Business Tools And Resources Archives

Resources to Help You Take Advantage of Time

Published in Business on March 17, 2020

With time comes opportunity.

As we all get more accustomed to working from home, many of us will realize how much time and energy we waste in our business lives. Time is lost doing a number of things: driving to work, chit-chatting with friends, joining endless meetings, and the list goes on. Mind you, this experience is not the same for everyone (i.e., industry specific).

Needless to say, the advent of working from home, should, technically, introduce a lot more time to your life. I personally believe that for those that are truly productive you’ll likely be able to finish your work in a fraction of the time, adding even more time to your life.

So what is one to do with this new time?

It doesn’t take much to find meme’s across the web sharing insights into how to use the time to get more fit, spend time with your family, or play more with your pets. I am, however, a big advocate for distance learning.

Distance learning is how I have accomplished much in my life. This post will focus on the resources you have at your disposal. It will focus on the educational resources we have at our disposal to take control of our own destiny.

When things are down you can’t sit and wait for things to get better, you have to double down on yourself so that when it gets better you can capitalize on the new opportunities that will present themselves.

Sources of Professional Development

This applies to anyone that has to earn money for themselves, or their family. Doesn’t matter if you’re in tech, business, retail or the restaurant business.

As I often tell my teams, it’s not about what the institution is going to do for you but what you are going to do for yourself.

Many of these resources offer you trials, 7 – 14 days sometimes, it’s amazing what you can learn in those short time periods.

LinkedIn Learning

This platform came way of the acquisition of Lynda.com. I personally enjoy their training style and curriculum. You can learn almost anything you want, from how to develop a website to how to manage your finances to how to start a company.

Reference: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/me

Linux Academy

This platform is the go to for most things technology related. It’s an amazing resources, with amazing hands-on-trainings and labs. You have the ability to spin up your own test environments and try everything you’re learning. It’s an amazing resource for technologists and those interested in technology.

Reference: https://linuxacademy.com/

Code Academy

Ever wanted to learn how to start programming? This is where I would send you. It starts from the very basics, and provides a great interactive platform.

Reference: https://www.codecademy.com/

WP101 / WPBeginner

Want to know more about this WordPress thing you keep hearing about? Here are two great resources. WP101 and WPBeginner have committed their existence to helping you get acquainted and be successful with the platform. With what you learn from them you can quickly get your idea online and start your own digital organization.

Reference: https://www.wpbeginner.com/

Reference: https://www.wp101.com/

For Veterans Interested in Technology

If you’re a Veteran that was honorably discharged I encourage you to look at this new resource Veteran Employment Through Technology Education Courses (VET TEC).

For Kids

If you’re like me and you have kids, don’t worry there a number of great resources at your disposal. I have heard of two that I am only now getting familiarized with. Depending on your country, county, state this might become your friend really quick. In Riverside county, schools are being shut through April 30th.

Kahn Academy: https://www.khanacademy.org/

Scholastic Learn At Home: https://classroommagazines.scholastic.com/support/learnathome.html

Your Future is Your Responsibility

Whenever a team member would ask me what we were going to do to for them to improve, I would typically respond – “Show me you are investing in yourself before I invest in you.” As crude as it might sound, it was intentional. My personal belief is that if someone is unable to invest in themselves first, then why should I.

Regardless of where you are in your professional career you can never be too proud to advance yourself. Thankfully, we have been presented with an amazing opportunity. Let’s take advantage of it.

If you’re working from home you can probably do all your work, and still have time to invest in yourself, and if you’re out of work because of a lay off or something similar, you can use this time to learn a new skill. Regardless, immersing yourself in professional development is a great way to disconnect yourself from the overwhelming noise you might find across other mediums. Who knows, you might enjoy it! :)

I have no affiliation with any of the organizations above, they are just great resources with exceptional knowledge.

This is also a great opportunity to learn ways to create a family friendly network environment on your home network to help restrict access to porn / obscene content.

Tips to Protect Your Domain[s] Investments

Published in Security on November 20, 2018

A few months back I was working with a customer that was having the worst day of their lives. Attackers had taken full control of their most critical digital asset – their domains and the domains of their customers.

The organization affected was an agency. They built and managed sites for their customers and in a relatively short period they lost access to their site and their emails. In this article I’ll share what happened, and offer tips that would have made things a lot harder for the attackers to hijack their domains.

Thinking Through the WP Engine Acquisition of StudioPress

Published in Business on June 28, 2018

As a fun thought exercise I decided to think through the WP Engine and Studio Press acquisition. Specifically, what I would do, and think they will do, with the new asset. While I know all the parties, I have less than zero knowledge about the deal or intentions. In other words, this is pure conjecture and insights from a dude in his hammock and flip flops thousands of miles away from the discussions.

I will focus on what I would do with the asset and why I think it makes a lot sense. I won’t focus on the people or the community. I encourage you to also read StudioPress’ Release, Jason’s (WPE Engine Founder) Thoughts, Brian Clark’s position, and finally Bob Dunn’s insights.

Strategic Alignment

Strategically this deal makes sense. To understand this you have to understand the penetration the Genesis framework has amongst developers and integrators, and WPE’s strategic direction.

This is chess, not checkers motherfucker – Ben Horowitz (Hard Thing About Hard Things)

In my opinion, the Genesis framework is one of the most powerful and utilized framework in the market. They have been for years, and while the theme market has dramatically changed they continue to be at the forefront.

Interestingly, it’s not it’s themes I find most attractive – it’s the framework. Countless developers and agencies leverage it as the foundation of their development work. It’s so prevalent in this specific community (the Agencies) that I would argue that it powers more sites in WP than even the website owners are aware of.

I can also attest to its prominence amongst this market with my experience at Sucuri, agencies are also an important cohort for us, and I can tell you, without-a-doubt it’s the preferred preferred platform.

Understanding this point makes the strategic partnership oh that much more so sweet.

Winning the Agencies

Coincidently, this week I read a report highlighting WPE initiative to win over agencies. It’s grown well over the past twelve months. This is an important insight, it speaks to what and where they are focusing their energy, where they see the opportunity

Note: You could argue that Agencies have always been at the core of their strategy, whether intentionally or not.

If I were to guess, WPE realized that the Genesis framework is most prevalent in their environment and amongst their core market.

Give the people what they want!

If you are strategically pursing a market and you realize they all use a tool, then the next step is obvious – buy it or partner with them. In this instance, buying makes the most sense. Buying will allow WPE to execute against their strategy to provide a fully immersive platform. Speaking of which..

Simplifying the Experience

If you think that WPE is competing against hosts, you’re wrong.

While WPE might have started out as a host I would wager they are positioning themselves towards a fully immersive experience. WordPress just happens to be at its core, but like Automattic’s .com I’d wager that soon it’ll be similar only in name.

What the hell is a fully immersive experience ? Think Hub-spot.

If you haven’t tried Hub-spot, you should. It aims to put all the tools you need around marketing, sales and the core application at your finger tips. As Sucuri grew, this became exponentially that much more important. I think this is where WPE is going. To do this though, they have to do it in pieces.

While they have simplified the end point experience (you never have to worry about the servers availability, state, security, speed, etc..), they have to move upward in the stack, into the application layer, to truly encapsulate the “experience”. That’s where the real opportunity with the Genesis framework comes into play.

In today’s world, those with the desire to get their presence online via a “website” have a number of things to think about across multiple vectors. There’s the endpoint, the application, the supporting systems and services, and the list goes on. Just to get online!

Imagine a world where you streamline that experience. Imagine a world where getting online is a seamless click of a button, and now you’re simply tuning. You’re not starting at zero, you’re starting at the 50 yard line. You don’t have to worry whether something is in the application, the server, the service provider.. it’s all one thing. You’ve removed all the blurred lines.

Oh yes, and all while giving your audience the tools they already use and love.

This is where I would go. This is where I think they are going.

Congrats to the Entire Team!

Huge congrats to the entire team. Having just gone through my own acquisition, I can tell you this is where the real work will began. I fully expect this acquisition to be very different than the last one with Copyblogger. In this instance you have a technology company buying a critical asset to propel them closer to their strategic objectives.

It will all come down to their ability to integrate.

The Lost Art of Making Decisions

Published in Business on June 25, 2018

At the end of one of my keynotes last year I was asked:

Tony, how did you know what decision to make?

In war, there is nothing worse than a leader that can’t make a decision. People die. While not as dire in business, your indecisiveness will slowly kill your product, your team, your moment, and eventually your company.

Define A Financial Structure Early

Published in Business on June 20, 2017

If you’re looking to exit your company, building the financial structure for your business will be important. It will be the most important piece of the equation in any future conversations. Unicorns need not apply.

It is the most under appreciated. They will get you to the promise land, but then they will also fall back into the abyss. There are only a few groups of people that really care about your financials.

Accounting for the Pricing Journey

Published in Business on April 23, 2016

You will undoubtedly undervalue your product or services, and your pricing will be wrong; this I am sure of. It will be echoed by every seasoned business person, professional coach, and everyone in between. You will start researching and googling how to raise your prices and you’ll find over 7 million results offering you advice.

Your inability to make any sense of it will be frustrating, and with every article you read you’ll find some qualifier that holds you back. The fears you feel – “what if we’re wrong”, “can we just revert?”, “what will the impacts to the brand be?”, “will my market work with this change?” – never really go away. Your frustrations won’t be that you don’t understand the idea of raising prices, but more along the lines of how.

A Pricing Journey with Sucuri

While we are all accustomed to reading advice that starts at the conclusion, I instead want to focus on our journey. Specifically our journey with pricing at Sucuri. The real insights come from analyzing how someone reached a conclusion, because what we’re really after is the thought process more than the end result. How do I navigate the process of raising or changing my prices? I honestly have no idea, but I’ll tell you our story.

A Day with the Woo: WooConf 2014

Published in Business on November 4, 2014

To think I was not going to attend the event.

It was already later in the year, November, and besides, as my beloved friend Chris Lema pointed out, I had been rejected to speak.

Forgive @perezbox and his tweets. He got a rejection letter from #wooconf without even applying to speak.

— Chris Lema (@chrislema) November 3, 2014

I didn’t even get my name in the hello.

Favorite Link Saver: @Pocket App

Published in Business on November 3, 2014

If you’re anything like me you’re constantly on the go, well at least in my mind I am. At least virtually you’re constantly moving, jumping between social streams, reading posts, updating posts, pushing posts, it’s our own little chaos of a world.

For a while now though I’ve been really struggling with a clean way to save interesting links. That’s compounded by the fact that I am constantly on multiple devices (i.e., desktop, notebook, iPad, mobile, etc…). For a while I was still using Delicious, seriously, I was. But that’s just not very useful, at least it wasn’t to me.

I was talking to a friend of mine, Cory Miller (at least I think it was him, if not, oh well he gets the credit), and he introduced me to this app called Pocket. At first glance it looked cool, but as if often the case I kind of shrugged it off, I get a lot of recommendations for apps.

Finally settling in at home though I started playing with it and quickly realize how cool of an app it was – more importantly how awesome the user experience is.

Secure Your Traffic on Public WiFi

Published in Security on May 5, 2014

Often when I give talks on website security one of the various discussion points is, and rightfully so, around your individual posture when interacting on the web. This often means being aware of things like transferring your data insecurely over the web.

This insecure act is often achieved through the use public WifI access points (i.e., Starbucks, Airports, Hotels, etc.). The most obvious solution, or what feels like the most obvious is to work off a Virtual Private Network (VPN). When talking to a Network / Systems / Security individual this is the obvious choice, but to the everyday consumer it’s not.

Create an Email Distribution List Using Google Apps

Published in Business on July 30, 2013

**Updated August 2017 to reflect the most current changes**

I am personally a big fan of Google Apps for all Small Businesses. I find it to be a comprehensive solution, offering a wide range of productivity tools – including email.

As a small business, one of the things that helps establish trust and authority with your customers is when they see that your domain corresponds with your company name. The challenge you might find yourself with is the associated cost. I was fortunate enough to start with Google Apps during a period when it was Free for users with a low number of emails, that’s no longer the case.

In this article I’ll introduce you to the process of creating a Distribution list within google apps so that you can created emails like info@yourdomain.com, sales@yourdomain.com or billing@yourdomain.com. As a small business these are some of the more common emails people expect to use, and will try them by default. Creating them when you have a cost associated with them is challenging. Distribution lists allow you to get past the cost implications, while empowering you to share access with more than one person (i.e., multiple people can get the emails and respond to them).

Open New FileZilla Client / Window on a MAC

Published in Business on May 29, 2013

If you’re not familiar with Filezilla, it’s an open source tool that allows you to quickly FTP/SFTP into your servers.

Unfortunately, if you have worked on Windows and Mac you know that sometimes you can’t quite do all the same things. One of those things that has been irritating me for quite some time is opening a new instance of FileZilla on a Mac. By instance I mean a new window.

Loving My New Office Setup – Rocking New 27″ iMac

Published in Life on April 8, 2012

I recently wrote a post about the Keys to Working From Home, this adds to that post. In the post I talk to a number of things that helped me be successful working from home. I specifically spoke to being comfortable in your workspace. Carrying on when with that philosophy I decided to make a new investment.

My prior set up had two notebooks, one with a Windows setup and one with a Linux setup. As much fun as that was, working between the different environment environment became a bit cumbersome and my desk started to look a bit chaotic with all the keyboards and mice and the sort.