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The Great Cart Review Continues
We found two carts that we like so far, which look like they’ll be sustainable. One has a fussy (but flexible) templating system, the other is more standard, though less flexible. The backends are the same – both are surprisingly navigable, though the terminology isn’t exactly intuitive, and both are highly functional cart systems, one with more choices than the other. For the first time, we’ll have two stable database cart options, one in the $500 starting price range – a first. We have that now for our CMS systems, but not for our cart systems, so this will be a benefit to our clients long term.
Carts have some functions that you expect. One is that there will be a functional installer. Sure, you still have to create the database, but the installer runs and creates the config file.
One of the systems did not have that. No documentation on their site about it either, they put it into the install folder instead. In the current technological arena, nobody OPENS an install folder to LOOK inside it, they point their browser to it instead! Not this one… You had to import the database file yourself, and set up the config.
Sure, I know how to do those things, they’d take me an extra 5 minutes or so to do. My point is, why should I have to? Every other cart does that for me. If that is left off, what else is left off? How much can I trust the rest of the software, or the development team to see to the needs of the user?
I did not even install it. I deemed it unworthy of my time, based on the fact that the first function I expected from it was missing.
Fair? Maybe not. But that is the reality of business, software, and the web. If you lose someone on step 1, they’ll never get to see how great step 2 is.
So after a long day of sorting through cart systems, I have two that are worth offering. Neither one was even available as a viable option a year ago when we last made this search. This time though, I’m more experienced in seeking out information about carts, and how to assess them. I searched for several weeks last time, and was able to do most of it in a day this time.
So, we’re now offering a deep discount on the first client site builds in these two systems – one a functional but lightweight system, one a full featured system. First come, first served.
Note: The opinions expressed in this post are the perceptions of the writer, and should not be interpreted or quoted as fact without corroborrating evidence.
Our Philosophy Behind Using CRELoaded, Joomla, and CMSMadeSimple
We use free Open Source systems. We don’t do so to be cheap, but merely as a way of producing affordable solutions.
I know that my clients will not be able to afford or justify a yearly subscription fee, and most cannot afford software fees at all unless they are just for a few necessary add-ons. They already have to pay ongoing fees for maintenance, to keep the site software updated. One more fee on top of that is a deal breaker for them, and I know that it will be for others also.
By becoming “just another commercial cart”, I believe that CRELoaded will lose a huge portion of their user base. That, in turn, will reduce the viral nature of a good Open Source project. Joomla, and CMSMadeSimple, which are the other two major software systems that we build site solutions around, do not have any indication of going commercial, though they do have some commercial enhancements.
There are other projects, still free, which have been nipping at the heels of CRE for a long time, and which have made significant progress in the last six months. Our company will be testing those, and adopting the most flexible solution. We have no choice with the market we serve. I’ll report on what we find when we make a choice, and I’ll start testing the two most promising ones today, in between working on a Joomla template.
Our clients give back a great deal over the long term. But they use freely available Open Source software as a means of getting a foot in the door, until they have the means to give back. In the mean time, they are donating time and service, volunteering to move good projects forward, and giving in other ways while they do not have money to give. They are people worth helping, and we keep our own service prices low by building site solutions using Open Source software.
Our company gives back also – we support and assist with several Open Source projects, offering documentation assistance, usability help, and promoting them. We aren’t parasites who are just complaining about the loss of a free tool. We’ve invested in every system we’ve used, and provide training, tips, and encourage their use with both clients, and colleagues. Each system we use has a section in our Trade Association pages, where we are assembling resources and tools for them.
We are not the only company out there that promotes Open Source software, nor which contributes to it. When an Open Source project moves from a freely usable business model, to a commercial business model, they lose a large portion of their user base, and an equally large portion of their contributor base. Active members drop from the help forums, abandon the Wiki, and contributing developers wander away to more promising projects. After all, why should they contribute freely to a project for which someone else makes money but they do not? And why should they develop paid contributions when the likelihood of sales are much lower?
I faced the same issue with Front Porch Folks. I could develop it around a free membership model, a paid membership model, or a combination with free and Premium memberships. Before I made the final decision, I took a poll of the membership. Even though the free model meant ads in places that reduced the value of their membership, most members voted for an ad based revenue model. We had to think creatively to make that work within the structure of that site. But it was worth it, because the support of the members is very strong. They know now that we listen to them, and that we’ll be responsive to their requests. Most of the new members that come in are doing so from promotions that the members are initiating. They know we have to make money from it to keep it going, and they don’t mind that. They just want the most open community possible for networking, and that happens best by keeping it free. The same holds true of Open Source – indeed, that is the power in it.
It is also not wise to load every kind of revenue generation into a project. If you are going to charge for the service, then don’t plague the users with ads at every turn. They already paid for it, and built-in ads that are not a genuine service to the user should be left off.
There is no perfect solution to it all, it is going to be hard any way you do it. But I believe that in this current economy of high competition, and plentiful freebies, that some businesses and products will simply be stronger, and healthier, and be able to earn more, if they remain with a free option.
Note: The opinions expressed in this post are the perceptions of the writer, and should not be interpreted or quoted as fact without corroborrating evidence.
CRELoaded Just Flushed Itself
Version 6.3 was released. No upgrade path is offered for recently purchased versions of the B2B version, and they do not yet have a B2B version.
More importantly, they are now charging on a yearly subscription instead of a lifetime fee. And they are charging $99 for the version that used to be free. A huge percentage of their most ardent defenders will be dropping off the CRE map.
The bug reports are starting to flood in as well. Obvious things. This makes one wonder how well they tested it before greed got the better of them and they decided to release it in the paid version.
We’ve noticed other changes lately also, which speak ill of the company.
1. They put a merchant account signup into the install process. They made it look like part of the install process, with just a very tiny “skip this” link at the bottom. I don’t have a problem with them monetizing things, but this is deceptive. If you fill it out, it doesn’t help you anyway, it just results in a sales call a month or so later.
2. They now sell templates from the inside of the design area in the system. The company that sells them is obscured, it uses an affiliate link and a generic URL, with private registration. It also offers an “exclusive license” with no reports on who else has purchased the template first – so the word “exclusive” is misleading and dishonest.
Add that to lackadasical development, and you come up with a picture of a company that I want to do business with less and less.
Up to this point, we have used and recommended CRE because of the available Open Source carts, it is the simplest to configure, and the most sustainable. It isn’t by any means close to what is really needed, but at least it can be maintained without costing the businses owner a fortune in custom file alterations each time an upgrade has to be done (can you say “Cube Cart”), and without something as clunky as Zen cart’s unintuitive setup and template overrides (which still have to be hand edited if an update includes any of those files).
Sad to see something with some potential go this way.
Note: The opinions expressed in this post are the perceptions of the writer, and should not be interpreted or quoted as fact without corroborrating evidence.
Another Garden Analogy
There is a scriptural reference to seeds that are scattered in good soil, and bad soil, or which receive favorable or unfavorable conditions in which to sprout and grow. It refers to faith – but it makes it very clear that seeds need a good start, and careful tending, to grow. I often think that we ignore this simple truth many times with business, from ignorance, lack of motivation, distraction, impatience, or even greed.
So, in tribute to the comment made by Mitch Allen on my blog post titled Business is Like a Vegetable Garden, I’ll expand on this thought.
I think we often just toss the seeds of business out the window, hoping, like Jack, that they’ll sprout overnight into a great stalk that reaches a pot of gold hidden in the clouds. But Jack is just a fairy tale. Nothing good ever grows that easily.
Many of us, when the first seeds don’t produce the miracle we wanted, will turn around and throw some more seeds out the window, in the vain hope that they’ll sprout and grow by themselves. We may make a token effort to weed or water them, then we give up because they didn’t sprout soon enough, or bear soon enough.
We fail to take the time to clear a suitable spot for them, and to determine that we will give it the time each day to nurture and care for the seeds before they sprout, and then to care for the seedlings until they bear fruit.
Later, we fail to be patient while the plants are growing – we just want the good stuff, and are not content to see the almost imperceptible growth, and accept it as a promise that there will be good things to eat soon.
Whether you plant in pots, or in the yard, you have to follow through, and not get too distracted or impatient. Otherwise, our efforts only result in barren ground where there should have been growth.
Would You Hire the Invisible Man as Your Marketer?
Or better yet… Would you hire a MUTE Invisible Man as your marketer?
A lot of people approach marketing just as if they were invisible, and mute. You wouldn’t hire someone to market that way for you, so why would you BE that way about it?
In order to market successfully, you have to be seen, and heard, over and over. Not in an obnoxious way, but in a consistent and dependable way. You have to BE there. You have to say intelligent things.
- You have to be where your target market is.
- You have to say things that let them know what you have, that they want, in a way that helps them understand why they might want to get it from you.
Silent invisibility is not a successful marketing strategy. It won’t get you out the door! More businesses die from lack of effective effort than die from bad effort. Smart people learn from bad effort, so even the wrong thing is better than nothing! At least you’ll be moving, and learning what doesn’t work!
- It means that you have to get out, meet people, and keep showing up if you are marketing offline.
- It means that you have to post to forums, networking guestbooks, and fill out your profile on networking sites.
If you don’t, you are mute, and invisible. Where does that leave your business?
Realizing Again How Unique Our Business Really Is
Two years ago when I had the concept for our business, I felt it was unique. I also felt that it was badly needed, and that few others would do it unless we proved that it could be done, first.
So what is the big deal? Lots of web designers say they specialize in small business. Many offer $500 and $300 websites. But they weren’t doing it like we were – and they were struggling to make a profit on the small contracts.
We discovered that there are techniques, skills, and adaptations that completely change the equation for a small website. We learned how to offer a $500 website that contained everything that a small business owner needed, and that they’d usually have to pay more than $1500 to get. What’s more, we learned how to do it efficiently, so that we could still make a handsome profit at it. Everybody wins.
Most small business web professionals are not aggressively exploring ways to cut costs and make things more efficient. You don’t find efficiency being much of an issue until you get into the corporate world. So we are an anomaly – a small business, that works with other small businesses, but which is applying business process management to streamline operations.
That just isn’t being done by most small web designers. It doesn’t occur to most TO do it. If they struggle to keep up with the bills, they simply raise their prices, and eventually price themselves out of the microbusiness market.
I like the people we work with. I like them well enough to want to keep working with them. So I started studying the ROI and price breakpoints for them, specifically. I also analyzed the way we are doing things. When we hit a wall in the profit equation, we revisit the way we do things, we don’t raise prices first.
We also provide a range of services – not just a site design, but many types of sites, and all of them with basic copywriting, SEO, security features, and basic ADA accessibility. We help each client write a policies page, and to present themselves professionally.
I’ve tried to explain how different we are, to both other web professionals, and to customers. Customers don’t get it unless they have previous web designer experience – then they appreciate what we do. Other web professionals generally cannot even wrap their heads around it all, they cannot conceive that there could be a faster way to do what they do, which still results in quality service.
It feels pretty lonely sometimes. I have the whole thing in my head – but it is slowly getting out, and the tools we are developing are slowly making a difference to our clients, and to a few other smart people who have decided that maybe we can teach them a thing or two after all.
It is hard to shake the world when the world can’t even understand the hugeness of a concept, simply because they cannot see how big big really is.
Process Management and the Small Business
They call it BPM. It used to be called “systems management”. But the term “business systems” got corrupted, and the name changed for clarification. Business Process Management is nothing more than looking for repetitive task sets within a business, and developing a faster, more predictable process for making them more efficient.
BPM analyzes where the greatest time losses are occurring, and devises solutions to speed them up. Sometimes it involves software, sometimes training, sometimes better equipment, different office arrangement, etc.
You can do this in a small business, but you do it a bit differently, and the cost/benefit equations are somewhat different as well. It means looking at how YOU work, and making THAT more efficient. For a small business, standardized solutions may not work, especially if you are carving out a niche that is distinctly different than your competitors.
We realized early on that if we built websites like most designers, that we’d be losing money from the get-go, or we’d price ourselves out of our target market. Neither of those was an option.
Most designers start with a PhotoShop mock-up – a graphical representation of what the website will look like. Then after it has been approved and finalized with the client, they code it into the site.
We’ve built a few sites this way – sometimes it makes sense to do so. But mostly we don’t, because our clients cannot afford the extra hundreds of dollars that this kind of process requires. So we did it differently in order to make it more efficient and cost effective.
We design a header in PhotoShop, and the client approves that. We then discuss how we need the navigation to function. After that, we go straight to coding – of course, we don’t hand-code most sites, we start with a template that is functionally close to what we need. We install that, put in the header, change the colors and accents, tweak the CSS and we are done.
We recently built a design for a new client. We had a basic idea of what she wanted, and the colors she wanted. We were able to go from concept to approved design in about three days. If we had done it with a PhotoShop mockup, we’d still have been three days to the approvals, and then we’d still have had to code the design, which would have been another three to four hours of work to make the necessary changes. That’s a couple hundred dollars more that the client would have to pay, or that we’d lose. Not efficient. As it was, we finished the first portion of the contract in record time, and came out with a comfortable profit from the work.
We looked at what our target market needed. We then looked at the standard way of doing things, and at solutions for speeding that up. They were not sufficient, so we developed our own system for the process. It takes us through it in an organized way, and gets the job done quickly, but in a way that is still personal to the individual business owners.
A good business process can be streamlined in a way that suits your business, and your customers. It will keep the personal interaction that is most important, and systemize the parts that do not need to be personalized.
In our business, every single site install is the same. So we can automate and systemize parts of that.
Site design is personal. So we systemize that ONLY where it won’t affect the personalization of it.
Look at your own business. What are the things you are doing over and over again? How can you speed those up, what tools can you use to make it more efficient, cut out some of the headache, make the results more predictable, etc? And where is personal contact CRITICAL in your business? How will you build systems that protect that essential personal interaction with your customers?
Corporations put a lot of money into better Process Management. You can make many parts of your business flow more smoothly with just a little thought about how you do it, and by obtaining good tools that work for YOUR business. It doesn’t have to be a science of professional specialists. It can be used to benefit any business, at any stage.
Giving Credit Where It’s Due
When the good things happen, do you give thanks? Do you assume it is purely your charm and magnetism which brings good things into your life?
Are you thankful for the little blessings when you think you need a big one? And whom do you thank when you are giggly with glee over the latest good thing?
Gratitude is not just a means of increasing contentment, it is also a means of increasing the blessings in your life.
In the midst of hardship, we often focus on the negative. But sometimes we forget that while we feel we’ll sink any minute, we don’t sink, and not sinking is a great blessing. It is easier to cry that we didn’t get what we wanted than it is to say thanks because something worse didn’t happen, or to be thankful for pennies when we need dollars.
Every fall I ask for deer or elk. And every fall we get antelope. Antelope stinks, the meet is edible, but not at all tasty. You work just as hard to process an antelope as you do a deer or elk, but you end up with only about 25 lbs of boneless meat, instead of 50 to 100 lbs. That’s a lot of work for very little meat. Then you have to marinate it, and season it highly just to be able to swallow the stuff.
We made jerky one year, and sent some to a friend. He said, “I like it, but if I open the bag the smell of it will drive my wife from the room.” That pretty much describes antelope.
I have had to learn to be thankful for antelope. How can I expect to be blessed with anything better if I am not thankful for the small blessings? And antelope IS a blessing. It keeps food on the table that does not have the chemicals that make me sick. Sure, deer or elk would be MORE of a blessing, but I am happier when I acknowledge that even stinky gamy antelope is a blessing.
When a business contract is signed, a contract phase completed, when the client LIKES the design, when a client is pleased with our work, the credit is not solely ours. Yes, we made choices which contributed to the success, but a measure of it goes to the Lord. The greater measure, I believe.
Gratitude helps us see what is really there, instead of focusing on the negatives, and it helps us to receive more.
The application in business is directly relevant.
Dangerous Assumptions
Being human, it is easy to assume that the advantages we have are available everywhere. That the rules of marketing and business are the same everywhere. I’ve been guilty of making those assumptions, and I’ve been on the receiving end of many of them.
We’ve had some suggestions made for marketing our business which made assumptions. If we lived in a metro area, or in 80% of the other locations in the US, the assumptions would be true. But we live in an isolated area, and the rules are different here.
Local advertising does not work, due to the particular demographics of our business in relation to the areas we have to market into. Someone suggested we use a cell phone to overcome the limitation – fine and dandy, but a cell phone won’t work where we live – no signal.
I think the cell phone suggestion was the real eye opener. The person who suggested it could not imagine a place where there was no cell signal. It never would have occurred to them.
There are other things that can be unique to a particular region, business owner, target market, talent pool, etc. Assumptions are made with the belief that everything fits in a box. It doesn’t.
Consultants, coaches, and service providers have to really listen and find not only how their clients fit the rules, but how they DON’T fit the rules. Then they can give good counsel that tailors the solution to the client in a way that is successful.
It is in the exceptions that truly personal service is found, and where success is found for those who have to deal with those exceptions.
Wrestling With the Pig
“When you wrestle with a pig, both of you get dirty, but the pig enjoys it.”
Some people like to argue. The truth is twisted, and reality is warped to perpetuate the argument. It isn’t about what is good, true, or sensible. It is about putting down, insulting, and false superiority. Miserable people like to make other people miserable.
There comes a point in an argument when it is time to walk away. When you find that another person is oblivious to reason, and when you start feeling hateful toward them, it is time to back out gracefully. It is not necessary to “win”.
Often, leaving is the best choice – it says, unmistakably, “You will not control me.”
When another person is there for control, and for ugliness, they’ll enjoy the conflict, for the sake of conflict. There is no winning against that, because the goal is not to exchange, it is to control.
I’ve encountered this in networking, in business situations, and in family. Learning to walk away was very hard – and I still struggle with it. My mind engages with a good debate. But when it makes me want to win at all costs, I leave – because I do not want to become the other person.
I don’t need to get dirty.
The Fine Line Between Confidence, and Arrogance
I take challenges because even when I’m not 100% sure how to do something, I know I can probably figure it out. Experience has taught me that. Oh, I don’t take credit for that – I know that to be a blessing from the Lord, and give Him credit in it.
But it isn’t arrogance that makes me believe I can take on certain challenges and succeed. Arrogance would have me believe I could do anything at all, regardless of my own limitations. Confidence acknowledges the limitations realistically, and stretches amazingly within them.
I’ll never be a coder. It isn’t a LACK of confidence that persuades me of that, it is a knowledge that my strengths simply lie elsewhere. I’ll never play the piano either – again, my strengths do not lie in the realm of playing more than one note at a time!
I think that someone with confidence can view their limits realistically, and go forward to accomplish the things they need to accomplish, and much more. They take their strengths and magnify them into something amazing. The limitations do not hold them back, because they don’t waste time focusing on them. They are identified accurately, and then the person moves on to work around them.
Could I learn coding? Probably. I’d spend years just mastering the basics that someone who is gifted in that area could grasp in a day. That is not a worthwhile expenditure of my time! I have better things to do!
As it is, within my business, I know I am always capable of just a little more than I am doing now. I am not pompous about that, I just know that if I ask, I’ll learn, and the Lord will bless me in that effort.
It is a good place to be – it opens endless possiblities for challenge and success. And I like that!
I Love My Work, But I Don’t Love It All
I often talk about the importance of loving your work. But it does not mean you love every single bit of it, and you don’t have to in order to be happy doing it.
- Probably 10 to 20 percent of it is stuff you just look forward to doing, and that is the part that gets you up in the morning excited to go to work.
- Another 60 to 80 percentage is just stuff. Ok, part of your competency, part of the day, and tasks that are neither exciting, nor dreadful. Just there.
- The remaining 10 to 20 percent is stuff you dread, and do not want to have to do. You do it, because the part that you love makes it worth it to do the part you don’t love. Of course, this is the part we hire out to others as soon as we can!
I think that this concept is one that is misunderstood in many directions. Some people don’t realize the importance of finding a business that fills the hidden corners of their heart. But others get confused and think it all has to be fun and exciting. Either extreme is untrue.
Often, what makes me love what I do isn’t even the tasks themselves. It is what we accomplish. It has meaning, and it is worth doing. That is what makes the exciting parts that way, and it keeps me going when I have to face tasks that I dislike.
If I had the money to stop working tomorrow, I would not. I’d keep it up. I’d probably hire out some of the less interesting things, and many of the things I dislike doing, but I’d keep at it, because I truly love what I do.
When you find something you can feel that way about, you got the right thing.
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