[10:47] David Churbuck: Good morning
[10:47] Mark Cahill: hey
[10:47] David Churbuck: Thanks for the MySQL advice
[10:47] Mark Cahill: Had a good laugh this morning.
[10:47] David Churbuck: how?
[10:48] Mark Cahill: Yesterday, we’re decrying reliance on traffic stats
[10:48] David Churbuck: At ABC Co.?
[10:48] Mark Cahill: then concerned about the fall off in visits at RT
[10:48] David Churbuck: right
[10:48] Mark Cahill: no problem on the mysql stuff, it’s what I do
[10:49] David Churbuck: I am focused on SMB right now
[10:49] David Churbuck: I think it’s a bad term — no small businessperson self-describes as “small”
[10:49] Mark Cahill: I may end up owning XXXXXX.com
[10:49] David Churbuck: A dumb marketing demographic
[10:49] David Churbuck: good buy I think
[10:49] Mark Cahill: thinking about a small business podcast
[10:50] Mark Cahill: I deal with a lot of people who call themselves small
[10:50] Mark Cahill: 2-3 person operations
[10:50] David Churbuck: Very good — I think the audience is best defined as an organization under 40 employees that can’t afford inhouse IT support or a full Exchange/Domino infrastructure
[10:50] David Churbuck: They are conditioned to do that
[10:50] David Churbuck: But the definition is useless imho
[10:50] Mark Cahill: right. but they don’t have to think small
[10:50] David Churbuck: Exactly —
[10:51] David Churbuck: Marketers want to reach them, but they classify themselves as self-owned, entrepreneurs, freelancers, whatever
[10:51] Mark Cahill: Who was the cd supplier that did millions out of his garage? only a couple employees, but definitely not small
[10:51] David Churbuck: And it is important not to mix in a florist or autobody shop with a law firm, etc.
[10:51] David Churbuck: I know who you mean. American Business Information or something like that
[10:52] Mark Cahill: the entrepeneur description is key for small shops. Got to divide service and retail…
[10:52] David Churbuck: yes
[10:52] David Churbuck: precisely
[10:53] David Churbuck: I tend towards the IT definition of when they need to go pro vs. self-serve
[10:53] Mark Cahill: That’s a great line to draw
[10:53] Mark Cahill: divider is yahoo/gmail as mail app or domino/outlook
[10:54] David Churbuck: precisely
[10:54] Mark Cahill: “You might be an SMB if…”
[10:54] David Churbuck: SaaS is the opportunity
[10:54] David Churbuck: extends to all IT services, from web hosting to blog hosting to mail ….
[10:55] David Churbuck: Build vs buy type of services
[10:55] Mark Cahill: exactly. Even in medium size business, I think owning your own webserver is dumb. atex shouldn’t own
[10:55] David Churbuck: so it isn’t about small, it’s about service vs. ownership of IT assets and professional services
[10:56] David Churbuck: A sourcing issue
[10:56] David Churbuck: Do you buy from CDW or Staples?
[10:56] David Churbuck: Do you do email via gmail or Notes?
[10:56] Mark Cahill: exactly.
[10:56] David Churbuck: Do you host your domain on LAMP or use WordPress.com
[10:56] David Churbuck: etc etc
[10:56] David Churbuck: the sacrifice is brand identification around your domain
[10:56] David Churbuck: are you cahill.com or cahill@gmail.com?
[10:57] Mark Cahill: Brand doesn’t have to be sacrificed
[10:57] Mark Cahill: Lots of very small companies get it.
[10:57] David Churbuck: yes
[10:57] David Churbuck: But what impact does relying on hosted IT have on a brand?
[10:57] Mark Cahill: Everyone has a golf shirt with the logo, and they know exactly what the customer needs/wants. Mainly because they actually talk to customers
[10:57] David Churbuck: IRight
[10:58] David Churbuck: I may blog this thread
A couple of lines that were missed at the end:
[10:58] Mark Cahill: That’s where google for domains comes in
[10:59] Mark Cahill: I regularly forward domain traffic to a yahoo or gmail account.
[10:59] Mark Cahill: In fact, I prefer that to having the webhost act as email provider