Creating bespoke software for your small business has never been easier or cheaper than it is today and it can make a fundamental difference to the productivity and profitability of your business. We look at Google Analytics.  Do you know how to use Google Analytics?  It tells you some key metrics for your website. Most small business websites get around 500 to 1,000 visits a month.  Where are they coming from?  What are they looking for?  Is the site mobile optimised?  What content do they...

If you can work for 1 or 2 hours a day every couple of days, you can spend a lot longer away from your business. We look at the technologies that we have within our companies so that we can work from anywhere, anytime. Firstly, with have a Microsoft Windows Terminal Server.  That gives us access to our accounting system, internal files, and all of our internal applications. Confluence - confluence is remotely available which means that we can access workflows and projects. We used to use...

We discuss why it is important for business owners to take a holiday. It is pretty important for you to get out of the business to recharge your batteries and make sure that you aren't burning out.  It is also important to get out of the business to reflect on the business. What do you need to do in your business to be able to take a holiday? We look at People, Processes and Profit.  The 3Ps for holidays for small business owners. Profit - you need the money to pay for the holiday and to...

Call routing has made it a lot easier for small business to be able to offshore. Logitech Web cams - we talk about the C930 webcam.  This is a really cool and simple piece of tech that I use for video conferencing as well as the Facebook lives that I do.  It natively supports green screen which is pretty cool.  Webcams make a big difference when you are teleconferencing and this one works really well. Everyone should look at offshoring - it isn't right for everyone, but everyone should have...

In Tech Focus we look at Microsoft Power BI.  We have been using Power BI to pull information from line of business application.  At Extreme we can see who has been entering their timesheets, who has been working with which customers and what billings each engineer has.  This updates in real time and display it on one of our monitors that is mounted on the wall.  This means that everyone can see how the team and each individual is performing. We look at the processes we use for both...

    In Tech Focus we look at our new Acer Acer Veriton M6640G.  Straight out of the box it supports the 4 monitors that I need to drive.  Pretty much silent and driven by a super power Core i7 CPU bringing a lot more power for the video editing and other work that I do. Public Relations - we look at some strategies that you can use to work better with journalists to help get some public relations.   Redefining your marketing strategy.  We think IT services are boring and hard to market,...

We look at modern marketing and some of the tactics that we have used to be able to grow our business. In Tech Focus, we look at my new Acer Great Wall of Data.  I've put 4 x 27" Acer monitors, with a special monitor stand.  This has enabled me to create content a lot quicker because I can not only have multiple windows open, but I can see the windows I need with the information that I need.  It is also great for customer meetings, being able to have all the data that we are talking about at...

In Tech Focus we look at Trello.  This is a great piece of freemium software, that helps you to keep track of your goals. For annual business planning we look at the process that we use. We look at the plan that we had for the last year and how we did with those. We look at the problems within each company within the group and we also look at the 5 year plan and where are we with that?  (How long does it take to execute a 5 year plan?) We look at the process for setting KPIs and goals...

    In Tech Focus, we talk about Zoom.  Zoom is the tool that we use for our Teams to communicate.  We have found it to be more reliable than Skype and a better tool to communicate with less of the hassles. We introduce you to the Business Model Canvas.  This is a really neat tool to help you visualise the way that your business can grow and interact with the other parts of the business ecosystem.  Overlay this with the new technology that you have coming out in your industry and you can...

Nick Sarillo is an expert in building a great culture.  He run's Nick's Pizza and Pub in Chicago.  It is America's third largest independent pizza Restaurant. Nick was a building by trade (he built the restaurant!) and he has taken the skills from his building business in managing a team across to his Pizza business.  Nick is an expert in building culture.  I was lucky enough to eat at Nick's and it is a great experience.  His staff have a very low turnover, love working at the Restaurant,...

We look at building a KPI dashboard and displaying them with the 4K Kogan TVs. In this episode, we interview Ray Strongman, who is a business coach and is an expert on DISC profiling.  Ray has been doing DISC training for years and does the DISC training for our customers. We use DISC profiling to help with communication and performance within team and also use it to help with the way that we communicate with our customers. We discuss what it is and how you can use it too in your team....

We talk about Culture and I go through the huge mistake that I made at Extreme Networks by not focusing on growing a great culture at the company.  Our company was going along brilliantly, was featured in the BRW Fast 100.  After that, I defocused and my laissez faire leadership style meant that stronger personalities in the team were able to mould the culture of our company.  Customer feedback was really bad and I got to the point where I didn't want to go to work.  Poor culture makes it...

The two top tools that I use to cut the time I spend on Facebook marketing are Facebook Pages Manager and Ads Manager.  We look at what they are and how you can use these powerful tools to conduct great marketing on your phone. Hiring can be a huge gamble so in this Podcast we discuss some of the mistakes that we have made, and how we have evolved our processes to increase the chances of hiring the right person for your company. There are two mistakes you can make when hiring - Hiring the...

Tech Focus - Prisma - This is an amazing app that allows you to create some great images from your photos.  Check out the video we've made using Camtasia and Prisma to build a very effective social media video. https://www.facebook.com/veryextremenetworks/ What are the goals in your business?  Do you have them written down?  Should you? We look at how goal setting can make a big difference in your company. We break down how we use goals within our company and how they have helped us to...

Tech Focus:  We look at GoPros and how you can use them in your business - we use them in our IT business to grow our business.  We discuss how to use them in how you market your business and it can help to market boring companies IT companies and other professional services business. Culture starts from hiring and moves through reviews, daily routines and all the way through to firing.  How do you embed your culture into the hiring process? Where does culture fit in with your BHAG (Big...

Tech Focus: We look at Confluence.  Some great software, written by Atlassian, that enables team to create, store and discussion information. 1.  Self Driving Cars.  The changes in Road injury and death, as well as better road usage will mean that the introduction of self driving cars will be a lot quicker than many people expect.  Uber has already started with self driving cars on the vehicles. 2. Marketing.  Small Business owners now have access to the kind of marketing tools that only...

We look at James' history and how he came to run his IT business Extreme Networks.   What was the process for looking at what industry to start a small business in? What changes have we made in the business over the last 16 years? What I learnt about the United States Marine Corps whilst doing my MBA? How can better strategy and tactics help you to run your business better and what lessons from histories great generals teach us?