I’ve seen companies set out to build ridiculously expensive in-house software, only to discover they could get a similar, even better system out of the box for cheaper or for free.  Software by nature isn’t cheap, but software built by a software company is more reliable than software built by your non-tech company.

Plus, do you really have the skills to build what you need?

Any software that you’re plugging into your business should be the simplest to use.  Most of the software out there has been over-built.  Think about Microsoft Word. The only stuff that many of us really need in Microsoft Word might be templates, maybe the text appearance tools, editing features and… what else? Not much. Get software that’s simple to use.  Obsess about the simplicity versus all the functionality it has.  Only let your IT team give you what you need.

It’s just like buying a DVD player or a luxury car with all of the functionality that you never use.  Think about that technology in your business as well.  The more functionality you buy, the more confusing that it becomes.  Strip down the functionality and it all works simply because it’s less confusing and less problematic.  Plus, it’s even easier than trying to build it yourself.

Anyone in a management role in any company should be using an iPhone, Droid or BlackBerry actually forget Blackberry they’re like disco (used to be cool).  If you don’t have one you’re missing out.  Synchronize it with your entire business.  You’ll have all your information with you at all times.

However, I recommend you turn off all the notifications.

You’d don’t need to know when every little email comes in.  You don’t need alarms for every single appointment.  Use it to control your business, don’t let it control you.

Smart phones used properly, literally make companies grow faster. Swallow your ‘I’m not into all that tech stuff pride’ and catch up to speed.  You can’t avoid it forever!

pic: ShinyPlastic

Here’s how you figure out technology: Hire a bunch of 25 year-olds! Seriously. Why are you trying to figure it out?  They already know it!

I was in an Apple store in Portland a few years ago to purchase a laptop bag and when I wanted to pay I was looking around saying, “Where’s the cashier? There’s no cashier!”  My buddy Josh, who was standing beside me (and 33 years old, I might add) said, “They’re different here!”

Josh then instructed me to put my hand up. As soon as I did, two people rushed over with hand-held terminals and asked, “Would you like to cash out?”

They took my merchandise, scanned the tags, swiped my credit card, and said, “Would you like us to email you a receipt or would you like me to print one out right now?”  No waiting in line, nothing.

The 25 year old tech-savvy generation make everything go a little bit faster and more efficient.

Scout for younger people on Facebook, Twitter or Craigslist.  Ask them to teach you little tech hacks to make your business run simpler and faster.  You don’t need to be a 20-something, just make sure you keep up with them.

At a speaking event I gave last night in Portland to a killer group of 100ish entrepreneurs, I gave them some awesome, easy to use technology tools they can use to grow their company.

I realized afterwards that there are tons of new ones that have popped up in the last few years that I don’t know about, yet.  Here are the ones I’ve been recommending.

So let me know…

What apps are you using?

What free tech solutions have you found to offset expenses you had ?

Speak up… I’d love to add your ideas to my talks…

In my experience, IT is brilliant, yet often disconnected from what customers or employees need. IT often installs the newest technology that no one needs.

Operations ends up having to deal with customer & employee problems related to this bleeding edge IT, and overhead increases too.

Do you need to change it ? Really ? Or does the same solution you’ve used for 100 years still work ? What do you think ?

Bill Gates had a great idea with getting a computer on every desktop, but he fell short with that goal.  Every company should have two to three monitors on every desktop! 

Think about how many seconds each hour that you wait for windows or a browser to open and close.  Add all of that open and close time together and you waste minutes each day.  Those wasted minutes would be completely obliterated by having multiple screens open at the same time.  And additional monitors don’t cost very much anymore – only around $150. The time saved and additional productivity gains well off-set that small investment.

I coach and mentor CEOs to use your additional monitors by having your web browser open on one at all times, and keep Google as your homepage (you likely use it more than anything else).  I keep Twitter as my homepage and I have a little Google Search bar in Firefox so I get the best of both worlds.  On your second monitor, keep your email open, but keep it open in draft mode.  I also set up my mail client to only sync and find new mail manually.  I don’t want it reloading new messages as they arrive.  I find that it makes it easier to only check a couple times a day when I don’t see new messages arriving.  On my laptop (the third monitor) I’d be using whatever application I’m working on (which happens to be Word, since I’m typing this right now).  Also, in using a Mac, I’ve set up ‘Spaces’ so I can have nine application windows open and very quickly shift between them.

Do whatever it takes to shave off ANY downtime so that you can perform even better.

I’ve had a wireless headset for my office phone for about eleven years now. LOVE it.  I’ve updated my model a few times now from a great resource, Headsets.com, and my favorites have all been the Plantronics brand.

I think best on my feet, and hate being chained to a desk.  A wireless headset for my desk phone is awesome because I can pace around while talking.  I can even use it three floors down from my office and walk out to the car with it.  When I’m coaching and mentoring CEOs I can pace around while I do the two hour coaching calls.

Whenever I’m talking to my lawyer on the phone I flush the toilet just to make him think I wasn’t paying attention!

My lawyer Scott: “Did you just flush the toilet?”
Me: “Yeah, that was the invoice you just sent me!”

Are you chained to your desk…

Pretty excited to get all these five brands on my laptop.  The first company’s stickers Media Temple arrived today.

Here is the 5th (and final company) sponsoring my laptop in 2010.  Their clients know that the most substantial advantage over the competition is employees.  Hire Better Solutions helps exceptional companies distinguish themselves through the execution of the best hiring practices from the top business thinkers of our time like Jim Collins, Brad Smart and Verne Harnish.

Empowers Leading Companies to Easily & Confidently Make Great Hiring Decisions

The other four brands to take laptop spots are:

Outsourcing Things Done , Maverick Business Adventures , Media Temple and Grasshopper.com Check them out.  I introduced them on earlier blogs too.

If anyone asks about their stickers, I’ll be sending them to whatever website/email address they want.

Another company is sponsoring the back of my iPhone too…

The logos will be in front of thousands of entrepreneurs and business people throughout North America.  And they’ll get tons of exposure on my Blog, Twitter, FaceBook & LinkedIn.

For more information on this topic, check out: Generating Free PR.

This can either be a great tool for companies or a complete waste of time and energy.  I’ve been using social media for years and I know what fits for my company and what doesn’t.  I’ve spent time thinking strategically about how I can leverage components of it and what not to use it for, too.

First order of business? Get on Facebook.  It may seem daunting at first, but you’ll figure it out, trust me!  If you don’t figure it out, it’ll figure itself out for you.  Just don’t get sucked into all the stupid stuff with it.  Put your business profile on Facebook and people will start finding you and linking to you, and all of a sudden you’ll realize that people are learning more about what you do and remembering more about what you do because of this social networking tool.  Don’t bother wasting time with all the silly stuff meant for teenagers – think of Facebook as a resume, except an interactive, colorful one. Ensure it shows the best side of you, but more importantly, the real you.  Start focusing your time on adding all the friends and business associates you know.  If you start with that, and reading the messages people put up, you’ll get the hang out of it.  If it makes sense for your company (it doesn’t for most) then get someone in marketing or sales to set up and manage a “Fan Page” for your company.

LinkedIn is the same thing as an online resume.  Get on there, too!  It’s the new way that people are networking.  I’ve been on LinkedIn for close to 10 years now.  People aren’t going to Board of Trade events to meet each other anymore.  They are way over that.  It’s a waste of time.  I don’t have time to go down to a Board of Trade, pay for parking, walk in, talk to bunch of suits, come back out and realize I’ve got all these business cards to type up.  Eeeeew!  The new economy doesn’t work that way.  You’ll meet a lot more people using the technology that’s out there online, and free.  You won’t build the one-on-one relationships using Facebook and LinkedIn but you will identify potentially useful connections faster, and set-up time to interact outside of LinkedIn. Set up your entire profile so that others can find you easily.  When you or your team are hiring people check out their profiles on both Facebook and LinkedIn, too.  You’ll learn a lot about them.

I’ve been using Twitter since early 2008, and rank in the top 2,500 people in the world to follow.  Follow @cameronherold and you’ll learn a ton about how to use the site for marketing and customer service.  And there are even tools now that allow you to use Twitter in private spaces, one of which is called “Yammer.” Set up Yammer and you can “tweet” inside your own company privately and have the same interaction you would on Twitter—just within your own parameters.

I’ve started using Twitter as my note-taking tool while at conferences.  It allows me to multi task: I share with the people following me while reminding myself of the important points in a presentation. I type each idea or thought from a conference into Twitter.  And at the end of the day, I simply copy and paste all of my tweets into a Word Doc.

Jump in.  It’s easier than you think.

For more information on this topic, check out: Generating Free PR.

To days ago I decided to sell 5 spots on my laptop to 5 great brands to advertise on for 2010 (4 are already taken, only 1 left).

Another company will be taking the back of my iPhone – so that’s now sold too.

The most recent two brands to take spots are:

3rd spot went to Media Temple – an awesome company that hosts websites for large companies like (Starbucks, Sony & Volkswagen) & small companies (too many to list

The company grabbing spot #4 is Grasshopper.com – Great brand that launched last year in an awesome way sending chocolate covered grasshoppers to thousands of bloggers & media.  They provide a virtual phone system designed for entrepreneurs.  Check em out.

The first two spots went to Outsourcing Things Done and Maverick Business Adventures who I introduced on the blog post before this one.

If you want your company name & logo in front of thousands of entrepreneurs and business people throughout North America and occasionally globally along with these four early adopters this year – move fast.

Only 1 spot left.

I’ll be speaking at dozens of conferences again, flying business class on all flights, and spending time in airport business lounges.  My MacBook Air is with me and pretty much always out and being used.  I take it out in all my meetings regardless of who I’m working with.

And I’m also planning to post about it the companies sponsoring my laptop on my Blog, Twitter, FaceBook & LinkedIn.

If you sponsor my Laptop for 2010, your logo will be seen by tens of thousands of influential business people & CEOs.

I’m also planning to get my laptop some press this year too…

It’s pretty widely known that my nickname is ‘Connector’ so you know I’ll be telling everyone that your company is sponsoring my laptop too.

The price for a spot is $2,500. That comes out to about $200 a month, or $50 a week. Your company logo will stay on my laptop all year, and you’ll “own” that piece of real estate on my laptop case.

If anyone asks about your sticker, I’ll send him or her to whatever website/email address you want. Want in? Email me – Cameron@BackPocketCOO.com