If you’re in business, then you know that your customers are the ones that keep you in business.

How can you build your business then?

1. Before your paying customer walks out the door, ask them if they’d like to be added to your database.

2. When someone visits your website, offer them a free report or gift in exchange for their email address, which will add to your database.

3. When you go to networking events, and you’re handed a business card, ask if you can add them to your database.

4. If you’re out shopping, and get to chat with someone, and if you think you can help them, ask them if you can add them to your database.

5. Whenever you get an email from someone, even if its unsolicited (!), add that email address to your database.

6. If someone phones you with an enquiry about your products or services, ask if you can add them to your database.

7.  I reckon you can think of lots of times when it will be beneficial to you to ask if you can add that name or email address to your database.

And the main key thing here?

That’s correct – your database.

In the points above, you’ve identified basically two types of contacts. The first is the customer that just bought from you, and the rest are leads.

You’ll want to add a status indicator in your database to let you know which type of contact that entry is. They’re either someone who has bought from you (a customer) or someone who hasn’t yet bought from you (a lead)

In your communications with these contacts, you’ll want the status indicator to define the message you’ll send out, whether it’s by email or postal mail (or even phone call).

So start that database right now. Even if you start with a real live paper notepad and pencil, just start that list.

If you need me to help you plan a “system” for recording those details, feel free to get in touch, or leave a comment below.

Call me odd, but I love databases. Installing them, creating tables in them, adding data to them, querying that data using SQL, creating reports etc.

Heaven on a stick – I must be sick.

So, what’s the difference between a database and an information system, and how can they help you?

A “database” (an all encompassing term) is really just a list of things.

These things might be customers, books, videos – almost anything really. A list of debits and credits. A list of the things you have for sale.

A lot of people use a spreadsheet because it has columns that line up nicely – and voila!

A list.

This spreadsheet might contain names and addresses – really useful when you want to do a mail merge.

I’m sure you’ve seen a spreadsheet with names and addresses in it – you probably even have one of your own. You probably call it a list of customers. Congratulations if you do, because you’re storing details of the people who buy from you.

And do you know what else you’re doing?

You’re creating an asset for your business – we’ll talk more about that later.

And your customers buy stuff from you and you probably record that transaction in an accounting system, like MYOB or Quickbooks. This is essential so you know where you stand from a financial and taxation viewpoint.

But wait!

There’s a problem here.

You now have two areas where your customer details are. One set of customer detail is in your spreadsheet, and the other set is in your accounting system.

Lets stop for a moment and think of all the ways you can use the details of your customers to earn more money for your business. (I am including customer purchase details here as well, just to round it out.)

As you’ve learned, you can do mail merges to your customers. Chase up late payments, send status of back-orders, introduce new products and services, send special offers – anything you can imagine.

You can email your customers (quicker, and saves paper – environmentally friendly!) the same type of information you’d do with a paper mail merge.

You can tell where most of your customers are located, by suburb, or postcode, or if you sell internationally, even by country.

You can see what your customers have bought, and what the best selling items are.

Now, your single database of customers and their purchases is starting to look more and more like a real information system, not just a list of customers in a spreadsheet.

Lets have a look at some of the other things that you might want to do.

Click a button on the screen and have your website updated with new and changed products. You’re already storing the details of your products and services in your current system, so it makes sense to update your website from the source instead of typing everything in again.

Doesn’t it?

@sharonpakir tweeted:

“have spent many hours trawling through entire customer database and spend patterns to glean reward structure!”

Can you (or do you want to) do the same?

Of course you do, but you really shouldn’t need to spend so much time on it.

What if there were a better way?

Just watched a great interview with Emil Eifrem from neo4j.org

And this is where it gets really exciting….

Imagine a world where one data storage mechanism allows you to connect all your seemingly random data into one cohesive whole, and be able to query it later.

This is something I’ve been working on for a long time.

The trouble is, there seem to be so few releases of something that can just be installed out-of-the-box, like every other desktop application – ie: double-click Setup.exe and away you go. (And yes, you may have guessed that I’m predominantly a Windows user/developer. )

But Emil’s interview really struck a chord with me, especially with respect to his comment re relational databases, key/value stores and graph databases.

Each have their own place in managing data – data which can then be turned into information.

In my opinion, a lot of people confuse “data” with “information”

Data is the raw sequence of bytes that define a value. The name of your customer, the value of their transaction.

Information, on the other hand, is the end result of analysing that “data” and presenting you with reports, real time dash-boards etc, of what is happening with your business.

Most small businesses use an accounting package to record sale and purchase data to give them cashflow reports etc. And sadly, that seems to be where small businesses stop. Just get the data in, produce a report, and give it to the accountant to do the tax return.

While that’s extremely important, there exists an opportunity to capture so much more data about your customer than you may realise. And sadly, there is no way to capture that wealth of extra data about your customer if you stick with an off-the-shelf accounting product.

New versions keep getting released certainly, but at what cost? Training, upgrades, even downtime all figure into the equation.

There’s more to running a business than just keeping the books.

And don’t for a minute, think that I think less of the professionals who look after your business reporting and lodgement needs. Far from it. I don’t know about all that stuff, and don’t want to! That’s what they’re paid for, and they do a damn good job in my view.

But there needs to be something extra to bring in more dollars, more often.

Its not advertising (although that’s important to get new customers) but your focus should be on your current customers.

How much do you know about them? Their likes, their dislikes, their anniversary, what car they drive?

Imagine the possibilities that open up when you know more about your customers.

But here’s the rub.

Where do you store that extra data? Yes, some packages have additional add-on products that you can use.

But they’re really generic, and you’ll find yourself morphing your business into the way the software works, rather than the software allowing you to define how you want to store data, and retrieve information.

What or which or how, do you need something that will let you do that?

Please let me know in the comments, because I have so many ideas in my head!

Thanks very much – your comments will be much appreciated.

Huge announcement yesterday by Facebook.

http://ow.ly/1BAEM

This is all OK as long as you use FaceBook as your primary platform to connect with whoever does business with your business (and with FB Ad’s, you have another advertising stream certainly)

And this is all good as long as you know what Facebook is, and how you leverage it.

But if all that stuff leaves you cold, and you just want to know how to leverage the wealth of data that streams into your business each and every single day, please have a look at this graphic I drew about the relationships between “things”

(Still trying to get to grips with uploading images from my new pen that saves drawings… )

I am convinced that Totally, as a desktop application, can provide the tools you need to “model” real-world connections between “things” and be able to save and report on them.

Data.

Data.

Data.

No, not the character from Star Trek.

I mean, raw sequences of computer ones and zeros that represent real world things.

First names, last names, street addresses, phone numbers, current balance, arrears, sales this quarter, date paid to, last sale date, credit balance, birthday, anniversary….. you name it.

Data is out there for the taking, but are you taking it from your customers?

A virtual cornucopia of information is at your fingertips.

But are you leveraging the data that you are leaving on the table (or counter, or cash register location?)

STOP!

STOP what you’re doing and do THIS instead:

ASK your customers for their information.

You can start off simply by asking your customer for their first name and email address. That’s probably just enough, given everyone leads such a busy life nowadays.

But hey! That’s all you need!

Now you have their first name, and their email address. And this is important.

You now have implicit permission to email them – after all, they just gave you their email address!

Alright, so now, here’s the next step.

DON’T ABUSE their trust in you.

Put their details into your auto-responder or whatever system you have, but don’t BOMBARD your new customer with “specials” every day of the week. They’ll simply unsubscribe. (Hey, your auto-responder does allow them to unsubscribe doesn’t it?)

Fill up your auto-responder with messages to your new customers – these should probably be something generic like hints and tips about how to get the most out of their most recent purchase with you….

HEY!

That opens up a whole new kettle of fish doesn’t it?

Did you capture the data about what your customer just spent their money with you on?

For example, I bought some canvas and paints as a gift to my wife for her birthday, because she really likes painting her “masterpieces”

But the store I bought from simply took my money, gave me a crappy thermal printed receipt, and that was the end of the transaction.

Imagine a different scenario:

brad, of email address someone@somewhere, on dd/mm/yyyy, bought x of y paint, z of b paint, and t of w canvas. brad also bought 250g of mint chews.

Why not send brad an auto-responder sequence about how to get the best out of the paints he just bought?

Or even, brush care.

Or caring for your canvas once its painted. (Hint – lacquer layer to protect said canvas)

But – back to store economics for a moment.

Of course, the store is going to look at the raw data of products on shelf versus sales of those products.

We bought $xxxx worth of paint @ $rrr, and sold $yy of it @ $ddd.dd.

We bought $hhh of mint chews @ $dd, and sold $gg of it @ $kk.

Obviously, the reports going to management are going to reflect just the hard sales data.

But why aren’t most retailers capturing their customer data, analysing the sales data, and offering extra incentives to come back to the store to buy more?

Like me.

I bought x of y paint, z of b paint, and t of w canvas (for my wife’s present). I also bought 250g of mint chews (for myself)

So, if this store had captured my personal details, they may well have another chance to entice me back to their store to purchase more paint and canvas (instead of more mint chews) or even a lacquer layer to protect said wife’s masterpiece!

It beats all my comprehension that most companies DON’T DO THIS!

Are you one of those companies?

How much money are you leaving on the table by not interacting with the “customers” who just bought from you? If they never hear from you again, they’ll be more likely to shop elsewhere, because you’re just one of many that provide the same products and services….

It all boils down to “differentiation”

How different are you to your competitors? Do you simply do the “grab the money and run” gig, or do you really care about your customer base?

How much more money can you extract from the customers who see you as the leader in your field? Are you that leader?

Its entirely up to you, but I’d prefer to see you still in business five years from now, rather than crash and burn in twelve months, because of the constant “get more customers” syndrome.

So have a think about all of the above, and let me know what you think in the comments.

To your success!

I have decided to use this website as a “case study” to show you, in real time (or over time – LOL) how much what I have to say (and how much I implement what I learn from others) actually turns into dollars.

This is going to be an eye-opening journey – you’ll learn from the “best of the best” in internet and direct marketing, (and of course, my own knowledge of databases and all that good stuff.)

Let’s begin at the beginning (and what a good place to start)

The  question needs to be answered: “What do I want to achieve?”

I’d like to help other people move out of where they are (in deep debt and angst and despair and worry) into somewhere else that gives them comfort, peace of mind, and prosperity. That’s what I want to achieve.

To get to that point, I need to define what I mean by success.

How to define success? (You can answer this question in the comments, if you wish)

Success to me is just two things at this stage in my life:

1. Having enough money to pay my bills on time.

2. Not having to worry about a  “transaction declined” message at a local retailer when I buy something using my savings account.

That’s really all it boils down to, for me, at this stage in my life.

You can see where I’m going with this, can’t you?

Correct. And here is the utmost honest truth of my whole endeavour:

I can’t achieve my success unless you pay me for giving you information that will help you achieve your success.

Now we know which side of the fence we’re on. I hold nothing back. I am open and transparent about what I want. But remember this – you are the entire reason I am doing this. I want to help you achieve the success you want.

Here’s the truth: I have a job from 8:30am to 5:00pm with 30 minutes for lunch. Its a fun job and I enjoy it. But it doesn’t pay a great deal. I’m not complaining mind you – I have been given an opportunity, I work with some really nice people, and I meet some really nice people too.

But everyday living costs are constantly rising, and I know that everyone is in the same position.

So I ask myself: what can I do to help myself, by helping others?

Two things spring to mind.

a) I have a background in database creation and software development.

b) I really want to help new startup businesses avoid some of the pitfalls of starting a new business.

So I’d like to end this post here by saying that, over the course of the next few weeks, I’ll be telling you about myself and where I’ve been and what I’ve done, and also analyse what I’ve done wrong for so many years. (And because of that, ended up where I am now…. )

So please join me in this journey – it may just help you be successful in what you want to achieve.

And remember, until you define success for yourself, you won’t know when you achieved it.

Until we meet again,

All the very best to you and your endeavours.

This is going to be fun!

Oh, and please leave a comment about what success means to you.

Hi gang

It was suggested to me (thanks Jake!) that I should show you just what I do, and perhaps you can see how you might benefit from what I can build for you.

Here’s a short video I did that shows how to ask Quickbooks for a list of customers – not completely useful in this trivial example, but you’ll get a feel for just what a customised information system can do for you.

Be gentle with your comments – its the first video I’ve done – the production and audio levels etc need some work, but I’ll get there!

So, without further ado – here it is.

You probably get sales letters like these all the time. You know, lots of paragraphs like “TransX Inc. will be recognised as the most progressive enterprise in the transportation business. We will offer our customers cost effective transportation service within geographical areas and market segments …”

Couldn’t they just have said:

“We ship your stuff from here to there for a great price.”

No fluff here then – just my sales pitch:

Here’s what I’ve got for you:

A lot of computer code that is sitting on my computer just waiting to be used, the skill to put it all together, and the experience of working with small business and large business to make their information needs a reality.

Here’s what it’ll do for you:

Mow the lawn. Take out the rubbish. Make the tea.

Well, no it won’t do any of those things, but it will allow you to do these things:

* Streamline your operations, often with just a few simple mouse clicks. Here’s an example:

One of my customers receives a CSV file each month with call data records. They click a button that totals all those call data records for each of their customers and adds fees and charges (monthly and pro-rata). Another mouse click builds a data file for uploading to the eVolve payment processing website. Another mouse click processes the results that come back from eVolve. Another mouse click generates multi-page invoices (invoice summary, call data summary and call data detail) for printing (or emailing). The last mouse click then creates invoice records in Quickbooks automatically.

Total: Five mouse clicks.
Original time on task: Approx 2 weeks.
New time on task: About 3 hours (the majority of which is folding invoices and stuffing envelopes for postal mail)

* Be able to say “Right! I’m off for the afternoon!”

Here’s who I’ve worked for in the past, or have sold my solutions to:

* ALPG – the Australian Ladies Professional Golf.
* Satpac – a satellite phone services reseller.
* Toronto Public Library, Canada.
* DigitalEye Web Design.
* The Australian Federal Parliamentary Library.
* The State Library of NSW.
* Murdoch University.
* Armers Body Shop.
* The NSW Parliamentary Library.
* Branson Brown Associates

Here’s what I do:

Build information systems that create value for my customers by reducing time or expenses (or both), at an affordable price. (Not quite fluff, but I have to have a mission statement somewhere!)

Here’s what I don’t do:

Remove viruses or worms or spyware, set up printers or crawl under desks (I’m not that young anymore, and my knees are shot). I assume your systems are already secured and functional.

Here’s when I’m available:

7am to 6pm Monday-Friday, 7am to Noon on Saturdays.

Here’s how much I charge:

Just a minimal retainer of $275* per week (project based, 4 week minimum) – no hourly rates – ever. This will save you a fortune over traditional approaches. (I can see the calculator in your mind already….)

Here’s what I want you to do now:

Call me on 0418 192 671 or (07) 3278 7440 or email me at bradzoo647 at gmail dot com to have a chat about how we can work together to make your business a lot more fun and profitable.

Now, where are my golf clubs? See you at the 19th hole!

* Retainer quoted is base level, and subject to change according to your requirements and time frame.

How Totally integrates with Microsoft Office.

I decided to tackle this one first, because I believe it shows the power and flexibility of Totally when it comes to working with information.

We all know the drama (unless you’re very, very fastidious, or you already have a system of storing documents on your hard disk!) of saving a file, then wondering where you saved it when you want to open it again.

Totally lets you forget about that, and stores your documents in its database – and when you choose Open from Totally’s File menu, you’re presented with a list of documents that are already stored.

Totally Microsoft Office Integration

So select Open from the File menu, and you see this:

Load a file from the database, or from disk

Highlight the file you want (these have already been saved to the database) and clickk the “Load From Database” button.

Here’s what you’ll see:

A Word document open inside Totally's MSOffice Integrator.

You can then make any changes you wish, then you just click Save and Totally will save the updated version back to disk.

I’ll put up a video so you can see it in action in due course.

What do you think of this?

Would this be something you would use?

Please leave a comment, or a suggestion or idea, and I’ll get back to you.