Realizing Recessionary Gains

As appeared in the Presence Pointers column of the March 2008 issue of “Business Watch” magazine.

Economy got you down? Talk of recession and overall uncertainty keeping you up at night? If you said yes, you can at least take comfort in knowing that you aren’t alone. But the real question is, “what does this mean for your Web presence?”

The thought might surprise you, but possibly now more than ever, your Web focus should be stronger than ever. Let’s take a look at what this economic condition might mean and how we can best position ourselves.

Don’t panic. No deep macroeconomic discussion here. Essentially we are talking about an economic period of negative output — whatever that means. What it means to us is we are going to be more cautious with our money.

Let’s take a look at how we can use our Web presence to address some of the key recessionary thought drivers. Continue reading “Realizing Recessionary Gains”

Leap Onto the Web

As appeared in the Presence Pointers column of the February 2008 issue of “Business Watch” magazine.

If your business doesn’t have a website yet, then this month’s column is especially for you. And even if you do have a site, it may still be worth the read. If you’ve been holding out on making the leap to the web, well it’s time to move past that. Web access is available in more businesses and homes than ever, and thanks to smart phones like the BlackBerry and iPhone, people have access to the web 24/7, just about anywhere they are.

Let’s talk about this thing called “web design.” We’re going to bypass the do-it-yourself discussion. If you want to play around on your own with a hobby site or site for your family, great, but don’t jeopardize the image of your business while trying to learn web design — there’s much more to it than just understanding a little HTML code. Businesses will either have staff on hand or, more likely, will outsource the development of their site. It is very important to understand up front that graphic design and web design are extremely different things. Continue reading “Leap Onto the Web”