Monday, February 25, 2013

Where to Host

Maybe I'm late to figuring this out, but as an entrepreneur we have so many daily tasks that once a decision is made it is challenging to revisit it. Thats why I wasn't keeping up on our hosting provider.

We had been using a lesser known company and enjoying great customer service.  They were not only responsive, but they were pro-active.  It was a nice feeling of being a valued client. But as a startup, our bottom line is the bottom line.

Recently we made the decision to move back to Amazon (after a 6 month absence) because of their deep knowledge and compliance with all things HIPAA. I held my breath today when I refreshed my memory on their pricing. Wow, what a difference 6 months makes.

Network world had a great article (that apparently I missed) outlining Amazon's AWS price reduction.
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2012/110112-amazon-cloud-prices-263895.html
Their pricing page was my first stop: http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/

Don't take me for a AWS fanboy (yet, at least), I 'm just a startup. While I like the individual service of the smaller provider, I'm busting at the ~5k a year that I'm about to save--I'll sleep so much better tonight.

Just keep it in mind when you plan your infrastructure.

Cheers,

Brian
http://atomictower.com

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Entrepreneur of the Week

Good for the US Post Office!
I am now a big fan.

For the longest time, they have been in the news as the poster child for failing to adapt. They have been characterized as a burdon on the tax payer - supporting a government organization that is going out of style but not allowed to fail. Well they have done something about that. They have put our principles of creative, out of the box thinking into place to compete in the market place. And it's not about communication.

The Daily Caller had an article called "Struggling US Postal Service to Launch New Apparel Line: http://dailycaller.com/2013/02/19/struggling-us-postal-service-to-launch-new-apparel-line/ .  Here is what this cash strapped business did - they decided to take stock of what they do well and capitalize on it. They were not doing so good competing with the internet, so what else do they do? They have mail personel out in the elements in all weather and all seasons!!! Those folks are experts at dressing to stay comfortable in all temperatures and precipitation levels - WHY NOT SHARE THAT?! Brilliant, I say.

 With this move, the US Post Office demonstrated their execution of the rules that all of us business owners must play by:

  1. They are flexible - something wasn't working that endangered their business, so they developed and marketed a secondary strength. 
  2. They did not abuse power. Too often I read about conflict in our government (both sides) regarding government waste. Well instead of taxing more to support a going-out-of -style department, they got creative.
  3. They are bold. All of us as entrepreneurs have to take risks on what we believe. 
Will this work? Will the public respond favorably and buy this gear? I don't know. What I do know is that win, loose or draw, I will think differently about our postal service going forward. I'll think about how they tried to solve their fiscal issues the way that we all try to solve ours. I'll look at them as a model for how government agencies should work. 

Congratulations US Post Office - you're my Entrepreneur of the Week!

Friday, February 1, 2013

Convert Your VHS Tapes



I just finished a massive project.

The scope of the project wasn't that big, but the weight of it on my shoulders was heavier than I believed.

Our early family videos were on VHS tape, in a grocery bag, on the top shelf of our pantry. We don't have our player hooked up any longer, so I stored them out of reach for safe keeping. ONE DAY I would get around to converting them to DVD. That was 7 years ago.

This project was combined with all of the pics on my phone or harddrive that I hadn't uploaded to Picasa. I knew I needed to so that they wouldn't get lost, but I had more important things to attend to.

Both of these project by themselves (and most definitely taken together) are a prime example of managing your company.  Let things go long enough, and they build a weight on your mind that is disproportionate to the reality of the task - and this causes stress and degrades your performance. Make time for maintenance.

  1. Update your CRM often
  2. Write thank you notes promptly
  3. Blog on a schedule
In short, organize and make it a habit.

I know this isn't news to anyone, but it was so "in my face" this week as I spent hours converting my precious life memories that I wanted to share.