Super Bowl XLII is right around the corner and I’ve got front row seats! Well, not really. My front row seat will be on my nice, soft couch watching the game in high def on my Samsung DLP. You see, even though the game is just a few miles away from my home here in Phoenix, Arizona, I just can’t swallow $4300 PER TICKET! And that’s just the average going price. According to an article on Yahoo tickets are going for as high as $19,446!!!

It doesn’t take long to figure out who’s attending the Super Bowl these days. Like the local country club or golf course, the Super Bowl has has become a place where clients are schmoozed and deals are made.

So, what does the Super Bowl have to offer the rest of us? Half-time ads, of course! I’m sure we’ll see the typical beer ads and I’m betting our neighbor down the street, GoDaddy.com, will show their latest version of ’skin selling domain names’ (I guess it’s the only way to make registering a domain name interesting).

What I’m still waiting for… and hoping to see this year (or someday) is a great Super Bowl TV ad with a solid call to action. Successful small businesses almost always have a solid call to action in their marketing & advertising. Somewhere along the way, the big boys forgot or stopped caring about direct response marketing. Make sure as you grow your small business that your marketing and advertising doesn’t go the way of million-dollar TV spots that are viewed simply as ‘entertainment’.

A recently released book, The Illusions of Entrepreneurship, has me completely distressed (and I haven’t even read the thing yet!). In the book, economics professor Scott A. Shane shares some of the “less than pleasant” facts about entrepreneurship. As a precursor to the book’s release, a “quiz” circulated the Internet. You can find the quiz here.

Although I did poorly on the quiz, it didn’t bother me. I found the information interesting, nothing more. It’s okay that I’m not an “expert” on entrepreneurial statistics. Unfortunately, the quiz alarmed many would-be entrepreneurs. I read several similar blog posts which said, “This quiz/book makes you reconsider owning your own business.”

The quiz (and book) focus almost entirely on small business statistics. And, it’s true that most small businesses fail within the first 5 years. But, it is not statistics that cause failure. It is what business owners are doing (or not doing) that makes the difference.

Michael Gerber, author of The E-Myth (and Infusion Software endorser), exposed many entrepreneurial myths with the same cold, hard facts. However, by the time you finish his book, you feel like business ownership isn’t only possible, but exhilarating as well. And that’s the way it ought to be.

If you have a desire to own your own company - DO IT! Just make sure that you know the real causes of small business failure. Study what successful entrepreneurs have done. Read books by the experts. Learn the tricks of the trade, and then jump in with both feet. Don’t be frightened off because you don’t know the ratio of men to women who own their own companies!

I read something from Joanne Black the other day that’s been bothering me. I like Joanne Black. She’s the author of No More Cold Calling and I recommend her stuff. But she wrote a column the other day suggesting small businesses should throw out all the people in their database that are not highly qualified. In the article, she made the following comment that I think could lead some small businesses astray:

“We have to change how we talk about leads. Inquiries are not leads, people wanting free stuff are not leads, neither are those “coveted” lists or files of names. Calling these leads borders on insulting. Leads are people who are truly interested in talking to you about your product or service. They match the profile of your ideal client, they have budget, they have a need, and they are open to pursuing how you can help grow their business.”

In general, I agree with Joanne. Qualifying leads is important. And we all need to differentiate between a suspect, a prospect, a lead, a hot lead, etc. But my concern is that what she calls “trash” might be construed to mean “people who are not ready to buy right now.” This is seriously important. “Leads” that are not good today could be great tomorrow, or in six months, or in six years. Do you want to eliminate those folks from your funnel? NO! You just want to talk to them differently, nurture them until the time is right for those prospects. Unfortunately, most small businesses leave a ton of opportunity on the table because they disregard the suspects and prospects who are not ready to buy right now. I would argue that these folks ARE leads–they’re just not ready to buy right now.

It’s like the brilliant marketer Dan Kennedy has said many times: “The difference between salad and garbage is timing.”

Leads are a lot like salad.

I’m a big fan of conferences and events. Not the touchy-feely, rah-rah ones, but the events where you convince your spouse that it’s going to be good and then you travel forever to get there… and within the first hour you think to yourself, “I could go home right now and it would have totally been worth it!”. During 2007, I experienced a number of these events including Michael Gerber’s “In The Dreaming Room“, Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle “SuperConference” and “InfoSummit”, and a handful of others.

Recently, I had the opportunity to exchange emails with Ramon Ray with Smallbiztechnology.com. He has a an event/summit he is putting on in February that appears to be one of those ‘killer conferences’ every small business should attend. The lineup of speakers is impressive (Brent Leary, Anita Campbell, and many others). Michael Gerber told me once, “we are leaving the information age and are now entering the age of the entrepreneur.” Events like this are helping facilitate this new age and helping entrepreneurs and small businesses become more successful.

For more info about the event: www.smallbiztechsummit.com.

I was watching the 6pm news last night, and heard a story about the impact small businesses have on the job market. It related: how small businesses generate 60-80% of all new jobs and are at the heart of our economy, how a recession would impact small businesses, and, again, how much small businesses impact the economy- crazy circle talk!

They highlighted a small business owner in the NE somewhere who owns a gourmet food shop called Garlic & Oil. She sells mid to high-end gourmet food items. When the reporter asked her what issues she was dealing with, she listed: higher utility bills, higher delivery costs, higher product costs, and fewer customers. When the reporter asked her what she was going to do, she said (in this order):

1. Let go of her part time staff and work more herself-to cut costs
2. Open up on Sundays- adding another day to her already 6 day work week-to be more available
3. Somehow, someway get more people to come to her store- she needs more foot traffic. (Can you say, demand generation? )

She indicated she had about 12 weeks left (if things didn’t improve) before she would have to shut down her business.

Couple of thoughts- this was an interesting view of the “conversation going on in the heads of the small business owners.”

Her first reaction to pressure was- try to cut costs (overhead, and other costs.) Her second was to increase availability- which, if she was online, wouldn’t matter. Her third idea was to generate more demand to save her business- “more foot traffic.”

Obviously, this is a single business owner, however, there will likely be a TON of TSB’s that begin to fail due to the “recession.”If we could somehow begin to save them from failure- by using our services- we would be Heroes! Can you say Bold and Audacious?

I’m not sure how we would get the word out, but I literally wanted to call this women last night and say, “You need some help generating demand and using additional channels for selling, get and use partners etc., and last but not least you need our software to make all this easy- and cost effective.”

Food for thought!!

Contributed by Tyler Garns, Director of Marketing

At a previous job, I received a $2,500 prepaid American Express awards card for being amongst the top performing sales people. Since the expiration date on that card is approaching, my wife and I decided to book our vacation to Mexico for this March. We’ve had it all planned out for a few weeks now. We’re going to an all-inclusive hotel in Zihuatanejo - she can hang in the sun all day, and I can surf at some great spots nearby.

This weekend I went online to book the vacation and was shocked at how difficult it was. Orbitz had the lowest price for the vacation we wanted (air, hotel, and car rental) - $2,604. When my prepaid American Express card was declined, I figured it was because I went over the $2,500 limit. So, I called Orbitz and asked if I could charge $2,500 to the Amex and the rest to my Visa. The rep informed me that they don’t accept prepaid cards at all. STRIKE ONE!

So, I found the same vacation on Priceline except they didn’t offer the car rental. Their price was still just over $2,500, so I had the same problem. I called Priceline to see if they would allow me to split the charges. No can do. But they kept talking about their “best price guarantee”. STRIKE TWO!

Thinking about the best price guarantee, I went back to Orbitz and searched for the same vacation without the car rental. It ended up at $2,378. I was stoked! I figured all I’d need to do was get that info over to Priceline (since Orbitz wouldn’t accept my prepaid card) and have them “match” the “best price”. The lady at Priceline told me that I would have to purchase the vacation first at Priceline (for the higher price) and then submit a request for the “best price guarantee”. I told her my situation and asked if I could buy it first on my Visa, then when they did the “best price match”, they could refund my Visa and charge my prepaid Amex. She told me they could not switch credit cards for a particular vacation once its been paid for. STRIKE THREE!

Doesn’t it only take 3 STRIKES and YOU’RE OUT? You shouldn’t be striking out when you’re trying to give people money. I was going nuts. All I wanted to do was give someone my money so I could take my wife to Mexico, and that was proving and impossible task!
Needless to say, I finally found a version of our dream vacation on Travelocity and they let me charge my prepaid card.

The moral of the story is - IF SOMEONE WANTS TO GIVE YOU MONEY for a service or product that you offer, FIGURE OUT A WAY TO ACCOMMODATE THEM. When I told the lady at Priceline that I was going to have to go somewhere else, her response was, “Well, thanks for calling”. Are you kidding me? I’m trying to give you $2,500 and that’s all you can say?

Crazy!

I love this time of year. Resolutions, goals and high hopes are all around us. And hopefully, their alive and well within us. For small businesses, it’s an especially good time to kick off new goals and habits… and resolve that this year will be the best year yet.

I read an article the other day by Rhonda Abrams that reminded me just how important the new year’s resolutions can be for a small business. I won’t rehash the whole thing–you can check it out for yourself.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/smallbusiness/columnist/abrams/2007-12-27-new-year-resolutions_N.htm

I especially liked her comment that as small business owners we should resolve to “market, market, market.” Couldn’t have said it better myself!

Okay, I know I have blogged about Apple products a lot lately (1st post, 2nd post). I just have to write one more blog about Apple and my new Mac Mini.

Over Christmas I got a Mac Mini to use with my home theater system as a media center computer. I have been using my D-Link DSM-520 with mixed results as my media center device/extender to listen to mp3s, watch video (limited) and view my photos on my main home theater system. The DSM-520 is an okay product. The latest firmware update makes it noticeably faster. Nevertheless, it is a little difficult to use. I have been planning on replacing it with a true media center PC for a while and as it turns out the Mac Mini is the perfect platform, well, almost - more on this in a bit.

Here is my Mac Mini setup:

• 2 GHz Intel Core-2 Duo CPU
• 4GB RAM
• Microsoft Media Center Remote Control

I installed the 4GB of RAM aftermarket. The Apple website does not specifically state that the Mac Mini will support 4GB RAM, but it works perfectly and shows up as 4GB in the Mac operating system. One word of caution, when I upgraded the RAM, I forgot to replace the tiny cable harness that connects the thermal sensor that is used to determine the unit’s fan speed. As a result, when I put it all back together the unit’s fan ran at full speed and was kind of loud. I took it apart again and reconnected the cable and now the variable speed fan works perfectly, and quietly.

I first used Apple Front Row as my media center platform. I both liked it and hated it at the same time. Front Row looks beautiful on my Samsung 61″ 1080P DLP screen. I guess you would expect nothing less than visual beauty from Apple. It connected with my local iTunes libraries and streamed any type of media, as long as the media type works in iTunes. This was one of the biggest problems - I can’t configure Front Row to connect with my networked non-iTunes folders and media to monitor for content. Front Row is also very limited in what types of media formats it supports. Essentially, if a media type works in iTunes it will work in Front Row. The problem is I have a lot of media content that won’t work in iTunes, and therefore does not work in Front Row. This is why I say the Mac Mini is the perfect media center platform - almost.

My solution was to use Boot Camp and I installed Windows Vista Ultimate which includes Windows Media Center. Windows Media Center also looks great on my DLP screen. However, one problem with the Windows approach is that the Windows OS only recognizes about 3.2GB of the 4GB of installed RAM. This is a known limitation of the 32bit version of Windows. Anyway, I also use the Windows Media Center remote control that comes with a USB infrared receiver base unit. It works great! With Windows Vista Ultimate I can easily connect to other media sources on my home network; like my home PC and my D-Link DSN-323 that has 1.5 Terabytes of storage space. (I’m always surprised how space much 1080P content takes up!)

Even if Windows Media Center didn’t support a lot more media formats than Front Row, the Media Center Remote is so much better than the little Front Row Remote Control that it makes the choice a no brainer.

Now I stream my mp3s, photos and HD video to my home theater system over speedy GB Ethernet using Windows Media Center. Oh, another great feature of the Mac Mini is the built-in S/PDIF digital output and input that I use to connect with my Denon AVR receiver for true digital multi-channel audio reproduction.

One small gripe with the Mac Mini is that it only comes with DVI video output instead of a HDMI port. I know I can get a DVI-to-HDMI converter, but it would be nice to have native HDMI support.

I’ve been using the Mac Mini with Windows Media Center for about a week now and I love it! My wife, Deanna loves it too. That’s always nice! I named it “Marc-Mini” on my home network which I know is kinda nerdy, but hey, It’s my network. The Mac Mini is an awesome small form factor computer that works perfectly as a media center computer with Windows Media Center and looks great in any home theater equipment rack.

Great job, again, Apple!

The development team is growing! This last quarter we expanded our office space and the development department moved into our new development room. The team is loving it! To give you an example of what we were up against before, we worked in a back office that had little air-conditioning with a constant beeping noises from the alarm system. Our only window looked into the server room here at our office. Don’t get me wrong, it was a great view of our servers, but the new room has many large windows to the outside. Also, our team shared multiple offices and some cubicles so we were all spread out.

Our new room is awesome! It is one large open room with an extra office that we use as a conference room. We bought new furniture and decided not to use cubicles. Why, you may ask? Because we’re a team delivering an awesome product, so we wanted to make sure communication and team atmosphere screamed from our office. The team was excited to finally get all together in the office. In addition, the QA and Systems teams now join with the Software Engineers to allow for a quicker process for getting things done. Instead of just sending emails, we yell out at other to get things done. Talk about line-of-sight reporting.
Not only is the atmosphere great, it looks great. We purchased some couches for the presentation area, a HD projector and drop-down screen and some other chairs for team training. We have whiteboards everywhere to facilitate innovation, creativity and communication.

When others in the company walk into our room they don’t want to leave. In fact, we’re considering charging for people hanging out in our department. As we bring others in our new office space, like business partners, recruiting candidates and our customers visiting our office they all remark what a great development room we have.

We love our office and take pride in it! It is already clear that with this new space the efforts between the several teams within my department are more synchronized. Our team is stronger and our moral is great.

Infusion Software rocks and it is the best place to work. We look forward to telling more about the dev room adventures.

I wrote about some things that I like and also some gripes I have with Apple products a few months ago: http://infusionblog.com/technology/i-love-apple%e2%80%a6-almost/. Since then I have purchased an iPod Touch and a Mac Mini and I love them both! I will write about the Mac Mini in a follow up blog.

A lot of the guys in my department got the iPhone when it first came out. I really liked the iPhone, even with the some of the deficiencies I mentioned in my previous blog. My biggest barrier to getting an iPhone is that I already have T-Mobile service and I like my Samsung Trace handset. So I didn’t want to jump to the iPhone since Apple is locked-in with AT&T service. So the iPod Touch gave me everything I liked about the iPhone, but without the phone service.

I really like the My iPod Touch! I got the 16 GB Model. It has twice the memory of the best iPhone and it has the great touch screen interface that is a pleasure to use. It is also much thinner than the iPhone. The wireless Internet browsing with Safari is surprisingly easy and - dare I say - fun to use. Interestingly, instead of using my home PC or the laptop at my kitchen desk, I find myself sitting on my couch at home in the evenings browsing my daily blogs, news and RSS feeds on my iPod Touch.

The video is probably my favorite feature of the iPod Touch. A few weeks ago I watched Transformers on a flight to Chicago. Everyone sitting around me was straining their necks to check out the device. Battery life was very respectable. At the end of the flight of almost constant video use I had about 60% battery left. Not bad!

The entire time I was on the plane watching the video I kept wishing I had a little stand or cradle that would hold the iPod Touch in landscape format so I could watch the movie without having to hold it. As it turns out Apple includes a little plastic stand with the iPod Touch and I just didn’t know what it was for when I opened the box. Click the following link to see some good pictures of the iPod Touch and the little plastic stand that comes with it at the following review site - here.

It would be nice to have a camera in the iPod Touch like the iPhone has, but the bottom line is the iPod Touch is a great little device that I love!

Well done, Apple.