Last Saturday, on December 12th 2009, Internet Marketing Inc.’s New York City office launched its first holiday party ever.  With little under a year of existence, IMI NY has won a strong book of business and surpassed many milestones these last few months.  Partner and President, Todd Soiefer, invited the team to a holiday party to celebrate this success and ring in the new year “Internet Marketing” style.

The party was a huge success, with the attendance of several staff members- interns, developers and all.  A surprising guest appearance was made by the CEO of Internet Marketing Inc., Brent Gleeson, who is based in the San Diego office.  His arrival not only added an element of surprise, but also much entertainment as well.

The party involved a champagne toast and then a sushi dinner at New Ashiya in downtown Manhattan.  It was hard to even hear normal conversation over the continuous ruckus of laughter that practically usurped the night.  I am honestly surprised anyone had time to eat.

So you may ask: what’s my point?  It’s the small things that count.  Having a holiday party for your employees really inspires good cheer and let’s them know how much they truly are appreciated when it really counts.  If you don’t already do it, I suggest you make it your next New Years resolution- not only will good memories be shared but the team bonding is priceless.

Dean Loudermilk and Ellen Albert with the Alumnae Women of Emory board

Although Dean Loudermilk still teaches the semester long class at Emory University, Social Movements and the Media (the basis for the presentation): let’s just say it wasn’t your average college class last night! We had guests from Atlanta, attendees ranging over 20 class years and even a Cornell Alum who eagerly signed up to get in on the action too. Well, seems like everyone had the right idea, as the talk was spectacular—funny, futuristic and engaging all at the same time. It seemed as if everyone was laughing on cue, but really, it was just a good speech coupled with some racy images that boasted a broad appeal.

The event, hosted on November 11th at MTV Studios by Emory Alum, Ellen Albert, was from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., but it seemed like the crowd didn’t want to leave! We had a wonderfully diverse group of 30 guests. A surprising amount of men actually showed up to listen to the talk too, which was, even in the event description but more so in actuality, largely focused on feminism in advertising. Dean Loudermilk began by plowing through the history of various different social movements and their effect on the media, but guests became overwhelmingly engaged during the saga on feminism, which was presented in conjunction with commercials and ads. The presentation spanned the gamut of brands—beginning at Dolce & Gabbana, critiquing Virginia Slims and ending with oomph on Maidenform Bras.

At one point, an Emory Law Grad, Marni Galison, was so intrigued by an ad and Dean Loudermilk’s interpretation of it that she interrupted mid presentation to play devil’s advocate. In older Virginia Slims marketing, a lot of feminists hated the “You’ve come along way, baby” campaigns. Marni, after vehemently denying smoking, exclaimed: “Is there any cigarette ad that feminists do like?!” Her point, essentially, is that, if they inherently don’t like the product, they certainly will disapprove of the ad. But, we did see some commercials that feminists happened to be fonder of—for a sexy 45 seconds, I recommend checking out “The Diet Coke Break” on YouTube.

Regardless, thanks to Marni, the tone was set for an informative and inspiring feminist advertising debate post presentation. The group finally concluded, with Dean Loudermilk’s guidance, that feminism in advertising moves in waves and eventually always comes full circle. Last night, we learned that only 16 percent of people in senior advertising roles are women! So, who is really spurring the innovation here? Our best bet is that it stems from men in high positions with slight interferences by politics and presidential administrations. Keep your eyes peeled for the future because, just like with the Reagan and Clinton administrations, we are certain to see a new wave of advertising with the “Change” advocate, President Obama.

What do you think?!  Tell us below and check out the EAAvesdropping blog.

Last Thursday, on 10/15, Internet Marketing Inc.’s New York City office hosted a “Cocktails and Conversations” event for industry insiders, clients and friends.  More than 60 attendees enjoyed wine, hors d’oeuvres, and a quirky presentation by seasoned sales expert, Lisbeth Calandrino, who recently released a new book called “Red Hot Customer Service.”  The event was scheduled to end around 8 p.m., but the last slew of guests didn’t actually leave until after 10 p.m.  If that isn’t a metric of a success, I’m not sure what is!

For those who missed out, check out our video presentation below AND stayed tuned in for next time!

Many thanks to our fabulous speaker and generous sponsor, Select Office Suites.

For more information, please view Lisbeth Calandrino’s blog.

1.  Establish yourself as an authority in your field of business: Having a blog that you contribute valuable information to on a regular basis (recommend daily or at least a few times a week) can be your primary tool for establishing credibility and trust amongst your customer base. Your blog should contain well-written, engaging, and informative articles that pertain to your industry. Topics can include ideas about current events, thought provoking themes, and news about your company. Make sure the messaging is not self serving and that every post provides some kind of FREE value.

2.  Add Valuable Content to Your Website: I always recommend that business owners incorporate their blog into their website as opposed to having a separate platform. There are plenty of open source blog platforms that can be integrated into as website such as http://wordpress.com. Therefore your blog becomes part of your site and adds new pages every time you post. For example, your URL would be www.MyCompanyName.com/blog.

3.  Provide Great SEO Value for Your Website: As mentioned above, each time you post a blog article you are essentially creating a new page for your website. New pages mean a constantly growing website that has content pertaining to your business. These pages can be easily indexed by the search engines and be ranked in the search engine results. If you write with your keyword strategy in mind and hyperlink specific keywords to relevant pages within your website, you will also create a good internal linking strategy.

4.  Support Your Internet Marketing Strategy: The best way to add value to your Internet marketing efforts is to produce engaging content that people will share and link to. This established authority in the search engines and gives people a reason to stay on your website longer. You are also giving them a reason to come back. Set up a simple RSS feed so people can be notified when new articles are posted. This brings them back to the site. The more they come back and the longer they stay on it, the more likely they are to convert into some kind of business.

5.  Support Your Social Media Marketing Strategies: The best way to establish brand loyalty and trust is to continually provide free value to your customers. Some of the best content on the web (in my opinion) comes in the form of blogs and videos. The more great content you provide, the greater marketing value it will eventually create. Social media is not about self promotion, it’s about customer communication. A great way to establish regular “communication” with your customer base is to give them consistent value. One way to do this is by blogging.

6.  Personal Development: There can be a productive and “selfish” reason for blogging to. The best blogs are not written completely off the cuff with no real educational content. The best blogs provide tips, how to guides, thought provoking questions, and well planned topics with supporting details. This is usually done by the writer researching a topic prior to writing or using his or her own experiences and sharing them so that others may learn. The process over even preparing to write a blog can be personally rewarding and provide learning opportunities for the writer. I always encourage the business owners and top level executives to be key blog contributors for their companies.

7.  Platform for Events and Promotions: Although your blog should be primarily used for communicating valuable information about your business and industry, you can also use it as a simple tool to announce special events like trade shows, promotions, upcoming charity events, etc. For example, if your company is going to attend a trade show, you might write an article about the show and your purpose for attending. After the show you could post an article about your experience and even include a video. Or maybe your company is involved in supporting a charitable cause. A blog is a perfect forum for telling your readers about it!

Marketing is a very important and specialized element to growing a business and differentiating yourself from the competition.  I didn’t used to think so.  My background is originally in finance.  I used to think marketing was just some common sense piece of the puzzle that any intern could handle.  Boy was I wrong.  Much of the “wisdom” I now have comes from making mistakes and following the wrong instincts. 

Being in the Internet Marketing business, I have also spent time analyzing other companies and reviewing their internal strategies from the outside looking in.  This exercise has lead me to gain a more keen understanding of how some of the seemingly “best” mid to large size companies out there completely miss the mark when it comes to marketing.  Here are some basic things that business owners should avoid:

The Good Old Marketing Fallback:  Maybe you used a specific marketing strategy 5 to 10 years ago and it worked very well to drive leads and sales.  Maybe you haven’t even really used “marketing” in years because times have been great and all your business comes to you.  But now times are tough and you realize you need to reach out to your customers more.  Their behavior seems different.  They are price comparing and actually seeking opportunties outside of your brand.  Looks like its time to turn on the marketing again, right? 

In this situation, business owners often revert back to the same strategy they used years ago.  Just because direct mail and billboards did wonders 10 years ago does not mean that you should use the same marketing plan.  Design a plan that will define and address immediate business goals.  If you do not have the in-house expertise to put this together, seek advice from colleagues that have a more current marketing plan to see whats working.  Doing a competitive analysis will also give you great insight into what others are doing to drive new business.  Don’t however make the mistake of assuming your competition is getting it right either.

Branding and Creating “Awareness”:  I have seen some business owners who seem satisfied with their marketing plan because THEY see their ads and assume everyone else is seeing them too.  Not only do they assume that others take notice but they assume that others are responsive to the message.  This can be referred to as “ego” driven marketing.  A business owner should never assume their big billboard ads and fancy print ads are channeling new business.  This was easier to get away with in a good economy.  Owners did not scrutinize marketing dollars as much and therefore assumed their expensive print ads had something to do with their sales.  Maybe they did, but maybe not…how would they know.  How can you truly measure an ad campaign like that? 

As business owners wise up and move away from startegies that are not measurable, they seek more cost effective methods that can be supported by true analytics.  Enter Internet marketing and online media.  Marketing is much more that creative brand awareness.  Your loyal customers are most likely aware of your competition, but something called them to choose you and something is keeping them loyal to your brand.  Do you know what that is?  You are doing something right, just make sure you know what it is and how to translate that into a marketing plan.

Push Advertising:  Push advertising and messaging is alright as long as it is combined with true inbound marketing.  Inbound marketing, or better yet, inbound Internet marketing, is about getting your prospective customers to come to you.  Consumers are constantly expsoed to media of all kinds and therefore we must stay on top of the methods that are curently working to engage people and build trust. 

Consumer behavior has changed in large part to the economic conditions.  People want to trust the brands they surround themsleves with.  They want transparency and honesty.  They don’t want to just hear your pitch anymore.  They will seek out the truth by asking their peers, going to their online social networks, or looking at rating and review sites.  Great online inbound marketing starts with SEO, blogging and social media.  These elements build online visibility and better yet trust among your audience.

Hiring a Consultant too Soon:  It is common for large brands to have a full inhouce marketing team.  But is the team really on the same page and using the same strategy?  Big companies will sometimes have an Internet marketing team, a PR team, and content team, and a general marketing team.  It is quite common for the PR team to have no idea what the Internet marketing team is doing.  When things are disjointed like this, it is best to put an internal communication plan together before bringing in an outside consultant.  This will ensure that there is a team working towards the same goal when new marketing plans are put in place. 

Planning without Analyzing:  There is no point in putting a plan together that will most likely cost you a lot of money if you haven’t really analyzed the problems.  Business owners need to define the true goals behind what they are trying to accomplish because it will affect how a great Internet marketing strategy is built.  For example, search engine optimization isn’t just about going after keywords you think are relevant to your industry or terms you see your competition showing up for.  It takes many factors into account that include basic marketing, customer behavior, competition, business goals, financial goals, conversions, etc.  Spend the appropriate time analyzing the situation before design the marketing plan.  It will save you money in the long run.

Our President (Brandon) and I (Brent, CEO) spent three hours last night as guest lecturers for the University of San Diego’s undergraduate and graduate Entrepreneurship classes.  It was a great experience and we look forward to going back soon.  The general MBA curriculum often lacks knowledge transfer on some of the hard core truths of owning a business, having a start-up, learning from mistakes, and understanding what it really takes to succeed.  The word “sacrifice” comes to mind!

Whether you are in the Internet marketing business, biotech field, or launchig a new brand of energy drinks you must understand your goals and what it will actually take to achieve them.  It doesn’t matter if you are graduating from Wharton MBA or launching a business while you are an undergrad.  There are certain things you will have to give up in order to gain long term success. 

I learned these hard truths during Navy SEAL training here in San Diego.  I spent five years in the Navy SEAL teams and completed multiple combat tours in Iraq, Afgh, and Northeast Africa.  SEAL training is much like entering the world of entrepreneurship.  Many people want to give it a shot, and very few are left standing when its all said and done.  In my BUD/s class (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEALS – the initial 6 months of hell) we started with 200 people and 20 of us graduated and made it to a Team.  You have to be physically and mentally strong and really want to be there…otherwise the pain and stress will take over.

I truly believe that my experiences in combat have added value to my ability to build a company and lead a team to success.  When starting any kind of business you have to believe you are “phyiscally” and mentally stronger than the competition, be dynamic and willing to adapt, and embrace the stress and long hours.

Here is a short start-up check list:

• Step One – Self analysis:  Talk to other entrepreneurs and gain a sound understanding of the sacrifices they made to get their businesses off the ground.  Ask yourself “Do I really want this and am I passionate about this endevour?”  If the answer is not a definite YES, then you my have some soul searching to do.  If the answer is YES then move on to step 2.
• Step 2 – Discovery:  Before you even start business planning, learn as much as you can about the industry you are entering.  Read blogs, chat in forums, read white papers, review the competition and their websites.  Get your hands on as much information as possible so you can define how you are as good, better, and different than the competition. 
• Step 3 – Business Modeling:  You can spend months on a business plan but in my opinion the core factors are:  market research, competitive analysis, define product and service, revenue/profit goals, fundraising (how much money you need and what you need it for), etc.  At some point you are going to have to execute so don’t get too hung up on the minutia…the principal element that differentiates successful entrepreneurs from “wannabes” is execution.
• Step 4 – Define your team:  Who are you going to battle with and do they have what it takes to succeed?  Before you place any legal documents, incorporate, finalize an LLC, etc. you need to know who is going to be in this for the long haul (and who is just riding the wave to see if it works out).  The last thing you want to happen is to have people that are not fully committed owning  a large percentage of your company.  It can get messy later on.
• Step 5 – Long hours: Be prepared to give up free time and work 90 hours a week 7 days a week.  You will be glad you did.
• Step 6 – Bootstrapping and fundraising money: It is very tough to get money and the following comments are just my opinion based on experience.  If it is appropriate for your company and growth plans, stay away from VCs…at least initially.  That is a long road and can end in disappointment while sucking away time and resources you could be putting towards launching your business.  Additionally, if you like the idea of being the boss and owning your own business (i.e. calling the shots), VCs are not the way to go.  Bootstrapping is the most realistic method at first.  Once you have some headway and a solid business plan, engage friends and family. I recommend offering a debt scenario where they lend you X amount and in 12 months you give them X plus the determined interest.  If you are successful in the process, then you can launch and build revenue.  Once you have some revenue it will be easier to present your company to angel investors.  Again, you need to update your business plan so that it is current and reflects how much money you need, the use of funds, the burn rate, profitability, exit strategy, and the offer itself (i.e. how are you currently valuing your company and how much equity are you giving them for their hard earned money).
• Step 7 – Execution:  Once you raise angel capital it is time to really execute.  Now its not just your friends and family expecting to at least get their loan back, but you have investors seeking a return.  Every situation is different and sometimes the investors are passive, and other times they want to have a lot of involvement.  Either way, this does not change the fact that they expect a return at some point in time depending on your exit strategy.
• Step 8 – Leadership:  Entrepreneurs earning initial success quickly find their role changing from hard working “start-up” guy to leader/manager/inspiration driver.  As your company grows the head count will grow.  Your head count will be made up of real people with different goals, personalities, aspirations, and needs.  Having a great management team in place will help make this part of the grow process easier.  If it is just you at the beginning I suggest reading books about leadership and learn as much as you can from peers, mentors, and other professionals. 

This is obviously a very short list and there are MANY factors involved in starting a business.  Hope this is helpful. 

COME LEARN ABOUT ONLINE MARKETING STRATEGIES FOR YOUR BUSINESS!!

Internet Marketing Inc. is co-hosting a Happy Hour at Basic Urban Bar and Kitchen in downtown San Diego on Tuesday September 22nd from 6 pm to 9 pm.  We are extending this invitation to members of FIT Athletic Club and local San Diego business owners and marketers. 

The Happy Hour at Basic will run from 6 pm to 9 pm and include a brief presentation about how to grow your business using integrated online marketing strategies including Search Engine Optimization and Social Media.  Come one come all!

About Internet Marketing Inc.

Internet Marketing Inc. is a full service interactive agency and consultancy.  We offer services such as website design, SEO, PPC, affiliate marketing, social media, behavioral retargeting, text message marketing, and email marketing.  We have helped brands like Ritz Carllton, Hilton, the US Army, and Lincoln Property Company design and implement effective online marketing strategies with measurabel results.

About the Presenter:  Brent Gleeson, CEO

Brent Gleeson has extensive experience in the Internet marketing and online media industry. As co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Internet Marketing Inc. it is Mr. Gleeson’s primary focus to oversee operations and execute growth strategies. Internet Marketing Inc. has become a powerful player in the industry offering website development and Internet marketing strategies/consulting to clients around the world.

Gleeson is an accredited speaker for Vistage International with presentation topics such as “How to Grow Your Business Using SEO and Social Media.  Gleeson has co-founded international real estate marketing companies that have achieved enormous success. In addition, Mr. Gleeson is co-owner of the West Coast office for Americas Media Group Worldwide, a leading global media agency for luxury real estate and luxury brands.

Gleeson spent five years in the Unites States Navy as a Navy SEAL. During his service he completed several combat deployments to Iraq and Africa in support of the War on Terror. Gleeson is involved in his community, his church, and charitable organizations such as the Naval Special Warfare Foundation, the Navy Seal Warrior Fund, and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Gleeson earned his undergraduate degree in Finance and Economics from Southern Methodist University, studied at Oxford University in England, and earned master degree in real estate finance and development from the University of San Diego.

Brent Gleeson on Twitter

Brent Gleeson on Linked In

True SEO strategy is of course a lot more involved that just choosing some keywords and implementing those into your site structure, content, and off-page strategies (link building).  Just like any other marketing effort, SEO should start with a foundation of core business goals.  Whether you are doing this for your own company, outsourcing to an SEO company, or a hybrid of the two, make sure to follow these steps for building a great strategy that the whole company can stand behind.  This article spends less time on the technicalities behind on page SEO and places more emphasis to how marketing and off page efforts enhance the overall strategy.

Define the company goals:  The “discovery” process is probably the most important opportunity for getting the strategy defined right out of the gate.  The company goals will of course the be applied to the keyword research and keyword assignment.  This discovery process should involve company owners, executives, marketers, content providers, and possibly accounting.  The bottom line is that everone has to be on the same page as to what drives the company forward, what keywords relate to both the brand and the products/services, etc.  You should also look at what keyword phrases drive revenue (or have the potential to drive revenue). 

Apply the goals to the keyword strategy:  Even companies that have been doing “SEO” for a while often need to put on the breaks and redefine the strategy.  You can of course apply all the research you need to help you refine the goal (i.e. competitive analysis, website analytics, etc.).  Start by dialing down on your top 25 or so “money” keyword phrases.  Make sure the list is a mix of both broad and long tail terms.  This task is more complicated than it sounds and can take time.  For example, if you have an e-commerce platform and sell hundreds of products it might seem impossible to dial down to 25 keywords.  Keep in mind this is a starting point and should be developed throughout the campaign.

Apply keyword strategy to the keyword assignment:  Now that you have your list and everyone from the CEO to the marketing team has signed off on it, apply the keywords to the website.  Keyword assigment should start with the home page and work down from there.  Remember to follow best practices such as charater limits, the use of hypens to separate title words as opposed to underscores, page hierarchy, etc.

Make sure to have a blend of SEO and “marketing” in the application:  SEO is not just about having your top keywords associated with the page in the title tag.  Getting rankings is only the first step.  You then have to entice clicks.  If your not getting the clicks, who cares about the ranking.  That is where marketing comes into play.  Your title pages are what will appear for your search result listing so make sure you use a structure that is appealing as well as keyword appropriate.

Have a comprehensive off page strategy:  The fundamental goal of the off page SEO effort is to distribute content and build links.  Good links start with compelling content.  The old link building strategies won’t do you much good anymore.  The natural link building efforts take more time, more energy, and forces you to develop great content that people want to consume and share.  This may include but is not limited to the use of blogging, social media, SEO focused PR, engaging your local community, engaging you online communities, and continually developing great articles, blogs, videos, podcasts, and any other content that is relevant and that will add value to your users.

You just can’t by with an “old school” website anymore.  And yes, your company/brand will be judged on the appearance of your website.  You also can’t get by anymore by just having a site that serves the purpose of being your “online business card”.  Every company, no matter what industry, no matter what size, should have a website with clear goals.  Conversion goals that is.

Conversion optimization takes all aspects of your website into consideration starting with your core business objectives.  These need to be clearly defined and your website should be designed (or redesigned) to support these goals.  You should also have a solid understanding of your analytics so you can set some benchmarks:

• Where does our traffic come from?
• What are our bounce rates?
• How long do people stay and what pages do they go to, leave from?
• Do visitors convert?

What happens in 8 seconds.  A “bounce” is defined as a user who comes to your site and leaves in under 8 seconds.  Therefore a bounce rate is the ratio of people who leave in under 8 seconds VS those that stay.  Anything under 50% is pretty good.  Conversion goals are different for every website but examples are capturing information like name, address, phone; a sale; a download; a phone call…you get the idea.  So let’s take a look at the various elements that need to be considered when building a website that converts.

THE INITIAL HOOK

You must have a clear call to action, or a few key action points.  E-commerce sites usually have promotions and offer things like FREE shipping.  Everybody likes and deal and wants to be incentivized.  If your goal is to get a user to download your whitepaper, tell them why its valuable and give them some incentive for doing so. 

DESIGN

Once you have defined your goals, the site needs to be designed so that the call to action is prominent and focused on encouraging the user to act.  Using larger fonts, bold colors, simple but compelling design concepts, less content, and plenty of open space usually fall under the best practices category.  It is usually recommended to use separate landing pages with clear calls to action to support online and offline marketing efforts.

Notice the example below has a very clear purpose (sorry the picture is kind of small).  This page is designed to bring people back to the site, capture their information, and offers an incentive to do so.

SITE FUNCTIONALITY

This is very important because the more user friendly your site is the better your consversion rates will be.  Seems pretty obvious but can take a lot of focus to get it right for any specific site.  Many times bounce rates and lack of conversions are simply due to poor functionalty, poor design, and a “sales cycle” that is just too long.  Streamline the process, only capture the information you need, and keep the steps simple and fast. 

You can use technology and custom tools to enhance the experience and go beyond your competition.  Just remember, it all starts with defining clear goals first and then developing a plan.

A startup incubator is basically a company, organization, or even an individual that supplies startup companies with resources, mentors, and even seed capital to get their new business off the ground.  Good incubator programs combine a little of everything including a deep level of education, mentors, guest speakers, trainging on how to pitch investors, and of course funding.  The funding from incubators usually comes in very small amounts (under $20,000) but incubators usually work with very early stage businesses.  Here is a list of some great incubators:

1. NYU Poly Incubator:  This is part of New York City’s program to help keep the business climate active and new privately owned businesses growing.  This 16,000 square foot space houses startups for only $200 per month and offers other resources.
2. Techstars:  This is one of my personal favorites and provides great resources, training and networking for the young entrepreneurs who make it into the 3 month long program.  At the end of the program they get to pitch investors on “Investor Day” and some earn seed capital of up to $18,000.  The program creates a very tight bond in each class.  They have some great information on their site at www.techstars.org.
3. Environmental Business Cluster:  This company was rated the nation’s top business incubator in 2008 by the NBIA (National Business Incubator Association).  They specialize in young clean-tch startups – based in San Jose, CA.
4. La Cocina:  This non-profit based in San Francisco supports low income and immigrant women starting food businesses. 
5. TechColumbus:  This incubator does more funding than most, they pumped $4.3 million into 32 companies last year and attracted more VC funding for themselves so they can grow and fund more companies.  Well done!
6. Slingshot Labs:  Many of us have probably heard of this one as it was started last year by the creators of MySpace, Josh Berman and Colin Digiaro.  They focus on four or five new media startups each year.
7. Clean and Alternative Energy Incubator:  This incubator came out of the University of Toledo and focuses on alternative energy companies.
8. STAR Technology Enterprise Center:  This non-profit has a 30,000 square foot space in Tampa, FL and supports the growth of manufacturing and technology based startups.
9. Nidus Center for Scientific Enterprise:  This company resides in St. Louis and helps life-science companies.  Nidus is home to 20 companies that have attracted over $150 million in capital investments.
10. Ben Franklin TechVentures:  This high-tech workspace helps all kinds of early stage startups grow and provide 11,000 square feet of work space.

The economy has of course changed how companies get off the ground.  Bootstrapping is taking on a whole new meaning and entrepreneurs are working harder than ever to grow and show value to potential investors.  Advances in technology have provided many new free resources, especially for Internet based startups.  Internet marketing is taking on a more “do it yourself” feel to with the growth of social media.  However you plan to grow your company, remember that working hard and providing a product or service that helps improve the lives of your customers is a must.  Now get back to work!