What a Wonderful Time It's Been At My Red Zebra!
Max
Williams, Principal Consultant
This has been a really hectic few
months at My Red Zebra.
So much growth and development
has been going on, it's been like a whirlwind.
One of the
biggest changes is the arrival of the ninth iteration of 'My Red Zebra
Powerhouse', the suite of Red Zebra financial management tools. This
revised version has the same trusted core as before, but user
experience and feedback has provided improved usability.
Some of the more important, but less frequently used items in the
'Powerhouse' are now more readily accessed, and within each tool, there
is improved access to the extensive facilities each provides.
Another of the really big changes has been the arrival of Trevor Dyson
as a new consultant in the Red Zebra team. Trevor is introduced
elsewhere in this edition, but almost everyone knows the activity
involved with the introduction of a new resource like Trevor.
There are two other items of very great significance that occurred in
the past few months.
Some readers will remember that way
back in 2002, The Red Zebra trialled on-line consultation with an
internet that still had a lot of growing up to do. In 2005, there was
another step forward, but still the internet and its users were not
ready. Now, in 2009, with the great bulk of Australian businesses with
broadband access (86% at last count) we are pleased to be announcing
'My Red Zebra Conference Centre'.
It's an online group communication service, much like MSN
or Yahoo Messenger, but this time in private, and limited to Red Zebra
members. We can announce it now, with the formal launch taking place in
early October.
The remaining new service has just 'fired
its first shot in anger'! Last month's Management Memos referred to SMS
messaging as one of the current forms of communication means available
to 'savvy' marketers.
It's not the easiest thing to
undertake, and now My Red Zebra will do it for you, and with very,
very, low charge out rates.
With all these very
substantial changes going on, our schedule for publication of
Management Memos has taken a bit of a battering. Each edition has
been published monthly, as usual, but not in the timely manner we would
want. So, although the September issue appears very late in the month,
it comes now with a host of good news about product and service
upgrades that keep on keeping 'My Red Zebra' ahead of the herd!
I t has taken just a
few months, but there's a new, and different, My Red Zebra
on the prowl! Additional features, and new usability have
been added to the program, along with an important new person.
Now, with a client base extending throughout mainland Australia, the
only state in the Commonwealth without a 'My Red Zebra' member
is Tasmania. This has indeed been a hectic time of significant
growth!
Meet Trevor Dyson - who
joined My Red Zebra Business Centre in August, and just now is
beginning to 'hit his straps' with his extensive contacts in the
printing industry. Trevor operated his own printing business for 33
years, so has extensive experience in the challenging world of small
business. Since then, Trevor has added to his skills in financial
analysis with a Graduate Diploma of Marketing. Bringing a comprehensive
package of finance and marketing skills makes Trevor ideally suited to
the work undertaken at My Red Zebra Business Centre, and we
welcome him warmly.
While Trevor has his experience in
the printing industry, his addition to the team does not indicate a
specific drive into that industry, although Trevor's contacts
automatically mean an emphasis in that field. Balancing that, My
Red Zebra has worked in just about every industry you'll find in
Australia and New Zealand over the last twenty four years. Over the
next weeks and month's you will probably hear from Trevor. Great to
have him aboard!
New,
Improved Powerhouse Breaks Cover This financial year
sees the introduction of the ninth version of 'My Red Zebra
Powerhouse', the extensive suite of Red Zebra financial management
tools that clients can readily use. This revised version is built on
the same trusted core as the previous version, and after so many years,
why change it?
The new version does take advantage of
user experience and feedback, which has demonstrated a number of
ways usability can be improved. In particular, the menu, which
last year had a number images to click to access the relevant tools,
has this year been replaced by a simple 'Window' dialogue box, familiar
to any 'Microsoft Windows' user.
Along with the new, easier access to each tool, each of the tools has
been improved too. For example, the Marketing Planner picks up the
marketing budget from the Budget itself, and allows you to factor in
all the aspects of marketing expense, giving you a clear view of the
main media spend you're planning.
The Budget now allows
you to decide whether you are targeting Return on Investment, or Return
on Sales to achieve the required profit, and it reports on the budget
gross margin and return on sales, as well as the budget return on
investment. Now that is a comprehensive view!
Other
'Powerhouse' tools now more readily accessible include the Investment
Analyser and The Debt Tracker. These tools provide an easier, and
clearer insight into the financial impact of what you're planning than
you would get otherwise, and they make use of sophisticated analysis
techniques not usually available to small and medium businesses.
With new flexibility, h new accessibility, and improved access and
navigation, Version 9 is a clear step ahead!
Take Care With Web
Optimisation Last month 'Management Memos' referred to new
forms of advertising and promotion that all businesses,
whether small or large, can use. When it comes to web marketing,
getting traffic to your website can be a real headache.
Enter 'Google' and 'Search Engine Optimisation', of 'SEO' for short.
Getting a first page ranking on Google is both absolutely imperative
for good results, and very hard o get. SEO sets out to make sure you
get it.
Of course, getting a
SEO specialist is worthwhile exercise, but it does not come cheaply.
Fortunately, it works most of the time, and most people are happy. But
wait! There is a new phenomenon.
It's called 'fear of
Google', or FOG for short. It's that feeling you get when you sit bolt
upright in bed in sheer terror at how much your livelihood relies upon
an algorithm. Traffic to your website, the clicks that result in sales
leads, indeed your entire presence in cyberspace, hinge on a search
engine algorithm - that's the formula for selecting the ranking web
sites, and it is as closely guarded a secret as the recipe for
Coca-Cola.
But there is one important difference, as
journalist Julian Lee reported last month, in an article in The Sydney
Morning Herald: "That formula can change any time and you won't even
know it, until, that is, your company's ranking on Google's all
important home page sinks like a stone to the bottom of a well. Or
rises to the top. The company regularly makes changes to it but does
not feel inclined to tell people, yet the ranking of a company's
website on Google's page can mean the difference between staying in
business and going bust.
One that fell victim to such a
change was the Sydney-based online training company Braincorp
International. It was an effective user of ... search engine
optimisation - where tweaks in the website's code and intelligent use
of keywords on a site improves the volume or quality of traffic to it.
Braincorp used to get about 200 sales leads a day through Google; that
dropped to 10 a day when, without warning, Google changed its
algorithm. The company went into liquidation in January. The tweaking
of Google's algorithm was understood to be a significant factor."
So, why depend on an algorithm? You can drive traffic to your
website using a wide variety of techniques. That way, you are
really in control!
If you are a small or medium business,
we recommend that you use a number of other marketing techniques to
drive web traffic to your site. Depending on 'Google' can be expensive,
and it is certainly uncertain!
You may need some help to make the
most of your website and its marketing strengths. It costs
nothing to discuss it with My Red Zebra, and it might cost you a lot
not to talk it over!
If you'd like to find out more about how to make
measurably more in your business right now, talk
to us, or ask us a question here! Remember, there's no charge or
obligation.
This same offer applies in New Zealand. Click
Here!
McNicol
Williams Management & Marketing Services is a Small Business
Advisor listed with the Small Business Victoria, and has presented The
Red Zebra program under its auspices. This listing requires
that the first hour's consultation is always free. So when we say
"No charge or obligation", we mean it!
