sales – ɔimoɈɒ

Digital Northern Ireland – don’t ignore it

From a discussion on LinkedIn: For 95% of businesses, connectivity isn’t an issue. It never was – they’re not hamstrung by their slow speeds because the services they use are all located out of country anyway. And so I think its better to focus on these 95% – they’re the business owners in retail, in … Continue reading “Digital Northern Ireland – don’t ignore it”

From a discussion on LinkedIn:

For 95% of businesses, connectivity isn’t an issue. It never was – they’re not hamstrung by their slow speeds because the services they use are all located out of country anyway. And so I think its better to focus on these 95% – they’re the business owners in retail, in farming, in small manufacturing. They’re happy to limp along on <2Mbps connections. But the body of knowledge in using their Internet connection for more than the purchase supply chain is incredibly poor and laced with difficulty. Difficulties that are, for the most part, caused by the other 5% and the daft idea that every business needs its own web site, it's own e-commerce space and it's own app. These things are quickly becoming commodities. In the recent Innovation Fund, web sites and shops/e-commerce sites are not considered innovative for a reason. A small manufacturer (we often use the almost-pejorative "craft sector") can easily use online platforms such as eBay, Amazon Marketplace or Etsy or Folksy to sell their wares. And for most of the good ones, the problem is not accessing the Internet to sell, it's in meeting the capacity the Internet has created a demand for. Most small retailers already use the Internet in their supply chain because their suppliers demand it. My own business has been using the Internet for supply chain for 10 years now. It was never speed that was the issue, only connectivity. When moving offices meant losing Internet connectivity in the office for a month, that was the big issue in connectivity. And it still is. For the 5%? The digital businesses? Ones who should be better equipped? I can't even begin to describe where we fail them. From the provision of connectivity to the supply of their raw materials (skilled workers). But there is a reason my content servers are in the USA and that comes down to the cost of providing connectivity per sq ft.

Pivot? No, Tack and Gybe!

This weekend I was entertained by the news that Color, a social media startup, was moving from “mobile” to “FaceBook” as their primary platform. Whether you think that’s a good idea or not or whether the only thing Color has going for them was the $40million they received in venture capital, it represent a pivot … Continue reading “Pivot? No, Tack and Gybe!”

My second company pivoted. I didn’t like it much. We started out doing products, bootstrapping due to the complete lack of seed funding in the region (something that has been fixed) and ended up selling our souls to contract development. Yes, we were bootstrapping but only due to lack of choice. And I hated it.

I spent last weekend sailing with Ballyholme Yacht Club and earned my RYA Level 2 “Start Sailing” certificate. The core concept of sailing is summed up by five essentials:

Trim
Balance
Sail setting
Centreboard
Course Made Good

Trim and Balance are all about keeping yourself in the boat while the wind and waves are trying to throw you out. In dinghy sailing, keeping the boat at flat as possible means you can eke out the best performance. Plow the bow in too far and you lose speed, similarly too much weight on the stern causes excessive drag.

Sail Setting is about keeping the wind in your sails. When sailing, your primary method of locomotion is through the wind. While you can make some progress on the currents, surfing the odd wave and negotiating the tides, it is with the wind that you make progress.

Centreboard, also known as a daggerboard or keel, provides resistance to the wind driving you sideways and off course. It also helps in keeping you in a boat. You have to know when to set the centreboard hard or when to pull it in a little to reduce drag.

Course Made Good is figuring out which way you have to point your little boat in order to arrive at the destination, taking into account the current and tides, waves, obstacles, other vessels and, of course, the direction of the wind. Sometimes the most direct route is impossible (sailing upwind) and you may have to tack or gybe your way through the wind to reach your desired goal.

So what are tacking and gybing?

Tacking is moving your boat against the wind to change direction. As you face the wind, the power is lost from the sails. You lose some speed but the manoeuvre is controllable, predictable and if things go wrong, the worst thing that can happen is that you slow to a stop.

Gybing is moving your boat through the wind to change direction. The wind is always fully in the sails, the process is much quicker and much more violent but there is much more risk of losing control and ending up in the water.

Knowing when a tack is needed and when only a gybe will do is something that is gained through experience. It depends on what direction you are going, where you want to go and what direction the wind is heading. it depends on what risks you are taking. Our instructor, Alice, related a tale of how she was forced to tack multiple times during a race when one gybe would have completed the turn because the high winds and risk of capsize would have lost her the race.

I can’t help but relate the concepts of tacking and gybing to startups who feel the need to pivot. In fact, all of the five essentials of sailing can be related in some way and would, in my opinion, go well in a business plan.

Permission to buy?

Michael B. Johnson, one of the Pixar illuminati messaged Tristan O’Teirney on Twitter this morning: Square is two items – it’s a tiny credit card reader attached to the audio port of a smartphone and it’s a piece of software that enables payments to be taken. The ability to take payments when out on the … Continue reading “Permission to buy?”

Michael B. Johnson, one of the Pixar illuminati messaged Tristan O’Teirney on Twitter this morning:

Square is two items – it’s a tiny credit card reader attached to the audio port of a smartphone and it’s a piece of software that enables payments to be taken.

The ability to take payments when out on the floor of your retail space has obvious advantages but their restrictions often make them impossible to remove from that retail space. The advantage of having it connected to a mobile phone is that you end up using your existing data connection to send the credentials and receive the authorisations. Square is limited to iPhone and, at the moment, limited to the USA.

Local companies like AirPOS can provide much the same service with the additional ability to use the same software to establish a ecommerce site (the software provides you with not only a till where you can record payments but also a web site where you sell stuff, with the added bonus of an integrated stock control system.) As it’s an AIR application it’ll run on Mac and Windows laptops, tablets and netbooks as well as dedicated PCs and it’s on the way for Android phones (and probably Windows Phone 7) as soon as the AIR client for these platforms is stable.

AirPOS is one of the StartVI “high growth” companies and also was accepted to the recent ITLG awards event in Limerick. They’re in the midst of receiving their Series A funding after a very rapid development cycle and a sensible beta period with selected customers both in the UK and the USA.

I have always said that it’s better to accept credit cards than business cards when out at business conferences. Trying to re-ignite a conversation after a conference with only a business card as a reference can be difficult. Make the sale then and there.

Your customer wants to buy your product otherwise they wouldn’t bother speaking to you. Make it easy, give them permission.

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