Obviously, you do not need to know much or do any research to write for Business Week either.
Gene Marks
Gene Marks, CPA, is the owner of the Marks Group, which sells customer relationship, service, and financial management tools to small and midsize businesses. Marks is the author of four best-selling small business books and writes the popular “Penny Pincher’s Almanac” syndicated column. More penny-pinching advice from Marks can be found at www.pennypinchingtips.com.
As you see I’m even going to give this guy a little link love. I was sent the link to a column he writes that businessweek.com publishes on their website. They must be desperate for content. Here is his column broken down by the 10 items he listed.
I’m posting this here because they likely won’t approve my comments I made on the column there.
Tech ‘Solutions’ Your Small Biz Can’t Use
by Gene Marks
1. RSS Feeds
Bob, an electrical contractor, knows what RSS stands for, and I feel sorry for him. He had the misfortune of signing up for an RSS feed. This misnomer is designed to make us feel like we’re getting a “feed” of data just like all the really, really important media people do. When he first tried RSS, he thought, “Wow, I can get immediate updates on product and industry developments, important news from Yahoo! (YHOO), and even get a new joke from The Onion, all as soon as they’re published!” Instead, he was “fed” an endless stream of meaningless items displayed in an overly large browser window that winds up distracting more than informing. Like Bob, most of the business owners I know have abandoned RSS and gone back to controlling when they get their information. Still don’t know what RSS stands for? Trust me, it’s just not that important.
Ok. Since you control which RSS feeds you subscribe to you already control the information you receive. As far as controlling when you get it, check the settings in your news reader of choice. Millions of RSS subscribers must all be wrong and gene marks is right. He must not know very many people if most of the people he knows have abandoned RSS. Did he take a poll? Nope. He just assumes if he doesn’t like it, other people shouldn’t like it because his ego says so.
2. Spam Filters
I get this question at just about every presentation I give to business owners: “What spam filters do you recommend?” My answer: “None.” They all suck. Let’s face it: You’re not going to eliminate spam in your business. Instead you’re going to waste money on the latest filtering technology, which does nothing more than block that key e-mail you were awaiting from a prospective customer. Or you’ll require a sender to complete a Sudoku puzzle before “allowing” their e-mail to reach your in-box. In the end, it’s cheaper for your employees to just sort and delete spam as it comes in.
There are good and useful spam filters. Maybe they are just too difficult for Gene Marks to understand. He must pay his employees next to nothing if it’s cheaper to have them sort through all that garbage email.
3. Antivirus Software
Betsy was looking for just the right technology to slow down her employees’ computers and significantly degrade the performance of her business applications. Well, she found it, and it’s called antivirus software. As an added bonus, this software prevents her from installing or upgrading applications without a team of NASA-trained IT consultants. Betsy’s spent more money with her IT firm trying to work around antivirus software than she probably would’ve spent if she received an actual virus. What should a business owner do to avoid viruses, worms, and other evil applications that can wreak havoc in our systems? Our tools are still too limited. Even telling your employees, for the 900th time, not to open up suspicious files doesn’t seem to work. I don’t have a very good answer for Betsy’s dilemma. But I do know the current group of antivirus software applications don’t do the job for small businesses.
Now this part of the post by Gene Marks is almost too ridiculous to comment on. And he gives IT advice to clients? And what does this have to do with whether you are a small or large business? If you own a computer you need antivirus software, period.
4. Blogs
Jamie! You started a blog for your business? That’s dope! Now go out and get some accessories, like a pair of black-rimmed rectangular glasses and a Starbucks card. And oh, by the way, you’ll need to set aside about 17 hours each day to keep it fresh. Dude, it’ll be so viral. What’s that, Jamie? You’re not in the media business? You don’t work for a software company? You just own a hardware store? Dude, that’s a drag! If you don’t have something new to say each day, no one’s going to bother to stop by and check out your blog. It’ll be, like, so lame. And if you do have something to say, just be careful you don’t give away too much information. You didn’t consider all this? You don’t have the time? You’re not such a great writer? Word.
This is one of my favorites since I run a lot of blogs for small business clients who are actually getting targeted traffic to their blogs and are actually making sales because of their blog. I suppose anyone who does not own a software company and isn’t in the media business should shut down their blogs immediately. Gene Marks said so.
The fact it takes him 17 hours a day to post to a blog puzzles me since he obviously does no research at all. he just sort of writes whatever is going through his head at the moment. That just shouldn’t take that long by reading the content he writes.
5. Search Engine Optimization
You mean for $5,000 I can get my company’s name on the very top of Google’s search results? Where do I sign? Many business owners have been fooled by the allure of search engine optimization (SEO)—and I’m one of them. I forked over a bunch of dough to a firm in California that promised to get my company’s name on “all the major search engines” when someone was looking for products that we sell. How did they plan to do this? I’m still not really sure, but it had something to do with spiders, black hats, and link farms. That should’ve been enough of a hint that witchcraft was involved. After a brief flirtation with page 47 of MSN’s search results, I gave up. SEO probably does the job for companies with oodles of money, but not for the typical small business.
Wrong again Gene. SEO can even the playing field for small business owners. A small business can get top search engine listings and traffic just as easy as the big boys, if they hire someone who really knows what they are doing instead of buying into the “Top 10 Google Listings in 7 Days”, get rich quick hype.
I have the small business clients to prove his statement completely false. Gene Marks should stick to being a bean counter and quit giving advice about anything to do with the Internet. he obviously doesn’t understand it or the potential it has for small business owners.
6. Mobile Applications
Before you buy into any software vendor’s promise to “enable a mobile application” for employees to use on their cell phones, think really hard about the reality of that claim. Remember that time you used your phone to look up the weather in Chicago? Remember how the seasons actually changed while you were waiting for the forecast to load? Your customer may die of old age waiting for you to enter an order or look up an inventory item on a cell phone. Mobile applications will be a great thing…someday. Just like hovercrafts, telepods, and renewable energy. But for a small business on a limited budget, it’s still science fiction.
I think gene Marks believes the Internet is still science fiction. Again, absolutely no research went into making these claims. No examples were given. Just Gene Marks rambling and expecting small business owners to listen to him and believe what he says because well . . . he’s Gene Marks, witer of some best selling books I guess.
7. Customer Relationship Management Software
Readers of my work may find this item a little surprising. I’ve always been a big proponent of customer relationship management (CRM) software. One big reason is that my company sells this stuff. And we have a lot of small business clients who have really used this technology well. Unfortunately, we have a lot of other customers who haven’t been as successful. Fred, a manufacturer of roofing materials, is one of them. Fred and I both learned that a CRM system doesn’t work for a small business without an internal “champion” who takes ownership of it. His $20,000 system just sat there. No one used it. At best, we hope it will become a glorified Rolodex one day. A CRM system can be a good thing, but it takes more than paying for the software and training. Without a substantial internal investment, CRM won’t work.
So Gene Marks sells this guy software he can’t use, then writes a column about all the stuff people sell to small business owners they can’t use? Yet he writes this in another column post;
CRM? Contact management? Whatever you want to call it, a good penny pincher needs a cost-effective tool to keep track of what’s happening.
So he obviously wants small business owners to buy it even though by his own admission they may find it useless. He also wants you to subscribe to his newsletters “GoldMine Monthly Newsletter” and “HEAT Monthly Newsletter” and “Microsoft CRM Newsletter”, even though A. He just said CRM is a bad investment for a lot of small business owners, and B. It’s a subscription that you don’t control when it is sent to you, much like the RSS feeds he says are useless.
I found this testimonial on his website;
“Gene guided us through the jungle of the Internet and revealed some real jewels to help small business think differently and be more profitable ” —Tom Schaub, Marketing Manager, Muskegon Chronicle.
The guy that wrote the column I’m reposting here was your guide through the jungle of the Internet? Blind leading the blind.
Back to his column;
8. AdWords
John’s a pretty smart guy. He runs a company that sells specialty pet foods. He manages his own investments. He keeps an eye on his taxes. But I’ve found a way to turn John into a blithering idiot. I’ve asked him to figure out how to use Google’s (GOOG) AdSense profitably. Are you interested in a mind-numbing exercise? Give AdSense a shot. Or Yahoo SM or MSN AdCenter. Don’t you know how much to budget for “clicks” on your ad? Are you just a little suspicious as to who exactly is counting these “clicks” that conveniently turn into revenue for these companies? Like John, you’ve just entered the alternate universe of Internet advertising! Here’s a word of wisdom: Leave the mass-market advertising to Coke (KO) and Pepsi (PEP). Small business owners should stick to less mystifying forms of promotion.
Again. Gene marks doesn’t know how to do it and is not willing to learn it so he just advises his clients not to use it. He doesn’t back his statement with any facts. No research. Just gene Marks doesn’t understand adsense so all small business owners should stay away from it. Pretty much just save that advertising money and buy books by Gene Marsh instead.
Small businesses can do very well with PPC programs and can do it profitably. If a small business owner does not have the time or desire to learn how to do it themselves, then they can hire a professional with a good track record to do it for them.
Gene Marks just writes everything he doesn’t understand as worthless or science fiction.
9. Online Video
I totally agree with that…guy…I think…who wants us to “leave Britney alone.” And yes, Barack Obama is pretty hot in his YouTube video. But none of this means online video is a workable medium for small business owners. Ron, a reseller of computer software, thought his business would be perfect for online video, what with the amount of Web-based training and support he provides. Ron figured he could post some videos on YouTube to help his clients. He soon learned that the cost and complexity was just too high. Quality videos require production companies. Otherwise you’ll have grainy, useless footage. And videos that run beyond a certain length aren’t even YouTube-able. They need to be housed with companies that sell storage space. Ron soon got sick of the process. Online videos are great—if you’ve got the budget of Time Warner (TWX) behind you.
Tell that to the bands that sold a ton of records due to creating a youtube video or the myriad of small businesses who have marketed successfully using video without paying a ton of money to do so. Again, Gene Marks doesn’t know how to do it so you should ignore it too.
10. Web 2.0
Want to make a room of small business owners go completely silent? Ask them to define Web 2.0. The world is full of industries coming up with sexy terms to create buzz and mystique around their genius. Web 2.0 is no different. A Web guy will tell you, “It’s the next generation of Internet technology.” And how does this affect small business owners? I hear all these great predictions of earth-shaking developments to come. I hear words like “mashup” and “wiki,” and I’m still trying to figure out how these affect my business. All I really see are the same accounting, inventory, and order entry programs from the days of Reagan, albeit with new window dressing. I think we’re supposed to be using Web 2.0 technologies to do more work online. But unless you’re running an online business, these tools seem to have little relevance.
This is redundant. Again, Gene Marks doesn’t understand it so his advice to small business owners is that they should ignore it. I guess this is how he keeps his readers from asking him questions he can’t answer. He simply writes off anything he doesn’t understand as useless, so no need to ever answer questions about it from his readers.
There are enough people out there giving people advice who are too lazy to actually do research or learn the topic they are writing about. We do not need more of it from Gene Marks. It’s scaqry to think that some small business owner might actually read this column and think it must be true because Gene Marks sold some books on Amazon and his column is in businessweek.com. I won’t be reading more columns from businessweek.com since they obviously don’t care what gets printed there.
The Original Story here in case you think I made this guy up
Maybe they will publish my comments there. Let’s see.
