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.

I know that many of you are able to prevent late faxes by switching to a modern email fax service.  But what about late emails?

Sometimes we realize that we forgot to do something a while ago. Like, maybe we forgot to send our boss that weekly update. Or we forgot to wish our mother happy Mother’s Day.

Well, Google announced recently a solution to all of this. They are offering a way of backdating emails. Your boss says, “Jimmy. I never got your weekly update?” You then say, “Are you sure?” I really am sure that I sent it. He looks in his email box again, and sure enough, there it is. No possible hint that the date has been falsified.

Of course, those consumers who realized that this whole thing was the functionality that Google had been promising to offer since it’s inseption, a functionality that would change the fabric of the space time continuum, a functionality that was sure to put Google in the legendary status of greatest companies ever, a functionality that was too good to be true—

–realized that they were reading about this great new service on April 1st. Their hopes of breaking all time restraints were dashed. And they had to return to the grateful reality that at least they didn’t have to wait for any time delays for faxes anymore.

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.

Starting a Small Business is full of numerous decisions. How can we get funding? Should we be on track to go public or should we stay private? Should we franchise? Should we use Internet fax or traditional fax machines? One decision that has to be made is whether to insist on a dress code.

It used to be that everyone wore suits and dresses to the office. Now the trend has gone toward business casual, and in many cases, totally casual. Some of the best companies in the world, Google and Intel, don’t have a dress code. You can wear sweats to work if that’s what you want.

My opinion is that if some of the best companies in the world have gone this route, and it works for them, there’s no reason for your small business do anything different. Plus, I’m sort of a maverick by nature, so being free to dress casual is a real plus for my personality type.

Many businesses however require a lot of contact with customers. If you run a store or have a sales team visiting clients you do need to set some basic criteria for what’s appropriate. You may want to simplify the issue by creating a uniform.

In the end, I think you need to look to industry trends, determine the typical standards, and go from there.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but software is on the way out. Online applications are on their way in. With faster and more efficient Internet access everywhere, companies that can create online services that don’t require you to purchase software are finding enormous success.

The recent attempt by the world’s largest software company(Microsoft) to acquire one of the world’s largest online businesses (Yahoo) bears this out. Microsoft sees Google as a huge threat to their profits. Their attempt to thwart off the new giant in the industry which offers free gourmet food to all of it’s employees is a defensive and telling maneuver.

What this tells young entrepreneurs is that this would not be a good time to go into the software industry. If you want your business to be high tech, ground breaking, and relevant in the coming years, you’ve got to make sure that it’s accessible online.

Strong new business’s that fit this trend include: Internet fax, streaming video, email services, entertainment web pages, etc. Basically, if it’s web based you might be onto something.

Startup business creators who can understand the shifting technologies, not just following the trend, but see the trends a few years off will have enormous success in building strong and extremely fast growing businesses.

For further proof of how Google is taking over the world, take note of Gmail, their wonderful email platform. It’s become the new standard for free email services. Frankly, it’s so good; it’s hard to imagine why you’d need anything else. Many companies are foregoing the purchase of company email accounts through Microsoft Outlook and are using Gmail exclusively.

Some cool features:

• A great notifier which pops up a little window every time you have an email.
• Plenty of storage.
• Incredibly smart storage and sorting options.
• Great searching operations.
• Free IMAP and POP access if you want to route it into another email program like Outlook or Apple Mail.
• A cool starring and custom color labels  system that lets you organize conversations easily.
• Connects with Google Talk, letting you IM and group chat easily.
• It also connects easily to other Google services like Picasa for storing picture albums to share with friends and Google Docs for storing public files.
• A great calendar program, where you can schedule meetings and other events.

In the end, do we really need anything more besides Google? Well, you might need an email fax service, at which point I’d recommend GoFaxer. But otherwise, I think Google’s got us covered.

So you open a little store. Nothing too complicated. You’re running a business, but let’s face it, this isn’t rocket science. You need to create a profit and loss statement. But you don’t want to go spend all of that money on Microsoft Office just to create a spreadsheet. For a small business, using Office can be really expensive.

A recent article at Businessweek.com by Gene Marks points out the wonders of Google’s free business word processor and spreadsheet applications. Apparently, they also have a great desktop search application. They’ve got calendar, email, and analytics. You gotta’ give it to Google for sticking a thumb in the eye of Microsoft.

There are so many businesses like Google that are evening the playing field and making all businesses competitive, regardless of the size.

As I’ve outlined this week through Marks’ article, there are so many great options through technology to become a very strong and competitive small business.

One of the best ways to do this is through Internet Fax. It’s fast, easy, and inexpensive. Along with many other great technologies, you can be running a fast and efficient little money making machine, even with greater competition, and greater challenges as economic fluctuations are sure to come in the following months. Give it a try today.