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When we think of eCommerce, it’s natural to think of Amazon.com, eBay, or one of the millions of small and large businesses selling “things” on the web. True enough. But let’s break down the basic elements of a good eCommerce website:

What is this Upendo Ventures thing, anyway?  I mean, it sounds funny and it seems to have come out of nowhere.  Also, what in the world has Will Strohl (me) been up to the past few months?  These and many more questions have been coming our way, and this article hopes to answer many of them.  Needless to say, we’re very excited to introduce Upendo Ventures to you.

When I founded Upendo Ventures, it was in my heart to build a business that mirrors my values and how I believe we should all treat each other as human beings.  For anyone that knows me, you’ll know that this train of thought has been at the core of everything I’ve ever done – including those menial tasks that none of us love to do.  This was also reflected in my hard work with Hotcakes Commerce, where I loved helping to make e-commerce easier for everyone.  With Hotcakes going open source, it begs the question, “Where and how will I get support now?”  For anyone that’s enjoyed or been interested in the Hotcakes Cloud, you’ll have this and other similar questions.

If you didn’t already know, CMS is an acronym for “content management system.”  A CMS is used by many developers, consultancies, and companies to build their website.  It’s an incredibly common thing to do, as any flavor of CMS you choose will always save you effort and money, compared to building a website from nothing.  This is especially true if you look at the lifetime investment of your website.  Using a CMS framework or solution of some kind just seems to make sense.  After all, this is what I’ve built my own career upon since 2001.  However, then, CMS was known as a portal or portal framework.  That’s a long time ago, so it’s not a bad idea to take stock of things every now and thing to see if what you’re doing is the correct thing.  To this end, I asked myself, “How is CMS doing right now, and does it make sense to still be doing CMS-related work in the future?”

In most social networks, connecting with someone else can feel like a personal decision.  After all, if you accept a friend request in Facebook, you’ve just given access to all of your “private” images and updates.  They’ll see that embarrassing photo of you at the beach.  {GASP!}  This has trained us to be weary of who we allow to be “connected” with us online.  So much so that some people have private Twitter accounts.  (Something that I have yet to understand.)

There are numerous ways as a leader to measure yourself, your progress, and your goals.  Not all of them are scientific, but they give you a way to move forward to improve yourself.  Sometimes you will have the benefit of measurable progress indicators, and luckily, your email inbox is one of them.  You can easily use your inbox to gauge several things, including when you need to delegate and focus on specific areas of the business.

When people look at you, they see you brand, whether intentional or not.  It’s a lot like looking at things through a camera lense.  It’s a similar thing when you look at any successful business.  No matter if you see it’s sign on the side of the road, in an ad on a website or billboard, or you visit their booth at a conference – you know where you are and who you’re interacting with.  When you walk into any In-N-Out location or visit their website, you can feel their brand all around you.  You’ll never look at one and confuse it with Burger King or McDonald’s.  When you think about your personal brand, you need to attempt to achieve this as best you can.  Be the CMO of your brand!

This article isn’t for everyone, but if you’ve found yourself reading this far, you probably consider yourself a jack-of-all-trades, or someone has said that about you.  It’s a double-edged sword to be known as someone who can do everything.  As the saying goes, “Jack-of-all-trades, master of none.”  When you’re good at a lot of things, it’s highly unlikely that you’re an expert at any one of those things.  This makes you difficult to hire in most cases, but don’t fret.  This also makes you one of the most valuable people in any company you find yourself in.

In many ways, LinkedIn is just like every other social network.  It allows you to create a profile.  You add details about yourself, upload your preferred photo, and connect with other people.  You post status updates, and like and/or comment on updates by others.  However, as we continuously point out on this site, LinkedIn is not like every other social network.  You need to carefully consider how you update your profile on LinkedIn, beginning with your profile photo.