S-World Villa Secrets

Operations Manual & Business Plan

By Nick Ray Ball March 2013 to 21st March 2017

Chapter 1. Technology Introduction

S-World – Villa Secrets
S-Web Framework & The TFBMS

1. Introduction
2. SEO – Search Engine Optimization & Content Marketing
3. The S-Web ‘Super Simple’ CMS
4. S-Web’s Villa Secrets Mobile
5. The S-Web ‘Out the Box’ Web Framework
6. The TFBMS (Total Financial, Business & Marketing System)
7. The TFBMS – TMS Total Marketing System
8. The TFBMS – TFBS Total Financial & Business System
9. TFBMS – PMS and GSD Database Connections
10. The TFBMS AI (Artificial Intelligence)
11. The TFBMS Financial System (S-World Accounting)
12. M-Systems
13. The Butterfly (Technology and other Partners)
14. Villa Secrets – Design VS. Implementation.

1. Introduction

Influencers: Bill Gates – Steve Jobs – Mark Zuckerberg – Paul G Allen
# Content Management System / Web Framework / Financial, Business & Marketing Software/ AI

Welcome to S-World Villa Secrets: The S-Web Framework, and the TFBMS – Total Financial, Business and Marketing System.

At the Micro end, the Villa Secrets technology is developed to increase company’s sales, bookings, exclusive mandate recruitment and improve management and accounting. At the Macro end the same system allows a Villa Secrets licensor to easily manage many smaller Villa Secrets companies.

The luxury villa industry has evolved since I created www.CapeVillas.com in 2002, with booking options such as Airbnb, Booking.com and Homeaway individual villas can now gain direct bookings, and so agencies need to attach themselves to properties via exclusive mandates and benefit from a combination of the enquiries gained from one’s agency website, alongside the enquiries gained from marketing individual villa websites and other distribution channels.

To grow from this position, one needs to increase efficiency in general. For instance, if one could increase the ratio of visitors who make enquiries from one in ten, to one in five, you can double your income. For example, a website with a world class mobile website versus a website with a poor mobile view will increase the likelihood of enquiries. For this objective, we have created the S-Web framework. In which mobile is just the tip of the iceberg, underneath we are developing a host of applications designed to increase visitor versus enquiry conversion ratios.

In addition, once a client enquires, if you can increase the booking ratio from say… one in four, to one in two, you can double income again. For this objective, we are developing ‘The TFBMS’ (Total Financial Business and Marketing System) which entangles the software systems within the web framework. One of over 20 different components is the TFBMS AI, which will be operational by mid-2017. The TFBMS AI is a robot that provides the best options available from booking systems but also contacts ‘bespoke’ villas that are not on systems. Which creates a set of options, for both the agent and the client that are as good a selection as would have taken an experienced sales agent hours, or even days just a few years ago, and acts as an auto attended after hours.

Lastly, in a land where inventory is king, comes a variety of systems for the acquisition and marketing of exclusive property mandates, both rental and sale.

2. SEO – Search Engine Optimization & Content Marketing

Influencers: Google – Contently – HubSpot – KissMetrics
# SEO / Content Marketing / Content Management Systems

The SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) story it told throughout the presentation, albeit subtlety, so here’s a quick overview.

A while ago I was asked ‘why do we wish to create more than one website?’ The answer was simple enough. It’s a lot easier to make $2,500,000 profit from ten companies with websites generating $250,000 each, than it is to make $2,500,000 profit from one company and one website, due to various reasons, including the simple human content of having 10 company owners’ versus just the one. Each website, or collection of websites is always 50% or more owned by the hands-on managers of the website, each collection of websites is a different company.

Now days, in general if a company makes more than one website Google will only show the highest placed website in its results. However, different owners using the same web framework, will not see such penalties. So long as there is no strategy to game the system by making unnatural links between the websites, and that each website has quality fresh content.

Google are not against SEO, they are against SEO cheats. In 2013 I used my 2002 website ‘Cape Villas.com’ and recreated it according to Google SEO Starter Guide. Since than I spent the years improving it and creating a web framework that will comply with Google SEO rules.

The Villa Secrets SEO strategy is the only strategy Google approves of; ‘Content Marketing.’ create quality content on your websites, and because the content is great people will link to it. So we have created a content marketing strategy within our web framework, by making each site compelling, top magazines and online blogs see our sites as an authority, and because of this they are happy for us to contribute to their publications, and link to our websites.

Amongst other items currently in production is an online magazine, that is easy to populate with articles, and so each villa website will have its own online magazine, and so each website can develop its own content marketing strategy.

Of course, if an agency makes a website for a villa, or ten websites for ten different villas that it represents, it can fairly link all the websites back to its parent websites, without falling foul of Googles linking policies, as this is standard practice. And if each villa has its own content marketing strategy, each villa websites will increase the gravity and position of its parent company’s agency website in Google and Bing organic search.

3. The S-Web ‘Super Simple’ CMS

Influencers: None
# Content Management System / SEO / Web Framework

CMS stands for ‘Content Management System’

You get two main kinds:
1. CMS’s like WordPress which help web developers make small, once off websites. 2. CMS’s within bigger websites, so staff may add products to big websites.

S-Web (Sienna’s Web) is both, as it allows anyone (not just web developers) to easily make a large-scale complex website very simply, including the functionality to allow staff to add products. This is not a simple task. There are many products for making websites and one can always learn WordPress. But in either case one is getting far less than what S-Web creates, and one must spend weeks, months or years trying to get it right, whereas an S-Web website can be made much faster.

An example is the homepage www.villasecrets.com, which takes less than 10 minutes to create. One advantage for an individual website of this function is that one can make many separate home/landing pages for each location within one’s area, such as campsbay.villasecrets.com. This is so Google’s and other Ads can point to a homepage/landing page that is specific to the location they desire, and Google and Bing will rank the website higher for different locations.

S-Web is a lot more than a CMS. For a while now we have been programming freestyle, seeing where the wind takes us, this creates unique functions and workflows. Starting with the product pages, in the high-end villas market, looks count, for clients looking to go on holiday and equally the owners of the villas. The S-Web CMS creates beautiful pages like this: Dreamtime Villa which are appealing to clients and loved by property owners, which in turn open the door to discussing a rental and sale mandates (exclusive representation) for each property. Another CMS is the ‘intelligent articles CMS,’ so staff can create magazine or blog pages in no time at all, which enables each website to create great looking ‘online magazines’ with minimal effort.

In locations where we can connect to property databases, a full agency website could sell for more than $50,000 each. But S-Web is limited for the exclusive use of the S-World network. Which initially allows the Cape Town network to create many different agency websites and thereafter individual villa websites for each villa a company represents, creating a network of over 100 websites, in each Villa Secrets location.

4. S-Web’s Villa Secrets Mobile

Influencers: J-Query-Mobile – Zoopla – Luxury Retreats
# Mobile Websites / Mobile Apps / SEO / Web Framework

S-Web Mobile, the mobile website that looks and behaves like an App.

When it comes to the best website design, with so many different designs there is no clear winner. However, in the land of mobile websites there is far less competition and we are heading quickly to the number one spot.

There are many mobile-friendly sites made from WordPress. But WordPress is a tool for making smaller websites and not practical for big database driven CMS projects.

Google have warned that they will penalize websites that are not mobile-friendly. It’s only a matter of time until they do, as presenting poor mobile pages creates a bad user experience.

Search engines aside mobile usage has overtaken desktop. To have a site with a poor mobile presence is to say goodbye to half of one’s customers. Mobile is not the future of the web, it is the right now!

S-Web has been around the block in mobile, first experimenting with responsive design. Then creating a dedicated J-Query-Mobile website. Then working ‘mobile first,’ remaking the entire Villa Secrets website and navigation, and from there, making our own responsive mobile framework.

On this date (5th March 2017) we are about 6 weeks away from a complete mobile product. There are a few bugs, but you can see by looking at Villa Secrets.com on a mobile, that we are going in the right direction. As you can see our mobile product looks like an App and has instinctive navigation. It does not have all the functionality of the desktop version, instead, we have taken only the parts that make sense to see on a mobile, as we seek to make both the simplest and most attractive mobile real estate and travel user experience on the planet.

Whilst the mobile page and the desktop pages look different, they are both the same page, which in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is an improvement on mobile frameworks like j-query-mobile, which demands the creation of new websites specifically for mobile use, and that process loses any link power attributed to the original desktop page, in mobile searches.

5. The S-Web ‘Out the Box’ Web Framework

Influencers: Dreamweaver – WordPress – JQuery Mobile
# Web Framework / Content Management System/ Content Marketing / SEO

A web framework is designed to support the development of web applications and alleviate the overhead associated with common activities performed in web development.

There are many web frameworks, some like WordPress for making smaller websites. Some like Zend for making big websites and some like J-Query-Mobile for creating mobile websites.

All of the above are designed specifically for people with experience in web design or development. WordPress is the closest, but it’s completely impractical to use WordPress in the environment we are talking about.

There is an urban myth that as WordPress uses a MySQL database it’s easy to connect it to another MySQL database. It’s easy enough to get data out of a WordPress MySQL database. But to add data, one needs to develop a plugin each time. Which is crazy, and is probably why…

“No database of villas that we know of has ever created a plugin for WordPress to share its inventory. This in an industry where inventory is king and half the world’s websites are made in WordPress.”

As for the Zend framework and others like it, this is a way to build websites via code, not even close to an ‘out the box’ solution. Even if one did use Zend one would need to combine it with a mobile framework if one wanted a rich mobile design. As far as we know S-Web is the only ‘out of the box’ web framework for public use that non-web specialists can use to create large-scale rich design mobile and desktop websites.

There are some very basic products that create simple ‘out the box’ websites, however the websites created are not meant for team use, or for the websites to connect to property or travel databases. S-Web is the only ‘out the box’ system that comes with database connections to property inventory databases, which can tap into the database of any willing company and add its data to the collective.

6. The TFBMS (Total Financial, Business & Marketing System)

Influencers: SIENNA – Steve Jobs – Bill Gates – Vineeth
# Financial, Business & Marketing Software / CRM / Accounting / Networking

In the Steve Jobs and Bill Gates face off interview Gates says, “We build the products that we want to use ourselves.” And Jobs Agreed.

The TFBMS and M-Systems is the product I am enjoying making for myself, which is essential for both monitoring a large network of companies and making sure they get ahead and stay ahead. In 2016 I created 4 different 3-year Villa Secrets forecast scenarios, [1, 2, 3, 4] and in the 3rd year the TFBMS more than doubled shareholder profit, and saw profit increase exponentially in later years.

Whilst the S-Web CMS Framework is near completion, the TFBMS [1, 2] is mostly at the beginning of its journey. Given no distractions, my current team and two additional programmers could have a good TFBMS within a year, an awesome TFBMS within 2 years, and a disruptive product within 3 years. Or, as is desired we will receive programing assistance by one or more Silicon Valley philanthropic foundation and together create a disruptive product in 8 months.

The TFBMS plan has been detailed many times, first in March 2011 for Virgin and later in 2011 for Facebook, and by 2015 we integrated various software systems within the web framework, and in February 2016 I created a detailed series of videos on how a number of systems would integrate into the CRM. Then in August 2016 a summary of 41 different components were specified in marketing & financial and business use. (Highlights presented shortly)

What will make the difference between the TFBMS and other software is we are creating a single product that is integrated and intrinsically linked into the fabric of the S-Web CMS’s and web framework, and into every part of the booking, financial, and hospitality process. Any action that staff members needs to do, will be created as part of the TFBMS or TFBMS AI.

The TFBMS will greatly increase efficiency in each company and creates a system that can also deal with creation and management of many companies. Add the S-Web framework to the TFBMS and we have a technologically unmatched product offering. When one further adds database connectivity to most property and travel databases, we have a disruptive product (a disruptive product is typically a product that takes longer to create, but once its created it can take an unusually high amount of market share in a short period).

7. The TFBMS – TMS Total Marketing System

Influencers: Sales Force – HubSpot – KissMetrics – LiveChat
# Marketing Software / Content Marketing / Networking / Advertising / SEO / SEM / Affiliate Marketing

Below we see a list of the 22 advances in marketing and sales. The percentages that you see reflects our opinion of how much of an effect each will have on income.

(Note that forecasting scenarios always use the lowest percentage.)

For a fuller description of each point see http://network.villasecrets.com/total-financial-business-marketing-system/tfbms-part1-total-marketing-system

1. Bing &Yahoo PPC Advertising (7% to 20%)
2. AdRoll, Google Content Network, and other Remarketing (7% to 20%)
3. Content Writing (10% to 30%)
4. Photos & Video (7% to 20%)
5. Online Magazine with Each Website (5% to 20%)
6. Syndication to Luxury Travel Blogs and Magazines (7% to 20%)
7. Manual & Auto Update to Social Networks (1% to 5%)
8. Social Network Systems & Marketing (4% to 20%)
9. Newsletters (5% to 30%)
10. Guest Gifts (15% to 50%)
11. Villa, Safari, & Island Brochures (10% to 50%)
12. Villa Secrets Magazines (10% to 30%)
13. Villa Secrets Documentaries & TV Shows (2% to 30%)
14. Villa Secrets Branding (4% to 25%)
15. Trade Memberships & Financial Bonding (2% to 10%)
16. 24/7 – 365 Sales Team (20% to 100%)
17. Live Chat (10% to 50%)
18. Mobile Sites (Responsive Design) (15% to 65%)
19. Mobile Apps (5% to 30%)
20. Local SEO (7.5% to 20%)
21. TMS Tutorials (1% to 3%)
22. Foreign Language Divisions (20% to 100%)

8. The TFBMS – TFBS Total Financial & Business System

Influencers: Barclays
# Financial Software / Accounting Software / Business Software / CRM / CMS / Various Other Systems

Below we see a list of 20 advances in finance and business systems. The percentage that you see reflects our opinion of how much of an effect each point will have on income.

Note that forecasting scenarios always use the lowest percentage.)
(Additional note: many of these functions also assist marketing)

For a fuller description of each point see http://network.villasecrets.com/total-financial-business-marketing-system/tfbms-part2-total-financial-business-system

1. Financial System Part 1. Data Entry (0.5% to 25%)
2. Financial System Part 2. Data Sorting (0.5%)
3. Financial System part 3. Data Reporting (0.5% to 1%)
4. Financial System part 4. Sales Funnel and Enquiry Stats (1% to 15%)
5. Financial System part 5. Auditing and Tax (1% to 3%)
6. The CRM (Consumer Relationship Management) (10% to 30%)
7. Enquiry Systems (10% to 25%)
8. Clients CMS (Content Management Suite) (2.5% to 15%)
9. SIENNA BOT AI (TFBMS AI) (5% to 25%)
10. Hospitality Systems (2.5% to 10%)
11. Experience Africa CMS (5% to 35%)
12. Property Management System & Global Distribution Systems connections (10% to 40%)
13. Villas Cloud Booking System (5% to 25%)
14. Distribution channels (50% to 100% for mandates profit centre)
15. Property Managers CMS (2.5% to 10%)
16. Villa Owners ‘For Sale’ CMS (2.5% to 25%)
17. Property Owner/Manager Websites (5% to 15%)
18. Magic Menus (5% to 10%) (higher for companies who recruit more villas)
19. Magic Galleries (Long Tail Keyword SEO) (2.5% to 10%)
20. Analytics 2

9. TFBMS – PMS and GDS Database Connections

Influencers: Galileo – Amadeus – MyBookingPal – Homeaway – Nightsbridge – Others…
# / PMS Connections – GDS Connections – Booking Channel Connections

Currently we are connecting to 3 different PMS (Property Management Systems) that provide access to portfolios of villas, some provide online booking and all provide availability information.

As a part of the S-Web framework and the TFBMS, as we spread our wings,
S-Web shall connect to almost every PMS, GDS (Global Distribution System), and distribution channel on the planet.

Connection to PMS and GDS databases has been a pursuit of Villa Secrets since 2004, albeit at that time our group name was ‘Lux Guides.’ In 2004 we created the world’s first ‘Flash’ ‘Virtual Tour,’ and it was a hit. It was even offered its own TV channel. I worked with Galileo GDS (now Travelport) to add online availability. But unfortunately, the technology was so new at that time I could not master it.

In March 2011 the first S-World business plan was created, which included GDS connectivity to distribution channels and acted as a master ‘warehouse’ of available information for all S-World companies to access. Then in 2014 after completing the first Villa Secrets prototype we made our first connection to MyBookingPal.

The road to connect to all the PMS’s & GDS’s requires a lot of different connections, In Cape Town alone there are three different PMS’s. Chances are globally there are over 100. In addition to the PMS’s are the many custom made inventory systems used by vacation rental companies and estate agents for their own purposes. As our plan is to create affiliate Villa Secrets companies with these companies, each one that joins the network becomes a new source of inventory.

One difference between Villa Secrets and other companies is in our lists, big companies like Airbnb and Homeaway have various lists. But these lists are not as useful as an unbiased local villa specialist/expert manually assessing all villas from their own personal knowledge, and ordering the list manually. In conjunction with the manual sorting we have a clever attribute scoring system that scores all villas. The advantage with the attribute scored lists is that we can see which villas of the same attribute scores have the best price, and offer a list that presents the best value. Very useful for the public and staff alike.

10. The TFBMS AI (Artificial Intelligence)

Influencers: SIENNA – Caprica – Terminator – Battle Star Galactica – Steve Jobs – Bill Gates – Vineeth
# / Artificial Intelligence/ Virtual Sales Agent / Sales Assistant / Training

The TFBMS AI (The Sienna-bot) is an essential tool for agents new to the industry and a very useful tool for experienced agents. In time, it has the potential to become a virtual agent that can make bookings independently.

In a perfect world a client visits our website, adds search details, sees a selection of villas that are available, then makes an enquiry or booking. However, often people do not follow the search path. Some clients see villas on the homepage and others may follow the ‘collections’ menus.

The Sienna-bot starts at the enquiry process by gathering all the details necessary for a search. Once the enquiry process is complete, in addition to a thank you, the Sienna-bot creates a page for presentation to show the client, this page also becomes the starting point for the agent to start to reply to the enquiry.

If no further client action is recorded within 10 minutes of the enquiry and the agent has not yet started working on the enquiry, an email will be sent by the Sienna-bot to the client presenting the available options. Of course, The more (PMS’s) Property Management Systems and booking systems we connect to, the more effective the Sienna-bot will be. However, in addition to presenting the villas from the booking systems, the Sienna-bot can email the bespoke villas (properties not on booking systems) to ask for availability and update the client in real time, as new properties declare themselves as willing to make the booking.

In most cases by the time the agent logs into the enquiry, all the heavy lifting is done and the Sienna-bot has retained the client’s attention. This early activity is essential… if the client’s attention is maintained from the moment of enquiry and available options are presented to the client before he/she shops around, the chances of a booking are increased by more than 50%.

Currently we are creating the TFBMS AI as a sales staff assistant. Phase 2 is to make it a fully automated tool. The first application of this will be the option for the client to negotiate a deal, direct with the owner/manager/company representing the villa.

11. The TFBMS Financial System (S-World Accounting)

Influencers: None
# Total Financial Software / Banking Software / Accounting Software

See Total Financial Business System for functions of the TFBMS Financial System.

Before any theories, scientific or otherwise, came fact. Human error and poor reporting can cripple a small business. Whilst it was not the first thing we programmed, always at the heart of the system is quality accounting software.

Version 1.01 of this system will take 3 months to make. I can imagine a few computer scientists out there saying, it’s just not possible to create ‘quality accounting software’ in a few months! However, this system really is very simple in its initial format and at the end of the day it’s just data and a bunch of CMS’s, of which we have already shown our metal.

One may have thought to create an accounting system that fetched bank data from many banks in many countries would require making many API’s (online connections) with the different banks. However, in some third world countries they do not have API’s for such connections.

There is only one way to synchronize all the world banks, in minimal time, with minimal effort and that is to create a spreadsheet download system, very basic but completely effective. A staff member downloads their bank data 3 times a week, upload it into ‘S-World Accounting, then goes online, assigns any unassigned payments to cost centres, and from this we can make management accounts instantaneously. A licensor can monitor the fortunes of all licensee’s in almost real time.

Why do we need to do this? Because its utterly essential to S-World as we are making a system for a great many small business. To avoid a chaotic situation, we need to know everything about the finances of the greater network. And our companies need to know everything about their business.

Version 2 will see us take the accounting to the point where it can do all tax and we will have a great many CMSs including a client systems so they get notified of payments automatically

Version 3 will connect to banks automatically, so payments are made automatically.

12. M-Systems

Influencers: Isaac Asimov – Amanda Peet – Stephen Hawking – Edward Witten – Leonard Susskind
# Macro-economic Systems / Micro-economic Systems / M-Theory / The Theory of Every Business

M-Systems are a collection of complementary system and designs for a global network, built upon the foundations of the Villa Secrets Network.

The main difference between M-Systems and Villa Secrets Systems (S-Web and TFBMS) is that given enough programmers I can create all Villa Secrets Systems, whereas M-Systems require assistance from others.

There are currently 17 M-Systems. Villa Secrets, S-Web, and the TFBMS are collectively system 1. The rest are described in varying degrees of completeness at www.AngelTheory.com/M-Systems. While all systems are relevant, two systems are particularly relevant to real estate and travel.

M-System 6. The Theory of Every Business designs grand networks (large real estate developments).

The creation of property developments is a natural evolution for a planned network of high end real estate agents, luxury villa rental and property service companies. From 2011 to 2013 I created ‘American Butterfly’ ‘The Theory of Every Business.’ Which describes various ways of creating a popular resort developments, including many location enhancing exercises, which when entangled within other M-Systems result in a way to create awesome economically viable developments. Which in turn are exclusively sold by Villa Secrets companies.

M-System 7. S-World Virtual Networks

S-World Virtual Networks are a broad topic, within which is S-World VBN, (Virtual Business Network) and a specific application we wish to create for choosing suitable plots of land for development, and after create models of the property developments in Virtual Reality. Created in such a way that clients, can simply add to existing architectural designs or create new homes from scratch, and management can redesign entire developments.

The first steps to creating this system are to make 2 partners in the venture, Will Wright and his SIMS and SIM City technology and architect Stefan Antoni.

13. The Butterfly (Technology and other Partners)

Influencers: Sir Richard Branson – Bill Gates – Mark Zuckerberg – Paul G Allen
# Real Estate and Travel / Physics and Economics / Philanthropic Foundations / Technology Companies

Above we see the S-World Villa Secrets implementation strategy for 2017/18.

On the top left wing, we can see Villa Secrets desires to connect to Africa’s top Relators Pam Golding and/or SEEFF. Next, we see the two international giants Christie’s Real Estate & Sotheby’s Realty, (plus not seen Berkshire Hathaway) who we wish to connect to at an international level.

Next to Sotheby’s is The Corniche Group who are experts in investment, logistics, and property development. Below the Corniche Group we see Sir Richard Branson’s VIRGIN Group, experts in branding, luxury villas, safaris, private islands, holidays, flights, media, networks, and other industries and disciplines. Both Virgin and the Corniche Group have philanthropic foundations.

As well as being a desired partner for Villa Secrets, Sir Richard Branson joins ‘The Paul G Allen Foundation’ as the two organizations initially connected to Experience Africa, the first S-World Villa Secrets philanthropic special project which primarily exists to assist the fight against ivory poaching.

On the bottom left wing we see a collection of academic institutions to whom we are presenting our advanced software design ‘M-Systems,’ as can be seen at www.AngelTheory.com. This plan is awesome, a balance between business and philanthropy made possible by following the laws of nature and the creation of next generation software and systems.

On the right-hand side of the butterfly we mostly see technology companies and their founder’s philanthropic foundations. I have chosen philanthropists before their companies as it is my way. But in addition, it may well be the only way to get such business rivals to work collectively, as is desired for the S-World Network.

Villa Secrets – Design VS. Implementation.

Influencers:
# Global Real Estate Network / Luxury Villa Rentals / Luxury Travel & Safaris

One of the most interesting quotes I have recently heard was presented by Sir Richard Branson; “You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.” By Henry Ford.

At first I considered that whilst we have created the S-Web component to our company the TFBMS is still in pre-development, and so I cannot build my reputation upon it. However, I thought, you know what, it’s not my job to build all this, it’s my job to design it, and that is done. I will of course continue to add to it, as that is part of the process.