As we approach the end of yet another year, it is only natural to look back, reflect, and contemplate the year ahead. In my case, 2009 has been particularly eventful. This year I hit 40, celebrated the arrival of a wonderful baby son, and said a sad farewell to our 4-legged Greyhound "daughter" Billie. It’s also been a very interesting year from the point of view of personal development, with my priorities, direction and attitudes changing in subtle (and not-so-subtle ways). No doubt this has partly come about due to the major events listed above, and there’s been a definite "life begins" theme running since May.

One of the things I’ve read a lot about lately is what Napoleon Hill calls "Definiteness of Purpose". The more I think about it, the more I realise that I have been fairly vague with my business efforts, and overall ambitions. At the same time, I can also see that these things HAVE become more clearly defined over time, so there’s some positives for sure. Many moons ago I had a vague notion of maybe winning the lottery, and the usual "if I was rich" day-dreaming that usually accompanies such thoughts. I most definitely had a phase of "money sucks – materialism sucks – we should find ways of living without money" but in the end this hasn’t turned out to be terribly practical (OK so I could sell the house and adopt a basic nomadic lifestyle, but my wife probably wouldn’t appreciate that).

I eventually arrived at the point this year where I was (sort of) able to reconcile anarchist and socialist tendencies with a growing appreciation for capitalism and business. I had also spent 20 years noting the things that I liked and disliked about different companies I worked for. Without a shadow of a doubt, it was time to make my own business a reality. So Avallach Technology was registered as a business and my thoughts turned more and more to this area.

The "problem" with Avallach so far has been a certain degree of vagueness – ideas have been growing in my mind, they’ve even been scribbled on notepads from time to time, but I have never truly laid out the reasons why I am doing this, and what it is I want to achieve. That’s not to say that some things haven’t been clearly defined, they certainly have and Express Webz is a shining example of this. No, the issue here is more about overall "strategic" thinking, putting some overall shape on things.

This is the "definiteness of purpose" that Nap Hill talks about; establishing what it is you want to do with your life and allowing those goals to completely fill your mind, leaving no room for doubts, fears, negative thinking and so on.

I already know the 4 main strands to what I intend to do with my life – my next task is to flesh these out more fully, commit them to writing, and commit to achieving them. For this to happen, I’m going to need to be a lot more organised, and certainly exhibit more self-discipline. All in all 2010 is going to be a massive year on many different levels. The thing is, I know I can achieve them and what is more, I know the sacrifices and efforts are going to be worthwhile.

Watch this space as I fully intend to share these plans via this blog – perhaps it will be of value to someone else caught in a similar situation, who knows? What I do know is that publishing those types of thoughts will a) scare me shitless and b) help build strong foundations to my efforts.

OK, so there’s a lot of "me" and "I" in that, but if you can’t be self-indulgent at this time of year, when can you? LOL

An online presence, SEO Techniques, paid advertising and online press releases. ALL these things are great for helping grow your business, but there’s a disturbing trend I have observed lately, and that is the way that many people seem to concentrate on the hip new cool techniques and tools, and forget some of the basic methods (losing themselves business in the process).

There is a tendency to think wholly in terms of “online” when considering your online presence. This leads to strategies and solutions built around web pages, keywords, back links and targetted advertising.

While all this is going on, there’s a whole range of things that can be done in the “offline” world, and in many cases things that can bring you more business than some of the online things you’re doing (or more likely paying for!)

The fact is that if you run a traditional “bricks and mortar” business catering to your local community or local businesses (even nationally and internationally) then what are the chances that THOSE people are searching for exactly the keywords you’re focusing on with your online campaign?

Depending on the nature of your business, you might find that people actually hear about your business, or see your business signage, and think “hey these guys might solve xyz for me”. So they might then set about doing some research on your company.

They might ask around for people who have dealt with your company before, and they might search your business name online. If they see a web address in your signage or advert (even on the side of one of your vehicles) then they will go directly to your site and read what you have to say about yourself.

If you listen to some of the online business experts, you would think that search engine marketing and other purely online techniques are the be all and end all. They’re most definitely not.

For example, I consider myself to be very familiar and comfortable with the Internet, and I spend hours on Google searching for various things. But when it comes to finding people and companies to fix something, I regularly use the method described above.

Why is that? It’s quite simple really – no matter ow good Google is, you can’t beat reviews/recommendations by friends you know and trust, you quite simply DO NOT start out with a Google search. 9 times out of 10, you will keep an eye out for suitable businesses as you drive along, or as you read the local paper, you will ask friends for recommendations, and you will delve into the Yellow Pages.

I don’t want to labour the point, but it’s almost impossible to over-stress this. People do NOT use Google by default, especially when it comes to very practical things. They will use the net to perform aditional research, and with consumables they will often do searches, and will try to find a “nearly new” version on EBay.

In fact I used the Internet today to find out how much a battery charger was going to cost me. So what did I do? Did I got to Google and search for “prices of car battery chargers in Perth” ? Nope!

I searched on the name “supercheap auto” first and foremost because I knew they sold what I wanted, and I couldn’t remember their web address. Once I got to their site (in a split second) I was then able to use their product search to find options and get an idea of how much a battery charger was going to cost me.

On a similar vein, you won’t find my web site, or the Avallach Technology site, by searching on “web site creation Perth”, or similarly general terms. What happens is I talk about my business, I include the business name AND web address on all printed materials, and I talk about the business a lot in various groups, both online and offline.

Over time this creates a LOT of people who a) know the Avallach name, and b) associate Avallach (or Gary Wilmot) with “web sites and technical stuff”.

Do a Google search for “Avallach Technology” or “Gary Wilmot” and you should see a lot of first page search results, though not so much on my own name, which is in fact shared with a celebrity in the UK.

The key thing is, people can get to my web sites very easily, with just a small piece of information. What I have done prior to them doing their research is to make sure that the business name is “out there”, and a memory is ready to be activated in the future when someone is thinking about getting a web site.

I don’t want them searching for “web site perth” because it will cost a lot of money to be found on those key words, and to maintain that. What I want is people ALREADY thinking about doing business with me, looking for ME online.

So this is where the more traditional techniques come into play – when you get yourself a web site, by all means take advantage of various online techniques, but don’t forget to do the “low tech” things that have stood the test of time.

• Put your web address on all your advertising; print, TV, radio and web.
• Put your web address on the side of your vehicles
• Make sure the web site is mentioned on your business cards
• Talk to people, tell them what you do, give them the web site address

You’re going to get very interested, very high quality traffic from these activities; of that you can be sure. If you do enough work on “building your brand” you should see plenty of web site visitors who have come there by searching for your business name!

This is of course why Avallach promotes getting back to basics with business web sites. Forget about flashy, slow loading, web sites, forget about spending a fortune on Google Ads, search engine “specialists” and so on. Promote your business by talking about it, put your web address on everything, and then ensure that when people DO visit, they see a good clean site that is fast to load and gives them the information they want/nedd.

It’s all too easy to get caught up in the high-tech hype, but even in the modern connected world, many of the basic promotional techniques from the past are as relevant as they always have been (and probably always will). So, don’t throw them out with that bathwater!