Join Us for the Small Business Technology Forum

Forbes recently reported that Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, numbers 1 and 2 respectively on the world's richest list, have lost a combined nearly $45 billion dollars. Poor Donald Trump's net worth is cut in half so he's stuck with just over 1.6 billion. Their money still starts with a "B" in spite one of the most depressing recessions since the fall of the roaring 20's. For the rest of us, we have to watch spending and carefully plan our money taking full advantage of all of our resources.

Even before the recession, I've always designed my own website, created my own business cards, wrote my own books, design my own programs and created and manufactured my own DVD's. In some cases, perhaps I should allow others to do a more professional job but in spite of that I'm perpetually asked who creates all of these things for me in hopes that I will create the same things for them. I don't mind the business but many of these things really aren't rocket science and that's coming from someone who gave workshops on the benefits of rocket science for years.

I have a great staff of people to help me run the forums, but I utilize their talents for things I can't do. When managing a team, you have to ensure that you have complimentary skills. Everyone doesn't need to be good at the same things. Who needs an offensive line filled with quarterbacks?

Due to this recession, The Investment Forum will do our part to meet the needs of those who have to run a professional looking business even when you have to occasionally utilize personal funds. We all have to do it early in the game so trust me when I say we understand. We have decided to expand our capability by adding technology forums to the mix. Investors need not fear as the goal is always creating wealth and we haven't strayed from what started our early success. Remember, comfortable people aren't rich but rich people are very comfortable.

The principles are the same as those that created The Investment Forum. We'll tell you everything we know and you tell us everything you know. We'll share the knowledge in a forum and at the end of the day we'll all have the wisdom of crowds. This type of event takes nothing away from people who have small businesses that take a more professional approach to hardware, software and various other computing, in fact, it should create opportunity. It gives you the chance to illustrate why you can improve the look for people who do it themselves. This should be especially useful for anyone underemployed with network engineering skills who can optimize small business networks.

I would even recommend that you bring some of your older tech savvy kids to the event because they make child's play out of what we do without understanding the benefits. One of my favorite videos on YouTube is the Battle at Krugar for all of you National Geographic fans. Kids pass this video around all the time, but the point is the platform. Because of YouTube, my book is on the publisher's best seller list with high European sales. Anywhere in the world, people can go to my website or Amazon.com and get 5 minutes of personal video testimony on why I think they should buy the book. The same holds with my DVD, except it's nine minutes. All of this was done for FREE in the comforts of my living room and it's translating into real ROI. With so many of you technically savvy entrepreneurs who perpetually seek new contractors, this should provide you an excellent opportunity to expand your enterprises. Our technological discussion is on the house, but we ask that you pay $20 to cover the costs of food & beverage as we'll resume with our traditional southern cuisine. If you're coming, use the technology provided via PayPal to serve as your RSVP and save yourself $5 at the door.

A Few Technical Tips

Email Appearance - I sendout roughly two emails a month to a group of hundreds of subscribers. Surely, I can use text and forward with just a black and white background. However, $5 a month for Constant Contact adds a dimension of technology that changes the entire impact of the message. Using this platform allows for the creation of an interactive mini website that illustrates products, services and easy registration all from one email. This increases traffic to your website and helps increase sales.

Hideously Slow Computing- Eight months after I purchased an $1800 HP laptop, it slowed down tremendously. I couldn't figure out why for the life of me. I received garbage support from HP who wanted $250 just to have a serious look at it and local repairs centers so-called couldn't figure it out either without me dropping it off for a few days. I knew it had to be something simple and it turned out to be. A former techie, I forgot about the startup menu. All the programs I added to the computer were trying to run at the same time during startup causing it 45 minutes just to boot up. I clicked on Start>Run - typed "msconfig" and clicked on start menu. There I simply unchecked all the programs that had no reason to start running before I needed them to. The problem disappeared and it saved my laptop a sailing into a concrete wall at 100 mph and my sanity!

The Need for Speed - I used to pay $60 a month for a wireless card so I could gain High Speed Internet Access. Today, I find Staples, hotels, coffee shops, etc via my GPS locator and park outside to gain high speed access for free. In fact, I designed my current website in about 90 minutes parked outside of a free Wi-Fi zone in my vehicle/mobile office during a rain storm. When you have products to sell online, a downed website spells disaster and I'm not yet interested in waiting on someone else to do it. Give a man a fish and he'll eat tonight only.