Thor's Archive
I had a little debate today with some of the staff about Schrock's 2009 Holiday Special system.
We have always offered a complete system (CPU, monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers) for $1499 in past sales. We have offered a tower-only option for $200 less, dropping the price to $1299.
So here is the question...
Do we advertise the Holiday Special as a $1299.99 tower only system and then offer the monitor and accessories as separate items for purchase or do we assume that most people will want the accessories, market it at $1499 and then offer the take-away discount?
If you Were Buying a New PC Right Now
If you were in the process of buying a new PC right now would you want to replace your monitor and accessories for $200 or would you fly with what you have?
We have been hard at work for the past few weeks designing the Schrock Innovations 2009 Holiday System, and the first prototype testing is underway.
This year's Holiday Special will feature 2 new technologies that have never before been used in a Schrock build. The result is a new Modular PC that is faster (not seconds faster but STUNNINGLY faster) more reliable, and better prep[ared for tomorrow's technology than ever before.
What is the Holiday Special?
Schrock's Holiday Specials are always highly anticipated because the systems push the limits of technology at an unbelievable price. We offer a complete system (including monitor, wireless keyboard and mouse, and speakers) for only $1,499.
These systems are configured with amazing specifications. This is not the typical Dell up-sell routine, where you are lured in for $499 and end up spending way more than you planned.
These computers are configured to rock your PC experience with no modification required.
This year's Holiday Special Modular PC is no exception. We are keeping the exact details close to the vest at the moment, but I can tell you it will be running Windows 7.
Faster than Anyone Expects
ONe of the big reasons we are so excited for the 2009 Holiday Special is because one of the new pieces of technology we are introducing will bring MASSIVE speed increases to the table that will be unavailable anywhere else in Nebraska (even by special order form Dell).
This new technology will unleash AMAZING speed that most computer users have only imagined. In our tests this technology has cut processes that used to take HOURS down to mere minutes.
We get excited whenever a system we produce can dramatically improve a PC users' experience. To put it bluntly we have not a game-changing PC since we introduced Lincoln to Windows XP and LCD displays ion 2001. This system will be just as revolutionary.
Reliable Beyond Anything You Have Imagined
The 2009 Holiday Special is going to be faster than anything we have ever built before at Schrock, but it is also the most reliable system we have ever built.
This system runs COOLER (temperature wise) than any previous computer we have built, even though it sports a quad core processor. Because it runs cooler, it also uses LESS POWER than other quad core systems we have released in 2009.
Another new pieces of technology cuts the odds of a PC breakdown by an amazing 75%. This PC has more up-time, less lag time, ind its overall cost of ownership is dramatically lower over its expected 8-year lifespan.
Power for Today and Potential for Tomorrow
As always, this Schrock system is Modular. That means your computer has everything it needs to meet your demands today, and it can grow with you as your needs change in the future.
Schrock Innovations is the only company in the country that offers Modular computers, and that is why our Holiday Special systems last more than 8 years while other manufacturers are lucky to get three years out of their builds.
How Can You Learn More About This Computer?
Unfortunately, you will have to wait a little while longer before we let everything out of the bag. But there are some things you can do to make sure you catch the tidbits when we do let them out.
- Subscribe to the RSS Feed on this blog. You'll get an email as soon as we release anything.
- Follow me on Twitter - I am prone to moments of weakness. If something slips, it will happen here
- Get on Schrock Innovation's mailing list - Contact Schrock and ask to be added. It's free and rumor has it there is a coupon involved :-)
- Listen to Compute This every week. Chris Goforth has a way of getting me to talk
Every day in the news you hear more bad news about the economy, but great news about your 401-k value. How does this contradiction translate into opportunity for your business?
Easy.
You can hire the best talent available in the marketplace on a contract basis because people are out of work and they will be for some time.
If you hire clearly overqualified people, they will simply take your position until something better comes along.
Instead, hire the people you need on a contract basis. The differences between contract employees and regular employees are subtle (but important).
Most importantly it opens up a door of opportunity that can help your small business get the talent it needs to grow. Eventually you might grow to a point where you can permanently hire your contract help!
How can the stock market keep going up if the economy is tanking?
Remember that stock values are based on company profits and activities. The economy on the other hand, is primarily driven by individual consumers.
Companies can generate huge profits by reducing the number of people they employ, as long as they can manage to somehow continue delivering their products and services with their remaining workforce.
Experts often cite recessions as times when employee productivity goes through the roof. Employee productivity goes up because a company's remaining staff must pick up the workload of the laid-off employees or face the chopping block themselves.
Fewer people doing more than ever is a recipe for business profits, and hence the stock market does well. On the other hand there are tons of highly trained and qualified people who are stuck on the sidelines polishing their resumes.
Turning on the 1099 Tap
With so many people out of work for such a long period of time, the small business owner has a unique opportunity to leverage talent they otherwise could not afford.
When you hire someone to help your company you can bring them on as an employee or you can hire them as a temporary contractor. There are certain advantages and disadvantages to each:
Regular Employees:
- Advantage - You control their every activity
- Advantage - You invest in their training and development to make them more productive
- Advantage - The employee relies on you as their main income source
- Disadvantage - You are responsible for benefits, including unemployment payments if things don't work out
- Disadvantage - Over-qualified people might take your under-paying position to tide them over while their resume circulates in higher-paying circles
- Disadvantage - Employees come with HR nightmares like paid time off, sick days, maternity leave, office politics, and government compliance regulations
Contract Employees
- Advantage - You tell them what needs to be accomplished, and they make it happen
- Advantage - Lack of a regimented management structure can sometimes lead to better results and new ideas
- Advantage - Contract employees are less expensive because you don't have to worry about benefit packages, overtime, or payroll taxes
- Disadvantage - Contract employees are like for-hire mercenaries. They can work for anyone, including your competitors
- Disadvantage - Contract employees are typically less committed to big-picture corporate goals
- Disadvantage - You can't control them. If you have control and direction of their activities you have to pay taxes on them as regular employees
Using Contractors to Grow
From time to time my company has used contractors as gateway labor when launching a new division, testing out a new product or service, or simply when we could not hire an employee at an agreeable rate.
Eventually, all contract relationships end - abruptly. Typically, the best you can hope for is a 30-day notice provision in your contract.
While that sounds better than a voluntary 2-weeks notice form a regular employee, it can be devastating to lose a key person in the infancy of a product.
Employees are typically more loyal to the corporate goals, so the odds of them seeing a project through to a transition point are typically better.
Once your product, division, or service is viable, transition your contractors to employee status, or replace them with qualified people. Whenever possible, have the new employees train under the contractor.
Opportunity is Everywhere - Even in Bad Times
No matter how you decide to find your people, know that the "bad economy" has created a pool of very talented labor that can be a game-changer in your business strategy.
All you have to do is know how to tap it affordably and control its growth to cash in.
There is a new piece of exploit code circulating on the web that takes advantage of the SMB v2 service in Windows Vista to remotely access your computer.
At this time there is no patch to fix the problem (although the problem was repaired in the final release of Windows 7). Bevause thuis is a new exploit, it is also likely that any attackers using this code could also bypass your security software.
To TEMPORARILY fix this problem, there is a utility you can download to turn of the SMB v2 service. This may impact your home networking situation depending on your configuration, however it will not impact most users at all.
In the absence of a patch, here’s what you can do:
To revert the workaround, and re-enable SMBv2, you can:
A couple days back I stopped into the shop to drop some things off and I had my 3-year old son Jake with me.
After a few minutes the guys had him up on a stool and working - and Jake loved it!
I can't believe a company like Apple or even AT&T can treat their customers this way and expect to keep them loyal. Here is what I just sent to Apple's feedback email address (like anyone will ever read it):
I don't even know where to begin. My business iPhone just died in the middle of a text message today. It will not turn on again at all. It was purchased October 11, 2008 (less than a year old) at the AT&T store in Lincoln, NE (68516).
I live in Omaha, NE (68108) and there is an Apple store here. I called 611 from my iPhone to find out what we need to do to get her phone replaced. After 5 dropped calls, and a total of more than 20 minutes on hold, I finally got through to an Apple support representative (who was really an AT&T support representative).
He informed me that AT&T does not have any stores in Omaha. (Here's a link to the half-dozen AT&T stores in Omaha )
I read him the numbers for the first three, and he tried to call and was unable to get through to a representative (in one case the number was disconnected!)
I gave up on him and called the AT&T store where I bought the phone in Lincoln and spoke to the manager. He informed me that the AT&T store where we bought the iPhone can't replace it at all. Even though my phone is less than a year old, it has to be done at an Apple store. No exceptions.
So I called the Apple store. The representative there told me that he couldn't set up an appointment at the Genius Bar, so I would have to go online and do it.
FRUSTRATING. SO now an hour after I started, I go online only to find that I have to wait 2 DAYS for an appointment.
Needless to say at this moment I am seriously missing my HTC touch from Sprint. I doubt anyone will actually read this, and if anyone does they won't be empowered to do anything about it in my case or as part of an aggregated policy, but it makes me feel better to send it.
I love my iPhone, but this is not the Apple service that has differentiated your company in the past, and I can honestly say I will be looking at other options in the future for my business telephone needs.
UPDATE 9:35 AM 9/14/2009. Bruce Nelson with InfoUSA emailed me the following:
Just read your post and wanted to let you know that the pop up for the sample record on the Choose Your Package page (Park Drive Garage) is a dummy record.
It comes up regardless what set of criteria (SIC Code, geography) you choose.
It used to pull an actual record from the list you built, but it was becoming a performance issue, so we just put a static example recently. Your post brings to light that we really need to change the text to let people know that it is not one of the records you will be getting in your list.
This afternoon I did some research for marketing a computer repair company resource website. I planned on directly marketing the website to computer repair companies, and to do that I needed a list to work from.
The first name that came to mind was InfoUSA, and I was thrilled to find that their lists can be purchased online through an automated system!
InfoUSA Sells BIG Lists But...
I entered SIC (Standard Industrial Classification) numbers 7378 and 7379 and their system returned just over 38,000 results. The price of the list was a WHOPPING $6,227.00!
For that price I might as well build a bot to harvest names and phone numbers from computer repair web searches on Google. Harvested lists are rarely accurate, and can lead to wasted marketing dollars, but you would have to waste a lot of money to get to $6,000.
Holy Proofreading Batman!
InfoUSA has a cool feature where you can preview an entry from the list you are about to buy. Before I dropped my cash on the table, I took a look at what my $6,000 was going to buy:
There is no excuse for a result for the Park Drive Garage showing up in a database search for computer repair companies. I entered SPECIFIC SIC codes that should have returned only computer repair companies.
They obviously had this business listed in a database somewhere with an Automotive Repair SIC code. It's RIGHT THERE in the sample result!
Why would I pay $.16 per name for a list of businesses that will have no interest in an IT shop website?
If InfoUSA can't manage their results database, there is no way I am going to trust them to sell me a targeted list for a marketing campaign.
Anyone know a good coder who can build a bot for me?
Today is the anniversary of the September 11th attack. I thought about writing a thoughtful post on what it means to be an American, how America has led the world for the past 100 years, and how we are art risk of losing that edge to the Chinese and others in the next 100 years.
Well, that was too depressing for me today, so instead I thought I would illustrate some differences between George W Bush and Obama. I firmly believe that Barack Obama's policies are a disaster for this country. I believe there will be a day when those who voted for Obama will realize they got duped (those few that still don't know that already).
These posts typically get snapped up in the search engines and then hacks from both sides snipe back and forth and the truth is so obfuscated that no one can decipher what is really going on.
Rather than the usual, I thought I would let these two leaders speak for themselves. Here are some notable quotes from Bush and Obama:
Barack Obama Quotes:
America is a Nation with a mission - and that mission comes from our most basic beliefs. We have no desire to dominate, no ambitions of empire. Our aim is a democratic peace - a peace founded upon the dignity and rights of every man and woman.
America is the land of the second chance - and when the gates of the prison open, the path ahead should lead to a better life.
Americans are rising to the tasks of history, and they expect the same of us.
For diplomacy to be effective, words must be credible - and no one can now doubt the word of America.
If you're sick and tired of the politics of cynicism and polls and principles, come and join this campaign.
Use power to help people. For we are given power not to advance our own purposes nor to make a great show in the world, nor a name. There is but one just use of power and it is to serve people.
George W. Bush Quotes:
As a nuclear power - as the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon - the United States has a moral responsibility to act.
If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress.
It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get to where we are today, but we have just begun. Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today.
Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and the war on terrorism have reduced the pace of military transformation and have revealed our lack of preparation for defensive and stability operations.
Poorly secured nuclear material in the former Soviet Union, or secrets from a scientist in Pakistan could help build a bomb that detonates in Paris. The poppies in Afghanistan become the heroin in Berlin. The poverty and violence in Somalia breeds the terror of tomorrow.
There is not a liberal America and a conservative America - there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and latino America and asian America - there's the United States of America.
Today we are engaged in a deadly global struggle for those who would intimidate, torture, and murder people for exercising the most basic freedoms.
We have real enemies in the world. These enemies must be found. They must be pursued and they must be defeated.
Now here's the real test. Some of you read all the way to the bottom before you fired from the hip. You THOUGHT about what these quotes meant before you applied them to the media templates that exist for these men. You are the REAL American patriots here.
You are the only ones who know that I switched the attribution for the above quotes. The Obama quotes were actually Bush quotes, and the Bush quotes were actually spoken by Obama.
Actions speak louder than words, and I am watching Obama's actions. They don't match what he is saying and THAT is why I am scared for America's future.
As I type this I am downloading the 64-bit Windows 7 Ultimate 3 GB ISO through the Microsoft Action Pack Subscription program. Minutes ago I received an email from Microsoft informing me that the download was now available.
This is not a beta, or a release candidate. This is the all-out full version of Windows 7. This is going to be a fun night! 1.5 hours remaining on download...
Now where did I put that solid state hard drive again?
Microsoft is reporting today that the "Tear-drop attack" sample code that was claimed to successfully crash Windows 7 remotely can't touch Microsoft's upcoming golden child.
It seems that the person who was testing the code tested it on a release candidate version of Windows 7. The release candidate was impacted by the security problem, however Microsoft responded in their bulletin that the final release of Windows 7 (pressed to DVDs in July) is not impacted by the flaw.
This is the first specific example of a security threat impacting Windows Vista that was preemptively blocked by Windows 7.
I am sure there will be other exposed threats that will impact Windows 7, but this victory comes just in time for 7's October 22nd release. Windows 7 is expected to be the most advanced operating system on the planet (a claim that Apple is making in their music on hold right now about Snow Leopard).
The latest fake-alert variant spreading on the web right now attempts to play on the passions of the green-Earth movement to trick unsuspecting victims into installing fake security software.
Green AV infects your computer through click jacking (only Norton 360 can stop it).
The new threat actually plays off of a Norton 360 trade name, calling itself the 3.0 Premier Edition, and claims to be the “World’s First Antivirus Which Cares About the Environment.”
Unlike other fake alert infections, Green AV demands a price premium for those who are unfortunate enough to fall for the scam. Typically fake alert infections demand around $50 to stop popping up in your face and "heal" your PC. Green AV demands $99.
Green-AV’s website reads:
Fighting viruses, spyware, malware is not only a question of security. Spyware actualy abuses your computer, overuses CPU speed, network bandwidth, makes your PC run slow. As a result you start consuming more power, working longer, think of replacing your PC with a new one which brings more unrecyclable wastes (many computer’s parts contain toxic wastes).
This way Green AV actualy cares about the environment. We thought that our application can guard not only your PC, but whole Earth - our home planet. So to show how much we care we desided to send $2 from each product sale on saving green forests in Amazonia.
The misspellings, poor English, and the fictional land of Amazonia should tip off any reasonable person that this is a scam.
Kim and I had a great time cheering the Nebraska Cornhuskers to victory yesterday over the Florida Atlantic Owls. This was the Husker's season opener and the first game that Kim and I have been able to enjoy from the skybox.
It was a blowout game with Nebraska winning 49-3, although the Huskers are going to have to tighten some things up if they expect to do well in Big 12 Conference play.
Our skybox used to belong to Larry the Cable Guy. Even though the bathroom is literally right outside the door of our skybox, every time Larry opened his door there was a throng of autograph-seeking fans waiting for him. Larry (Dan is his real name) has kids, and it made it tough to enjoy the game with his family at times.
Larry moved on over to one of the new North Stadium skyboxes that has its own bathroom to resolve the situation. Aside from giving Larry a new kind of stadium seat, it gave us the opportunity to log a few games in his old skybox!
The skybox was definitely nice (it had better be at an annual price tag of $85,000). We had a dedicated hostess who was there to make sure we had everything we needed. All of the typical stadium favorites were available (hot dogs, pizza, etc..) and they are even more irresistible when they are absolutely fresh from the oven.
Nebraska Athletic Director Tom Osborne sat about 20 feet from us, and he was just as calm and reserved as he was when he was coaching the Huskers on the sideline. He mechanically ate one tortilla chip every 42.5 seconds, took notes after every play, and did not speak to anyone that I saw.
Occasionally you would catching him nodding ever so slightly in approval. By the third quarter those tortilla chips started catching up with him. If you were quick you could see him dozing off a little once the Huskers had the third stringers in the game.
We can't wait for next week!
Most computer repair companies are started by technicians or IT professionals. They are usually confident in their technology skills, have experience serving customers for others, and believe they can earn a significant income if they were only working for themselves instead.
When an IT professional takes the entrepreneurial leap, the immediate focus usually lands on how to acquire clients, customers, or jobs.
As the newly-born entrepreneur sets out to build a business, he or she finds that for some reason they are having a tough time making ends meet even though they are working twice as hard as they did in their previous job.
That single misstep is why many IT professionals will fail to find success within the first year of their entrepreneurial venture and will be pressured back into servitude as an independent contractor or employee.
What good does it do to ferociously hunt new clients and customers if you are not able to have profitable interactions with them when you do find them?
Before you leave your job, before you invest the first dollar in your future, and before you even attempt to get your first client, you need a revenue model.
What is a Revenue Model?
Simply put, a revenue model is how you plan on making money by satisfying your clients’ needs.
Take a moment to think about the businesses you have interacted with today. Why did you buy what you bought?
Gas stations will offer inexpensive fountain drinks, hoping you will grab a bag of chips or a candy bar to go with it. McDonald's asks you to try their latest sandwich for free with the purchase of fries and a drink in the hope your come back for more. Even my plumber was using a revenue model when he tried sold me a “hydro-scrub” of my sewer line for $50.
The point of a revenue model is to have a basket of products and services available that your customers might need, and then moving them through those products and services in a way that maximizes the profitability of each interaction with those customers.
Components of a Sales Model
Revenue models have 9 basic components. No matter what mix of products and services you keep in your basket, you need to know exactly what they are and how they interact with each other in your revenue model.
Your revenue model needs to:
- Have a client (A Customer Who Presents A Problem)
- Have a solution that resolves your client’s problem
- Bridge that Solution to Another Item in Your Basket of Products and Services
- Provide an Opportunity to Investigate for Further Up-Sell Opportunities
- Close the Sale With the Customer in a Compelling Way
- Back-sell With Customer to Reaffirm Their Decision
- Deliver the Products and Services that Were Promised
- Back-sell Again in Person to Prevent any Buyer’s Remorse Feelings
- Stand Behind Your Warranty With a SMILE if it is Called in
How to Build Your Revenue Model
Building a revenue model is not a daunting task. In recent years there has even been a counter-push against revenue models in light of hyper-successful companies like Google that did not have a revenue model when they started.
The truth is that for every Google there are hundreds of thousands of business failures that a good revenue model might have prevented.
It is easiest to think about your revenue model as the thread that links your products and services together. Just because you offer a Maintenance Checkup, or Anti-Virus software, or memory upgrades doesn’t mean that people will come to you looking for them.
You need to have a planned way to let your clients know what you have that they can use and give them compelling reasons why they should let you solve their problems.
Steps to creating your revenue model:
- List all of the products and services you offer. It might be easier to list each one on a note card so you can literally line them up in the order they might happen.
- Determine which of your products or services will satisfy the largest number of clients. I creat5ed the Maintenance Checkup because it has a little of everything. Every computer problem touches the Maintenance Checkup in some way. It was a great way for me to get my leads into my revenue model. This is called your gateway offering.
- Starting from your gateway offering, develop lines of reason – based on specific problems – that would lead you to recommend each of your other products or services under certain circumstances. For example, if you offer data recovery services, a customer complaining of a blue screen of death may be suffering from a failing hard drive. When this happens what options will your customer have?
- Take the model one step further into your product and service basket. Continuing from the example above, does that data recovery customer need a new hard drive? Did the hard drive die because it was being over-used for virtual memory because the computer does not have enough physical memory? Find one more thing that the customer needs (assuming they truly need anything additional) and figure out how you would offer it.
- Rehearse your pitch. Nothing sounds worse than a person who sounds like they don’t believe what they are saying or know what they are talking about. Find someone who won’t think you are crazy and role play. Ask your partner to challenge you. This is best done with a non-technician because that is who your customer will be.
- Make real-life adjustments. When you are implementing your revenue model there will be times when you have to make adjustments based on input from your client. Remember that people don’t buy what they can’t afford.
Up-Selling is Not Evil Unless You are Evil
Some technicians find the revenue model – or selling in general – to be distasteful. I even consulted with one business owner whose entire reason for going into business was because other repair shops i town were “always trying to sell something.”
A good revenue model does more than generate profits for the company that employs it. Businesses that are successful in the long-term rely on repeat customers and word of mouth.
A good revenue model is designed to extract as much profit from a customer interaction as possible while at the same time providing superior services that are deserving of a premium price.
Life Without a Sales Model
Consider for a moment how awful your experience as a consumer would be if the companies you visited today did not employ a good sales model.
If the gas station didn’t have the inexpensive fountain drinks, you may have never found what has become your favorite snack. If McDonald's didn’t get you to try that new sandwich you might have eaten the same old thing every day. If my plumber didn’t sell me that hydro-scrub, the scent of old poop might be wafting up my drains right now.
Superior revenue models deliver good products and services at a price the customer is willing - and in most cases eager – to pay.
Failing to recognize the need for a systematized sales model is the single greatest factor in the failure of small businesses in general. Having a good revenue model will put you 10 steps ahead of most of the IT shops and consultants in your market. Ignore the need for a revenue model at your own peril.
My morning (and possibly most of my afternoon) today has been tied up in depositions in a case brought against Schrock Innovations by one of our local Lincoln competitors.
One of our local competitors is claiming that I have said things on this blog that have damaged their business. They are demanding $7,500 in unspecified damages.
We have offered a settlement, which was quickly declined. We have tried to move this case to trial, but have been thwarted by procedural tactics for almost 4 years by the plaintiff.
On one hand I am annoyed that I have to spend a half day on this, but on the other hand I am happy to finally start moving this thing to a conclusion.
Despite everything that has happened over the past four years between Schrock and this competitor, I hope that one day we can all sit down together peaceably and laugh about all of this.
Brad Donner has been an entry level web design employee at Schrock Innovations for a few months now, but many of our customers don't know that he is an amateur photographer as well.
Last year Brad asked all of his friends and family to vote for his company, Donner Digital Photography, in the KETV viewer survey. And he won!
I work every day with Brad and I know he works hard every day to improve his photography skills.
Take a moment to look at Brad's best picture and vote for him in this year's KETV survey.
I happen to have some inside information about KFOR's Best of Lincoln survey (due out in October) and its only fair that I do my best to help an employee win a consumer award when my employees give their all so Schrock can win one as well.
One of my readers forwarded me a report from the Better Business Bureau. The US Census is taking place this year, and the government is hiring thousands of temporary workers to help get the job done.
Unfortunately, the Census also provides a ripe opportunity for identity thieves to knock on your door, ask you personal questions, and use the U.S. Government's name to compel you to answer. Here is the waring from the BBB:
BBB Alerts Consumers about U.S. Census Workers:
Be Cooperative, But Cautious!For years, Better Business Bureau has educated consumers about not giving out personal information over the telephone or to anyone who shows up at their front door. With the U.S. Census process beginning, BBB advises people to be cooperative, but cautious, so as not to become a victim of fraud or identity theft.
The first phase of the 2010 U.S. Census is under way as workers have begun verifying the addresses of households across the country. Eventually,more than 140,000 U.S. Census workers will count every person in the United States and will gather information about every person living at each address including name, age, gender, race and other relevant data.
"Most people are rightfully cautious and won't give out personal information to unsolicited phone callers or visitors, however the Census is an exception to the rule," said Steve Cox, BBB spokesperson.
"Unfortunately, scammers know that the public is more willing to share personal data when taking part in the Census and they have an opportunity to ply their trade by posing as a government employee and soliciting sensitive financial information."
The Census data will be used to allocate more than $300 billion in federal funds every year, as well as determine a State's number of Congressional representatives. Households are required by law to respond to the Census Bureau's request for information.
During the U.S. Census, households will be contacted by mail, telephone or visited by a U.S. Census worker who will inquire about the number of people living in the house. Unfortunately, people may also be contacted by scammers who are impersonating Census workers in order to gain access to sensitive financial information such as Social Security, bank account or credit card numbers.
Law enforcement in several states have issued warnings that scammers are already posing as Census Bureau employees and knocking on doors asking for donations and Social Security numbers.
Question is - how do you tell the difference between a U.S. Census worker and a con artist? BBB offers the following advice:If a U.S. Census worker knocks on your door, they will have a badge, a handheld device, a Census Bureau canvas bag and a confidentiality notice.
Ask to see their identification and their badge before answering their questions. However, you should never invite anyone you don't know into your home.
Census workers are currently only knocking on doors to verify address information. Do not give your Social Security number, credit card or banking information to anyone, even if they claim they need it for the U.S. Census.
While the Census Bureau might ask for basic financial information, such as a salary range, it will not ask for Social Security, bank account or credit card numbers nor will employees solicit donations.
Eventually, Census workers may contact you by telephone, mail or in person at home.
However, they will not contact you by e-mail, so be on the look out for e-mail scams impersonating the Census.
Never click on a link or open any attachments in an e-mail that are supposedly from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Today, computers are incomplete without their peripherals. These peripheral devices have greatly enhanced the ability of computers and have helped us achieve a lot more. Several new devices have been created that are not only improving the quality of computing, but are also allowing us to phone friends, play games, watch movies, click photographs and much more.
One device that stands out among all these devices and continues to be used most extensively is a computer printer. A lot of businesses and their processes are completely dependent upon printing devices for providing service to their clients. Another big user of printing devices apart from various businesses is the student community.
This important peripheral device can also be a cause of lot of frustration when it gets stuck or generates errors at a crucial time. While most of the large businesses can afford to immediately summon printer experts to resolve the problem, the smaller businesses and common users have to attempt to troubleshoot the printer problems themselves.
DLL errors are also one of the causes of a few PC printer problems. These printer DLL errors are usually a result of obsolete printer drivers. In other cases a newly installed application may also cause interference in the working of DLL files related to printers and prevent the printer from functioning properly. This is evident in case of the hpslpsvc32.dll file which exhibits very high CPU usage if there is problem in driver related to Hewlett Packard All-In-One Series printer.
Other similar errors are hpzimc09.dll error related to the DeskJet printers of Hewlett Packard and zsr.dll which is associated with the 1020 series of LaserJet printers from Hewlett Packard.
Fixing Printer DLL Errors:
You need to perform the following steps in order to fix hpslpsvc32.dll and svchost.exe and other printer DLL errors.
- Start with getting rid of existing printer drivers. You may need to uninstall them either by using Add/Remove program utility present in the Control Panel or by using the Device Manager tool.
- Delete all files from the directory named Spool Driver. The path of this directory is C:\Windows\system32\spool\drivers.
- Next, delete all files with the extension .spl and .shd from the Printers directory. The path of this directory is C:\Windows\system32\spool\printers.
- Delete all files from the Windows Temp folder.
- Open the built-in Registry Editor (RegEdit) which is provided by your operating system and go to HKLM\SYSTEM\Current Control Set\Control\Print\Printers. However, you must be very careful during this process and take a complete backup of your registry before you begin editing it. You need to remove all entries associated with your printer. If you are unsure, then it is recommended that you use a good third party automatic registry cleaner to scan the errors related to your printer and repair them.
- Next step is to rule out any malware infection by performing a thorough scan with a reliable anti-virus and anti-spyware.
- Find all the icons related to your printer and its configurations, and remove them from your PC.
- Reboot your computer.
- Now you can install the new printer drivers. The new drivers must be of latest version and should be downloaded from the official website of the printer’s manufacturer. If you find it cumbersome you can take assistance of a reliable driver scanner tool which will automatically do this job for you.
For the past few years Apple has had a heyday with ads proclaiming that Macs are inherently free of viruses and spyware because of the superior software they employ.
And for the past three years on my radio show I have said that the reason Mac users don't get many viruses is because not many people were using Mac.
After Vista's shortcomings gave Apple an opening to sell a LOT of Macs and their marketshare broke 10% of users in the US.
With more and more people using Macs, attackers are now realizing that Mac users are a very undeserved population. Many don't run any security software at all because they believe they are impervious to attack.
Do Mac Users Need Security Software?
In short, if you plan on doing anything important with your Mac, you need security software. If you are using a Mac to play games for your 4 year old, then you can probably go without.
Before you pack your student up for college and send that Mac off to class, here is a list of security software providers who have products you can use to protect yourself and your identity.
There are a lot of ways to measure the effectiveness of a marketing campaign. You can look at market share gained, revenue generated, or response rates. But sometimes the true measure of an ad's effectiveness is not in these numbers.
A truly brilliant marketing campaign makes your competitors whine. It makes then call their lawyers. It makes them grasp at any straw to make the bleeding stop.
There is truth to the saying "thou dost protest too much." If you get your competitor to respond in a direct way to an indirect advertisement you know you are doing something right.
If Your Competitors Squawk, Keep Doing It
If something in your advertising - a word, phrase or concept - draws the ire of a competitor there is usually something about what you are doing that they are afraid of.
Take this recent example:
Microsoft recently launched a series of TV ads called Laptop Hunters.
These ads illustrate how much less expensive it is to buy a PC than it is to buy a Mac. This was Microsoft's counter to Apple's highly effective "I'm a Mac" TV advertisements.
It seems that the ads were effective. Last quarter Apple lost market share to Microsoft and also dropped the prices of its low-end MacBook.
It also seems that Apple's lawyers called Microsoft and tried to put an end to their ads sighting that they were invalid because you could now buy a MacBook for less than $1,000.
Microsoft's Chief Operating Officer, Kevin Turner said:
"They took like $100 off or something," he said. "It was the greatest single phone call in the history that I've ever taken in business."
"Microsoft is "just going to keep running them and running them and running them."
Once you know you are under your competitor's skin, you know you are doing something effectively and you should continue to do it.
If Their Ads are Working, Shut Up
The same thing goes in the opposite direction. If your competitor is doing something to you that is highly effective, don't whine about it. Focus your efforts and energy on coming up with a response in the marketplace.
Answering your competitor's challenge is not enough. Find the weakness in their strength and counter-punch. Put them on the defensive.
Using the above example, Microsoft never whined to Apple's attorneys that Macs can (and do) get viruses and malware infections. They found a weakness (Apple's price point) in their strength (controlled distribution channel) and exploited it.
Check Your Emotions at the Door
In small business things can get personal very easily. It is not uncommon for small business owners to make stupid business decisions because they are emotionally compromised in a situation.
Don't fall into that trap.
When you feel yourself getting angry, sad, scared, or personally intimidated, take a step back and remember that you are not your business. Your business is a whole separate person.
It's ok to defend your business in the same way a parent would defend their child against another youth bully. Its not ok to be the dad that jumps out of the car and smacks another kid for calling your kid fat.
Measure and Revise
The last thing to remind yourself is that you need to constantly measure the effectiveness of your ads. Remember the Bill Gates & Sinfeld ad flop?
Even Microsoft will quit a multi-million dollar campaign if it isn't doing anythig positive.
From time to time I do some consulting for computer repair companies outside Schrock's local trade areas.
Typically these take the form of phone calls about trends or marketing ideas, but York Computer Repair is a whole different story.
Yesterday I received an unexpected thank you letter (yes the postal mail kind) from York Computer Repair's Owner, Walter Oakhem. Here is what he wrote:
Thank you for all of the help you have given me with starting York Computer Repair.
I especially appreciate the information and advice you have provided, and the contacts you have shared with me. Your assistance has been invaluable to me during this process. I just wanted to say an extra thank you for your mentoring and kindness.
Again, thank you so much. I greatly appreciate your generosity.
What Did I Do to Deserve Such Kind Words?
I have never really talked about Walt, his company, or what I have done to help him get things rolling in York, PA. Even my employees don't know the details of what we discussed. In one of our calls Walt suggested I document our conversations because he felt other computer repair company owners might benefit from them.
I am going to preface this by stating that no consultant, no home study course, and no business model can bring you success unless you are willing to implement it.
From day one, Walt has had a flame of passion that I have seen in few others over the past few years. While this post will name off some of the suggestions I gave to Walt, by no means am I trying to take any portion of the credit for his work. Anyone can talk, but only an entrepreneur can transform talk into results like Walt has in Pennsylvania.
The Meat & Potatoes of Three Phone Calls
Over the course of our three phone calls we covered topics raging from starting up to scaling to a retail location and everything in between. Walt and I discussed:
- The absolute NEED for a sales model (and how easy it is to make one)
- How to target a small niche in your marketplace and expand outward from there
- Yellow Pages advertising techniques that are proven to bring in hundreds of new customers each month
- How to build an inventory of repair components for next to nothing
- How to hire employees as inexpensively as possible in the first few months
- How to value your time and get your customers to pay a reasonable price for it
- Every reason you should NEVER try to be a low-cost leader
- The need for a work flow management system and where you can get one specifically designed for computer repair shops
- How you can create brands for your physical products and service products and why it is a VITAL step than is often skipped causing others to fail
- Who the key low-cost hardware providers are and how to do business with them (if you think NewEgg is your best value, think again)
- The need to continually remind your customers how wise they are to choose to do business with you
Walt paid me my normal $200 an hour rate over the course of three calls. With the information he had, he was able to accelerate the growth of his new operation, and had the best month of his company's history in June.
How Can Just Talking Help a PC Repair Business?
Walt first heard about me and Schrock Innovations from a podcast I did with PodNutz about starting a computer repair shop. In that podcast I stressed that most PC repair technicians try to penetrate a market as a low cost leader. That approach dooms them to failure. I spoke about the need to charge a fair price for your service, not just the hardware you are selling.
Walt heard that podcast and called me for followup. Because of our three phone conversations his PC repair shop is rapidly growing. His Q4 marketing plan looks like a home run, and even if it under performs his larger population base in PA will make it a bigger success than the 162 new customers Schrock gets every month by following that same model.
I have made a lot of mistakes, learned form them, and modified my techniques to gain the best return on my efforts. It is entirely true that another person can learn the same lessons I did the same way I learned them.
However, it is also true that if a person like me existed 10 years ago when I started Schrock Innovations we would have cut 5 years off our growth curve, had an easier time doing it, and would have earned tens of thousands of dollars more.
Does Your PC Repair Shop Need Some Fresh Insights?
In the coming weeks I will be blogging about the bullet points I covered with Walt. Subscribe to my RSS feed to make sure you don't miss any of the topics. If you need more immediate or involved assistance give me a call at 402-212-5393 and let me know what challenge you are facing. I might be able to give you the piece of advice you have been missing!
I never imagined that I would be writing this, but I actually agree with the ACLU on something.
I am used to the ACLU defending the indefensible and taking ridiculous positions on issues that inflame public opinion.
But this video is as scary as it gets. If Obama digitizes health care records as part of his overall socialization of the US health care system, this could be a reality more quickly than you might think. Way to go ACLU for getting one right this time.
Local Insight Yellow Pages is informing its advertisers that their contracts are being forcibly extended - at their existing monthly rates - for three additional months. 140 of the company's 900 directories are being delayed.
While the company says the move is to allow time to install new printing equipment, it is also obvious that the delay will prevent advertisers who wished to cut back their ads from doing so. In Lincoln, the billing of yellow page directory advertising is linked to your telephone service. If you refuse to pay the bill, Windstream will cut off your phones.
In effect, the delay will allow Local Insight to delay what would most certainly be cuts in small businesses yellow pages advertising budgets.
A few weeks ago I received a letter form Local Insight Yellow Pages informing me that they were delaying the release of their 2010 book by three months. Instead of its normal release in November 2009, the 2010 book was being pushed back to February of 2010.
Printing Equipment Delay Does Not Make Sense
The delay of the 2010 book and the subsequent contract extensions from the 2009 book is explained by Local Insight as the need to install modernized printing equipment to print the directories.
However, a January 2008 press release from Quebecor, the company that prints over half of Local Insight's phone books, indicates that they just upped their printing volume in January of 2008. Since the Lincoln, Nebraska directory is printed in October, that means that no Lincoln directory has been printed under the new agreement with Quebecor to date. Why replace equipment you have never used to print a book?
A more likely explanation is that they needed stable revenue and earnings to complete the merger of their Local Insight directory and regatta online directory into their other division, the Berry Company. Without adverting contracts, a yellow pages company is worthless.
Yellow Page Advertising is Dying - Faster Now than Ever
Yellow page advertising has been losing ground rapidly to the host of online alternatives that are available to potential customers, the need for businesses to advertise online, and their failure to assemble any meaningful online presence themselves.
Local Insight specializes in phone book sin smaller markets like Lincoln, NE. These smaller markets have been impacted by the recession to a lesser degree, which has helped Local Insight avoid some of the revenue losses that other, larger phone books are encountering.
However, as the recession deepens and extends into those smaller markets, Local Insight stands to lose massive revenue if small businesses cut back their ads or remove them all together to opt for less-expensive online options.
A 90-day delay allows Local Insight to gain an additional fiscal quarter of revenues that business owners based on pre-recession information. Lets put it this way... If Local Insight expected businesses to spend more money on the next book, would they delay its publication by 3 months?
What You Can Do To Protest
As I mentioned before, if you are still in business, you have little choice but to pay the bill. In Lincoln, NE is you fail to pay your yellow pages advertising bill, Windstream will simply disconnect your phones.
In an interview on bizjournals.com, Cincinnati business owner Vicki Bezak said:
“I think they’re really in trouble. The phone book is a dinosaur, and nobody’s using it any more,” said Vicky Bezak, exclusive marketing agent for Satisfaction Yacht Charters Inc. Bezak estimated the directory delay would cost her company $300 a month – if she pays it.
“I’m going to call Cincinnati Bell and tell them that my contract with (Local Insight) terminates on June 1, and I’m not paying the ad costs listed on my current bill because I didn’t renew it,” she said.
Ms. Bezak's approach might be hit or miss depending on how the telephone company handles the complaint. Local Insight also has a toll-free number that they invite any customer who fells "they are not receiving value" from their yellow pages advertisement to call. It is not clear what the company plans to do for those customers.
If you want to give it a whirl anyway, you can call Local Insight's toll-free number at 888-237-8570.
On Friday I had a small oral surgery to correct a birth defect that has been a problem for the past 2 years.
Oral Surgeon Dr. Andrew Glenn implanted a small titanium screw into my upper jaw yesterday to act as an artificial root for a tooth that Dr. Chris Haag will be crafting and mounting to the screw in about 5 months.
Why Did Thor Have a Hole in His Grill?
I have a genetic defect that results in a missing tooth right beside my right canine. With no adult tooth to push its way through, I had a baby tooth in mouth for over 30 years.
Right before the filming of Next Internet Millionaire, I broke the tooth on a TicTac. Dr Haag slapped a temporary CERIC tooth on what was left of the baby tooth to get me by for the filming, but we both new it wouldn't last.
2 weeks after coming home, I lost that false tooth to an Arby's Classic Italian Sub. I was battling with my food, and for the time being the food was tearing me up!
Dr. Haag later extracted the remaining piece of tooth, and issued me a device called a flipper. Its basically a retainer with a tooth facade on it. This way if I had any important meetings, I would not look like a toothless idiot.
What Does the Implant Do?
The implant that Dr. Glenn dropped into my jaw acts as an artificial root - an anchor to give the ceramic tooth that Dr Haag will install some biting strength.
The implant was screwed in place with a small torque wrench using only local anesthesia.
After 5 to 6 months of healing time, the implant will be evaluated to ensure my body is not rejecting it, and then a tooth will be placed over the top.
Did the Implant Hurt?
As is the case with most dental procedures, the anticipation of the pain was far worse than the actual event. In fact, I honestly did not feel, taste, or smell a thing.
Dr Glenn and his staff were awesome and had me in and out of the chair in less than 20 minutes.
He told me Motrin should be all I needed for pain, but I already take a lot of that for my back and since the weekend was around the corner, he wrote me a prescription for Vicodin just in case I needed it.
The good news is that after the Novocaine wore off I am experiencing less pain than I have experienced with many cavity fillings in the past. This guy is GOOD. He drilled a hole in my skull and then stuck a screw in it and I was playing Frisbee with my son the next morning.
Nicely done!
Only 2 days remain to get Schrock Innovations' Preventative Maintenance Checkup on sale for only $19.99! This is the FINAL maintenance checkup sale of 2009, so it you miss this one its a long wait until 2010!
We are “officially” launched the sale on last weekend’s Compute This radio show, and our staff has done an amazing job keeping up with the workload. Unlike the previous sale, our turn around times are very reasonable (3 days or less).
A PC Maintenance Checkup is a complete head-to-toe examination of a computer that takes between 8 and 12 hours of bench time to complete. Our Maintenance Checkup is normally a great deal at its usual price of $60, but for next week only we will be discounting that price to an amazing $19.99.
During a PC Maintenance Checkup our trained technicians will:
- Scan your computer’s memory (Vital for Vista users)
- Blow dust and debris out of cooling fans
- Check fan rotation speeds and cooling effectiveness
- Ensure your installed Antivirus is effective and updated
- Test all drives
- Check hard drive for masked bad sectors
- Clean computer exterior if needed
- Repair errors in the Windows Registry
- Perform an advanced hard drive cleaning
- Install critical system support software
- Scan for and removes malware
- Scan for viruses and Trojans
Even accomplished PC users should see the value in this offer at an amazing $19.99 price
A recession is a massive opportunity for a small business that is willing to take a few calculated risks for a big reward. While your competitors are petrified by fear - real or manufactured - about what the future holds, your business needs to seize the present. By moving aggressively with calculated marketing moves you can snatch customers and marketshare for your company while your competitors' fears become their reality.
Over the past few months I have written about:
- Yellow Page Advertising Strategies for a Start-up Business
- Radio Advertising Strategies that Work Fast
- Why a Recession is the Best Time to Lead Your Industry
- How to Use Dunn & Bradstreet to Identify & Target Weak Competitors
I know these strategies work because I employ them in my computer repair company, Schrock Innovations. Schrock was started in 1999 and controls a commanding share of the Lincoln and Omaha computer repair marketplace. We have zero debt, great cash flow, and we are taking in an average of 162 new customers each and every month in 2009. We are GROWING in a recession.
People Get Scared, Businesses Can't Afford To
Fear is a devastating handicap that can paralyze you fatally in life. Small businesses are owned by real people, and real people can get spooked by a down economy.
To overcome personal fear you have to learn to compartmentalize. You are a person and your business is another person. Your objective is to make a living and get a return on your investment. Your business' job is to compete, deliver products and services, and satisfy its shareholders (you) by generating a return on investment.
While this advice may seem silly at first, the peace of mind it will give you is enormous. That peaceful space is what you need to make broad, calculated, and aggressive movements to grow your business.
Think back to a time in your life when you were genuinely scared - primally scared. Would you have been able to make a business decision, or even decide what you wanted for dinner later that day? You were probably so focused on the problem at hand that you couldn't step back and make any sort of objective decision. If your business is scared, it can't function properly either.
Recession Creates Opportunities
In November 2008 I pulled the trigger on an expansion plan that had been in the forks for over 6 months at Schrock Innovations. At that time, the auto companies were failing, AIG went bust, the credit markets froze, and businesses everywhere went into a holding position to see what tomorrow brought.
We elected a very liberal president and the Congress was with him. President Bush was bailing out anyone with a hangnail. There is only one place where this can go over the course of 4 years.
No matter what your political leanings are, more government involvement in business means slower decisions, unpredictability, and lower ROI in the long term. Jobs were going to bleed from the economy for more than 2 years.
All of this sounds pretty bad unless you step out of your business and look at this from an ROI perspective:
- Increased unemployment means your employees are less likely to go elsewhere. This lowers your training expenses
- A business downturn means TV, radio, and newspaper advertising gets much less expensive - especially if you commit to the long term
- Tight credit markets mean your competitors' ability to match your moves will be slower. No credit means they will wait to see how you do before they jump in.
- Low consumer confidence means your larger competitors will press prices lower and fund the decrease with service level cuts
- Everyone else is scared to buy a stapler, let alone a new piece of productivity equipment
Take this example: During the onset of the economic downturn McDonald's could not get financing to buy their new fancy coffee equipment. As a result, small coffee shops across the country had a three month window where they knew exactly what McDonald's was going to do and how they planned on doing it.
A smart coffee shop owner would have protected his local market share by communicating some facts about McDonald's coffee to their customers. For example:
- Did you know that many of McDonald's coffee products come from a base syrup - like soda does?
- The training manual to make McDonald's coffee is less than a page, but there are wall posters on how to package it nicely
- Fries and coffee don't mix
An entire guerrilla marketing campaign could be assembled around these three points, communicated in various ways over a three month period, and a barrier to McDonald's entry in a small trade area could be erected.
Aggressive Does Not Mean Stupid
Being aggressive is easy in most cases. Being aggressive in an intelligent way is more difficult.
I am not suggesting you blow an entire year's budget on one big thing hoping it hits home - it probably won't.
The way you do everything inside your business should have changed in 2009 because of the economy. Your advertising cost should have gone down - if you asked for it. Your rent or lease may have dropped - if you sought the decrease. Your people are probably more productive, meaning a better ROI.
What I am suggesting is taking those gains and spending them instead of banking them as profits. Spend them to buy even more advertising, increase your productivity, or retire debt.
By making smart moves your business will become stronger, your ROI will increase over time, and your competitors will wonder how on Earth you are able to afford all of this in "this economy."
Remember the gold old days when you could get a free computer as long as you agreed to pay a monthly dial-up provider like AOL $30 a month for slow, overpriced Internet access?
Well grab your credit cards and put on your bifocals! The deal has returned courtesy of Best Buy and Sprint, but this time the screen is a bit smaller.
ZDNet is reporting that the two companies are partnering to offer a Compaq-branded HP Mini 110c netbook for only 99 cents when you sign a two-year 3G Internet contract.
These free computer offers are REALLY tempting because consumers in a recession-battered economy get what they want right now - a new computer - by signing a promise to give more money later.
Breaking Down the Numbers
Under this deal, you get the $389 retail value netbook for only $.99. The contract costs about $60 a month, so if you multiply that by 24 months, you would find that the contract will cost you $1,441 over its two year term.
Obviously the Sprint 3G connection is portable, so you are paying a price premium on your Internet connection to be able to take it with you anywhere you go. Additionally, there are limits to how much Internet connectivity you can use before additional charges get lumped in.
For the sake of comparison, the cost for you to buy this netbook and use it on a budget cable modem or DSL connection would be much, much less expensive.
Try $20 a month for the DSL Internet connection and $389 for the netbook. The total cost over 2 years is only $869 - a savings of $572 over two years (nearly $24 a month).
No Home Networking With Sprint 3G?
Some consumers may try to fudge the numbers by ditching their traditional internet service provider (ISP) for the Sprint 3G device. Doing so would bring the numbers in line with what you are paying now over a 2-year term, but it would also introduce other issues.
While the hardware exists to do it, sharing the internet connection from your 3G device between multiple computers on a home network would result in dial-up like speeds for many applications and most likely additional bandwidth charges. Forget YouTube, torrenting, file sharing, and always-on connectivity.
This could work if you plan on only using one computer at a time in your home and also don't depend on any home network connectivity (wireless printers, home media servers, or shared network resources).
But this scenario is unlikely considering the fact that a netbook is not intended to replace your main PC (it adds portability to your computing portfolio). It is a pretty safe assumption that most netbook owners will have more than one PC in their home. Typically, owners who have more than one PC have them networked so they can share printers and internet connections.
Kim and I used a 3G connection on AT&T while we were on vacation at Disney World, and uploading a 4 minute video to YouTube took over an hour. Even the YouTube upload page timed out as if to say, "your connection is so slow I am not going to justify it with an "upload complete" page because it would take me all day."
The Bottom Line - Don't Do It!
Netbooks are cool. Portable 3G connections are cool. A 24 month contract that locks you into both is not cool. If you truely have the need for a protable 3G Internet connection (or are paying for one already) grabbing a free netbook out of the deal might be a smooth move. After all, you are already paying the bill for the portability.
(Keep in mind that this deal is only available for new Sprint 3G customers and you may incur a penalty for leaving your current 3G provider early to switch)
On the other hand, if you really USE your internet connection this could be a $24 a month albatross around your neck that you don't need and shouldn't burden yourself with.
My botom line is this is some really slick marketing, but not a deal you should jump into unless you have some really specialized needs.
Schrock Innovations' web development division started off in 2001 with just one website - its own. We hooked up with a company in Lincoln called Binary.net that handled hosting for all of the websites we would come to manage flawlessly.
Schrock is a high-service providing company and our web customers expect us to be there when they need us in the capacity that they need us.
Schrock Moves Hosting to Rackspace
To help meet that service expectation, we decided the time to move our hosting infrastructure to another company had arrived. We moved all of our servers to Rackspace Hosting about 4 months ago, and we haven't looked back since.
Rackspace was voted one of the best Fortune 500 companies to work for in 2008, and I can honestly say I have never had a bad experience dealing with them over the phone or email.
24/7 Digital and Human Access
I own a local business and whenever possible I try to use other local businesses for what Schrock needs. Unfortunately, there isn't a local hosting company in Nebraska that could do these critical things for Schrock:
- Provide us with control pannel access
- Give us the ability to set up email accounts after hours
- Provide bandwidth usage tracking
- Some SPAM filtering without hours of training a Barracuda filter
Rackspace was not a local solution, but they gave us everything we needed from the above list and did it with a super happy smile for about the same price as Binary.net had in the past.
What the Move Has Meant to our Customers
Whenever you move over 100 websites from one server to another that is running a different O/S you should expect a few setbacks along the way. Brad and Adam did their best to get Schrock customers ready for the move and make it as painless as possible.
Now that we have had everyone up and running for a few months, here are some of the benefits of our move:
- We can be more responsive to the after-hours needs of small businesses
- We can move clients to our server in less than a day
- We can set up email auto-responders for clients on a whim
- We can compartmentalize access to the server so clients can manage their own control panel (if they want to)
Rackspace is HIGHLY recommended
I have no problem HIGHLY recommending Rackspace for your hosting needs. Everyone local told me we would never find what we were looking for, so in that respect Rackspace is a diamond in the rough!
Schrock Innovations might be closed today, but we are celebrating Independence Day by supporting a fund raiser for children our US service men and women.
The "Golf for the Troops" charity golf tournament is in its third year and has raised more than $25,000 locally in Lincoln to fund scholarships for our troops' children. Schrock will be contributing a gift card to the list of prizes available to those who participate in the tournament.
My wife was an Air Force Brat, so I have an understanding for some of the stresses that military families go through between multiple moves, long deployments, and time lost.
Our armed forces take on these stresses in a selfless desire to serve, and this event shows our local military members that Lincoln cares about their sacrifice and appreciates it.
The tournament consists of two 18-hole rounds of golf, a silent auction, couple of meals and many prizes. The tournament is scheduled for July 9th at the Wildreness Ridge Golf Course. Contact the golf course for information on how you can enter and be a part of a great cause.
Have a safe and fun July 4th weekend, and thank you to all of the men and women who have served over the years to keep the US a free and safe place for everyone.
I have been playing around with a solid state hard drive for the past few weeks to get a better understanding of how they improve my notebook's performance under different operating systems.
While I certainly don't look like Goldilocks, my solid state drive experience was a lot like the classic children's fairytale.
Windows XP on a solid state drive was fast, but at times too fast. With XP, my notebook booted so fast that I could log in, and open Firefox just to have it fail because the system had not negotiated an IP address yet.
Windows Vista was not much faster than a traditional hard drive. I got a serious case of heartburn thinking I had just spent $450 on a 120 GB solid state drive when a $60 drive would have done the same job.
Then there was Windows 7. It booted in seconds. Response times were amazing. Windows 7 was JUUUUST RIIIIIGHT!
Why is Windows 7 So Fast on a Solid State Drive?
Flash drives became fashionable when Windows XP as around, but only as a backup medium or for temporary storage.
Nine years later, a bundle of super speedy flash drives can be teamed up to create an entire hard drive with no moving parts. Lower failure rates, faster access times and no defragging.
It sounds like a match made in heaven, except that XP and Vista were hard-coded to treat all drives like they spin.
That means that unnecessary operations happen all the time on a solid state drive that tie up valuable resources and sap the power of this expensive performance booster.
That is, all operating systems except Windows 7. Windows 7 is the first Microsoft operating system that was specifically designed to detect if it is operating on a solid state drive or a rotating disk drive.
Windows 7's secret is a technology Microsoft calls TRIM. TRIM allows Windows 7 to detect
- Enhancing device wear leveling by eliminating merge operation for all deleted data blocks
- Making early garbage collection possible for fast write
- Keeping device’s unused storage area as much as possible; more room for device wear leveling.
Is Solid State Worth the Cost?
That all depends on what you are using your computer for. We just build a kick-butt Vista system for one of our customers who runs a video production company. The solid state hard drive cut his video rendering in half, allowing him to recoup his investment quickly by increasing his business productivity.
If you are just using your computer for casual things, a solid state drive might be a bit pricey for you still. The 120 GB drive I put in my notebook set me back $400. The largest solid state drives are only 250 GB, so if you have a mass-storage need, solid state is not the way to go - yet.
Additionally, we have seen solid state hard drives reduce the instance of hard drive failure in laptops that are used in mobile applications. A bouncing car is not a big deal for a solid state hard drive.
If you are in an environment where performance is important to your productivity,
When Will Solid State Be Available as a Standard?
With pressure being applied to reduce the costs of PCs and laptops, manufacturers have little incentive to add solid state hard drives to their economy models right now.
With that said, Schrock Innovations has a PC model that could include a solid state drive in research and development now that could be released in Q4 2009 if everything continues to go well in testing.
In my opinion, solid state drives will not become a viable technology for economy PCs until Q4 of 2011.
Alarm Equipment Inc. (AEI) in Omaha, NE came to Schrock Innovations for a website "freshening" a few months ago.
AEI's website was not ranking in Google for the key search terms they needed to bring in new alarm business. Today more people use Google than the Yellow Pages so ranking when it counts can be vital to a business' success!
AEI Asked Schrock Innovations to modify their existing website to modernize its look and improve its SEO performance without changing the basic layout and styling of the existing website.
Brad and Adam went to work on the website, adding a modernized version of the company's logo, a new favicon, meta data that had been missing from the site previously.
The old version of the company's website contains a lot of text, but it was mostly locked into images, rendering it useless to search engines that were trying to determine where the website should rank in comparison to other Omaha alarm companies.
Brad recreated the website, replacing the old tables design with a new CSS design, allowing the new website to look similar to the old one, but with the text broken out so it was visible to search engines.
After working with AEI on their website and learning about their dedication to their customers, we actually hired them to install alarm systems in our locations!