06 February 2011
Facebook or Website? ... that is NOT the question
I had an interesting experience the other day. A client recently at KAYWEB called me and said:
"Haig, my business associate told me that I don't need the website I have commissioned you to build for my business. I can apparently simply create a Facebook page and bring in business in droves. And it's free!"
Having done business with hundreds of small business owners and entrepreneurs over the years, my attitude to all questions is to treat them with respect. The internet is a "newer" industry and assuming a level of knowledge in your clients is never advisable, as it will lead to important pieces of information not being passed on.
My response was:
"A Facebook page or presence on any social network is a wonderful way to spread your message as a business. But your website IS your message. It is your shopfront, where if someone comes to buy milk, you can also convince that customer to buy some bread and junk food."
A Facebook page is a great way to bring people to your website; your virtual shopfront and convert these people to paying customers and clients.
It is true that my company KAYWEB designs and develops websites, but please take this blog as advice rather than a sales pitch :)
24 November 2010
What a place ... New York
Before leaving for my week of business representing KAYWEB in New York, I wrote that I can't wait to go and "be a part of it" - words made famous by Frank Sinatra.
I am pleased to say KAYWEB is now a part of it.
Over four months of strategy and work by my wife Taline Kayserian and myself paid off when I officially opened KAYWEB's fourth office in New York City.
KAYWEB, LLC is our United States trading name and we also have our first two clients in the bag after a productive week of meetings centering around New York Entrepreneur Week, which brought together some of the Big Apple's most innovative minds.
After four visits now, I am convinced the energy of New York cannot be exaggerated.
Whether it is walking down Times Square after midnight, 6am breakfast meetings at five-star hotels, drinks at a West Village bar, lunchtime cigars at the local lounge and walks down Central Park, New York seems to be the only place in the world where work is literally 24/7.
As well as being 24/7, it is instant - e.g. on a Saturday, I was trying to enjoy a walk in Central Park, when a guy called me with an extension to his web business idea and he needed to meet. I met him at Central Park.
Another example of New York's ‘instant' business culture was when I emailed the CEO of a major web company and received a reply from his iPhone minutes later.
I'm hardly complaining. It is both enjoyable and exhausting at the same time. You are so intoxicated by the City that you go with the flow and survive on very little sleep. Some of my new friends said they even dream about their ideas and action items at night.
It is important to note that business in New York is not for the faint of heart. With hard work and persistence, it has paid off for many. Hopefully it will pay off for us at KAYWEB also.
17 November 2010
New York Entrepreneur Week - a community of doers
I had the pleasure of attending New York Entrepreneur Week in SoHo's Scholastic Theatre last week.
Organised by founder Gary Whitehill with an aim to bring entrepreneurs together, each of the five days of the conference resembled a room bursting with aspiration.
These aspirants had the pleasure of audiences with those who have "been there and done that" in various industries, including the web industry.
Among the speakers were leading venture capitalists, national business television stars, significant web business successes, green tech innovators, and more.
Gary Whitehill and his friends have managed to use the famous New York City energy to create a community of people who have achieved and want to achieve so much in the business world. Gary calls these people "rockstars".
Evenings also included events that brought this community closer in a more casual environment, with the "Do It In Person" event, organised by founder Aron Schoenberg, a particular highlight in a Chelsea bar.
Connections made during this week are connections to keep for anyone who wants to get anywhere in business in New York. If you impress, you are closer to making a splash in arguably the world's biggest ideas market.
During this trip, KAYWEB launched our New York City office, thus we were the attention of many entrepreneurs with ideas to make it big in the web industry.
I met with numerous aspirants, listened to their ideas and highlighted a handful we would investigate further. From these, two are KAYWEB's first two New York City clients.
New York City's culture encourages entrepreneurs to be all that they can be.
Businesswoman and reality TV star Kim Kardashian was on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno during my week in New York, and she summed it up best when saying: "There's no energy like New York. I'm such a workaholic that I feel I get so much down there!"
But there are entrepreneurs everywhere, not just New York.
At KAYWEB, one of my major goals is to have our clients in Australia and Asia start taking steps to pave their own way in life.
There are a myriad of opportunities available online and on mobile, and we are ready to help turn your ideas into reality.
07 November 2010
The "thank you despite knock-back" email wins business
A few weeks ago, a long back-and-forth negotiation process with a potential client ended in rejection for my team at KAYWEB. We were emailed and told that we had just been edged by a competitor.
It is internal policy at KAYWEB that rejection is handled the same way as victory; with a gracious thank you email, along the lines of:
Dear Xxxxx,
Thank you for your email and thank you for considering us at KAYWEB for this project.
We wish you luck in your future endeavours, and are available should your needs ever desire.
Kind regards,
Xxxxxx
This email takes less than 2 minutes to author, but could mean the difference between $0 and thousands of dollars.
On this occasion, as has happened on a number of occasions in the past, the potential client came back after a "change of mind".
Their representative said we were the "humans" she wanted to work with. I believe the "thank you despite knock-back' email is one of the reasons we were considered more human than our competitors.
05 November 2010
I want to be a part of it... NEW YORK
I'll be jumping on a Qantas jet (hopefully not an Airbus!) bound for New York City on Sunday 7 November, to represent the KAYWEB family at New York Entrepreneur Week and surrounding events.
I have had the pleasure of holidaying in New York on three occasions with my lovely wife - first as a university couple in 2004, then to propose to her on New Year's Eve 2006/07, and finally as husband and wife on our first wedding anniversary early 2010.
On each occasion, we have found the city intoxicating.
Intoxicating in its culture and architecture. Intoxicating in its history and people. And intoxicating in its unique ability to bring together so many people with grand plans to simply "achieve". People with an intoxicating sense of ambition.
On our visits, I have often turned to my wife and said (like Frank Sinatra with a significantly inferior voice and hardly any swing): "I want to be a part of it."
Over the last six years, KAYWEB has built a solid reputation as a full service web and mobile solutions company in Australia, with our offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Manila servicing clients in all Australian states and a scattering overseas.
This visit is as much about New York Entrepreneur Week as about investigating business expansion opportunities for KAYWEB in the United States, as well as opportunities in the United States for our over-100 clients; many of whom are entrepreneurs.
At New York Entrepreneur Week, I will very personally share an audience with web entrepreneurs who have built multi-billion dollar empires. I have personal meetings with some, will be sharing a stage with others, and dinner and drinks with many more.
In my marathon 17 meetings in 7 days, I will discuss with "been there, done that" experts the projects past and present within the KAYWEB family. I will invite them to provide their input, so I can share with the concerned parties. I will invite them to be part of some very exciting current projects we are building for our entrepreneur clients in Australia.
Australia is a wonderful country of businesses and businesspeople. But the restrictions placed on our entrepreneurs by our relatively small population means representation of some grand ideas on a global scale - especially in the United States - will add several zeroes to their bank balance when all is said and done.
This visit is to complete my vision for KAYWEB; to turn the business that started in my parents' Belrose (NSW Australia) living room into a full service web and mobile solutions provider, which has a presence in not only Australia (Sydney and Melbourne) and Asia (Manila), but also in the United States through an ever-burgeoning network.
This will ensure KAYWEB is the number one choice for Australian web entrepreneurs wanting to make it big on a global scale. This will ensure KAYWEB can foster the growth of the next Australian-inspired Google; the next Australian-inspired Facebook; the next Australian-inspired Amazon.
Stay tuned for some major announcements upon my return mid-November.
29 June 2010
How to make money online discussed on Channel 7
On Monday 28 June, I appeared on Channel 7's The Morning Show with Larry Emdur and Kylie Gillies to discuss HOW TO MAKE MONEY ONLINE.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH
On the show, which is Australia's highest-rating morning television program, I revealed that online businesses can be very rewarding but they do require effective planning like any traditional business.
With web businesses, you need a web business strategy that derives from groundwork research you do to identify your target audience, find out how your competitors are attracting them to their website, and plan how you will do it better.
You also need to align yourself with a good web designer, who isn't just going to design you a website that looks good, rather a web designer who understands the web from a business viewpoint.
This will ensure your online business website is designed to give you the best possible opportunity to succeed - to the standards Google expects and with common traits that traditionally attract maximum return on investment (ROI).
Ideally, your website designer will equip your online business with a Content Management System. At KAYWEB, we save clients thousands of dollars per year by allowing them to update their website themselves, with no technical knowledge required at all, using KAYWEB CMS.
Once your website is built and your content is in, you need to market your online business so people attend.
The Morning Show hosts Larry Emdur and Kylie Gillies were also interested in the need to integrate social media in an online business marketing campaign, the common mistakes people make in online business, and the defining traits of successful internet entrepreneurs.