Life is short. Get straight to the point!

To iPod or not to iPod – 5 reasons to say “Yes”

jamesweddle — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:59:47 +0000

I have had an iPod Touch for the last 6 weeks and I can’t believe how much it’s helped me from a time management/productivity perspective. Here’s 5 reasons how:

1. Morning email – The first read of email of the day happens on my iPod, over coffee, as the kids are getting ready for the school bus. I find I can more easily scan what’s important and what’s not and, at least, set the first half of my day up re: issues that need my immediate attention. More importantly, I don’t have to disappear into my home office until they leave.

2. Education – I’m now a huge podcast person; Forbes, WSJ Small Business, NPR Planet Money…some GREAT content out there. I plug it in when I walk (45 min) or for a drive to a client appointment or event.

3. Relaxation - Should be 2A; I work my you-know-what off and I especially rely on my creativity and problem solving to win. My brain has to be sharp and I find listening to comedy/satire podcasts like Adam Corolla, Bill Mahr, and even “Old Jews telling Jokes” makes me, at least, smile. Anything to recharge.

4. Design – Yes, to the “delight” of my Design & Dev team at ShareOnce.com, I’m giving my 2 cents (ok, a quarter…I am the founder!) on what I think it needs to do/say. The iPod and the white board tool I use on it helps keep me inbounds.

5. Feedback – I’ve found over the last 9 months that feedback-feedback-and-more-feedback is the whole enchilada when it comes to product development. Having our design mockups available for short, impromptu “What do you think?” sessions with friends, colleagues, and prospects has 10X improved the amount and relevance of the feedback we’ve received at ShareOnce.com. Nothing beats full A/B testing, UX sessions and the like…when they actually happen. In the meantime, what’s a founder/business owner/designer/family guy/iPod devotee to do?

Cheers,

James

Tagged: design, entrepreneurship, Tools

Business networking and golf do mix

jamesweddle — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:52:52 +0000

A good friend of mine, Hector Puchi, is starting a business networking group in Tucson, Arizona centered on sports and entertainment, particularly golf. The new enterprise is called “Biz19″ and is just now getting underway. I just blogged about it here and here. If you have ideas or interest in the group, please let him know at his ShareOnce account here.

Tumblr IS “the easiest way to blog”

jamesweddle — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 15:45:44 +0000

Simple. Easy. Big buttons. What’s not to love about the Tumblr blogging platform? We just added Tumblr as a marketing channel for ShareOnce and it was very easy to get started, set up and keep up-to-date. Check it out.

Google needs to be applauded

jamesweddle — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:48:43 +0000

We should applaud Google’s stance on China’s repeated attempts to stifle dissent and free speech. On too many occasions over the last 18 months, our corporations have put themselves in front of our country’s founding principles. In this case, just the opposite.

Outstanding. Well done.

At this moment, I am very proud Google is an American-based company.

Holidays 2009

jamesweddle — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:45:23 +0000

Merry Christmas

and a Happy New Year!!!

Three Questions to consider when joining a Business Networking Group

jamesweddle — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 21:23:13 +0000

As you think about joining or renewing your membership in a business networking group (chamber of commerce, association, networking group, alumni chapter), consider these three (3) questions:

What tangible cost-saving benefit(s) do they provide you?
What tangible revenue producing benefit(s) do they provide you?
What are the indirect costs (time, travel, additional fees) to extract these benefits?

With growing popularity of online networking, social media, and mobile/location-based services, more people than ever are utilizing online communities to network, build relationships, and save cost.

Still, there is enormous value in having a relationship with a group of people in your local community that are dedicated to helping you grow your business. If they are online, leveraging social media, and adopting mobile services, all the better.

Have a Happy Holiday and prosperous 2010.

Cheers!

James

Tagged: business networking groups, cost-benefit, social media

Private equity markets thawing? Who cares?! Execute!

jamesweddle — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:21:13 +0000

We’re executing our growth/investment strategy at ShareOnce.com and are mildly encouraged by recent announcements of successful private equity funding.

That is encouraging but, in reality, every deal is different. What might seem like a relevant success that bodes well for your own funding pitch, has little, if any, positive (or negative) influence on your own situation.

What is relevant and consistent across private equity deals is the perception of the investors (or customers, for that matter) that you are the right team to invest in. What is the investors’ perception of your team’s ability to become a market leader for this particular opportunity?

Nothing influences perception better than a little reality. In this case, traction towards becoming a market leader.

Three (3) key activities we’re undertaking at ShareOnce.com in early 2010 to demonstrate traction and become a market leader:

Launch of our Affiliate Sales Partner Program – Contact me at ShareOnce.com/JWeddle for more information.
Achieving operational excellence in our Group/Customer Service Team – Contact Paul Sherman at ShareOnce.com/PSherman for more information.
Launch of our Cornerstone Partner (Business Development) Program - Contact Tim Thoreson at ShareOnce.com/TimThoreson for more information.

Good luck to you and, by all means, find/join a group on ShareOnce.com and get more out of your business networking in less time.

Happy Holidays,

James

Tagged: business networking, investment, private equity

Is there a line and where is it?

jamesweddle — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:15:38 +0000

Is there a line between business and social networking? Is it okay to blend business and personal? Straight up: Should you use your Facebook account for business? for family and friends? for both? What about Twitter? LinkedIn?

Here is a cat that, in my opinion, is blurring that line (and a whole lot of others) successfully.

Where is the line for you?

Tagged: business networking, Facebook, social networking

Report on influence on Twitter

jamesweddle — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:03:53 +0000

This report on influence on Twitter by Boston research group, Web Ecology Project, is pretty interesting. It’s too early to draw too many conclusions but why you tweet seems to be more important than when in terms of building influence.

Personally, I’m more interested in influence within smaller groups versus a wider community of followers. At ShareOnce.com, we’re working on comparative analysis tools for groups and their members to see how they stack up with their peers (other groups/members in general and within a geo-location or business segment). If you have suggestions of analytical information you would find useful in business networking, please let us know here.

Thanks.

James

Tagged: analysis, networking, Twitter

Sending photos to Facebook via Email

jamesweddle — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:02:15 +0000

This post should actually be titled, “Helping People Relieves Your Stress”. Let me explain, I’m as busy as you-know-what getting investment documents and web app copy/content out the door today (TODAY!). If you have been there on either of those two task deadlines — raising money or building great software — you know they are both spelled S-T-R-E-S-S.

Thankfully, I had a 3 minute diversion waiting for me when I checked my email this morning at 4:10am. I received an email alert from Facebook that simply said, “I need help.”

I had no idea who this guy was or that he would actually be helping me.

Seems this gentleman had been looking long and hard within Facebook to find a way to send photos to his Facebook account from email. He found me in some forum somewhere because I had solved this issue for myself many months ago. The secret to this and solving any other Facebook crisis you may have is to accept these two fundamental truths about the Facebook user experience:

Rule #1 – The Facebook user experience, especially their User Interface (UI), is…umm…horrible (but, I’ll give them credit: it has slowly gotten better since they started listening to their customer this past year or so).

Rule #2 – If you need help with Facebook, never, ever search for it within Facebook; use Google Search (which works even better if you have FireFox with the Twitter Search add-in so you also get real-time results to go with your Google ranked results…that’s a post for another day).

To help this gentleman, I simply searched for “sending photos to facebook via email”, sent him the search results link via a Facebook email post, and voila, I helped someone I never met and who I’ll likely never met.

The win for me?

I instantly felt the enormous stress I was feeling leave my body as soon as I knew I was helping someone. I mean, literally, I felt my headache and general anxiety I was feeling simply melt away. I’m now off to a great day of productivity. Thank you Mr. Anonymous!

Here’s the result in case you’re really interested in Facebook photo management: http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=109768117130

Here’s the email of my stress relief tip (help someone and you’re really yourself):

Tagged: Facebook, Helping others, Usability