In today’s world, small business owners face a staggering array of new technologies and services.

This stuff isn’t just for geeks anymore. It’s for all of us. And if we don’t get on board now the world may pass us up all together. Every day it seems a new technology is embedded into mainstream business.

For example, it’s been estimated that 73 percent of small businesses are currently using social media. Additionally, of those not engaged in social media, 62 percent plan to join within the coming year.

And that’s just social media. How about quick response (QR) codes? A report released by Mobio found QR code scanning skyrocketed by as much as 1,200 percent through the second half of 2010. And we’re already into the second half of 2011.

Of course there are other blossoming trends such as smart phone applications, mobile payments, and cloud computing. All projected to grow at a staggering pace in the coming months and years.

Despite this rapid growth in technology and innovation, as small business owners we always have to remember that technology is traditionally unpredictable and volitile. Yet, on the other hand, if we don’t stay out in front we may find ourselves falling too far behind. So what do we do? 

Technology Investment Plan

Most businesses invest in some form of technology every year. I’m sure you’re comptemplating at least one technology investment right now. Do you have a technology investment plan? A plan that ensures you don’t break your budget investing in each and every device. One that allows you to determine what could help and what is just unnecessary.

While we here at New Methods always work to stay on the edge of innovation, we also know that not every innovation is worth the investment.

Our technology investment plan starts with two key questions:

1. Can the technology be used to exponentially improve/create a remarkable experience for the customer?
2. Does the technology exponentially improve productivity?

If the answer is yes to either question then we ask ourselves two follow up questions:

1. Is the technology proven? Meaning, do we feel the technology is stable enough and will be around long enough to make it worth the investment.
2. Do we have the funds in our technology investment budget to make the purchase now? Or do we push back the investment to next quarter or next year.

With the world advancing at a rapid pace and with new technologies and innovations popping up daily it’s important to have a technology investment plan. Even if that plan simply consists of four basic questions.

Curious, do you have a technology investment plan? If so, what do you include in your plan? What questions do you ask?

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Technology is evolving at warp speed. Can you feel it?  I can. It seems like a new technology is invented every second.

Technology can be an anxiety producing phenomenon if you don’t have a clear understanding how and why it’s important to you.

Some of us are unnecessarily afraid of technology. Many of us mistakenly get drunk on it. I’ve been on both sides of the spectrum.

There was a time I didn’t want to be an early adopter. Technology confused me and I was comfortable with my old system or method. There have been other times, more recently, that I’ve used technology just because…with no real intent or purpose. I got lost in the maze of playing with the latest, greatest gadget and completely destroyed any sense of productivity.

For many of us, technology just simply hasn’t been a part of our education system. Well, as 21st century business owners, we can no longer use that as an excuse. We not only must embrace technology, we need to learn to apply it in ways that make our lives more valuable and productive, not wasteful.

Productivity means getting something done faster, easier, or cheaper. You’re taking complexity — whether it’s time, effort, or cost — and reducing it. The good news is technology is being built for us to do just this. Things happen faster, they’re costing less, and they’re getting easier to use.

The question becomes, are you positioning yourself to take advantage of these technologies or are they sabotaging your productivity?

Here are three quick questions to decide if a technology is right for you:

1. Does this technology enhance something I’m already good at? All technology should be used as an extension of your abilities — the things you do best, love doing most, and get the best results from. Many seek out technology to solve their shortcomings. Instead, leverage others to help with your shortcomings. Leverage technology to enhance your strong suits. Find and use the technology that helps you perform better. The ones that make you stand out. The ones that empower your gifts and talents.
2. What is my specific purpose with this technology? You can use a knife to help or harm. Technology is no different. Remember, technology is a means to an end. The end is whatever your purpose would be even if there weren’t a technology around. You must be totally clear about your purpose first, then look for a technology to make it easier, faster, or cheaper.
3. What am I willing to give up? If you are going to spend time on something, you must be willing to give something else up in exchange for it. When you decide to adopt a new technology put another one on hold until you determine which is better for you.

Ultimately, each technology should be helping you get something done faster, easier, or cheaper. If it’s not, it’s not worth it.

What questions do you ask yourself to know if a technology is right for you?

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Leading companies around the globe are constantly implementing the latest and greatest technologies.

One such growing trend is the need for company wide document imaging, in other words, the scanning and organizing of all business documents.

Your business’ ability to instantly search for any file is absolutely vital for maintaining a competitive advantage.

So without further ado and in no particular order, 6 reasons to make the switch:

1. Disaster recovery

Along the ranks of life insurance and estate planning, Disaster Recovery is the unspeakable event no business wants to talk about but is essential for long-term success.

A small fire not only has the potential of destroying an entire office, it can permanently ruin a business. Therefore, having all your documents stored securely and redundantly in one or more off site locations is crucial to getting back up and running.

2. Government Oversight

Audits by the IRS are about as enjoyable as a non-anesthetic root canal. However, they are a real occurrence that can happen at almost any given time while operating your business.

By having all your important documents and receipts in a searchable database will greatly reduce the headaches for everyone in your company during an audit.

Also, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act – If your company falls under the mandates of the ruling and are not yet digitally storing vital financial documents, ask yourself why not.

3. Personal Efficiency

By creating a paperless system resulting in virtual file cabinets you will greatly boost your efficiency.

This newfound productivity may be to such an extreme amount that looking back at your old system will make you wonder how any work was completed in a timely fashion.

Also imagine a world where you never again need to ask your receptionist what happened to that two-week-old post-it note.

4. Professionalism

How does your company currently respond to a request for a document from four years ago? Probably with a promise to respond in a few hours if not days.

On the flip side, imagine the level of professionalism and organization skills your company will project if the same document could instead be emailed or faxed within minutes of the request?

5. Interdepartmental Projects

Sharing vital documents between team members is becoming a growing necessity in successful businesses. Making sure your company is on the forefront of technology will keep you ahead of the competition.

6. Saving the Environment

This is a simple one: less paper used equates to less trees and resources needed.

So there you have it…

A concise list of six essential reasons your company cannot stay ahead of the pack without implementing a paperless company.

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Have you ever found yourself searching for that receipt from 6 months ago? Or wondering the details of that memo you hand wrote a few weeks back?

For centuries the best option was to hoard everything in filing cabinets. But as time goes by, this becomes more of a hassle than a solution.

Well now you have a better option…

In comes Evernote.

Remember Everything

The beauty of Evernote is it’s simplicity. Matched with a intuitive user interface, it’s a winning combination.

While there are tons of reasons to implement Evernote into your business, here are a few highlights of how we use the system:

Capturing the File

What I love about the way to save files is by simply taking a picture of the physical document with my phone and easily uploading it to their servers.

Finding the File

Once the file is uploaded, it is scanned. And all of the words on the document are indexed. It’s wonderful! Because now you can search throughout all of your documents by its content. Instead of the typical method of the folder it’s filed in.

Retrieving the File

Here’s the best part. For those of you who are like me and travel (A LOT), you can access any of these files from pretty much anything with an Internet connection.

Checkin it out…

The ultimate reason to try this solution? It’s Free!

Already using Evernote? What are your favorite ways to use it? Or if this is your first time, what are your initial thoughts?

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Reading books is one of the best ways to invest your time. But as a busy entrepreneur, you probably don’t often find the time to sit down and read.

And a common cure is to turn your commute, trips, and other adventures into a mobile library. In other words, audiobooks.

But the problem with the traditional audiobook is two-fold. They’re on CD’s, which isn’t the most preferred format these days. And more importantly, they are expensive. Often over thirty bucks an audiobook. Yikes!

What if I told you there was a better way to consume a book?

Well I am…

The Biggest Well-Known Secret

There is a popular service called Audible to download audiobooks. If you haven’t tried the service yet, check them out. It’s amazing!

Each book costs one credit and you are instantly able to download it to your computer. In turn, you can play it in iTunes or on a digital music player. It’s relatively easy from start to finish.

And since you are able to buy credits in bulk, the books are extremely cheap. Personally, I’ve been using them for almost 4 years and have listened to close to 100 books with their service. Everything is always high quality and impressive.

But what about the speed reading I mentioned?

If you have an iPhone or an iPad, you are able to hit a button on the player that will double the playback speed!

Meaning that a 250 page book, which is usually about 7 hours long, can be finished in around 3 hours at this accelerated pace.

While for some, this may be too fast for comprehension. After a few minutes the speed becomes relatively easy listening. And at any rate, even if you miss a word here and there, the ability to listen to a book in a few hours is well worth it.

Cool, huh?

When I first found this option I was extremely happy. And have since been able to cruise through dozens of books in the past few months.

I hope this little trick helps you out! Good luck and happy listening!

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Most employees suck. Yes, it needs to be said. Mediocre, uninspired and incompetent employees are leeches of your valuable time & resources.

However, most businesses can finally manage without W2′s. Technology and a changing business atmosphere has allowed smart entrepreneurs to create systems and partnerships to eliminate the need to hire full-time employees.

Unfortunately for some folks though, staffing full-time employees implies quality.

The Implied Elegance of a Large Employee Count

A while back my Internet marketing company put out a bid for a decent web development project. Nothing too major. But it was a somewhat high profile organization in the area.

Through my research, we were in. Our solution for their needs was perfect. I had personal connections to the selection committee. My business had the portfolio to prove we could pull off the project. And the organization’s ideal clientele seemed to be a description of my company.

But we lost.

Was it because of price? No. Was it the solution we proposed? No.

It was because we didn’t have a big enough marketing firm.

Apparently, some people feel that bigger is better. That the more employees your company has in its directory, the more superior your service.

I see this constantly. Almost every time I announce I own a marketing firm, people’s ears perk up. But then as quickly as I excited them, they are dismayed when they find it’s only a few person shop.

But what is wrong with this?

The Ideal Employees of the Future

Had I hired a few full-time programmers and designers for my firm, I would be a typical boutique marketing firm. I’d have the company size to flaunt our supposed superior status. But I never wanted to. Why? Because of a little form called a W9.

Yes, the independent contractor. The ideal employee. They come and go based on needs. And the latest technology facilitates wonderful collaboration abilities.

Most importantly, I was able to hire the best help for each project.

For example, if I had a client come to me with a WordPress website, I hired a WordPress developer. If they had a Joomla website, I hired a Joomla designer. Ruby on Rails website? Yup, you get the point.

Had I hired a full-time programmer, chances are they wouldn’t be well versed in all of the code and frameworks out there. I never had to worry about turning projects away because my programmer didn’t know the code.

I never worried that the person lived a thousand miles away. Or that their hourly rate was 10 times higher than a full-time employee. All I cared about was getting the job done.

Where to start?

Ok, so hopefully you see the benefit of outsourcing help. But where do you start? I know it can seem overwhelming. However, it’s usually always worth it.

Fellow Business Owners

Asking your network who they recommend will usually result in the most reliable workers. But in my experience, not everyone knows someone for specific job requirements. It’s really hit and miss, but is a good starting point.

Job Boards

Depending on your needs, there are online job boards, similar to this one from Problogger. And all you need to do is post your request or search for someone looking for work.

Low-Cost Outsourcing Websites

This is how we ended up with our slick logo for New Methods…. *ahem* for five bucks!

A couple popular options are Elance and Fiverr (what we used for the logo).

Crowdsourcing

This is the latest rave. Have a bunch of people compete and/or collaborate for your project. Pretty genius if you ask me. For further reference, check out this list of crowdsourcing options.

Others?

The above options are familiar to my business. But I’d imagine there are many other options.

Do you have any experience with hiring outside help? If so, where did you find your workers?

Any lessons learned you’d like to share? We are all ears :)

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Are you already destroying your Google+ account within the first week?

Google+ is currently in private beta with only a few million on board thus far. In terms of the other big social networks touting hundreds of millions of users, their numbers are a drop in the bucket.

However, it has lasting power. Between some big names raving about it and the generally positive reviews from respected news outlets, Google+ isn’t going away anytime soon. So it’s important to think long-term with your strategy for growing your audience.

Introducing: Circles

The most intriguing aspect of Google+ is our ability to segment people we follow based on any classification system we choose. Google calls these Circles. And it’s genius.

Basically, Circles are an advanced version of the Lists concept we see in other networks. With the default categories being: Friends, Family, Acquaintances, and Following. But keeping in mind, while unlimited people can add you to their circles, you are only allowed to circle 5,000 people.

Cleverly, their recommendation engine matched with a slick drag and drop interface makes adding people to our Circles a breeze. Unfortunately, I already see people carrying over the idiotic & lazy following techniques from Twitter. (And the friending strategies from the pre-Facebook Page days.)

Remember: Social media is not a popularity contest. And Google+ is no different. If you “circle” people in hopes of a “circle-back” you are dead in the water.

The Flaw of the Circle-Back

For a historical reference, let’s look at Twitter. Most people who have a large following accomplished the feat simply though a “follow me, I’ll follow you” strategy. But what ends up happening with this strategy is after following a few thousand people, Twitter in general becomes unmanageable. The home feed becomes a supercharged stream of annoying self-promoting tweets. The DM component gets littered with spam. And you are forced to create a few small lists of people who you actually follow.

But by “following” all of these people through a follow-back methodology, then creating smaller lists of people you truly follow. You in reality stop following everyone else. And your following count becomes a lie.

The same thing happened in the early days of Facebook before fan pages existed. People would friend everyone under the sun. Now with thousands of friends, they are finally popular! That is until they hit the little-known 5,000 friend capstone and their fun ended.

Who to Circle?

But this now raises the question, who the heck do I add to my circles? Here are three questions I ask before I add a person to my social networks:

1. Are they interesting, and I mean extremely interesting? (following)
2. Do they engage with me and are interesting? (friends & family)
3. Do they engage with my following and are interesting? (acquaintances)

If any one of these are a yes, I add them to my network. Regardless of them circling, following, or liking me.

If you blindly add people to your circles who do not fit amongst these guidelines, your long-term enjoyment and social benefits of Google+ will be non-existent. In other words, do not circle people simply because you know they will circle you back.

What do you think?

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When was the last time you hopped out of bed, excited for the day to begin? To wake up with a smile on your face, knowing you have the chance to improve the lives of others around you? For most, it’s been far too long. And for some, it’s a daily routine.

But why is this?

In the history of the world, it’s never been easier to do what you love. To work where you want, when you want, if you want. And create remarkable lives for you and your loved ones. But it’s only possible with a passion for what you do.

The Hard Truth

Your passion takes money. It’s true. Those who say money isn’t everything, hasn’t lived without it for long. I’ve had days I was unsure if I’d be able to eat while praying my cell-phone isn’t disconnected and hoping that my last pair of jeans didn’t rip further beyond repair. Trust me, money is a necessity.

Don’t get me wrong, money does not cause success nor happiness. Money is simply the gateway to doing what you love. It creates the ability to help others, to travel the world, to support your favorite charity or whatever else you dream of doing.

But you will never achieve the financial strength needed by working a bullshit 9-5 job for someone else. Current business owners will agree with me on this. The only person getting rich in the corporate world are the owners, not the doers.

“Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.”
- Unknown

So where does this leave us? Current wisdom tells us that if we go to college and get decent grades we’ll get a great paying job. Kiss your boss’ ass for 40-50 years, invest in a 401k and hopefully you’ll retire a millionaire. This advice is utter bullshit.

I don’t know about you, but I’d prefer to do what I’m passionate about today. To live the life I dreamed about as a kid. To support my parents who devoted their lives to supporting me. And wake up happy.

The Balancing Act

In comes this blog, The Edge of Innovation.

Greg Hartle and I have decided to help you find your passion while growing your business. And to cease your objections before they begin; a business should not require millions of dollars to launch. Nor a large factory and countless workers.

Today’s business models can be based on a laptop and Internet connection. One that utilizes innovative strategies mixed with the latest technology. And most importantly, a business that opens up a lifestyle conducive for helping others, for following your passion.

Does your business need to be your main passion?

No. Mike Rowe will tell you that someone needs to do the dirty jobs. But at the end of the day, whatever business you’re in must improve the lives of others. As well as facilitate a better life path. And ultimately, strive to create unlimited wealth beyond your wildest imagination. It’s possible.

We Need You

But no business owner will be able to enjoy their passion if they get stuck in the business. Becoming overworked is never fun, no matter how much you initially enjoyed the work. Therefore, this blog will act as an occasional motivator, instructor and mentor. Not just from Greg and I, but from you, the reader. We, in no way, feel we have all the answers. So the community that will be formed around this blog will be asked for input and advice. Lurkers are welcomed… but to truly receive the best benefit from this chronicle of business building concepts we hope you’ll ask questions, pose alternatives and hopefully become a regular contributor.

We look forward to the future with you.

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