Lead Captured Now Where's the Delivery!

Okay, I see a lot of great business people and entrepreneurs going at it often from day to day.  One thing which hit me in the face recently was there are some really top sales people in a whole of areas.  This goes beyond sales and there are some really good business people period. 

The thing I'm blogging about right now here today is "where is the delivery."  We are no doubt in an information age and things are moving fast. 

Granted there are some businesses really good at capturing the consumer to get them interested in the goods or services they have to offer.  One thing I see some businesses fail at miserably is the delivery.  Once you get a lead what do you do to deliver?

If you are in a business where the competition has become fierce online and you are still using pen and paper methods how do you compete?  A long sentence.  Yes.

What are you doing to keep your skills up to date.  Well I hope one thing you plan to do if you are in the Hampton Roads area is attend some of the business sessions I plan to set up. 

One thing I don't mind doing is giving back and giving advice to people who struggle with the bare basics of getting an online presence.  One thing I realize more and more with all the different business people I ever have the pleasure to interact with is that your website is like having your business card online.  If you don't have at least a business card online that you are comfortable with referring people too you are missing out.

One web page can get you more than you think if constructed well.  There are so many sites offering free hosting when you purchase a domain and others sites where you can bring a domain you already have.

My goal over the next couple of months is reaching out and helping some small businesses at least set up a business card online.  At bare minimum have the name of their business, what they do, and somewhere once they capture a business prospect the business prospect can go look at something tangible. 

Check back often and I hope you like what I plan to do and if I can be of any assistance to you or your business in at least getting a basic business profile online let me know. 

For the do it yourself type people check out my website at www.Websites4Sell.com and if you are not very computer literate and want to utilize the services of someone who wants to assist you with your business success at a reasonable price for website presence check me out at www.Web-Styles.com or call me direct at (757) 542-5108.  I look forward to the opportunity to work with you.

Don't just think capturing leads, think delivering the best customer experience ever once the lead is captured.  Above all have a place where people can visit you from the convenience of their own home any time.

Target Audience or Target Wall?

Do you end up with your target audience or a wall to use as a target when you do a presentation?  If you end up with a target wall you may need to be more pro-active in changing your marketing strategy.


It seems there is a bigger motivation to reach your target audience when you work based on commission versus when you are going to get your pay check every payday no matter whether you achieve your targets or not.  Thus, reaching a target wall, a room with some live bodies showing up for your presentation is success enough when you're salaried.  When you work based on commission the target audience is critical.

Working on commission will teach you to walk on foot, make phone calls, advertise in print, advertise online, do whatever and whenever necessary to try and reach your target audience to get viable leads to sustain and grow your business.  There are no free rides and charges incurred for everything when you are self-employed.

Me and my outspoken self needs to realize there is a different set of priorities between salaried and non-salaried presenters.  The non-salaried are thirsty for someone to drink so they can have money to eat.  The salaried don't care if you drink what they have to offer or not because they are going to be able to eat regardless.  Their pay is not based on how many people show up but just them showing up with or without people to talk to.

Do Developers Test Prior to Deployment Nowadays?

Okay, this one is a recommendation, not a gripe.  It used to be a time when developers actually tested their applications before deploying them.  In fact, the standard used to be something like having a test region, a quality assurance region, and a production (live) go of a program or application.

Unfortunately to my dismay today I found myself logging in on the same url from page to page.  Ridiculous to say the least.  The site I was on is ranked up in the top thousand overall according to my Alexa toolbar.

Okay I know things are fast-paced in today's world.  But when you are on top users like me expect your game to be tops too.  It is so frustrating when I go to a website and log in.  Then the very first link I click on does not maintain state that I just logged in or was logged in on the previous page.

A company of any prominence should definitely have testers.  A simple boiler plate template to test all web pages and new apps prior to deployment.  Please oh please during the testing stage nowadays when you have an email campaign for a new feature make sure the link from the email maintains state for me to log in and stay active with the link from the email.  I don't want to click on an advertisement from an email then log into your website and be re-directed to the home page.  The most frustrating part of all is when I log in to your site and go back to my email and click on the link to your new promotional item again and it takes me back to where I have to log in again and start this unending non-functional loop all over again.

Get real!  I like new stuff but I like to to work. 

From appearances I would really like to test out your new service, especially since you are promoting it as a free offer, however, it's just not happening for me.  If it is a browser does not support it issue let me know.  If it is an operating not supported issue let me know.  Just don't keep sending me around in circles from one screen to another without a clue as to when I log in to your site I can't check out the new FACEBOOK templates with my existing account?  It's apparently the method by which you have my email address to send me the promotion anyways.

Looking for testers?  Start with your current customer base.  Since I otherwise really like your presentation I won't blast your name on the Internet.  Overall you do a great job at what you do. 

My recommendation would be to get some old school developers who won't let anything go out to the public at large without having passed the basic tests to ensure it works seamlessly.  It could be as simple as sending yourself an email first to test it and happy clicking from there. 

Right now I'm sitting here wondering if you did send yourself an email first and click on the promotional link prior to sending it out to the masses.  Send the link out to someone as a tester. 

I know in today's world everyone wants to get things out fast, fast, and faster.  Just remember users click off a site fast, fast, and faster nowadays too when the experience they are looking for is not achieved.

Money Isn't Everything

I spent the better part of my life gainfully employed in decent paying positions because I had children to take care of.  Now that my children are all grown I have a different perspective on life.

Maybe it was all the to-do lists which come along with raising children.  Most of my thoughts during the day where geared towards getting my work accomplished during the day.  Staying close to the phone in case I got a call in regards to one of my children.  Thankfully which didn't happen often.  They very rarely got sick, they hardly missed a day of school in all their years.  Most years they all three got a perfect attendance certificate.

The band practices, the football practices, the martial arts practices, the evening tutoring sessions, the special events like the circus, ice shows, church events, birthday parties, PSAT prep, SAT prep, projects, teaching them Algebra, homework, music lessons, PTA meetings, school performances, football games, softball practices, whatever have you.  I woke up one morning after they had been gone for about a year and a half and said what am I doing all this for.  My children are grown.  Why am I day in and day out putting up with the political BS which goes on in the office.  The only person I have to worry about is me.

No more of having to worry about if the children are clothed, fed, or have money for this or have money for that.  I was ready to step out of the gainful employment realm on faith.  I gave my two weeks notice and turned in my work badge on MLK day.  Why did the speaker have to speak about how she had stepped out on faith from her job?  Even though I had been asked to reconsider when submitting my letter of termination, more of an email, I never did literally confirm one way or another.

When I left I began to do real estate full time.  It wasn't long before I appreciated the structure of having to do something else in addition to doing real estate.  Self-employment requires a whole lot of discipline.

Today my thoughts are I could possibly be working a job which would pay me a decent income, however, when I equate all the political BS I would have to deal with, the wardrobe, the driving distance, the fact of having my day tied up from 9 to 5 every day.  My thoughts heavily lean toward I would rather keep struggling financially to try and make than to just be comfortable.

I'm happy with what I'm doing right now because it is not stressful.  It doesn't require I go in an office and speak to phony people all day everyday.  It doesn't require me to have to deal with slackers.  Everyone is working and doing their part.  I don't have to worry about constantly watching my back because someone is out to stab me in the back to get my position.

Yes, the money, benefits, bonuses and everything else undoubtedly would be better.  The thing I most concerned with being better at this stage in my life is my peace of mind.

Not to mention having to deal wit the men who are gold diggers.  They say women are gold diggers.  I've learned since I don't work a corporate job I don't have to deal with as many gigolos who act like they're interested in you but who are just interested in how much they can leach off of you.  Thankfully, they don't like self-employed women because they know they have their highs and lows with money.  Most gigolos have been around.

The next man I meet I don't want him to be interested in me because of all I have going on.  I would rather for his interest in me to be genuine.  I'm sure some ladies can relate when you got it going on you have to beat the men off with sticks.  But when you ain't got no money you ain't got no man.  Heaven forbid if you were to have to ask him to pay a $100 water bill for you.  You would have thought you asked him to cut his right arm off.

For me money isn't everything.  It comes and goes and sometimes fortunately some of the problems that come with it as well.

I even look back to when prior to getting married I had three children.  My ex had a girlfriend with one child and she was in the same line of work as he and they both ended up on unemployed at the same time.  Why did he choose me over her?  I think back now and realize it was probably because I was a whole lot more stable financially.  I had a home and a car that was paid for.  She had no home and a sports car which was not paid for.  Her mother kept her one and only child.  I had all three of mine.  With having children I had to keep going to stay ahead.  Children don't ask to come in this world so when they get here you definitely can't plan they are going to be self-supporting.  How a woman can ignore her child having food, shelter, and basic clothing is beyond me.

I worked my butt off to make sure my children were taken care of.  I didn't have room for error when it came to them.  They were my life and I felt we grew up together.  They are three people I can always put my arms around and say I love you.  I'm not who I am in spite of them but because of them.  My biggest successes in life and my biggest failures in life I can attribute it to what they go through.  It is so true as a mother you are never as happy as your most unhappiest child.  I'm still pushing to get them on board so I can be on board.  Whoever cannot withstand the turbulence oh well.  The hardest relationship I ever had to end was with their father.  Everyone since has not had the same physical attachment, no children. 

Again, money isn't everything.  People can look down on me because I make very little money with what I'm doing right now.  I believe in a hard, honest days work.  At this point in time I want it without the BS.   I'm doing things at my own pace in my own time.  As the money is meant for me it will come.  One thing I can truly say is He has never failed me yet. 

Enough Already!

Over the past couple of days I've been reading about hackers getting a hold of people's email addresses.  I think it has been an issue since January.  I have been receiving emails for these deals which I don't ever remember signing up for since January of this year.  Coincidentally, I think it is a direct result of having been registered with a rewards campaign for a major hotel chain.  The number of emails received from the spammer and the list I registered for follow a patter in the number received and the time line for receipt.  The thing which stands out the most is the SPAM email arrives in my INBOX the same as the list I registered for.  It just looked too suspect when the SPAM emails hit my INBOX.  Now I see clearly, they are sending out from apparently hacking into the same server from the rewards list I registered to.  My guess would be it is a script which runs based on the event of the other email having been sent out.  A script to trigger their SPAM email running as soon as the other email runs.  My guess would also be it would probably have to be someone who is a registered user on all the sites.  So apparently, once the email hits their INBOX they are probably dutiful enough to have the script automatically run.  I would further surmise they have found a vulnerability and are probably registering for more lists to do the same thing with other major companies. 

My goodness I think I'll probably have to read some tech newsletters and go to some tech websites to see who finds the culprit first.  I would imagine it may link back to some of those emails I have been receiving lately for those companies promising email lists which will go to the INBOX rather than the SPAM folder.  They are probably making a fortune right about now. 

I remember years ago I was working in a position where a security vulnerability with a server operating system was exposed.  The crazies took hold of it to access information at the information of the root of the server for some companies.  A lot of companies switched server operating systems, especially for those servers which contained personal information because the hack could be done at the regedit level.  Who would trust a fix to a server operating system where someone sitting with your application open could see the password for your server from the comfort of their desktop.  It didn't take a genius to figure it out once exposed.

Do have hackers have anything else to do with their time?  I feel for the companies who put a lot of time and money into have systems which they feel are secure.  Then a hacker with a computer and dream goes and wreaks havoc on as much of the world as their heart will let them.

As I have said before and will say again, why can't these hackers do something to help the world rather exposing hacks to make folks lives miserable? 

I'm thinking it has to be a security vulnerability probably in the server operating system they are not exposing like what happened with server operating systems years ago when you could view someone's regedit settings and see the password for their server from your desktop.  Why would a major corporation leave information about their clientele on the server of someone else?  Most major corporations have a third party agreement not even to allow their vendors to have back door passwords to the applications they develop on their behalf.

We can probably look forward to a future of SPAM.  Way to go hackers you're slackers, you've outdone yourself with this one.  Get off my INBOX!

Question of the Day

Over my lifetime one thing that has perplexed me to hear people say is "I grew up in a home where there was no love."  Okay, I can understand some men have fallen prey to a home environment which they may feel has been dysfunctional.

One of the things I want to know about a man is "how was your childhood".  It seems some people can carry scars throughout life.  After one very bad fiasco with reliving the past of someone else I don't want to ever do that again.  They can have flashbacks at any given moment unawares.

Well a thought crossed my mind today, how can someone say they grew up in a house with no love if the first thing most learn to do is "love yourself first."  It's no wonder when I was in a relationship where I felt was a living nightmare it was probably because I surmised mostly out of bitterness was the person didn't love themself.

I'm going to keep this post short.  Now I understand even more why he felt I was selfish, my children were selfish.  One thing I don't think we lack is love for ourselves.  I know for a fact they don't lack being loved because I love all three of them through the good, bad, and indifferent times unconditionally even during the times I cut them off for the purpose of tough love. 

Love hurts, however, to think there is a home which exists where there is no love the thought alone is depressing.  I enjoy being able to hug anyone of my grandchildren and saying I love you at any given moment or time.

The next time someone says to me they grew up in a house with no love in it,  I hope to remember to ask them, "well did you love yourself"?