eCommerce

2 posts

Ingenious and Creative Business People

eCommerce

I’m forever amazed at the ingenious and creative ways that people strive to make a living. Steve Appel represents the kind of folks that with their own unique vision, can turn the eyes of all of us to a stronger appreciation of life’s nuances. Steve sells his works of art through his website as well as arts and crafts shows.

The Beginning of Steve Appel’s Bolt People® . . .

“I was just playing around with all these discarded machine parts at the shipyard.”

Steve began giving these metal sculptures as gifts to  friends and coworkers. They are the ones who told him to start selling them. So,  he began selling his Bolt People® at craft shows on the weekends, still holding onto his job at the shipyard.

“At the time, I was one of those guys who just planned to work my 20 years or so, have the security of good benefits and then retire.”

That plan changed when Steve was laid off in 1989. He  decided then to make his hobby a full-time profession and broadened his market by doing shows around the country.

Steve did over 40 shows his first year as a full-time  entrepreneur, and he took a business class through SCORE. Orders started pouring in and the business has grown steadily ever since.

Check out Steve’s art at http://www.boltpeople.com

Even The Very Best Are Vulnerable

Business Systems Support Cyber Security eCommerce

Came across this notification from Network Solutions this morning pointing to the fact that even the very best ecommerce providers in the industry are vulnerable to criminal activities compromising Network Solutions ecommerce hosting customers. I respect their forensic and remediation efforts, but its time to rethink the paradigm and reinvent ecommerce.

How does an industry sort through fault and remedy the consumers that will eventually be hurt by overall process design that exposes private credit card and personal information? Every day another consumer’s credit is ruined and identity compromised. The source of this type of consumer injury can be months away from the actual impact and never actually be revealed.

I happened to accidently come across this notification from Network Solutions, a company I’ve used for years. I did not receive any proactive notification from them. However, I certainly didn’t miss my daily marketing email from them.