A Day in the Life of Web Advanced Management Team

I've been asked by a lot of friends and family on what I do every day. "What's it like being a CEO? What do you do all day? Is your day/life stressful?"

My life is pretty exciting (to say the least). I meet some of the most interesting and profound clients, get to learn about their business, and work with them on figuring out and improving their business and marketing goals. Also, I get to work with some of the most talented designers, developers, sales execs, and managers in the area. Web Advanced would not be where we are without such an amazing team. My job description changes every week. The past two weeks were focused on business development, and here is an example of what my day is like:

Monday, 4/21/08

1. Wake up at 5am, clean up, and get ready for travel day. I head up to San Francisco about once or twice every month. Today, we get to go over design compositions with two clients, and discuss website design project with another.

2. Met Andrew McLendon, our Creative Director, and head to John Wayne Airport. We usually take the first flight out to Oakland, and the last flight back the same night.

3. Flight to Oakland leaves at 7:15am, we arrived at around 6:40am, got into the security line at 6:45am. No problem right? Well, extra security due to heightened alert, the security check was a bit longer than expected. We arrived at our gate about 3 minutes too late. Whoops, Plan B time.

4. Andrew and I was able to get on the standby for Southwest's next flight. Apparently, 10 people didn't show up on time for the sold out flight (possibly due to the same security delay). We got on the 8:40AM flight, and called/emailed all of our clients and made sure that we can push everything back by an hour. Thank you Southwest.


5. Arrived at Oakland at 10AM. First meeting in Redwood City. An amazing technology start up company with a very good team and wonderful product. We met with the CEO and VP of Business Development at 11AM. They were pleased with the composition, and discussed timeframe for the remainder of the project.


6. Met with our next client at around 12:40pm. Went over the comps with them as well. They are a technology company near San Jose, and were thrilled with their new look and feel. One thing that differentiates us from our competition is that we (senior managers at Web Advanced) all take pride in truly learn about and understand our clients' business. Compare the current homepage against the newly designed page and see the difference yourself.
























7. We had a break between meeting #2 and meeting #3. Andrew and I got some lunch and hopped on the freeway to drive towards Marin. Yes, San Jose to San Rafael. Thankfully, there were no traffic, as we arrived a few minutes before our meeting.

8. Our last meeting of the day was with an established & successful human resources consulting company in San Rafael. Andrew and I met with the principals of the firm and went over the branding summary, and discussed their website content and look and feel.

9. After the meeting, Andrew and I stopped by the city and had a quick dinner at Taylor's Restaurant in the Ferry Market. Their Ahi tuna burger is to die for. :)

Trip Summary:

Meetings: 3
Flights Missed: 1
Miles Flown: 750
Miles Driven: 140
Bridges Crossed: 4
3 Happy Clients (Priceless!)

Here are some additional photos from our day. Enjoy!















Obligatory Golden Gate Bridge Photo

Your Website: Today's Place for First Impressions

This is an excellent article that I found on the Bank of America Small Business online community website.

The article is available here:
http://smallbusinessonlinecommunity.bankofamerica.com/docs/DOC-1872

The online community's website is available here:
http://smallbusinessonlinecommunity.bankofamerica.com

What's Most Important? Profits? Customers? Employees?

This question was posted by Inc Magazine Here:
http://blog.inc.com/boss-school/2008/03/whats_most_important_profits_c.html

Question:

It's important for every boss to understand what his or her critical functionsare. These might change significantly as you grow. You might, for example, start out doing all of the sales for your company and end up doing very minimal sales as you grow. But it's important for you to decide what's most important to you.

When I started in business, I used to think my one and only job was to take care of the customers. As I grew, I found out the hard way that it's very easy to have happy customers but still not make any money. Inappropriate pricing or lack of control over costs can quickly turn what seems to be a profitable sale into unproductive busy work. It took me a few years to figure out that having happy customers and making money is clearly related to having happy employees. My big revelation came years later when I realized that I find tremendous payback in knowing that I have made a positive impact on my employees by offering them opportunity, security, self-respect, and a sense of mission.So what's important to you? Are you happy with just one or two of the three: happy customers, good profits, and happy employees. I have seen many companies that have managed to survive with just one or two of them. Or do you want it all?

I felt compelled to chime in, and here is my response....

Employees are by far the most important part of any business. My corporate advisor and I had a discussion very recently about how one company differentiates over another in the same industry. Fundamentally, the only thing that is truly different about them is the people working there.

If you take away all our customers, revenue, and processes tomorrow, but allow us to keep the same staff; we will have a new business generating revenue, and creating value for our customers in no time. I truly believe this fact.

At Web Advanced, we do our best to provide our staff with everything they need. We are not a huge company, but we are growing at a pretty good speed. Our success is only possible with our committment to bring in quality people and provide our staff with what they need to become successful.

Sincerely,

Vic Liu
CEO
Web Advanced
www.webadvanced.com

Web Marketing: A Focus on Copywriting

In the innovative world of website design and development, where the emphasis usually rests on the creation of eye-catching and brand specific visual images, an often overlooked component of successful online marketing strategies is the written word. Nothing saps the enthusiasm out of a graphic designer faster than the prospect of having to accommodate written text on a beautifully constructed and visually appealing webpage. Yet, like the design and layout of a website, the written copy is an integral part of a company's ability to successfully market itself online.

A website is first and foremost a visual medium, and as such, companies rightly focus on their site's overall aesthetic. For many business owners and marketing professionals, written content is a secondary concern in that it need only convey the basic aspects of the company's products and services. Good website copy should effectively and efficiently describe a company's product and service packages, but it can and should do much more.

Frequently, the expectation is that good copy will "get out of the way" of a website's graphical content. This idea revolves around the notion that most website visitors quickly scan pages in a few seconds and that pleasing images leave positive impressions in the minds of potential customers. The belief is that target individuals who scan websites for key words or phrases generally do not invest in more thorough reviews of the written content. As a result, many believe that the copy need not be marketable. While brevity, simplicity and directness are essential components of well-written copy, the written content should also be marketable in terms of appeal, professionalism, tone and brand specificity.

Ideally, copy should work symbiotically with the website's design elements to reinforce the themes critical to company's brand and overall message. For example, social networking websites often require copy that is inviting, engenders trust, is perhaps less formal than other e-commerce sites and highlights the benefits of membership. Whereas copy created for e-commerce personal finance sites might benefit from tonally exuding professional competence via verbiage that exhibits refined cordiality.

Also important to remember is that target audiences are frequently willing to spend more time absorbing a website's content than random browsers. In brick-and-mortar retail parlance, these customers are known as destination shoppers in that they have taken the time to visit a particular place of business to obtain specific products and services. Likewise, on the internet much of a company's e-commerce will be generated from destination browsers - people who seek out a business or industry to acquire a unique product or service. For these customers, copy impacts consumer choices. They will read a company's copy as well as that of its competitors gauging intangibles such as quality, trust, professionalism and brand specificity. Copy is king for customers who are ready to spend, today.

Can procuring a professional copywriter help your company? The answer, unhelpfully, is maybe. If your business' website is meeting your current goals and expectations, then, probably, the answer is no. However, if you are looking to grow your online business and you are ready to invest in a revamped website, you may want to consider obtaining the services of a professional copywriter who has experience writing in your company's market or industry. While what you say on your website is important, remember that making the sale often depends on how you say it.

Interesting Times: How to Recession Proof your business

Orange County, California, as well as the rest of the country are currently undergoing an "economic slowdown". The growth of our local economy was heavily depended on real estate and lending, especially over the last 5-6 years. The white hot real estate and lending industries of past years declined tremendously in 2007, and as we move half way through Q1 of 2008, no one can predict what our economic condition will be like at the end of the year (or there after). To many decision makers and business owners in the area, there are many things that you can do to recession-proof your business. Here are some of my recommendations:

1. Learn From Others: The latest Business Week article provides many great suggestions for all businesses. Some of the best ones are: cut travel & dining expenses, purge excess inventory, etc

2. Hold your pricing steady: It may be tempting to cut prices, but doing so may only temporarily boost your business. Know your value proposition and what you are worth. Otherwise, if you drop your prices too much, you will end up with less profit and much cost conscious customers when the economy bounce back.

3. Add alternatives or accessories to your existing services or products. For Web Advanced, we decided to develop our own e-commerce solution after not being able to find an off the shelf product on the marketplace. This saves us money, deployment, and provide a scalable software solution for our customers who are looking for a robust and easy to use e-commerce engine.

4. Live and work within your means. Don't overspend, and clean up your corporate and personal balance sheet. Glenn Beck wrote a good article on CNN today about the current economic situation. Link is available here.

5. Get out of your comfort zone. Go out and network, expand sales territories, and explore business opportunities in different industries. You always want to diversify your accounts and not depend more than 33% of your revenue on a single client. I know, its easier said than done, but if there is a time to start doing that, it is now.

6. Be creative and innovative. Start utilizing web technology to market yourselves. Check out this Youtube video about creating a startup. Not bad for 10K views/clicks.

These are just some of the high level advices that I have. I highly recommend checking out Inc Magazine and Business Week Small Biz for additional information.