• Passengers’ Quick Action Halted Attack
• Additional Layer of Restrictions Is Imposed on Airline Passengers

1. Invite women. “It seems like women are waiting for an engraved invitation,” a developer once said to me. People who have been disinvited in the past may be hesitant to invite themselves and be accused of crashing the party and thrown out. I don’t believe this is most people’s experience today, but any knowledge of history plus just a few current bad experiences spreading through social networks will make any numeric minority hesitant to risk a foray into what might look like unwelcoming territory. Invite. An open door will make all the difference.

2. Meet professional parents’ needs. Recipe for workplace success for employees and companies alike:

• Good child care parents can afford.
• Good child care parents can afford.
• Don’t punish people for having babies and being good parents by deep-sixing their careers and expelling their collective talent from the workplace.
• Also, good child care parents can afford.

Today, men also want a life and time with their families. Maintaining the business patterns and practices of a hundred, two hundred years ago does not serve today’s employees at any level, male or female, and research (such as this) have shown it hurts companies’ bottom line measurably to treat employees as though they have no other life than work, no other personal connections but their coworkers.

3. When interviewing women, add to the qualifications they actually state. Watch this illuminating video from RailsConf ’09. Women are very very cautious about declaring their qualifications lest someone call them out. We have a lot of Impostor Syndrome. So we tend to understate our true qualifications, where a man might do a week’s reading on a new subject and then put it on his resume and start applying for manager positions in his new area. (I say that mostly tongue in cheek.)

What this means for you, if you want to hire a woman developer: If you find one whose resume and interview show that she has the basic qualifications for the job, then she’s probably very well qualified indeed for the position. One problem in this area is that hiring managers may have developed a habit of taking a candidate’s presentation of his qualifications with a grain of salt. If hiring managers do this with women job candidates, they’ll end up with a poor and inaccurate perception of women developers. Many women are so careful not to overstate their real qualifications that they may understate them. Don’t miss out on the great employee you are looking to hire.

4. If her new work area is filled with unreconstructed, backwardly mobile individuals, tell her before she takes the job. If you paint a glowing picture of the company and its achievements and its talented staff, and she takes the job and finds herself fending off gropers, averting her eyes daily from the comics and posters in the coffee room, or trying to find words to respond to icky emails — well, it’s not good to find oneself not in possession of needed knowledge. Level with her up front, and don’t assume it will stop her from taking the job. Corollary: The development community is filled with talented individuals of all kinds, so it’s no longer necessary to hire people who can’t play well with others because you can’t find both “talent” and “team player” in the same individual. Use this book for such business ailments, wherever it’s needed.

5. Start early. There are programs out there for children of various ages, usually school-related, introducing them to basic programming and removing the intimidation factor for young beginners. Girls-only programs are a plus for school-aged girls. If you don’t know of one, or there isn’t one for your child, consider taking it on as a special project at your child’s school for a quarter, a semester, a year. Kids love this! And why not? It’s fun! And it has a super cool factor with kids.

In going back to school for a development degree, I’ve met enthusiastic,  supportive developers of both sexes. Several have spent considerable chunks of their limited time tutoring me in new languages. I had a mental picture of the development world as a bunch of twenty-something guys playing first-person shooter games, trash-talking women, and not showering. This is the unfortunate and inaccurate stereotype. True, some people still cling to the comfortable fit of stereotype, but the reality is that men in development are so often great people all around and don’t fit the stereotype. We all have more fun with a mix of people in development, and that’s what it’s about for so many of us — it’s fun. We love doing it. It’s an exciting time for anyone to get into development.

This week’s Skillbuilders session was the first on Dimdim. No more do we have no audio, no file sharing, just chat presentations. Suddenly the world opened up. We can share audio, video, presentation files, whiteboard, etc. Cost is reasonable.

This session featured CEO and entrepreneur Lori Osterberg of Vision Business Concepts Inc. presenting “Online Strategies for Small Businesses.” She was terrific. She also writes a highly recommended blog called How to Blog About Your Business.

Skillbuilders Has a Logo

Yes, we now have a logo. Skillbuilders is not a business, but this helps us have a visual identity on our Facebook page and other online arenas. Have a look:

Skillbuilders Logo

Let me know what you think. It won’t change the logo, this is low-key graphics yet, but I like to read your messages. Next time I get a logo for Skillbuilders I’ll definitely take your advice.

Did I Mention Skillbuilders Joined Facebook?

Look us up under Skillbuilders Series. It’s a regular personal page, not a business page. Or try this direct link, if you’re on Facebook yourself. You can also find Skillbuilders information on LinkedIn in the WECAI (Women’s E-Commerce Association, International) group page discussions. Feel free to join the WECAI group on LinkedIn, and be sure to check out the main WECAI website — you may want to become a member of the actual organization.

Next Skillbuilders Session

Our next session will be moderated on April 7 by Natalie Sulimani of Sulimani Law Firm in New York. She’s an attorney specializing in e-commerce for small businesses and trademark/copyright law (especially on the Internet). Join us on Dimdim for another informative session by a top professional.

]]> http://letstalkbusiness.wordpress.com/2009/03/25/skillbuilders-moves-from-skype-to-dimdim-and-thank-goodness-for-it-and-other-news/feed/ 0 lmhartman Skillbuilders Logo http://letstalkbusiness.wordpress.com/2009/03/24/two-ways-to-plan-intentional-monetizing-using-social-networking-for-your-small-business/ http://letstalkbusiness.wordpress.com/2009/03/24/two-ways-to-plan-intentional-monetizing-using-social-networking-for-your-small-business/#comments Tue, 24 Mar 2009 23:39:30 +0000 lmhartman http://letstalkbusiness.wordpress.com/?p=37 ]]> Sometime back I attended a small business marketing seminar. I go to a lot of them. The presentation was extensive and concrete. I could hardly keep up with the flow of ideas all this new information generated. But at the end I thought, “So how do you actually create a plan?”

Then I said to myself (for I’m a thoughtful conversationalist): I’ve been in business for 13 years and worked in the corporate marketing/communications environment. Why not write about it myself?

Many small business owners have jumped at least partly onto the social networking bandwagon, only to emerge with little reward for their efforts. What they need, what we need, is a plan.

It’s not enough to simply sit down and plan out what you’re going to utilize and how often. You must put together a plan that intentionally monetizes your efforts. It is possible to spend hours on social networking and get $0 for it. That’s not why I personally went into business.

So you jump on the social networking bandwagon. You update your website, start a blog, and join Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. You write now and again on all of them, you labor over blog posts, you update your site as often as you can — and nothing happens. What went wrong? Aren’t these social networking things supposed to have magical powers of bringing customers to your virtual door? You don’t have more time to spend than you already are, so if that’s what it takes, you figure this isn’t for you.

You haven’t failed. You just haven’t treated social networking the way you treat all your other business activities — you track them, you systematize them, and you monetize them. You realize you haven’t done any of those things with social networking…

…yet. The good news is that if you treat social networking like any other business activity, it won’t take you more time than it takes you now, and it might take less. You also won’t begrudge the time you spend doing it because you’ll see it bringing in income.

The Dollar Goal Method

This plan starts at the end result and goes backward. Write down two numbers: The money you want to make, and the amount of time in which you want to make it. Figure out how much this is per week, per month, per year.

• WordPress has a plugin for paid blog subscriptions.
• Most blog services also have ad services available for blogs.
• Many companies around the Internet have affiliate programs you can incorporate into your social networking.
• If you’ve ever had an interest in doing a seminar, webinar, or other presentation, now’s the time.
• Promote your book or article.
• These are all ways you can capitalize on a base business income through social networking. Figure out how much you can make on how many social networking resources.

Your job is to track the performance of your social networking (how much in sales came in some way via Facebook friends? How many new clients did you meet through LinkedIn?), then systematize it. Make the well-performing social networks a systematic part of your workday and your business plan. Finally, monetize your top social-networking performers by adding ads, affiliate programs, paid subscriptions, your seminars, and anything else you can think of. Monitor your ROI, adjust as needed, and keep working your social networks to reach the dollar goal you originally set.

The Business Plan Method

This is straightforward since you’ve already written a business plan for your business. (If you don’t own the small business you work for, it’s often illuminating to write a business plan for it anyway. It’s amazing the things you can learn — and the promotions you can get — when you get to know a business very well from the inside out.) Use the main components of a business plan — description, financials, market information — to project how much you could make through different social networking channels.

Your research is more or less the same as it would be for a standard business plan, only your planning is all online and is based on numbers you research for the monetizing ideas we’ve mentioned. Next year, businesses will be monetizing in ways we can’t imagine today. The field is open for innovation.

Start experimenting with the social networking channels that look promising. Track the returns. Systematize what works, add more social networking if it looks promising, and systematize. You can monetize as you go or wait until you see what works before plunging in.

And Don’t Forget

• Get advice and information from experts about what works and what doesn’t. Listen to your spouse. Your spouse may not be an expert, but knows what he/she likes. That’s consumer information on the ground. Is there something you yourself have always wondered, or always wanted to try? Maybe there are a million or two others who also wondered or wanted to try.
• It has been incredibly difficult to capture remuneration for online content. Find creative ideas, such as GumGum, for monetizing all your online content. We’ll see more services like GumGum in the future.
• Find creative ideas for monetizing all the stuff you already have hanging around taking up space in your electronic files, such as Photopreneur.
• If you’ve just started a blog, don’t put ads on it or burden it with a paid subscription. Build your readership first, middle, and last. The monetizing will begin to come naturally after you’ve proved yourself. Would you pay for unknown content from an utter stranger? Most of us know that any yahoo can post pictures of his parakeet on the Web and call it substantive content.

Naturally, my attention turns to the only personal taxes I pay, to Uncle Sam. If you’ve followed discussions on this subject paired with news stories, you’ve seen two major reactions.

One is: “Finally, the rich are going to pay taxes the way the rest of us do. All our work supports them and enables them to get rich, and then they use their money to avoid paying taxes. We work hard too. Why should teachers and plumbers and police officers pay more of their income in taxes than rich people do?”

The other is: “Look, we shouldn’t be penalized for being rich. We work hard, and our work is important. Why are we suddenly being targeted because some people don’t work as hard? We deserve to enjoy what we’ve worked for. Now we’re being singled out to pay more than our fair share of taxes.”

If you cross out these two viewpoints, in their various incarnations, there isn’t much left of the discussion thread, regardless of how long it is.

But in recent days I’ve noticed a couple of new topics in news articles. One is that the “semi-rich” — say, $100K – $250K a year — may not pay much more in taxes than they’re already paying. If any. This is because so many people who fall into this income bracket got snared in the AMT, the Alternative Minimum Tax (file under “Reasons To Be Thankful I’m Middle-Class”), also called the Alternative Max Tax.

Another twist in this ongoing Battle of the Incomes is the contention that rich people are being asked to pay more than their fair share of taxes. I daresay everyone who pays taxes feels that way. What’s hard to understand is this: If you have two people, and one of them pays 27% in tax on income, and the other one pays 15%, isn’t that an unfair tax burden on the 27% person? It is hard to understand how bringing the 15% tax up into line with the 27% tax is unfair to the person who has been underpaying for some time already. It’s hard to understand, because it doesn’t make logical sense. You can see where I come down on this issue.

If you’ve ever imagined yourself fabulously wealthy, though, imagine how you’d feel if someone came along and said, “Give me 10 or 20 percent more of your money each year.” You haven’t done any less work this year than last year, but suddenly, you get less for it. Admittedly, “less” is an elastic concept when you’re that wealthy — I said “fabulously” wealthy — but doing the same thing for less would not have a motivating effect on me. I’d be upset and I’d make my case. That’s people’s right.

Obama is aware that there are a lot of really, really angry people out there who work just as hard as rich people do, but don’t make the same money. These people are not necessarily looking for money. They didn’t choose to teach kindergarten or work for a nonprofit to make money. What makes them angry is having their hard work help support a system that upholds rich people who pay a smaller percentage of income tax than they do — and then being told that they’re not working as hard, and that they are the ones being subsidized. The final cut is hearing that raising wealthy people’s tax rate to match the rate poor and middle-class people are already paying is unfair.

This hot button isn’t going away anytime soon.

As a business owner of a company called LetterCraft, I belong to a comparatively new organization called WECAI (Women’s ECommerce Association, International). This network, not limited to women, supports e-commerce through resources, discounts, networking, events, and leadership opportunities.

Feeling I should contribute somehow, I conceived the Skillbuilders program and have worked extensively with WECAI founder and CEO Heidi Richards Mooney to bring the program to fruition.

The goal of Skillbuilders, besides coming up with a snappier name, is to present 30-minute mini-conferences on given topics that give you one new skill or one new piece of knowledge that you can take back to your desk and use immediately. Sessions meet in a Skype permanent public chat room every other Tuesday from 12 noon to 12:30 p.m. Pacific time.

I’m tomorrow’s presenter (that will be Tuesday, February 24), the topic is “Starting a Website — for Beginners,” and you, my virtual friend, are invited. Professionally, I must continue to improve the Skillbuilders program’s visibility, and personally, I would benefit from attendee feedback. The attendee would be you. If this subject interests you, or you’re a supportive person who wants to help me avoid public embarrassment (which I dislike), then please come for an informative session.

Easy to join: Login to Skype as usual. A link to the Skillbuilders public chat room is perpetually posted by my name, or contact me here and I’ll send you a contact request on Skype. Make it easier on yourself when you first get into the chat room–bookmark it. If you want to be able to read chat and sessions on your own time later, don’t use the “Exit” button to leave the chat. Use the regular red “X” at the top right. Then you can log out of Skype, log back in 2 days later, and read whatever’s been happening in the chat room during your absence. If you Exit, you’re out of the chat room and can’t read what’s been going on in your absence (i.e., missed sessions, outside discussion, etc.).

NOTE: If you have upgraded to Skype 4.0, be aware that you can no longer use hyperlinks to enter public chat rooms. I will need to invite you the first time, then I believe you can bookmark it and return that way. For some reason Skype decided that supporting public chats was not a priority in this upgrade, and they gutted access to them. And so, once again, my customer loyalty is rewarded. Last time I was such a loyal customer was when Starbucks sold the Chantico, and look what happened to that. But I digress.

A benefit of entrepreneurship and multiple professional memberships has been working with top professionals in many fields. They are experts at what they do and I am fortunate to be able to call upon them to share their expertise with Skillbuilders attendees. I will share what I have tomorrow, and we’ll learn together, and perhaps you’ll have structural or logistical feedback afterward. Keep it brief and objective, that’s all I ask.

Caveat (you knew there’d be one — there always is): Skype group chat can only accommodate 20 people at a time. This is a very new program. If we top out, as I’ve been working toward, Heidi and I are already in the process of analyzing good options. If you get shut out of the chat room because we’ve maxed out, contact me here on WordPress and complain about it! We’ll be delighted to receive it.

If you’re on LinkedIn, look up the WECAI group. Skillbuilders and membership updates are posted there, and you don’t need to be a WECAI member to join the group on LinkedIn. One of our planned sessions is with Widgetbox, one of my favorite business toys. Not that it’s not a serious business–it’s simply that the product is such fun to use.

Plan to attend your favorite sessions, or better yet, be one of our moderators. If you’ve never presented before, this is a good venue: low-key, with a fun group that has pre-selected itself for interest in your subject. Moderators place a tiny version of their logo and a presentation title in the chat window, and get to include a link to their business site in the discussion. Here’s a Skillbuilders schedule.

That reminds me. Time to go make a Skillbuilders widget.

You may have taken the wise step of setting up a Google alert of your name.  If you own a business, an alert of your company’s name is essential too. On two occasions this name alert has turned up my name as a new account on social websites I haven’t visited — Fatvine and Placely.

Fatvine didn’t respond to my emails, but after over a year of emails,  it looks as though I may be off the site. Placely is entirely new to me. Contact information is in the fine print at the bottom of the page.

Are these unlikely flukes, or is this policy? Has this happened to others, especially on a business networking site such as LinkedIn? I’m familiar with MerchantCircle, which sets up accounts for everybody and then emails them asking if they would like to “claim” their account.

I’m on the fence about the usefulness of social sites to businesses, including business networking sites. They do provide a place to exchange ideas and get advice without causing one to appear ignorant of one’s job in front of the boss or co-workers. Sites tout the job-getting potential, but I’m not sold on that. What numbers exist on this subject only support the potential, not the reality. In point of fact, it will never be possible to sell yourself to a potential employer sight unseen in a way that beats the applicant right in front of him/her (all other things being equal).

Skillbuilders took an interesting turn at the December 2 session. The scheduled moderator did not show up. I put together the bare bones of a “Website Planning for Non-Developers” session in under 2 minutes and successfully taught the session myself, mostly on the mic, but also with some chat room typing. This was a terrific experience, great practice for me. This moderator volunteered to teach some five sessions, but it looks like those sessions will need to be replaced by others because I’ve never actually been able to contact this person.

On a related note, WECAI (Women’s E-Commerce Association, International), the umbrella organization for this series, just passed 105 members on LinkedIn. Question: At what point do you caution or ban members when they’re essentially using the discussion board to spam the other members? A question worth pondering. Many LI discussion boards are dealing with this problem, some more effectively than others.

I have been waiting for someone in the government to figure out that bailing out the country from the top down will ensure a longer recovery, or worse. Trickle-down economics hasn’t worked because of the simple fact that when people or companies get their hands on money (regardless of where they are in the economic structure), they hang onto it. Very little money seems to “trickle” anywhere. We’re bailing out the behemoths at the top as the middle and bottom continue to be financially gutted. Will even the bail-out recipients recover if the middle and lower classes are no longer economically viable? I understand the strategy behind bailing out the big players–if they go down, they can take a lot down with them–but I don’t believe that those who aren’t wealthy are necessarily going to last through the delay as the larger markets stabilize.

The new plan to provide help for new home-buyers is promising. With all its faults, and it has faults, at least this plan helps the un-wealthy along with the wealthy. That’s not a matter of fairness: Both are going to need support to stabilize.

I’ve been copywriting, desktop publishing (prepress), and editing for about 15 years. Ink runs in my family’s veins, often interspersed with mystery computer-related fluids. I have a journalism degree from the first time through college and in 2010 will also have a two-year software development degree. Whether this will lead to the full four-year computer science/computer programming degree remains to be seen.

With all this and more, I’ve been raising two boys the past four years. Only an incurious hermit living under a rock would tell you that raising children is good for your career prospects. In terms of skills and personal qualities developed, however, that hermit would be correct. In terms of impressing potential employers with your resume … not so much.

When I finish school and start handing my resume around, it will contain real data on real business activities. Potential employers like real business activities and will actually pay you to do them. The better your people skills as you do, the higher you will rise in the company. That about covers my theory of business.

So welcome to the blog. Chime in. Debate. Post links to news articles. Respond to polls. Join in and enjoy.

Under the auspices of WECAI (Women’s E-Commerce Association, International), I launched a biweekly program of half-hour skill-building sessions, generally held at lunchtime. Each session represents one new skill or knowledge area that participants can take back to work with them after lunch and use immediately.

This was a rush. We had the first session in October. I presented on the subject of working with freelancers / service providers / independent contractors (and how to tell the difference before the tax man whacks you for misclassification). I took the first session myself, figuring that if any embarrassing problems or technical errors cropped up on the first go-round, better me than one of the other moderators, who might decide not to do a Skillbuilders session again.

Tonight’s session is on leveraging social networking for professionals, taught by an experienced presenter, Dr. Sally Witt. (It’s working — it’s working — so far, Skillbuilders is working.)

Future sessions will be on website layout, credit card processing technology, copyright law, blogging, marketing, copy editing, Internet law, and some other fun topics. I still can’t believe the caliber of people who said yes.

This is a confidence booster. There’s still a lot of work ahead, but it’s getting off the ground successfully.