two guys to create a software company called Brightwurks. I will make Brightwurks announcements on this blog from time-to-time.
Feed My Inbox is the first of many web-based software applications Brightwurks is building. We have 3 more in the works. We would love to hear what you think of this one.
Posted in Brightwurks, Software, Web Development - 3 Comments