GoFaxer Blog

Our world is getting ever smaller with technologies like email, the internet, fax to email, etc. Software is being replaced by online services. Google is looking like the biggest threat to Microsoft.

But an article by Ben Kunz at Businessweek.com suggests that the biggest threat to Google isn’t a company, but a device that slips neatly into your pocket. He’s talking about your cell phone.

He says:

“As more people use cell phones and their tiny glass screens to gain access to the Internet, Google and its fellow online advertisers will have less space, or what’s called ad inventory, to place marketing messages for customers. Google makes money selling ad inventory. And its ad inventory is diminished on a cell phone.”

Google is combating the trend by launching an Open Handset Alliance to design a new operating system for cell phone users. Kunz says that while many scratched their head as to why Google would get involved in this technology, it’s now clear. They see where things are going, and they need to insure that they’re still a part of it.

My other take, is that although a great deal of the internet surfing in the future will be on mobile phones, the vast majority of the internet use will continue on increasing larger flat screens, either at home or at the office. We like our Internet to be mobile, but the vast majority of our days are spent at a desk.

So your fax machine has broken. You’ve got a small business, not a lot of cash flow. With a recession looming, a new fax machine is hardly something you want to spend money on.

But wait my friend. Don’t hang your head in gloom. It’s a brave new world, where fax machines have died and new and better technology has replaced the old. It’s a time when all has gone digital.

Most of your documents can be sent now through email as an attachment. But in those instances where it needs to be faxed, or you need to receive a fax, you need a fax to email account. No more need for paper. No more need for bulky fax machines with toner and a table. No more need for long lines and waiting for an open phone line.

Fax to email is so convenient. It works just like email. You attach the document, and send it through the internet, but it shows up on the other person’s fax machine. And when they send you back a response through their fax machine, it shows up back in your email inbox. Multiple faxes can be sent and received at one time!

It’s so inexpensive compared with the costs of a fax machine. So no longer fret. It’s a bright new day.

You know the employee who can never keep up with their email. You sent them an email a few days ago and they never saw it cause it’s lost in a sea of communication.

Communication is faster and easier than it’s ever been. Technologies like email and fax to email have made typical mail a rarity. And it’s often easier to send a digital communication instead of talking personally or over the phone.

But this speed and ease can also be a disadvantage to many. It may not be entirely their fault. Some people are in demanding positions, where the number of people that they’re in contact with results in a quantity of emails that are completely unmanageable.

So what do you do if you’re in this boat? The first rule of thumb is this: Send less email. Only use email to send documents and information for others’ reference. If you need to send them that manual, do it through email or fax. If you need to send an update on your projects, a report, or the minutes to the meeting, great! These emails don’t require responses back, limiting the number of emails you’ll receive.

Don’t send emails to push important initiatives. Do that in person and over the phone. It will be harder for them to ignore if it’s done in person. And again, you won’t get emails in response.

These are challenging issues, but making communication management a priority will be worth your attention.

So I was recently working with a small business owner, a successful businessman in his own right. He needed to approve some proofs for an advertisement. I had emailed them to him. He hadn’t responded to the email. Guess why?

His laptop was being repaired. He didn’t know how to check his email without Outlook. I said, “Is there another way that you can check your email?” He responded, “I guess I can log onto hotmail with our computer at the store?” I said, “Yes, try that.”

He said that if that didn’t work I could fax it to him, which I’d be happy to do with my fax to email service. But I still couldn’t figure out why this man couldn’t open his email. And more importantly, how was he doing other business without it.

Using email effectively has become a necessity of any well run business. Yet I’ve seen small business owners still using dial-up and not replying to their emails regularly because they don’t understand the technology’s importance to their ability to generate sales.

If you don’t understand technology, it will kill you. Because many of your competitors do understand technology and they’re working at a much more efficient level because of it. So don’t allow yourself to be disadvantaged by something that is out there to help you.

Remember when you had that one employee who said to you, “Boss, we don’t need a fax machine anymore. Let’s switch to a fax to email service.” This is what great employees are for—finding great opportunities for your business growth and prosperity.

A recent article at Businessweek.com by Christine Comaford-Lynch offers some really sound advice about finding great employees. It’s easy, with a recession looming, to focus on money and business model issues, but don’t neglect the people. They’re likely to be most important element. And if you lose your top people during the downturn, you’ll never recover.

She suggests that an easy mistake is to mismatch people to the positions. Often, you’ve got a quality person that is under performing because they’re in the wrong position. Not because they aren’t quality. And you can’t afford to lose a quality employee. So always be evaluating whether you have everyone placed correctly.

Another thing she suggests is making sure you interview the people and not the resume. She does this by doing a really good screening phone conversation before the interview. She asks:

• The candidate’s career goals.
• What the person is really good at professionally.
• What he or she is not so good at, or not interested in doing.
• Who the candidate’s last five bosses were, what each boss would list as the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses.

These are just a few of many recommendations that she makes. I’d strongly advise that you read the whole article. It’s very valuable info.

One of my biggest complaints about many large businesses is their refusal to change and innovate, choosing instead to cling to their old fashioned technologies, controlling the market and insisting that consumers continue to purchase their antiquated products.

Take gasoline automobiles for example. The gas engine that we use now is essentially the same basic technology created over 100 years ago. Tradition may work for baseball, but there’s no reason that we shouldn’t have cars that are fundamentally better by now, if at least in terms of their fuel system.

The consequence is a industry that dramatically contributes to the polluting of the world. It also ties us to a natural resource with many negative political and economic consequences. Other fuel options have been shut down by political forces invested in keeping the status quo.

This would be like businesses hearing about fax to email technology but deciding to stick with their fax machines. Why would you stay with an old system that isn’t as good? But this is what’s been forced upon us by the auto industry.

So throw away your fax machine with pride. Buy a hybrid. Do what you can to tell producers that we live in a new millennium and expect products to match the times.

I read this interesting article by a Canadian who loves his work and claims that other do as well in his country. He say that most find workplace technology liberating, not imprisoning. If that’s the case he must love faxing by email.

Eric Beauchesnne, the psyched worker from the north says:

“The global survey of nearly 90,000 workers - including 5,000 in Canada - found an overwhelming 86% of employees in Canada liked or loved their job, 79% their company and an overwhelming 81% their boss.”

As for the workplace technology issue, the workers reported that they felt like phones, laptops, and other office electronics actually helped them find balance in their life.

So my question is this: these finding are surprising. But what the study doesn’t do is compare these findings with America. Maybe if we surveyed ourselves, we’d find about the same results.

I think that the whole, “I hate my job” syndrome common in America is more of a perceptions than a reality. I mean, didn’t we all choose our professions? It’s not as if we are forced to study and enter a certain vocation. We get to choose.

So one would expect that on the whole, most people would feel good about their decision. You’ll always have disgruntled everything. I don’t know. If not, maybe we need to go to Canada.

Every great company wants great press. If you’re sending aid to Guatemala, you want the world to know. If you’re saving the environment by sending faxes through email, you want the world to know. And if you’re hitting phenomenal growth rates, you want the world to know.

So how do you go about this thing called Public Relations. Well, I found a great website that might help small businesses start to think about the media and start connecting with it.

One thing the article suggests is that you need to be extremely respectful of the media. You can treat them the exact same way that you would a client or business associate.

I think something we think of media outlets as unreachable. We think that everyone who deals with big media distribution is on a celebrity level. But they really aren’t. They’re just ordinary people, like you and me. And they run a business. So treat them like you’re a business too, and you’ll be amazed at how responsive they can be.

One thing this article on this site talks about is the need for a media kit. This is a big subject that can’t be fully tackled here. You’ll want to do your homework on how to put one together and distribute it, but you should know about them. And you will want to use them.

Much has changed in the world since the Internet came on the scene. YouTube has replaced “America’s Funniest Home Video’s.” Fax to email has replaced fax machines. And website domains have replaced company names.

But I have to wonder if the whole desire for a domain has gotten a little silly. For example, msnbc.com reports that a British travel company paid $1.1 million dollars for the domain name cruises.co.uk. makeing this is the biggest price for a domain name in UK history.

But apparently this pales in comparison with “.com” domain acquisitions. Recently sex.com was purchased for $12 million dollars.

Some people really question whether a domain name is really that important. Your domain name can mean absolutely nothing, but have the best content and SEO site on the block, and get top billing on Google.

But as I said before, it’s getting to the point where you actually may want to have .com in the title of your company. It sounds techie. It sounds modern. It sounds fast. It sounds cutting edge.

My advice is this: If you can get a good domain name, great. But if you can’t, don’t sweat it. Most people use Google and other search engines to find the right content, not the domain name. I mean, as millions of profitable sites demonstrate, you don’t need to be sex.com to make it clear what you are all about.

I know your type. You’re tech savvy. Not an expert techie, but you understand what technology is out there and how to use it. When someone told you about sending faxes by email you were thrilled and ready to be an immediate user.

No doubt you felt the same way about PowerPoint, the universal software for presentations. But I’ve read a wonderful article by Carmine Gallo that you need to know about. He tells this story:

“In 2005 a Texas jury ordered drug giant Merck (MRK) to pay $253 million in damages . . . while the Merck lawyers bombarded the jurors with science and data, Lanier told an emotional story using visuals. I saw the slides. They contained few words and no bullet points.”

Is that right? No bullet points. Yes. In the art of PowerPoint, bullet points are the worst offense.

He makes a few other suggestions. Write your presentation out on a piece of paper first, then translate it into the software.

Eliminate anything extra. That includes lines, shapes, and symbols that might be distracting.

Use pictures. You know the old adage that a picture tells a thousand words. It’s still true. So stick with it.

Gallo points out that one doesn’t need to be a skilled artist to create really interesting presentations. Just don’t bore them. Keep them interested by keeping it simple.