Small Business Technology

Foursquare

2011-04-20T08:33:00.000-07:00

Yet another new social networking tool that has become utilized more often by small businesses within the last year is Foursquare. The "checking in" app has allowed businesses to attract new customers and offer discounts to frequent visitors. Here are a few reasons why this app is very useful for small businesses, and should be adopted more often.

Tech Savvy Individuals Have Influence
Foursquare user are people that really love their neighborhoods, getting out and evangelizing the businesses they love. This tech savvy, early adopter is exactly the kind of consumer business should desire, because they can often times have a large influence on others. Embracing Foursquare and giving these tech leaders the tools to promote your business is just plain smart.

Online, Offline
Foursquare is another way for local business to use the efficient online tools to drive more in-person, offline activity. People are physically checking in to your business and talking about online in what can turn into a tremendously effective one-two punch.

Ability to Make Offers
Currently Foursquare allows just about any business to use their platform to offer deals and promotions to users. You can visit the Foursquare business page to get your business signed up. It’s free for now, but I’m it shoudl probably be a big revenue piece for them in the future.

Track and Reward
Foursquare’s gaming functionality allows businesses to create special promotions for mayors and badge earners and in effect setting up a competition among their most loyal fans.

The Game Aspect
One of the most intriguing aspects of Foursquare is the game. It’s amazing what some folks will do in order to win a game, come in first or, in this case, be the mayor of a popular spot. Gaming and entertainment are huge money winners and any small business that can find ways to add gaming elements tied to patronizing a business may just find a real competitive edge.

Automated CRM data
So many small businesses have little of no way to track customer behavior. Every business should find ways to capture everything they can about a customer. Foursquare can provide business owners with check-in stats for users. What this means is that the customer that comes in every day can now be tracked and even incentivized to get a free cup of coffee for every tenth check-in. It’s like the social version of the loyalty card.

Sync with Twitter and Facebook
Like all good social media platforms Foursquare understands the need to integrate with platforms that others already use. Foursquare users have the option to tweet or add a Facebook status update every time they check-in. What this means is that a Facebook user with a few hundred friends might expose your business by way of a Foursquare check-in to thousands of Facebook walls.

Accepting Credit Cards On Your Smartphone

2011-04-20T07:33:00.000-07:00

This could benefit your small business in the future

Many small businesses rely on credit cards for most of their customer payments. Until recently, most were limited to accepting credit cards via their website or their retail store. A company named Square however, has recently released a new service that will look to change this. Square frees up the small business to take credit card payments wherever you carry your iPhone.

The service includes a free application and attractively sized and styled hardware component that acts as the card swiping interface. Both are free and mailed to you upon registration with the service.

The company has clearly thought through the needs of their small business target audience and this product looks to be fully encompassing. The service includes:

Free shipping of the hardware
Free application for your smart phone or iPad
Daily deposits of your money
No commitments
Reasonable transaction fees

This looks to be a great and innovative idea that will hopefully take off in the future. I expect to see a lot of new opportunities for mobile commerce in the small business community thanks to this product, assuming that some businesses want to make the leap and adapt the technology.

Get Your Green On

2011-04-18T09:11:00.000-07:00

There was a great article this morning in BusinessNewsDaily that focuses on the process of going green for small businesses. In this day an age the green movement is in full swing and that means that it is important to find ways to implement green technologies or risk losing clients and sales to companies that do. The article revolves around an interview with Daniel Esty, who is the chairman of Esty Environmental Partners, a professor at Yale University and Director of the Center for Business and the Environment at Yale. He is also the co-author of “The Green to Gold Business Playbook: How to Implement Sustainability Practices for Bottom-Line Results in Every Business Function” (Wiley, April 2011). He tells BusinessNewsDaily why it’s more important than ever for companies to focus on the environment and what it was like to advice the Obama campaign on environmental issues. He delves into mistakes and common misconceptions with going green, and focuses on its importance to our world's environment today.

It is a really compelling read and is very topical for our current environment. The interview also struck an interesting chord with me because of how I can personally relate to it. My father owns a dry cleaners and has lately been looking into utilizing more green methods of cleaning that would eliminate some environmentally hazardous chemicals from his workplace. However, he has struggled with the expenses and difficulty of gowing green and wavered about its actual worth to the company. This interview dispells some fears and worries and sheds some light on the actual cost saving that come with going green. It is a very intriguing look at an issue that is more important that ever.

Get Your Green On: An Obama Advisor Tells You How

Energy Saving Tips for Your Office

2011-04-14T12:37:00.000-07:00

We've discussed a lot about more computer related technology in this blog, but I thought it would be worth taking a look at some ways you could save energy in your office. When looking at the standard monthly costs of many businesses, three of the areas that has a great portion of those cost are lighting, office machines and the heating and cooling (HVAC) system.

Lighting

Reduce lighting
There are a couple of ways to do this, one of the best is to take advantage of natural daylight. Turning lights off or dimming them during the day allows for lower energy costs. It can also make for a more comfortable environment. If you need more light use task lights to light the area where you are working.

Use timers and sensors.
The installation of occupancy sensors, timers, or photocells will ensure that interior and exterior lights are turned off at the appropriate time. These inexpensive devices can reduce lighting costs by up to 40 percent by turning off lights in unoccupied areas. In closets and restroom install motion sensors or timers so that the lights are off when no one is using the room. These can also be used in seldom used work areas such as copier rooms.
However, be aware that sensors may not be the best option in the work area. Many people have complained about the light going off while they are working at their desk typing a letter or working on a report.

Replace incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs)
This type of bulbs can last up to ten times longer and provide the same amount of light as standard incandescent bulbs. Replace incandescent lights in exit signs with LED fixtures, which can reduce costs of these signs by up to 95 percent. Caution though must be used with these types of bulbs since they do contain a small amount of mercury. CFLs should not be placed in areas where they could easily be broken.

Turn off the lights when not in use.
It doesn’t get any more simpler than this.

Office Machines

Turn them off when not in use.

Replace Power Wasting Units:
LCD monitors uses much less energy that a CRT Monitor. The cost for a new LCD monitor will pay for itself in a short period of time making it uneconomic to keep a CRT Monitor when replacing an older system.
Turn the monitor off when not in use or better yet have the computer put the monitor and itself into power save mode when inactive for a period of time.
Do you have an old hand-me-down refrigerator for office use? It may be using more energy than a newer energy efficient model.

Taking these lighting and computer tips will likely help conserve a lot of energy and in turn lower your monthly electric bills, something that is always important for a small business with limited capital.

Source
Turning off one computer and monitor nightly and on weekends could save up to $80 a year. It’s a good idea to set PCs, monitors and copiers to use sleep mode when not in use. Unless a computer is doing a critical function at night, such as a daily backup that takes hours or being used as a server, there is no reason for it to be on. Turning it off will not allow the system to last longer, and will only be wasting energy.

Utilizing Groupon

2011-04-08T09:56:00.000-07:00

In this crazy world of internet based promotion and social media, small businesses have more access to their customers than ever before. Whether it is through creating a Facebook page or building a Twitter profile, businesses can relay information to their most loyal followers faster and more effectively than ever. One thing that had been put to good use through conventional social media methods was the use of coupons. Introducing coupons through Twitter or Facebook has been a somewhat common practive for many small businesses that took advantage of the programs. My father, who as I've mentioned previously owns a dry cleaners, offered exclusive coupons to Twitter and Facebook followers upon adapting the technologies for his business. While this is an effective method of offering price promotions to your consumers, there is a new avenue that small businesses can take that has become a national craze: Groupon.

Groupon is a deal a day type of site that offers great discounts for local businesses in different regions. The company offers one Groupon per day in each of the markets it serves. The Groupon works as an asssurance contract using ThePoint's platform: if a certain number of people sign up for the offer, then the deal becomes available to all, if the predetermined minimum is not met, no one gets the deal that day.This reduces risk for retailers, who can treat the coupons as quantity discounts as well as sales promotion tools. Groupon makes money by keeping approximately half the money the customer pays for the coupon.So, for example, an $80 massage could be purchased by the consumer for $40 and then Groupon and the retailer would split the $40. That is, the retailer gives a massage valued at $80 and gets approximately $20 from Groupon for it. And the consumer gets the massage, in this example, from the retailer for which they have paid $40 to Groupon.

This is a great tool to acquire new customers, make some money, and just generally spread your name. Also because Groupon is a growing website, it looks very progressive for a small business, and consumers like to see small businesses that are with the times and on top of the latest technologies. Overall, Groupon is a great avenue for small businesses to take and offers a myriad of opportunities to grow your success.

Accounting Systems for Small Businesses

2011-04-01T16:47:00.000-07:00

I found an interesting article in regards to small business accounting systems. Essentially the site ranks different systems for small business use and provides criteria that they evaluate these systems by. I thought it was pertinant to the subject of small business technology, because smaller, independent accounting firms need to have good systems in place in order to keep their books straight. It is not like a major corporation where you have somebody coming to audit you and keeping your records straight. Good accounting systems can be essential to your success. Here is an excerpt from the article.

One of the hardest things about evaluating software products is determining what features are likely to be the most important for the intended users. Obviously, needs will vary depending on the type of business. Retail shops will need a strong inventory module that tracks product life, assigns value and produces solid reports. An e-commerce module may also be important to retailers who wish to sell products online. A service-related business will have other needs, such as the ability to set up varying services with related cost. The needs of a coffee shop, law office or small nonprofit will be different, as well.

The point is that everyone’s needs are different. So the product that receives the highest rating here may not be the product that is best suited for all small businesses. Business owners, along with the assistance of their most trusted business advisor, are the only ones who can make that decision.

What we try to accomplish with our product reviews is to provide a window into the product. What features does it offer? Is the reporting solid and comprehensive? Can you customize reports for your business? Can you access the product from anywhere? Is there adequate training and support available? Is it affordable?

We evaluate areas such as Basic System Functions, covering everything from product installation, ease of use, general system navigation, and the inclusion (if any) of industry-specific features for nonprofit organizations, retail businesses, construction and service-related businesses.

You can read more about these interesting analysis methods at the folling link: Source

Small Business Networking Terms

2011-03-30T10:36:00.000-07:00

Technology can be very confusing. Especailly when we venture into the realm of networking. There are so many different terms, many of them important to understand, that small business owners do not have a strong grasp on. Here we'll look at a few of these terms and try to provide a basic understanding of their meaning and their use in the small business tech world.

DNS

The Domain Name System, which is responsible for determining the corresponding IP address when you type a site name like www.smallbusinesscomputing.com into a browser. DNS service is typically provided by an ISP (though many small businesses also run DNS internally to locate resources on corporate networks), and it can often be a source of poor browsing performance and intermittent site connectivity problems.

Dual Band WiFi

This refers to 802.11n-compatible Wi-Fi hardware that can utilize two distinct frequencies -- the standard 2.4 GHz frequency used by 802.11b/g, and/or the 5 GHz frequency used by 802.11a. Although 5 GHz Wi-Fi devices generally have a shorter range than their 2.4 GHz counterparts, using the 5 GH z frequency can still be beneficial because it provides higher capacity -- i.e. more access points in a given amount of space-- and is far less susceptible to interference from outside sources, including from other wireless networks.

Using 5 GHz 802.11n requires a compatible access point and wireless adapters.

HomeGroup

Don't let the word "home" fool you, for small offices without a central server, Windows 7's HomeGroup feature offers basic file and printer sharing among a group of PCs without any setup headaches. All you need to create or join a HomeGroup (alas, only Windows 7 systems can do so) is a pre-defined password that's common to all computers in the group. Then you can choose which items to share as well as whether you want to allow read or read/write access.

MAC Address

Media Access Control (MAC) address, an identification code composed of six pairs of hexadecimal numbers (0-9 and A-F) that's permanently assigned, or "burned-in" to every network device (PCs, servers, printers, etc.). Unlike IP addresses, which can change, MAC addresses are unique to each device. Devices with multiple network interfaces (e.g. both wired and wireless) will have a different MAC address for each. To view the MAC address on a Windows PC, type ipconfig /all from a command line and look for the number next to "Physical Address".

Tethering

The ability to connect a mobile phone with high-speed (3G) data service to a PC, either via a cable or Bluetooth link, for use as a broadband modem. Tethering is an extremely useful way for mobile networks to access the Internet from their laptops when Wi-Fi isn't available. The catch is that not all devices or carriers allow tethering, and those that do may charge a premium for the privilege.

VoIP

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) converts voice into digital signals and thus allows phone calls to travel across a data network rather than on dedicated phone lines. VoIP-based small business phone systems are generally less expensive to purchase and install, and they're easier to maintain than traditional systems.

VoIP phone systems also tend to offer a high degree of PC integration, with features like the capability to receive voice mail messages via email and to place and receive calls from a "soft phonem" or desktop software application.

So there you have it, some basic networking terms that can help you to better understand computing and help build your knowledge base as a small business owner.

Source

Storage Trends for Small Businesses

2011-03-26T23:25:00.000-07:00

With the rapid growth of storage methods throughout the years, small businesses have been afforded a wide variety of options that were not at their disposal in past years. The growth of servers and options such as cloud computing have greatly enhanced storage ability at lower costs. Here are some trends that have seen growing popularity amongst small businesses in recent years.

Cloud Based Storage

One trend that everyone agrees on is that cloud computing is a good medium for small business storage. Smaller firms look at cloud-based services as a way of reducing their IT spending by outsourcing specific IT services. Small businesses will likely start using cloud-based storage more and more for active data stores as well as archival and disaster recovery. It would seem likely that we will see continued adoption of cloud backup as budgets will remain tight and companies will need to do more with less.

Cloud Computing and Virtualization

The cloud is really an extension of virtualization technology. Instead of a single server being virtualized, however, the cloud represents the virtualization of a large group of computing resources or an entire data center. But virtualization is proving hugely popular with small businesses, many of which have little or nothing to do with the cloud.

There is a steady move to virtualization by small businesses in order to consolidate their servers or virtualize their desktops.

Network Storage

Small businesses are famous for having user files residing on PCs. As they get larger or more sophisticated, they might add a file server where everyone store files. But ever-expanding data requirements are leading more firms to consider network storage which has traditionally been the province of larger enterprises. This approach offers a far greater amount of space that you can pack into a file server. The trend toward easily managed network storage will accelerate as smaller businesses begin leveraging the capabilities that centralized storage offers. Small businesses that want to keep their storage in-house will base storage-buying decisions on reliability, ease of management, and on finding the best pricing possible that meets those requirements.

Decreased Storage Complexity

As enterprise-class storage filters down the food chain, it tends to be adopted first by tech-savvy firms who have enough internal IT sources to understand and properly configure systems. At a certain point in the adoption curve, though, the storage vendors start to comprehend the value of the SMB market and begin to redesign and simplify their products to suit a new set of customers. Thus, what we see now is a big reduction in the management complexity that used to accompany networked storage and traditional storage processes. The latest batch of products, for example, is far easier to operate than their relatives from a couple of generations back. That doesn’t mean that the boss can use them, unless he or she has some level of basic computer knowledge. Typically, an IT generalist should be able to operate modern small business storage tools.

Source

Proxy Servers: Helpful for Small Businesses?

2011-03-22T18:23:00.000-07:00

To network administrators for large networks, the need for proxy servers--intermediaries that stand sentinel between an internal network and the open Internet--is so basic, it goes almost without saying. But in smaller organizations that lack dedicated IT resources, the need may not be quite so self-evident.

How They Work
Proxies intercept requests for Internet pages from users within a company's network and perform a number of chores related to protecting the network, improving performance and enforcing company Web use policies. This is sometimes referred to as a forward proxy server. It's the kind that virtually all organizations need. If your company also hosts its own Web servers on its premises, you additionally need a reverse proxy to perform a complementary, but somewhat different, set of security- and performance-related tasks around requests coming from the Internet into your servers.

When an internal user requests a Web page, the request goes through the proxy server so that it appears to the Internet to be coming from the server - from its IP address (or one of them) - and not the user's device. This anonymity provides an important measure of security by reducing the amount of information about a network and its users easily accessible to hackers on the Internet. The proxy server may, in addition, perform caching. If your users frequently need to access certain pages on the Internet, the server can download and store copies on its hard drive, in cache and also continuously monitor the page for changes and download them when they appear, so the cached page is always up to date. This speeds display of cached pages for users, and cuts traffic going out over the company's Internet gateway, thus potentially reducing bandwidth requirements and congestion that can degrade overall performance.

A third important set of proxy server chores relates to enforcement of company policies and restrictions around Web use. In organizations that allow employees unrestricted access to the Internet but publish policies limiting personal use--no gambling, porn or hate literature sites, for example, or only during lunch and breaks--network administrators can monitor proxy server logs to spot users habitually breaching policies. Some companies make the mistake of installing a proxy and then never looking at it again, thus wasting much of its potential utility, Armstrong says. If employees are allowed to use the Web for personal surfing, too-close monitoring could result in privacy and labor law infringements by the company--if an employee is researching a medical problem on his lunch hour, for example. In addition, if administrators closely monitor the activity of an employee for no very good reason--especially in the absence of clearly stated policies--and later try to bring disciplinary action for violations, unions or lawyers may be able to claim the company was victimizing the employee.

But if policy restrictions and monitoring practices are clearly stated and signed off on by employees, these kinds of problems shouldn't arise. The alternative is to use the basic filtering capabilities of proxy server software to block users going to certain sites. It works similarly to parental filtering on home networks. At the simplest level, if a restricted site is added to a list in the server software, when a user tries to surf to that site, the server denies the request and returns an error message.

From here, choosing and implementing a proxy server is something that requires consultation and further information on selecting the proper one. If analyzed right, you can see this become an effective tool for small business networking.

Source

E-Mail Security Tips for Small Businesses

2011-03-18T15:12:00.000-07:00

E-mail has changed the way we communicate, mostly for the better. As businesses rely more and more on email communication, small business networks have become more vulnerable to increasingly sophisticated malware programs, including computer viruses, worms, trojan horses and spyware. Ignoring small business security could be a tragic mistake. Small business owners and managers must examine what's at risk when they communicate sensitive data over email. In most cases, it is network data and the business itself. Data loss can create a financial and operational burden that can harm your business. Conventional firewall and antivirus solutions are no longer sufficient protection from current threats, which means it's critical to keep up with continually evolving security technologies and business practices. Here are some tips for e-mail security within small businesses.

-Implement an email archiving system that can recognize email that is consistent with your corporate culture, regulatory requirements and industry

-Specify policies and controls regarding what can be stored on user desktops and laptops, so you can control and protect important data. Further, empower your network administrators to enforce those policies by giving them the tools to do so

-Be sure all key departments within your organization, such as legal, IT and HR, understand the policies; require them to sign off on your email filtering, retention, retrieval and analysis policies

-Keep the big picture in mind. Staying attuned to how threats and anti-threat solutions are evolving, will better prepare you to identify problem areas for your business and to take the necessary steps to guard against them. If you don’t think you have the time to monitor these threats, lean on a trusted technology partner who does. And remember -- the investment is worth it

-It cannot be said enough: educate your staff. By teaching them how to prevent the spread of viruses and worms via email attachments and phishing scams, you are investing in your organization’s overall well being. Make sure all employees are educated against opening spam or emails from unknown senders. Reiterate this policy frequently. Do your research. Talk to other small businesses and see what is and is not working for them. Get your budget approved and do the necessary leg work -- you won’t regret it

In a society where instant communication is the norm, it is easy to take email for granted -- but there is no excuse for shortcuts when it comes to security. Take advantage of the available solutions, and encourage your network administrators to enforce security policies -- you, your employees and your clients will be happy that you did.

Solving Some Common WiFi Issues

2011-03-10T09:59:00.000-08:00

Many small businesses utilize WiFi these days and it is an important aspect of keeping their operations and information flow running smooth. Also, many customers depend on geting WiFi for their phone or computer depending on your business. That is why it can be a real pain if the WiFi does not function properly. Here are a list of some common WiFi issues, and how you can solve them without having to deal with the frustration of no wireless connection for a long period of time.

Forgotten WEP or WPA Security Key or Passphrase

Are you trying to connect another Wi-Fi computer or device, but don't remember the security key or passphrase set on your router? Don't worry: It's easy to find your WEP key or WPA/WPA2 passphrase. If you have a computer with Windows Vista or 7 that is currently configured with the Wi-Fi router, you can simply open up the network properties to see the security key/passphrase. You can't do this in Windows XP, however, since the security key/passphrase can't be unmasked like in later versions of Windows. To find your key/passphrase in Windows Vista or 7, start by bringing up the list of available wireless networks. In Vista, click Start > Connect To, or in Windows 7, simply click the Network icon in the lower right corner. Then right-click your network name, select Properties, and click the Security tab. Check the Show Characters box and you'll see the key/passphrase. Also take note of the Security and Encryption types. If you can't use a Windows Vista or 7 PC to lookup your security key/passphrase, you can use a tool called WirelessKeyView. It recovers the keys/passphrases stored by Windows.

Forgotten Router Password

To change a router's settings, you login to the Web-based interface by typing the router's IP address into a browser and logging in with a username and password. During the setup wizard of some routers, you're prompted to change the default password. If you aren't sure that you've created a new one, first try the default. Most Linksys and D-Link routers use "admin" for both the default username and password, or just for the username and a blank password. You can look up the defaults for your particular model here. If your Internet Service Provider installed your router, contact them for the login info. If you've logged into the router before, you might see if the Network Password Recovery tool can retrieve the login credentials on the PC you logged in from before. If it looks like you set a password but can't remember or recover it, you can quickly reset the router back to factory defaults. However, this will reset everything so you'll have to reconfigure your wireless security and maybe your Internet connection settings. To reset hold in the small reset button on the back of the router for up to 30 seconds. Then you can connect and login with the default credentials.

Having To Manually Connect After Restarting

You shouldn't have to do anything for your PC or laptop to reconnect to your Wi-Fi network after restarting. The security key/passphrase should be stored by Windows or, if installed, the connection manager for your wireless adapter. However, if you have a third-party connection manager installed but it isn't running correctly, you might have problems getting it to reconnect automatically. If this is the case, try to uninstall the connection manager via the Add/Remove Programs utility in the Control Panel. Look for the name of the wireless adapter vendor and remove the program(s). This should still keep the driver installed for the wireless adapter, which is the only thing required for you to use the built wireless manager of Windows. If you still have issues, follow the manufacturer's directions to reinstall their software.

5 Common CRM Mistakes

2011-03-07T07:57:00.000-08:00

Customer Relationship Management is essential for small businesses. So much of your success relies on how you establish a report with your customers and make them feel as if the business is a place that represents comfort and quality. It is easy to make mistakes when handling CRM however, especially if you are using a computing system to help improve your relationships. Here are 5 common mistakes in CRM that as a small business owner you should try to avoid making.

1. Getting Overwhelmed by Social Media
Relationships are growing all over the Internet, thanks to social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, blogs and Twitter. While more relationships are good news for your business, keeping up with all your new friends, followers and contacts can be overwhelming. Thus it is important to be sure to capture these non-traditional communication channels in your CRM system so you can get the bigger picture on your relationships and help them grow.

2. Using CRM as a Micro-Management Tool
CRM systems are about improving the speed and effectiveness of managing customer relationships. This means a CRM system should be for the Sales and Support reps first and management second. While you need visibility and discipline, you can't have reps believe that the CRM is just a surveillance and measurement tool for upper management, or they won't really use it. Additionally, the data will be incomplete. So you won't get either the effectiveness or the visibility you wanted out of the system. The best thing to do would be to optimize your CRM system to save your sales reps time and hassle, so they can close deals faster.

3. Decentralizing Customer Data
Many businesses deploy their CRM without thinking about connecting it with the larger business. That can mean having to manually reenter data which slows down business processes. To avoid this CRM mistake, managers should tightly integrate sales and service applications with accounting, so you can accelerate, streamline and reduce errors from the quote, to order, to fulfillment and invoicing, through to customer service process. Also, integrating your sales and finance systems provides the most accurate way of building strong forecasts.

4. Not Owning Your Information
When deploying a CRM system, you need to take the appropriate steps to protect your information from the start by setting up your system wisely. Use the bussiness name, business credit card, and be sure that a business email address is used when registering the administrator on the account. These steps will protect you from legal ambiguity about who can access the data, ambiguity you'll be thrilled to avoid if the employment status of the person who sets up the account changes.

5. Trying to do Too Much, Too Soon
Start small and gradually evolve your CRM system. The most effective CRM systems are built out gradually so that they fit naturally into the way you do business. It's tempting to have a big budget and a fixed deadline but that approach almost guarantees a CRM system that doesn't work smoothly with your existing internal policies, channel interactions or business processes. Also, don't worry about importing all your contacts in one fell swoop as soon as your new CRM system is up and running, especially if they are located in multiple places. Instread, use an incremental approach to CRM implementation and expansion. With the modern, cloud-based tools of today, companies can start small, taking on very little risk and proving the value of the CRM system to each team before getting more strategic.

4 Reasons the iPad is Good For Business

2011-03-01T08:51:00.000-08:00

With the increase in tablet usage and buzz in recent months, tablets such as the iPad are becoming a hot commodity in the marketplace. The natural question now is, how can we use them within our businesses. This video highlights four reasons why the iPad is in fact good for business and highlights some practical applications that it can be used for. With the recent announcement of the iPad 2, it is reasonable to think that we will be seeing a lot more of these products in the marketplace and in the business world.

Doing More With Less

2011-02-25T08:46:00.000-08:00

The New York Times has a great story which showcases how one small business owner is able to leverage technology as a powerful tool to grow their business and be more productive. Whether you're a large business or very small business - if any of your competitors are like YourLittleFilm (which creates short files) and are powerfully using technology, you need to be worried.

Most entrepreneurs often would like their businesses to appear larger than they are, and present themselves as capable of running with the pack. With the utilization of customer relationship management software and other available tools for everything from file organization to scheduling software, they demonstrate phenomenal resource management as well as being a cut above their competition in quality and caring. If they can keep up with their competitors with their legions of employees and fancy buildings simply by using a few smart software tools and their own ingenuity, imagine what they could do with even more.

Pay to Play!

2011-02-20T08:42:00.000-08:00

Here is an interesting interview with Garrett White, the creator and presenter of “Paid to Play”, a WebTV show that helps entrepreneurs to enjoy what they do. Garrett is an interesting character, he’s full of energy and enthusiasm, and here he talks about a wide range of topics that have pertinence in the small business technology world, and even delves into how spirituality relates to business.

http://helpmybusiness.com/

Why Embracing Social Media Is Essential

2011-02-16T08:26:00.000-08:00

These days there are so many new and exciting ways to connect with people. If you just think about the strides that we have made, in a technological sense, in the last 10 years alone, you can't help but notice how far things have come along. In recent years we have begun to witness a revolution. This revolution is centered around social media platforms, namely Facebook and Twitter. While the younger generation has welcomed these two platforms with open arms, it has taken some time for older generations to jump on ship. This is especially true for small, family owned businesses. Every major company in the world has some form of social media marketing and although they utilize them to varying extents, their presence shows an adaptive and forward thinking attitude.

The more these platforms become integrated into our daily lives (which has already become a reality), the more effective they become as a means of promoting yourself and your business. When you don't have the financial resources to launch major marketing campaigns, such as most small businesses, you need to find the best way to reach customers in a low cost, high exposure manner. This is where social media has become an essential tool. By implementing Facebook and Twitter pages for your business, you can reach a larger audience of potential customers, as well as offer a number of discounts, coupons, and exciting new offers. It is also an invaluable way to convey information quickly to customers such as store hours, daily deals, or unexpected closings. Being able to reach your customers quickly and effectively allows for your company to truly stay ahead of the curve and show that you are willing to roll with the times. In a world where small businesses seemingly are becoming more and more antiquated, adapting social media will offer a magnificent opportunity to rejuvinate your image as well as provide you with the means to reach a multidude of customers and reshape your public image.

Twitter Tools for Small Businesses

2011-02-13T17:47:00.000-08:00

In what seems like a never-ending quest to stay on top of ecommerce trends, small businesses are adding social media campaigns such as Twitter to their existing marketing plans. Embracing new social media tools is something that can be very beneficial for a small business on a number of different fronts. It allows you to reach a variety of potential customers, it costs nothing, and it shows a progressive attitude for your company by embracing new technologies.

When it comes to promotion of your business on Twitter, there are many free and low cost tools available to help you better manage your variety of marketing tasks. To make things even easier, most Twitter tools are Web-based and very easy to use. I will focus in particular on three tools that are best suited to help a small business owner stay on task with their Twitter marketing efforts. These Twitter tools can help a business cut down on thier time investment by automating the tweeting process or by providing features that help integrate Twitter into the marketing tasks already being performed.

Creating Coupons with TwtQpon
Small business ecommerce sites will find the Twitter coupon generator, TwtQpon, useful for promoting Web store deals on Twitter. You can also create special reward coupons for your own loyal Twitter followers.

The TwtQpon site allows you to create your coupon with ease and very little information necessary. Once created, your Twitter followers will see a Tweet, which is the text you enter in a TwtQpon Web form. Customers who click the link are directed to the image-enabled version of the coupon page and are then redirected to the URL you specified when they click to redeem. The best part about this application is the speed of use. You can have brand new coupons up within seconds. There is also an option to add personal branding, which is shown on the image-enabled version hosted at TwtQpon.com. The website doesn’t specify a fixed price for the upgrade but suggests you enter a price at check-out based on what you think the upgrade is worth. Overall this can be a very useful tool for small businesses owners looking to improve their Twitter efforts.

Schedule Tweets with FutureTweets

FutureTweets is another useful tool for busy small businesses looking to expand their efforts. If you often forget to update your Twitter status or you have difficulties working in regular tweet time this is a good tool to use. The Web-based service lets you schedule a number of tweets and specify the time you want the tweets to be published on Twitter. You could pick one or two days a week to add multiple tweets that you set to publish at different times. The scheduling aspect will not be noticed by your followers and it will appear as if you Tweet on a more regular basis. All you need to do is type in your Twitter message and then select a publish date. You can enter the publish date manually in the form field or you can choose the date on a calendar button and select the time by dragging the hands on the clock widget beside the message box on the form. After scheduling your Tweets you’ll see a list of all scheduled tweets you have written with a star noting the ones that have been published. From this single Web page you can also edit or delete any Tweet you set using the tool. What is nice about FutureTweets is that it offers a simple interface with everything you need on one page so you can go in and schedule future tweets quickly.

HootSuite Social Media Dashboard

HootSuite is a social application that you can use to manage a number of social media tasks in an efficient way. The service supports a number of social platforms in addition to Twitter, like Facebook, WordPress and others. HootSuite offers several tools that will help small business owners to better manage their Twitter and social media marketing tactics. Some of the tools let you schedule updates across one or more social media sites, and you can also collaborate and manage multiple social accounts that are spread amongst your marketing team. Small business owners will also like two of the more business focused tools in HootSuite. The first is the “Monitor Mentions” tool. This is used to track and gather mentions of your company or brand across multiple social sites. Another business tool in HootSuite is used to review statistics and reports on individual status messages tweets you publish. HootSuite is a more professional Twitter tool with a focus on the needs of a business user.

Overall, these three tools can be very useful for small business owners who are seeking to have a sound social media marketing plan, without it getting in the way of their day to day work. Each one can be extremely helpful and promote a forward thinking and progressive attitude that is usually not seen in small, family owned businesses.

Welcome To My Blog!

2011-02-06T23:07:00.000-08:00

Hello everybody!

Welcome to Small Business Technology, my blog for the class CIS*600 with Professor Bruce White. I chose to blog about this topic because my father currently operates a third generation family-owned business in New Haven, CT. His company, Jet Cleaners, was passed down to him from my grandfather, and was started all the way back in 1956 by my great grandfather. Many people are aware of how difficult it is to run and operate a small business in this economic climate, but few people every focus on the technological and IT measures that a small business can take to keep it from being lost in the mix of just every other mom and pop shop on the corner. Throughout the years, Jet Cleaners has managed to find ways to implement new technologies that have kept them ahead of the curve and in business for longer than many competitors that have come and gone. Through a series of blogs this semester, I will do my best to highlight what small businesses are doing to keep up with the times and stay relevant in a fierce world where they find themselves disappearing far too quickly. Whether it is through new inventory systems, improved databases, or using social media to spread their brand, you will see that it isn't just the big boys that can take advantage of the constantly improving technology in the business world. I hope you enjoy reading my posts and learn a bit about the struggle of running a privately owned, local business.