Don't Jump Too Soon
Posted On: 2007-06-08
Oh boy it's Friday and this time I am definitely not looking forward to the weekend. Tomorrow night we're having around 50 people here for a surprise party for my parents. It's their 40th wedding anniversary and we kids decided that we would throw a party.
Family members from all over the country were invited and they're flying in today, all the food was organized, everything was under control ... and then it decided to rain and rain and rain some more. Did I mention that the party was going to be held outdoors?
Oh well ....
MSN
These days all we seem to hear about is Google. Google is buying this company, Google is releasing that interesting tool, Google is always in the news. Yahoo has been making a few waves too with things like Panama so their name has been out there as well but we haven't heard much about Microsoft on the web-tool front.
That doesn't mean that they haven't been busy though and if you head over to adlab.msn.com you'll see some of the things they have been working on. You'll see things like an ad writer that automatically generates text ads for any given URL.
There's a tool that detects online commercial intention, a demographic prediction tool, another tool that will detect keyword groups, a tool that will sort a set of search results into semantically related groups and a whole lot more too. I haven't had a chance to play with them but they certainly look interesting.
Don't jump too soon
This week we've been watching a rather sad event starting to happen as a local small business begins to unwind. The person behind the business is very very talented in what they do and there is a lot of demand for their work but they wanted to expand into other associated areas. They also wanted to move out of working from home.
To make the jump into those other areas they needed to employ another person - someone who could build websites and understood things like hosting and search engine optimization. Of course people like that don't come cheap and so to save money the small business person employed a kid straight out of high school.
The new employee is very enthusiastic, thinks he knows a lot and one day will be a valuable addition to any business ... but right now he's clueless and his ability to generate income for the business is limited.
On top of that I don't think either of them understands the importance of maintaining cash flow during the construction of websites for clients. To make matters worse it's already taken them three weeks worth of work for their first website and they haven't even reached the point of presenting the first draft to the client.
Then there's the move into new premises. Many people fail to realize just how expensive a move to an office situation can be. Even when you're out in that situation a move to another location can cost lots of money. The computer shop that I'm involved in will be moving to a bigger location shortly and we've budgeted around $10k to cover the move and that's using friends to help with some of the tasks.
If you're not prepared for major expenses like that then things like a move can take a huge chunk out of your bank balance and take away the financial resources. Your dreams of developing your business beyond the back room in your house can turn into a major nightmare very quickly.
If you are thinking of making a move like that then spend some serious time looking at all the costs that such a move will incur. Not only do you have the cost of fitting out the new office so that it is suitable for your needs but you also need to think about all the various forms of insurance you will need, the costs of electricity, telephone, Internet connections.
Those accounts will roll in month after month - do you have a plan that you can implement that will bring in the income to cover those accounts?
If you have to employ someone do you have the funds to cover that person's wages? Will they be able to instantly start generating income to cover the costs of employing them? Can you really afford to employ someone with the skill set that the position requires? Can you really afford to employ an enthusiastic amateur in place of someone with training and experience?
If your business is going to branch out into new areas do you really know enough about those new areas to make sensible decisions about those new areas? The business we're watching at the moment is run by a very talented graphic artist who thought that the text for websites was always provided by the client. They got quite a surprise when they were introduced to reality.
And there are many more things to consider before making a major decision like I've been talking about here. While most of us can't wait to be able to work from home that can become a little old after a while but making the jump out of the home and into an office can be a major disaster just waiting to happen.
So think things through and don't jump too soon.