How to Create Your Own Personal Business
Chapter 8
Technology
One of the biggest issues for new business owners is ‘technology’ and in particular one or more aspects of ‘IT’.
Issues around the equipment itself, web sites, social media, communications and so on.
This perceived lack of knowledge about how it all works or fits together frequently leads to unscrupulous IT providers charging extortionate amounts of money for some of the simplest things. If they perceive that you have no knowledge in this area and aren’t really interested in the technical details than they take advantage.
Never admit that you’re not sure what you’re doing in this area.
So here’s a guide to all you need to know about information and communications technology when starting a personal business.
First of all, you do need a computer. You cannot properly run a business on a tablet or a smartphone – well you ‘can’, but not effectively or efficiently.
You need a desktop or a laptop/notebook with a reasonably large screen. I’d say 15” as a minimum (if you have good eyesight!).
It should be running the latest version of the Microsoft or Apple operating system, as fast and powerful a processor and as much internal storage (RAM) as you can afford.
Oh, and you do need an up to date smartphone as well for a reason that will be explained later.
Internet
You need a good fibre-optic internet connection and a good high power WiFi router. The reason you need fibre broadband is not so much about the download speed that you use to access websites and download data, images and so on, it’s about the upload speed.
You’re going to need to upload files, send things to other people and use the ‘cloud’ to store your business critical files.
The thing is that the maximum upload speed for non-fibre broadband is 1 megabyte per second, regardless of how fast the download speed. This means it will take a very long time to upload whatever you need to send to the web.
So what’s this ‘cloud’ thing?
The ‘cloud’ is a term for a vast system of distributed computer storage space, and although it’s called ‘the cloud’ it’s often underground in disused mines and sometimes caves to protect it from radiation of various sorts and for security reasons.
When you upload to OneDrive, Dropbox, iCloud and so on your data files end up in one of these ‘server farms’ and can be retrieved whenever you want it.
Actually it’s in two different places – everything is ‘backed up’ (copied in case of loss) so you don’t have to do this yourself; but it is a good idea to get a large external hard drive as well so you can also copy everything to another ‘box’ on your desk – just in case the internet goes down!
IT Skills
Everyone has different levels of IT skills. Don’t assume that younger people know more – some do, some don’t, and remember that IT started with the ‘silent generation’ during the 1940s. Many ‘silver surfers’ grew up with modern computer technology and often had a hand in its development. So don’t make assumptions that if your PC goes wrong you need to find a 12 year old!
The point is that unless you are an IT professional yourself you will need IT support for the ‘techy’ stuff from time to time. Go networking and find someone before you need them!
You’ll need some very basic IT skills: how to use email, spreadsheets and document software, how to access the web, and how to keep your virtual house in order.
In your home everything is in its place (more or less) and you know where to find stuff, it needs to be the same on your computer. You don’t leave all your possessions out on the kitchen table and it’s the same with your computer ‘desktop’ – you need to create a meaningful filing system for all the information you have and ‘put it away’ when you’re not using it.
Your business may require you to use certain specific software – make sure you know how it works and how to use it so you don’t have to rely on someone else for business critical stuff.
Websites
The thing that many people waste an awful lot of money on is websites. I regularly encounter people who’ve spent thousands of pounds ‘getting their website done’ and waiting for months for something that looks as if it’s taken about 3 hours to put together and should have cost no more than a few hundred pounds, if that.
Then there are the ‘free’ websites and tools which have limited, if any, flexibility for you to present yourself and your business the way you want but what’s more they are sometimes not at all ‘search engine friendly’ which means that it’s unlikely that your website will ever be found.
The first thing to decide about your website is its purpose. What is it for?
Some websites are just brochures – they talk about you and your business but don’t offer much benefit to potential purchasers
Your website should do three things: attract people to you, explain what’s in it for them, and make it easy for them to engage with, or purchase from you there and then.
Your website is not about you – it’s about ‘them’, and how you can benefit ‘them’.
When a website is put together there are three skills involved – marketing, design, and engineering.
Marketing is about making it attractive while demonstrating the benefits of engagement with your business. It includes the copy, the graphics, the colours and any video or other content together with how your offerings appear if you have a product page that people can buy from or provide an online service.
Design is about making the site work within itself so that it loads quickly and works efficiently. How all the pages are connected together (or not) and things like managing security and password protection if that’s relevant to your business.
Although some people might include it in the design function, engineering is about making the site visible, about getting the site found, optimizing the code within the site so that search engines find it in preference to other sites. It includes things like keywords, links and metadata and is usually called SEO or Search Engine Optimisation.
Unlike the marketing and design which may need updating from time to time, engineering and SEO is a continuous process and has to be carried out preferably by a specialist provider on a regular and frequent basis.
Some ‘web design’ companies will say that they can do all of this but its best to get a web marketing specialist for the first bit, to specify what should be on the site, a web designer to create it, and a specialist in SEO to make sure it gets found by the right people on a consistent basis.
The first two are likely to be a one-off cost with maybe a monthly fee for the designer to keep it up to date. SEO companies usually charge a monthly fee relating to the number of hours they will need to keep your site at the ‘top’ of the rankings – and that depends on the competitiveness of the market you are in.
Hosting & Domains
One other thing. your website and anything on it has to be ‘hosted’ somewhere. I talked about domain names in Chapter 3 but didn’t explain how to get one.
There are several companies who provide domain name registry and then usually provide the hosting facility for any website attached to that domain as well.
Hosting may be offered by your web design or SEO provider, but in most cases, hosting is not done ‘locally’ in this way.
You may want to consider where (in the world) your website is hosted – where it ‘lives’ – and you might not want that to be in a country where the State has unlimited access to all the data stored there. I would, because of this, recommend that you find a company based in the UK or EU to host your website.
The PBCS takes you through the whole process of registering your domain and setting up your email and website step by step.
Video
Video is something that you must include in the presentation of your business online. It is not an ‘option’. You cannot compete with a similar business that has a video presentation on their website or uses video on social media.
There are ‘rules’ about the length and composition of video but these change frequently, and you need to get up to date advice on these at the very least every six months.
Your video should show you, what you do, how your business delivers its offering, and what the benefits are. Video testimonials from clients are good for this.
And look, don’t be coy about not liking how you look on screen – it’s how others see you in real life – not how you see yourself in the mirror – that’s why we always look ‘odd’ when we see ourselves on video.
Video is often hosted separately from your website rather than being embedded in it which means you can share the video on its own or as part of something else. After all, you’ve gone to the effort of making it – you wouldn’t want to use it only once!
There are various platforms for hosting video such as Wistia, Kajabi and Amazon Web Services (AWS) – and there’s also YouTube – the ‘upside’ of which is that its easy, is owned by Google and may give better search results, but the downside is that alongside your video on YouTube you’ll find a bunch of ‘similar’ videos – often from your competitors. Not really what you want is it?
You will be tempted to make videos with your smartphone. Yes, this can be done but its much better if a professional videographer does it using professional video making equipment, especially lighting.
Social Media
Finally, in this Chapter – what about Social Media?
There are many schools of thought on this; it works, it doesn’t work, its expensive, its free – and so on.
The truth is that social media is effective in presenting and marketing your business; but what you must not do is attempt to ‘sell’ on social media – you’ll get banned.
The purpose of engaging with people on social media is to send them somewhere else – to your website or to an ‘opt in’ page, more of which in the next Chapter.
Trouble is, that’s just what the Social Media companies don’t want you to do and try to prevent – or charge you for it.
So which social media?
Generally speaking, LinkedIn is better for business to business engagement and Facebook for business to consumer engagement. But let’s think about that. I’ve never encountered a ‘business’ that can communicate by itself with another ‘business’. It’s people in the businesses who communicate so really, all transactions are ‘people to people’ or P2P.
When you contact someone on LinkedIn they usually have their ‘business hat’ on so if you’re providing personal services then Facebook may be better. It is though, worth contacting people on LinkedIn if they have a personal email in their contact details.
Other social media such as Twitter or Instagram don’t seem to be very effective at all other than for brand promotion rather than engagement.
LinkedIn works best with your personal profile. Its more about you than your business but will lead to a business engagement if you do it correctly.
For Facebook you would need to set up a Brand or Product page. Don’t even try to promote your business from your personal Facebook profile and if you want to promote you as a ‘brand’ then you can set up separate page on Facebook.
More about how this works in the next Chapter