websense

In the very beginning, TKG had two employees, me and my sister, Dana. We were always really good friends, and that made for a really good start up. Soon after, we added James and Aaron. We ate lunch together nearly everyday, and became a devoted foursome, ready to make The Karcher Group a success. As the years have gone by, we have added nearly ten times as many people, but we work hard to maintain that close relationship with each other. We as a company go to great lengths to foster a kinship with one another. That’s not to say that we haven’t had to put some structure in place, because with this many personalities, it becomes necessary, but overall, we just work together and play together. We have a good time doing both.

One thing I have always really loved about where I work is the atmosphere. We really do have a tight knit group of folks here. I like hearing some of the guys playing pool or walking through the SEO/Marketing department and finding a couple of people throwing darts or playing a rowdy game of Foos. We have deck for everyone’s enjoyment, and have been known to grill some burgers or dogs from time to time.

We have a team attitude here at TKG. I really think it’s important for everyone here to be a member of the team. It’s vital, as a provider of both development and SEM, that we have cooperation among all our folks. It’s just the way TKG operates.

We are currently looking for a few people in our Search Engine Marketing and Design /Development departments. If you are looking for a job in the industry, are upbeat, positive, willing to work hard (and play hard) and know that you would thrive as a devoted member of our team, then check out the positions TKG has available. We’d love to meet with you.

The folks here at TKG are all heading out for our annual team building camp out. We eat, sit around a fire, have a beer or two while getting to know each other as well as all the kids and families that come along. It’s a great time, and it fosters our team mentality. Of course, someone will be available if you have an emergency, so if a problem arises, just shoot an email to support at tkg.com See ya next week!

We all know that small businesses need money to keep running. In a slow economy it can be really easy to want to borrow money when your cash flow dries up. We’ve all done it, and now we are starting to see some of the repercussions of so much borrowing.

Several studies have come out lately that basically say that we’re a nation of debtors. This will come as no surprise to anyone who has watched a single newscast in the last couple of decades. With the economic downturn, and the subsequent government bailouts, and thus, borrowing from other nations, we have all heard our fill of recrimination and foreboding. But what does it all really mean? Does it mean you shouldn’t take out a small business loan? Does it mane that our country will eventually end up like Greece?

We’re all looking for someone who will lead us in the right direction. Some of us can depend on our own business sense, some will look for advice from accountants, and some will decide that their business will fail without some influx of cash, and go for the loan.

I obviously can’t say what is right for your business or situation, I know that most small businesses must rely on loans from time to time. Determining when it is in your best interest is the hard part.
I’m sure you’ve all heard of Dave Ramsey. He’s being quoted several places this week on this topic, and I think he is on the right track. His theory is mostly coming from a place of personal finance, but includes discussion on using debt as a tool for growth.

Using debt as a tool for growth is, at least in this country, a necessity a lot of the time. What is your opinion on debt for small business? Is it an essential, or, like a family, do you think it’s possible to grow your business without incurring debt?

I tend to be a risk taker. I like to shoot for things, and have confidence that if they are well thought out, (or at least seem like a fantastic idea), they will work out. I do worry that we have artificially boosted our economy, and that perhaps we will be in a position much like Greece in the not too distant future. Debt, overall, seems to be a very bad thing. Americans have grown very, very accustomed to having everything right now, instead of saving up and paying for what they want with cash. Do you think this applies to small business, or do you believe that as a whole most small business owners are judicious in decision to incur debt, so as not to overwhelm their budgets?

I’d truly love to hear from some of the small business owners out there. Is all the talk of debt making you rethink some of your borrowing choices? Do you see the government as so totally a different entity that the same rules do not apply? What say you?

I follow several blogs, you’ve probably noticed in my citing of many different sources. One of these is called SEO Pittfalls – and as the name suggests, the author Steven Pitts (clever, huh) writes about some of the pitfalls many site owners tend to fall into when optimizing (or not) their site.

A little while ago the site featured a nice little series on Link Building. Link building is one of the most essential parts of a successful optimization. Inbound links help your site gain authority in the search engines. The more good inbound links you have, the more weight is given to your site, and this can influence your rankings. Link building is tricky and time consuming, but not rocket science. If you want to learn the ins and outs of Holistic Link Building, as Pitts calls it, check out his blog. I think you’ll find the series very useful. The language is a little tech-y, but I’m sure you’ll get the gist. He does touch on a very important element in link building – thus the “holistic” part of the title. Pitts discusses how important it is to make sure your link building goes hand in hand with your other optimization efforts, “Emphasizing the importance of the whole website and the interdependence of its parts”. I think this is very intelligent, and sometimes overlooked.

If you’d like to take a look: http://www.seopittfall.com/holistic-link-building-101

If you pay any attention to the news, you’ll have heard of Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay, and maybe if you really pay attention, you might have heard of Overstock SEO Patrick Byrne making news lately. I find it interesting that some of the biggest website businesses are turning out some real movers and shakers in the political realm. These companies, eBay and Overstock are two of the biggest online businesses. Online companies are carrying a lot of clout these days, they are an integral part of the economy, and will only become more so in the years to come.

Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay is currently running for governor of California. She is described as a conservative Republican. John McCain thinks she could be the next Ronald Reagan.

When Whitman joined eBay in March 1998, it had 30 employees and revenues of approximately $4 million. She was able to grow the company to approximately 15,000 employees and $8 billion in annual revenue by 2008 – pretty impressive!

Good business sense often translates well to good political sense. If you have run a business, then you know how to manage people and a budget – at least if you’ve run a successful business. I am really interested to see what Whitman does in the coming years. It would be great to have some really solid candidates – people who worked in the real world, as opposed to jumping into politics without gaining experience and business sense first.

Another interesting figure born out of the web based business world is Patrick Byrne. He is currently the CEO of Overstock.com, a very popular online retailer. He joined Overstock when it was known as D2-Discounts Direct. He was asked to invest in this company and thought that online closeouts might really do well, so he sunk 7 million bucks into it and changed the name to Overstock. Overstock now generates over $800 million a year. Byrne has been named to BusinessWeek’s list of the 25 most influential people in e-Business in the past and is now known for his efforts in combating naked short selling, a practice which Byrne says has often been used in violation of securities law to hurt the price of his as well as other companies’ stock.

Byrne has also recently become a Fox News contributor on Fox’s Business programming. Below is a video clip of him detailing what is happening in Greece’s financial melt down, and how it could happen to us if we don’t stop all this spending.

I love finding these great success stories – web based business have become big, they are part and parcel of our nation’s economy. They are producing some of the movers and shakers, not only in business, but politics too.

Funny, I get caught up in so much of the dev, search and business side of the web, that I am often surprised at how weird the web can be. It seems that while the Google cars are out capturing images for the street views used in Google Maps, once in a while they capture a surprising image.

The latest image that has folks wondering is a guy with some kind of horse face. He appears to be wearing a mask of some sort, just hangin’ out. This guy, now often referred to has Horse Boy, is just one of several strange images found on Google’s Street Views. After a quick browsing I saw an elephant family in Africa, a couple of guys dueling it out with swords in some back alley in Pittsburgh, dressed in full Robin Hood outfits… or something like that.

If you’d like to join in the fun you can always just browse all over the world and see if something pops up, or you can go to http://www.streetviewfun.com/ and have a look at what these guys find everyday. Either way, some of it can be pretty funny, and a lot if it is pretty weird!

Hey, if you have found a funny one, please pass it on…