Technology can increase productivity and foster creativity. Explore some ideas that can help you take maximum advantage of the Internet and IT to improve your business.
Small businesses who have attempted to create an internal Intranet know how daunting it is to set up and maintain. Google announced a new service today that makes it pretty easy. The service is called Google Apps Team Edition.
Company documents, spreadsheets, presentations and company calendar all are wrapped up in a tidy package for you. I tried it out. It took only about 5 minutes to create an account. By default the start page includes email and calendar with the ability to add/edit/share documents. Access can be limited to your company account holders or any/all can be made public.
Putting company information in a central location where it can be accessed by employees from wherever they are (work, home, travel) has the potential of enhancing the efficiency of a small business.
Take a look at my test site that I set up this morning.
You can create your own account at sites.google.com. Do you think this can be useful in your business?
My mentor Seth Godin has been crying in the business meeting wilderness for 4 years about this. Part of what he advises:
Here are the five rules you need to remember to create amazing PowerPoint presentations:
No more than six words on a slide. EVER. There is no presentation so complex that this rule needs to be broken.
No cheesy images. Use professional stock photo images.
No dissolves, spins or other transitions.
Sound effects can be used a few times per presentation, but never use the sound effects that are built in to the program. Instead, rip sounds and music from CDs and leverage the Proustian effect this can have. If people start bouncing up and down to the Grateful Dead, you’ve kept them from falling asleep, and you’ve reminded them that this isn’t a typical meeting you’re running.
Don’t hand out print-outs of your slides. They don’t work without you there.
If you hope to have effective presentations as part of a successful business, read Godin’s entire post.
Not another PowerPoint presentation! Why do kind and intelligent business people create these?
Chances are, if you have been to any PowerPoint slide presentation lately, you have been to a boring slide presentation. The majority of business presentations seem to be a torture of eye charts droning on about themselves trying to sell you something instead of addressing your issues.
What might a good presentation look like? Guy Kawasaki makes sense with his 10/20/30 Rule. 10 slides, 20 minutes, 30pt minimum font size.
There is some good news. Compelling presentations exist. We know when a presentation is done well.
SlideShare.net has just announced the contest results for the Best Presentations of 2006. The winner "Shift Happens" is based on a viral video about our changing civilized world. You can click through it here.
Even without the presenter moving the story along, it is compelling.
I have taken those slides and added the sound from the original video plus some animation for a no-need-for-you-to-click version. View the result.
Shift Happens [6:04m]: 