Now with Wordpress 2.5

March 30th, 2008 by John Herman, under Succeeding Steps, Wordpress. No Comments

I have been playing around with Wordpress 2.5 all weekend. This Wordpress update has been really scary for me. Things are really different in the back end now. I feel like the blind leading the blind, but we have now made it. There were some bumps in the road, along the way. Luckily the plug-in issues have all been resolved this morning because of a mad rush of updates on Sunday. I also feel comfortable recommending the upgrade to my clients starting next week.

Look for the new design and new interesting in blogging on here again … Coming Soon.

Business Builders Talk Radio is Here

January 15th, 2008 by John Herman, under Succeeding Steps, branding, marketing, operations, planning. No Comments

We have teamed up with Jennifer Gniadecki from Marketing Curve to create a great new Talk Radio Show on Blog Talk Radio.

We will be covering ways to Build your Business. Click here to check out our website for the show and listen to past episodes. We will be on and taking your calls every Sunday at 5 pm EST. Drop us a line if there is a topic you want us to cover.

Writing is hard…

July 13th, 2006 by John Herman, under Succeeding Steps, products. No Comments

We have been working with author Laurie Dart on designing her first eBook The Everyday Guide to Writing Wisely. I had already been looking for a book that could answer my quick grammar questions and this foot the bill.

I would recommend it to anyone that has to write anything.

Our Business Tools

June 8th, 2006 by John Herman, under Succeeding Steps, tools. 1 Comment

When getting started with clients we always review what kind of business tools they are using. Here are the tools we use to keep going:

Web Hosting: Dreamhost

A lot of bang with little effect on your wallet. They also have a lot of tools that are easy to install. Support has for the most part been good to us.

Content Management: Wordpress

I can’t say enough great things about Wordpress. It is easy to use and has a lot of great plug-ins for features. I have used Joomla with other clients before. If you are doing anything beyond just posting information and having a blog, I would go with Joomla.

Email Mailing List: Intellicontact Pro

It is easy to manage the list and templates and it has autoresponders. The price and features are right where I need them.

Accounting: Quickbooks Online

Its not amazing yet, but it does the job and allows us and our accountant to access information form anywhere.

Phone: Virtual PBX

It was a pain to setup, but is easy to use. This virtual phone system allows us to transfer calls from anywhere and have the big fancy phone system without all the upfront cost.

Contact Managment: SugarCRM

We are still small enough to use the Open Source version of this great tool. Sugar manages all of our contacts on our shared hosting which is automatically backed up every hour in case something bad happens. We also use it for all of our group emails, so we have a history of contact with clients.

Project Management: Basecamp

The original easy web 2.0 tool. Basecamp allows us to organize all of the to-dos for a project and share them in real-time with our clients. This allows for easy communication. So everyone knows what is going on with any given project. I can’t wait till they come out with their Contact Relationship Managment App, Sunrise.

Payment Processing: Paypal

It is not amazing and I always worry about some of the bad experiences I have had with them in the past, but Paypal is still the best processor for a small business.

Web Stats: Google Analytics

I just recently switched to Analytics so I don’t have much of an opinion yet. For the starter blogger, I would go with MyBlogLog. MyBlogLog did seem to slow down my site by a second or two. Analytics doesn’t seem to slow things down.

Mix 97.1 and Succeeding Steps Help Columbus Area Business Start Website

April 27th, 2006 by John Herman, under Succeeding Steps. No Comments

Columbus, Ohio – New small business marketing and operations consulting company, Succeeding Steps LLC (http://www.succeedingsteps.com) and Columbus, Ohio radio station WBNS-FM Mix 97.1 are helping a local businesswoman, Carrie Finney, jump start her new gourmet dog treat business, Howlin’ Dog Bakery. Howlin’ Dog Bakery will produce custom tailored, all natural treats for dogs with dietary restrictions.

Carrie was in need of a website and wrote in to Mix 97.1 for their segment called “A New You.” Each week Alan, Kate, and Matt from the Mix 97.1’s morning show select different listeners that have written in to the “A New You” email address available on their website at http://www.mix971.net and help them make big changes in their lives. On April 27th, Alan told his listeners about Carrie’s need for a website. John Herman from Columbus, Ohio-based Succeeding Steps LLC answered the call and offered to develop a website for Howlin’ Dog Bakery for free.

Over the next few weeks, Succeeding Steps will be tracking the development progress of Howlin’ Dog Bakery’s website on their company blog at http://www.succeedingsteps.com/blog/tags/a-new-you/.

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Succeeding Steps LLC is a Dublin, Ohio-based marketing and operations consulting company specializing in small and growing businesses. Visit them on the web at http://www.succeedingsteps.com.

More information about WBNS-FM’s “A New You” segment is available on their website at http://www.mix971.net/promotions/promotions.php.

Contact:           John Herman

Succeeding Steps LLC

4226 South Oval Street

Dublin, Ohio 43017-5005

(614) 360-2425

jherman@succeedingsteps.com

http://www.succeedingsteps.com