Quotes on management

My tactics for years was to learn from the best so I will start posting cool quotes every day for you to check out.
These are the words of the guys I truly admire ad at the same time some of the greatest people of all history.

Today I'll start with a quote from the single manager I admire the most of all: the guy who invented conveyor production, one of the first guys to manage his workforce (not just push it to work hard) and the one who started to mass-produce the first automobiles: Henry Ford. He said the following:

When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.

For more quotes by Henry Ford, check out this page

Free document samples

As I promised earlier I start to give away free document templates for web development project management. You can find more detailed descriptions via the contents section. Anyway, these will be updated frequently as webdev process changes all the time.

Of course you've got to have a Google account to view and download these which you presumably already have if you're here on Blogger/Blogspot. If you don't - get it here for free.

Today I uploaded a sample for Creative Brief - it contains about 20 questions, divided into following categories:

• General information;
• Rough estimation;
• Visual design requirements;
• Audience evaluation;
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

The brief is meant to be short, however I strongly anticipate that it will be modified with time so you'd better check it out from time to time to screen for updates.

Introducing Bookshelf

Well, couple of our readers (Maghika and JohnT, thank you guys!) have e-mailed me asking to recommend some more books on webdesign and positive philosophy (the second one actually surprised me because I've only talked about philosophy involved for the first time in the blog today!)

So I came up with this idea of a small page on Amazon that would contain all books reviewed on ManageSIte and other ones I recommend. Sorry that there're only a few of them there now (about half a dozen) but I've only started this blog about two weeks ago so I'm sure I can add some very soon folks.

It's called Bookshelf and you may have noticed a new link for it in the menu above.

Speaking of two weeks I'm kinda surprised how many people have already visited the blog with no advertising and promotion at all! It's very pleasant to see you folks like what I write. Stay tuned for much much more!

I shouldn't tell you this early, but there's so much interesting planned to be done here in the upcoming months - you would scream "Goddamit!" out loud if you knew what I'll be adding here soon! Stay tuned and thanks for reading this!

Manage the experience, not the project

Hi guys! Before we proceed to today's lesson, I've got an important announcement to make:

I'm building a list of future articles and I will soon add an article request form to the site so that you can ask me to cover topics that interest you the most.

Now that we're finished with this, let's talk about experience management!

Well, many managers make the same mistake over and over again: their project execution is virtually seamless but while they forget to manage the client's experience they lose customers even while the product is great. How come and what to do? We'll discuss it today.

First of all, what is experience management? That's really simple: imagine that you are a child and there are two candy shops in your local area, both offer the same candy but when you come to one of them , they just sell you the candy, grab the money and that's it. In the other one, however, they smile to you right from the door, remember your name and personal favorites and even give you some extra candy for no cost!

Now the big question is the following: which one will you bring your precious pocket money to? Obvious, isn't it? So here's the difference between just doing your job well and creating an outstanding experience. And for sure, your own clients will tell all their friends about you give them some extra candy for free.

What's really surprising - you will suddenly find it so much easier to make them agree to what you propose!

Why is that? It's simple psychology: if someone gives you more than you expected from the very beginning you grow to think subconsciously that he is doing that out of respect and/or keeps your best interests in mind. So you will naturally trust him more. See how it works?

So how's that - to manage the experience? Easy, in fact. Just don't stop selling! I don't mean you should speak with ad mottos, just scale it down a bit. Incorporate in your communication small pieces like "I've got great news for you", "we're working for you", "We'll try to make it ASAP" and other of this kind in your daily communication style. That works.

Don't ever say "we won't/can't do it" - either explain how much additional time/money it will take or lay out some other options in front of them. In fact, here's another clever psychological trick:

People tend to make a choice when given options, not argue the fact they have to make it at all.

Because all of us think "what's in it for me?". Yeah right, it's that simple.

Always try to show respect for client's needs and opinion, give him choice and outperform his/her expectations giving them some more stuff for free (be it your expertise, free banner design or a month of technical support to try it out). It's easy, cheap and will earn you more money.

The bottom line: create value for the customer where others take it. That will be a perfect bait for him to want more of your stuff!

Check out the full contents of the future book for more info!

I'd like to know how helpful this advice was, add your comments here please! And as always - I will be more than pleased to answer any questions you might have so feel free to ask them ))

Learn sneaky inside tactics for website management!

Hi there!
I guess you must be pretty excited having found this page and here are some reasons you should be:

• I will tell you how to manage a team of free-lancers in a way that benefits you the most and gets things done like... real fast!
• Manage creative personnel (aka writers, designers)
• ...and programmers (including different tactics for managing PHP and ASP teams!)
  
• You'll also learn how to manage the project so that it takes much time to produce
• Reduce development costs to almost labour price (including how to save and even make money on hosting!)
• How to make clients a proposition they can't resist
  
• Some inside management tactics that help you sell more to existing clients without them saying "no" again - check out the blog for daily updated hints!
  

...And the sweetest ones of all:

• You will learn how to manage relations with your clients so that they not only let you do everything your way but even recommend you to their friends - which will be even simplier to work with!
• And even more - you will learn how to seamlessly take all your customers on techsupport so that you earn even more money on a regular basis!

And BEST OF ALL - it's FREE of charge!

You know what? Check out what my business partner sent me the other day:

Eurolesson @ 04.12.2008
Damn, man!
Are you freakin' going to publish our tactics on the web for everyone to use? For free? You gone completely mad? Now? When we can get all these clients ourselves? Don't do this! I repeat: DO NOT DO it!

So the reason why I do this is simple. I've learned it at from an economy professor during a UNESCO bootcamp several years ago. It's simple so that's how it goes:

Information is different from money and all things material.
If you've got an apple and give it to a friend you don't have it anymore, while if you teach him something - you will both have it and develop it further and make even more money on it.

And all my experience from then on proved he was right!

So prepare for tomorrow when the first course articles will arrive - after that it will be like when Neo took the red pill from Morpheus: you will become a master and forget what it felt like to be underpaid or lose money or even customers.

Welcome to the ManageSite world! Subscribe to this blog for free now and get special benefits! (more on that soon - stay tuned!)