Heavener Main Street Program

Small towns all face the same challenges - how do we keep our younger generations gainfully employed in our local communities so we can continue to offer what made us a good place to raise families in the first place.

Talk about balancing on a razor's edge! If we encourage the huge employers to set up shop we can also get the problems that can come along with transient populations - gangs, increased drugs and violent crimes and pressure on our schools and infrastructures. But, we can not expect to stay the same. Older businesses will close, some will move and if we do nothing, our small communities become empty spots on old maps. We will always need to find new businesses to be here in our small towns so they can have futures with us.

Main street programs help small communities to help themselves and Heavener is taking steps to ensure that it will continue to offer not just memories but also futures. Each meeting that I have been at so far has seen new faces who bring with them not just optimism, but some determination that we will have a future to offer.

The next meeting will be on October 20th at 6 P.M. at the Heavener schools. One reason we are meeting there is that we are growing out of the places we have been meeting - last Saturday's meeting ended up being standing room only!

You should be there. Every time just 1 person steps up to help make an area an better place - you do just that - you make it a better place.

Clicking on the title or here will show you a new resource for this area.

Join with us - this is your future and the future of your children that you can make happen.

Lower gas prices Mr. President?

I received an email from John McCain today (as did many of you reading this). While I expect to vote for him in November, I still do not aggree with some of his ideas. In case you are wondering, I also subscribe to Clinton's and Obama's missives as well.

Here is a copy of my reply to Senator McCain.

"I oppose your plan to reduce Federal revenues by suspending gasoline taxes. The American people must learn that energy costs money. These attempts to delude the population into believing they can continue to enjoy artificially low costs will weaken our ability to compete in the world markets. Our grandchildren will pay the cost of these short-sighted programs. For the same reason, I oppose releasing strategic reserves.

As my future President, I insist you plan for the future of my children and grandchildren. Short-term fixes are not the answers to our problems.

Sincerely,

Michael Myklin"

I know that being willing to make a stand is unpopular - but this country can not continue to bankrupt our children's futures with short-term fixes that exist just to get someone elected.

Preparing Your Business

When you begin to plan an Internet site to develop your business, it is just as important to spend time in the planning stages as you would for a storefront operation. I mention this because I have met several people this summer who made this mistake. Just because it is cheaper to start an online business than a main street, location does not make it less of a business.

You build successful businesses on the solid ground of research and planned implementation. Few shortcuts will allow you to ignore these necessary steps. Following a hunch or a feeling will usually lead you into a failure that costs you the resources you started with.

Fortunately, we have an excellent resource in this area that I encourage all potential owners to utilize. The Oklahoma Small Business Development Center located on the Carl Albert State College campus is a good place to het help with all your business needs. The OSBDC can help you avoid making costly mistakes and connect you with the information you need to make informed decisions.

Researching your market is just as important as deciding which shipper you will use for your order fulfillment. If you who missed the Women in Agriculture & Small Business Conference & Trade Show at the Bob Lee Kidd Community Center in June, you missed a very good business resource. One of the presenters was Jason Harvey with the Oklahoma Agriculture Enhancement & Diversification Program. The Oklahoma Department of Agriculture runs this and it is designed to help add value to agricultural products and increase revenues for rural Oklahoma. This program stresses research and planning to create new jobs in our communities. There are grants and loans available for feasibility studies, marketing and product development. There is an emphasis on creating new and innovative ways to market products.

The Internet is one way to market your product that may have lower start-up or overhead costs. A strong advantage is the ability to track very specific information about your potential customers and use this information to create new marketing strategies. It is possible to find out how much potential demand there is from Internet customers before you create a website and exactly which search terms they would use to find what you have to sell. This information can allow you to have a strong action plan built on research, not hunches or feelings. Once the website is operational, strong analytics programs can help you define future strategies by providing insights into what more you can do to turn visitors into customers.

(Mike Myklin is an author, speaker and ecommerce owner who can help your business get more value from the Internet. You can reach him at http://www.myklin.com/ where these articles are archived.)

Free Summer Programs for Bible Study

Every year I try to find a way to give something back to the communities that support us. The projects have been varied - we've donated furniture to help the victims of Katrina, worked with summer youth programs, done some litter pick-ups ...... the usual mix for anyone with a desire to help others.

This year I wanted to try and offer something more unique and with the potential of more impact. That can be a hard goal to reach but I think this may be it.

One of our websites (www.The-Log.net) is a commercial classroom provider. It provides the software and technical needs for people to teach online classes just like colleges and schools. We don't sell software or the actual course materials. We provide empty classes so companies can teach new employees or provide "in-service" training over the Internet using their own materials but on our servers. (We are a "hosted" solution.)

Here is this year's project. We will offer about 1000 student seats to anyone who wants to teach a Bible study class, or possibly a Scout group program, or any other "moral education" course that helps people improve their community. If your goal is to help people find a better way to live, we want to help you do this.

You will get all the usual testing and grading abilities just like a usual online school class and each teacher will be issued a unique"enrollment key" to give to their own students. We envisage this being used by youth pastors who need to develop their teaching skills, or by someone who wants to put together an online class for our troops stationed overseas, or maybe to help invalids who can reach the Internet.

We will consider any request for a free class that involves children's activities.

We will waive the usual teacher and student fees for our services. The classes will be empty; (you'll need to create the course materials yourself) but if you can use a computer to reach the Internet you can probably do this without much problem. Your free classes will be hosted through our servers 24/7 just like any paying customer. Your students will create their own free user accounts to login just as they would in school.

I invite you to pass our offer along to your local churches and civic organizations. My hope is to fill all 1000 student seats and help that many people find new strength in their lives. If the response becomes overwhelming, we will answer the requests on a "first-come" basis. Here is the website again: www.The-Log.net

Online Training Made Easy.

Many companies must comply with regulations about what they tell their employees and how the information is taught. If mistakes are made, it sometimes helps to have very good records to show how you complied. Paper trails have become paperless but no less important when tracking the effectiveness of your training programs.

Some companies are moving to software programs that track training, individual participation and scores in neat packages that are easily archived for the future. In case that sounds familiar to you, that is a standard online class package used by schools around the world. The technology is a good way for companies to handle many of their training needs.

By using online training, a company can avoid the problems associated with scheduling. Training is often not a high priority and is commonly skimped in either time or attention. Many managers consider training an unavoidable interruption and expect employees to get it done as quickly as possible so they can return to activities that are more productive. This is particularly true when large numbers of key employees must be involved at the same time.

Rushed training classes commonly cause more interruptions as participants must contact the trainer for clarification after the class. People learn in different ways so a quick presentation in a rushed setting may cause problems with complicated materials or changes in procedures. The online class avoids scheduling problems and allows employees to attend training when it fits into their schedule. If they need more time with one part of the material, they can take the time they need to absorb the new information. An office will not be disrupted by losing large numbers of personnel to a class at the same time. Online training is a good way to conduct in-service training when your staff travels during the day.

You are not restricted to presenting printed material. It is common to include videos, audio tracks and links to other materials on the Internet. Another advantage is that you can track which of the materials have been viewed. Once the class has been completed, your participants can be tested and their grades recorded.

Instead of buying online class software, there are companies that rent them to you as a service and include the technical support they require. This is a good way for you to avoid the headaches associated with installation and upgrades. Costs are low enough that even mid-sized companies will often choose to out-source this part of their operations instead of adding it to their IT load.

These classes are used to teach new hires, train existing employees and show customers how to use new products. You can explore your options with free classes from companies like www.The-Log.net.

You can write to me at mike@myklin.com for assistance with your training class requirements.
(Mike Myklin is an author, speaker and ecommerce owner who can help your business get more value from the Internet. You can reach him at http://www.myklin.com/ where these articles are archived.)

How To Waste a Website

This week I had to tell a local company their website was a waste of money. The designer they used had made almost every mistake possible in creating their website. If you want to avoid this disaster here are a few ideas to discuss with your designer.

When someone registers a domain name for you, be sure that you are listed as the owner. Your designer should be your administrative contact, not the owner of the name. It is very common for designers to claim ownership when registering client’s domain names. You often do not find out about this until you try to move your account somewhere else. You can check your ownership by looking up your domain registration with a free service like Domaintools.com.

Sometimes a designer will lock the domain, which means you cannot move it away from the listed servers without their permission. Locking a domain does make sense but there are better ways to protect your website without being held hostage.

Broadly speaking, the web is based on html code. All the pretty pictures, sounds and movies that you see are interpreted by programs that allow you to see the pages or hear the sounds. Websites can be designed using flash and this is a common way to create very engaging visitor experiences. However, before your visitors see your website, the search engines must be able to understand what you have.

The company website I mentioned had no html code that could be read by the search engines. The only way you found the site was to type the name exactly as it was registered. If you miss-spelled it by one letter you saw an error message without any prompts for the correct spelling. The search engines could not help you find it because there were no code definitions for them to read.

When you design a website, you must keep your market in mind as you decide what to content to include. If you sell to wholesalers, your website must include content that is useful for them. Different areas can be aimed at different users but visitors must be able to find relevant material quickly and have a compelling reason to want to do business with you.

Finally, a website should provide a way for you to understand what your visitors want. You must also include ways for you to continue the conversation with them after they have left. If you ignore the marketing aspects of the website and fail to offer value statements to your visitors, you are not getting much value for your money.

If you need help finding out who owns your domain name or have questions about your website, you can write to me at mike@myklin.com for assistance.

(Mike Myklin is an author, speaker and ecommerce owner who can help your business get more value from the Internet. You can reach him at www.Myklin.com where these articles are archived.)

Virus Protections

This month my newsletter talked about how I manage to keep our business and home computers virus free. I do this using only 3 free programs widely available to anyone else. We open numerous emails and attachments every day since my email address is widely seen across several web sites. So far, we have not had a virus infect any of the machines.

A friend who takes my newsletter replied to me with a fourth method that I completely neglected to mention. She uses a Mac and sends her sympathy along for those of us who appear to be targets of opportunity.

Oh well, they too seem to have gathered some attention from the discontents of cyberspace. Until then I shall continue to write advice like that I sent out in this month's Myklin Muse Newsletter. You are welcome to get your own copy and correct my mistakes.