I am old enough to remember the days when business got done without computers. At one of my favorite jobs (as the marketing director of WBGO, the all-jazz public radio station in Newark, NJ) I had to share a typewriter. And you know what? We still got everything done.
Some reminders for the modern age.
 Deborah Gallant
Bold Business Works
805-991-9660
dg@boldbusinessworks.com
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| Could you get things done without technology? |
 | | btw, this is not Amy |
My daughter recently got her driver's license and we spent the sushi dinner celebrating her achievement with me drawing a rough map of the greater Baltimore area on her placemat. Because she has always had GPS or Mapquest to get directions to anywhere, she never really learned the geography of the area. She didn't know what was near what, where the beltway went or which direction she needed to drive on the JFX.
When we went to Maine a few weeks later to look at colleges, we lost cell reception driving in a remote area and got a little lost. Couldn't even call to get directions since we were out of range of cell towers and after a day out, our phones had lost their charges. We sniffed our way where we needed to go without too much delay, but it illustrated to me the misplaced confidence we have in technology to save us.
Last week, I was a presenter at the Capital Coaches Conference and I was sitting in the back of the room at the session before mine when a cry came out---"anyone got a laptop?" So I loaned them my laptop and remote and hooked it all up seamlessly. But what if I hadn't been there? The Powerpoint should help illustrate our ideas but it shouldn't take the place of them.
When I work with clients who are overthinking their website I need to bring them back to reality. In most cases, people don't decide to work with you based solely on your website. The website needs to be good enough to get folks to pick up the phone and call you or email you. Don't let the website fool you into thinking it substitutes for a business model. It doesn't.
People still do business with people---keep in perspective that the technology offers a set of tools to do that in a bunch of cool, streamlined ways but it shouldn't distract you from the bottom line of what really makes money for you.
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