Carsonified

If you find yourself typing the same thing over and over again when answering emails, I’ve got a real time-saving tip for you.

I’ve found an amazing tool called Text Expander and it absolutely rocks. Watch the video below to see how it can save you time on when answering emails.

This is especially great for those of you who do tech support for your web app and get asked the same fricken questions again and again.

RSS readers, view the video here.

We just bought a Dyson vacuum.

For those of you who don’t know, Dyson makes the world’s best vacuum cleaners (or “hoovers” as my British wife would say :D).

Why did we choose Dyson? Because we knew that their vacuums never lose their suction. So we ordered one and to my delight, it arrived today (sad, I know).

I was already sold on how great their vacuums are so I certainly didn’t need any more convincing when the box arrived. But here’s how Dyson has converted me into an excited and devoted customer: they kept telling me how great their product was after I paid for it.

The box is literally covered with pictures, diagrams and words proving how great the product is! Here’s are a couple examples:

This one demonstrates how easy it is to use on stairs and also shows how you can easily attach the tools (so they don’t get lost).

The image below shows how you can carry it up the stairs without tripping over the cords and hoses. It also shows how easy it is to store.

The photo below shows three great advantages to the vacuum (helps allergy sufferers, costs less to run and, guaranteed for two years).

The photo below reminds you that not having to buy filters (a key benefit to the vacuum) will save you money.

I’m hooked

I was already convinced that Dyson made a great vacuum, but after the purchase is when Dyson converted me into a fanatical customer.

I think this lesson can be applied to almost any business. Take time to remind your customers why your service or product kicks ass after they buy it. It will turn your loyal customers into die-hard fantatics.

I’ve been trying a new strategy and holy biscuits, am I getting a lot done.

Every day, I grab about 10 things off my “This Week” list and put them on my “Today” list. Then (and this is the key) before I even open my email program, I try to knock at least two things off my Today list.

It works :)

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: email is a great way for other people, instead of yourself, to dictate what you do on a day-to-day basis. Take control by doing what you want to do, before responding to what others want you to do.

I used to hate the book How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. The whole concept sounded really selfish and almost a little “dirty”. Then my mom (who is the antithesis of selfish) mentioned that she had read it and that it was really packed with wisdom.

“Hmmmm … If Mom loves it, it must be quality,” I thought. So I grabbed myself a copy, and holy crap, it is packed with amazing advice.

“The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it”

That’s Principle #1 from the section “Win People to Your Way of Thinking”. Carnegie points out that as soon as you start arguing with someone, you’ve lost the fight. Have you ever been won over by someone who argues with you? I know I haven’t.

Basically, every single one of us gets defensive when we’re attacked - even if we know we’re wrong. Nine times out of ten, you’ll dig your heals in and fight back.

So if you’re trying to convince someone, the last thing you should do is argue with them.

It’s all about the Good Will

Sure, you may win an argument. But will that person have good will towards you? Probably not. They’ll probably resent the fact that you were right and that you proved it to them.

If you really want to convince somebody of something, before you start an argument, take a quick step back from the situation and try to see things from their point of view. Why do they think the way they do? Why should they switch to your point of view?

Happy new year everyone! Hope you had a wonderful holiday season.

I’m a big believer in setting goals. If you don’t do this, there’s no way to measure if your life is heading in the direction you want it to go. Every year, I sit down and have a hard think about my personal and business goals.

First of all, I think about my personal goals. Why do I nail these down before my business and work goals? Because I believe that business and work should help you achieve your personal goals, not the other way around.

I divide my personal goals into four areas:

1. Mind
2. Relationships
3. Body
4. Financial

After I’ve got those written down, I move onto business and work goals. I haven’t divided these up into categories, but if that interests you, feel free to do so.

Make them measureable

A really important part of setting goals is to make them measureable. You want to know for sure if you did or didn’t achieve them at the end of the year.

Here are some examples of measurable goals (good):

1. Excercise three times a week
2. Read one book a month
3. Achieve $10 Million in company revenue

Here are some hard-to-measure goals (bad)

1. Be more pro-active
2. Increase network of contacts
3. Be more positive

At the end of the year, you want to be able to look over your list and know whether or not you succeeded.

The most important thing about setting goals is that it allows you to step back from your life and look at the big picture. Are you happy with where your life is going? Are you becoming the person you always wanted to be?

Setting goals is a great way to pro-actively move towards being who you always wanted to be! Here is a sample of my 2007 goals:

Personal

1. Exercise three times a week
2. Read one book a month
3. Save £____ per month

Company

1. Increase profit by 30%
2. Have DropSend up to $20K revenue per month
3. Have £_____ cash in the bank

Feel free to share some of your 2007 goals below!

We’re launching two new events, in addition to The Future of Web Apps:

1. Future of Web Design (FOWD)
2. Future of … (can’t tell you yet!)

The Future of Web Design is in London and our other event is going to be in New York City. Gill and I are in NYC right now, pounding the pavement and viewing venues. What’s been most fascinating to me is learning about the business models of venues and hotels.

I love figuring out how other companies make their profits, cut costs and make business decisions. I think there’s always opportunity to gain from other’s wisdom and experience.

Here are a couple interesting things about the hotel/venue industry:

• They’re absurdly profitable on their guest rooms but make almost no money on their venue space. Therefore, they basically give away their venue space, as long as you fill lots of guest rooms.
• Hotels will use their venue space as a powerful way of selling guest rooms
• Venues that don’t have guest rooms look to make all their profit on the food and beverage
• They’ll try to sway you by throwing in larger rooms for you and your staff, if they haven’t sold those rooms already. They’re not losing any money, as the larger rooms would’ve gone unsold anyway, and they’re gaining your good will.

So the most valuable lesson I’ve learned? If you have something (product, service, etc) that’s going unused, find a way to use it to encourage potential clients to do business with you. Make that resource work for you, instead of wasting it.

After viewing the Waldorf=Astoria, their Head of Sales kindly treated us to Champagne Afternoon Tea. It was amazing! I know it was a tactic to help win our business, but it was still wonderful (and ironically, will probably make it more likely that we’ll go with them).

If you ever get the chance to talk shop with people from a business that’s totally different than yours, I’d highly recommend it. It’s a great chance to pick up tips for improving your own business.

Sheesh kebab! We are reaping a whirlwind of pain for not having a proper dev environment setup for FOWA.

Here’s the problem: when we launched the site, it was just Gill (my wife and co-Director of Carson Systems) and I FTP’ing files up to the site and using PayPal to allow people to buy tickets.

The new site has a mini web app (”The Lounge” - which allows attendees to network), a proper e-commerce system and a lot more pages than the original. It was designed by Apples to Oranges and built by Dave Stone. It’s hosted on a Rackspace server with Plesk installed.

Here’s the problem - we didn’t setup a proper Subversion repository and deployment script. Updates are a total nightmare now as there are three different parties working on the site.

Plan ahead

Here’s what we should have done (duh!):

1. Setup a Subversion repository
2. Make sure everyone on the team has their own username/pass to the repository
3. Get everyone setup with a subversion client
4. Create a development and live environment
5. Have a one-click deployment setup for pushing code from dev to live

The problem is that it’s a pain in the ass to get these things setup, so most people (including us) don’t do it for every site they have. It’s tempting to just get the site live and start working on it. “We’ll deal with it later!” I said.
Now I know - it’s absolutely necessary (and we’re currently getting this set up for FOWA, Vitamin and our other websites).