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How technology affects my business today.
It is very interesting how much we rely on technology in our everyday businesses lives, from computers to cell phones to PDA’s. It has been increasingly more available to keep in touch, or share data and even using to make yourself money. But it is really amazing how far wireless communications has come in the last 5 years. It has come all the way from backpack sized phones to devices smaller than the palm of your hand. I want to discuss all the new advances in wireless technology, and how they can help you in your business life.
I am probably as connected as any person out there today. There is no possible way that you cannot get a hold of me at anytime of the business day, and even after it. If I don’t have my laptop hooked up anywhere I go I also use a device called a Blackberry that allows my e-mail to be sent to me anytime of the day. Then there is the phone I always carry with me wherever I go. They are my lifeline for my business. There has been many deals that could have been lost if clients could not get a hold of me right away.
Calls, Calls, So many Calls!
On an average day I am getting 20-30 phone calls a day, on top of the 50 or so e-mails I get also. Then there is replaying to these e-mails. But the value of being able to get back to people while I am sitting waiting to go into a meeting is invaluable; it turns my down time into productive time. No more waiting to get back to the office to get the email and respond to it. This has many other benefits, it means that when I get home the bulk of my email has been responded to and I can sit back and relax for awhile. And like I said before, many deals have been made with my quick response.
But are there any downfalls one might ask? It depends on how you look at things, on one hand I can make money at almost anytime of the day while waiting around on what I refer to as “dead time�. On the other hand now people expect to be able to get a hold of me, even if it means a question at 2:30 in the morning, but I guess that’s the price you pay.
I like to think that the more available I am the more in demand I will be. So for now I will be fully accessible until the day comes when other people can do the job for me. But still I will probably never change, “can’t teach an old dog new tricks!� So I guess keeping my gadgets will last until I am out of business, which god forbid never happens. I like being in touch, but it is not for everyone. I hope this enlightens some people on to why some people are technology slaves.
Maybe I am a slave to my device, but I think being available helps open door to new deals. Whats your take on this??
14 Comments
Lorren Biffin said on January 18, 2008
Great post Justin! My two cents:
I like to think that being accessible is a good thing. As unfortunate as it may be for some, it’s human nature for others to expect those they work with to move as fast as the information we all make our fortunes pushing. If you can’t keep up with the herd, you’d better find yourself a cozy little cubicle at a job you don’t enjoy and hope nobody notices you. Now that may be exaggerated, but it’s very close to being a harsh truth in today’s evolving world.
If you want to be popular in the business world, make sure the business world knows where and how to find you whenever it wants to. The more connected you want to be, the more popular you will be. That’s pretty well agreed upon across the board…unless you’re human propellant, of course. It’s a timeless concept that everyone can relate to.
Now, the trick to all of this is knowing where and when to say enough. As much as we all like to be found, it’s important to have a set period of time where you’re just plain (dare I say) unavailable. Without those gaps in our schedules to breathe, we wont be much good to anybody anyhow.
I, for one, know I don’t DARE loosing quality time with my daughter over anything less than a deal-breaker. I work at home at the moment, and I feel it’s important to take at least a few minutes every hour to just turn my chair around and tell her I love her, or send the tickle monster her way. A good portion of my work is done with my daughter sitting on my lap, both of us rocking out to Rage Against the Machine only pressing the pause button when “daddy needs to take this call”.
In short, spend the time you need to on building and maintaining your business network, but NEVER forget to take care of number one (yourself) or numbers 2 through X (Your loved ones).
Dan Schawbel said on January 18, 2008
Funny thing is that I don’t even have a blackberry. I think you need to be forced to use new technology.
For instance
Problem: I have too many contacts. There is no way to keep track of them.
Technology Solution: Store in a database, blackberry, etc
Will said on January 18, 2008
I guess that’s the benefit and the bane of living in a wired society and to think we’re only going to get more and more integrated into our digital wares as the years go by.
Justin said on January 18, 2008
@ lorren - Yea I make time for my son as well. I just turn off the phone for that period of time. Other than that I am always connected.
@Will - I am excited and scared to see what comes next…..
Lorren Biffin said on January 18, 2008
Oh, I’m sure :)
My comment was only my two cents on an extension of the subject for general readers, not really a re-tort.
Justin said on January 18, 2008
@lorren - yea sorry I was meaning to agree with you, sorry if it came out any other way.
Satish said on January 19, 2008
Long live the BlackBerry and all the addiction it brings to our amazingly productive lives! :)
hellyeahdude.com said on January 20, 2008
Just checking, but do you guys realize that your images are loosing their original proportionate resolution? They are looking stretched and such…
Hope you guys know how to use the crop tool in photoshop.
Justin said on January 20, 2008
Patrick I am just learning photoshop as we speak so I can make the pictures better. I would have to say this one is better than the one in my article before, but the rest look fine.
If you want to give me a crash course in how to do it properly I would be more than happy to learn!
Thank you for your concern!
hellyeahdude.com said on January 20, 2008
No problem, I understand.
Use the crop tool, it looks like two lines connecting together.
Now, once you have that tool selected, at the top, you can define a HEIGHT AND WIDTH… this is key… Put in the PX of what height and width the image is…. So basically the height and width of what you want the image to be..
Once you have that put in, just select the area and crop, it’ll automatically size the image to what you defined…
Does that sound clear? Email me if you need more help.
Lorren Biffin said on January 20, 2008
We should add that you may want to resize the image first, to make sure you get as much of the subject in as you want in the cropped image. To do this, go to the main “Image” menu up top, pull it down and select “Image Size”, input your settings and press OK (make sure “Constrain Proportions” is selected to maintain the aspect ratio). After this you can use the instructions in the previous post.
Now, if you don’t want to hassle with all of this every time you make a new post, I’ve got a PHP script that can do all of this for you at runtime (”on-the-fly”)… Just input the URL to the image as a query string and drop it in your image tag’s “src” attribute.
Let me know.
Jim Lee said on January 21, 2008
I found this posting interesting, particularly since I’m trying to use technology for exactly the OPPOSITE purpose… getting freedom from the phone, Blackberry, emails, etc.
There’s an excellent book by Tim Ferriss called “The Four-Hour Work Week” (which was a bestseller last year), on precisely this issue… using technology to get MORE freedom, rather than LESS freedom.
Another excellent resource is James Brausch’s “Freedom Business System”
http://www.FreedomBusinessSystem.com
I’m not there yet… but certainly working towards it, day by day.
Cheers,
Jim
Jonty - Call Centre Helper said on January 22, 2008
I have strarted to make myself less accessible to get more work done.
The big success was to change my email from coming in at once to coming in once every 60 seconds. This way I get less distractions and can get more work done.
I also gave up on the Blackberry as everywhere I went I also took a PC.. Instead I have linked my PC to my 3G mobile phone.
Kim said on January 28, 2008
Speaking of modern technology when it comes to business is what http://blog.michellemacphearson.com is talking about. The site discuss topics regarding internet business, online marketing and strategies regarding new technology.
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