There is a lot more to this business than meets the eye.

I just read an interview with Amy Matthews, owner of Fulton Motors in Albuquerque, NM. She points out a common thought among business owners: There’s a lot more to this business than meets the eye. It's a different twist on this notion of doing business in an information-driven economy.

Read the interview with Amy Matthews in the ABQ Tribune UPDATE: The Tribune has removed this article from public viewing.

"A lot of people think you can buy some vehicles and stick them out for sale and make a million bucks. Well, it's not that way. There's a lot more to this business than meets the eye."

It seems just about anyone who owns a business could make this statement. On the one hand is the frustration that professionals experience where potential customers try to "do it themselves" to the whole industries built around "do-it-yourselfers." As web developers, we know first hand how things can look easy from a distance yet be considerably more complex upon the actual execution.

Being an armchair psychologist and geek girl though, I see how business blogging is bridging this divide. Business owners have a great opportunity to both share knowledge tips in small bite-sized pieces, as well as fill in the blanks and explain why certain things are done certain ways. I see the first really helping small businesses get new clients, and I see the latter helping larger corp's save their brand from bad corporate policy and too much reliance on PR speak.

Many think that Bob Lutz and his FastLane Blog are doing some terrific heavy lifting for the GM brand. The comments are not always kind, but the willingness to take on the critics — well, those tough car guys are getting a good use for their macho!

Bottom line, most things done well involve more information not less, and the internet is a great place to give and get information. Like traditional information gathering though, "consider the source" before relying too much on any one opinion.

Microsoft and the Cost to You of Constant Patching

We tend to stay away from highly opinionated postings and prefer to offer usable tech tips in our Bare Feet Blog, but this topic is one that seems to address both: the not-so-hidden costs of working in the Microsoft platform.

Windows 2000 bug starts virus war

A new security hole in the Windows 2000 operating system was unveiled this week and now the hackers are actually competing amongst themselves to see who can cause the most damage!

Viruses and worms with Windows is certainly not a new story. But it is an ongoing — and for many unaddressed — expense for businesses large and small.

How does a company (Microsoft) increase value for itself or its customers when it is continuously distracted by products that are a) several years old and b) it no longer sells? We recently pitched a job for a Los Alamos company that has a lot of high security government contracts. They told us that a lot of the work stations at government facilities using their software are actually running Windows 95! For a moment I feel sorry for Microsoft, having to deal with these old systems they would like to pretend don't exist. Just as I feel sorry for the Los Alamos company that has to support that dinosaur too.

But it doesn't last long. Microsoft created this monster of high-priced operating systems in a monopoly marketplace with no incentive for them or their customers to explore better options.

It is clearly hurting Microsoft, as they continue to delay the release of Longhorn aka Vista aka their new and improved OS. I mean it's got to be hard to get anything done when there is constant work fixing and shoring up the current product line. I wonder when the stockholders will notice that this is not the most leveragable business model.

For small business owners, it is yet another opportunity to consider switching to the Mac platform. 99.9% virus and worm free. Networking built-in by default. Word, Excel, PowerPoint are all seamlessly usable on Mac and PC, regardless of where it was created or is being read.

For small business owners who can't afford a full-time IT staff to apply the constant security patches, it really is far more cost effective to own a Mac. They are not more expensive out of the box anymore and feature for feature are often less expensive! You don't get those flickering monitors that come with cheap PCs and you do get an amazing user experience. Yes, of course you can transfer your files to your new mac, and you can even start with a Mac Mini and continue to use your current PC monitor, keyboard, and mouse.

Aloha,

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Albuquerque Biz Owners Explore Blogosphere

We had a full room for our lunchtime talk in Albuquerque on the Blog Advantage. There was a great mix of attendees, from investing companies to environmental products retailer to communications and human resources specialists. I was barely 5 minutes into the presentation before the questions started, and we continued for 1.5 hours of very engaged and dynamic conversation about the many aspects of blogging for business. In case you missed it, here is the the presentation in printable form. (PDF; 255 KB)

Key Discussion Points

1. Though half the country still does not know what a blog is, blogging is rapidly being employed as a powerful business communication and marketing tool.
2. Blogging, from our point of view, is not just about the communication, it's also about the software advantages. Blog-based sites have better search engine rankings, for example.
3. Blogging is a great way to collect valuable market data and to really have a personal dialog with your customers.
4. Blogging creates peer-to-peer relationships among all sorts of previously isolated people. How about you and Tom Peters, or you and Boeing engineers, or you and the Vice-Chairman of GM.

How to Get Started

1. Start reading blogs. Go to Google, and enter a search for something of interest, and include "blog" in your search string.
2. Start commenting on blogs. Get engaged with the blog community. Each comment automatically creates a link back to your site. You can benefit from blog technology even if you don't have a blog!
3. Experiment with blogging by setting up an account at our new service, BizzyCast. You can have a free, 30-day trial that is easily and affordably extended.
4. Let us help you strategize and implement a blog site to give your business the advantage.

Aloha,