Focus...

With the New Year approaching in days, I'm finding time to bring into focus what I want to accomplish for 2006 as far as fusedlogic corporate goals. Here's 5 of my goals.

1. Increase fusedlogic brand awareness, more monthly advertiZING!
2. Implement a full on mulitmedia attack on the marketplace via the web.
3. Move into new office space.
4. Surpass best revenue year by 50%
5. Implement new business owner educational series.


Combined with the rest of my list as part of my yearly plan I believe this will an incredible year for fusedlogic. Hopefully, you have a list and plan to implement as well. Good Luck in the New Year, may it bring much happiness, more money and free time.

Alberta Chamber of Technologies...

I attended a meeting last evening that focused on the a new organization called the Alberta Chamber of Technologies. There was good discussion on whether such an organization should even exist and if so in what capacity, why, how should it operate, who should participate and what do we want to accomplish.

My take on it is simple. This province needs a wake up call. There's more to life than Oil and Bio-tech. There is a tremendous amount of ICT, IT and other types of technology companies that exist in Alberta but are truly without representation. Sure there are industry associations that are doing their best to broadcast their message but they tend to be very specific. This is more of a macro look at all technology-based business. I'm all for it. That's why I volunteered to be on the Interim Board Selection Committee. Many people have put their names forward to be considered for a board position and it'll be the job of this committee to determine the criteria for leadership before a formal election can take place. This is a great opportunity to set the tone in a small way for the start of what I believe will be a great organization.

The other really important message sent last night was that this should be an organization focused on collaboration with other Chambers and like minded groups. There's strength in numbers and certainly when lobbying politicians, suggesting they wake up and smell the coffee and take notice of some of the issues facing new and existing high-tech companies.

Performance Architecture

Performance architecture is simply how well your company performs and what you have in place to measure that performance. It's also the protocol's you have in place to manage change, all companies change in some way over time. Some more drastically than others based on a number of variables. Fusedlogic is really focusing on evolving a company based on performance architecture. Every company should measure how and whether it's winning or losing the war.

The exciting thing about performance architecture is that once you set it up properly it really demonstrates and acts as the beating heart of the business. Our systems acts as a diagnostic tool to tell everyone that the company is getting sick before the sickness becomes too wide spread. In addition, it helps to specifically identify the exact reason and cause of the ailment so that it hopefully doesn't return. When translated into dollars and cents, this system is invaluable and that's why we're so focused on performance architecture and why you should be too.

Are you busy this Christmas season?

It always amazes me at how many business clients talk about how slow the christmas season is and still they do nothing about it. No innovative marketing push in Oct/Nov to set up Dec and Jan. Rather than complain and stay awake at night I've chosen to push as hard as possible and that has translated into a very busy Christmas season so far. This really isn't rocket science, I've committed to some marketing initiatives that are generating results and once the formula has been proven to work I stick with it. Turn it over again and again. Sure we're doing some seasonal marketing now to augment the norm as a final push for the year. We found it was a challenge to set our client Christmas season message apart from all the others in some way and still stay grounded in simplicity with the proper positioning. My suggestion is to do something a little different from last year if you're not happy with the results and get on things right away for Jan and Feb, it's not too late for a simple marketing push.

All small businesses should be marketing hard leading up to what is typically the seasonal drops to smooth out the rollercoaster. Find a formula that works for you and run with it as often as you can.