Congratulations! Its a Blog!

So here I am, Scott Samborn, co-owner of Mosaic Technologies, a growing Managed Services Provider in the Metro DC Area, and I am finally getting my butt into gear with a blog. Do I know what you're thinking? - tech guy, tech company, so how come this is my first blog entry, late November 2009? Probably the best reason is laziness... I often have ideas pop into my head to write about but by the time the phone stopes ringing and I have a minute to write, the thought is gone or the drive to memorialize it is gone.

It's almost the new year, and 2009 has been a wild ride so I decided its time to get this blog going. We (Jason, My business partner and I) have made a lot of changes at Mosaic Technologies this year, including cutting out unprofitable areas, firing those that (really) needed firing and hiring some of those that we (really) needed to hire. So far all these changes have been positive. We are positioning ourselves to continue and grow this roll in 2010.

One of the best things that we did this year was attend the Connectwise Summit a few weeks ago. The education was invaluable - Do I sense a mastercard comercial? -

- Flights to Orlando for 4, $1000
- One week with family at Disney, $3000
- A large Coke (mostly ice) with no refills (they don't do refills at Disney) $2.49
- 3 Days with 1200 other CW partners -$Priceless

I think one of the many interesting things that I learned at CW is that we are very similar to other Managed Services Providers around the world in terms of growth. Jason and I have been very succesful at getting to where we are now, building mostly through word of mouth, with some help from good SEO and a few stabs at advertising. But to really grow to the next level we need to become a Sales Organization. This is going to mean some major changes for the whole company. We promoted Bill P and Brandon G to VP's - they now fully manage their teams and they have been doing fantastic jobs. The rest of this year will be focused on defining and detailing processes so that Jan 1 we can start buildinng a Sales business.

This will be a interesting and challenging effort as neither Jason nor I have ever done professional sales before (only accidental sales?). So, taking advice from friends and partners, here are some of the things we plan to start ASAP:

- Hire a coach
- Join HTG (already applied, now waiting for the process)
- Start attending CW User Group meetings
- Look at potential Sales People
- Look at Sales Outsourcing/Telemarketing companies
- Start reading all the books that have been gathering dust on the shelves
- Sell Sell Sell

We are committed to significant and profitable growth in 2010, and we know it will be a interesting challenge. Things are going to start moving very quickly as the rest of the year flies by. I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving and that you are thankful for all that you have received.

Time flies when you're having fun!

Its amazing how many sites I visit where the content hasn't been updated for more than a year. In fact, its even more amazing how fast time goes by when you think about it in these circumstances. It seems like I added something to this blog just the other day, and more than a YEAR has passed! Scary!

Well, I have never thought of myself as much of a blogger, so I have already forgiven myself for huge gap of time between posts in this...not to mention that I can probably count on one hand the number of people (outside my staff) that might even read this...but I promise that I would never let my web site go unattended for such a long period of time.

So in this post I thought I would share a few things you can do to make your site more interactive, engaging, accountable and have it generate more leads and sales. We recently sent these ideas out to our Customers in a monthly email newsletter.

Hopefully they will give you some ideas for your own site.

Live Chat Reduce operational costs and increase sales! A single question answered from a Live Support agent can be enough to close a sale. Integrating Live Chat on your website can accomplish the level of instant client care that is required to keep you ahead of your competitors and increase your website sales while reducing your operational costs. Phone, fax, staff and other support operations can add up to lots of expenses. Live Chat will enable you to communicate instantly with your visitors and pass crucial information at virtually no cost. Lightbox With Lightbox you can dazzle people that visit your website with your latest promotional piece, an interactive photo gallery or an audio/video presentation. Lightbox allows you to present video, pictures and audio to your customers, but doesn't force it on them. With a Web 2.0 look and feel, it will captivate your audience while spicing up your website with very little cost. This is one of the most popular website enhancements being incorporated into existing sites. Signup Forms If you want to maximize the revenue of your service you need to maximize completion rates of your web forms. Unless you have some revolutionary ideas to impress your visitors at first glance, it is not enough to simply enable users to sign up on your site. To make it possible for your services to reach maximal exposure you must provide users with a good user experience. Forms need to invite them, describe to them how the service works, explain to them why they should fill in the form and suggests the benefits they'll get in return. And, of course, it should be extremely easy for them to participate. CAPTCHA Spam Protection A CAPTCHA is a challenge-response test most often placed within web forms to determine whether the user is human. For example, humans can read distorted text, but computer programs can't. The purpose of CAPTCHA is to block form submissions from spambots - automated scripts that harvest email address from publicly available web forms. If your website needs protection from abuse, it is recommended that you have a CAPTCHA installed on all your forms. There are many CAPTCHA implementations, some better than others. Let Mosaic help you stop the SPAM and regain control of your online forms. Analytics and Web Site Traffic Analysis Do you know how many people visited your site yesterday, last week, last month? If not, Mosaic can help. We can add a very powerful Web Analytics package to your site that will not only tell you how many people visited your site but how they found you, what keywords they used, how long they stayed and what part of your site most interested them. If you like real-time statistics with a lot of interesting reports on the people coming to your site, call us now!