Sen Ze’s Business In Your Pajamas! Blog

If you have the right software running your Internet Business, you can truly achieve awesome leverage that will enable you to make more money in a shorter period of time, with less effort.

Software for Internet Businesses help you do things better and faster like a Web Site Creator, which helps you create web sites quickly and without any HTML or programming knowledge.

Software also do the things you don’t want to do, like sending out a “welcome” e-mail for those who join your mailing list. You can do this manually, but a piece of software called “Autoresponder” can help you do this automatically and save you a lot of time and effort, so that you can better spend your time on marketing activities.

Software to run your Internet Business can be installed on your server where your web site is being hosted. This is typically a one-off purchase to own the software outright.

Or the software can be hosted by a third party on their server, and they charge you a fee to use it for your Internet Business. This fee can be based on time, like monthly or yearly. Or it can be based on access where they charge you every time you access it. Or it can be based on every transaction you make using the software.

So which option is better?

Install software on your own web server and pay a one-off fee or use a 3rd party’s and pay a fee for as long as you’re using their software?

I’ve done both – and you’ll soon see which one I prefer.

To do that, you need to understand the 3 main issues that are related to software:

1. Installation

2. Maintenance

3. Upgrades

Installation of software
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Depending on the complexity of the software and how well the software creator has programmed it for easy installation, this can be done easily, or you may need someone to install it for you.

If you’re technically adept, you could install it on your own.

If you’re not, like most people, you’ll likely need to hire somebody to install it for you. This will add to your cost, but it’s a one-off fee.

Installation can take a few minutes or a few hours. Booking someone to install it for you can take a day or two or more, depending on when he’s free to do your job.

With hosted 3rd party programs, there’s no installation required on your part. The software is already installed, and you can get going in minutes.

Maintenance
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Software needs to be maintained to ensure that it’s working properly, or fixed when it’s not.

The more complex the software, the more maintenace it will likely need. If you’re not technically skilled (and most people are not), you’ll need to get someone who is to help you check on your software performance. This will add to your cost.

With hosted software on a 3rd party’s server where they charge you on a continuous basis, maintenance is already provided for whatever fee you’re paying.

And because the hosted 3rd party software is shared by other clients, the maintenance cost is also shared, so the total fee that includes the use of the software and maintenance is usually a very reasonable amount.

Upgrades
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Software are constantly being improved on so that it can perform better, faster, more effectively, or simply to fix bugs that are almost certain to appear in more complex pieces of software.

Thus new versions of them are constantly being released – and it’s then up to you to decide whether you would like to upgrade to the newer version.

Frequently, however, you don’t have a choice because a critical bug has been discovered that will make your software not work well in certain circumstances.

If you’ve installed software on your server, and you decided to upgrade for better performance, or where you have no choice, you’ll need to either install the upgrade module, or re-install the latest version of the software.

Either way, this can be a pain, and will cost you some downtime, and more money. I’ve done this a few times and I can tell you that it can be a frustrating process.

Software running on a 3rd party’s server will automatically be upgraded without any need for you to do anything on your part, since the server isn’t yours, and the software provider would want to use the best software it can develop for it to have an edge over its competitors. The modest fee that they’re charging you usually includes all future upgrades at no additional cost.

You get the best software to use for your Internet Business, and you can rest easy knowing that all technical matters are taken care of.

The Verdict
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If you’ve read this far, you’ll know that I’m a bigger fan of software hosted by reputable 3rd party companies instead of installing them on my own server.

While you may be paying more for hosted 3rd party software, it usually isn’t a lot more since the software provider can profit by having more clients all sharing the same software, maintenance and upgrade efforts.

So don’t discount software hosted by 3rd parties. In many cases, they’re what you SHOULD be using for your Internet Business.

Not only that, they can actually cost less than the software installed on your server, overall.

Sen Ze

P.S. You can link to this post with the following URL:

http://SenZe.com/business-blog/software/software-for-your-internet-business.htm

Technorati Tags: Software, Internet Business, Internet Business Software

Complexity is bad.

There are many types of complexities in business.

There is technical complexity.

There is conceptual complexity.

There is implementation complexity.

There is management complexity.

Just to name a few.

They’re bad because by being complex, it’s hard for you as the business owner to start a business that has them for company.

They’ll cost you a lot more money, time and effort than a simpler business that you can do.

And as with any business, there’s no guarantee that you’ll be able to overcome them all.

Complexity is bad.

But then again, if you’re looking at a business full of complexities that you would like to emulate but couldn’t because of all the hurdles you must go through – one thing start to come to mind.

Complexity is good.

It’s good because if you’ve gone out to overcome those hurdles from the beginning and you succeed, you will have few, to NO competitors.

Just like Boeing and Airbus - the world’s 2 main competitors for commercial airplanes.

Between the 2 of them, they get the lion’s share of all aircraft orders from around the word – totalling trillions of dollars.

Just like Intel and AMD - the world’s top 2 main competitors for computer chips.

And Search Engines, like Google and Yahoo.

Google’s algorithm is very complex and it gets more and more complex by the day.

Google’s quest to return very accurate search results to keep its users happy means that it’ll need to add all variables that will affect the accuracy of those results.

And there are hundreds of such variables, with many more being discovered and added all the time.

Even Yahoo isn’t quite close to Google in terms of the complexity of its search algorithm – thus you’ve seen how Google has slowly but surely pulled itself away from the pack.

Complexity is good in ensuring you get to protect your turf for a much longer period of time – sometimes for decades – before you need to share any customers with another competitor.

And if you constantly innovate and add even more value after having been successful with complexities in your business, you’ll be sitting on your throne literally forever.

Complexity is good.

Here’s the “business holy grail”:

Complexity in implementation and creation of a SIMPLE product that your Customer can easily understand, use and want is the best combination of all.

You’ll have lots of Customers and few to no competitors, for a long time to come.

Just like Walt Disney experienced with his hand-drawn animated full-length cartoon movies – before computers came along and made the process more accessible to his competitors.

But he was the king of animation for DECADES before Pixar Animation, Dreamworks and the others could even try to compete.

And what about IKEA - the furniture retailer?

Without knowing exactly what’s involved – you can SEE the sheer complexity of their operations and business in selling you flat-packed furniture with modern, functional designs that don’t cost you an arm and a leg to get.

Even thinking about being their possible competitor hurts.

Right?

Complexity is good.

Sen Ze

P.S. You can link to this post with the following URL:

http://www.SenZe.com/business-blog/complexity/complexity-is-bad.htm

Technorati Tags: business, business complexity, Airbus, Boeing, Intel, AMD, Yahoo, Google, Search Algorithm, business implementation, Walt Disney, cartoons, IKEA

It’s rare indeed for any artist to perform his concert for more than a few days at one venue.

Prince is currently doing 21 days in London alone!

And most of those dates have been sold out. In fact, at one point his tickets were selling at 1,000 per minute!

Why?

Because Prince:

1. Is a musical genius
He composes all his songs, writes the lyrics to all of them, sings them as lead vocal AND backing vocals and plays all the musical instruments used for those songs (up to 25 different instruments for one song)!

2. Is a prolific composer
He has composed hundreds of songs in his entire career, including hits for Celine Dion, Sheena Easton and The Bangles. He has released some of those songs on 46 albums so far – with many more yet unheard!!

3. Sells records
He has many hits from his albums and he has sold millions of them all over the world. The Purple Rain album alone (released in 1984) sold 20 million copies worldwide.

4. Is a great performer
If you’ve seen his Superbowl XLI halftime performance, you would have experienced an unforgettable musical performance.

I’m not a fan of Prince, by the way. Not of his music, nor his style – but I do appreciate genius when I see one.

His London concerts were originally supposed to run for 7 nights but when all 140,000 tickets for them at 31.21 pounds sterling (about $63) sold out in 20 minutes (!), he extended it to 15 days.

And when tickets to those extra 8 days started selling out, he extended it a further 6 days – making a total of 21 days!

He grosses an average of $1.2 million per concert ($63 x 20,000 seats) for this current tour if all tickets are sold out. By the time it’s all over, he would have grossed $1.2 million x 21 days = $25.2 million.

Give or take a few million.

Not bad for less than a month’s work.

And there’s still the US Tour to come.

How did this 21-date London concert come to be?

Here’s a combination of factors:

1. Prince’s an established music star whose concerts are a great spectacle
There’s plenty to see and hear. Prince is known for his flashy performances and he’s backed by some of the most talented musicians in the world, all hand-picked by him.

2. It’s summer time in London
Summertime means time out in the park, and concerts to attend!

3. London is home to about 8 million people
The bigger the population, the bigger is Prince’s number of prospects interested in his songs. 8 million is a big number for a city by any means.

4. London is a popular tourist destination
Millions of people visit London every year. Tour companies usually offer special packages that include free concert tickets as well. Prince’s audience will definitely include many foreigners especially when he’s not performing outside of the US and UK.

5. He has announced that this Planet Earth Tour is “The End” of his live concerts
There’ll be no more Prince in person after this, so this is his fans’ last chance to watch him live. Well, there may be a “Comeback Tour” or “Encore Tour” many years later but they don’t know for sure. In case he isn’t planning any in the future, this is all they have.

6. His latest album, “Planet Earth”, was given away for free by the UK’s Mail On Sunday
They distributed 3 million copies of it on July 15 2007 alone. The newspaper paid Prince a rumored 300,000 pounds for the rights to do this. This generated lots of additional publicity for his upcoming concerts in August 2007 (and sold lots of extra newspapers).

7. All ticket holders get a copy of his latest album, “Planet Earth” as well
This makes his 31.21 pounds ticket price a real bargain since the album sells for about 10 pounds in stores. Not only that, the distribution of CDs in this manner counts towards his final album sales as well – which will help it in music charts tracking album sales.

Since there are music lovers who buy albums according to their ranking in the music charts – this will help push sales of the album further.

8. He’s opening up his songs vault to present 150 of them during his London run
Yep, that’s right. He’ll be playing over 150 songs over the course of his 21-date London concerts. He performs only about 23 songs at each concert, which would leave plenty left over for the remaining dates.

Thus many of his hard-core fans will show up for the concerts multiple times over the next few nights just to hear more of those songs, many of which they’ve never heard before!

How’s that for repeat business?

You can do that only if you’re as prolific a composer as Prince…

The combination of all of the above factors – but especially “The End” of Prince’s live tours – makes for an irresistible series of events that hard-core Prince fans find hard to resist.

The US Tour should be even better. There should be one, because Prince grossed over $87 million the last time he had one in 2004 with the Musicology Tour that went on a run of 96 performances.

Talk soon.

Sen Ze

P.S. You can link to this post with the following URL:

http://www.SenZe.com/business-blog/prince/prince-and-the-new-marketing-generation.htm

Technorati Tags: Prince, Planet Earth Tour, Earth Tour, UK Earth Tour, London UK Earth Tour, music industry, music, tours, innovative marketing, marketing, Mail On Sunday, business profitability, recording industry