PetesWeekly

Our private lives define our businesses in more ways than we can dream of. Economics would have us believe that we are rational. Our human condition says that we are not.

For instance, I am defined by diabetes. I’m not going to give you an entire book on the subject, but the reason I am able to live in Norway is that I make my living through the Internet, able to talk to English speakers all over the world.

If I were to apply for a job in Norway, my lack of language skills would consign me to street sweeping in the snow – which is not quite what I left school for.

And the reason I have the skills that I have is because when I was diagnosed with diabetes 40 years ago I was told to expect a shorter life than normal, peppered with the occasional crisis. I interpreted this to mean death by 40, with a long illness en route. Before you start saying “Ag shame”, or shooting e-mails in my direction for being depressed, the point is that our perceptions are our reality.

It is those perceptions that drive us. In 1973 while in standard eight, before PCs existed, I read a novel featuring an old gent who ran his empire from his sick bed using computers. This seemed like a great approach to the problems of an long early journey, to the pearly gates.

So when PCs first arrived about 10 years later, I was ready. I was at the front of the queue. Heck, I started my first company so that my wife would allow me to buy a PC to run it! (My ex-wife doesn’t remember it quite that way.)

I am a child of technology. (Technology is anything that was invented after you were born.) But I see so many folk with nary a clue about how much help they can get free, using any of the great tools on the web.

One of the things we have most noticed while working with clients wanting to sell their wares on the web is that most have no idea what they’re doing, but this doesn’t stop them from having very firm opinions on the subject.

So, I’m going to do something different this year. Over the next few months I will record a webinar each week, on some facet of the Internet that has immensely helped me. Think of it as a gratis mini-mentorship in web business tools.

I’m going to share and demo some concepts. (No hard sell, and most are frrreee or very cheap.) Over the next few months, each week, I will produce a webinar on the following:

• Gmail – How it works, how to use it in a business context, how to use it to automate your business, how to back it up to your local e-mail system, how to use it as an archive, and why we think it is superb.
• Skype – How it works, how to set up offices all over the world, how to make phone calls all over the world, how to use it as a world-class switchboard, and how we use it to spend more time talking to South Africans from Europe than the average South African does in South Africa.
• Voice recognition – How it works, how we use it to answer hundreds of e-mails each day, dozens of support tickets, as well as producing support manuals, and this Petes Weekly.
• Aweber – How e-mail marketing works, and how this particular firm ensures that I have no shortage of clients.
• Open Office – Why this is a valid alternative to any of the Office products you might otherwise buy, why it is more compatible than you need, and how to slot it into your firm easily.
• Google – How to become a power user, because this single tool defines our age, and gives every single human access to all the knowledge of mankind in seconds.
• Camtasia – Screen recording that allows you to easily create world-class videos of anything, and publish them. We use it for training and selling, but it’s great for teaching, sharing, coordinating, and so on.
• Ticket Support Systems – Why they’re the fastest way to great client service for any business, and how you can get yours free.
• GoToWebinar – How to communicate with thousands of people anywhere on earth at any time almost for free – and we look at how we have used this tool, and where we see its role in small business. It’s a big role, and if you’re not aware of it, somebody is going to eat you.
• Linux – Why it’s my favourite operating system, why it 1000 times better than most people think it is, and how to integrate it into your existing office system with the least hassle.
• Firefox – we all use Internet browsers, yet most of us have no idea how they work. Hidden inside your browser is an astounding amount of power just waiting to be unleashed.
• BookMarkPlus – a simple tool that allows you to build a private menu of all your most common sites that can be accessed from any PC anywhere on earth using any operating system. A single change is instantly available on every machine you use. We use it extensively.

Each of these products has added a staggering amount of value to my life. I regard each one as best of breed, but I accept that for every 10 techies, there will be 12 different opinions on the subject.

I’m not going to sell them to you. I’m simply going to highlight issues that most folk don’t think about.

The course will last 8 weeks, starting next Tuesday evening at 8pm SA Time. Eight one hour sessions on  Tuesday evenings with time for questions and answers. Register once, and you can attend all the sessions. I will record them all, and you can watch later.

Register for a seat here.

Much as I would love to answer emails on each of the subjects covered, my day job is pretty full right now with Marketing Motorists joining every day. We build their first campaign for them – and that takes some time. Our current record is 9 hours, from time of client signup, to first place on the first page of Google, and 24 hours for the first live enquiry on his desk.

Bottom line: The only way to ask questions about the issues in this mini mentorship course is to attend the live sessions.