3 MYTHS THAT KEEP MILLIONS OF BUSINESSES OFF LINE

Well, duh, it’s expensive. It’s generally accepted in the business world that developing a website requires a significant investment. Add that to the fact that most traditional business people cannot see how a web presence could improve their business profits or operations and you will understand why millions of business people around the world think websites are useless.

This is not phenomenon that occurs solely with developing countries. Even in more developed countries like the United States. Canada and Europe there are still literally thousands, if not millions, of business people who resist taking their businesses online. As internet users grow in numbers these businesses are surely being left behind. For example, take a look at population trends for internet usage of the top 20 countries in the world.


The differences in countries vary and can be accounted for primarily by population and the ease of access to the internet. Online, people are experiencing the evolution and development of social media Web 2.0 and now Web 3.0, while millions of offline businesses in every country operate exclusively offline.

The emergence of social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and YouTube have made it possible for some offline businesses to access prospects globally and locally. In most cases, the encounters are accidental because for the most part the meeting was not as a result of a coordinated strategy.

Most are not aware of the possibility of formulating a social media strategy. Thus, the reason for the emergence of sites and individuals who provide instructions on how to capitalize on the various social media platforms. One such site that is about to be launched is Social Traffic where you can learn how to use social media to build businesses both off line and online. See Social Traffic.

Consider, Trinidad and Tobago, a country with an estimated population of 1,262,000 and reasonably inexpensive access to the internet. It is estimated that approximately 17.3% of the population use the internet regularly.

According to the table below in 2008 there were approximately 212,800 regular users online in Trinidad and Tobago. These numbers also show a growth rate of about 50 – 60,000 per year. For the local market here and possibly in your own local market the numbers do justify having an internet presence.

YEAR Users Population% Pen. GDP p.c.* Usage Source

2000 100,000 1,262,366 7.9 % US$ 8,960 ITU

2006 160,000 1,320,383 12.1 % US$ 12,900 ITU

2008 212,800 1,231,323 17.3 % US$ 18,600 ITU

Per Capita GDP in US dollars, source: United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Source Internet World Stats

Believe it or not, the most compelling reason most businesses are not online is, in one word, “ignorance”. In this case, ignorance simply means not knowing anything about the benefits of an online presence.

Many traditional business people are totally unaware of the phenomenal growth of internet users. It’s even worse when these business owners are not internet users. Very few will never get an appreciation of the benefits to be derived from the internet. But here is the clincher, many of these businesses people are online or can easily get there, they are usually part of an internet community.
Here are the 3 myths that keep them off line:

 Myth #1. Establishing a web presence is expensive.
• Truth: The business needs and the purpose for building a site dictates the actual investment in the site. Almost all businesses are seeking more customers. Establishing a web presence is not expensive in fact there are sites free sites that will allow visitors to build and host their own site; free. A site can be built within an hour with very little programming knowledge. Ironically, that’s exactly where most small business people should start. Before a business owner contracts with a designer to build a web site, like with anything else, they must have a pretty good idea of what they are buying. There is a learning curve but if time is essential the answer is not to outsource this function to a web designer, unless they have an overall appreciation of internet marketing. As is usually the case web designers are not internet marketers, intersection of those two skills is a rare occurrence.

 Myth #2. Once a site is built and accessible people will visit.
• Truth: A web presence is the first step in beginning to develop business from the internet but its useless without the next major milestone; traffic generation. Search engine optimization, data based development and now social traffic are essential to making a web presence effective. All are essential, even if the purpose of a site is to provide information on the business, in other words an online brochure.

 Myth #3. The internet is global and my business is local, makes no sense:
• Truth: On face value that belief seems to make sense but there is another aspect that most noobs are unaware of ; major search engine provide searches by country and even zip codes. More importantly, a business web site should be considered a supplemental information medium, unless it is exclusively a internet based business. It is not a stand alone medium and must become an integral part of all other business advertising. It is the only medium that allows a business to provide every conceivable detail about their products or services and right now the only one that allow a free medium for follow up and additional sales.

As the world ages these diehards will eventually pass on to a place where the internet does not matter, their businesses will either be inherited, sold or die naturally. The internet will outlive them all. A point in time will come when every business in the world will have a web site like a phone. When that happens not having a web site would be something people laugh at.

“Like Pregnancy, A Country Cannot Be Kinda Independent”

Trinidad and Tobago Celebrates Independence 31 August. But Are We?

On the eve of Trinidad and Tobago’s 52nd year of independence from Britain it is important that we reflect and try to understand where we came from, where we are and where we are headed. The experts will once again flood the local media ranting about how proud we should all be. It is important that we all come together to celebrate another year of gaining our independence that we face some of the realities that exist in our nation.

Don’t be misled by the words “gaining our independence”, it was actually “given” to us. We asked and the “Lords in London” collectively came to the conclusion that this country was more of a liability than an asset. At the time over 90% of the population was either former African slaves or Indian indentured workers. A very small percentage, were Anglo Saxon British citizens or their descendants who were primarily the land owners in this country.

Sugar was King and these wise “Lords of London” rightly predicted that in a few years the economic viability of sugar to sustain any country’s GDP was at best tenuous. It has been speculated that the only reason “Independence” was granted was because eventually Trinidad and Tobago would become a thorn in the side of the Crown, at least economically. In other words, we were too poor to keep.

Ironically, things would have been a lot different if we had fought for our independence. If we did, people would value it more, in fact, they would value each other more and our leaders would understand that a people who are willing to sacrifice life and limb for a cause would not take the stupidness that exist today.

But God is good and works in mysterious ways, as mere mortals. a few actors on the stage, most in the audience, spectators looking as the plot (life in Trinidad) unfolds.

Not to discount the efforts of the politicians of the time, men like Dr. Eric Williams who is widely chronicled as the Father of this nation, like him, there have been many who sought to make life better for citizens of this country. The Doc was a politician, as the head of the PNM Party and the Prime Minister at the time, he was instrumental in negotiating our request from the Crown for Independence.

As should be expected, the deal in retrospect and with clear 20/20 hindsight, was self serving, benefiting the Doc as the leader of the country and his party. Trinidadians, at least afro-Trinidadians, placed him on a pedestal and revered the ground he walked on. He was a highly educated Trinidadian but education does never placed anyone beyond the frailties of most men, he was not a priest.

It was only much later that the average citizens learned that for some reason, our Independence came with the condition that the ultimate judicial authority in Trindad and Tobago would include; guess who? The “Lords of London” also known here as the “Privy Council”. Ironically, they still adjudicate on many capital cases that “Trinidadians” just don’t have the historical, or legalistic depth to try impartially. Do we?

Other than that we are “truly” independent but here is the twist that occurred shortly after our Independence, something even the Lords of London were unable to predict. Oil trumped sugar and became our most valuable resource.

Although there were dribbles of oil from 1856 and prior to our Independence, it was only after when the new Trinidad and Tobago government established the Ministry of Petroleum and Mines that the real reserves were discovered. Gradually production increased until in the year 2000 when an oli company discovered the largest reserves were discovered in the Caribbean right off the coast.

That changed everything. But even before that last discovery, the Doc’s was quoted as saying that because of our large oil reserves “money was no problem” . Thank God the Lords of London could not conceive in their wildest imagination the value hidden in the coast. Without a doubt this country would certainly not be independent.

Unfortunately, this easily won freedom, and the new found wealth has created its own problems.

Despite our recent world exposure in the Summit of the Americas as a bastion of democracy, Trinidad and Tobago’s major challenge is with self governance. In the 47 years of Independence, Trinidad and Tobago have been under the rule of the Doc’s PNM party for 39 years. Only on two occasions have the opposition parties been able to wrestle control of the country away from the PNM. As such, it can easily be concluded that this party is responsible for the current state of the nation’s quality of life.

We are now prisoners in our homes and our recreational activities have been adjusted to safeguard our lives and property. But true to the nature of our ancestors, we shift our psyche to song and dance until, as too frequently happens, we face rampant acts of senseless violence and blatant cases of corruption. Our adherence to international laws that govern basic human rights is lacking according to Amnesty International . So too is our rating on the level of corruption in our society according to Transparency International . Both implicitly objective watch dog organizations.

We are a proud people who would not hesitate to declare that “we Trini 2 D bone”. But that’s it. We are not willing to take responsibility for many of the things that are happening around us. Maybe that’s what is meant by "Trini 2 d bone" we know how to shirk responsibility; independently.

We have an attitude of selfishness as evident by the way we drive on the highways, always wanting to be the first and will “bounce down” anything that is in our way to save a few minutes of driving or waiting. Or the way we treat our women and children at City Gate bus terminal where it appears that queuing up lines is forbidden and its ok for grown men to walk over women and children to be the first to get on a maxi-taxi or bus. Even the law enforcement personnel there understand how it works and stand by idle while people are trampled. Is that what independence means to us?

But wait. The independence we speak about is the country, not the people. Our people are split along racial lines, politicians, especially the opposition, play the race card whenever it’s convenient. Elections are won with promises, for solutions to crime, providing basic essential infrastructural development like pipe borne water, electricity and medical services. Promises gets votes, and now we have what we have.

Many of us have grown apathetic, we look at the news and its as if things are happening in some other country, it has nothing to do with us. Many of us just talk about it all day but we will not lift a finger to help. Only when it affects us directly does it really matter.

How would you like to be the gentleman who last week was arrested because he claimed that the government took his land in Chagaramus for use by the US government. When they left the TT government maintained possession of the land and never compensated the true deeded owners. He had to be bailed out of jail for trying to hold a barbeque on what should be considered public land, which according to him, it is not. For that gentleman and his family what does independence mean?

Another quite different case in point, I was approached by someone I met at a networking session who had, what I thought was, a fantastic idea to initiate a petition to reduce crime in Trinidad and Tobago. He wanted help in marketing the idea of using technology and emerging media to assist in gaining compliance to errant behavior and serious crime.

If you have not guessed by now by nature I’m an activist, I believe in doing things to create change even if it don’t work. I think like Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb, new ideas, new possibilities intrigue me, so I jumped on board with the programme. It’s called the Brotherskeeper Foundation and with the aid of the website we began to collect online signature for the petitions. This was a below low budget experiment. From it we were able to draw some conclusions.

Just to let you know we used google analytic to track every click, unique visitors, returning visitors, head line test and every other metric available. We know exactly how many visitors viewed the site, how many went to the petition page and the numbers that actually signed the petition. Initially we were disappointed but we quickly began to understand and drew our conclusions.

For the most part, Trinbagonians are a passive people we really never had to shed blood to gain our “freedom” and “Independence”. We expect someone else to do it for us, whether its signing a petition or “gaining” independence, we were spoiled because we never had to pick up arms or lose life in the process of gaining independence.

One young lady said it best in response to a request to sign the petition, she emailed to say, “let someone else do it, I’m too busy”. She used up about half a minute to send that email, and could have signed the petition in that time but she exhibited a more ingrained problem. We seem to have an issue with taking responsibility, not for yourself but for the country in which you live and say we love. Unfortunately, large segments of the population are not independent thinkers but are rather guided by a landlocked value and a mob mentality that can be quickly sparked.

Let me correct myself here, there was one time when 24 Trinidadians “shed blood” in political action. Unfortunately, in the attempted coup in 1990 was an aberration perpetrated by a religious group who eventually abort their efforts. And just like in Ripley’s Believe it Or Not that entire matter was “quietly” swept under a political rug.

That is why when I think of Trinidad and Tobago’s Independence I think of groups like the Anti-smelter group headed by Dr. Wayne Kublalsingh, author of the http://rheamungal.wordpress.com/2009/02/09/ital-revolution-by-wayne-kublalsingh/ is fighting an uphill battle to save our country from environmental disaster. He is not alone, in a country of over 1.3 million there are thousands of us who will lay down our lives now not for our country’s independence, but for our children’s future.

Many Trinbagonians work quietly and thanklessly behind the scenes with one goal in mind; change. A few are in politics, but the majority are not in it for any power or material gains. There are countless NGOs that pick up the slack trying to assist in the deficiencies in this country. They are what independence is about. We maybe “sorta independent” but there are many who have shaken off the collars of economic slavery and selfishness and are working to preserve some of the values that have taken for granted.

If you disagree with me say so, if you do agree enter a comment.

Trinidad: The America of The Caribbean Cont.

In 2009, I am told that Trinidad is just three years behind the States,
and I believe it's true. The malls have become mega malls filled with
American and European brands alongside upscale Trinidad-produced
copycats like Rituals, a Starbucks knockoff. In West Moorings, the
luxury mall constitutes a kind of tiny Rodeo Drive filled with
local-haute couture and foreign imports--all at American prices.

At Port of Spain's Queens Park Savannah, the iconic vendors' selling
coconuts from the back of old flatbed trucks now sport neon signs with
corporate advertising. On the other side of the Savannah, the massive
National Performing Arts Center recalling the Sydney Opera House is
being built while the rest of the city skyline is becoming crowded with
half-built skyscrapers, all pa
rt of Prime Minister Patrick Manning's
plan to make Trinidad the only first world country in the Caribbean by
2020.

The Tru Value supermarket in Trincity, about 15 miles from Port of
Spain, features a wine market, bakery and upscale dr ugstore. Packaged
foods, once a scorned oddity in this country of home cooking,
proliferate the shelves. You can buy frozen Shark and Bake, a local
specialty particular to Maracas Beach and a "callaloo kit," in which
the low-cost tubers and greens that comprise the national dish,
callaloo soup, are put together for easy convenience at a premium price.

Standing in line next to me at Tru Value, the Saturday of the summit, a
young man sports two-carat diamond studs in each ear, his shirt is
airbrushed with an elaborate vine of "flowers" that resemble stacks of
American dollars. I wonder to myself, ironically, whether he knows the
dollar has lost its bloom.

I anxiously observe all this progress. Three years lag behind the
United States in today's economy is a sinister projection. In 2006, we
too, were flying high, paying a premium for convenience, the more
conspicuous the consumption the better. And then the crash came.
Addressing summit attendees on Saturday evening, Manning said that the
seven-year economic growth Trinidad enjoyed until last year is
already=2 0declining.

But why should it matter to us in America? Being here in the midst of
the Fifth Summit of Americas,

I realize it matters a great deal. With
the question of Trinidad's role as a leader being considered within the
Latin Americas/Caribbean, we would do well as Americans to understand
that Trinidad's prosperity affects the United States' both directly and
indirectly. Unlike other Caribbean nations that largely depend upon
tourism or exports of sugarcane to sustain them in a post-colonial
world, nearly a quarter of Trinidad's gross domestic product is based
in a rich petroleum and the natural gas industry, comprising nearly
three-quarters of the nation's export revenue.

Seventy percent of the natural gas used in Boston comes from Trinidad.
Trinidadian asphalt from the La Brea, the world's largest pitch (tar)
lake lines much of our roads. Sir Walter Raleigh first used it in the
16th century to caulk his ships. Petrochemicals like fertilizers are
made here, second only to the Soviet Union in world production.
Because of its economic might, Trinidad is often called the "America of
the Caribbean" or even "Little New York," wielding fiscal influence on
neighboring countries in the form of trade and humanitarian aid. Its
proximity (a mere eight miles) to Venezuela, places it directly in eye
of the political storm between the U.S. and Venezuela, perhaps
providing a calm zone where those two nations can find common ground.
This seems to have already been proved by the warm personal
interactions between Presidents Obama and Chavez duri
ng the summit
weekend.

Regarding other matters of world diplomacy, Trinidad is defined as an
area of interest in intelligence circles, and the FBI has set up a base
there. Muslim extremist groups are on the rise, and there is
supposition that al-Qaida is making inroads toward using Trinidad as a
base of operations.

In the years since I have been visiting Trinidad, the evidence of
Trinidad's morphing society is apparent in more than just economic
ways. Over the past 10 years, I've observed more overt displays of
religious orthodoxy among the island's 6% Muslim population even while
the rest of the nation is rushing headlong into full-fledged
participation in over-the-top consumerism in the American style.

The social and, particularly, economic divide that has always been the
blight of Trinidad society has become crystallized with the frenzied
preparation for the arrival of world leaders. Public works projects
including road clean-ups, infrastructure repair and increased public
safety constitute a good public face. Yet on the darker side, the
homeless are being corralled out of view, and many there believe that
quality of life improvements will not continue once the dignitaries
have left.

Even as caviar is sold in the once humble Hi-Lo supermarket in Port of
Spain, it is not uncommon for families in deep rural areas to live20on
what they can farm and their children go to school shoe-less, while in
urban Po
rt of Spain, a thriving community called Beetham Gardens
forages an existence amid the Sea Lots garbage dumps.

The government recently built a four-foot wall around Beetham Gardens
to contain the rampant crime therein (the official reason to protect
residents from increasing traffic nearby). But crime is not centralized
to that location; violent crime is on the rise in a country of just 1.2
million people. As of the second day of the summit, the murder rate
stood at over 150 for 2009. Projections are that it will reach 508 by
the end of 2009 and 650 by 2010. By comparison, the New York City
murder rate stood at 89 by the end of March of this year.
These are all pressing issues for the nations of Trinidad and Tobago,
but they are also matters of concern for the U.S. as well. If Trinidad
follows the United States' economic trajectory with a lag of three
years, then we can suppose a major crash is coming their way--in fact,
the real estate bubble of two years ago there seems to ha ve just past
its zenith. Trinidad enjoys foreign investments second only to Canada
and maintains one of the highest credit ratings in the world. Now, we
have a global economy that sees Western nations increasingly unable to
make foreign investments or extend credit.

If Trinidad crashes, the nation will have to cope with social issues at
home that will require many dollars to solve. This could have major
consequences with
its ability to become the broker of Latin American
and Caribbean diplomacy and aid to deeply poverty stricken areas like
Haiti.

Given all of this, it's time for Trinidad to take advantage of the
three-year telescope it has been granted and make provisions for the
future, or being the "America of the Caribbean" may prove less
appealing after all.


Ramin Ganeshram has written for The New York Times, Forbes Four
Seasons, National Geographic Traveler, Newsday and many other
publications. She is the author of Sweet Hands: Island Cooking from
Trinidad & Tobago.

We Like It So

Well the 5th Summit of the Americas is over and we are all relieved that the 34 Heads of Nations came and left without incident.

As they left, I wondered what value the Summit provided to Trinidad and Tobago? I heard that question put to PM Manning and his response was interesting. As a participant in the Summit both as a Party Group member and an accredited delegate, I witness unrestrained waste.

It is a Summit that cost Trinidad and Tobago a lot of it’s resources both in terms of financial and human resource capital. But according to our illustrious PM Manning, “man cannot live on bread alone” and he sees the possibility that Trinidad and Tobago has been instrumental in forging a new era of cooperation in the Americas.

PM Manning cited a as good “example” to rationalize the value of the Summit to Trinidad and Tobago was that one Head of State brought with him 15 high level businessmen from his country all interested in initiating business relationships with their counterparts in Trinidad. Now that makes sense if I did not know what I knew. Here is what I know.

No expenses were spared. Our government contracted with two of the largest cruise liners which it saw as “a necessary” expense because that type of accommodations is not available here. The rationale being that all the conference spaces in Trinidad will be booked and to ensure a zoned security of the delegates to these fora it was a necessary expense. The cost of getting two luxury cruise ships to dock for 10 days next to the Hyatt must have been astronomical. On one of the ships, the Victory, carried a compliment of over 1100 international crew members from places as far as Indonesia, Ukraine, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Special invitations were provided to PNM party group members for the opening ceremony of the summit. The invitation was just for the opening day on the Victory cruise ship. PM Manning and Minister Amery Brown open the ceremony with short speeches, then it was off to cocktails and refreshment. Drinks flowed and all the Ministers, PNM party members and the invited press had a great time patting each other’s backs. The real Civil Society forums would begin on the following day and most of the party members were not expected or even wanted to attend. Rum and roti done, now is back to work or whatever party group members do when they not partying.

Oh and before I close, I hope you were able to experience the greatest show on earth where 750 dancers and choreographers adorned in various costumes paraded on the Hyatt stage for 45 minutes at a cost that was rumored to be over twenty million dollars. The rest of the world might be suffering but in Trinidad and Tobago like the Doc said “Money is no problem”.

Fact is, the Summit of the Americas was just a meeting of the Heads of Nations and did not have to be so extravagant. The same results could have been achieved with a lot less cost. What do you think?