Several months ago I was at a meeting for a new non-profit . I was invited there to give my opinion of the whole setup.? They wanted to help farmers in a Central American country however, they had no business plan and it was clear that they need one. I suggested they needed to do a proforma, because at the very least, they needed a plan on how much they were going to give, how much it would cost them to give, and how much they were going to get.? I even offered to do it under my donation program (I do it for a reduced rate and donate 100% of the money minus any out of pocket expenses [there are usually none] to another charity). They balked wondering why I would charge their charity when they were a charity. Why would I not donate my time?? Here is why:

1. They did not have a real charity, business, or anything. It was a nice idea.
2. When people are not paying for your time (especially doing a proforma), they do not value it.
3. My charities exist and have a history.? They also need money since they do not have the sexiness of the big charities.

I might have mentioned this before on this blog, but there is also number 4:

4. If you are in the spirit of donations, why are your charities more important than mine??

a. In other words, if I am working for a charity just like you, then I have to keep my charity in mind as well.

b. Are you not supposed to be in the spirit of giving money??? You are getting people to be in the spirit if giving money, so if you do not?get in that spirit how do you know what it is?

c. Do you believe in your charity ?

4b was expressed today by Seth Godin in his blog. Today’s post is “Watch the money”

He says that money is a statement of belief, and the fact that these people would not even put money behind their own idea and in the same vein help another charity, how valid is their cause?

It is not valid.

Have you ever entered information into a form on the web and the page has to go to the server for every line? The wait is forever. It slows things down.

This is versus a form that does not take a long wait but might have to have a long time for setting up.

When you are creating a web site that involves inputting a form, you really have to think about the user experience. This experience will dictate their reaction and whether they say nice things or bad things about your web site.

Plenty of effort is made to make a site cool, provide interesting videos, or even games. However, not enough effort seems to be done on the form entry. I see this especially so on corporate web sites, which are typically not there to entertain, but there to provide functionality.

What I find useful are the following rules:

1. Keep it simple.

2. Minimize page reloads.

3. Use Javascript because it does not rely on the internet connection. I know people are worried about security, but quite frankly if you have a serious web site, that wants to get things done quickly Javascript is incredibly functional. There are some really advanced Javascript methods that allow you to manipulate tables, and data on the screen.

4. Use AJax which allows you to access the server real-time and not have to do page reloads.

5. Test with potential customers and learn how they interact with your system. User experience is key to making a successful web site design. Seems obvious, but too many corporations forget about this.

In a nutshell, poorly designed forms are one of the worst ways to ruin a web experience, and reduce customers. Why? They go somewhere else. Time spent on designing a good form and improving the user experience will improve the overall usage of your site.

Take time to think.

Today, a friend told me about an incident when he was advising on a company acquisition. His employer, the prospective buyer, wanted to buy a billboard company.

The billboard company only rented space. They made $750,000 pee year. Of that, $225,000 was profit. The owner did not make anything else from the company.

The sale price was $5.6 million. My friend said it was a multiple of 8 times revenue.

The reality is that most comapnies $2 million in sales sell for a multiple of three to five times the income of the owner. In this case five times $225,000 or $1,125,000.

Extenuating circumstances that would raise the price would be protected ip or land on which the billboards sat. There was neither.

The owner claimed that it was definitely worth more because he could easily go out and double the income. That is a load of garbage! If it is worth that much then the owner needed to go out and make it worth that much. My thought was that he should not get paid for laisiness.

My friend recommended his client (the buyer) should walk. I agree.

Lessons learned:
Multiplier on owner’s portion is three to five.
You don not add in potential unless it is protected ip and then it depends on a lot of other factors.
If it smells bad then walk. This deal stunk.

Taking care of yourself is as important task as anything se. Part of that task is getting enough sleep. The average person needs seven hours per night to be most productive. Note tht I did not say functional. We want more than just functional. We want results.

I bet those of you that try only five hours or less a night might get more done if you sleep more. Those waking hours become a lot more productive.

They do for me. Which is why I am finishing this now to get my seven hours of sleep.

Good night.

How do you get someone to change that does not want to change? Have you considered the basic human ideal of “What is in it for me?”
You find out what they want or need or lack and you present that to them as a way of acquiring it if they do the change.
Most companies have annual reviews. In those reviews, they measure performance by accomplishments; and specifically, how that person benefited the company. The best way to demonstrate a benefit is how an action affected the bottom line: money made, money saved, or losses avoided.
If you present a change to a person in how much money they will make for the company (or money saved, or losses avoided) in dollars, and then explain how they can use this metric in their performance review, you often can get them on board as an implementer of your change.
This may seem very direct, but often the direct approach is best. The challenge here is to find out the dollar benefit if your change.