by Joey Novak | Jul 20, 2018 | Biz Tips
The Panama Canal was a monumental achievement. It cut significant time off of a voyage from the Atlantic to Pacific. I doubt any ship that could go through the canal instead sails around south America to cross from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It’s way more efficient to go through the canal now that it is built. The value of a canal across Central America was recognized as early as 1513 yet it took another 500 years before construction on the present day Canal was began. Each of us also have things on our todo lists in our lives or business that are expensive but if done would allow us to do more with the limited resources we have. Some of these things we have recognized the value of for a long time but we haven’t done them, whether out of fear or perceived lack of resources. Is there a partnership you need to make? Do you need to spend a few weeks re-working a process? Do you need a vacation? A new skill? Whatever it is, take this time to think of the Panama Canals you haven’t built yet for yourself or your business and see if the time is now right. Happy Sailing!...
by Joey Novak | Jul 18, 2018 | Tips
Did you know that Google has a Google Analytics Solutions Gallery where you can find community generated custom dashboards and reports? There are some real jewels in there. I tried out the most popular, Occam’s Razor Awesomeness as well as a beginner one suggested by the Google Analytics team. Honestly not sure why these reports don’t come pre-loaded, but to each PM his own.. If you find a sweet one you think we should look at, let us know in the comments. ...
by Joey Novak | Jul 16, 2018 | Tips
There is a common visualization where rocks are put in a jar that is already mostly full of sand, not all the rocks fit, but if you put the rocks in first then add the sand it all fits. Usually this is applied to life, and putting the important things first. But you can also apply it to business. What are the things you HAVE to get done in your business to grow? Work on those first. Do something everyday that works towards achieving your rocks. We have our rocks for Q3, and after we choose our big rocks we planned what needed to be done to achieve the big rocks. So the question is… What are the big rocks for your business? What are the things you really need to get done to accomplish your rocks? ...
by Joey Novak | Jul 13, 2018 | Tips
Drones are a miracle of modern science. They take user input (what you want it to do), and look at sensor data, and make adjustments so they can do what you want them to. Consumer drones were an almost impossibility a decade ago because the low cost electronics weren’t fast enough to see what the drone needed to adjust. By the time it knew that it needed to slow down one motor to stay level it was already turning upside down and ready to crash. This same concept of rapid feedback is what enables cars to lower their emissions to what they are today. Similar to drones, without this fast feedback in your online marketing there are some really awesome things you can’t do. Most small businesses still have “slow” marketing feedback. If sales are up for the quarter marketing is good. If sales are down for the quarter something needs to change. The way to speed up your online marketing feedback is to fully integrate your Facebook Pixel and Google Analytics with Infusionsoft to record monetary values for conversions. It’s technically possible to set these things up so that when someone makes a purchase you can tell Facebook and Google how much money that purchase is worth. For subscriptions you tell Facebook / Google the lifetime value of the subscription that was purchased. We have already created a tool we use that does this for Google Analytics and we are working on one for Facebook. If you want to help test the tool and give us some feedback when it’s done, leave a comment below (or on our facebook page) and we’ll email you when it’s...
by Joey Novak | May 16, 2016 | Tips
Recently I picked up an old game my friends used to play. Sid Meyer’s Civilization. It is a fascinating game. Combining politics, war, social dynamics, intrigue, supply, diplomacy, science, etc… A unique difference about it vs most video games is that you have to be playing about 10 turns ahead (this equates to about 30 min of play time, and 50 years in game time). If you want to attack someone, unless you have boat loads of money to purchase units, you have to start building an army ahead of time. Armies cost money to maintain and so you can’t keep a large standing army and once you’ve defeated your enemy you have to cut back your army size or else you’ll use all your money just keeping them alive. Do you need to make friends with someone so you can cross their territory with your army and not start a war with them. In the world of small business (and life) things are similar. Everyday we have a long list of tasks that seems never ending many of those tasks likely have little to no long term significance. I read a great article here: http://blog.crew.co/playing-the-long-game/ that talked about how you should allow yourself to procrastinate to work on significant things. As I was playing the game, I realized that in my own life, I’m not playing the 10 turns ahead, I’m playing it about a week ahead. I realized this, and when I got to work this morning I shared my thoughts with Jordan and we identified where we are lacking in Novak Solutions and what we need to do...
