Article about choosing technologies that will make you more effective

1. Technologies that work: for entrepreneurs
and business owner managers
February 2009 Special edition
Just writing the title of this article makes me think just how busy and occupied an entrepreneur or
business owner manager’s day can be. Starting a business in itself is quite daunting and as it
grows it continues to be a juggling act in terms of time and energy.
Having the right tools can help save time, achieve more and inject some fun into one’s day all at
the same time. However trying the wrong tools can be frustrating, time consuming and a waste of
money. So how does one make the right technology choices?
Riding the technology and gadget wave can in some ways be compared to the housing market.
You have got to be in it to grow the knowledge of what you really like and dislike and apart from
that which brands are really reliable and deliver what they promise.
I am unashamedly hooked on getting the “right” gadgets curtailed only by my lack of budget. Over
the last decade I have spent disproportionate amounts of money on gadgets, software, hardware
and audio visual equipment. I guess that is what taught me that you have to try out technology to
know what works and what doesn’t. The same can be said for personal items like mobile phones,
cameras and satellite navigation systems as it can be said for business items like software,
hardware and ‘machinery. Oh, and let us not forget the myriad of enabling tools that one can find
on the World Wide Web. One can say that all technology information is available on the Internet. I
find that valuable time goes into doing such research and when one gets sucked into blogs and
chat rooms even more valuable time is offered up with often nothing more than information about
other people’s preferences to show for it.
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2. What I can say about all of these is that the elusively perfect “gadget” is nowhere to be found.
Any such item that you start using will have some features that are just perfect and then some
features that are simply frustrating, and then you will discover the bugs too, those little frustrating
things that just simply won’t work.
The exciting activity of obtaining and using new gadgets can be fraught with frustration, but the
pay-off can be so very enabling.
Why do you use tools?
Let’s clarify what you want to get out of your gadgets and tools? I would say firstly to save time,
secondly as an enabler to document work and output and thirdly to ensure compliance with
process, laws, regulations, etc.
Where does one start in this maze of selecting gadgets?
I would say the very first thing that you need to do, is to look at your business as if you see it for
the very first time. Think about what your business is about and what the essentials are. Then
think about what you have already. Now make a list of those items. Next to each one write down
what you like and what you dislike about that equipment. Take your mobile phone for instance.
Think about when you bought it. What attracted you to it? Was it perhaps the latest technology at
the time? Technology changes fast so if that is what attracts you, you have to put a plan in place
to replace your phone every six months. If it is the intuitiveness of the phone you have to put a
plan in place where you can keep track of new developments around intuitiveness in the same
brand or in similar brands. Next take your camera, photocopier, printer, etc. and make the same
lists. This will give you an idea on paper as to what you appreciate.
Now take a second piece of paper and do the same for each piece of equipment where you jot
down what you dislike about each gadget, even if it is just the colour or the speed or whatever.
A third thing to do that could be very helpful is creating an inventory:
of time consuming processes,
•
of all areas that require documentation such as finances, human resources, and
•
of all areas that require compliance, such as tax, trade licensing, laws, health and safety,
•
etc.
This is starting you off on a process of expressing what works for you and what does not and it
will develop your sense of likes and dislikes when you are confronted with new technology.
Secondly look at the consumer rating sites. Apply the law of averages. Many people deliver
commentary. If you have 100 people that have an opinion about something and the rating is 4
and half then one has a pretty good idea that you are dealing with something that works. So stick
to the ratings and do not get caught up in the detail of the opinions unless it is in the final stages
of making a decision.
Thirdly, I advocate that you try out new gadgets for a day or two and return it to the supplier if it
doesn’t do what you had hoped or if it is unnecessarily complicated to use. If you decide to follow
this advice then be quick to return it after the purchase date. Whether this works well for you is
probably dependant on which country you live in.
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3. Fourthly try and find a dealer that will be sympathetic to your needs and communicate your likes
and dislikes to him. Get to know him and go for a chat whenever you are in the area. Negotiate
special discounts with him. He can be a valuable alliance and source of information in your quest.
Below I have selected the different areas to comment on that I hope individuals as well as
business owners will find interesting and beneficial. As with all things there are limitations and I
can’t do all gadgets justice in this one article. As you will pick up a couple of times in this article
my main point is that you have to try it to know if you can rely on it. Also included in the
comments below are some things you might consider when you are choosing these technologies.
Handheld devices
I will say some things about Mobile telephones, cameras, GPS’s and portable data storage
devices.
The two of the most important things about these devices are a) how you get data onto them, and
b) how you get the data off.
Professional people have a great deal of ‘mobile data’ that they need to carry with them on their
person. When you change from one system to another (every year there is a new gadget!) you
need to know that your data is going to be able to transfer across without some fields being lost
or corrupted, or worse that you may have to do it manually. To counter this I could suggest that
once you find a brand that works for you it is better to stick with the same brand for a few years.
Next generations of the same brand will most likely use the same software to replicate, the same
transformers to charge and importantly the features on the device itself will evolve and you will
already be familiar with operating it when you get the new model.
My personal preference for daily administration is MS Outlook and it is the most widely used e-
mail, address, calendar piece of desktop software. I always ensure that any PDA or telephone I
am interested in can effortlessly replicate with Outlook.
A second area of focus is how you enter information into the gadget. This is true for mobile
telephones, GPS’s and PDA’s. What system of predictive spelling is used?
Blackberries for example have a feature that you can add your own words to the dictionary, or
you can capture common spelling mistakes and tell the blackberry to rectify it. I particularly liked
earlier Blackberries with the Qwerty keyboard and the rollerball on the side. I battle with the more
recent Blackberries with the rollerball under the screen and the full keyboard. I don’t even have
big hands so I’m not sure how bigger people cope.
Here is a quick note about cameras and particularly digital cameras. What is the trade off of
digital zoom vs. optical zoom? Optical Zoom is always better, but there’s only so much you can
pack into a small camera. Digital zoom is great, but let me challenge you and ask how many
people actually go in and crop parts of a much bigger image into a smaller one? For most of us
this is a feature too far. The screen on the back of a camera rather than one that folds out is an
important feature for me. Also the size and the quality of the image as displayed on the screen
are important features for me.
A GPS is an absolute necessity if you have to visit many customers, but also to navigate your
way around the world if you travel often. On GPS’s I will highlight only one feature that I think is a
must have. (there are so many!) I use a Garmin, the biggest one available. It is a great piece of
equipment! I really love it, but for some illogical reason the input keyboard is just four lines of
linear A-Z letters and you have to change to another screen to be able to insert numbers.
I know that the new ones have a Qwerty keyboard, but my 3 year old model does not. Imagine
my envy when one day in a Cab in Atlanta I noticed a GPS with a QWERTY keyboard on the
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4. screen and then on top of that as you type in addresses the screen displays a decreasing number
of options, honing in on the suburb and street as you type one letter after the other. I felt envious
for the rest of the day and I simply have to have one of those.
The point is though that you have to try things in order to know what is comfortable for you to use.
You simply will not enjoy working with something that does not make you feel enthusiastic.
Software
I cannot in a few paragraphs make any particular sense of the immense world of available
software. It is important for you to be able to try before you buy. Don’t get fooled by what you read
on packaging and think that may satisfy your requirements fully. The UK’s ‘PC World’, for
example, will not take software back if the packaging is opened. Well, then you are stuck with it.
Rather try and download trial versions and use it for a while to see if it really works for you.
Stretch the software to its limits to make sure it will do everything you need.
I am quite familiar with graphics packages dating back even to the days of AutoCAD. If you know
what is possible in one package you know what to look for in another. Microsoft has of course
brought a lot of standardization of features across packages that help a lot in the learning
process.
Audio equipment
Perhaps you need some equipment for your offices or shops or studios, or perhaps you need
more mobile types of equipment for presentations or multimedia or performances. I am the proud
owner of a comprehensive suite of Mackie kit with active monitors that can supply sound to a rock
band with an audience of a couple of hundred people. I just love to get out and make these
babies talk! There is nothing on this earth like the sweet sound falling on one’s ear of quality crisp
and clear audio and nothing as bad as poor sound when you’re trying to make a good impression.
There are many brands of equipment that will serve you really well, but I can’t resist just name
dropping a few. Mackie, of course, Bose, JVC…. There will inevitably always be the debate about
active speakers vs. a passive system, but that is outside the scope of this article.
Visual equipment
If your business requires you to take your sales pitch out to where the customers are having your
own data projector is handy. These days there are so many options available and at affordable
prices too. In this case the size matters, because you want it to be portable and quick to set up,
but deliver excellent visual quality.
The two things to look out for are how bright the bulb of the projector can project and secondly
how much it would cost to replace a bulb or keep a spare. They can cost several hundred dollars
a piece, sometimes as much as the projector itself.
Other considerations when buying a projector are whether one can partition the screen so that
you project only a part of your PC screen and still have some other data on your screen that the
audience cannot see? What is the ability of the projector to overcome the keystone effect (when
you are projecting onto a surface at an angle), and lastly how close can you go to the screen
while still projecting a sizable image?
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5. Audio recording
I have a delightful little Olympus digital recorder. I use it to capture ideas when I don’t have my
hands available such as while I am busy with menial tasks. I also use it to jog my memory when it
comes to meetings or capturing information when I am with clients. I always ask permission to
record and very few people have a problem with it.
Three essential features on these little beauties: a) One simply must be able to replicate the files
to a PC, otherwise what is the point? b) Voice activated recording helps condense the files into
more manageable lengths and sizes by only recording when there is audible sound. c) Buy a
system with as much recordable time on as possible d) It must be able to record at least a full day
on its battery power and separate files (internal capacity) in the background as one normally has
limited time and I do not want to have to pay attention to it. In other words getting it to function
properly must not detract from the actual work being done.
Building websites
Everyone knows that a website is a must have for any small business. You will be surprised how
many operate on what I call just a holding page on the internet, like an extension to your business
card or brochure. There is so much value that one can derive from a well functioning website that
it is an outcry that more small businesses are not exploiting it to the hilt.
You also need to be findable on the internet. This can easily be talked away by saying you need
some well thought out keywords posted with the search engines, but in reality this is an
overwhelming maze of information and systems that you must master before it becomes
effective. Perhaps you have a few thousand dollars to pay a developer, but then how do you
know he or she will truly deliver. The answer is that you must to some degree become web-smart.
I will do you a great favor if you will in return do one for me. Especially if you are finding this
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You may have picked up by now that I quote American and UK examples and currencies almost
interchangeably. I consult into a large international company that works in dollars, pounds and
euros and I tend to get confused where I am sometimes!
Internet Marketing
I have spent a number of years thinking that marketing on the internet will be quite a complicated
and expensive thing to do. I’m talking of more than a holding page here. I am learning marvelous
ways of exploiting the internet to market my services world wide, with good results. While this is
way beyond the scope of this article I once again will make only this one point. You have to
actively get onto the learning ladder in order to exploit this beast. If you leave it to others, it could
cost you a fortune and then you may still not fully grasp what they are or aren’t delivering to you.
It is great to be able to be swift and responsive in adapting Internet Marketing Campaigns as you
continue to read your own niche market and respond to their needs.
PC mobility
I will complete this article by singing the praises of being able to work wherever my legs may take
me. It is marvelously liberating to be in touch with my business while sitting in a restaurant, coffee
shop, airport, or wherever one finds oneself to have a few minutes free. One complaint I have
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6. about laptops or notebook manufacturers these days… is it just me thinking this or do they make
batteries with a short life span on purpose. And replacing these babies is not cheap! Needless to
say I have become skilled in spotting power points in restaurants, coffee shops, etc. and I have a
really clever universal adapter that can also charge USB gadgets.
It is not enough to have WiFi. Even with the ever increasing footprint, there are never enough Wi-
Fi spots. Most of them also charge a couple of dollars for every hour you’re online. Invest in a 3G
card for your PC and I guarantee you won’t regret it. I believe the simpler the device the better.
You need to just be able to plug it in and it connects to its own steam. You can of course use
most mobile phones as modems too, it just becomes complicated with connecting an external
device over a wire or even more complicatedly, over Bluetooth.
Choose your service provider carefully and take care which package you sign up to for 3G. Don’t
be tempted to take a package that has limitations on downloads. Perhaps you won’t download so
much, but you may at some stage want to use a Voice Over IP service like Skype and then you
are stuck.
Here is a last (definitely last) little bit of advice on Skype. As Skype is in competition with normal
telephony supplies that are also broadband suppliers many of them block Skype, so be sure to
select one that doesn’t!
Conclusion
In the quest for technologies that work I sometimes wonder whether we are just chasing an
elusive dream. I think chasing technologies that work for you might be more attainable.
These are the steps in the process of identifying technologies that work for me:
1. Pen down your likes and dislikes and keep the list up to date.
2. Then think about the reasons why you would buy new technology and pen that down.
3. Next take each of your gadgets and write down your experience with them whether
positive or negative.
4. Think about your inventory of requirements for each piece of equipment and write it
down.
5. Now take your list down to your friend at the supply store and talk it through with him.
See what he has on offer and what the prices are. If what you want is not available, is he
willing to get it for you at a favourable price? Does he have a good return policy?
6. If the answer to any of the questions in 5 are no, then use your newly found knowledge
and buy it at the most favourable price off the Internet.
I do hope that this article has added value to you and please do let me know by dropping me an
e-mail. You are most welcome to contact me on one of the links below.
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