The Online Business League

Our goals:

• To create value through online business
• To create good online business experiences
• To protect the curious from the predators

Notes:

• Posts with google docs and youtube embeds.
• Who is the online business league?

Our Mission:

• If you do business online, you should provide “support” online
• You should help consumers consume by having enough information online
• People will communicate whether you want them to or not. Transparency prevents the “he said/she said” scenario.
• Changing the rules without telling people is not good. Transparency is not full disclosure.
• False transparency – beware. No bait and switch.

Next time:

• Attribution in service to transparency

Actions:

• About us page
• Survey on “Can you sell a community?” and dialogue “if so how?”

Action Items:

• Brian to wordsmith the three purpose statements (DONE)
• Brian to buy URL (DONE)
• Brian to put up wordpress (DONE)

Next meeting(s) Topic:

• Define good online business experiences
• work backwards from bad ones
• Put forth good examples of “good experiences”
• Review design

We should Our goals:

• provide meaningful info and ways to protect the curious from the predators
• Help people create value online through business
• Create a set of guidelines for how to create good online business experiences.

How you do business (misconceptions & distractions)

• Technology is the tool not the solution
• Fidgeting is not productive
• Starting a business isn’t free
• Because it’s free doesn’t mean it’s valuable
• Doing business online is not special, and by itself should not be the key differentiator
• Conducting business online does not equal marketing online

How you do business (recommendations)

• One product/service at a time please (no piling on)
• Value focused (creating an experience)
• Communicate often about what is happening (not upselling or more marketing)
• Business online is not linear
• Safety
• Education (training your customer)
• Helping people overcome fear of doing business online
• ULTRA-SIMPLE communication even if it takes longer to write

Our internal guidelines:

• Healthy role-play builds better outcomes
• Consumer
• Consumer +1
• Business owner
• Supplier
• Employee/Designee/Associate

How you market online

• Don’t be an ass

The Online Business League has convened. As we move forward, we will be posting videos, documents, and other supporting information about the league and our activities right here.

It’s going to be a bumpy ride full of wrong and right turns, ups and downs, and other cliches. Join us and see if we can better the online business community.