5 questions that will save your business thousands of dollars
by Randall McCarley
September 12th, 2006
Before making any business decisions ask these questions:
1. What’s in it for us?
2. What’s the cost?
3. What’s in it for the customer?
4. How will it affect the brand?
5. Who else will it affect?
Your business should get something from every activity it participates in. I think a good example of this process was my decision to do interviews. My vision was pretty big and would clearly take a lot of work. Would it be worth it?
Here is how I found out.
1. What’s in it for us?
My personal interest was around SEOs and web designers that had families. I had just made the jump to take 14th Colony full-time and I was looking for good advice and a bit of encouragement.
I also figured I could pick up some great knowledge from the people I interviewed – some of their tips and tactics and add them to my skill set. What I wasn’t counting on, but fortunately received was insight into related web development fields like usability and how to read patents. These are gifts I will cherish the rest of my career.
The interviews series would be a great source of content. And content is sometimes difficult for me to come up with. I get writer’s block just like everyone else.
It would generate links. I don’t think I asked for a single link but I got dozens and from related web sites. These are excellent links to have and I am grateful for them.
It would start to position 14th Colony in the minds of our viewers. One thing about interviewing experts is you become considered one yourself.
2. What’s the cost?
It is a lot of work. It takes time to research, reach out, send the questions, follow-up, post, follow-through and promote. There isn’t much cash on the line other than the cash I could be making with that time (which after 17 interviews so far is considerable).
The bigger cost on the line for me was giving up the fear of rejection. Some of these people I already knew and wasn’t to terrified to ask but others are people I’ve never encountered before. Why should they do it? They probably haven’t even heard of me before. And many of them are much better known than I am.
I have had a few rejections. But the rewards have far outweighed them.
3. What’s in it for the customer?
In this case the customer is the viewer which is mainly other web developers. Hopefully I gave some insight into web technologies that was valuable. Hopefully I created something of a resource. If I judge the blog and forum posts and emails I received I’d say I’ve done a good job so far but that there is still room for improvement.
The viewers also got to know the people interviewed a little better. I try to make the interviews personal because while many of these people are active in forums and on blogs they are often “business first”. Their personalities come through but not their motivations which I think are important.
4. How will it affect the brand?
As mentioned, the brand value would be increased as the 14th Colony name became associated with some industry stars. And because of the range of talents involved, 14th Colony becomes more of the place to get things done.
I want to point out that this is probably the single most important question to answer. If your brand will get damaged in any way don’t do it (whatever “it” may be).
I also staged releasing some of the interviews with a site redesign showing return visitors that 14th Colony is constantly progressing… something difficult to do with words but very clear with actions.
5. Who else will it affect?
The people I interview get my promotion skills behind them and they get the opportunity to plug their favorite sites within the interview. They also get backlinks and some traffic to their sites. And hopefully their reputation is enhanced a bit as it is always an honor to be interviewed, even if it’s just by me.
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