SPEC (strictly productive & efficient computing) for Small Business

Over the past 25 years I've been around many small businesses and have witnessed time and again that as the dizzying pace of technology marches on, and how amazingly useful technology can be for any size business, vast majority of small businesses lack significantly in understanding the technology and thus totally missing the boat on using it to make their business more efficient, more effective, with increase in productivity and reduction of expenses.

Business owners spend enough time worrying about business challenges, following tech isn't something they can dedicate much time to, since it's a full time endeavor on its own, so they can't be really blamed for lacking to utilize tech for their benefit. Unfortunately the army of computer consultants only ads salt to the wounds, since everyone in the tech industry has their own approach, their own level of knowledge (which varies greatly) and in many cases - getting 10 different people to create a solution would yield 10 different approaches.

Thus business people get disenchanted, after spending money over and over and not accomplishing desired goals. They think (and sometimes appropriately) that they can't afford to have permanent Information Technology people on staff, and thus work in a reactive, instead of proactive environment. The reality is that this approach isn't only non-productive, in many cases, but also can cost more.

The bottom line - for many the sentiment 'we hate computers' seems to be the norm and that's very unfortunate and, at least according to me, should not be the case. Thus the quest to make things better.

How exactly you may ask? Rather simple, by me providing a path of learning, from a user's perspective, of what technologies every small business can benefit from, by having a series of tutorials, reviewing software products and web-based services and acting essentially as your IT-in-a-box for your company. There is a tremendous amount of free and next to free software and web-based applications that exist. I will point you in the direction of some that make sense.

In addition to having these mini-sessions (think of them as having a meeting where you and I get together and I do a presentation for you, describing something reasonably small to digest, and explaining not only what it is, but how it could be utilized, what benefits it could/would bring and specific steps of getting it acquired and set up), I'll also be running a blog & forums where you can ask specific questions and I'll do my best to address those. Obviously there's a limit of how much I and my partners in the endeavor can handle, but we'll do our best.

If you are a small business owner, struggling with your technology use or misuse and want to commit some time here and there to significantly benefit your organization - I would certainly recommend that you follow SPEC events, Q&As etc. (start by following the SPEC blog 'Specifiable') and see for yourself.

After witnessing and living technology since the inception of microcomputer revolution - I'm still amazed time and again, what is available out there, how incredibly useful and effective it is and how it continues to march forward without missing a beat, despite wars, recessions and all the other negatives surrounding our daily lives.

Technology is vast and there isn't a single individual that knows 'everything'. There are experts in various fields, certainly some who I sincerely consider geniuses (although I'm not one of them), but on overall scale - any one entity, whether it's an individual or a company, regardless of its scope of knowledge, is still just a spec on a global level.

Thus the name of my brainchild here - SPEC, dealing with small, but SPECific issues, discussing SPECial software and events that matter and moving forward one spec at a time, to ensure comprehension, which in my mind is far more important than memorization. SPEC stands for Strictly Productive & Efficient Computing, of course it could also stand for Significantly Productive & Effective Computing, then again some may call it a 4-letter word... which of course it is... just in a good way :)

A bit about me (in case you sense a slight accent) - I was born in the wrong country, thankfully my parents took care of that mishap by immigrating to the USA, so for the past 30 years I've been very proud to say that I wound up in the right one (although as much as I tried, still couldn't get rid of the accent completely... strangely enough many people commented that I sound 'smarter' because of that); I live in the beautiful State of Washington with my wife and 2 adorable children and on a rare occasion manage to grab the old drum sticks and make sure I don't forget my first love - music. If you do find some English errors - I apologize, as I said - I was born in the wrong country.

One last thing, even though I was never in the Armed Forces - I have a deep respect for the men and women serving, as well as the veterans and want to provide a special service as part of SPEC endeavor for those folks. Details will be coming soon. If you are a vet or currently serving in the US Armed Forces - check back for the details of this offer.

And the final last thing - follow me on Twitter for all kinds of updates. If you don't know what Twitter is - don't worry about it, it'll be covered in SPEC and soon.