We shared the importance of protecting your software assets and highlighted issues that may arise if your relationship with your software developer goes sour or they suddenly disappear. Now that you know why protecting your software investment and intellectual property is so vital, how do you secure and protect it?
When you own custom software, you don’t just own the interface that you see on the screen. You are not simply a user of the software – you own the software. You need to know what you’re actually getting at the end of the project. While you may not understand what’s being built, you need to know about each asset and dependency that makes up your software.
For example, our team often employs a software product called SendGrid for sending transactional emails in our apps. If we don’t tell you about this and give you the account details and then we disappear (we would never!), how can you update the email template when your company updates a logo or moves locations?
Make sure you’re informed as you move forward with the project. Ask questions, be interested in the answers, and stay involved as decisions are made.
You must have a master document that describes your software or website..
This doesn’t have to be fancy. You can simply create a document on Google Drive or OneDrive. This will allow you to secure the information but also allow it to be easily shared.
Your document should contain a high-level overview of the software, application, or website. If you’re just starting to build, the overview is the plan for what you want to create.
Detail what software languages the software is written in. Document what server or cloud platform it’s built upon. You need to know whether the software is dependent on any third-parties to operate.
Note account information needed to access any and all resources. However, do not store passwords on the master document. Keep those in a safe password vault, like LastPass or Centrify. Make a plan to keep your passwords up to date.
In the event that you need to move your software development to a new team, the master document will be a valuable resource that will save you time and the headache of starting from scratch. Require your software team to keep this document up to date.
Your software and website are critical business assets. If your business is about to embark on a new software project or you want to separate from your current vendor or developer, review this guide for steps you should take to control your these valuable technology assets
Is your website slow? Do visitors leave your e-commerce site without making a purchase often? Is your site missing from searches or are you ranking low on the list of your competitors?
Optimizing your website or web-based store should be a top priority.
Here are a few tips to get you seen and get you sped up:
SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of optimizing your content and site structure in hopes of getting a higher search ranking and more visitors to your space on the web. Learning about and following best-practices should become something you implement as you build your content.
Use an SEO analyzer or inspector to discover what issues your website currently has. A lot of issues are content-oriented and can be easily remedied.
Using a tool like web.dev or Lighthouse, which is available in the Developer tools inside Chrome, will help you identify issues regarding the performance of your website. Running an audit on your site can show you how quickly your site loads and how quickly your visitors can interact with the content. It will give you a a quick rundown of the issues you should take to your website developer.
More than 70% of web traffic comes from a mobile device, and if your website or e-commerce store doesn’t look great or perform well, you’re going to lose potential customers. Google Search Console’s Mobile-Friendly Tester will give you tips to improve how your content is presented to the handheld world.
Search engines provide enhanced search results on sites with structured data, or schema markup. Schema adds context to a search result and can help your site appear in a prominent position on the results page. Adding this markup to your website is more advanced, but will make a difference in getting your content to the right people.
Not sure how to implement these strategies? Schedule a call with us and let us help you get your business running smoothly!
Software is an essential part of running a business today. Creating custom software sets your company apart from the rest and makes you more profitable, effective, and efficient. When you create custom software, you’re investing a lot in your project. Not only are you spending time and money, but you’re also trusting a company with access to your valuable resources, which can leave you vulnerable.
You may have heard horror stories of how software development can go badly, or you may have had a bad experience with software development in the past. Maybe you’re concerned that if you hire a developer to create your software that they won’t follow through and that you’ll never see your project launched. You might also be worried that the person that you trust with your information could hold your software hostage, demanding that you pay more money to have the software released to you. What if the company disappears or the developer that’s been working on your project vanishes? Feeling like you don’t have control over the project is another valid concern.
We don’t want you to feel like you don’t have control over your software or web design project.
So, what should you do to make sure that you’re protecting your software from the very beginning?
Idestini believes that you should have complete control over your software. That includes who has access to your valuable assets. If you’re worried you don’t have the right process in place to protect your software or you are unsure of what to do, we can help!
Your software may be complicated, and capturing all of this information may sound like an impossible task– but it doesn’t have to be hard. We can help assess your systems and ensure your software is adequately secured.
We want you to be able to relax, knowing that your business can run smoothly because your software is secure, with you holding all of the keys.
Sign up below to receive our Free PDF guide, that teaches you how to protect your software assets:
Your software and website are critical business assets. If your business is about to embark on a new software project or you want to separate from your current vendor or developer, review this guide for steps you should take to control your these valuable technology assets.
We recently helped Cypress Resources of Alabama develop a Zapier workflow. They are using HelloSign to help process loan applications on behalf of banks. Once the appropriate forms are complete, they want to automatically send an invoice. While their team is familiar with Zapier and workflow automation, this Zap required some new triggers that they needed help getting started with.
Our team helped them setup a Zapier integration that listens for HelloSign signature requests. When it finds completed requests for the documents they care about, it then triggers an invoice to their customer.
We did this using the following Zapier integrations:
All in all, we spent less than 5 hours to help them get this concept off the ground and train their team to understand the Zap. They can customize this workflow to match each bank client’s specifications and not worry about having to keep track of who is invoiced.
Do you have a workflow that would benefit from this level of automation?
]]>If you are going to be running your own business, there will inevitably be tasks that you would rather not be responsible for. Some tasks are simply tedious and a distraction. Consider outsourcing them!
These online resources below are just a few places you can use to find part-time, freelance, or done-for-you help.
A virtual assistant can be a low-cost option for hourly and ad-hoc help. Virtual assistants are perfect for taking over your recurring tasks such as payroll, invoicing, and reporting. Try these sites to find your VA.
Horkey Handbook: https://horkeyhandbook.com
VANetworking: https://www.vanetworking.com
If you like the reassurance of feeling like there is a team behind your tasks, consider looking for a company that treats common tasks as a done-for-you service. Looking for assistance on any of your bookkeeping, marketing content creation, or graphic design? Try this selection of sites.
Bench (bookkeeping) https://bench.co/
Audience Ops (marketing content) https://audienceops.com/
Design Pickle (graphic design) https://designpickle.com
Freelancers are typically hired on a project basis, but can also be used for recurring tasks like content writing. Upwork and Freelancer are easy to use sites to help your hunt in finding a suitable freelancer for your project.
Upwork: https://www.upwork.com
Freelancer: https://www.freelancer.com
If you are looking for a more reliable, vetted lead on possible freelancers, these website sites offer a more expensive but stronger pool of freelancers.
Toptal: https://www.toptal.com
Dribbble Talent: https://dribbble.com/talent
Scalable Path: https://www.scalablepath.com
Gun.io: https://gun.io
You’ve got something big in the works – a website relaunch, an app development, a new program. But you know you don’t have the manpower to get it done right now.
If you’re like many managers, you might start looking for a new employee to take on that workload. Bringing someone in-house is just one option to help your business take on additional work, but it shouldn’t be your only consideration. You can also work with a software development company to get the project done.
Before we get into why you might want to work with another company, let’s first look at some of the risks of hiring a new employee.
It’s important to be very clear about why you’re considering hiring a new developer, and whether it will pay off in the long run. It might be the right choice for your business, but you should first understand some of the risks that come along with expanding your tech team:
In addition to all the costs that come along with a new employee, you’re also not guaranteed to retain them. You run the risk of losing employees if something better comes along, or if there is a lull between projects and they start job hunting.
Then there’s that you probably need a team of people if you want software that actually works in a reasonable amount of time. One person may be able to do it for you, but it will take a lot longer. One person is likely to only be skilled in some areas, not all areas. You may get someone who is great with databases and APIs but terrible at designing a user interface. So there you are, now hiring more employees.
When you hire a software development company to work on a project for you, they are only with you until the project is completed. You have some control over when and how it is completed, and what you can expect to pay, right from the beginning.
The hourly rate to work with an outside company might be higher than bringing on an employee. But you will be working with them for a shorter, defined period of time with precise expectations of what you will get out of the partnership. This is not a career-long partnership like with employees.
When you work with Idestini, we first assess whether our team is a good fit for working with you. If we are, we do a short Roadmapping with your team to lay out a thorough plan, budget, and design of your project. We want to make sure we don’t just build software, but the right software.
With this Roadmap plan in place, we then build your custom software, delivering efficiently, using best practices, and putting the right-skilled teammates on tasks along the way. We are able to deliver software projects in a fraction of the time it will take a single developer (or two). Most of our projects are completed and go live within 4 – 6 months.
When we’re done, we hand it over to you. You own everything about the software. We do offer plans for maintenance activities, like monitoring performance and security issues, but our goal is to complete your project successfully and create software that doesn’t need lots of support. (We’re not looking for a “job” from you, after all.)
As a manager, hiring anyone to work on vital projects for your business is no easy task. There is a lot at stake to consider. If hiring an employee isn’t the right choice for your business right now, consider working with a company like ours to get the job done.
At Idestini, we can help you avoid the fears and risks that come with taking on new employees and help you build software that actually supports your business within a short amount of time. If that sounds nice to you, get started here.
Normally, in employee interviews, I try to be more of a conversationalist and stay away from awkward, obvious baiting questions. However, I love asking this question when I interview a potential candidate. What is more important — completing a job on time or doing it right? A person’s answer is telling as to what kind of problem solver they are in the work environment. And, while there is no right or wrong answer, I am looking for a particular type of thoughtful response.
Let’s put more context to this question as it is easy to assume that it is always right to take whatever time is necessary to do it right. I think we have started to bake that into our kids, even. Especially when it comes to school work, we tell them to slow down and be careful to execute something correctly. A math problem may have an absolute correct or incorrect, but we adults know that most of life’s problems are not this clear.
Sometimes, it is better to get it done faster. Finishing a surgery correctly and taking a 15 more minutes than scheduled is the right thing to do. Taking time to load the dishwasher with care and respect for the contents is likely to win the approval of your spouse. However, taking extra time to mop the floor of the restaurant when there are 10 other things they need you to do will gain ire from an employer. Going 5, 10, or 20 hours over budget on billable work in an agency can be a problem.
Yes, it depends on the situation. That is exactly the point. Plenty of people will still enjoy your cake, even if it ends up not looking like the photo on Pinterest. If you miss an ingredient in the casserole, you wouldn’t throw it out and start over when your family is sitting at the table waiting to eat. If you didn’t perfectly name your variables or space and indent your program code, the program still works just fine.
Especially in the world of software and web development, the definition of “doing it right” is often subjective. Software developers, especially those acting as consultants, need to embrace imperfection and realize that good enough will do. It is the rare person that will admit this openly during an interview. But, as a business owner and your boss, I need to know you are going to emphasize getting the job done.
When you have agreed to a deadline, you do not immediately rewrite every data retrieval function (or insert your thing here) because you later learned that you could accomplish the result with 3 lines of code less per method. You will probably ship that imperfect code. You get it done and then clean it up, if you have time, which more likely than not, you do not.
The reality is that the client, users, and stakeholders will rarely know the difference between software that has unit tests written for every method versus those that only employ it for the known risky parts. They won’t feel the difference between a website that makes an Ajax call via jQuery versus one that makes the same request supported by a pure Angular get method that’s made up of a controller, directive, and service methods.
It’s ok to do something simple with simple tools and it’s ok if you write less than award worthy code. There is no “right” answer. There are merely different ways of accomplishing the same goal. The average business owner just wants you to get the job done – as quickly and fairly priced as possible. Most don’t care how you get it done. Truthfully, most hire us to take away the worry of how it gets done. As long as it works well enough to please your client and their customers, you’re doing it right.
What do you think?
If this is you, keep reading. Today, I am sharing four simple steps to help you get started. I want you to leave with a realistic perspective about your first business blog and all that it will require for success long term.
Believe me, this article is as much for me as it is for you. Owning and maintaining a blog is much like trying to eat healthy. We all know what we’re supposed to do, but it’s so easy to get off track. For instance, I thought I was just taking two weeks off from writing during a busy spell and then BAM! It’s been over three months since I have posted. And now, here I am telling you, as much as I am myself, how to set a strategy for your business blog and keep at it!
Let’s get to it.
Before you do anything, you need to figure out who you are talking to in your blog. If you’re a B2B company, you’re not going to be talking to retail consumers. You’ll want to focus on people who have decision making power within organizations. If you’re a plumber, you might want to target both business and residential audiences. If you’re a handyman for hire or a carpenter, you might want to target do-it-yourselfers and homeowners.
Whatever the audience, realize that your number one and two purposes when blogging as a business are to establish trust and provide value. You don’t do that by constantly talking about yourself. People read blogs because they get something out of it. People who come back and read a blog, week after week, do so because they feel the value and identify with the writers and the topics.
Resist the urge to always talk about yourself, your products, your specials, etc. Interview one of your customers and post before and after pictures of them working with you. Tell the story of that really cool organization you were privileged to do work for. Write about the employees within your organization and what makes them special. Post your recipe for that awesome sauce that you put on top of your chicken parm sandwich. Show your readers how to make small repairs themselves. Be someone they can trust and show that you care about what they care about.
To reiterate, the purpose of your blog is to first gain trust of your potential customers, and then to provide value regularly. After that, go ahead and sprinkle in things like portraying values important to your brand, such as your style, taste, quality, or superior customer service and calls to action to schedule that HVAC inspection.
Figure this point out now and let it direct your blogging goals and topics. Stay true to growing the trust and value components of your blog.
Don’t commit to posting every day, every other day, or anywhere near that. When you are first starting out, it’s a good idea to shoot for one post every week or two. Whatever your goal is, write it down somewhere you see regularly, to help remind yourself that this is important.
If you have someone on staff that you’d trust to write for your company, consider sharing the responsibility and tackling your blog as a team. Take turns posting from week to week. You can help each other be accountable and cover for each other during the busy times.
Realize that you are adding a new commitment to your schedule. Don’t wait for the inspiration to strike you. Go, right now, and actually schedule 1.5 hour events in your calendar for writing at a time when you are likely to be able to focus on writing. Don’t feel like writing when that time hits? Try anyway or try some ideas on getting over writer’s block. If you aren’t making progress within 30 minutes, reschedule for the next day you can.
Writing blog posts that help grow your business takes discipline for most people. Don’t be surprised if it takes you two to three hours to craft your initial posts. Depending on how in-depth you’re covering a topic, it could take longer. If you find you can’t commit that amount of time in a given week, consider breaking a topic into two posts – one this week and one the next. The good news is you’ll already know what to write about next week and you’ll have the pressure of needing to finish your thoughts!
Realize there are no rules. This is your blog. If someone is really interested, they will come back. The reality is they are likely coming to your blog post well after you published it. The truth that it didn’t all get posted at the same time is completely irrelevant.
If you do get inspired to write more than one post in a week, consider staging some of those to release at later times. Getting ahead of your post count goals is a great strategy when you anticipate things like vacations or extra busy periods.
Keep a running list of topic ideas somewhere. I use Wunderlist for this. Programs like Evernote or simply a Google Doc will work, too. Whenever you get an idea for a post, open up the app and jot it down in a “Blog Post Ideas” list. Prior to sitting down to write your first post, you might want to brainstorm 10-12 ideas right away to start you off.
Here are 11 generic ideas for your list.
Keeping this list will help you when you aren’t sure what to write about. It’ll give you a healthy reservoir to draw from.
After a while, having to write for a blog all the time can seem like an immense pressure. Especially for a small business owner, who may not have other employees or the right kind of employees to post on their behalf.
Do not be hard on yourself. It is just a blog, not your day to day service or product. If you miss a week or two, try not to let it turn into three months. If it does turn into three months, forgive yourself. Open up your favorite editor and start typing something. Choose a smaller topic.
If you consistently have a hard time making your writing goals or figure out you don’t like it, consider hiring a freelance or ghost writer. This is becoming a very common practice and not something you should be ashamed of. A freelance or ghost writer is simply a contract employee performing a service for you. Let me explain the differences between the two, to help decide what you’re more comfortable with.
A ghost writer is someone that writes an article on your behalf. You post the article attached to your name, not theirs. Typically, a ghost writer will be paid more since they don’t get to keep the attribution of the article. A freelance writer is someone who you hire to write about a particular subject, usually using their name. You might give this person a quasi-title to represent their position to you, such as “Customer Success Specialist.” Many times, you can find someone that writes specifically for your niche. Sound interesting? For where to hire these folks, consider Googling for freelance writing services or try posting a job on Upwork.
Like healthy eating, having a successful blog for your business is about discipline and consistent work. Sometimes, it is fun and you’re extremely proud of yourself after you make progress. Occasionally, you’re going to fall behind or get stressed and be tempted to give up. I hope that these few tips have given you some simple ground to start from and some ideas for making your blogging journey a success.
Have your own tips for approaching blogging as a small business? Know a good resource for someone starting out? Leave a comment and share what has worked for you.
]]>Realize that SEO is not an overnight affair. It’s best to wait a week or two after making changes before checking your results. This article will show you the free tools that from Google and Bing that enable you to see how your website is ranking for certain words and phrases. Not only does using these tools allow you to see how you’re doing for your target terms but you may even find some words and phrases you are ranking for that you had not even considered. In some cases, if you find a less competitive term in your results, you may want to alter your overall strategy to increase your ranking for that term instead. My opinion is that it should be your goal to rank in the first page as often as possible (note, not necessarily first!).
Google Search Console is the new name for Google Webmaster Tools. Google Search Console houses a group of tools used by webmasters to help monitor and maintain Google’s ability to index websites. We are going to analyze what terms our website is ranking for by looking at the Search Analytics Report. The Search Analytics Report gives you a list of search terms for which your website appeared in Google search results along with some statistics.
I am going to assume that you’ve setup your Google Search Console account and that it’s been around for at least a few weeks. If you haven’t set up yet, complete these instructions to add a site within Google Search Console and then head back in a week or so after Google has a chance to compile the data for you.
Now, let’s head over to the report. Within Search Console, make sure you have the right website selected at the very top, expand Search Traffic, and select Search Analytics. First, let’s review a few phrases you’ll see.
Clicks. The number of times someone clicked the search term through to your website.
Impressions. The number of times you appeared within search for that terms
Clickthrough rate (CTR). The percentage of clicks to impressions.
Position. The average position that your page was in for this search term. This is an average of the top returned page from your website within the results.
Queries. The word of phrase for which you ranked.
Your report should look similar to this (note, I’ve adjusted the dates to the last 90 days in this example).


Now, play with the options to see the search terms or queries for which you ranked on Google. Note, that Google does omit some results (for privacy reasons) so your clicks, impressions, etc may not add up but it still should be a useful representation. Did you find that you are returning for what you hoped?
The equivalent of the Search Analytics report within Bing can be found within Bing Webmaster Tools and it’s called the Search Keywords report. One thing to know is that this report shows combined data from both Bing and Yahoo search engines.
Again, if you haven’t setup your website, go follow this Getting Started Checklist to setup your website within Bing Webmaster Tools. Like with Google, it will take a few days for data to roll in.
If you are already setup, you can access the Search Keywords report by selecting your website, expanding Reports & Data, and then selecting Search Keywords. You should see something like below. The headers are different but basically represent the same options as the Google report.


The additional column that the Bing report provides is the “AVG SEARCH CLICK POSITION”. This is the average position of your search result that actually got clicked. It will probably be pretty close to your average search position. Logic would dictate that better position equals more clicks.
So, how do the search terms you rank for differ between these search engines? Did you find that the results were pretty similar overall, at least in terms of percentages? Were you happy with the primary terms you ranked for? Any surprises in there?
Google has a larger market share of search traffic so you should see higher numbers all around from Google over Bing. If you’re results vary, I’d love to hear your story.
If you aren’t seeing your site rank for the terms you’d like, you should circle back to my previous article to make sure you’ve got basic search engine optimizations strategies in place for the terms you think you want. If you have done that already and it’s been a week or two and you still aren’t seeing the results you want, you might be trying to rank for highly competitive terms or targeting them incorrectly. It may be time for professional help. If you’re really into doing it yourself, start here, here and here for reading materials on additional strategies for improving your ranking.
As always, if you have a question or thought on this topic, feel free to post here in the comments. I’m listening!Posted by Abby Sims on 09 Jun 2015
]]>Maybe you overheard another business owner talking about it or maybe it’s from one of the 5 weekly calls you get from marketers promising they can rank you #1 on Google for some number of weeks. Is that as important as they make it sound? Your time is limited and valuable. What reasonable action can you take?
SEO stands for search engine optimization. In a nutshell, search engine optimization is the process of telling search engines about your website and optimizing your website content toward certain search terms. This is done in hopes of ranking better in search result listings and, ultimately, driving more traffic to your site.
A search engine is a service that catalogues the internet and lets you search it via keyword phrases. Google, Bing, and Yahoo are the primary companies in this space but there are others. As a small business owner, you will want a strategy that focuses on the biggest bang for your buck. You won’t have time to optimize to rank on all the engines.
In the US, 68% of all search engine traffic comes from Google (source). Bing is at 20% and Yahoo has declined over the years to around 10%. As with everything, you could look at this many ways but since you’re here for my advice, I’ll cut to the chase. Optimize for Google. Those efforts will mostly likely translate to positive reward in Bing and Yahoo anyway.
Some folks will disagree with me here and that is ok. I would argue that your goal is to be on the first page of results. If you can get in the top 5, that’s good enough.
Let’s be honest about what most small businesses are and how we look for them online. Here are some prime examples of small business searches
These kinds of searches are not the kind where you always hit the first link and go – most people are going to scan the results. What is important is you get on the first page and that what they see in your search listing speaks to their need. It is a balance between trying to rank and trying to get clicks. If you have to rank #5 but your SEO copy gets you clicks, many search engines will take that into account over time and you will eventually rank #1. Stay the course. Clicks win.
Doing search engine optimization for a small business website can be done rather easily. Larger and national businesses face bigger challenges than most of you since their target search terms are highly competitive and the stakes of ranking 1st and 20th can mean loads of money for them. Since you are a smaller, local business, you are also going to benefit from efforts of search engines to prioritize local business websites. They currently believe if you are looking for alteration services, you probably want to see results near you.
So, lucky you, small business owner. It’s likely that a minimal amount of effort will return better rankings and, hopefully, more visits to your website. Here are 3 basic SEO improvements you should do, right now. These quick wins have reasonable impact and do not take much time to implement.
The title tag is an HTML tag that is in between the <head> and </head> of your web page. It controls the text that shows up in the browser tab. It is also displayed as the text of the link in your search engine listing. The title tag on each page of your website should be unique. Use the search phrase you’re trying to rank for once in your title. It’s a good idea to put your company name and some location info here too but keep it short. The first 65ish characters are the most important.
This is a title tag in full form:
<title>My Awesome Service for location | My Awesome Company</title>
The big takeaway should be not to just hit the bold button in your editor. Your page should have an h1 header and it should probably contain either your business name or a phrase that contains your search term. If the search term isn’t present in the h1, make it present in an h2 somewhere shortly down the page.
If you don’t understand all this “tag” talk, it’s a good time and idea to learn a bit of basic HTML. If this is you, go take the Introduction to HTML on codecadamy. Search engines read your content and make decisions based on its structure. The biggest impact can be had by just having some good headers but having a grasp on other HTML tags and using them properly may benefit your rank as well.
This is the expanded copy people will see under your link when you show up in search results. This text does not have to contain keyword as it doesn’t affect ranking. This copy does affect clicking, though, so make it relevant to the immediate needs of those who will see your listing. Write something that will draw people to click.
This is what the meta description looks like for idestini.com.
<meta name="description" content="Website, mobile, and application strategy, design and development services. We'll get you online, the right way. Proudly based in Bryant, Arkansas." />
Do these things and be patient. Your rankings will not change overnight. If you aren’t seeing improvements (aren’t seeing your site on the first page) within 2-3 weeks, send me a note or leave a comment here and let’s see if we can do better. I’d love to help you. Also, check back next week and I’ll teach you about two tools you can setup to help understand what search terms your site is ranking for and if people are clicking through.
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