Paul and Sarah Edwards

Will Shoppers And Developers Adapt to Proximity Marketing In-Store?

February 1, 2017 by Paul and Sarah Edwards Leave a Comment

Today’s constantly connected consumers are using smartphones in-store more than ever.

A recent Google survey states that a staggering 80 percent of shoppers are using smartphones to make purchasing decisions. Retailers and start-ups have taken notice, and the concepts of mobile location analytics and proximity marketing are emerging out of that.

Publications like Techcrunch and Adweek have articles of retailers launching Bluetooth beacon pilot programs almost on a daily basis. Some recent examples include Target, Country Market and Urban Outfitters.

But when you clear away all the buzzwords, what exactly is this shift we’re seeing? It’s the world customizing itself to you. The world is reacting to your presence, specific to you as an individual.

Proximity marketing is an exciting concept, but a lot of people are worried they’ll be inundated with spam if they opt in.

That is an exciting concept. Talking about this out in the world will get you varying reactions, from concerns about privacy issues to the idea that your phone is going to spam you with Viagra ads non-stop, but if you boil down the idea, there are some really compelling concepts here.

Personalization is a Key Benefit

Let’s take a look at a form of personalization we all know about today. A husband and his wife have individual key FOBs for their car. When the husband gets in the car, the mirrors adjust, the seat slides back, and the radio station changes to his favorite morning radio station. When his wife uses the car that evening, the car returns to her preferences. That’s an example of very useful personalization. Now, imagine if a retail store could do that for you.

We’ve seen online personalization become more and more sophisticated over the past decade with platforms such as Google AdWords and the Facebook Audience Network, and the addition of proximity marketing technologies is making it possible to expand that personalization in-store, effectively bridging the gap between digital and physical environments. There are both exciting and scary possibilities to this.

So, why can’t retailers live without it? The retailer will now be able to understand shopper behavior beyond POS data. Retailers currently have the ability to analyze traffic patterns, deliver personalized offers, measure dwell times, build on customer loyalty profiles and even A/B test physical displays. And what does the shopper get? By integrating this technology into a retailer’s app, the shopper gets an ultra-personalized experience through customer-specific offers, location-specific coupons and contextual information such as maps and menus.

But the question that keeps coming up is: Will shoppers adapt to this kind of experience? If users don’t adopt the technology, hockey stick graphs will never happen for retailers. I think of a Sheryl Sandburg story I’ve heard during her presentations several times. When Caller ID first came out, users were scared by it. They thought the concept of knowing who’s calling before you picked up was creepy. Now, 20+ years later, we don’t pick up our phones without knowing who’s calling.The user’s perception of the technology completely flipped over a couple of decades.

It seems a general consensus among investors and marketers that someone will figure out and win the proximity marketing race.

Proximity Marketing Use Cases

Let’s take a look at some use cases that highlight potential values of proximity marketing:

Kitchen Remodel

You’ve finally made the decision to remodel your kitchen after 30 years, but you don’t know where to begin. You enter the kitchen department of a national hardware store and you are notified by an employee about an app that helps guide you through the complicated and expensive process of remodeling your kitchen. Upon app download, you’re given a series of easy directions that show you how to use your new app. You start by picking out your cabinets and you find a style that you like but they are not in the color you like. By tapping a swatch smart tag (tags that you swipe to receive contextual information), you are able to view additional colors available by special order. You save your style and color to your profile. As you’re walking over to pick out countertops you are notified in app not to forget to pick out your cabinet hardware. Once that’s picked out you head over to the countertops.

The app has measured that you have now spent 20 minutes in the kitchen department. It gives you an offer for 5 percent off, incentivizing you to make the purchase today. Out of the 10 displays of countertops the retailer has on hand, most app users only spend time at four of them. The retailer knows that it may be time to change out the other six with more trendy options. Since styles may trend by region the retailer can analyze stats broken down by segments.

After finding a countertop you like, you save it to your profile and swipe a delivery tag to see how long that countertop takes to be installed. You have a question about how rugged the countertop is and you tap a button that alerts a store employee that you need assistance. The app has successfully guided you through this process in a way that makes the shopper feel comfortable that their dream kitchen will come together perfectly.

Retail Environment

In the retail environment, smart zones and tags can be used in an endless ways. Here are a few examples.

A family walks into a store with an app in hand to check the latest offers the retailer has published. After adding the coupons in which they’re interested to the app, they walk around the store. Shoppers save money and time because the app tells them the quickest route to pick up everything on their list. If a coupon is missed, the app can alert the shoppers.

Retail giants have already recognized the potential of proximity marketing, along with scores of startups.

The family decides to get a new TV, and after dwelling in the electronics department for five minutes, they are asked if they need assistance. They respond yes, and an employee gets a television from the warehouse for them. Next, they swipe a tag that shows them accessories, store stock information, and related products from the same brand. They can easily see which mounts work for that TV, and find the appropriate cables in the next aisle.

The app services are integrated with e-commerce and m-commerce platforms, so users can use ‘Buy Now’ buttons that simply send the product to their door. The family chooses not to bother squeezing the TV into their car, and instead choose to have it delivered that afternoon.

On the way out, the app recognizes that the dwell times in the checkout areas are longer than managers would like for a good customer experience, so more cashiers are sent to the checkouts.

Outdoor Concert

A group of friends is going to an outdoor concert with several stages. The concert promoters built an app that helps concert attendees navigate the event. The app has many useful features like schedules, barcode access to VIP areas, and information on concession stands.

The event promoters also installed Bluetooth Low Energy beacons throughout the event so that the app could provide contextual information to attendees based on their locations. While standing in long beer lines, the group is notified that lines are half as long at the beer tents half a block away. When a band is about to begin playing, the friends are alerted that they better head over to that stage.

As they head over, they get pushed a coupon that gives them 20 percent off a T-shirt in the merchandise tent. Upon leaving, the app lets them know where the closest and fastest exit is, according to their location.

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Brand Opportunities

Various brands might use proximity marketing to build loyalty and boost user engagement. So, if a shopping mall with 100,000 items on the shelves from a thousand different brands uses the technology, each brand can opt in or out of the program.

A brand could market special offers without having to invest a small fortune in on-site marketing activities or on their own app. Imagine a soft drink company doing a virtual promotion for a certain product: They could have the campaign up and running with a few lines of copy and code.

It could be deployed nationwide, or worldwide, in seconds. Imagine a flash sale: 30 minutes in which people, worldwide, could get 30 percent off a specific product at the same time, just like an e-commerce platform. And like an e-commerce platform, the brands would have access to performance analytics about the campaign they just ran. They could immediately justify the spend, while the retailer could monetize its brick-and-mortar space through the program.

Moving Towards A More Frictionless Experience with Current Technology

The key to winning this space is building a more frictionless experience. Cautious clients always reference QR codes when considering new smart tags. QR codes were a good idea, but didn’t work because it took longer to snap the picture than it did to type in a URL. Users ended up rejecting it.

Latest technologies such as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and Near Field Communication (NFC) have less friction and are easier to use with integrated apps. NFC is not open on iOS yet, so it is not being widely used for smart tags, but may be in the future. If we look to the past, Touch ID wasn’t open to third-party devs, but Apple eventually opened it up in iOS 8. We’re on iOS 9 now, but if Apple chooses to do the same with NFC, web-like links in the real world will become more commonplace. NFC has been available on Android devices since about late 2011.

Proximity marketing relies on Bluetooth and beacon technologies, but the hardware is not perfect, limiting potential in-store applications.

So, that leads to BLE emerging as the best current cross-platform technology. Beacons are great because they are cheap, small, and don’t need to be plugged in, so installation is relatively easy. Apple introduced the iBeacon protocol in 2013, and various vendors have produced iBeacon-compatible hardware that is being used to power mobile commerce pilot programs. Several companies in this space are trying to figure it out, Qualcomm Gimball , Swirl and Shelfbucks to name a few. Most of them produce their own beacons but they all follow the BLE protocol.

Is the experience frictionless yet? Absolutely not. Users need to download an app that takes up precious real estate on their phone. The app needs to be running while they’re in the brick-and-mortar, and most integrations I’ve seen are less than seamless.

Beacons are not perfect technology; you cannot create shapes other than cones or circles, and they overlap. You cannot define a perfect space as a zone. If you picture a store map, most departments are laid out in rectangles and a beacon broadcasts its unique identifier to nearby smartphones in a circle radiating out from the beacon. So the best we can do currently is make the circles take up most of the department or endcap. This makes for imperfect mapping of the store. Some zones will overlap and some won’t work well, but in general, marketers are getting data they didn’t have before and users are getting a new and unique experience. Augmented reality (AR) can add another twist to beacon mapping a store through functionality that helps the user with wayfinding or even gamification of a brick-and-mortar store.

The way I look at it is that we’re at the Atari phase of proximity marketing, and it will eventually evolve to Playstation 4. There are a lot of things to be excited about, even at this early stage. I firmly believe that the concept of interacting in our environments with our smartphones will not go away. It’s not a fad. Take a look around the next time you’re walking through a shopping mall or a retail store. People are using their phones to digest, share, and understand the world around them, and if we give them the right tools I believe they will use them.

“At this stage I don’t think the problem of adoption lies in technology, but rather the experience we’re creating for the user.”

At this stage I don’t think the problem of adoption lies in technology, but rather the experience we’re creating for the user. Real estate on user’s phones is more competitive than ever. For a user to not only download a retailer’s app, but keep it and use it, the app needs to have some powerful information. It must do more than pop a coupon. It’s got to make their lives easier, educate them on things they don’t know, introduce them to things they’re interested in and engage them when they’re about to lose interest.

The jury is still out on whether Amazon’s Dash buttons will be a success, but I can tell you I use mine.

Amazon Dash buttons did not impress the tech press, but here is why I use them on a regular basis.

Why? Because it’s so easy. I don’t even have to take my phone out of my pocket these days when I run out of garbage bags. I use the last one and I simply push the button to the right and they’re at my door the next day. Buying garbage bags was easy before when I did it in the store. It was a little easier via Amazon Prime, but now it’s reached a new level of frictionless that I can’t turn away from. I hope they quit making dash buttons before I turn into a Wall-E dystopian human that they predict so hilariously.

I used to believe that the value needed to be balanced for both the user and the marketer, but I now believe that the value for the user needs to be higher than the value for the marketer. Users don’t care if it’s an uneven playing field, they want useful tools and experiences, and if they don’t find what they’re looking for the app is going to be deleted.

The Future Is Now! (Sort of)

That’s where we as UX/UI designers and developers come in. Clients are excited about this space, but they’re looking for guidance. They have many questions about what is possible and what is a responsible way of using it without annoying their customers. They need help molding their ideas into solutions that increase ROI but don’t jeopardize the customer experience they’ve worked so hard to refine.

What do clients want and expect?

Clients and IT departments are very protective of their apps; a solid security plan will always need to be in place.
Clients will not commit to this technology in all their stores until it’s proven through a pilot period. Most published sources start small, one to 10 stores, and then roll out a larger footprint.
In-app privacy policies will need to be updated to launch a program full scale. Launching a controlled pilot program (employees only, for example) would provide a case study that highlights consumer value before deciding to update the policy.
Clients usually gravitate towards popping offers that help get things moving, but to create an effective campaign, the experience has to be much better.
Clients expect the technology to be more accurate than it currently is. They should be informed of its quirks. Great demos are powerful, but scaling the technology to multiple locations can’t be overlooked.
All clients want increased loyalty that results in larger basket sizes and trip frequency. Location-based functionality would add to loyalty programs by incentivizing brick-and-mortar trips over online shopping.

What sort of questions can designers and developers expect?

Since this is a new way of interacting with shoppers, testing is vital.
Every retailer is different. Create a one-store playground and have fun. Figure out what customers find valuable. Then, scale.
Even though popping offers always comes up, we should try guiding our prospective clients in the right direction by always attempting to answer the question, “Why would the shopper need this app?” If a loyal customer doesn’t need the app, it’s not worth creating it.
The key to selling a concept is to find a way of giving the shopper an experience they couldn’t have had without the technology. Understand the customer.
Test, test, test. Stores are made of different materials, and different types of merchandise can be a mess for creating zones.

I believe that if we create great experiences that users will adopt, marketing ROI will follow, but we need to focus on the user first. If we achieve that, there are many exciting opportunities ahead as our environments react to us and become more personalized.

I’m very excited to see how proximity marketing unfolds over the next five to 10 years. In the end, if we’re focusing on the customer experience and building them great tools, I think it becomes something more than advertising, and the benefit for marketers will follow.

BY BRANDON R JOHNSON – FREELANCE DESIGNER @ TOPTAL

Health and Well-Being for the Self-Employed and Small Business

January 25, 2017 by Paul and Sarah Edwards 2 Comments

Most people’s health is on the line. Each day’s news brings headlines dimming hope for the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and Social Security. People have begun asking themselves, “What will we do about Grandma?” How will I get my medications and will I be able to pay for them? A recent article was headlined, “160 million Americans can’t afford to treat a broken arm.” When former Vice-President Biden’s son was dying of brain cancer, the Vice-President and his wife nearly had to sell their home to pay their son’s medical bills. Better than one out of every two Americans (55%) worry they will not get the health care they need.

Most people in the middle class find themselves running ever faster just to stay in the same place economically. Not only are people fearful of what they may lose, millions now are without the ability to get medical care they need.

What has taken a half century to accomplish could be wiped out despite the fact that more than 1 out of 2 Americans – 58% -want the Affordable Care Act be replaced with Medicare for All. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of Americans say they have a positive reaction to the term “Medicare-for-all.” People are realizing having health insurance is like requiring auto insurance to drive. Healthy people can work, have fewer problems that consume tax dollars, and public health is protected. Being On the other hand, recent polls indicate people are now no longer in favor of repealing ACA. in the same polls indicate just over half favor repealing Obamacare.

Medicare is popular with 77% of Americans saying it is “Very important,” just below social security at 83%. 57 million Americans – 1 in every 6 people – depend on Medicare.

The total administrative structure for administering and delivering this is in place and billions of dollars would be saved, This is because Medicare’s overhead is 3%; HMO’s and private insurers’ overhead ranges from 15-30%. Families can expect to see the cost of health coverage decrease by one-half or more.

ACA reduced the number of people who were uninsured by an estimated 20 million people from 2010 to 2016. The funds will no longer available to help pay their premiums and deductibles. With many fewer people buying coverage, many insurers will stop offering policies, and the remaining customers are likely to be sicker than current Obamacare buyers, a reality that will drive up the cost of insurance for everyone who buys it, and force more people out of the markets. The Urban Institute estimat es that the change would cause a total of 22.5 million people to lose their health insurance.

At stake are popular provisions of the Affordable Care Act like enabling young adults to stay on the family plan until age 26, closing the drug cost loophole, assuring coverage for people with preexisting conditions, which alone represents 52 million Americans, and providing health coverage for children on Medicaid and CHIP, Republicans are discounting the fact they will be alienating many of the people they look to for support.

Now is the time to advance “Medicare for All” as the best solution for developing popular support to arrest the Republican momentum seeking repeals and rollbacks in ACA and then go on to damaging Medicare and Social Security. Even voters who supported Trump nearly 13 to 1, view Social Security as something they earned.

Your Pocketbook

Millions of voters have received benefits from ACA but discounted this when they voted and still discount what its loss will mean for them will be angry and arguably motivated to act in their self-interest. You are apt to find you can only buy sub-standard policies with little or no consumer protection and are paying more out of pocket. The cost of individual policies purchased through the exchanges would rise 20-25% in the first year, and 18 million people would lose their health insurance. However, taxpayers whose average incomes were $318 million/year in 2014 would get their taxes cut $7 million a year. Two taxes support the popular provisions of ACA – taxes on persons with incomes above $200,000 year. Eliminating them would give the 400 richest Americans a tax cut worth around $7 million each.

The Economy

Reducing federal spending on health care takes so much money will be taken out of the consumer economy, nearly three millions of jobs will be lost. Nurses, health technicians, and other medical personnel will be out of work. Then there will be ripple effect – people with less money to spend on food, clothing, real estate, retrial trade, finance, insurance, travel, dentistry, and then less construction, and on and on. States will have less income to tax and less in sales taxes. This alone could trigger a recession, reducing the economy by 1.5 trillion dollars, according to the Center for Health Policy Research at the Milken Institute.

The U.S. national debt is sitting at 19.944 trillion dollars. During the past eight years, a staggering 9.3 trillion dollars was added to the national debt. It’s been estimated that the total savings by passing Medicare for All could slow the growth of national debt by 80%. This is important because “foreigners are dumping U.S. debt at a faster rate than we have ever seen before, and U.S. Treasury yields have been rising. This is potentially a massive problem, because our entire debt-fueled standard of living is dependent on foreigners lending us gigantic mountains of money at ultra-low interest rates. If the average rate of interest on U.S. government debt just got back to 5 percent, which would still be below the long-term average, we would be paying out about a trillion dollars a year just in interest on the national debt. If foreigners keep dumping our debt and if Treasury yields keep climbing, a major financial implosion of historic proportions is absolutely guaranteed within the next four years.” Source: Monetary Watch, January 23, 2017.

What you can do

First, stay informed about the changes that will be affecting you and your family. Second, let your Congressman and Senators know how you will be affected. The best way to do this is by phone, not letters, social media, or their websites. Phone messages get attention. Third, mobilize with the people in your community being willing to demonstrate your views. Fourth, share this message and your own with friends around the nation.

Congressman Representative John Conyers Jr. introduced his Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act, H.R. 676, into the current session of Congress. It is co-sponsored by 51 other congressmen, but more are needed, so asking your Congressman to co-sponsor will be most helpful.You can find contact information for your congressperson here or by calling the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. When calling, ask to speak with your representative’s Health Legislative Assistant. This link will give you more information.

A Pennsylvania business man, Richard Masters, has produced a movie that is worth watching and he is forming a national organization to put forward Medicare for All. This link will take you to the movie, which is worth watching and sharing with others.

How Protecting Freelancers Could Boost The U.S. Economy

December 2, 2016 by Paul and Sarah Edwards Leave a Comment

The era of industrialization set many of the workplace standards—and conflicts—that linger today. More than 100 years later, many of those practices are gradually evolving, but some believe that enabling new forms of work could ultimately solve some of the U.S.’s most pressing economic issues.

“A lot of the growth in jobs has been knowledge work, and this idea that people need to work from nine to five, in one specific place, for one employer, doesn’t make as much sense,” suggests Stephane Kasriel, CEO of Upwork, a global freelancing platform.

At the turn of the century, when manufacturing was the primary driver of the U.S. economy, it was necessary for large groups of people to arrive to work at the same location and work the same hours. As a result, towns and cities sprung up around these manufacturing hubs.

Cities and towns that were initially built around factories and plants have since gone in one of two directions: They declined when manufacturing jobs started to disappear, or they evolved into major cities, where the cost of living today is reaching unsustainable levels.

“If you look at the last 40 years or so, GDP has become more concentrated in a smaller number of cities,” says Kasriel. “There are about 100 cities in the world that do about 50% of the world’s GDP.” As a result, most cities in the U.S. today are either in decline or booming at an unsustainable rate.

One clear indicator of this is the price of housing. In Arkansas, for example, you can find a spacious six-bedroom, five-bathroom home for $300,000, whereas that same budget would hardly cover a 304-square-foot studio in Los Angeles.

One potential solution for both the rapidly declining and unsustainably growing U.S. cities, suggests Kasriel, is by enabling more remote and freelance work. “A lot of people who live [in cities like San Francisco and New York] live there because the job demands it,” he says. “If you, as an employer, could relax that constraint and say, ‘You can work from anywhere around the country, either as a freelancer or an employee,'” he explains, “you’d see a lot of people move out.”

According to the 2016 Freelancing in America study by Upwork and the Freelancers Union, 47% of American freelancers live in the suburbs, and 18% work in rural areas. If more people are able to take their big-city paycheck back to their local community, not only will their money go further, but it will help support their local economy while the rising cost of living could begin to slow in the big cities they leave behind.

According to the 2016 Freelancing in America study, 70% of freelancers believe that there needs to be more discussion by lawmakers on how to empower the independent workforce.

One state, however, has moved forward with improving conditions for freelancers. The State of New York recently passed a wage protection bill for independent workers, known as the Freelance Isn’t Free Act. While some see this as a sign that lawmakers are beginning to understand the importance of the freelance economy, others believe the passage of the bill in New York may have been a result of unique circumstances that don’t necessarily exist elsewhere.

“Freelancers are an important part of the economy nationwide,” says Shane Snow, cofounder of Contently, an online marketplace for freelance writers. “I think they get more attention in places like New York that is more creative and media-focused, where more businesses are actively relying on local freelance talent.”

Outside of New York, freelancers regularly struggle with nonpayment and late-payment issues. According to the Freelancing in America survey, seven out of 10 freelancers have encountered issues related to getting paid on time.

“Gizmodo still owes me $500,” jokes Snow. “That happens when you’re a freelancer.”

In lieu of government protection, freelancers are increasingly turning to platforms like Contently and Upwork, which pay their freelancers within a few days of work submission. Upwork accomplishes this by being registered in the State of California as an escrow agent, giving them the ability to guarantee on-time payments to freelancers, but also provide employers with a grace period to dispute any charges.

Contently, on the other hand, has been able to negotiate some of its larger clients into paying some or all of their annual estimated freelancer fees upfront, providing enough cash flow to allow the company to pay freelancers for their work upon submission.

But outside of these platforms, many freelancers are paid 60 or 90 days after submitting their work, and about half of freelancers surveyed in 2014 reported issues with getting paid, citing an average loss of $6,390 as a result of nonpayment. That’s money that isn’t being put back into their local economies.

Both Kasriel and Snow believe that protecting freelancers ultimately benefits everyone, not just the freelancers themselves, as it can help move incomes away from cities that are quickly becoming unaffordable and toward those that are in decline.

“You talk to the people in Congress that represent the big cities, and they struggle with the cost of living, then you talk to other people from Congress that represent the cities that struggle with unemployment—well, I have a solution for you,” says Kasriel, suggesting that more protection for freelancers would encourage more to enter the freelance economy, improve unemployment in some areas, and congestion and the rising cost of living in others. “We haven’t missed the boat,” he points out, “but I would say, Let’s not wait 10 years, because the boat is moving.”

To find freelancers, you can go to a site like toptal.com

3D Printing: Should Designers And Developers Take Notice?

March 25, 2016 by Paul and Sarah Edwards 1 Comment

BY NERMIN HAJDARBEGOVIC – TECHNICAL EDITOR @ TOPTAL

3D printing is not a new technology, but recent advances in several fields have made it more accessible to hobbyists and businesses. Compared to other tech sectors, it’s still a small industry, but most analysts agree it has a lot of potential. But where is the potential for freelance designers and software engineers?

A fellow Toptaler asked me this a couple of weeks ago, because I used to cover 3D printing for a couple of publications. I had no clear answer. I couldn’t just list business opportunities because this is a niche industry with a limited upside and mass market appeal. What’s more, 3D printing is still not a mature technology, which means there is not a lot in the way of standardisation and online resources for designers and developers willing to take the plunge.

However, this does not mean there are no business opportunities; they’re out there, but they are limited. In this post, I will try to explain what makes the 3D printing industry different, and what freelancers can expect moving forward.

3D Printing For Hobbyists And Businesses

First of all, I think we need to distinguish between two very different niches in the 3D printing, or additive manufacturing industry.

On one end of the spectrum, you have countless hardware enthusiasts, software developers and designers working on open-source projects. The RepRap project embodies this lean and open approach better than any similar initiative in the industry. RepRap stands for Replicating Rapid Prototyper and it’s basically an initiative to develop inexpensive printers based on fused filament fabrication (FFF) technology. Essentially, that is Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) technology, but RepRap can’t use that name because it was commercialised by Stratasys. When the company’s patent on FDM expired, FDM was embraced by the open-source community, albeit under a different name.

3D printing is not a new technology, but recent advances in several fields have made it more accessible to hobbyists and businesses.

RepRap turned ten this year, with the first printers showing up a few years after launch. By 2010, the RepRap project was on its third generation design, and the RepRap community saw a lot of growth over the next few years.

One noteworthy feature to come out of the RepRap initiative is self-replication; the ultimate goal of the project is to create a 3D printer that will eventually replicate itself. We are not there yet, but some RepRap designs allow users to print three quarters of the printer. You still can’t print extruders and electric servos, but it’s a start.

However, RepRap was never supposed to be a commercial success. It was created as a tech-first initiative, so it was never consumer-centric. It was all about pioneering various technologies and bringing them to the hobbyist market at low cost. RepRap was never supposed to be a cash cow.

So what about big business? A number of industry pioneers have already become 3D printing heavyweights. These include Stratasys, 3D Systems, Ultimaker and Printbot. RepRap printers still command a big market share, and they’re not being squeezed out by proprietary platforms. In fact, most vendors have no choice but to embrace some RepRap standards in order to guarantee compatibility.

However, simply listing 3D printing companies and their respective market share does not paint the full picture. For example, RepRap is limited to FFF technology, which is the most widespread 3D printing technology today. The problem is that FFF printers have a lot of limitations, which means they cannot be used in many industries.

Different Technologies For Different Applications

To get a better idea of what’s out there, we need to take a look at currently available 3D printing technologies. This might not seem interesting if you’re not a hardware geek, but it’s important to understand the difference between various printing technologies (and I will try to keep this section as brief as possible).

Although hobbyist FFF printers are relatively inexpensive, certain types of professional 3D printers can cost as much as your home.

FFF/FDM usually relies on thermoplastic “filament” heated by the printer extruder prior to being deposited on the print bed. Most FFF printers rely on ABS and PLA plastic filament, but the latest models also use polycarbonate (PC), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), high-impact polystyrene (HIPS) filament. Some even use metal wire instead of plastic, while others use sawdust to create quasi-wood objects. Some can even print food, chocolate, pasta and so on.
Granular printers are different beasts since their material is not filament but, usually, powdered metal. These printers tend to be based on laser technology (although they don’t have much in common with your office laser printer). They use a powerful laser to selectively fuse granular materials. There are several ways of doing this: Selective laser sintering (SLS) printers fuse small metal particles by the process of “sintering,” while selective laser melting (SLM) printers melt the powder. Electron beam melting (EBM) printers hits metal powder with an electron beam in a vacuum environment
Stereolithography (SLA) printers transform liquid raw material into solids using light. These printers have a number of advantages, in terms of accuracy and the ability to produce complex objects in a single pass, because SLA prints don’t require struts or supports, in most cases. The downside is that the choice of materials is very limited. They are usually exotic liquid polymers, and can’t be used to print metal or chocolate.

There are a few more 3D printing technologies out there, but I see no point in covering all of them for the purposes of this blog post.

The Challenge

So why aren’t we all playing around with 3D printers in our homes and offices? Why can’t we print objects the same way we print invoices, sheets and emails? 3D printing is not going mainstream anytime soon, and here are some challenges and issues that need to be addressed first.

Prohibitively expensive hardware
Limited user base (compared to traditional printers)
Immature technology
Speed
Price/performance, ROI
Running costs
Energy efficiency

With each new generation, entry-level 3D printers become a bit cheaper, but they are still too expensive for most potential users. It’s one thing to buy a $200 printer for your home or office, you’ll probably end up using it a lot, but the same isn’t necessarily true of 3D printers. How many people need to print documents, and how many need to print 3D objects?

Technology is improving, but serious limitations persist. 3D printers are still slow, are sensitive to all sorts of adverse conditions, their “printbeds” tend to be small (especially on inexpensive models), the choice of materials is limited and filament can be expensive.

The reason why businesses aren’t lining up to buy 3D printers is simple: ROI. 3D printers still can’t come close to traditional manufacturing methods in terms of speed, cost and energy efficiency. This does not mean industry isn’t going to shift to 3D printing in the future; we are already seeing some pioneering developments, but 3D printers won’t render traditional manufacturing techniques obsolete soon.

Still, there are some noteworthy exceptions. A couple of years ago, General Electric set out to design and build a new fuel injection nozzle for its next generation CFM LEAP turbofan engine, which is bound to end up in hundreds of airliners. GE eventually settled on 3D-printed titanium nozzles. The reason? The new 3D printed nozzle ended up 25 percent lighter than the previous design and consisted of a single part instead of 18 on the old nozzle. Durability is expected to be five times better. These nozzles will be used in engines manufactured in 2016 and beyond. GE hopes to produce more than 100,000 3D-printed parts by the end of the decade.

A team of GE engineers decided to create a working replica of one of the company’s engines, using a new granular printing technique dubbed “metal laser melting.”

Long story short, no, you won’t buy 3D-printed toys for $2 anytime soon, but you will fly on airliners powered by more efficient and reliable engines, made possible by 3D printing. There won’t be any 3D-printed chocolate in your local mall, at least not yet, but your dentist will tell you it’s probably not a good idea to eat chocolate anyway, right after you get your 3D-printed prosthetic.

There Is Another Way: 3D Printing Fulfilment Services

So, you have a great idea for a product, but first you need a small series of prototypes. Who do you call? Do you buy a bunch of 3D printers? Or do you simply send the design to a fulfilment service that will ship you the completed models in a matter of days?

Fulfilment services allow consumers and small businesses to take advantage of sophisticated 3D printing infrastructure without burning capital.

A 3D printing fulfilment service seems like a hassle-free choice, and that’s the direction the industry seems to be taking. Many 3D printing outfits have launched similar services and are collaborating with other industry leaders. One example of this symbiotic relationship is Stratasys Direct Express, which recently partnered with Adobe and enabled Photoshop CC integration, offering colour 3D printing for professional designers.

Google and Motorola didn’t invest billions in their own 3D printing facilities when they unveiled the Ara modular smartphone concept. They outsourced module manufacturing to 3D Systems. This example also underscores the potential flexibility of additive manufacturing: Ara is based around an alloy exoskeleton filled with various standardised modules that could be 3D printed. Since the modules have to connect to the exoskeleton, 3D Systems developed a new technique of depositing conductive materials within the printed components, which is a far cry from traditional 3D printer prototyping.

3D fulfilment services usually offer several different printing technologies, cutting-edge hardware and support. Why bother getting a $2,000 printer when you can simply send your designs to professionals and use any of a variety of professional printers, some of which cost more than your home? And let’s not forget about economy of scale; big services can and should offer a superior price/performance ratio compared to in-house printing.

In my opinion, this is the way to go. This straightforward business model has a lot going for it, and it’s hard to see how individuals and small businesses could compete on an even playing field. In terms of price, size and energy consumption, a professional 3D printer has more in common with a printing press than your LaserJet, and how many people need a printing press in their home or office?

(One of my pet peeves is the name itself. When you mention a “printer” in conversation, most people think of their home inkjet printer, or office printer. While it’s true that 3D printers are printers, they don’t have much in common with traditional printers, and this distinction is often lost on laymen. If we just kept calling them additive manufacturing machines, this wouldn’t be an issue.)

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3D Printing For Designers And Developers

What does all this mean for the average visual designer or software engineer? Will 3D printing change the way we do business? Will it enable rapid prototyping or even cheap small-scale manufacturing? When are we going to cook up some 3D-printed Barilla pasta for lunch?

I am afraid there is no simple answer because you can look at it from several perspectives. It all depends on your personal affinities and goals.

There are a few different ways designers and developers might become involved in 3D printing:

Participation in open-source initiatives (RepRap)
Use of professional design tools (Adobe CC)
Integration of printing functionality to applications (Autodesk’s Spark 3D printing platform)
Use of 3D printing fulfilment services
Integration of 3D printing fulfilment services

Most open-source initiatives are geared toward individual, hobbyist users. They are also valuable for education, and they can foster a lot of innovation. The downside is that there’s not a lot of money to be made in this niche. It’s mostly a labour of love. The good news is that the bar is set pretty low; you can get an entry-level printer and loads of plastic filament for under $500. You can get a cheap and relatively good 3D printer for the price of a good smartphone.

Integration of 3D design and printing capabilities could prove more lucrative in the long run. Designers don’t have to go out of their way to experiment with 3D printing because it’s already accessible through leading software packages. Sooner or later, a client will start asking questions about 3D printed prototypes or small-scale production, so depending on your niche, it could be a good idea to do a bit of research.

We’re left with the elephant in the room: 3D printing fulfilment services.

Outsourcing 3D Printing Via The Cloud

On the face of it, fulfilment services seem to be the answer to everything. They put professional services within the reach of individuals, startups, and small businesses who otherwise couldn’t afford certain printing techniques, like laser sintering or stereolithography. They’re practically the only viable way of integrating 3D printing into a range of different services, mainly through cloud-based mobile and web apps.

So what are the downsides? There aren’t many.

Industrial scale fulfilment services are a relatively new concept. However, availability is still limited. Sure, if you need to print a few dozen titanium prototypes in California that won’t be a problem, but what if you need to do the exact same thing in Botswana or Bahrain? It will be more expensive because the manufactured designs will have to be shipped around the globe. On-site manufacturing sounds good, but it could prove prohibitively expensive

Of course, on-site manufacturing has a lot going for it; if a business needs to quickly iterate and revise designs, then the speed and convenience of 3D printer rapid prototyping can’t be matched by printing services. This is a relatively tight niche, but it’s by no means small. Design studios, architects, engineers, various maintenance departments, logistics, education; they all need on-site printers. Besides, if you need a printed replacement part on the International Space Station, you can’t exactly call Amazon. On another note, 3D printing in space would have made the exploits of the Apollo 13 crew look less impressive. No wonder NASA is already experimenting with them in space.

It’s worth noting that 3D printers can be used to print more than replacement parts and passive components. They can also be used to print working electrical components, ranging from speakers to printed circuit boards (PCB). PCB prototyping is a nice niche because traditional methods are slow and expensive. A 3D printer with a spool of conductive filament can usually do the trick on-site, on time, and on budget.

Still, as far as mass market applications go, chances are this space will be dominated by big players like Amazon, Stratasys, 3D Systems, and possibly Hewlett-Packard. As the industry matures, worldwide availability should become a non-issue, prices will go down and new hardware will offer new opportunities and superior quality.

In my opinion, the biggest problem the industry currently faces is the lack of use-cases. Sure, it sounds convenient, but who is it for? How do we get 3D-printed products into the hands of mainstream consumers?

This question is not as straightforward as it seems because additive manufacturing has been hyped in recent years. Just try googling for 3D printing use-cases and you’ll see what I mean: 3D printing seems to be the answer to all our problems, but in reality most of it is hype, based on long-term projections.

So, I decided to include research from an unbiased source: UK’s Intellectual Property Office. The paper, titledThe Current Status and Impact of 3D Printing Within the Industrial Sector: An Analysis of Six Case Studies is extensive and examines the potential impact of additive manufacturing on several industries: automotive, domestic appliances, replacement parts, customised goods, reverse engineering, games and computer generated graphics.

Customised goods and CGI-derived designs stand out as the most realistic use cases for freelancers, so let’s take a closer look.

Personalised Manufacturing

One of the biggest advantages of additive manufacturing over traditional manufacturing methods is the ability to produce one-off designs or small series. How long would it take to create a plastic toy using traditional manufacturing? You’d need loads of equipment, cast dies and whatnot. With 3D printing, it’s just a matter of selecting a wireframe and clicking. This means it’s possible to produce unique designs, tailored to meet the needs of different customers.

Additive manufacturing can enable average consumers to design and customise various products prior to making a purchase. This can be done using professional desktop applications, or even web and mobile apps. Nobody expects the average consumer to design an item from the ground up, but even a child could customise a toy using a simplified mobile app.

The potential for personalised manufacturing is one of the key benefits provided by 3D printing.

Such a platform would have to include loads of different colour or decal options, along with the 3D wireframes themselves. What’s more, it should be possible to create modular designs, so if kids are customising a toy car or doll, they could choose between scores of different, but compatible, components that would be assembled to make the product.

Yes, instead of customising virtual environments in apps and games, kids born today will be able to personalise their real toys, or turn their video game characters into action figures. It kinda makes you wish you were born a couple of decades later, doesn’t it?

Here are a few personalised 3D printing use-cases with mass market appeal:

Toys
Custom jewelry
DIY and hobbyist products
Fashion and gadget accessories
Personalised appliances and household items

However, products don’t have to be personalised to match your taste; they could also be made to perfectly match your physique, like a tailored suit. These products might not have the mass market appeal of personalised toys, but that doesn’t make them less exciting. In fact, I find them a lot more interesting than a customised brooch or doll.

Here are just some examples:

Digital dentistry
Surgery (mockups for training, 3D-printed replacement joints)
Advanced prosthetics
Tailored equipment and apparel for various professions
Sports equipment and accessories

Sure, these applications don’t have nearly the same emotional appeal as the ones I mentioned earlier, but in the big scheme of things they could be just as lucrative and important, especially when you consider medical applications.

The Implications And Future Of 3D Printing

So what’s the bottom line? Will 3D printing change the industrial landscape? Is it really the next industrial revolution?

3D printing, or additive manufacturing, is a very promising, but immature, technology. It clearly has a lot of potential, but we’re still nowhere close to realising it even though the industry is seeing a lot of growth.

In fact, the market for 3D printing services, hardware, and materials, has been growing at a healthy double-digit rate for years. Most analysts expect the market to double by the end of the decade, passing the $10 billion mark. That may sound like a lot of money, but let’s put it in perspective: The same analysts expect annual smartphone shipments for 2015 to end up in the 1.3 to 1.4 billion unit range.

Looking past the hype, 3D printing is a technology with limited appeal, at least at this early stage. However, we will continue to see growth and development for the foreseeable future, backed by new use-cases. Many of these use-cases and business models will be based around 3D printing fulfilment services. This is good news for small businesses and individuals, because they will be able to use third-party infrastructure with relative ease. They won’t have to buy dozens of printers, they will simply integrate a few APIs to their platform and that’s it.

In the short term, this is the future of 3D printing, at least from a mass market perspective.

Patient champion emerging livelihood

April 7, 2015 by Paul and Sarah Edwards Leave a Comment

Who hasn’t heard, read, or know of people getting victimized in the health care system? Maybe they were overwhelmed by a hospitalization, feeling that there is too much information to process, and too many very important decisions to be made, they suffered or perhaps died. Maybe this has happened to a member of your family, a friend, or ever a co-worker.

On the other hand, are you tenacious, sympathetic, good on the phone, capable of respectful firmness and not uncomfortable in hospitals and around sick people?

If your answer to the first question was yes and to the second also yes, you have an understanding of the needs of hospital patients and their families and the personality to help a family in crisis. Patient champions, also known as patient advocates, may be employed, volunteers or a business opportunity for you in a role becoming regarded as indispensable. USA Today recommends that in speaking with a doctor when weak or ill, a patient “Bring an advocate.” (February 5, 2007.)

Many large medical centers have patient advocates on staff to help resolve communication difficulties between doctor and patient/family as well as to address issues about food, environmental conditions, staff, etc. These are personnel who may be nurses or social workers. Hospital chaplains also serve as patient advocates. Staff positions for patient advocates are extremely rare in community hospitals and rural institutions. In these smaller health facilities volunteer patient advocates may be in use.

Patients and their families appreciate patient champion services but can be suspect when those providing by the institution providing the care offer them. This is one place where the paid advocate makes an entrance. In very large urban centers the number of advocates cannot match the need, so hes where paid advocate have opportunities.

This is becoming a pressing need for aging Boomers, one of out five of whom are single with no children. Another niche is children. Advocating for children who are ill requires special knowledge about guardianship rules and child rights. Parents of these patients are often much more emotional than relatives of other patients and dealing with them requires extra skill.

The health care industry is fraught with rules that must be learned and understood. The most complex of these are the rules regarding confidentiality of information. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, amended and adjusted, is followed by every hospital and every doctor. For anyone to discuss the health or treatment of a patient they will need to be assured that you have permission from the patient or their legal representative.

When you have jumped this hurdle you will find practitioners who don’t understand your role, see you as interference or perhaps as a challenge to their authority. This is where respectful firmness and tenacity will pay off. You can be perceived as partner, asset, time saver or you can be seen as nuisance, it is not always up to you but every energy directed on behalf of your patient will move professionals in this direction.

Being a patient champion or advocate is not for faint of heart. If you are willing to be awakened on occasion in the middle of the night and capable of dropping everything to address a crisis this may be for you. You will feel good when a patient get the services he or she needs and their health improves and you may well suffer along with patient and family as conditions cause a decline in health status. The positives far outweigh the negatives.

Patient Champion at a Glance

Start-Up costs are minimal
Overhead is low
Potential Earnings are moderate
Flexible hours – you set your own
Overall stress – moderate compared to many occupations
This is service can be bartered.

Likely Transferable Skills, Background, Careers:

Nurses and doctors have the knowledge to interpret medical information and know their way around. Others with hospital experience such as social workers, physical and occupational therapists, and others will bring their experiences dealing with other hospital personnel to the job. EMTs and other medical first responders will also transfer to the hospital setting with ease. Suzanne Steidl, founder of Your Daughter’s In Town (www.yourdaughtersintown.com) in Pittsburgh says that “While it’s not necessary to have a medical background, some background in advocacy is absolutely essential. The most effective advocates have the capacity to gather and organize information and coordinate care. They are vigilant overseers and skillful, fearless negotiators.”

What to Charge:

Patient Champions/Advocates can bill for their services on an hourly basis (up to as much $100 an hour) or on a retainer basis where you bill for as much as five or ten thousand dollars up front and take care of everything without further billing.

Best Ways to Get Business:

Developing several presentations and offering them to the local Chamber of Commerce, Rotary or other business associations where busy adults of an age where their parents or older siblings are apt to be in need of services like yours.
Writing article or a column for newspapers or websites or both.
Creating a website so out-of-town adult children can easily locate you and that offers the sense of assurance you will provide the attention their loved one needs; post testimonials, which you need to be sure to get from past clients.
Personal and social networking in groups with professionals, such as financial planners, doctor, lawyers, pastors, and social workers who will have clients and patients in need of your service.
Developing relationships with emergency room personnel and the staff of critical care units will bring referrals.
Joining or even starting a local association of patient champions/advocates.
Writing columns for local newspapers, writing a blog.

Tips for Getting Started

If you’re not a skilled negotiator, take one or more courses.
Volunteer to assist a friend, acquaintance, or relative. This can provide your first testimonials.
Since this is a new field, you’ll be a pioneer in making people aware of what you can do and when they need you. Promotion is a large part of your marketing plan.

Where Next

Books

Advocacy Skills for Health and Social Care Professionals, Neil Bateman, Jessica Kingsley Publishers
The Not So Patient Advocate: How to Get the Health Care You Need Without Fear or Frustration, Ellen Menard
The Patient Advocate’s Handbook 300 Questions And Answers To Help You Care For Your Loved One At The Hospital And At Home, James Thomas Williams

Web

Health Advocacy Toolbox at www.cthealthpolicy.org/toolbox
Information from the U.S. Department Health and Human Services about the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA, Title II) which sets standards for electronic health care transactions and the security and privacy of health data. www.cms.hhs.gov/HIPAAgeninfo/
Informed Consent is an important topic when it comes to experimental treatmentswww.info.med.yale.edu/caim/risk/patient_rights/patient_rights_2.html
Patient Advocacy Foundation website at www.patientadvocate.org to find extensive information on advocacy.
Patient-Centered Guides. The site is a source of copious amounts of healthcare information.www.patientcenters.com.
The Center for Medical Consumers can be found at www.medicalconsumers.org
The Child Advocate provides information on advocacy for children and their parents and rules related to children www.childadvocate.net/index.html

LinkedIn Groups

Facebook Groups

Organizations

Healthproponent.com

If you are interested in this field and would like an existing website, see patientchamption.com.

Boost Your Marketing Success with Color

February 14, 2015 by Paul and Sarah Edwards Leave a Comment

Color is the first thing we notice when we see a sign, ad, or logo. Whether we consciously think about it or not, color affects our mood and sets the contexts for our reactions to what we see. I, Paul, became aware of the influence of color when I was president of a research organization that among other subject, investigated the difference wall color had on how people interact in a room. In this same vein, research done by HubSpot showed 21% more people are more likely to click on a red button than a green one.

This finding is not an accident because red grabs our attention and conveys energy, excitement, and a sense of urgency. That’s just what retail and food service companies that typically have red logos like Target, K-Mart, Nabisco, Red Bull and Kellogg all want. The more intense the red trigger more emotional impact.

Blue, on the other hand, suggests credibility and stability. It’s a calming color, often the dominant color used by medical, healthcare, dental, corporations, and often companies such as AT&T, Dell, HP, IBM, Ford, and American Express, companies that want to inspire our trust.

The color green suggests something natural, calm, hopeful and youthful. Green is also associated with money, health, freshness and wealth. Lighter greens are more calming while deeper green are associated with financial matters. It’s the choice of companies like Starbucks, Whole Foods, John Deere that use green as their dominant color.

Black is a bold color. It suggests formality and luxury and is thus used in marketing expensive items, such as Tiffany jewelry and Apple computer. Black is used to create a sense of authority. Construction, manufacturing, marketing companies are among those that typically identify themselves with black the dominant color.

The color yellow suggests sunshine, optimism and youth. Companies like Best Buy, McDonald’s, Hertz, and Shell employ yellow as their dominant color to capture this mood.

To use color to the advantage of your business, here are some suggestions.

Tailor your color choice to the age, gender, and interests of the kinds of customers you want. Study the colors that are typical for your type of business. Look at websites, signs, and color ads in magazines, particularly in your industry’s trade magazines. Chances are you will find a dominant color for your industry. Once you select a principal or main color, stick with it.

When selecting a second color, choose one that make the main color stand out. For example, think of the UPS logo – the gold letters stand out against a brown background. Typical combinations are a dominant color like red, blue or black paired with white, yellow or black, i.e. red with black or yellow with red.

Limit the number of colors you use. 95% of top brands use only one or two colors. Some examples of companies that have multiple colors in their logos are NBC, Google, and eBay – companies that serve highly diverse customers. The colors most used by top companies are blue (33%), red (29%), black or gray (28%), and yellow or gold (13%). Less frequently used colors are orange (Gulf, Firefox), purple (Welch’s grape juice, Hallmark) and pink (Mary Kay).
Try different hues, tints, shades, and tones for the colors you choose and keep in mind that color in the print world differs from digitized color.

In working with a client who is starting a business as a Karate instructor, we determined that black is most typical color for karate organizations and schools. So he chose that with as yellow an accent to make the black stand out.

If you have an existing logo and brand identity, it may be time to tweak it for greater success and then make certain you carry your color identity on everything you produce to market your business: presentations, business cards, letterhead, web sites, flyers, etc.

Comments and questions on the substance of this blogs are welcome. If you have other questions about this website, please contact me directly for a consulting appointment or book an appointment

If you think we can help you, we offer webinars and consulting.

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Adapted from a prior column in Connection Connection. http://www.costcoconnection.com/connection/

New Ways to Earn Money Doing Errands

October 3, 2014 by Paul and Sarah Edwards 2 Comments

One way of thinking about the apps and sites like TaskRabbit and Instacart that contract with people with people all over the country to run and errands and do all manner of tasks is that it takes much of the burden from the local person to market their services. Airbnb works on the same principle as Taskrabbit, matching travelers with private homes willing to rent a room.

A new service called Shyp makes sending someone something no harder than taking a photo of the item, uploading it to the Shyp app and twenty minutes later someone comes to get your item, pack it, and deliver it to its destination. Customers pay for the service the Shyp app. Shyp calls the people it recruits to do the pickups “heros.” If this is a way you would like to earn some income, on your own schedule, in here’s a link to find more. http://www.shyp.com/heroes.

Alfred is a service works similarly to Taskrabbit, matching helpers with customers who need local help with laundry, grocery shopping and cleaning tasks. Alfred is oriented to developing regular customers where TaskRabbit may be a use it now and then not again for six months. To learn more about Alfred, here’s it’s website.

These services start out in major cities like New York, Boston, and San Francisco and then spread to other cities.

For the independent worker, this can be a source of at least a part-time income, without the marketing that normally is required before you begin producing income.

For an initial free consultation to explore this or another sustainable livelihood that bests suits your personality and your community, contact us.

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Comments on the substance of the blogs are welcome. If you have other questions, please contact me directly for a consulting appointment.

Teaching an Adult Education Course to Promote Your Local Business

September 24, 2014 by Paul and Sarah Edwards Leave a Comment

Will teaching adult classes help increase your business? Teaching classes can yield several benefits: (1) people may come to your class who become customers or contacts, (2) the publicity you do for the course helps your image, and (3) the material you organize can be used to write blogs, make videos for your website and YouTube, webinars, and be the basis for articles you can place in local and trade publications.

Many factors go into determining if you’ll get a good attendance for an adult education program. Some you may have little control over, like the weather, other events being held at the same time or the location of the sponsoring organization. But others you can influence, like the topic you choose, the title and write-up used to promote the program, and the type and amount of publicity done beforehand.

Here are some steps you can take to make your next offering a success:

If you haven’t given the program before, test interest in the topic, title and write-up beforehand with prospective attendees. Try to get a few commitments from people yourself before actually scheduling the workshop so you know at least three to four people who are interested in attending. You might even check what days or nights of the week would be best for your cadre of recruits before you negotiate scheduling your programs.
Do publicity yourself. Don’t leave your success 100 percent in the hands of the organization sponsoring your class, as they usually have many other programs to promote. See if you can get a media interview, send post cards about the workshop to your own mailing list, post it on your Web site and so on.
Arrange with the sponsoring organization to take reservations so you know beforehand how many people have signed up. Set a minimum enrollment. If there are fewer enrollees than your minimum, start calling colleagues and contacts and make personal invitations. Cancel if you don’t get enough pre-registrations and try a different time, topic or title.
If you get just enough signups but are worried about having too small a group should a couple of people not show up, as inevitably happens, see if you can arrange to invite a few “complimentary guests” who you would love to have see what you do. This can assure that you’ll have a critical mass even if some pre-registrants don’t show.

Of course, arranging for the sponsoring organization to require payment upfront will help prevent no-shows. Another option for encouraging commitment is to offer multiple prices, a low price for early registration, a somewhat higher price for a later pre-registration date and an even higher price for signing up at the door.

If you’ve taken steps like these and find that your workshop is still not filling, it’s time to go back to the drawing board. First, rethink your topic and title to be sure you’re addressing a strongly felt need. Have you actually heard your target audience asking for or complaining about needing the kind of information or assistance you will be offering? What are the needs they’re expressing? What words do they use when they describe what they need? Refocus your workshop on these needs and use their words in your title and promotion.

Next, rethink where you are offering the program, through what means and how you are promoting it. Are you actually reaching the people who most need it? Are they getting the information? Do they know about it? Are you offering it in a way that is attractive and feasible for them? Do they have time for a workshop or might they prefer another vehicle, like a teleconference or an online workshop?

Finally, reevaluate whether a workshop is the best medium for connecting with your potential clients. Explore how they usually go about deciding on services like yours and consider reaching out to them in other ways.

Comments and questions on the substance of this blogs are welcome. If you have other questions about this website, please contact me directly for a consulting appointment or book an appointment through Google Helpouts.

If you think we can help you, we offer webinars and consulting.

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Adapted from a prior column in Entrepreneur magazine

Do you need a resale license if you sell over the web from your own home?

September 13, 2014 by Paul and Sarah Edwards 5 Comments

“I want to start a resale business out of my house, do I need a resale license? What is this and where do I get one?” Also what about a federal ID number and a business license?

A resale license or permit, which may have a different name depending on your state, enables you to buy products for resale without paying sales tax on them until you resell them to a purchaser, from whom you collect the tax. You may also have suppliers who will sell to you only if you have a resale number, which indicates to them that you are a legitimate merchant. You can find the name of the tax agency in your state responsible for sales taxes on your state’s web site or from sites like www.govengine.com and http://www.lexisone.com/legalresearch/legalguide/states/states_resources_index.htm. From your state’s tax agency site, you can also get the forms you’ll need for reporting your sales. The states are quite interested in collecting all the taxes they can and have compliance officers.

If your sales are going to be on the web, such as on eBay, you’re obligated to collect and pay tax on sales to buyers from your own state. However, you’re not required to collect sales taxes on sales made to people or companies located out-of-state.

You only need to get a federal employer’s tax id number if you have employees, are a partnership, or are incorporated. You do this with Form SS-4, which you can get at www.irs.gov. It’s one of IRS’s most requested documents and reachable from the home page.

Usually you get your business license from a county office, but check with your state’s agency or office that provides assistance to small businesses. Links to such state agencies and offices can be found at http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=99021,00.html.

If you think we can help you, we offer webinars and consulting. mail://paul@elmstreeteconomy

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Adapted from a prior column in BYOB

Take Off the Badge of Exhaustion

August 12, 2014 by Paul and Sarah Edwards 1 Comment

Everything worth doing takes energy. A passionate desire for a better life can keep our dreams alive, but it won’t keep us alive. We’ve got to do that. But we can’t do much of anything for long if we’re exhausted. To live our dreams we need to be good energy managers. We need to pace ourselves so we have the energy we need to do what needs to be done. Yet, exhaustion seems to be a badge of honor these days.

Author and seminar leader Chellie Campbell does a lot of networking with other professionals and business owners and she’s observed an interesting pattern you also may have noticed. “I went to meetings with colleagues and found that everyone was competing to see who was the most exhausted, overworked and stressed out.” Campbell fell into this routine herself for a while, but quickly realized that the more she talked about how overworked and stressed she was, the more worn out she felt. “What we focus on expands,” she concluded. “If we focus on how tired and exhausted are, we just become all the more tired and exhausted.”

Now when Campbell goes to such meetings and people start trading war stories of how overscheduled and burned out they are she pops in to point out how relaxed and rested she feels. Next thing she knows everyone’s talking about how energized and relaxed they are too.

So, when you hear yourself saying “I’m so tired,” take a moment to think about the things in life that bring you joy and excitement. Unless you’ve really been overdoing, you’ll find a wellspring of energy awaits you and you can tell yourself with confidence “I have plenty of energy.” Should you find you’re so tired that no wellspring awaits, don’t talk about it; take a break and get some sleep, You owe it to yourself … and to your dreams.

Comments and questions on the substance of this blogs are welcome. If you have other questions about this website, please contact me mail://paul@elmstreeteconomy directly for a consulting appointment or book an appointment through Google Helpouts.

If you think we can help you, we offer webinars and consulting.

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Adapted from a prior column in Connection Connection.

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Adapted from a prior column in Connection Connection. http://www.costcoconnection.com/connection/