Recently I wrote in my own blog outlining some principles and approaches for website and applications security. In this blog, I will focus on data validation which forms an important part of securing your website or application. Data validation is all about ensuring that any form of data input or output, whether provided by a user or other system, does not compromise your website or application.

Lets start with the inputs - blacklist or whitelist ?

Businesses provide a range of online options for customers to communicate to them, ranging from online feedback/comment forms to online shopping. Each of these options require different data to be entered, from names and email addresses to credit/debit card details. If a user's input is not properly validated, there can be a risk of an attacker using a code injection technique such as sql injection to compromise a website.

To ensure that appropriate data is entered, there are two approaches to validation;

1. Whitelisting
   This approach validates any data input against data that is considered acceptable. For example, a whitelist entry for a valid credit card number would include the rule that the input should consist of sixteen numeric characters, drawn from a list of 0 to 9. By adopting this approach, the focus is on identifying known correct inputs. So if a user enters anything other than numbers, their input will not be accepted and a message should be displayed informing them as to why their entry was not accepted.
2. Blacklisting
   This approach differs from whitelisting in that the focus is on identifying inappropriate inputs - malicious or otherwise. When inappropriate content is recognised, it is replaced or removed. The challenge with using the blacklisting approach is that only current known threats can be prevented. There is a possibility that newer threats may be missed. For this reason, the whitelisting approach is generally the preferred approach.

Similar principles for outputs

Before any output is displayed to a user, it should be validated so that the text is in an appropriate format and length. Common examples of output validation include;

• Display a credit card number to a user with asterisks, with only the last four digits being displayed.
• Validate a url link to another site in order to prevent a possible cross-scripting attack.All urls should be correctly formatted.

Strength in numbers

Validating inputs and outputs should be used as one of a range of security measures to ensure a secure user experience of your website or application. I plan to write about other measures such as error handling and proper authentication in future blogs.

In the meantime, I would recommend the following information sources on applications security;

• Open Web Applications Security Project (OWASP)
• Security Ninja - Secure development principles
• Irish Reporting and Information Security Service - useful links section
• Government's MakeITsecure website

But first, you have to be a director of a limited company. If you are a sole trader and have no intention of becoming limited, I am sorry, no tax free dosh for you here.

A perk of having a limited company is being able to claim standard rates for expenses, which means you get to write a regular cheque to yourself out of the company tax free. Hah? no tax? are you kidding? Yes I am, sort of. It just feels like it's tax free. Let me explain.

There are two ways to take care of travel, meals and accommodation expenses. The first way is to just keep all the petrol, restaurant and hotel receipts for every business trip, log them into your accounts and pay yourself back through the company, or even just use the company credit card to pay for everything. This can be very tedious after a time and if you are a sole trader I am afraid you have no other choice but to do it that way.

Trip Record

If you are a director or employee of a limited company however, there is a different, simpler, and usually more tax efficient way to deal with expenses.

Instead of keeping all those fiddly little receipts, you keep a record of your business trips. The record has to clearly show:

• the name and address of the director or employee;
• the date of the journey;
• the reason for the journey;
• the kilometres involved;
• the starting point, destination and finishing point of the journey; and
• the basis for the reimbursement of travel and subsistence expenses [e.g. an overnight stay away from an individual’s normal place or work].

Why it feels like tax free money, is because you may not actually spend €108 on accommodation, not with D4 hotels doign €20 deals, but for simplicity’s sake, you can use a revenue approved flat rate. You might have to go late one day and find yourself paying over €200, it evens out in the end. And €13.71 for lunch? Brown bag it from time to time, still claim your €13.71 and you are up.

Now here’s the catch: for the mileage: YOU MUST PAY FOR EVERYTHING TO DO WITH THE CAR YOURSELF. You must pay for your own petrol, NOT with the company card, you must pay for your own car tax, mechanics bills, crash repair, loan repayments, insurance, EVERYTHING, do you hear me? Unless you do this, you will be in trouble for fraud.

For meals and accommodation: Same deal here! You cannot pay for a hotel with your company card, and then write a nice fat cheque for expenses. Some of you are saying, “Why is she telling us that, isn’t that obvious?” Just wait until you are scrambling to reduce your taxes, the blindness will creep in around then, so go back to this blog and read it again. It’s definitely one of the few good deals around, just don’t abuse it!

No double dipping! We tend to use planes trains and automobiles to go to the capitol, you may too. It’s important that you log on the calendar how you made the journey. For example, since we use the company card to pay for planes and trains, and if we have done that for a journey, we are not entitled to also claim the mileage.

"I'm a startup, my company can't afford this yet, so what's the point?"
There is very much a point. Do up the expenses sheets, and pay them out of your “Owner’s Funds” or “Director’s Loan” account in your accounts package. This will build up an amount of money owed to you that the company can pay you tax free when it hits profitability and/or can afford the cashflow. You will be a happy camper on that day.

Good habits - do your expenses sheet up every month. Sit in front of your Google calendar and AA route planner to figure out where you went and how many kilometres it was. Some directors like to save up their expenses for their holidays. That’s ok too, but log them in your accounts monthly anyway, building up the big cheque to come to you at some stage. It gives you a truer picture of your monthly profit and loss.

The spreadsheet you can use is all set up for you here

Note: the Revenue may change the rates from time to time, so keep your spreadsheet up to date by checking here:

http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/leaflets/it54.html#appendix1 - for subsistence

http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/leaflets/it51.html - for mileage rates

It's fun to see the tax free money piling up at the bottom of the spreadsheet, to take now or later!

Head in the sand – Many jobseekers suffer from Ostrich Syndrome and bury their heads in the sand avoiding the honest reality that things are not working. Some of these jobseekers are stubborn and stick with traditional methods. It is important to be honest and accept the truth. A simple review of activity highlights results and results never lie. Are you getting the results you desire? If not then it is time for change. This change will involve moving out of your comfort zone, injecting creativity to your approach and inevitably taking risks. For those jobseekers intent on sticking to unsuccessful approaches I recommend Dublin Zoo. For those who lack the know-how to change or are stumped by fear then please read on.

Is there a risk? – I prefer to see risk as creativity as this disguise makes it seem less daunting. Jobseekers must realise that if they are not landing interviews or job offers then there is actually no risk as there is nothing to lose. Injecting creativity into job hunting can help jobseekers get noticed and stand out in the crowd. Pushing the limits to increase visibility exposes jobseekers to more opportunities. Depending on circumstances this creativity or risk can be subtle changes or major overhaul. For those jobseekers lacking inspiration seek out SME owners, work colleagues, friends or career professionals – I get my inspiration from like minded business owners!!

Ready, Fire, Aim – Fear is another hurdle and a paragraph certainly doesn’t do the topic justice. I stole “Ready, Fire, Aim” from Jack Canfield’s book “Success Principles”. He indicated that too many people spend their time getting ready and aiming but never actually pull the trigger. Perhaps we should get ready and just fire. Then review and adjust our aim to get closer to the target. Some of your efforts will crash and burn but you know what I crash and burn daily. Rather than stop me it actually helps me because what others call failure I call learning opportunities. I believe there are too many fantastic and highly skilled jobseekers holding themselves back when a bit of creativity and risk taking could transform results. As Andre Malraux says “Often the difference between a successful person and a failure is not one has better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on one's ideas, to take a calculated risk - and to act.”

I will leave you with two questions. Firstly “Do fools back horses when job hunting or in Biz?” and secondly “Are you placing enough interesting, freakish, long shot, weirdo bets?” (Tom Peters) Interested in you comments and views …..

P.S. For jobseekers interested I am providing a FREE presentation at 6.30pm on 25th March sponsored by the Dublin City Central Library. The topic - “Job Hunting – Creative ways to increase visibility & land more opportunities”. For more information and to book a place email businesslibrary@dublincity.ie. You can also access me at Measurability Careers & Jobs Club.

Like many companies out there, ranging from SME’s to large long-established and venerable household names, are you and your company caught in the Cash Challenge? By cash challenge I mean are you experiencing problems with cash-flow or lack therof?

Nowadays there is a large tendency out there to focus on Profit margins and driving sales, which of course are some of the most important aspects of business practice; but there also seems to be a frightening inclination towards forgetting about company cash-flow which is a major contributing factor in the closure of hundreds if not thousands of companies every single year. This terrifying trend is particularly pertinent in today’s turbulent times.

Cash is King as nearly everyone has become so incredibly fond of telling us all these days. More correctly, Cash-Flow is the Lifeblood of EVERY single business; numerous forms of research by banks and accountancy practices have all confirmed that poor Cash-flowkills more businesses than any other single factor.

What I am about to explain might sound amazingly simple and totally unworthy of clarification, yet it is truly mind-blowing to discover just how many businesses are totally focused on producing the product/service, selling it and delivering it but who never spare much thought for the collection of the money then owed to themselved and their business. It’s important not to be under the allusion that I am only talking about small or start-up businesses because very large and long-established businesses also fall into this category from time to time when they neglect to keep a tight eye on their Debtors – many are being forced into Receivorship, Examinorship or Liquidation.

Unfortunately not every business-person fully understands the importance of cash-flow so let me try and explain what I mean by Cash-flow being the Lifeblood of every business.
You conceive an incredibly innovative or creative business idea, you open your business, you supply this phenomenal product with its endless advantages, you identify your market and proceed to sell to your customers to their satisfaction as well as your own BUT selling and receiving money or cash for goods sold are entirely different.

Your business can only possibly survive if physically collect cash for your sales as well as actually making them – €400,000 in Sales looks nice but not if only €50,000 of it has been paid for. Your Balance Sheet will look fine with a massive (and even growing) figure for Debtors, your operating capital will be used up and you will quickly run out of cash with which to pay your monthly or weekly bills such as Salaries or Wages and your own Suppliers. This means that you become the debtor or the bad guy towards your suppliers (and possibly even your staff) due to your debtors not paying you.

The traditional Irish attitude of trusting that certain businesses are completely gilt-edged and will eventually pay their debts without fail is no longer to be relied upon in today’s society. Every single business operating in Ireland today should be using every available resource to ensure that their Debtors are Minimised and their Cash balances Maximised.

How would you like to win a few cool prizes for business professionals online?

Bloggertone is teaming up with BizSugar to bring you the Sugartone Sweet Business Blogging Contest. This contest helps give your articles extra online visibility and rewards your social networking. The Sugartone Sweet Business Blogging Contest is an opportunity for you to win prizes to help you promote your business.

• It’s free to enter
• Anyone can join the competition including current Bloggertoners and BizSugar members!
• You’ll have lots of chances to win
• Prizes total $6921

Yes, that’s right: $6921 In Prizes

How You Can Win These Prizes

There’s more good news: there are 2 ways to win prizes.

#1 Do you write business articles?

All you have to do is submit a business article to Bloggertone Between Monday March 15^th and Wednesday March 17^th – but there are a few guidelines you need to follow, so carefully read the Sugartone Guidelines below.

All votes and comments for the articles will take place on BizSugar, the social bookmarking site for businesses.

#2 Do you like to read business articles?

You too can also win prizes simply by voting and commenting on the Sugartone articles posted on BizSugar.

Top 10 Titles & Top 10 Commenters

There are prizes for two different categories of winners:

• Top 10 Titles – for the articles with the best titles
• Top 10 Commenters – for the people who vote the most and provide the most insightful comments

Have a look at the great prizes we’ve got lined up for busy professionals just like you.

$6921 In Prizes

There are prizes for both the Top 10 Titles and the Top 10 Commenters

1^st Prize Winner - TOP 10 TITLES

Lead Page Machine

Lead Page Machine software runs on Windows XP, Vista and version 7.

(valued at 3500€ - this is about $5200).

Lead Page Machine is designed for the everyday non-technical small business to be able to create, launch and manage their own lead pages (aka ‘name-squeeze pages’) to help you build a massive list of email subscribers.

Within 15 minutes or less you can create and launch multiple separate lead pages for each category of customer or client you want to attract.
Advanced 'Clone' facility lets you create duplicates of your most successful lead pages and launch an unlimited number of variations for different traffic sources (e.g. different lead pages for Google Adwords, print advertisements, article marketing, forums, etc.)

Lead Page Machine is the brainchild of Ed Rivis, author of The Ultimate Web Marketing Strategy and E-Mail Marketing Dynamite.

Click Millionaires

6 month membership (valued at $174)

This friendly social network is dedicated to helping solopreneurs and small business owners upgrade their online marketing efforts to make more money online.

• “Ask Scott Fox”: Private online access to best-selling author Scott Fox
• Click Millionaire Resource Bank with money-making strategy documents, skill-building articles, research reports, and publications.
• 24/7 Success Coaching Forum personally moderated by Scott Fox
• The e-Riches 2.0 MP3 Interview Library:
• Click Millionaire resources to help online entrepreneurs worldwide to attract more customers.

Click Millionaires is Scott Fox’s private online marketing success coaching community.

5 Critical Tactics for Business Blog Success

1-Hour CD plus 33 page Report Reveals Exact Tactics You Can Easily Implement to Make Your Blog a Winner! (valued at $97)
When you study this program you will discover:

• Why you need a blog for your business
• 4 keys to creating compelling content
• How to manage your blogging time
• 3 sites to syndicate your blog content to drive more traffic
• An essential tactic for attracting business with your blog

Denise Wakeman is an Online Marketing Advisor and Founder of The Blog Squad. She helps service professionals and small business owners leverage blogs for their business, as well as strategically use social media tools to boost online visibility to get more traffic, leads, customers and opportunities.

1^st Prize Winner - TOP 10 COMMENTERS

Animoto

1 Year Subscription (valued at $249)

Animoto.com is a web application that creates MTV-style videos with the click of a button.

Users simply choose a song and images. Animoto then automatically generates a unique video for them. No two videos are ever the same.

Many of the post-production techniques that the founders used while working as producers for MTV, Comedy Central & ABC are used in Animoto's patent-pending Cinematic Artificial Intelligence developed to think like an actual editor and director. The resulting video is produced in a widescreen format, containing the visual energy of a music video and the emotional impact of a movie trailer.

Animoto Productions is based in New York City with an office in San Francisco.

Traction Call With Gary Barnes

45 minute call with Traction Coach Gary Barnes (valued at $175)

Gary helps you to quickly get some “sand under your wheels” so you can move forward toward the life you want to live.

• Stop running your business with “one foot on the gas and the other foot on the brake”
• Live a life of vision and purpose, instead of exhausting yourself on the same old treadmill
• Create more financial success and abundance (without working yourself into the ground)
• Learn to market your business with integrity and authenticity
• Have a lot more fun in your business and your life!

Gary Barnes is called The Traction Coach and his mission in life to help people find more creativity, passion, fulfillment, and, yes, wealth in their businesses.

Click Millionaires

6 month membership (valued at $174)

This friendly social network is dedicated to helping solopreneurs and small business owners upgrade their online marketing efforts to make more money online.

• “Ask Scott Fox”: Private online access to best-selling author Scott Fox
• Click Millionaire Resource Bank with money-making strategy documents, skill-building articles, research reports, and publications.
• 24/7 Success Coaching Forum personally moderated by Scott Fox
• The e-Riches 2.0 MP3 Interview Library:
• Click Millionaire resources to help online entrepreneurs worldwide to attract more customers.

Click Millionaires is Scott Fox’s private online marketing success coaching community.

2^nd – 5^th Place Prizes for both TOP 10 TITLES & TOP 10 COMMENTERS

Start-Run-Grow

All you need to start, run, and grow your business included in one software package (valued at $49.95)

Over 45 essential business tools and services for 3 different phases of your business.

Start Your Business: From designing your logo to getting set up online, all the information you need to get up and running is just one click away.

Run Your Business: Improve your productivity and run your business more efficiently. Proven resources and tools help you stay on track and on budget.

Grow Your Business: Good marketing is essential to the health of your business. Bring in more customers, and more profits, to continually grow your business.

Start-Run-Grow runs on the Adobe Air platform so it’s both PC and Mac compatible and can be seamlessly updated as more tools are added.

These prices were kindly donated by Formspring.com

All Winners - TOP 10 TITLES & TOP 10 COMMENTERS

Books

All Top 10 Titles and Top 10 Commenters also get a mini library of 3 books/ebooks which will be chosen at random from this selection

Wordtracker Masterclass: Blogging For Business - 50 Steps to Building Traffic and Sales by Chris Garrett (5 books valued at $39)
Sociable by Shane Gibson & Stephan Jagger  (5 books valued at $25)
New Community Rules by Tamar Weinberg (5 books valued at $16.49)
Guest Posting by Chris Garrett (5 ebooks valued at $10)

Badges

There’ll also be some nifty badges for all of the winners to display on their blogs or websites.

Here’s How It Works

Everything starts on Monday March 15^th at 4pm GMT / 9am EST.  This is when you can:

• Submit your articles on Bloggertone
• Vote for them on BizSugar.

Article Submission Deadlines: Monday March 15^th at 4pm GMT / 9am EST through Wednesday March 17^th 4pm GMT / 9am EST

And to give some extra time to vote on all of the articles, the voting will continue on for 2 more days after the article submission deadline.

Article Voting Deadlines: Monday March 15^th at 4pm GMT / 9am EST through Friday March 19^th at 4pm GMT / 9am EST

Sugartone Guidelines

Here are the steps to follow:

#1: You submit your article to Bloggertone, the business bloggers community.

• Your submission must follow Bloggertone’s standard guidelines outlined here.
• If you are already a Blogger at Bloggertone, simply submit your article as usual remembering to categorize it as "Sugartone". If you are new to Bloggertone simply attach your article and we'll post it for you. You'll also get a login and password after the event to make regular contributions.
• Articles must be original content. Articles that have been previously published elsewhere are not eligible to be submitted for this Sugartone contest.
• By submitting your article you grant Bloggertone exclusive rights to your article for 2 weeks after the publication date on Bloggertone.  What this means is that you have to wait a full 2 weeks after publishing your article on Bloggertone before you can publish it anywhere else.
• Be sure to craft a great headline for your article this is what we’ll be voting on to win the contest
• Submissions open Monday March 15^th at 4pm GMT / 9am EST
• Submissions close Wednesday March 17^th 4pm GMT / 9am EST

#2: Bloggertone submits all of the articles you enter to BizSugar, the social bookmarking site for business articles.

• You don’t do this step. Just sit back and wait until your article is up on BizSugar.
• This may take a few hours, especially when it’s night time in the UK. But we’ll get it done for you as quickly as possible.

#3: You and your friends vote & comment on the Sugartone articles on BizSugar

• Vote for your favorite article titles.
• Comment on the Sugartone articles. Winners will also be selected on the value of the comments they leave.
• You can vote and comment on more than one article.
• Voting begins Monday March 15^th at 4pm GMT / 9am EST
• Voting ends Friday March 19^th at 4pm GMT / 9am EST

#4: Prizes announced Friday March 19^th at 7pm GMT / 1pm EST

• The winners of the Top 10 Titles will be decided on by the Sugartone team and will take into account the total number of votes and comments.
• The winners of the Top 10 Commenters will be decided on by the Sugartone team and will take into account the total number of votes and comments as well as an appreciation of the value the commenters bring to the community.
• Video webcast to be announced later.

Participate In The Sugartone Sweet Business Blogging Contest

Don’t miss your chance to win these great prizes.  Anyone can enter the Sugartone Sweet Business Blogging Contest.  All current Bloggertoners and BizSugar members are invited to join in too!

Start writing your business articles now and be sure to craft an attention grabbing title. Then come back starting Monday March 15^th.

SUBMIT YOUR ARTICLES

Click here between Monday March 15^th at 4pm GMT / 9am EST and Wednesday March 17^th 4pm GMT / 9am EST to submit your articles on Bloggertone.

VOTE ON THE ARTICLES

Click here between Monday March 15^th at 4pm GMT / 9am EST and Friday March 19^th 4pm GMT / 9am EST to go to BizSugar to vote on your articles.

You should never be complacent in your marketing approach. Afterall, with the way technology has advanced today, a small slip up in your marketing can become global news in mere seconds. Social media is the new medium which delivers news across the internet – so having the correct marketing plan is key to delivering the correct and accurate message for your business.

At the heart of any businesses growth strategy should be their marketing plan. If you have a business but no marketing strategy you’ll soon find yourself in trouble. With no idea who your customers are how can you promote and improve your products to a wider market?

For my own company, Diva Cosmetics, we achieved a £1 million turnover in one year, and I believe that this phenomenal success has a lot to do with how I marketed my business. Knowing who my customers were meant I could really market to them in a way that made my product essential for them.

Here is my 4 step process to creating an effective marketing plan:

1. Define Your Goal

Do you know the overall outcome that you want to achieve? Making money is a given, but how about raising your company’s profile, increasing your mailing list, data capturing? Marketing can lead to all these things and more, so make sure you know your goal and then you can set about working towards achieving it.

2. Define Your Strategy

Identify your target audience before taking another step. You cannot devise any marketing strategy before knowing exactly who your customers are. Create personas of your typical customers – from who they are, to how you can connect with them. Discovering everything about your target audience will produce results that are exciting and promote customer loyalty.

3. Define Your Tactics

Now you know who your typical customers are you can devise the most effective way to market to them. How familiar are you with the various marketing tactics? Online advertising, networking, search-engine-optimisation, direct mail, offline advertising and PR campaigns are but a few ways which you can reach out to your potential customers, but which one will yield the best results for your target market? If this part really is the highest hurdle for you, don’t struggle alone, take guidance from a marketing agency or consultant.

4. Define Your Budget

Ensure that in your business plan you have allocated for annual marketing. Keep a close eye on this as it is easy to get carried away. It is a very good idea to closely monitor each campaign so you can identify the most cost effective form of marketing and put more energy and time into it.

Consider and identify what you are able to do with little or no expenditure. Social media was mentioned earlier, harnessing this medium can reap dividends, and is mostly free to participate in. Also consider joint ventures – other companies are in the same situation as you – creating trusting, working relationships with these companies may also be extremely beneficial.

Marketing really doesn’t have to be expensive – but it does require a lot of planning to be effective. Don’t let this idea of planning put you off, as once you see a campaign being extremely successful, raising your company’s profile as well as bringing in more business, you will be extremely glad you became methodical and organised in your approach to marketing.

This is my first post for Bloggertone, and I thought that I’d start by introducing myself and giving you a taster of what I hope to be blogging about on this site.

I’m 33, coming 34, and I like in Kilkenny City.  I’m originally from Derry in Northern Ireland, and I’ve made my way to Kilkenny via Manchester, England (where I went to University), and Dublin.  I moved to Kilkenny just over 3 years ago, as my wife and I wanted to get out of the commuter hell that was Dublin.  Why Kilkenny?  Well primarily because my wife was born and raised here, and we already had a network of friends and family in the area.

My wife got a job down here, and I successfully negotiated with my employer to work from home, initially starting with a few days per week, and eventually building it up to a point where I’m now only up in Dublin a few days per month.

I work for Oracle Corporation, a multinational computer technology corporation that specializes in developing and marketing enterprise software products — particularly database management systems.  It employs just over 100,000 people worldwide, and has the third-largest software revenue, after Microsoft and IBM.  I worked in Oracle for just over 8 years, joining in February 2002, after 2 short stints at Irish dotcom startups, Norkom Technologies, and Nebula Technologies.  In 1998 I graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University with a degree in Business Information Technology.

My interest in Social Media (or Web 2.0 as we used to refer to it) started in late 2006, coincidently around the time that I started working from home.  As I left the regular 9-5 office environment, I started looking for ways to socially reach out to other people in the organisation.  It was then that I started learning about the power of Blogs, Social Networks (Facebook, LinkedIn and later Twitter), Wikis, Podcasts, and Video sharing sites such as YouTube.  Through these various tools I started hooking up with like minded people, both inside and outside Oracle, who shared my work and personal interests.

At this time I was working in the Oracle EMEA (European & Middle East) Knowledge Management Team, with responsibilities for what we called KM Infrastructure, which was essentially making sure that our EMEA teams were able to fully exploit our Knowledge Sharing tools, specifically the Corporate Intranet and Forums.

It wasn’t too long before I started seeing the impact that Social Tools could have on the teams that I was supporting.  As I dug deeper, I started seeing small pockets within the organisation that were already abiding by Social Media principles.  I was even surprised to learn of some internal tools that would allow employees to socially connect more easily.  The problem was that many of these teams were not doing a good job of sharing what they were doing, or had already achieved.

I approached my boss, and eventually convinced him to let me dedicate a certain percentage of my time to Social Media.  Over the coming months I started familiarising myself with what was happening inside the organisation, and slowly building a picture of what the Social Media scene was like internally.

During this period I started working closely with a senior colleague who had also bought into the idea of Social Media.  In mid/late 2008 my colleague established the EMEA SNBC (Social Networking & Collaboration) Team.  I joined this team, and immediately we started working on a more formalised approach to embedding the principles of Social Media in the Oracle EMEA organisation.

The last 18 months have been a rollercoaster journey, and a big learning curve for the team, as we have faced up to the various issues and challenges of bringing about a change of mindset.

What I’d like to bring to the readers of Bloggertone is an opportunity to read about our Social Media experience in Oracle.  This is an ongoing and very dynamic story, and hopefully one that will continue for some time yet.

I’d also like to learn from the readers, and maybe get your stories and experiences with using Social Media in your organisations.  Hopefully we can learn a lot from each other.

Let me know your thoughts in the Comments.  Also let me know if there is anything in particular that you would like me to talk about in future posts.

The views expressed on this post are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oracle.

7 Ways to Improve Your Business Acumen for Sales

Like this article? Sweet here.

S. Anthony Iannarino raises the important need for business knowledge in sales today.  Having a sound knowledge of business has always been important in international sales. The risk of losing control in the sales process is too great when you don’t understand how business works in other cultures. And in practice this is something international sales professionals continue to learn in the field.

Anthony gets us a few ways to improve our business acumen.  I particularly like letting clients teach you about their business.  Although you need to establish the right environment first to do this, it is an effective way to improve your sales skills.

How do you think your general business knowledge impacts your company’s sales?

3 Ways to Improve Your Ability to Diagnose for Salespeople

Like this article? Sweet here.

Here’s another great read by S. Anthony Iannarino. This time Anthony writes about diagnosis during the sales process.  It’s useful to think about your own process of diagnosis because in international sales you spend a fair amount of time and effort making sure you get it right.

I can easily equate a couple of the points he makes with international sales: building a diagnostic tool and suspending judgment.  But in a cross-cultural environment the ability to understand how your actions impact the different aspects of your client’s company is crucial… and it’s not always easy to do. This is why thinking about the tactics you use is a great exercise.

How well do you understand how to sell to your international clients?

What Consumers Expect When Visiting Your Website

Like this article? Sweet here.

David Siteman Garland gives us some insights into the changing expectations for North American websites. Given how these trends in online marketing impact many other countries I find the title interesting.

Different cultures have different expectations. Although it’s easy to assume the North American trends will also work well across an international audience, this may not be the case.  Identifying the cultural differences in expectations for your product or services is crucial for international web marketing.

What do your international clients expect on your website? What does not work as well as you would expect?

Online Business And Revenue Models

Like this article? Sweet here.

Caelen King says the web is democratizing business and the lack of high cost investment means that many online businesses are also forgetting to do their homework.  This is a common problem I encounter with regards to international business. People seem to forget basic business research before setting out on the assumption that a website opens a door to a global market.

Caelen gives a breakdown of the different online business models and possible revenue generation models.  It’s a good reminder to carefully think about your business model and how this will impact your online success.

What type of business model interests you for your international business?

Stop Being the Idea Guy and Just Do It!

Like this article? Sweet here.

I love ideas and hearing different perspectives on a variety of topics.  In this article Bill Rice raises the question of getting beyond ideas and taking action. This reminded me of a few incidences recently where someone wanted to get more business, but was not willing to roll up his sleeves and start taking action.

Early in my international marketing career I was confronted with a very ungrateful task of crunching numbers. It was a week long chore which no one wanted to do even if it was essential to the company’s marketing.  I bit the bullet and never regretted it.  Jumping in and doing the work that needs to be done to move your business forward can give you insights you just can’t get elsewhere.

Do you make the right choices in how you spend your time?

Creating Resonation Points in Your Customer: Six Sales Tips to Sell More

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Here is another great article by Skip Anderson on improving your sales skills. This time it’s about creating resonance with your clients. This is one of the first things international sales professionals are confronted with.  You almost always need to adapt your communication with international clients.

Skip shares how to find the resonating points when selling and his last point is the most critical one for international sales: understand your customer. This takes the most amount of work in cross-cultural sales.

How well do you know the resonation points in your international customers?

Why Size Matters & Smaller Is Better

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Lisa Barone’s article got my thoughts going in a few different directions with regards to international business. First of all, just like Lisa points out here, a small targeted audience can be worth much more than a bigger, less targeted audience.

Next, the idea of size brings up the importance of adjusting your actions to the context involved. In some countries you need to communicate more with the group as a whole and in others it’s more important to find the right person to talk to.  Awareness of size and it’s relevance to your business is important.

Are you happy with the size of your international audience?

What articles have you read recently? Have any of them inspired you with regards to international business?  Please share them in the comments below.

Yesterday evening I called around and checked on them and when I walked away I smiled as I thought of the warm welcome I received and how much they seemed to appreciate my efforts. This got me thinking..............there are lots of similarities between keeping an eye out for the elderly and looking after the unemployed.  But do we take on the responsibility of checking on our unemployed friends as much as we should? Probably not....

We all have friends that are currently unemployed.  Very often when a friend goes through the trauma of unemployment they tend to distance themselves from us. The longer they are unemployed the less “visible” they become, they rarely go out of the house and socialise. They may not have the money to go out, but very often the main reason is they don’t feel like going out. The thought of hearing their friends frivolous work woes make their blood boil....our problems seem minuscule in their eyes.  Yes, very often our friends are depressed.

Here are 6 things we can look at to support our job seeking friends:

1. No pity please – There is nothing more counter productive than to have someone reminding you of how unfortunate or tough your situation is.  Throw another log onto the fire of misery why don’t you? A client of mine recently said that he was on the verge of exploding with rage at his mother who constantly asked him how he was feeling.
2. Call in regularly – Imagine how you would feel if you were not working, the chances are you would not feel like socialising too much.So if a job seeking friend has been absent from the local pub or club recently, maybe it is time you pay them a visit. Your friend may not be a barrel of laughs at present, but interact the same way you always have and visit often,
3. Call and email – Pick up that phone and give your friend a call and send on that funny email that is doing the rounds at work to give them a laugh.
4. Listen – You don’t have to solve their problems, just be there for them and listen to what they want to say. A quote I have always loved is “The greatest motivational act you can do for someone is to listen.” Many job seekers are on their own all day with no one to talk to and more importantly no one to listen to them.
5. Talk about everything and nothing – Talk about how poor Ireland‘s football team were against Brazil in the second half and Britney Spears’s new haircut and have a laugh.  Oh how wonderful to escape from reality from time to time and relax.
6. Offer support where possible – Keep an eye out for opportunities for your friend. Email a job you see advertised. Set up a meeting with a contact that may be able to help. Send them an article that you read that might aide the job search etc.

So who do you know that is currently unemployed? And what are you going to do to help them?

When something is very familiar, it can be a challenge to look at it a-fresh.  But it is only by so doing that new opportunity and ways of doing things can be explored.  So, to apply some creative thinking to B2B sales, consider sales as the engine of your business.

The analogy of sales as the engine of the business is working well for organisations selling B2B, because not only does it connotate the role of selling, but also the engine-like characteristics of the effective sales organisation (effective, consistent, repeatable, process driven, structured and automated).

The analogy also enables managers to look at their sales organisation in a more objective manner, free from the issues of personalities and politics that can often cloud the issue of sales performance.

Thinking laterally about selling and the concept of the sales engine allows you ask thought provoking questions such as; ‘is the sales engine firing on all cylinders’, ‘what mile per gallon (MPG)  is my sales or marketing delivering’, ‘is the sales organisation in need of a tuning, does it align to how your buyers buy?

Thinking sales engine may just be the lateral thinking you need to identify opportunities to make improvements across your sales team.

Food for thought.