“What if we charged our clients less money for more freedom?”

This was put to discussion by Ed Rice a month ago at one of our Monday team lunches. I was on vacation but Ben Jehring thought it was a good enough idea to bring it up to me during a check in call. We’ve been struggling with managing client expectations for years. Every services business has this challenge. It is difficult walking the line between over communicating around our process (essentially training them how to be a Small Box employee) and assuming that the client knows how we work. Too often we erred on the side of assumption. Then we played catch up later when the client felt confused and overwhelmed by the process.

So we were regularly entering into relationships based on a number of assumptions. Unnecessary assumptions.

Have you ever seen the show “9 By Design“? The premise is that this NYC interior design couple, with 7 kids!, are hired by a client and given a budget to redo a house/condo, etc. The client has almost no input. They trust this couple to do something they would like based on their previous work. Also, the couple knows that if the client was to get involved the process would take much longer and cost a lot more. So the client says “I have X dollars to spend and want this overall outcome” and the couple can either accept or reject the opportunity. It seems to work really well for all involved. Of course there is some editing involved but it really resonated with me. I started thinking how this could apply to Small Box.

“Maybe some of our clients don’t want to be fully engaged and just want to trust us to get the job done. Isn’t that why they chose us anyway?”

Somehow we got a little lost along the way. We assumed that every client wanted to be an integral part of the process and sign off at every decision point. We assumed that they didn’t really trust us. Those are the habits of a start up paying its dues, not a Web company that has done over 150 websites for almost every kind of business. We had to change the way we sold and managed projects. We needed to ask our clients how much engagement they wanted and then scale the project timelines and budgets to match that engagement level. Out of this has come the Trust/Input Scale. Here’s how it works.

We ask clients to score their desired engagement using this 1-10 scale.

Trust/Input Scale

1- Complete Trust: “Show us when it’s done. We are available to answer questions but your team has complete freedom to do what they think is best.”
5- Input/Trust Blend: “We have some specific needs but trust your team to take care of the details.”
10- Complete Input: “Our companies need to work together as one team. We will be highly engaged and want input at every decision point.”

In asking our clients to score themselves it accomplishes a couple things. First, we have a better idea of what the budget and timeline will look like- the more trust and freedom we have the faster we can work. Secondly, it sets expectations on both sides for the entire engagement and creates accountability for both teams “You said we had complete trust but now you are wanting to give design feedback” or “I asked for a high level of input but you never explained your process and I feel lost”. We have already found it useful to talk about projects using this scoring system- “They are a 4 so we need to have them sign off on the site map and home page designs but keep the rest internal”.

We have recently signed our first “1″. I will be writing about that in an upcoming blog. The whole team is excited about having the freedom to work fast and get great results. Stay tuned.

QR Codes means Quick Response. I’m assuming you already have seen examples on web pages or in magazines, but these tools have yet to meet the mainstream. How can you use QR Codes as part of a viral marketing strategy?

I will show you how we do it.

Small Box had a lead generation tool called the Free SEO Score Card. Over the year that we ran the program, it helped us land many new clients who wanted to use Small Box SEO Services. Let’s say we wanted to take that same service viral using QR Codes for a limited time.

Want it to go viral? Add that same QR Code to your Twitter pictures, your Facebook photos, make it embeddable.

Want to go guerilla? Put it on fliers, stickers, or on the side of a car.

Never done a QR before? Google is your friend, find an app for your smart phone and try it out. And then call Small Box at 317-254-0932 and let’s come up with some ideas on how we can use QR Codes to build your business.

Now if you have a QR Reader for the iPhone or Android platform, take a picture of the above image and it will take you to the Small Box SEO special. For this demonstration there is a limited time offer, but it captures lead information who would be suitable for ongoing marketing and added to our CRM.

If you have been following Small Box and what we do, you are probably aware of Musical Family Tree. Every year South by Southwest (SXSW) holds a festival in three parts. The Interactive sessions focus on all things tech. The Music sessions combine industry conversations with hundreds of musical performances. The Film sessions screen independent movies and hold panels about the developments in the industry.

Well this year PJ Christie (the anchor for Small Box Austin) and Jeb Banner (founder of MFT) are hoping to present New Communities and Influence in the Digital Era.

We could use your help. SXSW is allowing public input via its PanelPicker, so if you would take a moment to sign up, give us a big thumb’s up on the page, and maybe even leave a comment, that would be great. Thanks.

In May of 2010, Small Box was approached by IndyLift, Inc. for help improving search engine ranking and overall visibility for the IndyLift website.  The following is a summary of the IndyLift Case Study which outlines our process and the results achieved.

IndyLift, Inc. is a local Indianapolis forklift dealer, providing material handling equipment, parts, repairs and services.  As seasoned and established experts in the material handling industry, IndyLift focuses on offering personal, high quality service and care.

However, before coming to Small Box, the IndyLift website did not incorporate Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques and as a result suffered from poor search engine visibility and only ranked moderately for a small number of keywords.

After a consultation with IndyLift, we were able to identify two goals for the IndyLift website;

1. Increase organic search visibility
2. Increase local maps visibility.

After determining these goals, we then embarked on a 5-phase strategy to meet those goals;

1. Keyword research
2. SEO Audit
3. On-site optimization
4. Off-site optimization
5. Local listing optimization

A few weeks after completing the implementation of our SEO strategy, IndyLift began to see substantial improvement in both organic search rankings and local map inserts.  IndyLift now holds the top position in the Google map insert for ‘indianapolis forklifts’ and two of the top three organic positions.  Anyone searching for forklifts in Indianapolis will find IndyLift quite hard to miss.

To learn more about our process and results for IndyLift, Inc., download the full IndyLift Case Study.

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of 37 Signals. Love their products, their blog, their books. I get teased a little bit for my ardent appreciation but I don’t mind. Their business model of taking the byproducts from their client work and creating SaaS (Software as a Service) products is a beautiful business model. But I have started to think 37 Signals may have made a strategic error along the way- they stopped doing client work.

On the surface this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. They have been able to build a highly profitable business around solutions they first created to manage projects (Basecamp) or sales leads (Highrise) but in the past 3+ years they haven’t introduced any new products outside of a design gallery and a job board- not really products but nice services.

So when 37 Signals stopped doing client work and focused on products they also stopped getting ideas for products. The client was their Golden Goose and the eggs were the byproducts that came from that client interaction.

No clients=no new product ideas.

I’m sure the 37 Signals team has considered how removing themselves from the client/service world has essentially put a cap on new product ideas and chances are they are fine with that. The company is almost ridiculously profitable and they have done an excellent job continuing to refine their 4 core products: Basecamp, Highrise, Backpack and Campfire. Maybe they have some new products in development but it appears that they have moved from product ideation to maturation.

Small Box is looking to follow a similar path but with a twist. We are starting a new company that will be focused solely on products which come out of Small Box client interaction. Look for an announcement soon. Our hope is that having a separate company and team focused on products while Small Box stays focused on client work (services) will allow us to keep the Goose happy and producing those golden eggs for years to come!

Now in my fourth week in Austin, I wanted to give a little insight to what I consider to be a leading trend with the potential to impact the way we think of work. First, a quick summary of the trends I have been following in the nation.

It has been written that a mobile work force is more productive and keeps the cost of producing goods down. This is because if the labor pool is more mobile, then the cost of relocating employees is removed from production costs, allowing Americans to be more competitive locally and globally.

As a business owner, I have observed that building a successful business is a function of having the ability to produce great products for a marketplace who needs them, but as importantly to be able to recognize and take advantage of opportunities.

The result, is that I have found Coworking to be a vital component of the business landscape in 2010. Here are some personal observations from my first month.

Coworking is perfect for people who can’t work from home and don’t have an office.

It allows for a creative class of designers, marketers, and developers to have a common location to share experiences and ideas.

The refinement of these ideas makes for better products by making use of new ideas, especially in an industry that changes as quickly as web marketing.

Overhead is extremely low. One flat fee per month and I have access to high speed Internet, clean facilities, free coffee and water, and the kind of person to person networking that will build connections for me in a new town.

For me personally, it is a big benefit to commute one mile from home by bike, with access to good cheap mexican and vietnamese food.

It works on a business level too, where the space organizers are able to use the space for their own business, and multiply several members monthly memberships into a profit center to help fund their own entrepreneurial ideas.

To paraphrase Uncle Tupelo, not for tomorrow, only for now. But I predict the trend of coworking is going to be growing as more employees telecommute and businesses need more flexible options to put a mobile and creative individuals to work.

If your business has a physical location where customers can walk in and conduct transactions, you probably already know about the power of Google Local. But April 20th brought the switch from Google Local to Google Places. What does it mean for your business?

If you are doing everything correctly, probably everything will continue to work as normal. But what if you have never really completely implemented your local search optimization? How do you know if you require professional Local SEO Services?

Here is a checklist to make sure your local customers can find you:

step 1 – Search for your service. Most services will show local results complete with map and other important information. If you are not there you might need professional local search services.

step 2 – Search for your competitors. If they appear ahead of you, then you are losing business. Small Box SEO can definitely help with that.

step 3 – Assess your PPC. If you are spending money each month for clicks, and not converting those clicks to paying customers, then Small Box can improve your results, or help you replace that traffic with better converting organic results.

step 4 – Search for your company on a mobile device. Mobile technology is driving business. If mobile devices are sending people to the wrong location, then you have lost a customer. Small Box executes your local strategy completely, with zero problems for you.

step 5 – Understand your audience by viewing your statistics. Your audience is telling you important things about your site. Are you listening?

It makes a lot of sense for any business to try and manage as much as possible in house. But when it comes to connecting locally in your community, why leave loose ends? The businesses that have 100 % of their profile complete are going to win the battle for Local SEO.

Don’t take chances, Contact Small Box in Austin at 512-850-4819 or Indianapolis at 317-254-0932.

If you are looking for a Web Design Company in Austin, look no further than Small Box Web Design. We know that you have choices when it comes to building your web identity, why trust your web marketing to anyone else.

Does your web designer work under contract to a separate agency?

At Small Box we do all our work with full time employees. We have a great staff of professionals who have built sites in any industry imaginable.

Are you being sold a cookie cutter site?

Word Press, Joomla, and Drupal are all fine content management systems, but let’s be honest. There are good and bad programmers. There are template designs and custom designs. There are sites that fail to meet business needs, and then there are Small Box sites.

The Small Box CMS a collection of powerful SEO controls and intuitive site management tools that are exactly what you need.

Is working with your site difficult?

Then make a change. Call Small Box Austin at 512-850-4819. PJ Christie will be glad to provide you with the information you need.

The following is a press release for our new partnership with WDD Inc. Our two companies are not merging but looking to join forces to pursue larger, mutual opportunities.

Small Box, WDDinc Form Partnership to Offer

Fully Integrated, Complex Web Solutions

Indianapolis, IN (May 10, 2010) — Indianapolis-based Small Box Web Design and WDD, Inc. announce their partnership to pursue larger engagements, offering clients more advanced Web based solutions.

Both Small Box and WDDinc are highly successful Web businesses specializing in their respective areas of expertise; Small Box in Web site design, Internet marketing and the user experience, and WDDinc in complex programming, Web development and systems integration. The businesses will now partner and offer their top core competencies to larger clients as one team.

Jeb Banner, Small Box CEO explains, “Because our businesses are highly focused on separate aspects of the Web, our services perfectly compliment one another. By joining forces on larger projects, we’ll be able to offer better-integrated solutions for clients. It’s a win-win situation for everyone involved.”

The partnership between Small Box and WDDinc will allow the companies to provide full-service, more elaborate Web capabilities.

“We’re very excited about our partnership with Small Box. By adding the best of breed interactive media offerings from Small Box to our best of breed back-end software development and testing capabilities, we become a much more robust company with an offering unsurpassed in the Midwest,” states Alan Wlasuk, a Principal at WDDinc.

About WWD, Inc.

Founded in 1993, WDDinc., is an Indianapolis-based custom software development, testing and engineering company providing software expertise to a large variety of clients. WDDinc focuses on high-quality software for clients with unique needs ranging from data center infrastructures to multi-national call centers. WDDinc client base spans the United States and their software is used throughout the globe. www.WDDinc.com

About Small Box Web

Small Box is an Indianapolis, Indiana based Web design and Web development company that provides professionally designed Web sites as well as Internet marketing, social media marketing, search engine optimization (SEO) and new media consulting services for organizations and agencies throughout Indiana and the Midwest. www.SmallBoxWeb.com

Small Box is pleased to announce that our new office in Austin Texas is now open for business. Since 2006 Small Box has been providing custom web solutions for businesses and non profit organizations in Indianapolis.

Now Small Box is taking the same great design and technology to a new level. Austin Texas is different from anywhere else. There is a big focus on Social Networking. There are many entrepreneurs and business startups looking for venture capital.

Our goal is to be a one stop shop for anyone looking to have a great looking site on the first page of the search engines. Call PJ Christie at 512-850-4819.

Follow our special Twitter feed @smallboxaustin for local insights including SXSW.