• We focus on your success
• Our talent is superior to our competitors
• We want to be partners with you for the long term

This is just a few examples but the message is obvious and anybody reading this that’s in a decision making position or a business owner has heard this from someone trying to get their web related business. The irony is I say these things myself as they’ve almost become a standard within our market. So have brutal undercutting and taking projects at a loss for no apparent reason other to say, “you’ve got work”.

What I’m currently battling with is how can a web firm clearly differentiate it’s service offerings over their competitors without boring a perspective client to death. Make no mistake this is a business of “one on one” relationships and while the web might be a driving vessel for small business contracts nobody signs the $50k ++ deal off of a Google search. Websites built for 5k or under, typically serve no other purpose but to provide credibility back to the client in which they inevitably will become displeased with lead generation, search engine placement amongst numerous other items.

I know at my company our culture has changed dramatically over the past two years and has switched gears to only develop web applications and commerical websites that fill a tangible goal whether it be to automate processes, expand lead generation, increase revenues, or offer new value add services to clients. The only way to truly manage and survive in this business where there are an untold number of new entrepeneurs entering the market is to make sure each company you engage has a clear guideline for success and your services/culture is perfect for getting them their goal. You can’t lose when doing this.

Perhaps this in itself is a new standard? Is this a nothing approach as well? Questions to ask myself. I’m pleased to say that our strategy has yielded terrific growth for the 2009 year and Unleashed Technologies, LLC is stronger than ever. This is based on a stable organic growth pattern that we all enjoy, I’m looking for the hockey stick pattern if you know what I mean <wink wink nudge nudge>.

I’ve personally read this book twice and I strongly recommend this to decision makers and people empowered with the responsibility of growing new business opportunities for their companies.

This is a very difficult process and addressing “Blue Oceans” mandates that differentiators have to be substantial and recognized in order to produce tangible results. Examples/Case Studies in this book also highlight very large companies with extensive budgets in being able to tackle new concepts/opportunities. I’d like to whine and say it’s not possible for those without significant investment capital but truth be told it is. Especially in technology related offerings where the majority of costs can be absorbed by variable costs mostly pertaining to labor. With that being said there is a huge price to be paid one way or another and entering a “Blue Ocean” is always inherently at a higher risk then swimming in the “Red Ocean” of traditional services or products.

When you get the chance I highly recommend picking up this book and giving it a read and who knows maybe the GBTC may put on another workshop related to this matter in the near future.

Everyday men and women of this country put their lives in jeapordy to protect the freedom we so richly enjoy without fear. Sometimes they believe in those causes and sometimes they don’t, but in the end they defend the country and upholds it principles/decisions without question.

Sometimes They Die.

In my opinion the only thing worse is when your seriously wounded and don’t die. These men and women that have defended our freedom and carried out the wishes of this country as set forth by our leaders come home crippled, paralyzed, without a body part, or severely mentally damaged. The price they have paid is far greater than anything we could ever imagine and they ask not for our sympathy but only our respect.

I’m part of a team helping to raise money so that these wounded soldiers that go without, that are no longer able to do what they love, who can no longer serve in the military, aren’t thrown away or forgotten for their ultimate sacrifice. Valour-IT is currently sponsoring a fund raiser to provide voice activated laptops to those that are severely physically challenged. There is no donation to small or to big and every penny counts in providing the amenities we take for granted everyday which they can’t enjoy because of the sacrifice they’ve made to make sure it’s available to us.

I’m asking everyone that reads this to make a contribution no matter how small. All you’ve got to do is click on the donation thermometer to the right of this post and it will take you to the Valour-IT donations page. It’s a one page form and takes less than 1 minute to fill out. If you want to know more about the organization please use this link: http://soldiersangels.org/ and read about the program.

Please take a moment, slow down, and open your hearts to the sons and daughters of our great Nation. This money directly contributes to changing their quality of life through technology.

I’m not sure where to begin with where everything is going but I’ll give the full update, in the order that people care about. In my fantasy world I’d like to think business is first but I’ll save that for the second portion:

PERSONAL

1. New Hobby #1: Many of you know I’m very into aquariums and fish as a whole. I moved the mini tank that we replaced at the office back to my home. At first the wife wasn’t excited but we went out and I had her pick new fish which was “cheating” but got her on board. The tiny tank at home has 3 GloFish, 3 Tetraes, and a Chinese Algae Eater that hides in a pirate ship ALL DAY. I’ve got to pick up his home and make him panic once a week to make sure he hasn’t died and isn’t just a pile of bones.
2. New Hobby #2: I’ve started golfing and I’ve got to admit it’s a ton of fun. However, I’m not enjoying how many muscles I’ve pulled learning how to play. I’m told that I’ve got a good natural swing on the back but coming through I tighten up pulling my damn back muscles all the time. Truth be told this is good for me I need to get way more physically active than I already am.
3. Las Vegas Trip: POSTPONED. Luckily, it’s been rescheduled for early in August and I’m ready for that. It’ll probably be the last in what’s been a good run of awesome guy trips.

BUSINESS

1. Growth = Good. Our opportunities for Unleashed Technologies, LLC continues to grow as well as our newly procured work =). We’ve added some old friends and good people to our team such as Ben Thomas who’s spent many a summer with us. Glad to have him back!!
2. Still getting Stuck in getting our own work done such as the new site, and our new branding/marketing. Our clients keep us billable but I’m still convinced that for continuing growth we’ll have to accept the sacrifice of “x” hours a month to focus on internal growth.
3. Our super secret product is approaching serious stages of awesome that’s been long overdue. Totally fired up over here!

PERSONAL/BUSINESS

1. I’m VERY excited to say that my personal and professional network are really beginning to become one and the same. It’s beyond exciting for me to have a great list of friends that share the same interests and passion for life/business that I do.

Things I’m interested to get into are additional advisory boards, new technology groups, and strong referral networks built around larger business. Keep an eye out for me and let me know if you bump anything cool that I can get involved with.

This year I believe will be the first year that I finally put to rest the seven year old superstition and allow myself to enjoy the (hopefully) many birthdays ahead of me. Perhaps the biggest sign that I’m getting older is my ability to quickly reflect on my experiences to make decisions far smarter than the ones hastily made in my youth. For the business side of me this is terrific and helps me grow professionally making minor mistakes that are easier to course correct but the personal side of me misses the many ABSURDLY RIDICULOUS and IMPOSSIBLE stories that have built my character over the years.

From the high speed chase in Denver, to ending up lost somewhere in Atlanta so drunk I didn’t know what planet I was on, and even just to the many crazy nights in Boston getting in trouble I couldn’t even begin to explain. Those moments and how I reacted in them helped shape the person that makes up the person I am today. I’m not one of those “the best years are behind me” kind of guys but certainly the pace of my lifestyle has changed dramatically.

Overall I can say it’s for the better and I’ve got my wife to thank for that. Without her I doubt that I would be alive to tell the tales/stories that find there way out into a crowded room as entertainment for the night. I might be getting older but I’m writing new stories now. The ones that will help honor my family and its generations for years to come.

Cheers to being 30 because 40 is the new 30, which makes me 20…. right?

However this hasn’t stopped me recently from becoming very interested in the analytics or information of the internet which led me to the book I’m currently reading called “Click” by Bill Tancer the authority and top reasearch guy at the company Hitwise that focuses on enterprise trending for traffic on the internet.

Click by Bill Tancer

Truthfully I’m only about half way through this book but it’s insight in to America’s underbelly is very interesting, so much so that I could not wait until I finished the book to make a blog post. It discusses in depth how the changes in our lives or what we say don’t always coordinate as people would think to actions on the web. My favorite example would be that of Ron Paul a republican candidate that ran in the 2008 election. Ron Paul commanded the internet as a front runner receiving more traffic than any other candidate many times over. His radical and refreshing views made him a much sought after and researched candidate on the internet but he received very low traction in the actual primaries causing him to drop out.

However what this truly highlighted was the power that the internet can have over the arena of politics and as people become more resistant to traditional methods of information collection they’ll need to leverage online resources to find, mine, and plant information effectively.

Bill Tancer is also not afraid to talk about the difficult be hard truths about the internet such as pornography, pills and casinos.  I found this refreshing as when I’m reading I realize that no details are being spared on showing the social trends of our society.

Seriously thought what this boils down to is the unbelievable amount of raw information that’s available to businesses across the nation. I’m wondering how far we truly are out if not from being predictive or proactive but being able to react in a matter of days, hours or minutes to a strange or unexplained spike in key term or sought out information. The next generation of tools we’re building need to utilize these amazing capabilities beyond checking hits, page view, unique visits, and funnel goals. The next phase is integrating these incredible sets of total internet data into web deployments that could perhaps change content based on what the internet is reporting as important terminology or common used search items. While this basic concept has several hiccups including the morphing of data and how quick those changes will be received by a Google or equivalent search engine what we can realize is that it’s certainly only going to get faster not slower.

Fast reacting, low management, interactive websites? Hmmm sounds interesting and while many claim these capabilities none are automated to the level I’m thinking about. It will be exciting to see where this goes or where Unleashed Technologies takes it!

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

Really technically it doesn’t make alot of sense since it’s best defined as two distinct days in a single calendar year but it doesn’t have to. It’s awesome and we’re probably going to do it.

Clearly I’ve lost my way in finishing what I set out to do. Happy Holidays from the Mike Spinosa to my ENORMOUS loyal reader base. I’m talking literally DOZENS of views a day… just huge traffic!