For three years now Seybold Inc. has been operated as a debt-free cash-flowed organization. In other words, we spend only what we make and each month we have to make enough money to meet the cash requirements of the business. It’s not been easy, but the lights have stayed on throughout the “Great Recession”.

Many would argue that we should have gone down the path of investment capital and I’ll be the first to tell you that they were and are probably right, but training our company to be fiscally responsible, frugal and adaptive is perhaps the best lesson that could have been taught. Many companies that become flush with cash and are pre-revenue forget the fundamentals of earning a dollar and learn a much more difficult lesson later on – well at least we dodged that bullet.

So how does one build a big company on a small budget? When you lack capital the only thing you have is time and your mind to identify clever ways to solve problems. In this post I will share some of the technologies, workarounds, etc. that kept us lean and allowed us to survive.

Tech Tools

We utilize a service called Dropbox for our file server. This cloud hosted service solves several problems most young companies face due to cost.

• remote access to files.
• backup / recovery
• transfer of large files
• sharing

And, it does so at a small price that grows with your business.

We also utilized Google Apps for email and shared calendar. There is a free version if you work the system, and being scrappy we did. Having email is one great resource, but what this also did was created a common environment when we could set up meetings and groups. Many of these features have been out of the reach of small business until Google came around.

Google Voice is another great resource. We leverage it much like an office phone system with it ringing multiple people at once to insure we never missed a call.

We’ve used several CRM systems over the years, but when we found Batchbook we found a gold mine of a resource. This system not only allows us to keep our contacts and customer records in one place, but it also allowed us to keep track of deals and most importantly allowed us to extend our workflow into the system through easy customization. Another cloud hosted environment, we leave the maintenance and operation to the experts and we take use of the platform via a monthly subscription. Batchbook is the backbone of our infrastructure.

Printing

We also looked at waste and decided early on that we would not print if we didn’t have to. I deliberately made the printer difficult to access. If someone wanted to print they had to get up, carry over their laptop and connect to print. Making it difficult meant associates had to mentally invest in the process; not just hit print. In the last 12-months we have gone entirely paperless and have enjoyed the fruits of that “retraining”. $50 ink cartridges add up fast and time spent chasing down paper at Office Depot is non-revenue generating time.

Office Space

When the downturn began to hit commercial property owners the availability of high end properties allowed us to home in locations that I would never have afforded (by choice). We’ve been lucky to net office space that required no lease, incredibly low rent costs and amenities like Internet access thrown in at no additional cost. This won’t last forever, but one must take the opportunities as they are presented and being able to convert from one property to another by being highly mobile makes it easy and cost effective.

Where did we spend money?

We invested in infrastructure for our clients and never scrimped. We certainly could have purchased a much lower cost hosting solution for our clients and banked the margin, but our choice was correct for many reasons:

• We offer a world-class hosting solution for our clients
• Our support costs are non-existent since the infrastructure just works
• We have a proactive hosting partner that works as a part of our team to ensure we are successful

We’ve also invested in our computers. We are a 100% Apple shop. At $2k a pop it was not the least expensive solution, but let’s look at this. In three years we have:

• never had a virus infect a computer
• never had a hardware failure that caused downtime
• never lost data due to malware
• increased productivity because we haven’t had to click that “Are you sure ..” button 800 times each day

Ok, the last one was a stretch, but the reality is, and I have emailed Steve Jobs this quote of mine .. the reality is that “The day I switched to Mac was the day I started managing my business and not my computer”. And I mean that! I don’t have time for technicians to resolve my computer issues, I simply need it to work.

People. Where did I spend money? On people. Having the right people working on your business at the right time will save you thousands of dollars. But here’s the key. Don’t hire experts as associates. Hire experts as contractors. They are too costly to bring on board at the early stages, but they can make a significant and positive impact to your business given you are clear with your expectations. i.e. I need you to create an HR handbook. Or, you will be responsible for defining the sales system. Then take the sales system and train the associates. Simple really.

Lastly i want to tell you about a book that changed the way I thought about business. We spent our money wisely on an Audible account so that we could share and learn together.

The single most important resource that I wish I had invested in earlier in the game is the book “eMyth Revisited“. It taught me that the correct systems run by adequately detailed processes will allow one to hire associates that will produce consistent results regardless if they are having a bad, good or exceptional day. It laid the groundwork that differentiated my business from many competitors because my business became the machine that when turned on allowed me to work on my business constantly tuning the business to run like a watch. The best money I ever spent was on the items that grew my understanding, expanded my knowledge and shared the vision to my associates.

In all that I have written here I hope you rethink how you are spending and how you are investing in your business. Whether you are a shareholder, an owner or an associate please note that the dollar is so hard to earn and yet so easy to waste.

George Seybold

This is a great video that talks about how Coca Cola is using social media to respond to customers and grow brand loyalty.

Jonathan Mildenhall, Coca-Cola’s VP of global advertising strategy, admitted the multi-national corporation had been slow to embrace social media and historically, they did make some mistakes. However, if you scratch the surface a little, they’re doing some interesting things.

In April they created a new office of digital communications and social media within its public affairs and communications department, giving Adam Brown, digital communications director, and Anne Carelli, digital communications manager, oversight of corporate digital and social media communications efforts.

It’s worth watching Adam speak about Coca-Cola’s social media strategy at the recent BlogWell New York conference (start 50 secs in).

On a side note, kudos to Andy Sernovitz and his company Gaspedal for truly moving social media into the main stream through events like this.

BlogWell New York Social Media Case Study: Coca-Cola, presented by Adam Brown from GasPedal on Vimeo.

Ask a random person on the street in Boise what’s SEO stand for and chances are good Search Engine Optimization will not be at the top of the list.  In fact, if you ask people in Boise what Search Engine Optimization means to them, you’ll get a variety of responses.

Boise is a unique market in that businesses are not as technically savvy as say on the east coast or Silicon Valley. Due to Boise being primarily an agricultural state and the mass employers being government related Boise certainly does have some challenges when it comes to being a technology leader. However that isn’t to say that there aren’t some technologically savvy businesses within Boise as there are many. Although specific names will not be mentioned the participants at Tech Boise include many of these forward thinkers within the Boise region. The problem that we see is that companies coming from outside areas, namely Utah have many dominant Search Engine Optimization firms. Search Engine Optimization also referred to as SEO is a series of processes taken to build up positioning within a search engine.

The gap that we see with traditional businesses here in Boise is that the education within the tech space is limited and that the term SEO or Search Engine Optimization is nonexistent. In fact we have two interns that are at the top of their classes with Boise State University, and both business major who have prior to working for us never heard the term SEO. While Pay-per click advertising is known and taught, the idea that natural positioning within the search engines through Search Engine Optimization was a foreign concept. Our goal is to change that so when outside companies come into the Boise area to preach Search Engine Optimization services, Boise residents know that companies here in Boise exist that can perform their SEO services.

In helping to bridge this gap we are going to be partnering with several of our clients and other technologically proficient companies here in Boise to hold educational seminars. The basis of these seminars will be to bring business owners up-to speed on what resources are available to them. As we have built up our business here in Boise we have seen that despite having a tight knit community, we lack the education sharing that needs to take place. Search Engine Optimization is just one example of concepts not grasped by many; others include social media optimization (Web 2.0) outside of the top three including Digg, StumbleUpon, Twitter and many others. Stay tuned as we post these seminars on our website and on the social networks to bring Boise an unparalleled educational series.

Many small businesses do not rank high enough in the search engine results pages (SERPs) to be found. Yet, more than 70 percent of internet users start off with a search engine before they buy a product or service. To put this in perspective, there are 157 million active internet users in the U.S., and 127 million of them are active search engine users, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. Can you really afford not to be exposed to such a massive audience?

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If you’re like many first-time homebuyers, chances are you’ve been spending your weekends driving around visiting open houses and new model homes. This is a great way to get a feel for what you want. The problem is that what you want isn’t always what you should get.

Before you start touring homes for sale, it’s important to start off with a budget so you know how much you can afford to spend. Knowing what mortgage payment you can handle will also help you narrow the field so you don’t waste precious time touring homes that are out of your reach.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of troubled U.S. banks leaped to the highest level in about five years and bank profits plunged by 86 percent in the second quarter, as slumps in the housing and credit markets continued. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data released Tuesday show 117 banks and thrifts were considered to be in trouble in the second quarter, up from 90 in the prior quarter and the biggest tally since mid-2003.

The FDIC also said that federally-insured banks and savings institutions earned $5 billion in the April-June period, down from $36.8 billion a year earlier. The roughly 8,500 banks and thrifts also set aside a record $50.2 billion to cover losses from soured mortgages and other loans in the second quarter.

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NEW YORK – Wall Street retreated Monday after Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fell to their lowest levels in nearly 20 years on concerns that the government might need to bail out the mortgage financiers. Weakness in the overall financial sector sent the Dow Jones industrial average down more than 175 points.

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How the subprime debacle got started and where it might end up. The most recent iteration of America’s economic system has its roots in a small meeting in Bretton Woods, NH, in 1944. The hope – and assumption – that developed during that meeting was that out of the victory of World War II, a single global trade and economic supremacy (potentially a nation state) would emerge, ending fascism and all other “isms”. In this meeting, there was an assent to certain financial dynamics, particularly an assent to the gold standard.

Fast forward to August, 1971. Facing many new economic hardships, the emergence of credible international technical and industrial competition, and unprecedented capital calls on the U.S. Treasury, the United Stated decided to supplant its previously established economic ground rules. Today, we have forgotten what happened in 1971.

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We have an opportunity. An opportunity for people like us, an opportunity to define the future of our home – Boise.

Did you know that we have the oldest legislative body in the entire nation? Our state representatives, many senior business leaders and officials leading the education infrastructure are not tech savvy. Worse, they glaze over and talk in circles whenever tech is mentioned (most of them anyway).

Meanwhile the evidence is clear that Idaho is becoming home for many of the lowest paying jobs in the nation. These are comprised of service industry (McDonalds, Taco Time, etc.) and call centers (T-Mobile, CitiCard, etc.) where the bulk of the positions range from $5.25 to $12 an hour. The reality of life is that it takes much more than that to live in our community.

Tech jobs are skilled and pay better.

The median tech professional in Boise makes ~$25 / hr. That means half of wage-earners are below and half are above, but the reality is that this lumps in tech workers in semi-skilled manufacturing positions. The higher end of the spectrum are people like you who code applications or architect solutions. These are great jobs and not only promote quality of life monetarily, but also create a quality of life that is consistent with the culture and lifestyle of Boise.

Tech jobs (software development, etc.) are green jobs. Tech jobs are are not dependant on distribution lines (and the costs associated therein). Our geographic isolation does not hinder the delivery of the product / service. Boise is a perfect location for this type of work. We have a strong engineering base, strong tech corporations, and a state university in our city core. What we lack is:

• entrepreneurial spirit,
• legislators who will get out there and press the flesh with those from other states to discuss the resources we possess.
• Tax considerations for small and mid-size businesses.
• No charge or low charge resources to educate people on starting and running a business focusing on areas that are not core to their competencies.
• mentors (yes I am talking to you.)

We have an opportunity to become great – good to great is not a far leap!

Great communities like Boise are rare. TechBoise seeks to surface the tech community, build upon it and create awareness of our technical powerhouse for the entire world to see. It begins with a discussion at a TechBoise FREE event which is the catalyst for great innovation, imagination and opportunities yet to be realized.

Now ask yourself, shouldn’t you come to the next event?

8020’s publications are filled entirely with content generated by online readers. But will people pay for it?

Weary of his job as an urban planner for the city of Portland, Ore., Sloan Schang dreamed of making a living as a writer. How, exactly, he wasn’t sure. But he quit his job, sold his house and, with the proceeds, some savings and his girlfriend, set off on a trip that took him to Asia, Europe and across much of the United States. Today, not two years later, Schang, 32, is a published travel writer with a busy schedule of decently paid freelance gigs. “It’s worked out well. I don’t really plan to go back to urban planning,” he says.

A decade ago Schang’s transition almost certainly would have been more difficult. But there are more opportunities than ever for aspiring writers to get published. Schang credits his breaking into the travel writing business to 8020 Publishing, a San Francisco-based magazine publisher with a unique twist on the conventional model: its paper pages are filled entirely with content submitted by readers through its Web site.

The Internet, of course, has given citizen-journalists, amateur artists and Wikipedia warriors a virtually limitless platform for exposure. It has also roiled the traditional magazine business, which in recent years has seen circulation and ad revenue drop as more readers shift their preference for media consumption from paper to pixels. But 8020 may have found a way to take advantage of the move to online. Funded by CNET.com founder Halsey Minor, the company, which was started in June 2006, is pinning its future on actual newsstand sales of content that originates online. “Magazines are great at inspiration, whereas the Web is really good at data. But people tend to think only in terms of the Web versus print magazines,” says Paul Cloutier, chief executive of 8020. “We say they can come together to become an even better magazine.”

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