What is property management software?

Property management software is a specialized field service management solution that provides a central platform to automate, manage, and streamline various facilities and preventive maintenance work. For example, using property management software, it is possible to track inventory size, implement preventive maintenance schedules, handle work orders till completion, and much more.

How does property management software digitize and improve facility maintenance?

Preventive maintenance is where having property management software helps reduce expenses, ensure minimal breakdown of equipment, and improve overall inventory management operations. It mainly does so by tracking historical data of managing supplies, equipment, materials, systems, or tools. It creates reports and helps in extracting insights such that it suggests modifications, automates manual work, and alerts in case of downtimes for quick fixes.

Other key aspects where property management software helps streamline operations include:

Automate work order management

Work orders often face exposure to human errors resulting in wrong job placement, resource allocation, and rework. For example, software can help prioritize your work orders for execution so that urgent tasks can be taken care of at the earliest possible time. It also helps cut down time spent on manual work like collecting information from customers or workers for placing orders, filling forms, sharing files, etc.

Property management software also makes it possible to schedule recurring work orders. This helps you –

• Stay alert with the calendar for maintenance activities
• Review trends in recurring workflows to improve them
• Customize workflows as per business requirements

Keep field service workers in the loop in real-time

When you are running and maintaining a manufacturing facility, having real-time information about equipment usage, field service worker location, and overall plant efficiency helps tackle emergencies. Having property management software means you can track and communicate metrics like temperatures around the facility or detect any anomalies in the environment and take quick action.

The software includes real-time messaging and notification features that keep field service workers and supervisors in the loop. In case of emergency, workers can share images or videos quickly with managers to help mitigate facility disasters.

Reduce equipment failure

Equipment failure or downtime causes delays, a rise in expenses, and losses due to the inability to complete work orders. Using property management software helps track equipment health to make sure they are utilized on time and with healthy usage frequency. It ensures you undertake equipment maintenance work on time. You can also track the expiry of certain materials or supplies kept in the facility and get alerted to restock or use them on time.

Comply with regulations and be ready for audits

When choosing a facilities management software, make sure it also helps you stay compliant with local laws relevant to your facility’s location. By tracking equipment usage, facility outputs, field service worker timesheets, and more – it is possible to align with necessary metrics for maintaining a healthy facility.

For example, many countries have labor laws for workers in warehouses or manufacturing facilities. Property management software will help ensure safety rules are being followed, track timesheets to determine productive work, and manage compensations. Knowing these metrics helps with labor compliance work.

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1. SEO and Content Marketing Tools

Search engine optimization tools work to improve your site’s ranking on Google’s search engine results page using a variety of strategies. These tools can help you improve the quality of the content on your website as well. Since so many consumers turn to search engines to find new businesses, a high SERP ranking allows you to reach them more quickly. Ranking well on Google likewise conveys that your brand is a trusted authority and leader.

SEO tools will assist you in identifying keywords to include in your website’s landing pages, blog posts, and other content. With these keywords, you can build out your site’s content pillars and identify topics that are relevant to your target audience. These tools also help you monitor your site’s performance and compare your strategy to that of your competitors.

In addition, SEO tools can assist you with off-page optimization strategies. This technology lets you monitor the performance of existing backlinks and find new prospects. On top of that, you can use these tools to keep up with algorithm changes and ensure that your site is structured well for SEO.

2. Email Automation

Email updates are an effective way to communicate directly with both leads and existing customers. Building your email marketing strategy manually is complex and time-consuming, however. Email automation technology enables you to build, monitor, and customize your campaigns faster.

There are a variety of email marketing tools on the market to choose from, some of them offered on a freemium basis. Many of these tools offer intuitive drag-and-drop email builders, list management, and campaign performance tracking.

Automated features take your campaigns a step further. Many email automation tools integrate directly with your online store to send follow-up emails to your leads and customers. Some of these tools can automatically segment customers based on their onsite and past purchasing behavior. Email segmentation lets you adjust your messages based on where customers are in their buyer’s journey.

3. Social Media Analytics

Social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok allow you to get creative with your marketing. Since many consumers spend time on social media every day, these platforms offer the opportunity to connect with your audience authentically. Social media analytics tools make it easy to build a campaign and track your performance.

These analytics tools will analyze the traffic for each new post, showing you the demographics of your viewers and how they’ve found your posts. With this information, you can optimize future content and improve its performance. Social media analytics tools will help you manage sponsored posts and track conversions, too.

While building your social media campaign, you can use social media tools to create and schedule posts ahead of time. Such features make it easy to post at optimal times of day for your audience. These tools also allow multiple team members to work on your social media campaign at the same time.

4. Chatbots

Automated chatbots enable you to approximate an in-store customer service experience when you’re selling online. They welcome visitors to your website and can answer a variety of questions. These chatbots are powered by artificial intelligence and work on websites and mobile apps.

Chatbots help customers find products and solve basic problems right away, and they’re available 24 hours per day. In most instances, there’s no need to wait for a human customer service representative. In cases where chatbots can’t solve a customer’s problem, they’ll forward the message to the correct person to follow up.

Many chatbots are available in multiple languages to cater to a wider audience. You can also create custom chatbot flows to reflect your business model. The most advanced chatbots will integrate with other marketing tools to capture leads and track analytics.

5. Webinar and Virtual Event Platforms

Video communication technology has improved drastically over the last decade. Indeed, during the COVID-19 pandemic, video calls rapidly became the new normal. As a result of this widespread familiarity with videoconferencing capabilities, webinar tools have become an excellent way to connect with customers around the world. They’ve become particularly popular among B2B brands, given that 91% of B2B professionals say webinars are their preferred type of content.

Webinar tools allow you to deliver high-quality video presentations and host online meetings with prospects. Text chats and breakout sessions let webinar attendees interact one-on-one. Many platforms also offer screen sharing, Q&A features, and surveys for a more enhanced experience.

With this technology, you have the option to record your webinars and repurpose them later. Webinars make excellent source material for YouTube and other social media platforms. Repurposing webinar content for other channels will help you build brand recognition and share your expertise with an even wider audience.

Final Thoughts

When it comes to building a successful marketing strategy, marketers have almost endless options — among them, robust tech solutions. Today, implementing advanced technology is essential to reach your target audience. With the technologies discussed above, you won’t just build brand awareness. You’ll learn about your customers’ preferences so you can customize your marketing strategy in ways that best resonate with them.

Featured image provided by Matheus Bertelli; Pexels; Thanks!

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What Do You Actually Need CAD Software For? 

The answer to this question might seem straightforward enough, but some software packages are going to be better suited to your needs than others. Do you need the option to readily share designs with external teams or clients? You’ll need to consider cross-compatibility and choose software that allows for hassle-free exports without running into any formatting issues.

Don’t Always Go with the Cheapest Option 

In 2023, the CAD software market was worth more than $11 billion. By 2030, revenues are expected to soar past the $17 billion mark. While there’s a healthy appetite for 3D modelling software, many businesses make the mistake of cutting corners and going for cheaper options that aren’t fit for purpose.

Full-featured CAD software comes at a cost but a premium price tag. While budget-friendly options are readily available, these often come with throttling design limitations. If you are tempted to go with a cheaper solution, you should at least look for software that can be upgraded to unlock more advanced features. Alternatively, you

could face a situation where you’re forced to upgrade to an entirely new package to access just a handful of relevant features.

User-Friendliness and Learning Curves 

While CAD software is generally designed with advanced learners in mind, don’t overlook the importance of user-friendliness. Even those with experience in 3D modelling software will need some adjustment time. CAD

software is rarely an inexpensive investment, and you’ll want something that can be fully utilised by the people who’ll be using the software daily.

It’s tempting to go with CAD solutions that seem similar to the software you’re currently using. However, similarities tend to be superficial, and there’s no guarantee that the software you’ve chosen will be as accessible as you first thought. To make life easier for your teams, choose software with user-friendly features like ribbon layouts and a good degree of automation. For peace of mind, make sure you’re selecting software that’s well-represented by an online community and a ready supply of training material.

Compatibility Counts 

There are a lot of technical considerations involved when choosing CAD software. However, compatibility is arguably one of the most important. Does the software you’re interested in allow you to easily import and export data? You’ll also need to think about data translation. The more frequently you translate data, the longer a project can take. If you’re looking to streamline your operation and make your processes more efficient, you’ll want something that excels when it comes to software integration.

What New Features Are Available? 

You might pick a CAD software package today that ticks every last one of your requirements. However, the same software is unlikely to provide you with the full suite of tools needed to complete your projects in a couple of years. The best CAD software providers ensure new features are readily introduced without you having to shell out brand-new software licences. Here, some due diligence is required on your part. Don’t always trust the promises of a software provider. Instead, do your homework and see what existing users are saying about software updates and the frequency of said updates.

Making the Right Choice 

If 3D modelling is a key part of your business, you can’t cut corners when selecting CAD software. If you try and make a saving on a budget-friendly solution, you might find yourself locked out of the design features you really need. What’s more, second-rate software can lead to crippling inefficiencies that slow down workflows and leave little scope for automation. By identifying your specific requirements and considering your wider infrastructure, you’ll stand a better chance at making the right choice when selecting CAD software.

Featured image provided by ThisIsEngineering; Pexels; Thanks!

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Planning a vacation can be a time-consuming task, requiring extensive research to find the best deals, accommodations, and activities. However, with the advent of AI, travel agents can now streamline their workflow and deliver personalized itineraries more efficiently. Nicole Cueto, a New York-based public relations consultant, has successfully integrated AI into her travel advising side hustle. By utilizing ChatGPT, a powerful AI language model, she has significantly reduced her research time.

Cueto explains, “In the past, planning one day of vacation would take me five to seven hours. But with ChatGPT, I can cut that time in half.” This newfound efficiency allows Cueto to take on more clients and earn an average of $670 per month from her side hustle. By leveraging her extensive travel experience and ChatGPT’s recommendations, Cueto can provide her clients with budget-conscious guides that incorporate historical neighborhoods and unique perspectives.

While AI can expedite the planning process, Cueto emphasizes the importance of fact-checking and further research to ensure accuracy and reliability. Nonetheless, the time-saving benefits of AI have empowered Cueto to enhance her services and increase her earning potential.

Content creation is a vital aspect of any business’s marketing strategy, but it can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. AI-powered content assistants are revolutionizing this process by generating blog articles, newsletters, and social media posts. Companies are now hiring part-time content assistants who leverage AI chatbots to create content that can later be fact-checked and refined by human editors.

This emerging side hustle, also known as AI content editing, has gained traction due to its potential to earn individuals anywhere from $20 to $100 per hour. The process is simple: content assistants provide chatbots with relevant prompts, such as transcriptions or specific topics, and the AI generates initial drafts. Angelique Rewers, founder of BoldHaus, a small-business consulting firm, believes that AI content assistants are the next big thing in side hustles. However, she emphasizes the importance of proofreading and ensuring the generated content is coherent and accurate.

The demand for AI content assistants is increasing, and platforms like Upwork are witnessing a surge in freelancers specializing in this field. Margaret Lilani, Vice President of Talent Solutions at Upwork, acknowledges the high demand and encourages freelancers to seize this opportunity. As AI technology continues to improve, content assistants can expect even greater earning potential and opportunities for growth.

Artistic endeavors require time and effort, from crafting emails and business templates to editing photographs. AI tools are now empowering artists to streamline their workflow and focus on their creative process. Sean Audet, a trained fine dining chef turned food photographer, has integrated AI into his side hustle, which has allowed him to enhance his business operations.

Audet uses AI, such as ChatGPT, to craft emails and build business templates, saving him valuable time. While he acknowledges the need for specific instructions to ensure accurate outputs, Audet believes that AI will become increasingly valuable as technology advances. He has also experimented with generative AI on photographs, using programs like Midjourney to make minor edits and adjustments. Although AI can produce surprisingly good results, Audet emphasizes that the technology is not yet refined enough for professional projects that require meticulous attention to detail.

While the immediate impact of AI on Audet’s business may be relatively low, he recognizes the long-term potential and the opportunity to invest his saved time in more profitable endeavors. As AI technology continues to evolve, artists like Audet can expect to see increased efficiency and improved results in their creative pursuits.

Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing side hustles across various industries, unlocking new opportunities for individuals to earn extra income. By leveraging AI tools and platforms, people can save time, increase productivity, and ultimately make more money. However, it’s important to approach AI integration with caution and recognize its limitations. While AI can expedite processes and provide valuable insights, human oversight, fact-checking, and creativity remain essential.

Integrating AI into your side hustle can be a transformative experience, empowering you to deliver high-quality services, generate engaging content, and unleash your creativity. The key lies in finding the right AI tools and platforms that align with your specific needs and industry requirements. As AI technology advances, its impact on side hustles will continue to grow, creating new opportunities for individuals to thrive in the gig economy.

Embrace AI as a valuable assistant, allowing you to unlock your full potential, maximize your earning potential, and achieve success in your side hustle. Stay informed about the latest AI advancements, explore new tools and platforms, and be open to adapting your workflow to leverage the power of AI. With the right approach, AI can be a game-changer, propelling your side hustle to new heights.

FAQs

1. Can AI completely replace human involvement in side hustles?

No, AI cannot completely replace human involvement in side hustles. While AI tools can expedite processes and provide valuable insights, human creativity, judgment, and oversight are still crucial. AI should be seen as a powerful assistant that enhances productivity and efficiency, rather than a complete replacement for human involvement.

2. How can I find the right AI tools for my side hustle?

Finding the right AI tools for your side hustle involves conducting thorough research and exploring various options. Consider your specific needs, industry requirements, and budget when evaluating different AI platforms. Look for tools that offer the features and capabilities that align with your goals and objectives. Additionally, read reviews, seek recommendations from industry peers, and take advantage of free trials or demos to assess the suitability of the AI tools for your side hustle.

3. Are there any risks associated with using AI in side hustles?

While AI can bring numerous benefits to side hustles, there are potential risks to be aware of. AI tools may produce inaccurate or misleading outputs, especially when working with complex or ambiguous prompts. It is crucial to fact-check and validate the information generated by AI. Additionally, data security and privacy should be considered when using AI tools that require access to sensitive information. Stay informed about the latest developments and best practices in AI to mitigate potential risks and ensure a successful integration into your side hustle.

4. Can AI help me scale my side hustle?

Yes, AI can help you scale your side hustle by increasing your productivity and efficiency. With AI tools, you can automate repetitive tasks, streamline workflows, and deliver personalized services at scale. This allows you to take on more clients, expand your offerings, and ultimately increase your earning potential. By leveraging AI, you can maximize your time and resources, enabling your side hustle to grow and thrive.

5. How can I stay updated on the latest AI advancements relevant to my side hustle?

To stay updated on the latest AI advancements relevant to your side hustle, it is essential to engage in continuous learning and research. Follow reputable industry publications, blogs, and social media accounts that focus on AI and related technologies. Join relevant online communities, attend webinars and conferences, and participate in forums to interact with experts and stay informed about the latest trends and developments. Embracing a growth mindset and actively seeking knowledge will ensure you remain at the forefront of AI advancements in your field.

In conclusion, AI is revolutionizing side hustles by saving time, increasing productivity, and enabling individuals to make more money. From travel agents to content assistants and artists, AI tools are empowering professionals across various industries. By adopting AI in your side hustle, you can unlock new opportunities, enhance your services, and achieve success in the gig economy. Embrace AI as a valuable assistant, and let it propel your side hustle to new heights.

First reported by CNBC.

The post How AI is Making Side Hustles More Lucrative appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Consider waiting for the M3 release or purchasing discounted older MacBook versions that still meet your business needs.

Microsoft has introduced its Microsoft 365 Copilot, an AI-powered tool that aims to enhance workplace productivity. Business Standard and Business Premium account users can access this next-generation AI technology for $30 per month. Microsoft 365 Copilot promises to streamline work processes, leveraging AI to automate repetitive tasks and provide intelligent suggestions.

Collaboration on “Llama 2,” the AI language model by Meta, involves both Microsoft and Meta. Developers can now access Llama 2 through Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform without any cost. The decision to open-source Llama 2 has sparked discussions due to Meta’s previous access restrictions. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, advocates open-source technology as it fosters innovation by granting more developers access to state-of-the-art tools.

If your business relies heavily on Facebook or Instagram and you’re interested in incorporating more AI functionality for your users, Llama 2 is a valuable development tool worth exploring.

EnKash, a management platform, has unveiled Olympus, a comprehensive digital payments platform designed for startups and traditional businesses. Olympus aims to simplify accounts payable (A/P) and accounts receivable (A/R) processes. EnKash recognizes the need to automate payment systems for small and mid-sized businesses that may lack resources and expertise. Olympus seamlessly integrates with existing accounting and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software.

Explore Olympus to streamline and automate your business’s A/P and A/R processing. EnKash’s solution caters to the growing digital payments landscape, particularly in Asia.

A cautionary story from Wisconsin serves as a reminder of the importance of internal controls and employee vigilance. An employee at a gas station received a call from someone posing as the owner, requesting an advance payment of $3,500 for a $14,000 delivery. Convinced by the call’s legitimacy, the employee, unable to provide the full amount, took $900 in bitcoin from a neighboring restaurant’s safe and made the instructed deposit in Green Bay. Thanks to an observant passerby who noticed a smashed window, authorities traced the call to Mexico and a Wisconsin area code.

Implement internal controls to prevent unauthorized cash transfers. Be cautious of fraudulent calls and educate your employees about potential scams.

Staying informed about the latest tech developments is crucial for small businesses seeking growth and efficiency. In this roundup, we highlighted the importance of waiting for Apple’s anticipated M3 MacBook release, Microsoft’s AI Copilot, Meta and Microsoft’s AI collaboration, EnKash’s Olympus payment platform, and the risks of fraudulent calls. Embrace technology wisely, and it will become a powerful ally in your small business journey.

FAQ

1. When is the expected release date for the M3 MacBook? The M3 MacBook Air and MacBook Pro are rumored to be released by late 2023 at the earliest.

2. How much does Microsoft 365 Copilot cost? Microsoft 365 Copilot is available for $30 per month for Business Standard and Business Premium account users.

3. What is EnKash Olympus? EnKash Olympus is a comprehensive digital payments platform designed to simplify accounts payable and accounts receivable processes for businesses.

4. How can businesses protect themselves from fraudulent calls? Implement internal controls to prevent unauthorized cash transfers and educate employees about potential scams.

5. What precautions should businesses take when considering purchasing a MacBook? Consider waiting for the release of the M3 MacBook or explore discounted older MacBook versions that still meet your business needs.

6. How can small businesses leverage AI technology? Small businesses can benefit from AI technology by automating repetitive tasks, enhancing productivity, and providing intelligent suggestions.

7. Which regions does EnKash primarily cater to? EnKash is based in India and primarily caters to businesses in Asia, tapping into the region’s growing digital payments landscape.

8. How can businesses ensure the security of their payment processes? Implement robust internal controls, such as requiring written approval from multiple parties for cash transfers, to prevent unauthorized transactions.

9. Can businesses integrate EnKash Olympus with existing accounting and ERP software? Yes, EnKash Olympus seamlessly integrates with any business’s existing accounting and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software.

First reported by Forbes.

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The online phenomenon jumped from a predicted range of a respectable, albeit mere 17.8% of the global market, into a 5.5 trillion behemoth of 21% as of 2022 with even higher projections including a 14.7% compound annual growth rate from 2020 to 2027.

Thus tapping into the eCommerce market has never been more accessible and yet, technically never more saturated. However, there are several ways to best target your market and disseminate your product and message to the many potential-adoring fans around the planet.

Beyond choosing a product, getting a domain, and setting up a website there are several key components on each that will lead to a subset of answers. Here are some of the best eCommerce platforms for your startups.

For example depending on your experience level then selling should be moved from platform to platform to set up your online business. Seems straightforward but given varying degrees of internet savvy and business acumen this can greatly vary where you fall on that x,y graph.

Shopify

In recent years Shopify has become the ideal startup site to launch your store into an online market space. It has incredible capabilities and can be tailored toward numerous business ventures and ideas. The web setup is easy and intuitive, which takes much of the guesswork and time out of the process.

Beyond the web drag-and-drop builder, there are opportunities that allow the store owner to connect apps to their store. This can be used to improve functionality and connect new features to the website. Additionally, you can sell digital products, physical products, dropshipping, and more. Even subscription plans are an open market for Shopify.

There are three main plans Lite, Basic, and Advanced totaling $9, $29, and $299 a month. The “Lite” plan allows for increased sales functionality to be run through an existing website or blog. The “Basic” plan allows for a totally new store/site to be built from scratch via the platform. The “Advanced” option allows for cuts in transaction fees, adding more staff accounts (5+), and can serve with improved shipping rate calculations.

Squarespace

Squarespace is a web-building platform that boasts a heavy visual component. There is a wide range of editing tools and software that allow for greater editing power and site impact. Additionally, Squarespace is one of the few platforms integrating CSS editing into the software allowing for unique, custom edits to be built into the site itself. Thus changing the site’s composition greatly.

However, there is currently limited app integration available to Squarespace presently, which makes diversifying your business as well as scaling a major issue on the site. Unlike Shopify however, Squarespace permits more realized capabilities more readily with its lower plans. Allowing more rapid ascension to the site’s full potential.

The pricing plans for Squarespace sit at $16 – Personal, $23 – Business, $27 – Basic Commerce, and $49 – Advanced Commerce respectively. Most features unlock at the Business Level, ($23) except it still maintains a 3% transaction fee.

Wix eCommerce

Another heavy hitter in the site building market, Wix has in recent years, built itself into a reputable eCommerce platform juggling its trademark ease of use and intuitive features with an integrated AI that focuses on optimizing your website.

While currently, there is a limited set of capabilities as far as the range of sellable items, the galleries and image capabilities of Wix match most online platforms. Given the ease of use of the site as well as its optimization features, Wix eCommerce can provide an initial edge to any business not looking to invest or spend the time to ruminate over their web’s design.

To get access to Wix eCommerce you need to upgrade beyond a typical Wix plan into a business-worthy plan, think along the lines of their “Unlimited Plan” – $22, their “Basic Business” Plan – $22, or “Business Unlimited” Plan – $32. There are other plans, but these are the cheapest and easiest for the fledgling business.

BigCommerce

This is the most scalable site constructing service which is why it is one of the best eCommerce platforms for startups. When you ultimately take your business online you need a platform that can allow for that huge growth. This means whether for rapid, short-term acceleration or for a more drawn-out metric of time.

BigCommerce, while less known than others on this list, is that site. BigCommerce is a fully integrated website builder, which means you do not have to worry about plugins as you may on other sites. This allows for the ultimate results in freedom and functional capacity. It does still, of course, offer apps for integrated actions if desired.

Like nearly all of its peers, BigCommerce has four tiers to its plan. The first tier is the simple Standard Plan – $29.95. Similar to Shopify. The next plan is the plus plan – $79.95 per month. After this, the plan is the “Pro Plan” at $299.95 monthly. And then the “Enterprise Plan” which like many others requires contacting BigCommerce for a specified quote. These prices are a little high but fall almost directly in line with Shopify. Plus, they follow a similar tier structure to nearly all other site programs.

Square Online

For the offline store moving toward an online market, Square Online is a natural choice. This site can automatically sync both online and offline orders and inventory. Small business around the world similarly uses their price syncing technologies to once again have a natural ease of transaction and commerce flow.

Of course, it still offers the option of an online store builder. With regards to this, the website designer offers all the typical features. These include blog capabilities, a customizable storefront, and customer service options.

The prices run far simpler and more competitive with three tiers: “Free” – $0, “Plus” – $29, and “Premium” – 79 USD. This is right in the typical sweet spot for this type of site and the free plan can offer the new user familiarity with the basic software and a solid buffer before they decide to up their game with a paid plan.

Branchbob

For many, price and presumed knowledge stand as the main barrier to entry among the considering entrepreneur. That is where Branchbob comes in as another best eCommerce platforms for startups. It is one of the sites on this list that is completely free to use and offers basic, simplistic features that are intuitive and easy to learn and pick up.

Again, no monthly pricing or transaction fee exists. The only billing occurs if you want to increase Branchbob’s features and capabilities. This of course extends to website themes. Overall Branchbob stands as a fundamental transaction site between the business and the customer. It also allows budding businesses with limited capital to break ground in the eCommerce market.

The post Best Platforms to Sell Products for Your eCommerce Startup appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Preview environments exist to help a development team holistically review code changes in a feature branch before merging it. It’s like getting a full review of your code changes without having to worry about all the changes everyone else on your team is actively making. Each feature can progress in its own isolated test channel unimpeded by conflicts!

Monumental, right? The implications are enormous for productivity and efficiency. Think about what it means. The same group of people is able to accomplish 50% more in any given time frame. Below are the top three benefits of establishing a preview environment capability for your development team.

1. Preview environments act as quality gates.

One of the best things about preview environments is that they help you maintain a stable code base. Rather than merging code with potential regressions or breaking changes, the preview environment lets you check over your hours of tedious labor in an isolated, production-like environment. It’s 10x easier to fix a bug before merging—and that’s exactly what preview environments enable.

The preview environment enables you to make adjustments before the new code is merged. And because of their ephemeral nature—you can have one for every feature branch/pull request.

Due to its temporary nature and automated creation/deletion, teams can provision as many full-stack preview environments as they need, when they need them, and for as long as they need them. This means the speed of your feedback loops—develop, test, develop, test, develop, test—dramatically increases.

2. Previews synergize your cross-functional team.

Another dynamic role that preview environments play is in enhancing the synergy among your whole team—from developers to testers to product and beyond. The earlier that the product team and other key stakeholders can review a new feature, the faster changes can be made, and the faster changes can be made the faster the feature can be rolled out to end users.

Preview environments enable near real-time review of in progress feature development. Developers don’t have to worry about code freezes, managing merge conflicts, or the impacts of their code on all the other changes when they spin up a preview environment. Your teammate doing peer review doesn’t have to pull a branch to run locally and your product manager doesn’t have to ask “Can I see it yet?” because the answer is “Yes!” Everyone is working off the same “sheet of music” which in this case means the preview environment.

With preview environments you’ve freed up your developers to make the necessary changes to get the feature approved without having to worry about all the second order effects. They lead to a better review method, quicker turnaround times, and a boss that’s a bit more content than yesterday.

3. Preview environments save money.

The final thing to hold onto as you think about using preview environments for your development team is that it will save your company money on your cloud bills. Given the economic downturn and incredibly competitive business world we live in today, cutting costs is absolutely necessary.

The implementation of previews save money for many reasons. If you’re producing more work with the same team in a given period of time that is one way to look at the savings. While the productivity increase is the main benefit, teams will also literally save money on their cloud bills.

When you have persistent test environments they run 24/7/365 at an average cost of around $1,000/month (that’s for small projects). Preview environments only run when they are needed—which it turns out is usually less than a day or less than 3% of the month. You can run several for short periods before you reach the cost of a traditional persistent test environment.

How does your team save money with the efficiency and synergy that preview environments provide? The following progression makes it incredibly clear.

• Code Quality: Pre-Merge Testing vs. Post-Merge Testing
• Testing in Isolation vs. Batch Testing
• Bringing Your Cross-Functional Team into the Development Process
• Giving Environments a Life-Cycle that Matches Your Feature Branch Life-Cycle

One example and industry leader that exists to help companies advance workflows and the overall process of development is Uffizzi. The continuous preview environments they provide are the preferred choice. They work for many of the world’s most popular open source projects and teams seeking high performance development.

Preview environments provide a competitive edge.

Almost every team today has version control, CI/CD, and cloud-native infrastructure. Once you’ve got these basic building blocks in place, make the next game-changing move. Upgrade your test environment strategy by implementing an ephemeral preview environment solution.

There will be a learning curve. You will have to make process changes. However, the transformation will be more than worth it. With a preview environment capability you’ll never look back at how you did it before. Your team will enjoy the mental and tactical freedom that preview environments create.

The post Top Three Benefits of Implementing Preview Environments for Software Development Teams appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Complicating matters is the fact that every customer or applicant has a unique financial situation.

Some have easily verifiable income from a traditional employer. But you’ll find others don’t have a simple, streamlined source of cash flow that pays their bills. A handful of clients may be self-employed. Others might rely on freelance work in addition to a traditional job. And then, some will receive income from relatives, government benefits, pension plans, or other investments.

While complications may sometimes slow down the income verification process, new technologies can make it more effective and efficient. Verification solutions that sync with payroll providers and let customers upload their documents represent a few examples. Here are some successful means for verifying customer income sources and amounts.

Use income verification technology.

Software programs can make just about anything more efficient. This includes organizing and verifying all the documents loan applicants must provide. Applying for a car loan or credit card might be less complex than a mortgage. However, lenders still need to verify an applicant’s credit history and income.

That’s where things can get sticky for lenders and creditors that have to either approve or deny an application.

Anyone can say they make so many dollars a year, but that doesn’t mean they actually do. Lenders don’t want to approve someone for a loan or a line of credit if they can’t comfortably afford the payments. They’ll either repossess a secured asset like a vehicle or write off the debt if it’s unsecured. It’s not a good outcome for either side.

Income verification technology, such as Truework, helps lenders confirm a customer’s income within a few minutes. Since these solutions connect to many employers’ payroll networks, it’s more difficult for applicants to fudge the numbers. Some income verification solutions also verify freelance income from popular independent contractor platforms like Upwork. This saves applicants time hunting down bank statements and pay stubs.

Consider government-run verification services.

When approving applicants, mortgage lenders have their work cut out for them. Without a doubt, a home loan involves more risk since property ownership goes back to the bank if a borrower defaults. Real estate markets can sometimes be fickle, and lenders might lose money when auctioning off a foreclosure.

For these reasons and more, mortgage applications go through underwriting and a high level of scrutiny. That usually means two years of tax returns, W-2s, and bank statements for savings, checking, and investment accounts. Clients may also need to fork over other loan statements or documentation if the amounts are significant. These obligations might include student loan balances or other loans they’ve cosigned.

Because of the level of complexity involved, mortgage lenders may want to consider using the IRS’s income verification express service. The process usually takes two to three business days, but the technology helps put any questions to rest. IRS records can verify an applicant’s income from conventional and not-so-traditional sources. Plus, the service confirms whether a mortgage client’s tax returns are accurate.

Outsource manual income verifications.

Technology can automate and perform a lot of tasks. But sometimes, using tech isn’t possible, or it isn’t the most feasible solution.

In some cases, you may have an applicant who earns income from an employer that doesn’t use a payroll provider. The employer might be a small business that does payroll manually. Your borrower might have also switched jobs within the past year, and a previous employer is no longer in business.

In these cases, manual income verification is one of the only routes to take. As a busy landlord or lending department, you don’t have time to play phone tag or hunt down contacts. This might be okay if you only had one applicant to deal with. However, you receive applications nearly every day, and the work it takes to verify all the details adds up. Manual verifications are challenging to keep track of and follow up on.

By working with an income verification service, you can outsource those tasks.

Verifying customer income solutions sometimes provide manual confirmation services so you can focus on other aspects of your business. Your vendor handles the phone calls to HR departments and employers. They focus their efforts on confirming an applicant’s previous jobs and earnings, producing results faster for you and your customers. You can make decisions within days instead of weeks.

Efficient and Effective Income Verification

Verifying customers’ income is part of the job for property management companies, lenders, and some government agencies. In a less intricate process, income verification may only involve checking a W-2 from one employer.

However, most lenders and landlords deal with more proof and documentation than that. Complex and unique situations can slow down the process and cause frustration for all sides.

Income verification technologies and services make confirming a customer’s income more efficient and effective. Software that syncs with payroll providers, IRS services, and outsourced manual verification services helps remove obstacles and mitigate delays. Using these technologies and services creates better experiences for applicants and decision makers.

The post How to Effectively Verify Customer Income appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Improved accuracy and error reduction are some of the most promising benefits of digital transformation. If you can capitalize on technologies like cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI), you can unlock more informative insights, higher productivity, and less disruption. Here are five ways how.

Consolidating Information

The first and most straightforward way to achieve these benefits is to maximize your visibility across your organization. Digital tools enable you to keep all your critical information in one place, making it easier to spot errors and providing more context for this data.

One of the biggest advantages of cloud computing is that multiple users can access the same files simultaneously and see each other’s changes in real time. These features provide a single, continually updated source of truth for all parties. This visibility, in turn, reduces confusion and makes it easier to collaborate.

Of course, things can get complex and spread across separate programs, even in the cloud for SMEs. You can avoid this by using management software that consolidates multiple apps or employing AI to gather and organize your data.

Improving Accessibility

Similarly, digital transformation can also make important data and tools easier to access. On top of consolidating once-disparate resources, cloud platforms can make everything remotely accessible. This lets you see and respond to changes faster, minimizing the risk of overlooking critical information or delaying time-sensitive action.

Digital tools like remote collaboration software take these benefits further by enabling remote work. Studies show that home-based employees are often more productive, thanks to fewer distractions and a more comfortable working environment. These improvements help them pay more attention to their jobs, reducing the risk of errors.

Other digital resources, like Internet of Things (IoT) devices, can give you and your employees real-time updates about mission-critical processes. As a result, you can adapt better and minimize disruption from unforeseen circumstances through speedier responses.

Automating Time-Consuming Tasks

Digital transformation lets you automate your most inefficient and error-prone tasks. Manual approaches to administrative duties like data tracking or inventory management are often time-consuming, and their repetitive nature makes them unengaging. As a result, people are more likely to make mistakes or spend too much time on them.

People struggle with highly repetitive and data-heavy tasks, but this is where computers excel. Consequently, tools like robotic process automation (RPA) can accomplish them faster and with fewer mistakes, freeing employees to focus on other duties they find interesting.

Automating data entry, scheduling, and other non-value-adding, back-office tasks will also reduce the workload on your employees. As a result, they’ll be able to focus more, further minimizing errors and boosting accuracy.

Gaining Deeper Insight

Going digital in more areas for SMEs will also increase the amount of available quantifiable information. Using digital systems instead of traditional workflows and resources means virtually every action generates data. This gives you more insight into your organization’s operations, informing more accurate decision-making.

You should feed all this information through AI algorithms to make the most of this insight. Data analysis, like other administrative tasks, is repetitive and highly detailed, especially with large datasets. As such, it’s easy for humans to miss some patterns in all the noise. Using AI instead can reveal trends you may have overlooked otherwise.

AI-driven data analytics can reveal what’s working in your business and what isn’t. You can then make the most informed decisions to adapt and improve as your company grows and faces new challenges.

Increasing Accountability

An easier-to-overlook advantage of digital transformation is its ability to hold people accountable. Everything generates a virtual paper trail in a digital environment, so it’s easier to trace problems to their origin. That informs ongoing improvements in some areas and, in others, helps ensure employees and partners work as they should.

Project management software, which just 23% of organizations use, shows who’s responsible for each task in a project. This makes it easier for people to understand their roles and responsibilities, avoiding mistakes.

Accountability is about more than just ensuring people aren’t lazy or break the rules. In many cases, good, talented employees can overlook or forget about certain responsibilities or deadlines because things need to be clarified. Providing more clarification with these digital tools helps prevent that and provides the direction people need.

SMEs Need Digital Transformation

Digital transformation can be intimidating, but the benefits speak for themselves. Organizations that implement these tools can improve accuracy and prevent errors across every aspect of the business.

These improvements are becoming increasingly crucial in today’s crowded business market. Companies that don’t implement them risk falling behind the competition. Capitalizing on digital transformation early will help you succeed now and in the future.

The post How SME Leaders Can Improve Accuracy and Prevent Errors Through Digital Transformation appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Let’s explore these questions and see what the hype is about.

What Is Hybrid Database Architecture?

First, it’s vital to nail down a concrete definition of hybrid architecture. This type of database possesses features of two distinct structures: relational and NoSQL. Relational databases store information in the form of traditional systems, namely tables. Employees retrieve data from these structures with language commands.

NoSQL — an abbreviation for “not only structured language queries” — is a database design that enables storing information outside of traditional relational structures. It uses document stores, key-value stores, graphs, and other unique methods to make it easier for complex organizations to access information. However, NoSQLs can be inconsistent.

A hybrid database architecture possesses the positive qualities of both structures. It stores data on a physical disk and in the software’s memory, combining to create a singular engine where analytics and collaboration can occur simultaneously.

A hybrid cloud is designed to break down the wall between data processing and analytics, enabling businesses to make quicker, more informed decisions about their projects. So, here’s a deeper dive into hybrid architecture’s impact on small businesses.

How Hybrid Architecture Helps Small Businesses

There are many benefits that hybrid database architecture can bring to small businesses, including better productivity, heightened security, and reduced costs. It can handle more data than the average relational or NoSQL database. Users also have more control over the information it collects. Here’s how it can help your company.

• Better Productivity

Relational databases have limited amounts of space for data storage. Once you reach the limit, you must expand the server’s CPU, RAM, and solid-state storage device (SSD). NoSQL databases are also limited, requiring you to add more nodes over time. Everything happens on a physical disk.

A hybrid database enables you to back up your data regularly through the software’s memory. No manual alteration is required. This structure allows employees to organize and retrieve information more quickly. Hybrid databases also have automated features that analyze the available statistics and help workers create project plans with a high probability of success.

Other databases use horizontal and vertical storage techniques, while hybrids use rows and columns. This structure helps employees analyze and distribute the data with greater efficiency. This function even has a name — hybrid transactional and analytical processing (HTAP). The design is ideal for the modern world’s fast-paced work environment.

• Heightened Security

Hybrid databases inherit the flexibility of NoSQL databases, but they also have the security features of relational databases. They use SQLs to create a standardized interface that only authorized users can use. Additionally, since hybrid databases utilize hardware and software, businesses can store their most sensitive data on a private cloud to protect it.

Authentication and auditing are near-automatic with hybrid databases. Managers can easily track employee activity, monitor important datasets, and identify emerging threats. It also helps ensure the company follows industry standards or regulations by spotting human errors.

• Reduced Costs

Small businesses need to find money-saving solutions wherever possible. Optimizing data storage with a hybrid database can save lots of money by eliminating hardware costs and assisting with project management.

The cost of replacing hardware and third-party servers can debilitate a small business. Hybrid databases provide the option of using private servers, keeping storage costs low, and freeing up funds for other endeavors. This factor is more important than ever as companies center their operations on their websites and build remote workforces.

Most businesses aren’t reducing salaries for qualified employees to avoid labor shortages. Additionally, expensive digital tools like intelligent automation are becoming mainstream. Small companies that want to keep up with new technology and retention strategies must cut costs elsewhere. Hybrid databases help them accomplish that goal.

Hybrid Databases Belong in the New Working World

Many aspects of the workplace have seen drastic changes in the last few years, from new employee expectations to never-before-seen automated technology. Hybrid databases belong in the working world because of their ease of use, heightened cybersecurity, and reduced costs. They will partly influence upcoming business trends and help small businesses adapt.

The post The Impact of Hybrid Database Architecture on Small Business Projects appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

To avoid stress and disasters at all costs, it makes sense for small businesses to consider incorporating administrative software systems. Certainly, when used right, a system can help you manage critical areas of your business more effectively and efficiently. More importantly, you will be in control of your business operations at all times.

Small organizations and startups invest in administrative software systems to improve processes, predict risks, and boost overall efficiency. Ultimately, this leads to more revenue down the line. So, here are the top 7 administrative software systems you can use to get a better grip on day-to-day activities and take your business to the next level.

1. Scoro

If you need a business management solution that offers all the critical features required to manage various challenges, go for Scoro. It handles projects, tasks, billing, reporting, team collaboration, and more. 

Key Features:

• Customizable KPI dashboards
• Sharing of meeting schedules and team calendar 
• Pre-set templates for quotation and invoicing
• It also includes project, task, and time management

Why Your Business Needs It

Scoro helps streamline the entire work progress. Likewise, you are spared the hassle of investing in various tools. Scoro also offers advanced business intelligence features ideal for easing novice entrepreneurs’ management challenges. 

2. OnPay

An efficient payroll system that’s easy to set up and run is a must for any business with plans to grow. OnPay is a top-rated payroll software and HR platform that makes running payroll a breeze and automates a host of tedious back office tasks. Between a user-friendly interface and knowledgeable support staff, they certainly will have you up and running in no time.

Key Features:

• Full-service payroll from any device
• Handles all tax filings and payments
• Available in all 50 states with no extra fees for multiple pay runs
• Self-service employee portal simplifies HR processes such as new hire onboarding and PTO requests
• Best-in-class integrations with top accounting and  time-tracking software

Why Your Business Needs It

This award-winning payroll software is comparably the best one for small businesses. It can easily integrate with most accounting and time-tracking systems, automates tax filings, and is also one of the only providers with an accuracy guarantee. Moreover, their expert customer service team offers free account migration and support by phone, email, or chat.

3. ProofHub

If you want to go beyond conventional emailing and try a different approach, ProofHub is especially just right for you. It comes with a string of tools that help integrate various project management features in one place. Collaborate seamlessly with the team and keep everyone in the loop while focusing on what’s necessary.

Key Features:

• Easy online team discussions
• Task delegation 
• Also includes project history reporting and tracking
• Highly secure file storage

Why Your Business Needs It

ProofHub is the best software for improving team collaboration and focusing on what’s important for your organization. It offers all the business tools you need to use in one convenient place.

4. WORKetc

If your new business is looking for a robust platform for CRM and project management collaboration, certainly go for WORKetc. This small business software is powering the growth of over 1200 businesses globally. WORKetc also offers the ideal alternative to hassling integrations and expensive web apps. 

Key Features:

• Effortlessly links timesheets, documents, notes, and contacts to projects
• Helps manage complex project budgets
• All invoice and revenue tasks across departments are captured automatically
• Offers live support, web forms, and email for supporting tickets, also

Why Your Business Needs It

This all-in-one web-based CRM system helps eliminate multiple logins and costly integrations. It keeps all your team members on the same page to discuss and resolve issues without delay. 

5. Timely

Making the optimal use of business time can be of immense value to any business. That’s why you need Timely, the business software that automates time tracking. You get an accurate and confidential record of time spent in various activities such as meetings, emails, video calls, and conferences.

Key Features:

• Accurate and automatic tracking of time spent on business activities
• Access to real-time project dashboards
• Also includes advanced reporting systems 
• Information about capacity and hourly rates

Why Your Business Needs It

Timely can be highly valuable for your small business as it helps streamline the entire time tracking process. The software automatically records everything your team works on. Additionally, it reduces time management overhead noticeably. Indeed, you will notice a significant improvement in reporting and invoicing accuracy.

6. Process Bliss

Your search for a powerful and affordable business management software ends at Process Bliss. It provides one place for building and storing all your company processes and policies. It also offers collaboration features, allowing teams to discuss critical issues with access to status overviews. 

Key Features:

• Centralize all procedures as templates in one place
• You also can automate assignments and collaborate on the same platform
• Helps better management of workflow and data capture
• Know what’s happening instantly with reports and dashboards 

Why Your Business Needs It

Process Bliss is easily one of the best business management software for small businesses. It can scale effortlessly as you grow. This software can help you remain consistent while providing easy tracking.

7. Sage

Sage is a cloud-based software and suite designed to provide an in-depth view into multiple parts of your business, such as finance and HR. Get real-time information about these and other critical areas of business operations for making informed decisions.

Key Features:

• You get a full range of products for managing critical areas of your business
• The software also can help improve customer relationships, services management, payment processing, business intelligence, and others
• Best suited for startups, SMEs, and small enterprises

Why Your Business Needs It

Your business can benefit from integrating this comprehensive and features-rich administrative management software. Because, it offers a complete suite of integrated applications to take care of finance, sales, customer service, and lots more.

Ready to rid yourself of the stress of all the spinning plates? The business management software needs of every company vary depending on the nature, size, workflow, and processes, certainly. But hopefully, with these diverse top systems listed above, your small business finds some administrative software system options to help keep your business running smoothly and efficiently.

The post The Top 7 Administrative Software Systems to Consider for Your Small Business appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

In comparison to brick-and-mortar establishments, an eCommerce firm is more reliant on the goodwill of its customers. It’s actually quite straightforward. When a customer enters a typical physical store, they are more likely to make a purchase. After all, they went through the trouble of visiting the store. Furthermore, they are looking at the merchandise with the intent to purchase something. Therefore, few consumers leave a real store without purchasing something.

An eCommerce business, on the other hand, does not have this advantage. Since they are not actually ‘in’ the store, the customer can just close the link. Moving on to another site, the customer leaves no trace.

Here are some things you can do to make sure this doesn’t happen in your eCommerce store.

1. Downtime for eCommerce means off time.

One of the best aspects of an eCommerce site is that it is constantly open, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Therefore, you can take advantage of the fact that more and more people are using the internet to purchase goods and services. As a result, you can be selling your wares even while you are asleep.

That won’t happen, though, if your site crashes on a regular basis. If your site is unavailable, your target audience will most likely move on to another site rather than wait. Therefore, do everything you can to make sure that your site is stable and secure.

2. Customers don’t flock to slow-loading eCommerce websites.

An internet buyer’s typical attention span is roughly 3-4 seconds. Therefore, if your site does not load quickly enough, your clients will most likely leave. They will go elsewhere for another solution. After all, why shouldn’t they? There are millions of other online eCommerce stores to choose from. Therefore, make sure your site is as fast as possible if you want your customer to stay with you.

3. Make sure that the CTA is clear and in plain sight.

Why should your clients choose you above your competitors? It’s because of your call to action. This is the thing that leads people down the web marketing rabbit hole. You will lose a lot of clients if this call to action is not easy to see or not there in the first place. In addition, your shopping cart should be easy to find so that the customer understands how to purchase the items.

4. Get rid of things that aren’t selling well.

There are things that sell quickly and there are those that do not sell. This happens in every store. Therefore, concentrate on the former. Furthermore, removing the latter from your store is a great way to clean up your website and make it look and feel better. Dead products can halt your cash flow and, over time, bring your business to a halt.

Of course, you don’t have to throw them out. Instead, you could have a real sale. This is, of course, not a fake sale where retailers inflate prices, then cut them down to give an impression that they are on sale. Customers will buy your slower-moving products once they perceive that you are offering an opportunity to provide real value at discount prices.  You’ll also be able to get your cash flow rolling this way.

5. Check to see if your website is mobile-friendly.

The number of individuals engaging in eCommerce shopping on their cellphones has risen considerably in recent years. Furthermore, there are no signs that this trend will slow down anytime soon. This means that a website that isn’t mobile-friendly will miss out on the entire market. Therefore, it is critical that your website become more mobile-friendly. That way it will be easily viewable even on a small screen.

Apart from that, you should improve your SEO tactics. This will help your site appear in organic search results.

6. Include a live chat feature on your eCommerce site.

By answering all of your consumers’ inquiries, live chats will help to gently encourage them towards making a purchase choice. It’s an excellent approach to increase conversion rates and keep your target market happy. Even if they don’t buy the product, they’ll return back because of the timeliness and quality of your response. They will, at the absolute least, bookmark your website.

7. Use residential proxies to help you improve your business’s eCommerce shopping experience.

You can use residential proxies for market research to gain valuable data on your target audience’s purchasing behavior. At the same time, they’ll keep your identity hidden.

If you truly want to increase sales and improve your business’s eCommerce shopping experience, you must ensure that your site is free of latency and downtime. Furthermore, you should employ residential proxies to assist you in conducting market research on your target audience.

Image Credit: Pixabay; Pexels; Thank you!

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What software is essential for small businesses looking to scale?

If a small business owner is looking to scale their business, a cloud-based solution is the top investment they should make. Cloud-based solutions allow businesses to gain full control over their inventory and orders and visibility into the supply chain and third party partnerships. It also offers a variety of integrated applications that businesses can install or remove based on their needs at any given time. Cloud-native software also stores all data in one system, enabling end-to-end visibility to everything from available products, accounting, warehouse management, in-store point of sale technology and much more. By giving business owners maximum flexibility and the ability to scale seamlessly, this investment will ultimately allow businesses to better serve their customers and get products into the hands of consumers faster. 

How can software or remote sourcing options allow businesses to reduce overhead costs?

Software not only simplifies and streamlines business processes, but it also automates many tasks and operations that suck up crucial employee time. This frees them up to focus on more value-added tasks to help grow the business and enable higher job satisfaction. Modern technologies allow you to integrate effortlessly with third-party logistics providers, which can help reduce overhead costs like the burden of renting your own warehouse and hiring employees to staff it, especially amid global labor and warehouse shortages plaguing the industry. Software solutions also use automation to minimize the number of mistakes made with manual processes, saving unnecessary costs that can eat away at a business’s bottom line.

For example, Cin7 customer Peta + Jain implemented software to help scale the business, reduce manual error, and make the best use of the resources available to them. Once they integrated the system, Peta + Jain was able to save hundreds of hours and over $130k per year by utilizing an accounting software integration and online marketplace and shipment applications to help bolster the company’s online presence. Another positive of the technology is that the company gained access to high-quality analytics and reporting, allowing them to instantly place inventory in any of the company’s multiple channels, see sales throughout different regions, and accurately forecast and plan for the future.

How important is program compatibility with mobile devices?

Ensuring that business programs are compatible with mobile devices is extremely important because modern product sellers need to be able to do things on the go. For example, they should be able to make sales, access inventory anywhere in a store or warehouse, fulfill orders at the touch of a finger, and have visibility into the entire business no matter where they’re physically located.

In the past, legacy systems only allowed for software to be accessed on desktop computers, but now the possibilities are endless. Mobile devices can help you offer a better customer experience – whether it be through the speed of which an online order is fulfilled or supporting customers with in-store purchases.

What kind of software metrics should programs provide businesses?

Cloud-native software provides analytic and reporting metrics, allowing businesses to gain visibility into sales by region, channels and time period. You can also have control over things like taxes, compliance-related filings and all accounting record keeping. As a result, businesses can use these reports to plan cash flow with clearer insights into quick- versus slow-moving product, expenses based on historical data, seasonal trends, and more – removing the guesswork from finances and allowing business owners to focus on functions that will help them grow and reach more people.

What is the most important tech upgrade a small business should make?

Implementing an integrated, flexible, and scalable cloud-native software platform should be a top priority for small businesses because the opportunities that come with these technologies are endless. Many small business owners are using or have used disjointed, manual systems for operations such as accounting and inventory management; but these legacy systems often involve a lot of user error, avoidable mistakes, and use up countless hours that could be spent elsewhere. Investing in an end-to-end technology that consolidates and connects all business departments and data will allow you to scale, better serve customers, speed the time it takes to get orders into the hands of consumers, and enhance employee productivity and satisfaction.

Do you prefer desktop or online software applications for your business?

We prefer online software applications because they allow employees to work from anywhere, which is essential in today’s digital world. They also keep all data backed up and automatically stored – ensuring maximum productivity – allowing employees to focus on the work at-hand, rather than troubleshooting tech issues that are often associated with desktop programs.

How does your company focus on being sustainable?

We operate in a flexible work environment that is very supportive to remote working, virtual instead of in-person team meetings, and virtual customer meetings which reduces our carbon footprint and lowers travel times for our team members. In addition, we support and encourage our customers to put a high priority on sustainability and feature positive accolades on our most sustainable customers making them role models for all our customers to follow.

The post Interview with Doug LaBahn, Chief Marketing Officer of Cin7 appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

1. Google Sheets

Google Sheets is a great way to automate your business data. You can create formulas to calculate totals, averages, and other statistics automatically.

You can also use it to create graphs and charts to track your progress over time. This is just one example of how automation can save you time and money. Likewise, by automating your data entry, you can free up your time to focus on other tasks.

If you are not using Google Sheets for your business, you should probably start. It’s a powerful tool that can help you automate many different tasks.

2. EngageBay

EngageBay is an integrated Marketing, Sales, and Support CRM for startups and small businesses.

It features everything you need to align marketing, customer service, and sales around a single view of your customers. From marketing automation, and sales CRM, to helpdesk and ticketing, EngageBay is a complete business solution in itself.

3. SocialBee

SocialBee is a social media management tool that can help you automate your social media posts.

The app allows you to schedule posts in advance on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tiktok, Linkedin, and Google My Business. Therefore, this can save you a lot of time, especially if you are managing multiple social media accounts.

4. Asana

Asana is a great tool for larger project management.

It allows you to create tasks, set deadlines, and assign team members to each task. As a result, this can help you stay organized and on track with your projects.

5. Hootsuite

Hootsuite is another social media management tool that can help you automate your social media posts.

Similarly, it also allows you to track your analytics and measure your progress over time. Hootsuite offers a free plan that gives you access to basic features. However, you can upgrade to a paid plan for more features.

If you’re looking for a tool to help you automate your social media posts, Hootsuite is a great option.

6. BuzzSumo

With this tool, you can find the most popular content on social media and see what’s working for your competitors.

This is a great way to save time by quickly seeing what content is resonating with your audience. You can also use BuzzSumo to quickly find influencers in your industry and build relationships with them.

7. Canva

Canva is an amazing tool that allows you to create professional designs for your business.

Whether you need a new logo, business cards, or a social media banner, Canva can help you create beautiful designs that will save you time and money. Likewise, Canva has thousands of predesigned templates for almost any business need you may have, including:

• logo design;
• business card design;
• social media banner design;
• presentations;
• videos;
• planners;
• letters;
• social media posts; and
• and more.

Plus, with Canva’s easy-to-use design tools, you can customize your designs to create a unique look for your business. Best of all, Canva also offers a lot of its features for free.

8. Zapier

Zapier is probably the mother of all small business automation tools. Consequently, it can connect almost any app/service you have together and create automation flows to save you time.

For example, you can set up a zap (automation) to automatically send new leads from your CRM to your email marketing service. Likewise, you can add new sales from your payment gateway — Stripe, Paypal, etc. — to Google Sheets.

Zapier starts at $0/month for the free plan which includes up to 100 tasks per month. However, paid plans start at $20/month for 500 tasks per month.

9. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is an email marketing and automation tool that can save you time by automating your email marketing. Therefore, with ActiveCampaign, you can create email campaigns, set up autoresponders, and track your results.

ActiveCampaign offers a free plan for up to 500 contacts. However, paid plans start at $15/month for up to 500 contacts.

10. Grammarly

Grammarly is a great tool that can help you improve your writing. Similarly, it can save you time by automatically correcting grammar and spelling mistakes in your writing.

Grammarly offers a free plan that includes basic features. Alternatively, you can upgrade to a premium plan for more features.

Automation is your future. Make sure you are implementing it in your business.

So there are some of the best small business automation tools out there. As a result, these tools can automate various tasks, such as invoicing, contact management, email marketing, social media marketing, and more.

Do you use any of these tools in your business? In conclusion, learn which parts of your business can be automated. After that, start using automation in your business.

The post Small Business Automation Tools: Ten That Will Save You Time and Money appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

If you are considering replacing your desk phone, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is one of your best alternatives. All you need is to be connected to the internet to make and receive calls using a business VoIP system.

VoIP is the fastest-growing business communication solution around and for good reason.

It replaces the traditional landline telephone with an advanced and feature-rich phone that establishes calls over the internet. It also enables users to talk to anyone using a mobile phone, laptop, or desk phone. A classic example is “softphones” that enable conferencing over smartphones and conference phones.

Making the Switch 

VoIP vs PBX…which is better for your business? Should you really be replacing your desk phones? Let’s begin with the basics.

PBX

Long before modern chat and collaboration apps came on the scene, all business communication used to happen through a phone system in offices warehoused in a telco room. These rooms were called a private branch exchange (PBX) which were essentially little telephone companies. These used a complex structure of copper wires to transmit signals from the caller to the receiver.

PBX was the pioneer in business-grade, analog phone systems. This traditional telephony system enabled people to have a personal extension to answer phone calls at their desks, check voicemails, put a call on hold, transfer calls, and more.

Over time, the humble PBX evolved into IP-PBX by incorporating VoIP technology.

The IP-PBX could now deliver a broader range of services and more satellite locations — home users, branch offices — by leveraging data and bandwidth of the internet to connect users and offices together.

VoIP

VoIP works by transmitting voice data over the internet and also your office network. A step-by-step breakdown of how a VoIP system works looks like this.

• First, it transforms all analog phone calls into digital signals.
• These digital signals are then converted into IP (Internet Protocol) packets.
• The system then converts these IP packets back into phone signals, which are then received by the phone of the receiver.

VoIP is basically a set of rules and protocols that connects a device (phones) with an IP-PBX, over the LAN (Local Area Network) or the Internet. It uses two different kinds of data packets.

• SIP (Session Initiation Protocol): The point where the call is initiated.
• RTP (Real-Time Transport Protocol): These are small data packets containing the audio files that phones use to make a sound.

Over time, “VoIP phone systems” evolved and added more functionality such as chats, messaging, voice calls, and video conferencing features in an attempt to provide more comprehensive business communication solutions.

They also eliminated the need for purchasing and maintaining an in-house PBX system. Today, VoIP technology-backed web phones have become the backbone of business phone systems that enables businesses with some of the most advanced features in calling, making it an apt alternative to the traditional PBX.

Web Phone vs. Desk Phone

• Call Delivery: The main difference between a desk phone (traditional PBX) and a web phone (VoIP enabled) is in the way they connect people on calls.
  • Web phones deliver calls via the internet, whereas desk phones (traditional PBX) deliver calls via physically connected circuits and phone lines.
• Features: Traditional desk phones and web phones really have no comparison when it comes to features.
  • VoIP-enabled web phones are equipped with the latest technology and multiple options for communicating, for both internal and external business communication needs.
  • Desk phones have a pretty limited feature set.
• Flexibility and Integration: Web phones can easily be integrated with other important systems a business is using whereas a desk phone can’t exactly do the same.
  • Besides, web phones do not require in-house IT support and maintenance.
  • This also gives employees the flexibility to work and make/receive calls from anywhere which is not the case with desk phones.

Why Replace Desk Phones with Web Phones?

Integration with Business Apps

In today’s digitized environment, different business systems cannot work in isolation.

VoIP-enabled web phones enable you to integrate your phone system with software that your business is already using. This is not possible in the case of desk phones.

When switching to a web phone, take a demo to see how these integrations work. You may already be using a CRM, calendaring tool, or other software which you may want to integrate with your phone system.

• Most web phones have salesforce integration features that enable agents to take calls from the sales dashboard itself.
• To efficiently handle heavy call volumes and conference calls (internal and external), integrating your phone system with Google or Outlook calendar can make scheduling meetings a breeze.
  • These smartphone solutions have the ability to automatically update an agent’s status by syncing with their work calendar.
  • This way, other teammates know when a particular team member is available and when busy.

The Rise of the Remote Workforce

Do you as an organization follow a hybrid or remote work culture? Does a sizable percentage of your staff work remotely? It is high time you make a switch to web phones.

The web phone or VoIP technology has been designed to make calls from anywhere making it an ideal fit for your remote team. It enables remote workers to use an office phone number from their laptop or personal smartphones, as long as they have strong and stable bandwidth and internet connection.

Scalability

For a company with a limited budget for technology, no expansion plans, and no hybrid/remote work strategy sticking to desk phones may still work.

However, the hassle of maintaining the PBX system and an in-house IT support team will still be there. What’s more, the lack of ability of traditional systems to integrate with your other technology stack can lead to a significant loss of business.

For a company with plans to grow the team in the near future, using a web phone will likely make more sense.

Web phones provide you with the flexibility to easily scale up or down in terms of phone lines and users as and when you expand your team or downsize it. Contact centers and call centers especially stand to benefit from VoIP technology. These advanced feature-rich phones can give a serious boost in handling high call volumes, identifying, and analyzing patterns in customer calls.

‘Web Phones’ to Consider to Replace ‘Desk Phones’

It’s clear that web phones are clearly a win-win to address modern business communication needs. Now, choosing the one that best fits your requirements is the next step. The market is flooded with various options when it comes to web phones. We have put together our top picks for you to consider.

1. Tragofone

Tragofone is essentially a VoIP softphone app that can be installed on a mobile phone, laptop/desktop, or basically any device your employee is comfortable with. This particular web phone tops our list because of the host of features it offers. It makes it an ideal match for any business that works in the hybrid or remote mode.

• It features a versatile dialer app that enables employees to use the business VoIP number on their personal devices.
• Backed by WebRTC technology it is fairly easy to use. Employees can open it in a web browser they are familiar with to make and receive calls.
• Tragofone is both iOS and Android friendly.
• The advanced feature set comprises call routing, call monitoring, call logging, chat/messaging, fax management, employee directory, and more.
• Other features such as auto-provisioning and white-labeling are an added bonus.

2. FireRTC

FireRTC is a free calling web phone that runs within a browser using  WebRTC technology. The technology eliminates the need to install or buy any add-ons.

FireRTC offers free calling to the PSTN in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also provides users with background information about the person or business they are speaking with.

With features like call recording, this is one of the best web phones available. The FireRTC app is available in the Chrome Webstore.

3. OnSIP Desktop App

The OnSIP Desktop App does not require any downloads or plug-ins. Likewise, it runs seamlessly on Windows and Mac operating systems on both Chrome and Firefox web browsers. Similarly, it also enables users to make voice or video calls at the click of a button. The desktop app is equipped to make calls to:

• PSTN;
• extension dial;
• SIP-to-SIP calls; and
• video calls with compatible devices.

The OnSIP desktop app has been designed keeping in mind the requirements of a call/contact center and is an ideal replacement for desk phones.

It enables both the sales and customer support teams to utilize calling and monitoring features. Additionally, it enables remote workers/mobile staff to log into the app and connect with the company’s phone system. The video call feature enables employees to better assist customers using visual cues.

4. Zoiper

The Zoiper web phone’s ability to integrate your website and web app make it a strong contender as one of the best in the category.

Zoiper web is compatible with all popular browsers like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and Opera on the Windows operating system. Zoiper has the unique ability to discover the browser and install the appropriate plugin.

The web phone enables a user to do unlimited concurrent calls to an unlimited number of users. It boasts of features such as call hold and call transfer. Getting a  license for Zoiper may be a good idea if embedding a fully functional phone on your website or web app is your business requirement. This makes it easy for customers to reach you directly from your website or app.

5. FluentCloud Web Phone

The FluentCloud web phone is a Google Chrome add-on that is compatible with ChromeBook computers, laptops, and desktops.

This device enables users to make and receive calls, messages, chat, check voicemails, read online fax, and more all using a single interface.

FluentCloud web phone has a paid subscription plan which gives the users access to a cloud-based all-inclusive business phone system.

6. Twilio

Twilio web phone enables a user to use a web browser to make phone calls. However, like the other web phones listed here, Twilio’s browser phone is not an enterprise-grade solution and requires a user to install an add-on manually in a terminal window. Additionally, the phone has the capability to call PSTNs, extensions, and SIP endpoints.

Web phones clearly equip businesses with more features when compared to old-school desk phones. Likewise, their ability to work seamlessly across multiple devices and the capability to let employees work from anywhere is something surely to consider in today’s fast-changing remote work culture. The sky’s the limit with these new-age web phones.

The post 6 Web Phone Options That Can Replace a Desk Phone appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Technology can help small business owners automate tasks traditionally required hiring a designated employee or overloading an employee with multiple roles.

For example, many companies that previously had an Appointment Scheduler position were able to replace that role with calendar platforms or applications. These apps allow an individual to see availability for appointments and select the date and time that works best for them, rather than communicating back and forth to determine a mutually agreeable time. This process saves time. It also saves the money that would have gone toward the salary of an Appointment Scheduler.

Automated appointment scheduling is just one example, but there are several other technologies that can be beneficial to small businesses.

Learning Management System (LMS)

It can be challenging for small business owners to ensure that their employees are properly trained.

This is especially true if they must rely on people within the company to train new employees.

Businesses use technology, such as courses within a Learning Management System, to onboard and train new employees. As a result, it frees up current employees to focus on their own jobs.

This is significant within a small business environment that may have limited resources.

Cloud Document Storage

Document storage has evolved over time to become more efficient than ever.

Small businesses can use cloud document storage technology to store files rather than using limited physical space.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

These web-based apps use cloud storage that allows employees to create collaborative documents in real-time.

Employees can collaborate even when they are not physically together. As a result, this creates the opportunity for a flexible work environment that includes remote or hybrid work options.

Businesses also use web-based apps for project management, communication, and time tracking.

Website

It is essential for small businesses to have an online presence. In addition, having a website is a form of communication with potential and current customers.

Within a website, small business owners can provide details about the services they offer, their products, and the business itself.

Live Chat or Chatbots

A website can also include a way for customers to easily communicate with a small business via live chat or an after-hours chatbot.

If customers have questions about a service or product, typing them in a chat box is easier than calling or even emailing the business, as chat features are typically instantaneous.

Live chats can also be easier to manage than an email inbox.

Social Media

Having a social media presence is also an advantage for small businesses, as it can serve a variety of purposes.

Small businesses use social media technology for marketing and growing their customer base. It also can be used to build the company brand, connect with customers, and receive feedback through customer reviews.

Customers typically set up their devices to receive notifications from social media apps. Therefore, if customers are following a company on social media, then updates, such as promotions and sales, can be communicated to them instantly, as opposed to waiting for customers to access the company’s website.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Small businesses can use CRM technology to analyze data about customers, individually or as a group.

For instance, CRM can provide small business owners with insight about which products a specific client buys most or which products are most popular with customers in general.

CRM provides business owners with data to help make decisions and most importantly, to build relationships with customers.

If CRM detects that a customer has left items in an online shopping cart, it can be triggered to send the customer an email reminding them of the products they left behind or even offer them 5% off the items in their cart.

CRM has many tools built-in to help small businesses build and maintain their customer base.

Small businesses have many technology options to choose from that can increase their sales and expand their growth. It also can make managing a small business easier for owners.

When small business owners take the time to learn about technology tools that are available, they will see exponential benefits for their business and their employees.

The post How Can Small Businesses Use Technology? appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

As you were busy working for small business success, did you get a chance to notice these five recent technology developments? If not, let’s get you back up to speed.

1. Microsoft offers a free tool to help you work more efficiently.

Hey, why not grab it? Microsoft is now offering a free trial of a lightweight version of its productivity program Microsoft Lists to Microsoft Account (MSA) customers.

Individuals and small businesses will benefit from Lists. The new edition of the app seeks to provide a straightforward representation of your most essential chores in one place. Previously, the preview app could only be downloaded as part of a Microsoft 365 subscription.

Why is this significant for your small business?

Some firms install customer relationship management systems and encourage their customers to utilize the system’s built-in tasks. They then share endless to-do lists with their staff. It helps to cut down on red tape.

On the other hand, Microsoft Lists is a simple method for small organizations and individuals to keep open tasks. Additionally, since it’s free (and mobile), you may want to give it a try as a productivity tool for you and your team.

2. Amazon is increasing the cost of its Prime membership.

Amazon stated that it would raise the price of Prime membership. The monthly price will increase from $13 to $15.

For new customers, the increase will take effect on February 18th, and for current customers who renew after March 25th, the growth will take effect on February 18th. However, according to the company, the price rise is due to Amazon’s growth of Prime privileges, transportation expenses, and increased salaries.

Therefore, why is this significant for your small company?

Amazon, Netflix, Microsoft, and other cloud service providers have quietly increased their monthly rates. In consequence, this is the most severe issue with the cloud.

It isn’t a matter of safety.

Software companies can raise our expenses at will since we’re not going to go through the hassle of canceling subscriptions. However and by the way, if you want to cut down on your membership charges, consider utilizing TrueBill to identify and cancel them for you.

3. Employees use cunning ruses on Zoom to make themselves look more active online.

According to a recent study, remote workers have begun to use devious methods to make themselves look busier than they are at home.

Workers utilize methods like angling their laptop cameras in meetings to look more authoritative. However, in addition, they attend Zoom meetings while riding an exercise bike to appear active, healthy, and disciplined. Therefore, to seem busy, 56 percent of survey participants have left meetings for non-existent meetings.

Why is this significant for your company?

Kids are going to be kids. Unfortunately, certain workers feel like there is no choice except to act in this manner.

Childish actions force businesses to impose more stringent regulations on the rest of their teams, regardless of how hard they work. Therefore, experts feel that leaders will minimize this issue in the following years as more firms choose to replace their personnel with technology.

So, if you’re an employee doing this and believe you’re deceiving your boss, be careful. However, you’ll be the first to be replaced in the end.

4. Wrk has received $43 million in funding to assist companies with typical process automation.

Wrk, a Canadian business, has secured $43.56 million in funding. The company helps businesses automate business operations using solutions including API connections, bots, and RPA (robotic process automation).

Clients engage with the firm to enhance automation. They only charge for service upon completion. Wrk intends to utilize the latest investment to expand its platform to fill a need in the automation industry and continue to reshape how businesses operate.

Why is this significant for your company?

In the spirit of automation, here’s a technology that might help your company do more jobs more quickly. Is it compatible with your present system? Find out now.

5. TravelPerk, a small business travel marketplace, has secured $115 million in funding.

TravelPerk, a travel management startup, secured $115 million in investment. Therefore, with corporate travel returning, the firm intends to expand its small and medium-sized business offering.

Why is this significant for your company?

Therefore, if you often travel and spend too much time booking flights, hotels, and rental vehicles, look to this software for budgeting.

TravelPerk will use the funds to assist its business teams in planning in-person meetings and developing its travel offerings. The corporation also intends to grow into other areas, including the United States.

Trying new things takes time and effort. However, given the stakes here, what have you got to lose?

The post Small Business Technology: 5 Recent Updates appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

The pandemic has wreaked havoc on businesses payments in ways our history has not seen in decades. Long-standing business practices are outdated overnight, causing businesses to scurry. The digital age may not be kind to your business.

Now, employees must work remotely when social distance regulations are fully implemented, and offices are shuttered. Organizations use digital technology in huge numbers (and at unprecedented rates) to adapt. Companies cut three to four years off digitalizing their customer engagements, supply-chain connections, and internal activities. Consequently, their digital product deployments sped up by an incredible seven years.

People still feel the ramifications of this massive transition inside enterprises. Consequently, the payments landscape is finally changing after a lengthy period of stagnation.

B2B Payments Require a Makeover

Historically, businesses have been hesitant to change their payment methods, citing privacy and security issues and a general lack of demand.

Many businesses still use paper checks as a means of payment. Alternatives to paper payments that coexist alongside checks include the Automated Clearing House (ACH), wires, and cards, but each has its own set of problems, as you’ll see below.

Circumstances are pushing B2B firms to fix old payment mechanisms. These mechanics no longer operate in this digital age due to the arrival of this virtual world.

Businesses today want their payment systems to provide more payment alternatives and process transactions more quickly. Convenience is becoming a need. Modern B2B payments must be rapid, simple, and frictionless, like consumer purchases.

Significant advances in internet security and privacy are assisting in alleviating many of the worries that companies previously had. That is to say, particularly as they pertain to eCommerce and e-payments.

Digital Payment Methods Are Becoming More Global

As the shift from conventional to online commerce gains traction, small business payment solutions must evolve to keep up.

Consumers in the business world are clamoring for contactless transactions, which will increase by 41% by 2020. With such a linked world, contactless payment alternatives are internationally oriented.

With antiquated and sluggish systems, this desire still falls flat.

Technology has started to close the gap through internet apps by allowing for more frictionless and instantaneous cash transfers. While costs for calculating exchange rates, digital wallets, and other eCommerce payment methods may still exist, these solutions are less expensive than credit cards.

Furthermore, other methods such as ACH and wire enable money to be sent considerably more quickly. Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) will push the frontiers of banking.

That is to say, as technology continues to find its way into the payments sphere. Consequently, producing a far more fair playing field throughout the world.

Artificial Intelligence’s Ascension

The emergence of artificial intelligence in the workplace could not have happened at a better moment.

The pandemic has resulted in a substantially smaller workforce, which is regrettable. Leaders must simplify tasks for more innovative work with fewer team members. AI provides for a smaller workforce while simultaneously lowering the margin of error.

More mundane duties, such as payment posting and remittance monitoring may be done promptly and perfectly by technology. That is to say, we can automate things that are prone to human mistakes.

We may also train AI to do higher-level jobs like payment behavior analysis, which takes time and effort. Artificial intelligence (AI) for analysis gives immediate feedback on payment patterns and payer behavior.

Use of AI by accounts receivable teams to streamline the whole payment process, eliminate human error, and reduce cybersecurity concerns.

B2B BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later)

BNPL has lately been seen in B2B sectors. The BNPL option reaches a far larger audience of customers, those people who would not have been able to buy in the past owing to a lack of cash or credit.

The controlled and regular installments — typically with no extra costs — also increase the amount spent on every transaction. The “loan” does come with a bit of a fee for the seller.

Still, with AI’s advancement, they may conduct a thorough risk assessment based on a customer’s previous transaction data to ensure payback. This is another example of artificial intelligence (AI) revolutionizing the payment industry.

Cryptocurrency’s Function

Payment choices are multiplying due to the emergence of AI and the slingshot effect of the pandemic.

Don’t overlook cryptocurrency when contemplating the future of contactless digital payments. Although there has been an increase in digital payment choices in the last year, we will require a greater emphasis on worldwide solutions.

While digital wallets and QR code payments are convenient, they can have drawbacks. These payment alternatives are related to specific financial institutions and operate in local currencies.

Instead, Bitcoin employs decentralized finance (defi), eliminating the need for private institutions or third-party intermediaries. Furthermore, cryptocurrency’s single currency would remove the need for complicated currency conversion formulae.

Of course, like with everything, there are hazards to consider. Cybersecurity is a significant problem because the whole procedure and currency are online. There is still a lot of progress before the world adopts cryptocurrency and defi, but it is the way of the future.

A crucial conclusion from the pandemic’s digital breakthroughs is that technology evolves at breakneck speed. To be relevant, businesses must stay ahead of the curve.

As your business grows, look to technology for a more streamlined approach to payments and a lower margin of error.

The post Payments: The Potential Impact of Business Technology appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

As a business owner, you and your team members no doubt rely on WiFi to keep operations running smoothly. However, you might not think about the possibilities that worldwide WiFi access brings to your organization. Indeed, as WiFi extends globally, your company may encounter plenty of opportunities to grow revenue, brand recognition, and reputation.

What Global WiFi Access Can Do for Your Business

What are some of the ways that you can use internationally available WiFi to positively impact your company? Below are four suggestions to help you achieve your short- and long-term goals.

1. Improve the depth of your customer insights.

The more you know about your customers, the better you can personalize your marketing. Widespread WiFi allows you to gain more knowledge about buyers no matter where they go. For instance, through social listening tools, you may realize that many of your repeat shoppers travel to specific countries regularly. This may seem like a small insight but could have a major impact on your messaging strategies.

As mentioned by small business WiFi platform provider Plume, the deeper your customer insights, the more easily you can turn everyday patrons into true fans. How? As the piece notes, “anticipating their needs and exceeding expectations” of consumers always puts you ahead of the competition. It also gives you an inside track to foster relationships that promote genuine engagement based on personalized content and offers.

Don’t discount the value of having lots of cheerleaders around the world. Around eight of out 10 people make purchases based on recommendations from individuals they know, says Plume’s researchers. Consequently, the more global kudos you snag from happy clients from anywhere, the stronger your sales lift could be. And that’s always good for business.

2. Improve employee sourcing and bolster DEI initiatives.

Your organization is only as strong and diverse as the professionals you hire. Global WiFi gives you the chance to tap into talented workers no matter where they call home. Accordingly, you can stretch your new-hire sourcing way beyond your current geographic boundaries.

Certainly, having an international workforce requires you to get creative. You’ll need to consider how to make workflows seamless across a variety of time zones, for example. You also may want to revamp your expectations when it comes to the timing of Zoom meetings. Nevertheless, these are small concerns when you consider how powerful your company could be with a dynamic, world-class workforce.

You can test the international hiring waters by working with globally located independent contractors initially. That way, you and the rest of your team can get accustomed to the concept of working with out-of-country colleagues. As long as everyone has dedicated WiFi, the experience should be positive for your business.

3. Expand your brand footprint internationally.

Your brand might be a national sensation—or at least on its way to becoming one. Is it well-known overseas, though? With broad planetary WiFi and 5G connectivity, your company could enjoy a bump up in recognition. Not only would this increase your total addressable market but it could inform future product innovations.

Taking your business anywhere involves planning, of course. You’ll want to construct your marketing campaigns for a different culture and audience, and perhaps in a different language. Plus, you’ll need to navigate shipping rules and regulations. You may even want to host separate websites or at least microsites as well.

To make this process as effortless and low-risk as you can, pick specific areas of the world to focus upon first. Being systematic about where you’re going to sell keeps the control in your corner. You can always enlarge your marketing “orbit.” It’s a little harder to start too big and then have to pull back.

4. Attract new investment or business partners.

Perhaps your small business has leveraged crowdfunding to raise capital. You’re not alone. The crowdfunding marketplace is lightning-hot, according to MarketWatch. In 2021, crowdfunding among United States’ startups is predicted to potentially blow past the $200 million barrier.

In addition to crowdfunding via regulated sites like GoFundMe, Indiegogo, and SeedInvest Technology, you may want to seek out international investors. Many global investors are ready to put their money behind interesting business concepts. With more reliable WiFi popping up every day on all the continents, foreign investors have a better chance of finding your company. You can start looking for angel investors from abroad by submitting funding requests on trusted international platforms.

Not interested in passing on more equity to investors but still eager to get your hands on more capital? One method to stretch your resources is to join forces with a company already working overseas. Together, you may be able to move your merchandise to the communities they serve. This type of arrangement can give you a toehold in a new-to-you territory. Just make sure you invest in cloud-based software so you and your partners can exchange information seamlessly.

The world seems to be a much smaller place thanks to WiFi. It’s also a place where smaller businesses can compete on a level playing field with much bigger enterprises. Take time to consider how global WiFi can help your organization achieve its objectives. You might be surprised at how far you can take your vision.

The post 4 Ways That Global Access to WiFi Affects Small Businesses appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Just about everyone has converted to cloud faith in the wake of turbulent times over the past two years. 92% now report that they invest in cloud services. Compare that to 59% just a year ago, according to a survey of 2,120 executives by Harvey Nash Group conducted in collaboration and CIONET. They reported that most companies plan to increase their technology investments (61%) and to hire more people (60%) to achieve “record levels.”

Hierarchies

Technology platforms are breaking down hierarchies that have hindered productivity for decades. Technology leaders need to be able to manage things and have seats at the table, whether on boards or on executive committees.

The report’s authors stated that digital leadership is becoming more distributed and ego-less, with the role shifting to the person most positioned to make the decisions. If they want to be agents of change, digital leaders must embrace the new world of multiple roles.

Nearly eight out of ten companies have appointed chief digital officers to their boards or executive committees. This is to assist with their digital transformation. To oversee these efforts, 77% of the companies have increased the number of chief technology officers. About 65% of these companies have chief information officers.

According to the report’s authors, CIOs have historically been the gateway to digitization but they no longer hold a monopoly. Other leaders have begun to share this responsibility. Digital leaders who create an environment that is agile and driven by data insights are the most valuable.

Technology Age

No matter what title the digital leader may hold, they must act quickly to remove any impediments that are preventing their business from moving into the digital age.

The most difficult area is technical skills. A shortage of talent means that more than two-thirds of executives (69%) are unable to keep up with the pace of change.

The most desired tech skill is cybersecurity (43%), up 11% over the past 12 months. DevOps (39%) and big data/analytics (38%) are also in high demand. Four out of ten companies are facing shortages in developers.

How can digital leaders address the shortage of skills? Tech teams might need to expand their skill sets.

Over half (51%) of respondents plan to cross-train employees in other areas of their company. A preferred option is the use of niche consultancies to fill in gaps in expertise. This was also mentioned by 45%. Another 44% plan to increase their employee hiring. Nearly 40% plan to increase their outsourced expertise.

However, with so many solutions available now that are cloud-based or packaged in commercial off-the-shelf products, it raises the question of what future outsourcing options will exist. Another 35% plan to increase the number of contract employees.

The Next Age

Building and maintaining a stable workforce is becoming more difficult in the face of the “Great Resignation.”

Eighty percent of executives say that this mindset shift makes it more difficult to retain employees. Only four percent admit that they are able to keep employees on board for a longer period of time.

However, not enough is being done to make the environment more attractive to employees. Twenty-nine percent of companies have not adapted their environment to accommodate more flexible and hybrid arrangements.

The survey shows that there have been promising increases in diversity. The survey found that 21% of digital leaders identified themselves as female this year, compared to 13% in 2020. Women now comprise 28% of the tech team. Six out of 10 respondents think their approach to diversity is improving the quality and quantity of their employees. They also note that creating the right culture is more important than mandating shortlists and quotas.

Organizations today are loose associations of contract, remote, and on-site workers. Workers are linked by technology. They work together as needed to accomplish tasks.

Conclusion

Although the media keeps harping on the fact that companies cannot find enough workers, the reality is different.

That’s because while untrained workers are becoming more ambitious and assertive they are also becoming less attractive to employers. What employers really want, really need, are skilled, trained, workers. Workers who are willing and able to tackle the ever-changing challenges of employment in the post-pandemic age.

Often overlooked or scorned by otherwise eligible employees is vocational training. Learning how to cut meat. How to fix a car. Tighten a leaky faucet. And so forth. Many states offer vocational courses for free. Or they offer partial to complete tuition reimbursement after successful completion of a certification course.

Small business owners should always be on the lookout for those who have been trained in the vocational system. These can become the backbone of your small business.

The post Elusive Technology Skills — and Business Leadership appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

As tech plays an ever-increasing role in our daily lives, there’s a commensurate push toward new business models that take advantage of well-managed data and business intelligence. As a result, our collective demand for skilled leaders in the field of data science is only going to grow increasingly urgent.

But what does “leadership in data science” mean?

To put it simply, data is useless by itself. The only thing that gives it value is how it’s used and what insights can be gleaned from it. To extract the maximum value from collected data — either from a financial, strategic, or customer service standpoint — an organization needs a strong, clear goal and a way to reach that goal. That takes vision, and — you guessed it — leadership.

Are you suited to a leadership role?

Do you have the makings of a data science leader?

The good news is, most data scientists looking to move into a leadership role have already mastered the essentials of their field. They typically have technical, mathematical, and engineering skills. The bad news is, there’s an entirely separate skill set for being a leader. Not every data scientist is necessarily well-versed.

Just as with other fields of endeavor, leadership means having certain qualities or expertise. The six leadership skills most commonly regarded as vital are listed below.

Communication

Being able to listen, explain, simplify and illustrate sophisticated concepts is especially vital in data science. Communicating with a high degree of precision is all but inevitable for success.

Integrity

The responsibilities of companies that collect big data and the subject of data ethics is an increasingly important and thorny issue. Just as with any other leadership role, a data science leader must be committed to doing the right thing.

Resilience

Data science is not an easy field of endeavor. The world of data itself is constantly shifting and evolving. Being able to adapt, overcome, and focus on solutions when problems and changes present themselves is an invaluable leadership skill. A team needs a positive attitude and the courage they need to bounce back, especially when things go wrong.

Vision

Vision is one of those buzzwords that come up a lot when people talk about leadership. It can mean any number of things. Mostly, vision is about having a clear goal in mind. It includes knowing the risks and rewards and making sure the rest of your team understands those risks and rewards, too. No one can predict the future. However, having the foresight to see possible challenges — and their solutions — before they present themselves is vital to good leadership.

Positivity

One of the main functions of a skilled leader is to inspire others. It’s tough to do that without a strong, positive attitude of your own. That doesn’t mean being “sunshine and roses” every minute of every day. However, data scientists, just like everybody else, need some encouragement when the going gets rough.

Delegation

Another crucial leadership skill is the ability to delegate. By definition, if you become a data science leader, you won’t be able to do it all yourself. That means not only trusting others to do the job you give them, but also providing them with the tools and guidance they need to succeed.

Areas of Data Science

“Data science” is itself a broad term that can encompass a number of areas. Once you decide you want to try to take on a leadership role within your organization, it might be helpful to focus on one of these areas so you can specialize. The more common areas of data science include:

• Data Management
• Data Engineering and Architecture
• Artificial Intelligence
• Data Science Strategy
• Data Analytics
• Business Intelligence and Strategy
• Research
• Ethics and Legalities
• Policy and Governance

How can you become a leader in data science?

Leadership in data science isn’t fundamentally that different from leadership in other fields. It includes skills that can be taught and learned, even if you’re not starting from a point of “natural” leadership or confidence in your personal charisma. Listed below are some quick tips as to how you can begin positioning yourself for a leadership position.

• Take initiative and be proactive. Present ideas when they come to you. Make yourself available to join projects. Accept opportunities as they come along. In short, make yourself a valuable asset that everybody wants to have around.
• Improve your leadership skills. Take training courses in communication and team leadership. You might also work with a mentor on these skill sets.
• Consider acquiring a master’s in data science. Doing so will sharpen your soft skills. You’ll also gain valuable credibility in the industry.
• Be assertive in networking within the industry. It’s not all “who you know,” but knowing the right people certainly helps.
• Stay up to date on the latest tech and trends in the industry. That way, you not only know what’s happening right now. You can also look to the future…and that’s what true leadership is all about.

The post How to Become a Leader in Data Science appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Increased online traffic depends on a variety of factors. One critical factor is the ability to scale. Many businesses fail to provide a secure and reliable infrastructure, one that is responsive to user traffic patterns. Reports show that 88% of customers are unlikely to return to a website after a bad experience.

Experiencing downtime during peak hours could deal a death blow to your business. You can lose customers, boost bounce rates, and lower your search engine rankings. In short, a poor customer experience equals a commensurate loss in revenue.

Below is a helpful guide for ensuring that you achieve long-term growth by retaining loyal customers. You can also augment this by building online momentum with new customers using one of the most dynamic strategies available. Auto-scalability tools have evolved to the point that every business owner needs to take a second look.

Auto-Scalability Explained

Scalability is critical for proper website performance as well as unexpected challenges. It lets businesses achieve unhindered growth while ensuring flexibility, functionality, and a seamless overall experience to users consistently.

Scalability is the potential to adjust a system’s performance, functionalities, and storage to handle fluctuations in demand and usage easily. When there is an on-premise data center, scalability typically translates into adding more hardware, storage disks, and drives. This is time- and labor-intensive as well as expensive.

Manual static scaling is arduous and time-consuming for businesses. This is where auto-scaling forms part of the formula for a successful website and web application management.

Auto-Scaling in a Cloud Infrastructure

Cloud infrastructure has revolutionized the issues posed by on-premise applications. It offers scalability with little to no impact on an organization’s performance metrics. Reports suggest that in 2020, over 83% of global companies’ workloads are stored on cloud infrastructure. The benefits of cloud platforms are numerous, but the top two would be:

• Cost Management: Managing business expenditures on cloud platforms has become a vital part of every business. Cloud infrastructure is based on the on-demand needs of the client. It can provide elasticity in resources and infrastructure. Users are able to pay for what they need when they need it.
• Cloud Scalability: A critical consideration of cloud computing services is the ability to right-size based on actual demand. Cloud service providers offer a baseline of services from which the client can top-up or scale up depending on business requirements.

In contrast to manually adjusting system capacity, auto-scaling is the process of responsive allocation of resources based on usage patterns of web services. Having a fixed server use — daily, weekly, or yearly — has downsides. These include having too few or too many servers for handling traffic load. Too few servers lead to poor user experience and diminished functionality whereas too many servers translate into higher costs.

Autoscaling does away with this problem. It offers an elastic allocation of resources and servers to handle traffic spikes and traffic troughs. In the case of traffic spikes, an application may require additional resources to perform well. In the case of traffic troughs, these additional resources may need to be deallocated for cost optimization. Auto-scaling allows automation of these decisions regarding resource allocation. It allows for a robust and dynamic user experience.

How Auto-Scaling Works

Cloud auto-scaling makes use of the elasticity offered by cloud-based infrastructure. It also reduces the need to monitor manually the performance of a system and make decisions about resources. In this way, auto-scaling enables optimum performance as well as requisite levels of service.

You might be wondering how all of this is operationalized. The short answer is by setting out an auto-scaling strategy or policy. Any effective auto-scaling policy will include the following:

• Monitoring Mechanisms: These monitor metrics such as traffic, memory usage, and server utilization.
• Decision-Making Rules: This involves setting rules based on analyzing the metrics which are captured and making decisions based on the analysis for particular instances. For example, deallocation of servers at night-time when traffic is low.
• Auto-Scaling: The constituent components that scale the system.
• Feedback Mechanisms: Monitor and fine-tune the auto-scaling policy to ensure that it is functioning properly.

Middleware offers built-in auto-scaling mechanisms for common use case scenarios. Businesses can also opt to make custom implementations based on their requirements.

Planning for Growth and Surprises

In 2018, Amazon launched “Prime Day” by offering massive deals and discounts to over 100 million Prime members. However, Amazon’s website could not handle the surge in traffic. A few minutes into the sale, they were faced with a major issue that left users unable to checkout. This incident is said to have cost Amazon over $1 million per minute.

Similarly, with Flipkart’s launch of “Big Billion Day” in 2015, an unprecedented 1.5 million members decided to partake in the sale. This led to a major website crash. This happened despite Flipkart adding hardware and building up its data center capacity to deal with anticipated traffic from the Big Billion Day sale.

These episodes are good take-aways for businesses wanting to ensure robust auto-scalability to deal with massive traffic spikes. They showcase the potential that cloud auto-scalability holds.

The Power of Auto-Scalability

Auto-scaling delivers the following benefits:

• Reducing Costs: Auto-scaling automatically increases and decreases resources by load-balancing the business’ application infrastructure. This ensures resources are available and lowers costs.
• Simple Management: Auto-scaling tools offer businesses a consistent method for managing their resources. It avoids the need to continuously monitor metrics and make decisions.
• Automation: By automating auto-scale policies for your business’ website or web application, it makes it easier to distribute workload among different servers ensuring seamless functionality.
• Monitoring and Feedback Mechanisms: Auto-scaling offers real-time insights into what is happening at the backend while also ensuring that the application runs efficiently by making use of the elasticity offered by cloud-based platforms.
• Enhanced User Experience: By managing traffic efficiently by automated resource allocation, businesses can avoid poor user experiences.

One of the primary challenges of auto-scaling remains in defining upper and lower limits on resources and expenses. For example, if a company sets the lower limit too high, this may result in instances to continue running even when it’s not necessary and results in rising costs. For auto-scaling to work, it’s crucial to have reliable insight into how your application runs and what infrastructure is required.

Guard Against Outages and Reduce Costs

In today’s online world, industry and customer demands are unpredictable and volatile. Guard against losses by unlocking the potential of cloud-based auto-scaling. Doing so can ensure interrupted growth and gains for your business.

The post Auto-Scaling Provides Cloud-Based Growth for Your Online Business appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Indeed, restrictive processes can have adverse effects on user experience, and this commonly causes misconceptions regarding DRM’s origin and purpose.

Here are four of these misconceptions detailed, explained, and examined.

1. DRM Technology Is Always Conceptually Separate From the Product Itself

Oftentimes, content owners will implement extraneous security services into their products to save time and money. One example could be a video game technology that identifies and punishes hackers for breaching conduct rules. This isn’t universal, however; DRM can also refer to owner-altered/added code within the product. This code, which changes how certain aspects of the product are presented, can be as simple as a user interface change. 

Further, DRM can be integral to the product in that its inherent design is often a linchpin of the product’s public presentation. Streaming services are a good example of this, particularly freemium platforms like Hulu (as it was originally conceived, anyhow). 

While other streaming platforms offered only paid plans, Hulu stood out by integrating DRM to provide a free plan with advertising support. Because Hulu created this uncommon offer at the time, the act positively influenced the public’s perception of the service. By lowering the barrier to entry (i.e., lack of a paywall), Hulu exemplified DRM’s structural importance to a product.

2. DRM Applies Only to the Prevention of Piracy

Digital rights management is often mentioned in relation to cases of breached copyright because piracy prevention is one of its most important applications. Without it, your product can be used, shared, and altered by anyone, anywhere — effectively revoking your ownership status. 

That said, you can use the technology for more than just preventing unauthorized access. DRM can also help you establish your audience. One common method is to allow access to content through a one-time or recurring payment. Without this payment, which helps to fund your content creation efforts, a consumer will not have the right to use the product. 

You can also employ tools to monitor your content’s usage and use the data to direct advertising integration. Video-based platforms like Aux Mode, which developed a SaaS revenue reporting software to make these calculations, can help streamline this monetization process.

3. DRM Methods Are Always Restrictive or Inconvenient

DRM allows you to control your product’s distribution, and as a result, it is often employed for just this reason. Consider a skit that contains imagery banned in a certain country. If you post it, it might get removed from a platform entirely. 

Using digital rights management, you can region-lock the video, protecting your revenue stream and ensuring your future ability to post permitted content. While the ban disadvantages users in certain regions, using DRM in this way ensures continued audience access to your content overall.

It is also important to evaluate the accessibility of alternative products and content sources when considering DRM methods. On a digital media store, for example, paying $5 to watch a movie may seem expensive. A number of streaming services offer many movies for free — and there’s an abundance of options for downloading films illegally. But the latter involves risk, both of potential legal action and the possibility of downloading viruses. If the film is not available anywhere else, paying $5 for security and instant access becomes much more attractive.

4. DRM Implementation Will Only Prevent Growth

Consumers certainly get frustrated when an app they’ve been curious about requires a prohibitive subscription even to try it out. Why should they pay for a month of use when they were never all that married to it in the first place? 

It’s true; this kind of digital rights management implementation can and often does push users away instead of locking them in. But DRM does not inherently repel consumers. If your product has value and uses DRM appropriately, the opposite is likely.

Imagine the same scenario but with the app offering a free 7-day trial. Upon testing it, the user realizes that it does everything they hoped for and more. Suddenly the price doesn’t seem so bad. These new elements (the free trial and benefits realization) are the draw, and the former actively promotes growth through DRM. As long as you employ a balance of restrictive and welcoming methods, your product will ultimately speak for itself.

DRM is a versatile and multifaceted system. Not only can it restrict unauthorized usage, but it also allows creators freedoms that can then benefit the user base. With the control it provides, creators can protect their content and continue to make more. 

Of course, DRM is not perfect. If it were, these misconceptions wouldn’t exist, nor would these important questions be asked. But it is the best defense for digital content owners, who will continue to embrace its advantages for the foreseeable future.

The post 4 Common Misconceptions About Digital Rights Management appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

As the pandemic becomes history, many companies are embracing the idea of long-term remote work. This may be attractive for many reasons, but if it’s going to work in perpetuity, it must be set up the right way.

Here are several of the best tools you want to have in place to keep your remote teams as productive as possible.

1. Fellow

Meeting on a regular basis is an essential practice for remote teams who want to stay aligned and connected. However, a great remote work meeting requires preparation and collaboration from all attendees. That’s why, if you want to increase your remote team’s productivity, you should use a tool to build the habit of meeting preparation and follow-up. 

Fellow offers a great virtual meeting agenda option that can help you outline:

• Topics for discussion;
• Templates for recurring meetings;
• Action items assigned to various team members;
• Meeting minutes and follow-up.

If you’re going to gather online, you want to stay organized and efficient during the time spent together.

2. ClickUp

Basic workflow activities can become a concern when your staff is scattered to the four winds. This creates the need for a workflow platform to organize and oversee your team’s projects and other work-related activities.

ClickUp is a great way to keep everything in one central location. You can assign tasks, set due dates, attach documents, and take notes. Best of all, anyone can access the platform from their phone, tablets, or computers no matter where they are.

3. Zoom and Slack

Setting up easy-to-use communication tools is never more vital than in a virtual office scenario. One of the easiest mishaps of the remote work world is allowing communication to slip through the cracks.

There are numerous tools available to keep your team on the same page. Zoom is the posterchild for video conferencing while Slack fills the same role for text-driven messaging. 

When it comes to communication, in particular, there are numerous options that can work in countless different scenarios. This means the specific tools that you use here aren’t the primary focus. It’s choosing your options and then codifying them into how your team interacts. Clear communication guidelines will help reduce clutter and keep everyone in the know.

4. Google Workspace

Collaboration is another area that can bog down online offices. If your team struggles to share information or work together in real-time, it can hamper productivity.

Formerly known as G Suite, Google Workspace is an arsenal of cloud-based apps that Google has created. These make it easy to share documents and collaborate on anything from a text doc to a spreadsheet, a presentation, and other online content.

5. Lucidspark

Google Workplace is a great foundational element for your collaborative efforts and is ideal for sharing information. Nevertheless, there are times when you need an extra element to liven up an online brainstorming session or a similar activity.

This is where Lucidspark can be a godsend. The online tool allows you to create virtual whiteboards that can be shared with your team. These provide a powerful visual perspective that can help you stay organized and inspired throughout each project.

6. Five9

Customer service is a critical customer-facing aspect of any company. If your customer service reps are operating from home, they need to be well supported as they, in turn, serve your customers.

Five9 provides a cloud-based CCaaS (contact center as a service) solution that can unify and empower your customer service team. The software brings your various communication channels together into a single system. From there, customers are automatically partnered up with the rep that can serve them best.

7. CapLinked

Software such as Zoom and Slack are great for everyday meetings. Google Workplace can keep your team on the same page for run-of-the-mill activities. 

However, there are points in your business processes when you need privacy. This can be difficult to find if you don’t have a physical office or conference room where you can disappear with a client to sign paperwork.

Enter CapLinked. The SaaS software allows clients to share documents, collaborate on sensitive data, and oversee complex transactions in trusted virtual data rooms. This is a great tool to have on hand for unique contracts and other negotiations.

8. Workato

With so many applications in play, it’s easy to have your virtual office become glutted with software. This is where an IPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service) can come in handy. An IPaaS can help integrate, automate, and streamline the flow of data between different API endpoints in your business.

Workato has taken the concept of an automated workflow beyond the common IPaaS model. Instead, the brand has created a tool that it’s dubbed an Enterprise Automation Platform or an EAP. Workato’s tool takes the IT-heavy concept of integration and makes it more user-friendly. This can bring many different tools together and help them operate more efficiently.

There is no end to the number of tools that you can integrate into a virtual office. These are just a handful of the best options available. Each one serves a distinct purpose, from customer service to internal communications, agendas, brainstorming, and beyond. 

The essential step is selecting a solution for each need that your remote team has. If you can do that, you can equip your staff to be as productive as possible throughout your long-term journey as a remote-first enterprise.

The post 8 Software Solutions to Streamline Remote Work appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

In situations such as this, keeping SME tech requirements up to date is more than a bit difficult. It’s also a challenge to make sure that your SME doesn’t stall out due to poor planning, lack of funds, or lousy execution of technology. Failure to make provision for SME tech requirements is a serious matter, but you can stay ahead of the curve by paying attention to the basics.

SME Tech Requirements Tied Tightly to Funding Model

Many SMEs are bootstrapped by their founder(s) and survive as long as they can. These SMEs hope to hit paydirt with a first-time product taking off. The plan is to have a successful initial launch and release a series of follow-up products after that.

Others seek venture capital funding. These SMEs may obtain a fixed amount of capital to spend per funding round. After that, they quickly need to give away more share capital to secure the necessary funds to expand their tech capabilities.

As such, not all SME companies are created equal. Different solutions are often required depending on a number of factors. These include the size and scope of the business, how many employees are on staff, where they’re located, and the exact nature of the work needed to produce a product. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, which doesn’t make budgeting for SME tech requirements easier.

Desktop or Cloud Solutions?

Many software providers have switched their development priority from software installations to a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform.

Desktop Software

While some software developers distribute installable software, many have switched to digital downloads or a subscription model. This applies most to specialist software from long-standing developers.

If enough of the established user base prefers installed software and dislikes a cloud-based SaaS option, that company may continue to offer both options. Most software providers, however, are picking one option to reduce the cost of maintaining two versions of the same software.

Cloud-Based SaaS

The move to SaaS is something that many SMEs are embracing for their tech requirements. In some respects, SaaS is easier to manage than a series of licenses that need to grow whenever a new employee is added.

However, web-based cloud services are not perfect. This becomes obvious when there are software outages and major sites go offline for several hours. Thankfully, these interruptions to service are few and far between.

Theoretically, a company could continue to use installed desktop software even if a major SaaS provider went down. In reality, companies with a widespread network outage issue that takes their site offline would likely be using cloud storage within their desktop app. In that case, the software would also become unusable.

Nowadays, desktop software doesn’t typically provide the offline-only service that it did a few years ago. CEOs responsible for meeting SME tech requirements should reconsider the use of  installed desktop software.

Are Subscription-Based Models Better?

Subscription models for software have largely become the norm. Microsoft, for example, switched from selling desktop versions of Office to the Office 365 online suite of apps sold via subscription. This felt quite new at the time, even revolutionary, but has since become a common delivery model.

Now nearly every software provider offers a subscription model. For SME companies trying to meet their tech requirements with limited capital, it can all seem like a bit much.

The tiered nature of priced packages is also a factor to consider. Many of the most useful features are reserved for the higher-priced plans. For SME businesses, this all too often means moving up several tiers just to get the features they need.

The Case for SME Use of Specialist Software

While software packages such as Microsoft Office 365 serve a general need, there’s a respectable case to be made for choosing specialist software designed for specific use cases, industries, or something similar.

Specialist Over Generalist Software

The argument for specialist software to meet SME tech requirements is that developers usually know the targeted industry intimately. They have regular contact with software users and leverage that experience when updating packages with new features. Because they use rapid software development techniques, they’re able to release new updates on an accelerated schedule. This offers a huge benefit to SMEs wanting to do more with their software.

As a result, developed technology solutions, especially on the software side, are less required now. Specialist software is usually sufficient.

Using Digital Marketing as an Example

Someone who works in the digital marketing space doesn’t necessarily have a job at a digital/SEO agency. They might work in data analysis, social media, brand management, or advertising. A digital marketer such as this has probably studied for a master’s in marketing online with no GMAT or GRE requirement. A degree such as this would provide the broad knowledge necessary to perform such a wide range of work for a business or agency.

Within the masters in marketing online curriculum, they’d have learned how to use specialist software to perform various tasks. Some of these might include Ahrefs (an SEO SaaS to monitor backlinks pointing at the company’s website and provide information on competitors), HootSuite (a social media account manager), SERPRobot (a Google search ranking checker to verify what search terms the company is ranking for in Google), and Google Analytics (to obtain information on recent site visitors).

While there may be a single solution to provide all these software services, it’s unlikely that it would provide a best-in-class solution. In each case, there are affordable subscription plans to access these solutions for a digital marketer. 

SME Tech Requirements for Multi-Tasking Remote Workers

When it comes to multi-tasking, employees who are not always stuck in the office using the corporate network have more flexibility with how they work. For example, if an SME has remote employees, then using cloud-based software tools in combination with the pre-installed software on the laptop might make sense. With so many services in the technology space now run using a web browser to access the SaaS, it doesn’t necessarily make good fiscal sense to outfit your team with powerful hardware.

Workstation or Laptop?

If you think of a workstation as the least powerful laptop available, these are suitable as a portable hardware solution when everything is cloud-based. SME tech requirements can be met with low-end equipment.

However, care should be taken when planning the technology requirements of the SME in this regard. If an employee will need to work confidentially, then more powerful hardware is usually required.

Windows or Mac?

In most industries, there’s still a preference for Windows-based systems. This is partly due to better mass marketing. The combination of Intel and Microsoft influencing the hardware and software choices of businesses worldwide continues to exert its influence.

Mac is a valid choice, but their hardware has never been considered “inexpensive.” Running Mac servers is a specialty item, too. This can be done in-house or via a hosting provider but, again, it’s considerably more expensive than other options.

While some industries, such as digital marketing, place a strong emphasis on Mac hardware and software solutions, even these typically have either Windows-based installable software packages and/or a SaaS solution that anyone can access.

Making the Hardware Choice

Sometimes, the choice of a hardware platform to meet SME tech requirements is dictated by the software necessary to run that business. However, this is rarely the case now.

Normally, a Windows PC with sufficient power is best. An i3 or i5 machine is enough for most employees to get their work completed. Only in the most demanding cases — such as video editing — is something more powerful needed.

SME Tech Requirements: Some Closing Thoughts

Technology too often confounds a non-technical CEO. When meeting the tech requirements for an SME company, it can get very confusing in no time. There’s not always someone available to explain the choices in layman’s terms. The bottom line for technology requirements is to use what’s required to get the job done.

Computers last a similar amount of time when purchasing major brands at the middle price point. Cheaper components are used for the budget models.

For software, everyone seems to be selling subscription-based models and pushing companies to move up the tier. Look carefully for the features staff need and will use, rather than getting an expensive plan just so you can have it all. It’s simple enough to move up a subscription tier later (or down again) without wasting money.

Lastly, sometimes it’s useful to hire an experienced technology advisor to provide a report on what’s actually needed for your SME business. They should have a clear sense of the minimum needed to operate the business without overloading it with a complicated excess of technology that doesn’t offer a solid ROI.

The post SME Tech Requirements: Balancing Cost and ROI appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Indeed, unless you manage to nudge your leads towards making the final purchasing decision, it doesn’t matter how well you’ve been converting them before. 

Why is it so Hard to Get Bottom-Funnel Conversions?

The ones who’ve already signed up for your product — hand-raisers, your trial-period users, your last-stage leads — all of them comprise the bottom of your sales funnel, BOFU. These conversions should be a piece of cake. They’ve already travelled from the top of the sales funnel, which means they’ve shortlisted you. It shouldn’t be difficult to make the last final step towards a commitment, should it? Unfortunately, it’s the commitment that is the problem. 

Customers are always afraid of making a wrong choice, specially when they’re B2B customers with more than just their money at stake. They’ll keep looking for the best option available for them, fearing to settle for anything less than that. That’s why they’re such a challenge to deal with. Sales reps need to convince their BOFU leads that the search is over and the solution in front of them is the right one.

The Best Practices to Increase Your Bottom-Funnel Conversions

1. Don’t Dive Straight Into the Selling Process 

We get it. You’ve already been waiting for long enough for your leads to reach the bottom of the funnel, and you want them to make a purchase as soon as possible. But put yourself into their shoes. They’re on the verge of making an extremely responsible decision that will have an immense impact on their business. Hesitation is natural. They need to be 100% sure that the product they’re about to invest in is worthy before they wire the money. 

Fear of commitment is exactly the reason why it’s so challenging to get the BOFU leads to convert. As a B2B sales rep, it’s your job to do your homework and conduct thorough research on the leads at the funnel’s bottom. You need to know exactly who you’re trying to convert to succeed at doing it. The secret to selling isn’t so secret after all. You just need to be able to address your customer’s pain points and challenges. Find insights and context on needs and challenges they face at the moment to personalize your nurturing emails and demo call at max.

Certain pre-sales activities can drastically increase your chances of winning the deal. After a lead pops into your CRM system, qualify and inspect them to find out the things that can help you build your further communication around the potential buyer. Even before the first interaction with your BOFU lead, you need to learn as much about them as you can. Find out everything about their business workflows, current tech stack, team composition and other relevant details. 

Based on your findings, you can map out your customer success strategy and better prepare for the demo call. Knowing their current situation, problems they are dealing with and which other options they’re considering, helps you show them how your product can fit right into their processes and help to accelerate their growth. 

2. Start Small, Be Specific and Don’t Overwhelm Your Leads

Once you’re done with your research, you should know exactly what your BOFU leads are after. Make sure you put that knowledge to good use. Instead of trying to sell your product A to Z, focus on the features that fit your leads’ needs the most. 

Of course, it can be extremely tempting to present your product in all its glory straightaway. You want to brag about it to your potential customer because it will surely convince them to make an instant purchase. The problem is – it probably won’t. 

The difference between you and your lead is that you’ve spent ages working on your product. Thus, it’s easy for you to navigate through the endless list of its marvelous features. On the other hand, your lead is only now getting to know your product. Too much information can be overwhelming. When you talk too much, nothing stands out. Which is why you should only briefly mention your product’s main features, and focus on describing the functionality that is particularly relevant to the lead. 

Talk about how they can benefit from adopting your solution, explain its advantages, and save the rest for later.

3. Understand Your Prospect’s Real Concerns

I don’t know if we can afford your solution at the moment, sorry.

No matter how affordable your product is, you must have heard this phrase from your bottom of the funnel leads at least once. The product’s price is never an issue. The real issue is it not matching the product’s value. 

When your leads are 100% confident that your product will solve their problems and help their business prosper, they won’t care how much they have to pay for that. However, if they’re not, they’ll keep looking for excuses to postpone the purchase.

It’s essential to identify your potential customers’ real concerns regarding the offer and work through them, if you want to prompt bottom-funnel conversions. Instead of ignoring the concerns your leads voice, try to uncover the underlying problem and the reasons behind it. This way, you could negotiate more effectively.

Let’s go back to the initial example. Whenever a lead says they aren’t ready to make a purchase because the price is ‘too high’, they just don’t see the value in your product. Therefore, you need to find out what would help them to justify paying more and show them you can deliver on that. 

To convey your value proposition, you can try out the following tactics:

• Showing side-to-side comparisons of how using your product brings positive results (before and afters);
• Discussing implementation plans;
• Providing social proof from clients with similar use-cases. 

4. Make Sales Enablement Your Kingpin

If you want those bottom of the funnel leads to finally make a purchase, it’s absolutely essential for you to marry your marketing and sales departments. Creating proper sales enablements to support your selling points that will appeal to the potential buyers’ pain points and challenges will help you close the deal. 

There are lots of different types of content that you can create and promote to your potential customers. Just make sure that you personalize it well and target the right segments of BOFU leads. For instance, you could produce a unique and helpful blog post, presentation, or a YouTube video. Include some elements of pre-boarding to reflect on the issues your lead is dealing with at the moment. Alternatively, you could create an in-depth comparison of your product and your competitors’ products to highlight the value you offer to your customers. 

Finally, you could create and disseminate a case-study with a current client. The one that runs a business in the same industry, faced the same challenges and had the same pain points. In order to do that, though, you need to make sure that you use a CRM tool to track your interactions with different customers and effectively segment them into relevant categories. 

Just remember! When it comes to sales enablement materials, consistency of communication throughout the whole customer journey is your best friend. You need to eliminate the human factor out of the equation and make sure you don’t miss a single follow-up! The best way to do this is to automate the sales process by setting up a drip campaign. 

BOFU is only challenging when you don’t know how to approach it. Increasing the bottom-funnel conversions is easy when you have a clear plan of action:

• Learn everything there is to know about your lead’s pain points
• Identify and address their concerns
• Create added value to justify the price
• Strengthen your value proposition with social proof
• Convert through using sales enablements.

The post 4 Ways for B2B Sales Teams to Get More Bottom-Funnel Conversions appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

They are configured to support many departments. An ERP software system can be employed by accountants, manufacturers, supply chain engineers, distributors, HR specialists, and other employees.

Since ERP software solutions provide many benefits, companies are increasingly using them in their operations.

According to Valuates Reports, worldwide enterprise ERP market size is anticipated to reach $60.23 billion by 2026, growing from $43.44 billion in 2020. Industry Research Co. estimates the ERP software market will generate $19.52 billion between 2020-2024.This is an increase at a CAGR of 9% during the indicated period.

In this article, we will consider the main benefits of ERP software. Let’s get started.

How does ERP software work?

It serves as a means for integrating employees, processes, and technologies across a company. ERP software solutions centralize data and support business operations.Then, ERP ensures that the information collected from different departments is unified, accurate, up-to-date, and complete.

As a result, specialists don’t have to use multiple systems or have multiple records. All users can create, store, and apply the same data to perform different tasks. Therefore, this automates processes like data validation, reporting, and financial management.

For instance, imagine an organization that builds computers by purchasing and assembling components from numerous suppliers. With custom ERP software, the company will effectively track requisitions and plan procurement.

Through data centralization, each computer part will be tracked from order to payment.Also, you can identify and search items by filters. Such as name, size, material, price, source, serial number, and vendor’s name. With ERP, it is also possible to analyze and control expenses. You can do this by visualizing data on dashboards and generating reports.

Reasons to integrate ERP software

According to a Panorama Consulting Group report, 64% of companies chose to integrate ERP to improve business performance. In other numbers, 57% of participants wanted to reduce working capita. 49% strove for simplified employee tasks.

Most of the surveyed institutions accomplished their objectives by using ERP software systems: 48% of respondents realized between 51-80% of their projected advantages, while 43% obtained 31-50% of forecasted benefits.

With ERP solutions, these organizations managed to:

• ensure the availability of information

• provide data reliability

• increase process and operation integrity

• boost productivity and efficiency

• improve lead time and inventory levels

• streamline decision-making

• cut down operating, labor, and IT maintenance costs

• standardize processes

• increase visibility into operations

• improve interactions with suppliers and customers

Now, let’s see in what business processes you can use ERP applications.

Where can you use custom ERP software?

An organization can develop ERP software for various processes. Such as, accounting, inventory management, and tracking business operations, including HRM and marketing.

You can create an ERP software system for:

• asset monitoring

• accounting, involving billing and invoicing

• financial management

• procurement planning

• HRM

• inventory and warehouse management

• supply chain engineering

• manufacturing scheduling

• order and tax management

• expense tracking

• reporting and analytics

Additionally, you can integrate ERP software with a CRM system to do other things. For instance, automate data sharing, improve communication between departments, track turnover, view analytics, generate statistical reports on sales and expenditures. Read this article to explore the key advantages of using a CRM application.

Top 7 benefits of ERP software integration

1. Enhanced customer service

As customer, vendor, and partner data is centralized, specialists can focus on improving relationships with clients. Instead of maintaining numerous spreadsheets and searching for information. With finance management, process tracking, and analytics, companies enhance the quality of services. They do this by providing on-time delivery, faster responses, and order accuracy.

2. Facilitated reporting

By using an integrated database for all business processes, employees from different departments can access the required information. Thanks to a single source, a user stops using numerous spreadsheets to keep track of operations. For instance, when preparing a report, specialists don’t have to search data across multiple sources and verify it to accuracy.

3. Reduced costs

With custom ERP software, an organization doesn’t use various solutions for processes. For example, reporting, accounting, order processing, procurement and inventory management. As a result, a company can reduce costs by replacing systems that need a lot of maintenance, license acquisition, and sometimes team training on how to use each app.

Through ERP integration, you will boost employee productivity and optimize workflows. However, ERP software development requires investment, this will pay off in the future.

4. Data accuracy and error minimization

Data accuracy is among the main benefits of ERP software for businesses.  Inventory, purchases, financial, and other data are stored in different places. It may take a long time for employees to find it. Resource planning and accounting require a lot of effort. Especially when information is updated in one location and not updated in others.

In some cases, specialists are too busy to make changes in documents. In others, they simply don’t have access to the right systems. Resulting in errors and extra costs that you can prevent by integrating an ERP software system.

5. Automated accounting

ERP software solutions allow companies to automate the accounting of goods, materials, components, and sales. Having a single database is much easier than keeping hundreds of spreadsheets and paper documents.

You can add all the required formulas in an ERP application. As a result, employees don’t have to create them on their own for calculations, which can also result in human errors. With ERP software, you will improve accounting and relieve the time of specialists for more revenue-generating tasks.

6. Effective collaboration

Improved collaboration is among the most essential benefits of ERP software integration. Without enterprise resource planning, organizations find their teams confused. This is due to dispersed data, complex access, and the necessity to verify information accuracy.

ERP can include a variety of things. Specifically, accounting, point of sale, manufacturing, inventory, warehousing, orders, projects, and services. Using an ERP platform shared across departments, data from various sources is recorded in one location. It has automatic updates, activity logging, and role-based access control. When using it, you will not only boost efficiency but also employee satisfaction.

7. Optimized supply chain management

An ERP software system can be used for many purposes, including supply chain management. In addition, you can track the production and delivery of goods, minimizing bottlenecks and achieving transparency across departments.

Tailored to industry-specific needs, an ERP application can help improve demand forecasting, plan procurement and distribution. By tracking inventory and predicting supply, you can analyze stocks, reduce overages, and cut down expenses.

Learn how you can resolve supply chain challenges with cutting-edge custom logistics software development.

Custom ERP software development

At Arateg, we help our customers meet business-specific needs and increase revenue by using software solutions. One of our featured projects is ERP software development for Pintel, a worldwide clothing brand.

Pintel used to have dozens of spreadsheets for tracking products and materials. They were used to control the availability of goods and components, employees had to check multiple documents. However, because process were manual, they consumed a lot of time, resulting in extra costs and team efforts.

For the purpose of addressing these issues, Pintel turned to our software engineering company. Building an ERP software system, we automated accounting of materials, available products, manufacturing defects, and enabled sales tracking.

By using the embedded formulas, employees don’t have to make calculations themselves or create a single formula for each column in a spreadsheet. Thanks to this solution, Pintel raised efficiency and improved job satisfaction. In conclusion, with streamlined operations, now specialists can devote themselves to more important tasks.

Want to develop something similar? Contact Arateg software experts on their website for a free IT project consultation.

The post Why Your Business Should Use Custom ERP Software appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Upgrading your computer’s processor is not the fastest or cheapest way to improve its performance, but it can have dramatic results. You might be surprised by how a slow computer can turn into a powerhouse simply by using the right chip. There are some technical things you should know if your computer should need a repair or upgrade during the pandemic. 

Types of Computer Processors

Computer processing units (CPUs) are created on three levels based on performance and cost.

Budget processors

• Run basic computer tasks with efficiency and cost-effectively. 
• Handle most office programs, internet browsing, photo editing, and other general tasks. 
• Similar performance to a mainstream model. 
• More likely to be suitable for an older motherboard and slower memory.

Mainstream processors 

• Larger and can accommodate 3D gaming, video editing, and other multimedia-intense applications. 
• Uses more power and may have cores and caches, which are not suitable with older motherboards and memory. 
• If you upgrade your entire system, you will see a performance boost.

Fastest processors

• Used for gaming, intensive graphics, creating and editing professional videos, and statistical analysis, known as extreme or high-end.
• Pay extra attention to the specification for compatible components if you are updating an existing PC or computer.
• Uses more power and requires more memory as it is a high-end CPU.

Is it time to have your processor upgraded?

REASON 1: If your CPU is holding back your computers’ performance

To find out if your CPU is causing delays in your system, take a look at your CAM dashboard to monitor how much processing power your PC is using during gaming. 

If the number is close to 100% for a long time, you may not be able to repair your computer. In that case, it’s time to upgrade. 

Another indicator would be frame drops and stuttering during your gaming sessions.

REASON 2: Your computer needs a new motherboard

The motherboard is the most vital piece of the whole computer system because it holds your entire computer together. So, if you’re using an older motherboard model, you’re going to be stuck with older hardware as well. Not only does this include the CPU, but also the RAM, graphics card, and even accessories. 

Although older hardware typically works well for simple tasks, gamers will benefit from newer hardware. 

REASON 3: You’re building a new PC

You should always try to buy the latest, fastest, best CPU you can afford if you’re building a new PC. This not only makes your PC future-proof for many years, but it also means that you won’t have to worry about CPU problems. 

Don’t let a slow processor hold you back in the future when you can take care of it now!

Motherboard Issues

The motherboard is the backbone that connects all the components of a computer. None of the computer components (CPU, GPU, or hard drive) could interact without it. 

Therefore, a motherboard is one of the most important parts of a computer system.

It’s referred to as a motherboard because, like a mothership, it’s the foundation on which the whole computer operates. So, if there is no motherboard, there’s no PC.

Symptoms of motherboard problems

• Nothing will display 
• An error code appears
• One or more beeps 
• The device locks or freezes
• The system takes too long to reset
• A Windows blue screen of death occurs
• One or more of the ports, expansion slots or memory modules malfunctions
• Burn marks or burnt smell coming from the motherboard.

Since various components are located on the motherboard, numerous things can cause the problem.

Why motherboards fail

Some common reasons why a motherboard can stop working:

• Ageing: The motherboard has a limited lifespan. If properly taken care of, some motherboards will last longer. But eventually they will fail after they have reached their useful lifespan, and you will need to replace them or get a new computer. 
• Accidental drop: This can cause excessive shock to the components or cause damage to the circuits that can lead to failure of the motherboard. 
• Dust in the device: When dust or debris accumulates in your system, the air circulation that keeps the device cool becomes blocked. When the fans spin, a computer intake draws this stuff in, which blocks the airflow and causes overheating in response. 
• Smoke: In conjunction with dust, tar built up from cigarette smoke creates a sticky gooey material inside devices. It smells bad and is very difficult to remove. It can also cause the motherboard to overheat and become damaged. 
• Power surges or unstable voltage: In an electric circuit, an electrical spike or surge is a short-lived burst of energy. This can be the product of power-hungry appliances such as refrigerators or air conditioners, wiring issues or power grid issues in your town, and even weather conditions like lightning. This sudden voltage change can damage your motherboard’s fragile circuits. However, to accommodate tiny power surges, most power supply units and motherboards can change their voltages. But if it’s a huge one, the motherboard and all the components attached can be fried. 
• Overheating- This can happen if several operations are carried out together and the supply of power is continuous. Another factor could be due to changes in power supply or in one of the parts of the motherboard circuit. Fan clogging can also occur, such as having your laptop on your lap or on a soft surface can cover up intakes and exhaust fans causing your computer to heat up.

If you are having a problem with your computer, don’t hesitate to visit your PC repair shop for a computer repair.

Computer Memory (RAM) Problems

Random access memory (RAM) is a core part of computers, servers and just about every computerised piece of device. 

It stores the data that is used by the computer so that it can be easily accessed. The more programs run on your computer, the more memory you would require.  

The RAM serves as the intermediary between the CPU of your computer and the data stored on its hard drive so that the hardware-RAM is there to serve it up to you when you access the information, run programmes, and so on.

Symptoms of a RAM Problem

• Random crashes: Your computer reboots unexpectedly or it crashes every time you attempt to install something new.
• Blue screens:  Until you restart, a blue screen with white text flashes. 
• Failing to boot or the Computer appears to start, but the screen stays blank: Your machine restarts unexpectedly or freezes occasionally when you are in the middle of something. Almost immediately upon opening the desktop, it will also reboot.
• On-screen memory errors occur: You’re trying to reinstall your operating system, but you keep receiving error messages. For unexplained reasons, your attempts to install a new program repeatedly fail.
• Blurred graphics
• Crashing during activities using heavy memory, such as gaming, Photoshop, etc.

There are undoubtedly several issues that may cause the above problems, but defective RAM is an often-ignored root cause of problems. You are possibly facing a memory problem if you have one or a combination of the above problems. 

Get in touch with someone like computer repair Birmingham to find out the root cause of your problem.

Causes of Memory Damage

• Power surges 
• Extreme heat. Different components can overheat, or heat from one component can cause damage to nearby parts.
• Electrostatic discharge
• Your memory module has some errors that went through quality control and degraded over time.
• Overclocking any part of your computer incorrectly can cause damage in the form of excess heat.

Graphics Card (GPU) Glitches

When you turn on your screen, a graphics processing unit (GPU) creates the picture you see, whether it’s a plain Word document or a complex gaming experience.

Within most computing devices, a graphics card is a piece of computer hardware for displaying graphical data with high quality, color, image, and overall appearance. 

These chips can vary from simple integrated graphics that are part of the motherboard or processor to larger, more impressive expansion cards.

The better the graphics card, the smoother a picture. This is very important for gamers and video editors.

Symptoms of a Graphics Card Failure

Computer crashes

These crashes can range from a simple bluescreen to a freezing PC to random restarts and power-offs. 

Not every crash is triggered by the graphics card. The same kind of operation can be triggered by malware, a dying hard drive, and RAM issues. 

But your graphics card may be dying if you are facing screen glitches like seeing flickering or strange colors appearing on the screen. 

Driver crashes

The screen goes black for a few seconds. When it returns, you’ll be notified that the video drivers have crashed and had to be restarted. This will not crash your entire PC, but if it happens often, it can be disrupting.

Artifacting

A bad graphics card can result in strange objects all over your computer, similar to screen glitches. Excessive overclocking, heat and dust build-up can cause artifacts. This can be solved by a restart occasionally, but expect the problem to come back if you have a defective graphics card.

Black screens

You won’t see any graphic clues at all sometimes! A graphics card gone bad will simply decide not to show anything. 

Fan noise 

When you boot up the computer or software, you might hear what sounds like a small jet aircraft taking off within the PC. It could mean that the card is getting too hot if the fan on the card malfunctions. If you can’t get the fan to quiet down, it could be an indicator that there’s something wrong with it and your computer may need a repair.

Causes for Graphics Card Failure

Here are some reasons a Graphics card can die completely:

• Incompatible graphics card installation
• Moisture build-up on the card
• GPU parts fail prematurely due to faulty manufacturing
• Loading the graphics card on games with incompatible drivers for applications
• Static overload as the graphics card is being installed
• Overheating due to too much dirt or debris trapped on the cooling components
• Overheating on the cooling fans caused by damaged or worn bearings

To avoid many of these issues, keep the graphics card clean and make sure the software drivers for the graphics card are up to date. For more info see driversupport.com

Why not upgrade the drivers first instead of waiting for your graphics card to die?

Power Supply Unit (PSU)

The power supply is a hardware component of a computer that supplies all other components with power. It turns the current from your wall outlet into a continuous form of power to the computer components that need it. It also controls overheating by regulating the voltage, which, depending on the power supply, can adjust automatically or manually. The power supply is vital hardware since the rest of the internal components do not work without it.

Symptoms of a Failing Power Supply

Before it causes damage to other hardware within the computer case, learning to spot the signs of a failing power supply will allow you to replace the failing component. Look for one or more of the following signs to be sure if you need a computer repair: 

• Extra noise coming from the PC case. Strange noises may emit from the back of the computer case where the cord is located.

• PC will not function, but your case fans will spin. This may also correspond with a blinking light on the front of the machine or an indicator on the back of the PSU. 
• Random computer crashes. The computer will turn on for a few seconds, and then turn right back off. While this can be a power supply issue, it may also indicate motherboard malfunction.

• Random blue screen crashes. The computer is on for a while, but while you’re playing a game or using another application, it turns off without warning. It may also display a blue screen of death.
• Recurring failure of PC components
• Smoke or a Burning Smell

Why PSUs fail

Failures can be triggered by something you’ve done, but sometimes the unit simply gives up. Here are a few common factors of PSU failure:

• Age: Most warranties last from 5-10 years, but your PSU’s life depends on how often you use your computer.
• Dirt and debris
• Brown-outs: deliberate or accidental voltage fall. These load reductions are often used in emergencies, such as during a heatwave where everyone needs their A/C. 
• Electrical interference: lightning, power spikes, etc.
• Overheating or ventilation failures

Overheating and lightning are the most common causes. If you’re a cigarette smoker, however, or the machine is in a dusty environment, rest assured that your PSU will need to be replaced sooner rather than later.

If you encounter any of the above symptoms, one of the explanations might be the problem with power supply units. However, this does not help you fully confirm that your PSU is indeed failing.

So, to find out, you should get in contact with your local computer repair service.

The post Computer Repair Issues You Could Face During the Pandemic appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Until now, most companies have only relied on automation for sales and marketing. Automatic sales and marketing campaigns free up a lot of time and resources for content creation and other internal departments.

With that said, automation can do so much for your business. Just take a look at this list:

Integrations

In the digital age, your business likely uses a number of programs and online tools, not to mention the list of automation that you might be implementing soon after reading this. Wouldn’t it be great if all of those tools were built into one? While there’s no one-tool-fits-all, you can use automation to put your programs in better sync together.

Companies can use an iPaaS, or Integration Platform as a Service, to build integrations between their programs. For example, you can set up your team’s communication software to automatically upload shared files and images to your email. 

Simple steps like these save a lot of time in the long run, and can be completely customized to fit your company’s needs. Start with a few integrations and then build up as you get the hang of the process. The more tasks that can be automated, the more focus that can be diverted to larger and more complicated projects.

Payments

Humans have to keep track of a lot of bills, payments, and card information. Miss a payment because of the complicated mess of finances, and an unfortunate penalty will ensue. Automation not only makes it easier for businesses to receive payments, but for customers to keep their finances in check.

Automated payment software takes recurring payments as they are due. This is helpful for companies that work off of subscriptions, or those that provide monthly services, such as utilities for house cleaning. As long as there are sufficient funds in the account for withdrawal, the process is as simple as can be for both parties. 

More complicated payments can be automated as well. A company that uses contracts to bind sales can use digital signatures to automatically gather commitments from customers online. Set up an entire sales system this way, and deals can be signed, sealed, and delivered in no time. 

Hiring and Recruiting

The recruiting process is long and expensive. Choosing a candidate from a pool of hundreds is a daunting undertaking. Luckily for HR managers and recruiters, automation can improve this process as well.

Algorithms can scan resumes, picking out keywords, alma maters, and work history in seconds. This organizes candidates quickly and effectively, allowing recruiters to narrow down their selections as soon as resumes are submitted.

The one drawback to automatic resume scanning is that some programs rely too heavily on keywords. You could overlook an incredible candidate who simply doesn’t have the experience of your other applicants — but does have the soft skills needed to develop quickly and remain loyal to the organization. With this automation, be sure to give outputs a second glance.

Analytics

If your business isn’t incorporating data into its strategy, you’re already a step behind the competition. Data is gold in today’s business landscape, providing insights that can transform your organization into an efficiency powerhouse.

The amount of data your business produces each day is astounding. In fact, it’s practically impossible to scour through it by hand and pick out anything you can use. To take advantage of your data, you need automated tools.

Automations such as ETL tools extract data automatically. They use triggers to transform and load the information into storage systems for your viewing pleasure. Use this data to define target audiences, tweak supply chains, and even alter product prices.

Customer Service

Seventy percent of customers will stop doing business with a company due to a poor service experience. With that in mind, your customer service strategy should be important to you. The better you care for your customers, the higher your retention rates and the more referrals you’ll get.

Some large corporations run an entire office of customer service agents who field calls and messages all day. Small businesses typically can’t afford that. They can only answer questions in person or when someone is available to respond.

For companies large and small, automation can bridge the gap. Setting up a customer service bot on your website is simple. This bot can answer frequently asked questions and direct customers to the products and pages they’re looking for. This simple addition will boost your customer service around the clock.

Data Security

Bank robberies are so 1800s. Today, you need to be on the lookout for hackers and pirates that try to attack you from the inside. Digital information is extremely valuable and much easier to swipe.

Even with a dedicated IT team, your security posture could benefit from any help it can get. Automations like firewalls thwart attacks around the clock. Breach notifications can point out problems the moment they occur. 

Are you sold on automation yet? Give it a try. Start with iPaas to streamline your workflow. Then, try out automations that can revamp your strategy and security. You won’t be sorry.

The post 6 Areas Besides Sales and Marketing Where Automation Wins appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Against this backdrop, app developers are compelled to create a solution that will captivate the user’s attention and prove intuitive and relevant to the user. 

Today, mobile design is a way to meet user expectations and communicate brand messages to app users. Even the smallest UX or UI elements play a role in delivering certain meta-information to the app user. 

A visually appealing and user-centered mobile app design is the result of a well-grounded strategy that the design team adheres to. In this walk-through guide, we will outline the essential stages of mobile app design and explore the dos and don’ts of each.

Stage #1: Concept

In the beginning, the design team outlines the concept of the application and its core architecture, interface, and usability elements. For this, they carefully examine the project’s requirements, documentation, and business strategy, and, if possible, have a sit-down with the client or the project manager to discuss their expectations for the end-product’s UX and UI in greater detail. 

When brainstorming on the design concept, designers also need to take into account the mobile app’s target audience, the technologies it will use or get integrated with, and the intended operating platform. In the end, the team should have a good understanding of the mobile app’s color scheme, look and feel, and user flow, as well as the scope of work lying ahead of them.   

Stage #2: Market and User Research

Next, designers go on to explore what similar mobile apps the market has to offer, paying close attention to the most popular ones. This is done to identify the best and newest UX practices as well as the most common interface elements for the particular app type your design can benefit from.   

Because user research is a more in-depth study, it can be considered optional, especially if deadlines are pressing. However, when your team spares time for it, it will help to tap into the needs, behaviors, and motivations of the app’s target audience. Proceeding from these insights, the team can implement design solutions that will prove truly valuable, allowing the app to stand out due to its relevance.  

Stage #3: Sketches

After refining the initial app concept according to the market and user research results, designers can proceed with creating sketches. These are rough visual representations of the app’s layout and graphic user interfaces, meant to illustrate the initial app idea and drawn freehand on paper or with basic graphic software. 

On the face of it, sketches may seem unnecessary, yet they shape the design team’s vision and help to verify how well they understood the specifications obtained from developers and the product manager. After the app sketches are reviewed and necessary changes are made and approved, the design process becomes more intricate.

Stage #4: Wireframes

Next, the design team focuses on elaborating the functionality and user experience of the app’s layout. You supplement the screen sketches with various user interface elements, like input fields, icons, buttons, progress bars and such, and describe how they will work when users interact with them. If you favor two distinct elements and do not know which will suit your app best, run a quick A/B test on a control group and keep the option preferred by the majority of respondents. 

When working on wireframes, it is advisable to abide by the iOS or Android interface design guidelines: this way you make sure the end-product has the look and feel consistent with the intended operating system. As a rule, wireframes are static and low-fidelity, but with their level of detail and scope, it already requires a digital design tool to build them. 

Stage #5: Mockups

This is when you transform the plain schematic wireframes into a realistic semblance of your future mobile app. For this, the team introduces color, graphics, animation elements, and navigation visuals to the screens and aligns the spacing between screen components. Apart from this, designers standardize fonts and typography and insert labels and texts into the intended places. Nonetheless, mockups remain static and unclickable.  

With mockups, you can finally have a bird’s-eye view of your design and see whether all your decisions played well or if some aspects need improvement. They also allow front-end developers to fairly estimate how long the development will take.  

Stage #6: Prototype

During the final stage, your app design finally becomes an interactive prototype. For this, you need to make elements clickable and connect all the screens and modules together as they are intended to be. As a result, you get a high-fidelity manifestation of the app, which can simulate the user journey and experiences. 

Since the prototype is not tied together with the backend, it is not technically a finished product. Nevertheless, it more than qualifies to be demonstrated to the client or stakeholders. As the prototypes are reviewed, refined, and receive final approval, the design team can hand it over to developers to finalize the project.  

What’s next

Naturally, last-minute improvements and adjustments in the application’s UX or UI will, in all likelihood, be required before the release, but they will be minor if prototypes are detailed and thorough. All in all, the six steps outlined above make up a feasible roadmap to an appealing and user-friendly design for your new mobile app.     

The post Mobile App Design: From Idea to Product Development appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

To be sure, you don’t have to rise to the fame of a Mary Kay Ash or Zig Ziglar to be a sales phenom. Plenty of salespeople across the world land tons of deals, build loyal connections with customers, and solve buyers’ biggest conundrums. You may not know their names, but that doesn’t mean they’re any less successful. 

Here’s the dirty little secret, though: The majority of sales folks aren’t utilizing all the tech at their fingertips. As a result, statistics culled by Forbes suggest that most sales experts sell only 35.2% of the time. The rest of the time, they’re pushing papers, engaged in redundant activities, and not bringing in revenue. 

The bottom line is that even the most prolific seller probably has room for improvement. And there’s no shame in wanting to get better. So why not embrace the technology that can help you rev up your conversations? Or reduce the risk of being ghosted by a top prospect?

Below are four tech stack must-tries to impress your boss and win over resistant buyers.

1. Close deals seamlessly with virtual proposals.

Remember the days of sending your client a proposal, waiting for the client to make adjustments, and going through the process ad infinitum? (Those days might have been as recently as this week, to be honest.) Every time you make your prospect jump through a hoop, no matter how minuscule, you risk losing momentum.

What’s the way to close this gap for good? Leverage proposal and contract processes that automate the system on one platform. PandaDoc, an all-in-one document automation software, notes that requesting proposals the old-fashioned way needlessly extends your close rate. In other words, you waste precious days and weeks trying to get the final go-ahead. Plus, once you’ve built a proposal on paper, how easy is it to change on the fly? In most cases, it’s not easy at all.

The way to fix this issue is to find a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider like PandaDoc that offers the ability to manage your proposals and eventual contracts in one location. Having documents available to everyone who needs to know—and make changes effortlessly—transforms the proposal experience. It also shortens the sales cycle by reducing buyer barriers to acceptance.

2. Add robust templates to your tech stack.

Have you ever found yourself writing the same email again and again? Sure, you might change a word or two here and there. But the gist and tone remain similar. These are documents and correspondence that you could automate with software.

What’s the value of having dozens of templates? With the right system, you can deploy your templates quickly across omni-channels. Have a prospect who prefers text? No problem. Your template can be revamped to look great on a phone. Dealing with someone who’s a social media user? Send DMs and get noticed.

Not sure you want to invest in more tech software? Even if you just keep a catalog of templates on your centralized knowledge system, you’ll be ahead of the game. As a side note, you don’t have to lose the individual touch. In fact, you should focus on personalization because it’s what 80% of participants in an Epsilon buyer study said they want. Templates can be constructed with “holes.” Fill those “holes” with customized messages and foster connections without losing precious hours re-typing content.

3. Invest in a truly modern customer relationship management (CRM) system.

Why do so many salespeople rave about CRMs like HubSpot and Salesforce? The companies have made it their business to lead the CRM industry. They’re continuously adding new solutions to their platforms, including AI-driven tools.

Feel as if your outdated legacy CRM gets the job done? That may be true. However, it’s worth investigating state-of-the-art CRMs. Sure, it’s understandable to want to hold onto your CRM because you know it. No one likes change. Still, it might not be the right answer anymore.

Newer CRM platforms aren’t just clearinghouses to hold prospect and client information, either. The top ones allow you to analyze customer behaviors, set up regular messaging based on where a customer is in the sales funnel, and perhaps listen socially. Unless you’re 100% sure you have a CRM that truly links your organization’s marketing, communications, service, and sales teams, you’d be wise to investigate what’s on the market.

4. Increase your sales prospecting IQ.

The more intelligent your sales prospecting, the less arduous it is to uncover truly qualified potential clients. AI has helped sales technology become savvier, moving way beyond just grabbing prospects’ personal and business information from the web.

How does sales intelligence work when buoyed by technology like AI and machine learning? For one, sales software can crawl the Internet, looking for potential prospects based on your company’s past purchases and historical information. The software can then deliver target personas to specific sales team members. Even if the sales team has to evaluate the information by hand, everyone will save time.

Sales prospecting software can also help you scrub and update information, much of which will be outdated in about a year’s time. Remember: These are processes you would have to do yourself or ask someone else to do on your behalf. If a program can do it just as well, why not let it?

Prospect.io even suggests that sales prospecting should include a deep dive into data about the sales that turned you down. This way you can get a better understanding of why, and what to do better next time. 

Sales will always be about relationships, and tech can help you finally have the time to build connections. So why wait? Stop spinning your wheels and start generating long-term ties.

The post 4 Types of Sales Tech You Shouldn’t Sleep On appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Thanks to the pandemic, 60% of shuttered small businesses may be gone for good. Tens of thousands more are holding on by a thread. Every small business saved is a bright spot not just for the entrepreneur, but for their employees and the local economy. 

Many struggling small business leaders have reacted by cutting hours or staff. But only with the right tools can a small crew keep the ship sailing. While every small business is different, these five software tools are worth scraping the bottom of the bank account for:

1. Contact Center Software

First things first: How are you going to reach customers when they can’t physically visit your store? 

Phone calls and online outreach are safer options for everyone. Contact center as a service software makes omnichannel communication possible on any budget. Tools that track prior interactions with customers let any rep who answers the phone pick up the baton. 

Other features to keep an eye out for include analytics and customer profiling. Reports can provide an overview of how your employees are interacting with customers and where opportunities lie to build stronger customer relationships. Profiles can also give you insight into who your typical customers are, making it easier to attract more people like them. You can have a guide from fundingwaschools for more info.

2. Social Media Marketing Software

When you know who your customer is, marketing becomes that much easier. The next step is to choose channels and tools that are cost-effective. For small businesses, social media marketing makes getting the word out as easy as clicking “post.”

Before deciding on one, learn which platforms your customers like to use. There’s no point in investing in a Snapchat-specific tool if your users are only on Twitter and Facebook. Try to cover as many relevant platforms as you can in a single tool, which will make your team more efficient. 

3. Project Management Software

You know what’s a waste of money? Trying to track every project your team takes on through clipboards and emails. Letting a single job slip through the cracks can mean future business will be lost.  

If you are still leaving project management up to each employee, it’s time to invest in project management software. Keeping your team’s projects housed in one central location will save everyone time and stress. 

There are dozens of project management software options out there. Figure out which parts of projects are the most difficult for your team: If collaborating remotely is a chore, for example, you might look for a tool with native video conferencing capabilities or Slack integration. No matter your needs, look for a project management program that lists tasks, who is assigned to what, and deadlines. 

4. Accounting and Payroll Software

Especially when money is tight, you need to manage every penny like it’s your last. Investing in payroll services and accounting tools can simplify the financial side of small business ownership. What’s more, smart accounting software can help you take advantage of tax incentives and deductions you might not have known about. 

The good news is, many tools in this space cover multiple bases. Opt for a do-it-all financial hub that covers payroll, invoicing, bookkeeping, and filing taxes. Some of these tools also span HR tasks, such as benefits administration. If you’re ever audited, you’ll be glad you’ve got it all in one place. 

Ask your accountant which tool he or she prefers. Some accounting firms have partnerships with popular providers, which can help you save even more money. 

5. Supply and Inventory Management

These days, not all small businesses sell physical products. Even those that don’t, however, need to stock supplies like paper, ink, and company computers.

No matter what your company does, it has valuable property to keep tabs on. Product SKUs and “property of” labels are only half the picture. Once you’ve tagged everything, you need a tool to ensure nothing is lost or stolen. This software can also help you prioritize damaged or old items in need of replacement. 

When purchasing this tool, think about access permissions and user profiling features. You don’t want to be the only person who can update the system when something is broken. On the other hand, security and theft concerns mean you also want to limit who can delete items from the database. 

As a small business owner, you can’t do it alone. But when money gets tight, you also can’t afford to hire a big business-sized staff to help you out. 

What you can afford are software tools that make everyone more efficient. Choose wisely, and you’ll keep your staff lean without compromising your commitment to your customers. Do that, and you’ll keep your business in the black no matter what happens to the economy. 

The post Struggling? These 5 Tools Can Keep Your Small Business Afloat appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

When looking for a scheduling app, you’ll come across a variety of options. Each one serves a similar purpose but has unique strengths and weaknesses. You’ll have to keep this in mind as you determine which app best fits your needs.

Two of the best scheduling apps on the market are Calendar and Calendly. As industry leaders in the scheduling and online calendar field, they should be the first two options you consider. Today, we’re going to be comparing Calendly to Calendar to help you make the best decision on which scheduling app makes sense for you to use for your business.

This article will dive into both Calendar and Calendly, comparing their features so you can select one for your own use.

Calendar

An industry leading online calendar, this app provides features not just for managing time, but for mastering your scheduling techniques. The ability to do both makes Calendar a powerful and capable tool.

Scheduling Links

Back and forth emails determining meeting times can take up more of your day than you’d like to admit. A much easier way to schedule meetings and interviews is with a scheduling link.

You can set the hours and days you are available in Calendar for an upcoming phone call or meeting. Calendar then provides you a link to send to others. Through that link they can request one of your available time slots, making it much faster and easier to schedule appointments than ever before.

Meeting Suggestions

There are two problems that scheduling links don’t solve on their own: meeting location, if applicable, and group meetings. 

It can take a long time to come up with a meeting location. As a solution to this problem, Calendar makes recommendations for you, so you can spend more time on important projects and less time looking up lunch spots that are equidistant from both parties.

You can’t send a scheduling link to a group of people, as their availability and preference might differ from the rest. So, Calendar also makes time suggestions that work for everyone according to their Calendar accounts.

Event Creation

Calendar uses AI to make event creation faster and better than ever. It learns your tendencies in order to make suggestions that speed up this process in just a few clicks.

Other useful tools include time zone recognition and calendar syncing. You can easily coordinate with people around the globe, and have it all match up with any other online calendar you use.

Calendar Time Analytics

The crown jewel of Calendar is its time analytics tool. The purpose of a calendar is to organize your time and ultimately use it more efficiently. That can be hard to do without the data Calendar provides.

With time analytics, you can see exactly how much time you spend on each activity. This gives you a concrete look at how much time you spend in meetings, traveling, and looking through emails. Just record your activity in Calendar and it will do the math for you, presenting it in captivating, easy to view graphs.

Security

Calendar authenticates each and every calendar in its system. When you have a team, your team can’t see what’s on your personal calendar and you don’t have to share your personal appointments with your team. Your work calendar and personal calendars are 100% secure and separate.

Keeping your personal account secure is one of Calendar’s biggest emphases. Thanks to its continued efforts on security, you can focus on other things. Take comfort in knowing that all your team can see are the time spots on your calendar that are blocked out.

Pricing

Calendar has two packages, one for individuals and another for teams. There are free options for each with only the essential features. Teams cannot exceed 10 members in the basic package, but can reach up to 200 members in the paid version.

Calendar offers discounts for its paid plans when purchased annually. For individuals, the Pro version is $8 a month when purchased annually, or $10 a month otherwise. For teams, the price is $6 per person when paid annually or $8 per person on a monthly basis. 

Calendly

When you rely on meetings, you can feel stressed about fitting everything into your schedule and fulfilling all of your commitments. Calendly takes a load off your shoulders, making it easier to schedule your meetings and fit them all in with zero stress.

Scheduling Links

While Calendar finds its strength in security and time analytics, Calendly prides itself on top-of-the-line scheduling links. This tool helps you create and organize multiple meetings without breaking a sweat.

Calendly gives you a lot of flexibility with your scheduling links, including buffer times to prevent meeting overlap and a meeting cap so you don’t get overwhelmed in a single day. Notifications remind meeting participants of commitments and also prevent last-minute meetings from being scheduled. 

Meeting Flexibility

Not all meetings are created equal. Some will be one-on-one while others will be in groups of various sizes and functions. You’ll need a scheduling tool that can fit every type of meeting, which Calendly can do for you.

Calendly offers four different meeting plans;

1. One-on-one: Lets a single invitee to schedule an appointment
2. Round robin: Automatic meeting distribution based factors such as availability and priority
3. Collective: Allows an invitee to schedule a meeting with multiple team members
4. Group: Multiple invitee hosting for events such as webinars and training

Each works with a specific goal in mind, matching your meeting needs perfectly. Each meeting type has its merit, and it’s nice having a scheduling tool that caters to every possibility.

Pricing

Calendly also offers a basic package that’s free for all users. While limited, it’s a great start for new users. It’s important to note that you can only create one calendar under the basic package, and most of the integrations are unavailable.

Two paid programs are available for extra scheduling power. The Premium package is $8 per month when paid annually or $10 per month per user. This gives you access to two separate calendars as well as numerous integrations and customization options.

The Pro plan is all-inclusive, with every feature made available. Pricing starts at $12 per month when paid annually or $15 per month per user.

Integrations

An online calendar won’t be the only tool you need. There are a multitude of apps and programs to help you operate your business and manage your time. When these apps work together, it makes things that much easier for you.

Calendly realizes this, which is why it has enabled integrations with apps such as Zoom and Salesforce. This takes out the extra steps needed to run your meetings and go through your day. It also connects to your online calendars, so you won’t get dates and times confused and crossed over.

Team Features

Scheduling tools aren’t just meant for the individual; they can also be used by your entire team. Calendly added some additional features to help your team get everything done. 

Team pages make it easy for everyone to be in contact with one another. Other features include centralized billing, scheduling metrics, and reporting. Leaders can use these tools to further manage their teams in various ways. 

Both of these apps have great qualities which will improve how you approach scheduling. Compare and even experiment with both so you can see which fits your needs better. Doing so will optimize your time, and unlock more opportunities for you and your business.

The post Calendar vs. Calendly: Which Scheduling App Makes Sense For You appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

While the ambition, the passion, and the concept are right, the reality that many small enterprises still fail is an ever-looming guillotine. No one gets into business to fail, but the statistics, the current economics, and even the world’s needs can change with the wind, and what might be great today can be vapor tomorrow. 

The Help You Need

That is why a smart small business owner needs some help. And for the savvy entrepreneur, the software is the answer. Small business management software is one of the best tools to own if you want to keep an eye on all aspects of your business correctly. It lets you watch inventory, budgeting, revenue, and even employee effectiveness.

It can include options like extensions to payroll software for small business needs that will help you effectively track your employee’s earnings, taxes, and so forth. It can link you to the best SEO software for small business marketing to get your brand higher on Google and Yahoo searches. And some of these programs are even free with the initial software.

What it means for you is you have a resource, a support system, and a guide that can help you with the intricacies of your business, especially the money aspects, and help you stay on top of things, without being an overbearing micromanager. It does the managing for you. 

Small Business Software That Works for You

Just because you buy the best accounting software for small business finances doesn’t mean you get to let fate take the wheel. You are still the ultimate control engine of your enterprise. And the software is nothing more than a helper. Letting it run the show is tantamount to allowing waves to steer a ship. Eventually, you are going to hit the rocks. You must be at the helm.

In that respect, here is a list of great small business software possibilities, along with other technologies, for your new endeavor:

1. Management Apps

Feature-rich management apps software is designed to improve the customer relations side of your company. While the market is heavily saturated with these programs, there have been many new industry developments. They use automation to trim hours of data entry off your plate and are very easy to use.

2. Integrated Voice Searching

Have you ever used a voice text program? Did it have issues with odd words that don’t usually come up in your native tongue? That is because most are only programmed for common words. Slang, swear words, and unique names give it trouble. When choosing your business’s name, having one a voice search will understand will help with search engines. 

3. Social Media Marketing

There are two ways to market with social media. You can use Facebook Ads, link it to your company page, and make a clickable option for people to get instantly transferred to your site. The other is through Facebook Messenger. Messenger can be used to offer products and discounts and raise awareness for exciting things yet to come. 

4. Square Is Your Friend

Square hit the landscape helping smaller businesses take credit cards instead of losing a potential transaction. Now they have an integrated installment option, allowing customers to pay off larger ticket items over time. The retailer gets paid, the customer gets what they came for, and everybody wins.

5. The Future Is Now

Two letters that will change your entrepreneurial model forever: A.I. Artificial intelligence has been a part of the working world for quite a few years, integrated into the software, giving birth to new concepts in automation, and improving internal operations, almost invisibly. If you didn’t know it was happening, you might be understandably concerned. Don’t be. These “thinking machines” are geared to help, not to hinder. 

6. Remote Options

With the use of automation, A.I., and external shipping, working from home is not only a real option but also the preferred option for many entrepreneurs. They can run their store, have everything shipped to the customer, and do it all from their home office, while in their pajamas. Is it professional? Maybe not. But if there is an issue, like perhaps a worldwide pandemic, it is a nice thing to have.

The Freedom to Choose

One of the best aspects of software is the variety. There are tons of products in every part of your entrepreneurial needs. If you need accounting, there are plenty. If you want an excellent payroll program, walk through your local electronics store. And even better, getting small business software free online is an ever-present opportunity. 

So, what is the best software for small business? It depends on what you know, what you need, and what you can afford. Some programs are fantastic and won’t cost you a dime, although the add-ons can add up. Others can cost a mint but are comprehensive. Figure out what you need, shop around, search online, and be specific. The right choice is out there, just waiting for you to choose it for your endeavor.

The world may have changed, but small businesses haven’t. There is still the dream of being your boss and doing whatever it takes to make that a reality. Resources pop up almost daily that are designed to help. If you are a struggling entrepreneur, you need only to find the one that will give you a leg up and assist with your needs. And it might just give you a way to overtake your competition. 

The post Technologies Small Business Owners Should Consider Using Today appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

These are the essential features a marketplace script should have:

• Customization options
• Scalability
• User experience
• Affordability and
• Mobile accessibility 

Top Marketplace Platforms

1. BigCommerce

Most suitable for small-to-medium sized businesses, BigCommerce’s dashboard is very straightforward and user friendly.

Pros:

• Fully hosted
• Easily accessible
• Unlimited product listings
• Unlimited bandwidth & file 
• Integrations with shipping and POS software
• No transaction fees

Cons:

• You have to pay for 24/7 customer service.
• They are expensive compared to competitors. 
• Customer orders don’t come with tracking information.

2. Shopify

Offering the widest range of apps, add-ons, and plugins for small, medium, and large marketplace platforms, The Top Shopify Developer NZ are always ready to help to build an online store providing  Shopify provides tons of readymade templates for personalization.

Pros:

• A ready to use ecommerce store with cloud hosting
• Access to hundreds of themes and plugins
• Hundreds of templates for selling any type of products
• Built-in payment gateways
• Highly customizable and scalable
• Compatibility with popular third-party integrations

Cons:

• Month-to-month pricing
• Limited customization options
• High price for the enterprise level plans
• Complicated migration

3. Shopygen

Supporting different types of marketplace platforms like B2C and C2C, Shopygen provides turnkey solutions for marketplaces like Uber, Airbnb, and Instacart. They also provide services for customized plugins and themes for other eCommerce software developing platforms like Mgento, Shopify, WooCommerce etc. 

Pros:

• Created using NodeJS technology
• Highly customizable
• No recurring fee
• Cost effective in comparison to its competitors

Cons:

• You will need to get your own hosting and security maintenance.
• If customization is required, the development time is longer than usual.
• It requires an upfront cost. 

4. Magento

Magento’s platform helps to empower retailers and brands with flexible cloud solutions to help companies scale up their business. Magento’s wide range of customizable options makes it a  great platform for merchants who want to innovate and grow with technology.

Pros:

• Integrated checkout, payment and shipping
• Mobile-optimized shopping
• Catalog management
• Instant purchase
• Customization options available

Cons:

• Long development time 
• Higher budget than most of its contemporaries
• Doesn’t have a lot of content creation options
• Magento Commerce support comes with a hefty price

5. WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a free, open-source wordpress shopping cart plugin. It is one of the most chosen eCommerce platforms in the market and runs on about 30% of all stores.

Pros:

• Regularly updated and totally secure
• Highly customizable
• Integrates with many other ecommerce platforms and payment gateways
• Complete support

Cons:

• Not all of the features come with the basic plan
• Expensive external themes, plugins, and hosting
• You are on your own with regards to maintaining hosting to security and backups.

There are many eCommerce softwares available in the market; don’t just limit your choices to SaaS. Of course, managing a self-hosted site is not as easy as a SaaS platform, but you get the complete control when you own the code of your site which is incomparable. Ultimately it depends on your requirements, budget, and how you are going to manage your website.

The post Shopping Cart Software for Multi-Vendor Ecommerce Marketplaces appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

They are clearly still worried about trusting a third party with their valuable data. So what are the
specific fears SMBs have with cloud storage and what can they do about it?

Unauthorized access becomes harder to spot

One of the biggest cloud security worries is the detection of unauthorized access to sensitive files and folders.

When valuable data is stored on on-premise file servers, organizations are assured that it is ‘relatively’ secure from unauthorized access because of the need to be physically present in the office to access these servers. Even with employees and third-party partners using VPNs, the IT team can restrict access to only specific devices, so the data remains relatively secure.

However, when data is stored in the cloud, the chance of unauthorized access is much higher. It makes it really hard for IT teams to detect misuse, thus causing major security concerns. Without the right access controls in place, an attacker using stolen credentials could, in theory, gain access to sensitive files and folders from anywhere in the world using any device.

To counter this fear, 21% of SMBs said they keep their most valuable data stored on on-premise infrastructure because they don’t trust the security in the cloud. Organizations are worried that the information will end up in the wrong hands because they don’t have visibility of who is accessing these files.

Leaving employees stealing data is harder to prevent

It is hard for security teams to stop employees who are leaving your organization from stealing
sensitive data.

With on-premise storage and just a desktop computer, there’s that much more risk of getting noticed (through prying eyes) if someone tries to steal sensitive information. But with data stored in the cloud, it can be accessed from anywhere in the world, using any device. It then becomes much easier for ex-employees to steal information before they leave and harder for IT teams to spot it.

Hybrid storage environments are complex and harder to manage

56% of SMBs say that it’s difficult managing the security of data living in hybrid infrastructures.

This issue is naturally linked to the first two — and one can argue that complex hybrid environments make the other two issues much worse.

Many organizations have hybrid storage environments nowadays— a mix of cloud storage providers and a mix of on-premise servers. While this approach is good for productivity, it makes managing the security of the data stored across multiple environments very challenging.

Each cloud provider manages security differently, and if you don’t actively monitor access to each platform on an ongoing basis, it’s difficult to detect any malicious behavior and stop data theft.

The mentality about sensitive data needs to change

We found that 21% keep their sensitive data on premise because they don’t trust its security in the cloud.

But then, we asked them what constitutes sensitive data, and 74% of them said their corporate credit card data was sensitive, 71% said their employees’ personal information was sensitive, 62% said client contact details were sensitive, and more worryingly, only 53% stated their clients’ data was sensitive!

SMBs need some help understanding what sensitive data it.

More and more companies choose their suppliers based on the strength of their cybersecurity strategy. When it comes to business, it’s very important to demonstrate you have an effective cyber-posture because it can be the difference between winning and losing new clients, as well as retaining old clients.

What can SMBs do about it?

The best way to ensure your data is protected (whether in the cloud or on a mixture of on-premise and cloud) is to invest in technology. It needs to proactively track, audit, and report on all access to files and folders, and alert IT teams on suspicious file activity the moment it occurs.

What you need is a monitoring solution in place that provides a consistent and unique view of the security of your data across all your storage servers (whether on-premise or on a third-party cloud system). You can then rest assured that if someone other than an authorized employee tries to access your data, you’ll be the first to know about it, and you’ll be able to do something about it.

The post Why Do SMBs Believe Their Data is Unsafe in the Cloud? appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

1. Strong Human Resources Management Team

The core of a successful business plan is the people that you surround yourself with. You cannot expect to have success without a high-quality staff. And you cannot expect to work with the best people without a competent human resources management team. As a team you should choose a good program like VoIP for Business for business strategies and communication.

As part of your human resources team, you need to have a professional who is trained to find and hire the best talent to keep your business moving forward. This person will be the face of your company as you bring new people into the fold. A good human resources manager will also be able to effectively craft your company culture so that you retain quality employees. Increasing employee satisfaction will go a long way in supporting success for your organization,
making it important that you have human resources staff in place to make this happen. you can focus on scaling and growing your business by the help of singapore nominee director.

2. Cash Management System

You are only as strong as your cash management. Most businesses that go bankrupt do so simply because they run out of cash and not because they are not equipped to be profitable. There are a number of factors that you need to consider when designing and implementing your cash flow system. How much cash do you need to have on hand? How do you collect payments from clients? How much inventory do you need on hand to operate with a comfortable margin?

How much capital do you need at your disposal in order to grow your business and how will you balance this with your debt? All of these questions need to have an answer if you want to avoid having cash flow issues.

3. Marketing Plan Focused on ROI

Marketing is a critical piece of any business plan. When crafting your general marketing or franchise marketing and promotional initiatives, it is important that you devise a plan that is focused on your return on investment. The last thing that you want to be doing is dumping your money into initiatives that do not pay off for your bottom line. One of the best places to start your analysis of your marketing ROI is through your own company website. Through your site, you can use Google Analytics to learn how people find your business, where they come from, and how much they are willing to engage with what you have to offer. From here, you can craft your marketing plan to reach the right audience while responding to their specific needs.

4. Solid IT Infrastructure

In today’s modern business world, it is imperative that you leverage technology to your full advantage. This means that you cannot slack on putting all of your IT infrastructure in place. Without a solid IT foundation, your business will not be able to keep pace with the competition in a fluid marketplace.

If you do not have the ability and staff to run your technology systems in-house, you can look into contracting out for managed IT services. This will take a significant amount of work and worry off of your plate so that you can focus on the meat of your business. With a managed service, you can take advantage of a staffed IT desk and proactive monitoring of all of your most vital technological systems.

5. Business Plan

The cornerstone of your success lies with your business plan. This formal document serves as a guide as you make tough decisions about your organization. You can customize your plan to meet your specific business needs. Most plans include an executive summary, a list of high-level staffing positions, financial data, marketing initiatives, and more. Not only will this serve as a reminder to you, but it is also a useful piece of information for potential investors.

These five elements will combine to ensure that your business is put in the position to succeed both in the short-term and in the long-term. With all five of these essentials, you will be able to weather a variety of issues and come out on top.

The post 5 Business Essentials That Every Business Owner Needs appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

1. More effective reporting processes

Typically, reporting on financial information is a tedious task requiring long hours of consolidating  multiple spreadsheets and connecting the dots between profitability and efficiency. However, there are now smarter, digital options for this task when you use smart reporting technologies that enable automated schedules, real-time data, and artificial intelligence features. 

By removing the manual approach and accelerating processes across the board, financial managers have the opportunity to diminish human-based errors as well as improve the speed in which financial data is processed. Software that has the ability to keep massive volumes of financial records creates a business environment that improves the decision-making processes. Financial managers and financial consultants go hand-in-hand in providing a more effective operational management. The professionals at Virtualauditor has the best company valuation consultants and can help you and your team achieve better financial performance.

2. Accessing data on-the-go

Working on mobile has slowly become a standard way of working, even in the financial industry with the introduction of mobile banking and online transactions. Some countries such as Sweden, China, and the UK are leading the pack in trying to eliminate cash payments. In fact, Sweden’s transactions consist of cash in an astonishing figure of only 2%. More and more the financial industry is moving things online, so stay ahead of the curve by investing in technology that will help you digitize as well. 

3. Competing with giants within your industry

Making the right decision at the right time is critical in our cutthroat digital age and the financial sector is no exception. No matter the size of a company, each and every business has the chance to choose software that will help in making better informed and more accurate decisions. In this case, even if your budget or resources are not high, there are solutions on the market that you can benefit from. It’s important to use smart technologies, both in small businesses and large enterprises, since it will ensure that financial information is stored, delivered, and accessed from a centralized place.

4. Implementing AI for increased productivity

Artificial intelligence has found its application in the financial sector and it’s becoming increasingly important for small businesses. Popular applications include chatbots that automate sales processes or customer service inquiries, and enable financial institutions to communicate more effectively across the board, leaving the more human-centric tasks to humans. Moreover, AI has found its applications in back-office processes, predicting future financial values based on past and current data as well as impacting risk management and marketing. The popularity of AI is not only present in big banking institutions but also in small credit unions and businesses across the world. 

5. Using predictive analytics for financial analysis

Being closely connected with artificial intelligence, predictive analytics has emerged into a field that the financial sector is starting to use more often than ever before. Predicting revenue, upscaling the supply chain, analyzing loss drivers, creating financial reports, or detecting fraud are just some of the examples where predictive analytics help financial professionals in their line of work. The potential is there, but there is some caution when it comes to utilization of predictive analytics such as privacy missteps so do think through the pros and cons before implementing anything. 

Intelligent technologies have become a necessity in industries across the world, and financial departments are no exception. The development and implementation of such technologies are no longer limited to large enterprises; small businesses have the possibilities to start small and scale as the business grows. It’s important to implement emerging technologies throughout the company as a core feature of smart business management and sustainable development.  

The post 5 Benefits of Using Smart Technologies in Financial Operations appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

With the economy beginning to contract, many small businesses may be struggling to find the funds or staff to address evolving cybersecurity concerns. Small businesses already make up 43 percent of cyber crime targets in the U.S., and in 2019, data breaches cost small businesses an average of $200,000, with 60 percent of those attacked going out of business within six months. 

Improving cyber security might cost some money, but it’ll surely be worth keeping your business afloat — and it might even be cheaper than the cost of a data breach. Protecting yourself is often as simple as implementing a few smart policies, and using the right security tools.

Update Your Policies to Address the Realities of Remote Work

If you have employees working remotely during the crisis, you need to implement some policies that acknowledge the unique security risks of working from home. First of all, employees won’t be behind a company firewall, and might not have company security software running on their systems.

Require that employees access company data over a private network — anyone who doesn’t have access to a home network should be required to work onsite, where they can access a secure connection. Public connections, like those in coffee shops or libraries, might not be available anyway, and if they are, they’re not safe — hackers can jump on them to access your data. Clarify that employees shouldn’t save company data to their personal devices, including storage like flash drives, personal cloud storage, or personal email. All of these are insecure places to store data. 

Use the Right Tools

Software solutions are available to give you and your employees the tools you need to stay secure while working in a challenging situation. Employees can use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to access your company’s internal network and even use a virtual desktop there, which provides both storage solutions and an extra layer of security.

Employees will also need endpoint security, including anti-malware protection and firewall protection. Advanced threat protection will include security for endpoints and other network devices and email, as well as malware protection. The best advanced threat protection offers real-time monitoring to catch breaches and other attacks before they do too much damage.

Train Your Employees

Of course, employees will need regular security check-ins to make sure their security features are optimized. However, they’ll also need additional training in cybersecurity, especially as everyone is on-edge and stressed-out at the moment — in other words, employees are more likely than ever before to be in the perfect state of mind to fall for a phishing email or other social engineering tactic. Regular training, even if it’s just videos and online quizzes, will help keep employees on their toes, and will maybe help you single out individuals who need further attention.

Supply Devices

If you can, it’s safest to supply your employees the devices they need to work from home. It’s more fair to the employees, who may otherwise have to use old or underpowered equipment, or scramble to come up with what they need on their own. But it’s not just about fairness — you have much more control over what happens on company devices, and you can, at least in theory, keep employees from using them for personal stuff. This can help keep hackers from compromising your company data, since you don’t know what emails your employees are answering in their downtime, or which questionable websites they might be visiting. Their personal devices could already be compromised.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been dangerous in all kinds of ways, some more predictable than others. Make sure your company is aware of the dangers COVID-19 poses for your cyber security, so you protect yourself on every front.

The post Small Business Cybersecurity in a Post-COVID World appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

RFID and GPS-enabled Internet of Things (IoT) technology can give shipping and logistics professionals real-time data on shipping speed, delays, conditions, and more. Many warehousing processes can be automated. Routes can be changed on the fly to accommodate delays. The chain of custody for shipments can be transparent all along the supply chain, so sources of damage can be identified and steps taken to address them for future shipments.

Get Real-Time Data on Shipping Conditions

Connected technology can be attached to shipping containers or pallets, or directly to the goods or equipment themselves, and can send real-time data about what shipments are going through. That’s particularly important in the food supply chain, where cargo often needs to remain at a certain temperature, travel at a certain speed, and often avoid jostling, vibrations, and impacts. A shipment of fresh produce, meat, or dairy can go bad quickly if it’s not kept at the right temperature, so IoT devices can be used to monitor the temperature of these shipments and can even sound an alarm if temperature thresholds are breached. If you want to make sure your products are always safe, then depending on what it is then you may need to contact paper core manufacturers so you can properly pack them so they are ready to ship out. 

Temperature isn’t the only thing IoT shipping monitors can track. They can collect data on the vibrations and impacts shipments go through en route — for example, a vibration monitor can either transmit real-time data on shipping vibrations and impacts, or collect and save data to be reviewed once the shipment reaches its destination. Monitors can also track how fast shipments are moving, so delays can be spotted and routes changed on the fly, if necessary, to make sure delivery schedules are met and supply chains aren’t impacted by delays. Information about where a shipment is and how fast it is moving can also help a manufacturer or warehouse prepare for its arrival.

Automate Warehousing and Storage Processes

In many warehouses around the world, shipments are still catalogued the old-fashioned way — by hand. It’s someone’s job to record what shipments arrive and when, and take inventory of how much and what each shipment contains, and record where it’s being stored in the warehouse, if relevant. When the shipment leaves the warehouse, they have to then process it out. All of that leaves a lot of room for human error, and can take someone a long time to do.

But now, shipping and logistics professionals can save all of that time and money used for manually tracking shipments as they arrive and depart, and eliminate much, if not all, of the risk of human error. RFID sensor technology can automate recording arrivals and departures, and make it easy to keep track of where shipments are in a warehouse.

Take Steps to Prevent Shipping Damage

When shipments get damaged in transit, you need to know what happened, when it happened, and who was to blame for it happening. IoT technology that tracks exposure to moisture, humidity, heat and cold, impacts, vibrations, and other sources of shipping damage can let you know exactly where and when potentially damaging events occurred. Was your pallet of expensive electronics left out in the rain on someone’s loading dock? Did your truck full of fresh milk get too hot? Did the damage happen at some point along the supply chain, or did it befall the shipment after delivery, due to the negligence of the recipient? These are important questions to have answered when a shipment arrives damaged.

Even if the damage is no one’s fault, necessarily, but is the result of something unavoidable, like rough seas, poor roads, or a traffic accident, shipping monitor data can help you take steps to avoid it next time. Maybe you need to use a different shipping route, carrier, or method. You’ll have the data you need to know what changes you should make, and where, in order to make sure that future shipments arrive unharmed. 

The more data you have about what your goods go through in shipment, the better off you’ll be when it comes to avoiding shipping damage. Don’t let your supply chain languish in the 20th century — it’s time to make the most advanced technology work for you.

The post Here’s How IoT Tech Can Improve Your Shipping and Freight Logistics appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Using strategic sourcing best practices, you can set the stage for successful contract negotiations and purchases by identifying the supplier who can best meet your needs at the beginning of the procurement lifecycle. Here’s what you need to know:

1) Review Your Processes First, Then Choose a Software Tool

The worst thing you can do when choosing a new software tool for your business is to choose the tool before seeing if it will fit your current processes. If it doesn’t fit, you’ll end up changing your business processes in order to make the tool work. It’s much easier to review your business processes first, assess your needs, and then choose the strategic sourcing tool that best fits those needs. You might still have to change your processes a little, but there’s much less potential for upheaval as everyone in the company scrambles to change their workflow processes all at once.

Your procurement leaders need a strategy in order to implement procurement automation. Many processes in procurement can be automated, and by doing so, you can reduce human error, eliminate redundancies, improve workflow efficiency, and generate the data your procurement leaders need in order to make better business decisions. As procurement goes increasingly digital, be prepared to keep pace.

2) Prioritize Collaboration with Suppliers

Vendors and suppliers need something from you as much as you need something from them. By fostering two-way communication with suppliers and vendors, you can help meet their organizational needs and they can help meet yours. This will increase supplier engagement, enhance expectations, and build value. By keeping the relationships with your suppliers healthy and basing them on trust, mutual benefit, collaboration, and mutual problem-solving, you can build lasting relationships with  suppliers who will make the most difference in boosting your reputation, keeping your costs manageable, and minimizing your risks.

3) Keep Supply Chain Management Policies and Processes Up-to-Date

Go over your supply chain management and procurement policies regularly, and update them as needed. Processes should be as transparent as possible, and policies should make sense. Compliance is easier to win when policies are sensible, clear, and realistic. 

Procurement and supply chain management policies should also incorporate risk-mitigation strategies and procedures. For example, digital contract management tools and policies can mitigate much of the risk associated with contract management, since it makes contracts and their terms easy to reference, keep track of, and keep up-to-date. It’s vital to make sure both parties meet their contractual obligations, or you could be leaving money on the table. 

4) Focus on Total Cost of Ownership

When it comes to sourcing new equipment, you can’t just focus on the purchase price. You also have to consider how much it costs to maintain and operate that equipment — the total cost of ownership. It’s the same as if you were to buy a new car, where the costs of insurance, maintenance, repairs, gas, and taxes can make a car unaffordable even if the purchase price isn’t that high. Consider your costs over the entire lifecycle of procuring, consuming, and even eventually disposing of the service, products, or equipment you’re considering procuring. 

5) Do Your Homework on Suppliers

To strategically choose the best vendors for your company, you need to be willing to do your research on potential suppliers when the procurement process begins and continue to keep tabs on them throughout your relationship. Look into a vendor’s experience and history before you begin a relationship with them. Monitor supplier performance and measure performance objectives, and make sure you have a forum for communication and problem-solving available at all times.

Strategic sourcing best practices can do so much to improve your vendor relationships, mitigate procurement-related risks, strengthen your reputation, and help you meet your business goals. Make strategic sourcing a priority for your organization, so that you can make the most of your supplier relationships, to everyone’s benefit.

The post Up Your Procurement Game with These 5 Strategic Sourcing Best Practices appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

This goes to show that your online presence, particularly your website, is doing more than half the work for you when it comes to lead acquisition.

When you’re starting your company, all you want to do is get a website off the ground and get the word out as quickly as possible.

However, it is easy to make mistakes during the early stages of this process that could end up costing your brand in the long run, especially if you never address those errors later on.

You may already be doing most things right when it comes to your site, but it can only take a few key mistakes to drive prospective customers into the open arms of your competition.

Here are four potential risks to avoid if you want to make sure you’re getting the most out of your website:

Ignoring Mobile

By 2021, there will be an estimated 3.8 billion smartphone users worldwide. This means an increasing number of people will be using their mobile phones to browse the internet.

This requires having a website that is compatible with different screen sizes and mobile operating systems.

If you only make your website accessible on desktop, you are running the risk of alienating a massive portion of potential customers.

Incorporating Corporate Speak

It is easy to fall into the trap of using lots of corporate jargon on your website. You might have the best intentions, however, if your website is crammed with industry jargon, potential customers might be tempted to look elsewhere. Even though you’re marketing to businesses, rather than clients, your website is still going to be looked at by people who want to understand what they are reading, so you may need help from a web design company.

We’re not saying you should dumb things down to a preschool level, but try to make sure you’re using clear and easily comprehensible language.

Focus on making your content understandable to your audience rather than yourself, and have a clear content marketing strategy for the future. If you must use any terms that aren’t considered common knowledge, explain them or provide links with additional information.

Lacking Updates

If you’re a business owner, chances are that you’re leading a hectic life. There are likely multiple roles you have to play within your company, leaving you with not much time or energy at the end of the day.

Updating your website is probably the last thing you want to do, but if you fail to do so, you run the risk of letting it look dated and neglected. That is not a good look when you’re trying to attract new customers.

In case you really don’t have the time to update your site regularly, at least hire an expert like The Web Shop design services to do the design for you.

Adding some content from time to time shows your visitors that you’re actively maintaining the website, which in turn shows that you’re up-to-date on current trends.

Even if you keep the general image of your website the same for a while, and even if you don’t add any significant content, it would be a good idea to update your customer stories on a regular basis.

Adding little notes from satisfied customers from time to time will give your website an extra degree of authenticity.

Failing to Secure the Website Properly

When you’re in a rush to get your business off the ground, you may neglect some website elements that don’t seem major, like your website’s security, but that’s a mistake.

The number of cyberattacks increases every year as technology advances. Just last year there was a 17% increase in data breaches compared to 2018. Not securing your B2B website can put your customers’ data at risk. Not to mention it makes you seem unreliable and unprofessional.

It is imperative that you protect any customer information collected by installing firewalls and encryption technology. It might be tempting to procrastinate on this, but if anything goes wrong, it could cost you dearly.

Make sure to seek the advice of cybersecurity professionals and comply with the latest regulations.

Taking shortcuts when it comes to developing a B2B website can prove costly. It is important to consider all the potential risks involved so that you avoid any problems later on.

The above is by no means an exhaustive list of all the problems you may encounter along the way, but these are a few places to start.

The post Four Risks To Avoid During B2B Web Development appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

The typical small business might not seem likely to suffer a break-in. But because small business leaders often have fewer cybersecurity protocols in place, hackers often see them as “low-hanging fruit” opportunities. 

Security information and event management (SIEM) systems have become affordable enough for many small businesses. Despite issues with false positives, modern ones are good at identifying signs of intrusion. In most cases, however, SIEM systems can’t confront threats themselves.

To actually stop threats, businesses are turning to SOAR security. But what, exactly, is SOAR, and why does it make more sense than manual incident response?

What is SOAR?

SOAR is a combination of software programs that work together to stop cyber threats. SOAR stands for “Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response.”

To understand SOAR, it helps to think through some of the challenges that cybersecurity teams face. Three are particularly relevant to SOAR:

1. Monitoring data stored on and transmitted by networks, devices, and third-party software is a massive undertaking. 
2. Every company has more vulnerabilities than it can possibly deal with. As a result, teams prioritize fixing a few glaring ones.
3. Patching vulnerabilities takes time because the process is complex and, in some cases, teams lack the internal expertise.

Some companies address those issues by hiring more staff, but cybersecurity talent is difficult to find and expensive to employ. The obvious solution is to accept that you can’t fix every vulnerability or check every file, and instead focus on stopping threats. 

That’s exactly what SOAR seeks to do. Let’s look at how it works: 

• Security Orchestration

Every company’s network consists of multiple software and hardware components. Security Orchestration makes sure all of these technologies are “talking” to one another. 

• Automation

Only when network technologies communicate can security processes be automated. SOAR systems use a combination of pre-set and customized automations to deal with certain security risks. This reduces response times and the general burden on the IT team.

• Response

SOAR systems’ ability to respond in real time is what makes them uniquely valuable. A lot of cybersecurity solutions can describe the threat, but they can’t actually do anything to stop it. SOAR responds using its programmed automations by, for example, isolating devices or interrupting transfers.

Why Do Companies Use SOAR?

It’s true that a trained information security team can do most or all of what a SOAR system can do. So why would a company invest in one? Three reasons stand out:

1. SOAR Improves Efficiency

The most obvious advantage to SOAR is how much it improves efficiency. The bottom line is, companies that use SOAR stop more security issues in less time. 

A good analogy is email automation. Sure, marketers can type out every email newsletter to every customer. But that takes an awful lot of time and creates opportunities for human error. Like email automation tools do for marketers, security automation systems help IT teams work faster and make fewer mistakes. 

With SOAR, security staff can automate recurring tasks that humans do not need to oversee. These automations are refined over time, progressively reducing the IT team’s workload.

What’s more, SOAR orchestrates systems that may have previously been managed by multiple departments. That further improves efficiency and reduces errors by minimizing cross-team communication. 

2. SOAR Is Flexible

Another plus of SOAR systems is how adaptable they are. Whether you run a small business or a global enterprise — which face different types of threats, and in different proportions — SOAR can improve your security posture. 

You add or remove networks from SOAR as your company’s technology landscape shifts. No matter how many different tools you use, you can analyze and protect them from a single dashboard.

SOAR systems are also flexible in terms of automations. If you discover a certain one is doing more harm than good, you can modify or delete it. And if you realize your team is doing certain tasks repeatedly, you can add new automations. 

Every company has different challenges and goals. Security automation systems cannot be one-size-fits-all. 

3. SOAR Is Affordable

Because SOAR is flexible and boosts productivity, it saves companies money. Not only is hiring security staff expensive, but the average cost of a data breach — including soft costs, such as reputational damage — is nearly $4 million. 

SOAR let businesses do more with their current security staff. And because a SOAR system can prevent certain breaches from happening in the first place, it can pay for itself by stopping even a single attack.

The fact of the matter is, cyberattacks will only increase in regularity and complexity. The best time to implement a SOAR system was when you started storing sensitive data; the second best time is today.

The post What Is SOAR? (And Why You Should Care) appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Unlike enterprise companies, however, small business leaders have limited tech budgets. They can’t afford to take risks on unproven tools, nor on “one size fits all” systems that don’t actually serve anyone.

What are the must-haves when it comes to small business technology? For managing knowledge, making payroll, and everything in between, these tools are smart investments:

1. Payroll and HR: OnPay

Most small businesses can’t pay a staff account, but they can afford the next best thing: OnPay’s full-service payroll software. OnPay is available in every U.S. state for $36 plus $4 per person per month, and it’s flexible enough for both 1099 and W-2 employees. What’s more, OnPay automates tax filings and integrates with other popular timecard and accounting tools.  For the best knowledge of software check this out.

A payroll solution like OnPay is particularly important during COVID-19. The system can process and track absences, tax credits, and benefits adjustments. That way, you can focus on keeping the revenue rolling in. 

2. Knowledge management: Guru

Losing a key employee can be devastating to a small business. Guru is a knowledge management system that facilitates continuity by ensuring the company’s knowledge is accessible by anyone on the team. 

Like Slack, Guru has a free plan for small teams. Its Builder plan, however, is the best choice for growing companies: In addition to the starter plan’s features, it comes with knowledge triggers, analytics, API access, and duplicate detection. Analytics can identify efficiencies, while duplicate detection keeps the database clean with minimal work by the team.

3. Communication: Slack

Slack is popular on teams of all sizes, but it has a special fan base among small businesses. Rather than fire emails back and forth, Slack lets you instantly message one or more members of your team. Its notification system is perfect for employees who carry a mobile device but can’t check their email throughout the day. 

For small teams, Slack offers a generous free plan. Consider stepping up to the standard one — which costs $6.67 per month — for access to your organization’s full messaging history and more integrations. 

4. Document management: Dropbox

While you may keep a few dusty flash drives in your desk drawer, there are reasons why most companies store their data online these days. Not only is it easier to just click “upload” and “download” than it is to carry around a storage device, but it’s practically impossible for data stored in the cloud to be lost. 

The gold standard in cloud document management is Dropbox. After the free trial, Dropbox starts at $15 per user per month for 5 TB of storage. Dropbox’s collaboration tools make it easy to securely share contracts, spreadsheets, image files, and more from anywhere. 

5. Social media management: Hootsuite

Social media is vital for small businesses. Managing it, however, can be a serious time-suck. Hootsuite lets you create and publish content across platforms from a single account. Its flagship service, scheduling, lets you keep the posts coming even when members of your team aren’t working.

Hootsuite does have a comparably high price point, so start with its Profesional plan, at $29 per month. If 10 social profiles and a single user aren’t sufficient, its Team edition — which costs $129 per month — doubles the number of profiles and triples the number of users allowed. 

6. Email marketing: Mailchimp

Like social media, email is a free and effective channel for small businesses trying to get the word out. Although email marketing is Mailchimp’s strong suit, it’s recently added related features, such as landing page optimization and digital ad development. 

Mailchimp’s free plan has a surprising array of features, including surveys, one-click automations, a CRM tool, and custom domain capabilities. For most small businesses, the free plan’s limiting factor is that it’s limited to 2,000 contacts. 

Why step up to Mailchimp’s essentials plan, which runs $9.99 per month? A/B testing and 24/7 support. Multivariate testing can make a big difference in your conversion rate, but it’s not the most intuitive process if you don’t have a marketing background.

7. Customer relationship management: HubSpot 

HubSpot may be an all-in-one tool, but it’s an awfully good one for small businesses. HubSpot has programs for everything from content management to sales support, but its CRM software is what it’s best known for.

No matter the size of your team or data volumes, HubSpot CRM is free. Use it to manage your contacts, send bulk emails to leads, and respond to customer support tickets more efficiently. HubSpot boasts more than 200 integrations, including Zoom, Google, Facebook, and Salesforce. 

8. Website development: WordPress

More than a third of websites run on WordPress. Why? Because it’s both powerful and code-free. Professionally designed themes make it easy to create a site for your small business that punches above its weight class. And thanks to its block-based system, everything from text to maps to reviews can be dragged and dropped into place. 

WordPress’s Premium plan is supposedly best for freelancers, but it’s also popular in the small business community. For $8 per month, the package comes with better design tools, Google Analytics support, and custom CSS. The Business plan adds custom plugins, 200 GB of storage, and live chat. 

9. Online payments: Square

Square is more than a payment portal. Small businesses use Square to accept payments in-person, online, by phone, and via an app. Square offers its point-of-sale app and reader hardware for free, with payments costing 2.6% of the total plus 10 cents. 

Square also has all sorts of peripheral features that benefit small businesses. Next-day transfers make moving funds between accounts easy, while end-to-end encryption and active fraud prevention provide peace of mind. 

Especially when you run a small business, staying on top of technology is tough. Do your research, and take advantage of free trials. Reevaluate semi-annually so you can eliminate any tools you aren’t using. Double down on those that save you time. Investing in your efficiency is never a bad idea. 

The post The 9 Best Small Business Software Tools of 2020 appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Digital transformation may pose new challenges to retailers, but it also represents the opportunity to enhance, improve, and streamline your retail operations to meet customer expectations and build long-term relationships. Here are five types of IoT Software designed for retailers to help pave the way for growth and innovation for your retail store with the help of continuity merchant services. 

A Tablet POS System

According to a 2020 report by Deloitte on retail industry trends, convenience continues to be a primary component of customer buying decisions. For many business owners it may make sense to run customer sales through a tablet instead of the traditional desktop. Tablet point of sale systems are easily downloadable and offer the same functionality as desktop POS systems. 

For example, this iPad point of sale system by Lightspeed provides greater mobility than a desktop and facilitates the purchase process by allowing staff to accompany customers on the floor and help them make faster purchases. Using this app eliminates the need for customers to stand in long queues to make a purchase.

The software also comes with an inventory management feature that can allow staff to: 

• Determine product availability. 
• Answer any questions the customer may have regarding the product.
• Make product recommendations. 

Utilizing a tablet POS system allows staff to provide a more convenient and personalized customer experience, which is pivotal for business growth.  

A Human Resource Management Software

As your retail business grows, you’ll need to hire more employees. You will also need to manage your employees in a way that ensures high job satisfaction and growth. One way to ease this burden on yourself is to invest in a human resource management software. For example, GoCo.io is a hiring tool that helps you recruit new hires and manage your staff efficiently. 

This tool also allows you to streamline the hiring process by integrating the best talents into your retail business to improve productivity. GoCo also enables easy onboarding of new employees by introducing them to key aspects of your retail operations. 

It helps you navigate important HR functions such as:

• Arranging for employee insurance.
• Tracking time spent on the job.
• Generating payroll.
• Managing leave and paid time off. 

A Retail Accounting Software

Another useful software for retailers is an accounting tool that allows you to integrate your POS system with the accounting system of your store. If you invest in the iPad POS system by Lightspeed mentioned above, they also have an accounting software that integrates with the iPad system, allowing you to optimize your accounting tasks on your tablet as well. 

A cursory look at Lightspeed Accounting reveals that it can be used to perform the following functions:

• Maintain records of transactions.
• Keep track of taxes and product discounts.
• Generate financial reports on store sales and number of customers.

A Team Communication Software

Communication is vital to running a retail store in a transparent and efficient manner. As a retailer, you’ll need to collaborate with a variety of individuals associated with your business. This includes your managers, on-floor employees, vendors, and more. 

While many retailers rely on messaging platforms such as WhatsApp or email to communicate with other parties, there are other tools that may serve your needs better. Slack, for example, is a team communication platform that serves as an effective hub for co-coordinating with your staff and other third-parties. It enables smooth internal communication and offers a variety of features such as:

• One-on-one chats.
• File sharing.
• Creating channels to manage a team or a project. 
• Connecting via calls. 

A Loyalty Program Software

Integrating loyalty programs into your online and in-store customer experience is imperative to building long-term customer relationships. One such software is Lightspeed Loyalty , which allows your customers to sign up for a point-based loyalty program and benefit from:

• Promotions.
• Coupons.
• One-time deals on special occasions.

This tool can also help you build personalized marketing campaigns based on customer insights. It allows you to connect with shoppers and provide them with relevant offers and product recommendations that complement their shopping habits. The 360-degree functionality of this tool makes it one of the best software for retailers.

In a Nutshell 

From a mobile point of sale system and accounting software to human resource tools and customer relationship management tools, technology presents an abundance of opportunities to retailers to innovate and optimize their business operations and provide their customers with the convenience they desire. 

The post What are the Best Software Solutions For Retailers? appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Think of leveraging big data like getting an X-ray at the dentist’s office. It’s an objective look at your company’s inner workings, indicating what is — and isn’t — functioning. The clearer and more comprehensive the image, the better prepared you’ll be to seize opportunities. 

With that said, big data is one of the most complex business domains. With limited time, which areas should you keep an eye on?

1. ETL

ETL — short for “extract, transform, and load” — is a process used to consolidate data from multiple sources into a single data warehouse. An ETL process “reads” data, shifts it to a format that’s easily analyzed, and stores it in your company’s own searchable data warehouse.

As data volumes grow, ETL will only become more important. Data formats will proliferate, making comparisons more difficult.

If you’re considering adopting an ETL tool this year, remember that integrations are key. If you use payment tools like Stripe, can your ETL tool extract that information? And if your team is short on tech talent, be sure your choice has Coding Solutions. 

2. Augmented Analytics

Many business intelligence tools capable of streamlining data collection and crunching numbers require a lot of manual input. However, Harvard Business Review’s analytics team sees a shift ahead: Data analysis tools are automating more parts of the process.

But the fewer steps handled by humans in a big data analytics operation, the better. By using machine learning to prepare data for sharing and set parameters, augmented analytics tools reduce the amount of time leaders have to invest. It also improves the quality of the insights they’re able to extract. 

3. Prescriptive Analytics

For years, businesses relied on advanced and predictive analytics to forecast areas like sales and expenses. But there’s a better way to get a look at what’s coming next: prescriptive analytics. 

Prescriptive analytics tools don’t just predict events that may happen; they offer suggestions on what to do. 

How do prescriptive analytics work? By using machine learning to play out likely scenarios, they help organizations make decisions on what to do in response. 

A prescriptive analytics tool might, for example, suggest tweaks to a blog post. By considering how similar posts have fared in terms of searches and social shares, a system might recommend changes to improve the content’s chances of going viral. 

4. Natural Language Processing

If you talk to Alexa, you’ve encountered natural language processing before. NLP is a form of artificial intelligence that helps computers understand and interpret human speech. And it’s the reason Alexa activates upon hearing your voice and reacts to your request.

In the business world, NLP algorithms power everything from chatbots to email filters to sentiment analysis tools. According to Gartner, half of analytical queries will be generated by NLP or search — or automation — by 2020. 

Expect NLP’s business applications to expand rapidly. As a result, companies will use it to pull insights from customer service call transcripts, answer FAQs, and autonomously handle administrative work. 

5. Edge Analytics 

By 2025, 64 billion Internet of Things devices will exist around the globe. To manage the troves of data they collect, companies will use edge analytics. 

Edge analytics differ from traditional analytics in one key way: They crunch the data within the sensor or device itself. They don’t wait for the data to be sent back to the cloud for analysis. This will be essential for self-optimizing IoT devices, particularly those with limited data connections.

Edge analytics will crop up in everything from oil derricks to jet engines. They’ll predict maintenance needs, provide machine-by-machine efficiency reports, and free up servers for other tasks. 

6. Artificial Intelligence as a Service

Artificial intelligence is far from new to many enterprise leaders. But for many small and midsize business leaders, developing AI technology internally is impossible or prohibitively expensive. 

For that reason, many AI experts expect an uptick in providers offering AI algorithms as a service. Domain-tailored algorithms, such as those for spotting sales opportunities, will emerge before models become more generally capable.

Big data technologies are amazingly capable already. And for small business leaders, they’ll only become more so. Automated and prescriptive analytics, along with the services and tools that go with them, will catapult companies of all sizes into the next industrial revolution which will allow the fabrics to operate commonly use machinery like industrial fans and more at a low cost.

The post 6 Big Business and Industrial Trends to Watch in 2020 appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

In the past five years, more than 14.7 billion records have been lost or stolen due to data breaches.

Deploy Strong Security Technology

Cyber security needs to be a top priority in any business handling sensitive data or personally identifiable data. Traditional security such as firewalls, anti-virus software, and intrusion protection provide a base level of protection, but it’s only the start. A layered security approach using real-time monitoring and alerting is critical.

Less than 5% of the data exposed in breaches over the past five years was encrypted. Encryption done by professional IT support teams dramatically decreases your exposure from both a technical and legal standpoint. Military-grade encryption can prevent the data from being read even if cyber criminals manage to breach your systems and get it, that’s why it’s important to have managed it. If you need a new software to help you manage your data, then consider using this free nosql database.

Breaches can occur when software hasn’t been patched or updated regularly. The breach at Equifax that exposed credit card records happened when attackers exploited a known flaw in the company’s Apache-Struts web application software. The breach happened months after the software manufacturer reported the problem and offered a patch. Equifax hadn’t gotten around to installing it. If they had, the breach likely would never have happened. There are many things that you can check at melodyeotvos.

You need constant monitoring for intrusions and unusual activity.

Train Employees on Security

According to New Jersey IT services, 93% of data breaches begin with phishing attempts. Cyber criminals send legitimate-looking emails in an attempt to obtain login credentials, passwords, and sensitive information. While software solutions can help filter email phishing attempts, employees need to be trained to recognize them to avoid falling victim. You can have the best security systems, but if an employee gives up their login and password, cyber thieves may be able to bypass your security.

Your employees are your weakest links. Cloud-based storage, mobile devices, and more employees mixing company-owned and personal devices for business open up more potential access points. Employees need to know how to detect threats and avoid data leakage by using tools like ExpressVPN when connecting to any unsecured WiFi location. This can even be a threat when working from home while using some TV apps like kodi on firestick without first connecting to a VPN tool to encrypt their connection. Hackers have been known to access home networks this way.

Companies should have clearly defined security policies.

Maintain Strict Compliance

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) governs security protocols and standards for anyone handling credit card information, including use and access. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulates access to personally-identifiable health and medical records.  Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) deals with controls on financial data by corporations.

There may be additional standards within your particular industry. Compliance may include security measures and reporting, but each sets measurable standards for protection, for this, we highly recommend using it consulting services.

Pay Attention To Emerging Regulations

“Security breaches are bad enough, especially if your company handles patient information. Handling of this data is regulated by the federal government, so to avoid them you should trust this data to Medical Coding Solutions help to prevent breaches of sensitive information. New privacy laws are increasing the responsibilities for data protection and increasing the penalties for when breaches happen. In some cases, they mandate pro-active actions you must take to ensure security and actions you must take immediately on discovery of a breach.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) enacted in the European Union impact companies located in the EU as well as companies doing business with EU residents. Several U.S. companies have already been fined for failing to comply with strict regulations on privacy and data protection.

California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) provides additional consumer protection and privacy rights. It takes effect in 2020.

New legislation is being proposed regularly that makes the penalties for non-compliance high and may affect your IT policies, procedures, and staffing.

Conduct Security Audits

According to New Jersey IT support, it’s important to regularly stress tests your systems. At a minimum, you should conduct security audits to make sure you are maintaining your established level of protection. Many companies conduct penetration tests with outside agencies to find weaknesses in their security.

Other companies use security audits in their training by identifying weaknesses and putting their team through the paces to identify and fix security threats while managing the business impact.

Develop A Disaster Response Plan

Every company that handles sensitive data or personally identifiable data needs to have a pre-established data breach response plan as per the experts on managed it services over the world. Roles and responsibilities should be spelled out in case you ever have to manage a breach.

It should include all levels of company management and not just IT professionals. In addition to repairing the damage to your systems, you also need people that will be responsible for managing your company’s reputation and business impacts.

This plan may be part of complying with regulations. It’s part of the GDPR, which has formal procedures you will need to enact within 72 hours of detecting a breach. This includes notifying the appropriate government authorities and informing all of those affected.

The post IT Management Best Practices to Protect Your Business from Data Breaches appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

More than that, Forbes reports that positive employee engagement leads to:

• 21% greater profitability
• 41% reduction in absenteeism
• 59% less turnover
• Employees who feel like they’re really heard are 4.6 times more likely to feel empowered.

Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash

However, we have to weigh all of these positives with a few negatives: 

• 90% of managers understand how important employee engagement is
• 50% of managers know how to address this 
• 13% of employees consider themselves “highly engaged”
• 61% of employees feel burned out on the job
• Disengaged employees cost companies in the United States up to $550 billion a year.

You’re probably thinking, with statistics like this, how can you ever maintain employee engagement at your company? Seeing as how this is the 21st century, the answer is digital focused of course – an employee engagement app. Connecteam is a perfect employee engagement app for small businesses, desk-less and remote employees, and Enterprise companies. 

An employee engagement app allows you to manage engagement in the palm of your hand. In real time, you can change the narrative and be exactly where your employees are through a no-code mobile app. Now, there are some key features the app must include in order for your methods to be effective, we list the seven must-haves in your employee engagement app below. 

7 Must-Haves for Your Employee Engagement App

1. Interface can be customized. 

Branding is a must and that logic applies to your employee engagement app. Why? Because whenever you’re sharing something to boost engagement, branding makes it easy to bring your team together and helps them feel like they’re a genuine part of your company culture. 

Most engagement apps allow you to customize almost every feature – from the color to the logo and so on. Branding your employee engagement app creates a team-oriented environment (the same way a company uniform does) which energizes everyone to work towards achieving the goals of the company.

2. Easy access to updates (news, announcements, etc.) 

In today’s fast paced society, things change in the blink of an eye, therefore communication is key. An employee engagement app is the perfect tool to deliver updates, as it’s possible in the click of a button, all news, policy changes, hirings and firings, promotions, and so on need to be distributed to your employees. 

Most apps allow you to add video, photos, GIFs and more to boost interaction and interest. Additionally, it should be easy for employees to like and comment on the updates you send as this helps promote internal engagement among staff. Whatever you need to share is possible in the tap of a button.

3. Private and group chat. 

With the ease of instant messaging, the same is possible on your employee engagement app because sometimes face-to-face communication just isn’t possible. Sending a private or group chat is more personal, doesn’t get lost in the email chain and doesn’t waste time like phone calls do.

The ability to instantly send a message turns your app into a one-stop shop for communication. It becomes that much easier for employees to ask each other questions, whether it’s about a project collaboration or the best route to work since the main road is closed. Employees can congratulate one another on birthdays, anniversaries, employee of the month winners, milestones achieved and more. If employees are scattered around the globe, they can chat via video and are just plugged at all times so everyone is always on the same page. 

Photo by Yura Fresh on Unsplash

4. Feedback! 

Are you only asking for feedback during an annual review? Then chances are, you’re missing out on some serious engagement with your employees. Involve your employees more – ask them for their opinion about what color to repaint the office, which new product name they like best, what’s their job satisfaction, what were their feelings on the latest company outing and so on. No one said feedback only had to be about job performance. 

When you involve your employees on company decisions, and no they don’t need to be groundbreaking decision, they feel more connected to the company culture and will be far more engaged and productive. An employee engagement app keeps your hand on the pulse of what an employee is thinking and feeling – ask them about their overall happiness and about specific matters like policies or projects – use the survey feature, or suggestion box feature, to be in tune with what your employees needs and wants are.

5. Incentives.

Having incentives in the workplace is a great way to motivate your employees, promote teamwork, boost morale, and encourages better customer service. There’s a reason people sign up for rewards programs at Starbucks or Target, we all love free things. And free things in the workplace are no different. 

Use the employee engagement app to offer incentives, such as: 

• Gifts – coffee mug, movie tickets or Netflix subscription, etc. 
• Discounts on company swag
• Company outings or trips
• Badges for completing training modules

Incentives can serve as a daily driver for your employees and just like that, the app becomes another part of the daily routine. And if that’s not enough, 89% of employees who work at companies that support well-being initiatives are far more likely to recommend their company to friends, family and the general public as a good place to work.

6. Professional skill development. 

When training is done and professional skills grow because of digital training, you’re already a step ahead. This kind of interactive learning helps your employees retain more information rather than reading through a manual.

Create modules that push employees to test their knowledge (actually include a quiz or fun multiple choice options) and look into activities to boost training (like a virtual scavenger hunt). Include videos and helpful photos to build skills and training – it’s a lot cheaper, saves a ton of time and lets employees complete training at their own pace. 

7. Actionable data. 

As an admin, you have a clear picture of what’s happening with your employee engagement app. See who is reading your message and for those who aren’t, send a push notification. Know which surveys get the most response and which don’t. Learn what your employees are happy about and what they want more of. Everything is right there for you to digest and to take action on.

Employe engagement is a must if you want to be successful and we know that’s more of a rhetorical statement. We’ve gone through the facts and statistics, listed the best employee engagement app in the market, and have included a list of seven must-have features – it’s up to you now. Choose the right app for your employees and business, only then can you take employee engagement to the next level. 

The post 7 Must-Haves for Your Employee Engagement App appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Below are hints to assist you in how much you’ll need to finance your app project.

Setting up a budget for specific costs

Unless you have a specific development team who has a chart breakdown, it’s best to create your own. App costs can range from $10,000 for offline standalone apps to $500,000 or more for enterprise apps. Hence, your budget should be flexible for the type of app you want. You might want to allocate about 60 percent for development and quality assurance (QA) and 15 percent for project management. Set aside about 15 percent for user interfaces (UI) and user experiences (UX) and 10 percent for business analytics.

Allocating enough money for labor costs, coding and UI/UX

Your materials and labor costs are primary expenses with app development. Labor rates can vary depending on the development team you hire. If you can, find developers and designers under the same parent company to lower costs. Ensure they are familiar with the app preference you want and that they work on that type of UI/UX. Depending on your app features, your labor costs might be high and you might have a large team. You may need business analysts, backend developers and UI/UX engineers. You will also have a project manager, mobile developers and a QA engineer. Projected costs might range from $2,000 – $60,000. Once you have your app set up, you might want to use Apica Systems to make sure it is running smoothly.

Including project management and business analysis costs

To help with market analysis, research and documentation, you’ll need about $1,200 – $11,000. You also have to determine if your app will run on iOS, Android or both. Consider where your target audience is when making your choice. With your project management, set aside $1,200 – $12,000 depending on your app features. Your PM can help with account management, business analysis, QA and concepts. They’re also there to assist with digital project management and design.

Adding in expenses for maintenance and updates and specific app related costs

Another area to set aside money is for covering maintenance and updates. Depending on if you use iOS or Android, maintenance might run anywhere from $10,000 – $14,000 every year. There are additional costs you should factor in.

These might include:

• Server components that will work with your mobile app through APIs. These might cost between $6,500 – $30,000.

• Any features you offer with the app like navigation, OCR, QR codes or integrated payments. These can run about $3,000 for a single feature.

• Analytics that you include to gauge revenue, user payments, user characteristics or user actions. These can add on another $2,500.

• Adding in third-party chats from software development kits (SDKs). These can cost $2,500. If you use custom chat modules, these might run $15,000 or higher.

While app costs can vary, having a budget can help. Hire the best developers and designers and look for ways to calculate app design costs. That way you can allocate money where you need it to ensure the success of your app project.

The post How Much Does it Cost to Create an App? appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

This quest eventually resulted in the emergence of the Lean methodology. Now, continuous integration (CI) is the methodology that’s emerging as a champion among DevOps teams. The method encompasses developers working on a small piece of code and pushing them to market as deliverable as soon as they’re complete.

What Is Continuous Integration?

Historically, programmers toiled away in seclusion, working on large chunks of code and adding their work to the central repository once they’ve completed their task. The method made it much more challenging to merge substantial changes into the main program. Even worse, the code typically contained many bugs that weren’t apparent until the programmer merged the new work with the main project.

In the broadest definition, CI is the routine integration of small changes in code into a primary repository. Using the method, developers test code early, frequently and often.

Continuous integration does not eliminate bugs. However, it does help programmers find them remarkably faster. Also, with a CI pipeline in place, developers can produce deliverables quickly.

Making the Case for Continuous Integration

Using continuous integration methodology, software developers endlessly process, test and upload changes and code additions. Programmers save their work in a central repository that’s accessible to all team members. This way, all personnel have access to the latest version of code. By centralizing the storing and sharing of code, software development firms reduce the common errors that occur when many team members work on different versions of the same product.

Continuous integration is the first half of the continuous delivery cycle. By combining continuous integration with continuous delivery (CD) programmers streamline overall workflow, enabling them to deliver high-quality updates and programs faster. Enterprises that deploy both continuous integration and continuous delivery enjoy notable improvements in performance.

The CI/CD pipeline enables developers to quickly create business solutions that empower employees to meet corporate goals. The methodology ensures the release of reliable, top-notch software. Furthermore, the CI/CD pipeline reduces costs, labor, errors, outages and downtime.

Companies that deploy continuous integration and delivery can leverage the increased functionality of the method to deliver enhanced products and services. Resultantly, these firms gain an advantage in a highly competitive market.

Continuous Integration in Action

On a typical day at a software development firm that leverages the CI/CD pipeline, a developer might write a new feature or fix a bug, then push the updated code to the centralized repository. The repository would then run an automated integration test and notify stakeholders if there are any bugs or other quality concerns. As Jeremiah Small, Director of Engineering at Soliant Consulting, points out, “This empowers the development team to identify and fix bugs more quickly, because the changes tend to be more incremental and less complex than they would be with less frequent integration.”

After the review, and a final sign off by programmers, the code would move to the central repository. Meanwhile, feature development and bug fixes will continue. This process will repeat several times a day.

The CI/CD pipeline is especially beneficial for large teams. The method makes the most of many programmers working on small tasks. The difference is that all changes remain in sync. CI/CD methodology delivers on the concept of large teams working together to achieve a common goal.

Continuous integration/continuous delivery is an effective method for creating both internal and external resources. Companies of all sizes can benefit by embracing the philosophy.

A CI/CD pipeline can give any firm the ability to move nimbly and quickly while delivering high-quality goods and services. Today, continuous integration and continuous delivery are the latest tools that forward-thinking leaders use to outdo the competition.

The post Why So Many Businesses Are Implementing Continuous Integration appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

The best and brightest don’t let themselves get bogged down in admin tasks like reading and answering emails or scheduling meetings. They put technology to work for them and automate the tasks that eat away at precious minutes that could be better spent.

What’s their secret? Having the right tools.

By using software to automate tedious tasks that don’t directly impact their bottom line, they can focus more on closing more deals.

Here are five tools you can use to help you be more productive and become a sales superstar.

  Automation Apps to Increase Productivity

  1. Docusign

Getting everyone together to sign a contract can be difficult. When multiple people need to review and sign documents to start work, Docusign makes it easy. Simply create and upload your documents, then send to everyone that needs to review and sign. Esignatures are legally binding, and everyone gets a signed copy when the process is complete. Integrates with popular software including Salesforce and Google.

  2. Calendly

Tired of the back-and-forth when trying to schedule meetings with a prospect? Calendly lets you provide a link to make scheduling a breeze. Your potential client or client can pick a time from the open slots and include relevant details. Integrates with various calendar apps so no one misses an appointment.

  3. Mixmax

Email makes it easy to stay in touch, but keeping up with it can be impossible. Mixmax is a Gmail-based productivity tool that allows you to outsmart your quota by enhancing, automating, personalizing the email communications required to build your sales pipeline.

Features include:

• Email Tracking: Check and see when and who opens your emails.

• One-Click Scheduling: Share availability instantly.

• Automated Follow-ups: Create templates and automated drip campaigns.

• CRM Integrations: Update information instantly in Salesforce and LinkedIn SalesNavigator.

• Workflow: Automate manual tasks that take away your focus from engaging customers.

  4. IFTTT

IFTTT is automation software on steroids. The best part? It’s free! Your imagination is the only limit to what IFTTT can do. The software uses “recipes” to automate tasks and connect your apps and devices.

Though the learning curve is steep, once you understand how to create your own recipes you can automate everything from work to pizza delivery.

Sample recipes for sales pros include:

• Add new Google Contacts to a Google Sheet to track sales leads

• Get a text when an opportunity is closed and won in Salesforce

• Mute your android phone ringtone at a certain time of the day

  5. RescueTime

We all have the same amount of hours in the day. It’s how we use them that makes the difference. While not technically an automation tool, RescueTime automatically tracks how you spend your time on your phone and computer throughout the day. Once you know where your day is going, you can make a plan to cut out those tasks which are eating into your productivity.

  Take Back Your Time With These Tools

Your productivity (or lack of) is on you. By using the tools mentioned above, you’ll be able to save time on email, paperwork, and everything in between.

Start by learning where you’re wasting the most time. Then give these tools a spin and you’ll find out just how easy it is to squeeze value out of every moment of the day.

The post 5 Automation Tools That Will Improve Office Productivity appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Google has adapted to the changing marketplace, pivoting to smartphones with its Android OS and creating a paid-media advertising duopoly with Facebook. And just like Apple, Netflix, Amazon, and Facebook, Google has a target painted on its back in terms of attracting jealousy and criticism — these monster brands are hard to compete with.

But we’re never worried that their core business models are in danger. Facebook, despite data uncertainty, has built a massively successful and influential business. It’s even achieved market segmentation via acquisitions, with Instagram attracting younger users and Facebook remaining a mainstay for users approaching middle age.

Likewise, Apple, 12 years after the iPhone’s debut, still sets the standard. Even if it loses a small audience share to Android phones, there’s no real cause for concern. Amazon is in the same boat, never concerned with immediate success. It delays its own gratification to ensure customers are happy, knowing it will eventually gain market share. Achieving market penetration through Amazon Prime, Amazon Web Services, and more, the company has worked to make sure it’s indispensable in various aspects of customers’ daily lives.

But we have started to see a little chink in Netflix’s impenetrable armor. The brand is winning awards and defining pop culture, but its free-spending days of even a couple years ago are over. Canceling Marvel shows may have surprised some, and Disney will be a formidable competitor. But more interesting shifts come with moves like the cancellation of newer originals such as “One Day at a Time.”

Netflix isn’t going anywhere. But with strong competitors joining its space and a growing recognition that it can’t simply buy every show viewers want the platform to host, the brand is looking at a shifting landscape. What if Hulu, Amazon, or Disney buys the rights to air NFL games? Those TV rights, up in three years, could drastically change the streaming marketplace. Visit our website and find best 32 inch smart tvs reviews

And that’s the point: We get comfortable and accept that companies will always keep their place in the hierarchy forever. We even do this in the tech sector, an industry built on the idea that nothing stays the same — or should. By no means do these brands appear likely to join the ranks of Kodak or Blockbuster, but it’s important to consider the changes that aren’t visible yet — but are right below the surface.

Analytics

And that brings us back to Google: While the brand continues to innovate, its core revenue-generating model doesn’t address analytics or voice, two areas ripe for growth in the coming years.

Right now, Google is focused on acquisition analytics. Nearly 90 percent of Google’s revenue comes from advertising. Google Analytics 360 falls under the DoubleClick team, so it’s heavily tied to its advertising business; that’s a model that has worked well.

Google Analytics is general and familiar; most importantly, it works. But companies like Adobe are giving Google some competition. Adobe is sometimes considered the company that runs on Photoshop; however, its stock was up 29 percent in 2018, capping 15 straight positive quarters.

Adobe is aiming at the analytics market, especially with large enterprises, an area where free analytics platforms typically don’t scale. Another analytics area where Adobe hopes to make an impact: tracking. Brands need a larger picture beyond how and when to acquire a customer. Adobe’s innovative product focuses on data integration and analytics across the entire customer journey, allowing brands to map out how they’ll create experiences to attract their customers, not merely how they’ll create an ad.

Voice

Voice is an even more visible point of potential trouble for Google, but it’s one the brand is already looking to combat. If voice search someday overtakes the search engine’s text search functionality — or dips into it significantly — Google will be left without one of its main sources of revenue.

This is why Google has done a smart job of creating Google Home and staking its claim in the smart speaker market — and also adapting that to home video. It’s also made some of its properties — Gmail, Chrome, YouTube — staples that people utilize on a daily basis. That opens Google up to pivots that may become necessary if voice search gains increased momentum alongside mobile use. With 27 percent already using voice search, it’s not a far-fetched possibility.

As long as Google can grab a significant portion of the smart home market, the brand will be able to tie its other services together, creating a bundled offering — and ensuring consumers don’t have a reason to use any other suite of services. By diversifying its portfolio, Google is working to assure its success, despite looming threats.

Needless to say, the next five years will be fascinating. If history truly is deemed to repeat itself, one of these five behemoth companies may not hold the same position by 2024. But it’s up to competitors to push these brands — and their industries — to the cutting edge.

The post Technology Moves Fast — Will It Ever Outpace Behemoth Tech Brands? appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Enter microlearning – a new way of learning that brings the employee education approach into the 21^st century.

What Is Microlearning?

While day-long classroom-style lectures and lengthy PowerPoint presentations worked in the past, microlearning is a new form of employee education that accommodates the generational shift in the workforce and the decrease in attention span due to how quickly we can gather information. It is defined as a teaching technique that delivers content in small bursts, presenting only the most important information in a way that is comprehensible and easily retainable.

Why Does Your Company Need It?

As technology continues to be a driver in our culture, the way individuals have grown accustomed to sourcing information has changed. As a result, so has the workplace culture. We turn to quick searches on the Internet, and within a few seconds, find the answers we are looking for. It’s time to integrate that instant gratification mindset into the way we work with employees.

Not to mention, the U.S. workforce is made up of 35 percent of Millennials, making them the largest generation that is a part of our country’s labor force. This group of tech-savvy individuals is leading this company culture shift. As they steer our companies into an unprecedented future, it’s our responsibility to adapt and adopt their style of learning. It will all come down to finding new ways to keep them engaged in their employee education as they set the framework for their success.

How Does It Work?

The concept of microlearning is simple. It consists of short, interactive videos – maximum 10-15 minutes each – focusing on specific goals that are relevant to an employees’ day-to-day tasks. With microlearning, the quick spurts of information can be immediately applied rather than going unused and eventually forgotten. By sharing pertinent information just in time, rather than just in case, companies can increase employee performance at an exceptional rate.

Is It Really Successful?

This form of education has proven to produce rapid results when training employees. Take Alorica as an example – the largest customer service provider in North America.

While managing millions of customer prescriptions for a major retail pharmacy provider, Alorica experienced a decline in prescription fulfillment compliance, which is a huge issue. In search of a new learning strategy to mitigate the problem, Alorica championed the concept of microlearning. Brief, animated videos set on clear-cut goals assisted agents with understanding the importance of customer verification, and in turn helped close a gap to not only meet, but exceed client expectations. I am 59 and have been taking Cialis (generic) with great success. And it works already after 30 minutes. I pay for 30 pieces only $ 64.55 which I consider a good price.

Results showed that pilot sites using the method greatly outperformed sites using traditional retraining methods. About two months into the program, the pharmacy provider saw a 62 percent improvement in compliance; where agents were retaining up to 20 percent more information.

Authored By:

Irene Tan, Learning & Development Sr. Director at Alorica

Irene Tan is a Learning & Development Sr. Director at Alorica. With more than 15 years of experience, she has held various roles within the Company in Operations, Human Resources and Training. Prior to Alorica, Irene was a Global HR Senior Leader at Dunham-Bush, Inc., where she oversaw the holding group of the company along with eight regional offices worldwide. Previously, Irene was one of the pioneers of PeopleSupport, Inc. (now Teleperformance), where she grew an Operations team of nearly 1,000 employees across multiple sites and helped launch the company’s first center in Latin America.

The post How Updating Training Protocol can Lead to Increased Employee Engagement appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

The widespread proliferation of cloud-based services has made them almost ubiquitous in the technology world, with all but the largest of businesses electing to take advantage of off-site infrastructure and software rather than managing them in-house. While cloud computing offers significant advantages over traditional services provided on-site, it’s also easy for companies to find themselves paying for services they don’t actually need or that could be managed internally for less cost.

Security is once again in the forefront of every CEOs mind (though it should have never left!), and the crippling vulnerabilities found at the beginning of 2018 should highlight just how critical strong patch deployment and quick response time is in the world of asset management. Software and hardware vulnerabilities aren’t anything new, but we need a constant reminder of how to deal with these issues when they arise.

Many companies have started putting ITAM at the very forefront of their IT doctrine. This shift in focus demands internal change and restructuring to provide administrators with the tools and personnel they need to be successful. Without the support and backing of senior management, performance driven ITAM becomes an unreachable goal that can increase costs, chew through resources, and cause headaches for all involved.

Taking a look at these three components to success in 2019 will help you be better prepared for next year’s advancement.

Head Stuck in the Cloud

 Let’s be real: cloud services have transformed the way we view traditional technology infrastructure. Taking all the hardware, software, and personnel from a buzzing, dimly lit server room and depositing it a thousand miles away for someone else to deal with has been a revolutionary way to cut costs, increase efficiency, and open new avenues for businesses to expand their operations.

The sublime nature of cloud services is a huge contributing factor in why businesses may find themselves in the unenviable position of having way, way more cloud licenses than they need, and they probably don’t even know it. “We can run all of our software from a datacenter in Las Vegas!” sounds really great from a management standpoint, but isn’t always necessary for day-to-day operations. Not every service and piece of infrastructure needs to be offloaded to someone else. That responsibility can often be handled internally for less cost.

That’s not to knock IaaS or SaaS in any way, but in 2019 it’s good to take a step back and look at the big picture if you’re utilizing a large number of cloud services. Are you really getting value out of your cloud licenses? All of them? What can you do on your own that’s being handled by another company right now? These are common resource questions that simply don’t get asked once a cloud service agreement has been put in place. Reevaluating just how much bang for your buck you’re getting from the cloud will be a big part of looking at your activities next year.

We’re Having a Meltdown!

 With terrifying names like Spectre and Meltdown, two critical hardware based vulnerabilities that could affect operating systems at the kernel level gave IT a swift kick in the rear this year. It’s important to realize these security breaches are just as horrifying as their bond-esque names imply; both Spectre and Meltdown represented one of the single largest security breaches in the history of computing. The patch required to fix these issues was so significant that is reduced CPU performance for every affected system, in some cases by huge amounts. Rapid patch deployment was crucial, as data and secure information access was essentially laid out on the table for anyone to see.

Take the time to analyze how ITAM can help improve security and threat response time. This isn’t the first and it won’t be the last major vulnerability to pop up in the near future. Asset management plays a critical role in ensuring newly found security problems are quickly addressed on a company-wide scale. Whether it’s using CMDB software to keep accurate patch histories across all your devices, or having a step-by-step playbook for immediate response and deployment after a critical vulnerability is found, Spectre and Meltdown have reinforced just how important the marrying of security and asset management needs to be to businesses that care about their data.

Let’s Get (Re)Organized

Over the last decade, many organizations have come to realize the inherent value in having a well-organized technical department. For anyone who hasn’t gone through any major structural changes recently, it may be time to start pushing for more support and freedom. The fluidity needed for IT departments to tackle current issues should be a priority for every business, and giving IT departments the power to manage and direct themselves in a way that’s conducive to quick response and adaptation has enormous potential benefits.

If you haven’t already, getting senior management behind structural and procedural changes to better empower your IT department should be a top priority in 2019. It can be difficult to sell the cost effectiveness of such a move, but the value of your IT department should have already made itself known by now. Getting additional tools to improve efficiency and performance will sell itself ten times over the next time a major update goes through without service interruption.

Always Evaluate!

After going over these topics, it should be apparent that the trend in 2019 will be pushing IT as a priority in every business, and attaining all the tools needed to perform while keeping costs low.

How does your organization view 2019? Will you be making any major changes to the way you operate? Continuing to evaluate how technology works with and for your company will always be the most important thing to look out for each year.

The post Prepping for 2019: Three Things to Consider For Next Year appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Build better websites

Many technology professionals would be shocked to know that nearly half of U.S. small business don’t have a website. Of those with business websites, there is a lot of variety in the sophistication levels of the website and the satisfactions levels of the entrepreneurs they belong to. With the help of responsive design and working capital, you can build a website that looks good and is fully functional on a phone, tablet and traditional desktop computer.

Make better business decisions

Entrepreneurs have to make a lot of tough decisions and solve endless problems. AI can act as your advisor sorting through the piles of data produced by your business, and offer insights. Technology can expedite business decisions, such as whether or not you should adopt a new technology or enter a market. There are countless inexpensive tech hacks to reach new customers and make better business decisions.

Deliver personalized customer experiences

In order to deliver the best experiences, it’s vital to make your store more customer-friendly. Utilize technology to help you – businesses can lean on a form of Artificial Intelligence called machine learning. It takes past experiences and uses them to generate more personalized and relevant experiences for the customer. Personalized experiences are very, very important for small businesses that are known for providing customers with a more personal touch. In-house machine learning necessitates a large amount of data that many small businesses lack, but third party tools make it possible for even the smallest businesses to capitalize on the technology.

Utilize a virtual assistant

AI-powered personal assistants will work for you, doing everything from managing your calendar to scheduling your meetings. Virtual assistants are highly helpful for solopreneurs or business owners who aren’t ready to hire more people but are short on time. More business professionals are opening up to the idea of AI as the benefits become apparent. A recent survey by Forrester shows that more than 50 percent of businesses and technology professionals were thinking about implementing AI.

If you’re pondering adopting technology for your business, remember the ways your business will benefit. Think about the ROI you’d expect to merit and the costs associated with it. Look at how your business will stand out by having the ability to offer your customers niche products. In a world that is growing more automated by the minute, customers will always crave that personal touch only small businesses can offer.

The post 4 Ways Small Businesses Can Adopt Technology appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

With the introduction of new AI technology such as the fracking lagoon aeration tools, NetSuite ensures customers can leverage a unified business platform to enhance the improvement of multiple operations located across the globe. Localized product support helps subsidiaries located in countries such as France, Brazil, and Germany perform consistent operational processes, while supporting global compliance.

Executive Vice President for Oracle NetSuite, Jim McGeever, said during a conference call “With ever-changing regulations and evolving customer expectations, it is getting harder for businesses to drive growth both locally and internationally. With new native localizations and customer support, we are giving our customers a complete solution with language, currency, tax compliance and local support teams in six of the world’s biggest and fastest growing economies.”

NetSuite Technologies Easy to Launch and Manage

NetSuite has developed a technology platform that allows small businesses to implement high tech programs in less time, which increases business productivity and enhances customer service. By leveraging the experience acquired from initiating thousands of eCommerce platforms, SuiteSuccess gives small businesses the tool to match larger companies in terms of producing comprehensive business to consumer and business to business eCommerce KPIs, reports, and dashboards within 30 days of launch.

Small business owners get to use drag and drop management tools that do not require extensive training to master. The tools quickly perform edits and organize content into a wide variety of categories. The self-management tools help business operators quickly modify the appearance of their eCommerce websites, without requiring the expertise of an accomplished web developer. Customers of NetSuite smart business applications have the capability to perform a large number of operations scheduled to deploy well into the future.

NetSuite Helps Hint Grow into a Multi-Million Dollar Company

Although not quite a rags to riches story, San Francisco-based Hint has a story that would make Horatio Alger proud. The creator of unsweetened, fruit flavored water has morphed from a small family run business into a multi-million dollar juggernaut. Hint partnered with NetSuite about 10 years ago and the amazing growth shows no signs of slowing down. As the founder and owner of the business shoots for sales of one billion dollars per year, NetSuite applications will help the former mom and pop business compete against large corporations that dominate the flavored bottle water market.

Hint’s modest start was inspired by Kara Goldin, who as a San Francisco Bay native embarked on a personal health journey that involved eliminating a 10 can per day Diet Coke habit. Goldin’s vision was to make water more appealing by adding different types of fruit to pitchers of water. Rave reviews from friends and family members prompted Goldin to see if bottled fruit flavored water could make an impact in the beverage market. After pitching the idea to Whole Foods, Goldin delivered 10 cases of her masterpiece.

The 10 cases sold out within 24 hours.

Six months later, Whole Foods devoted a section of the beverage aisle for stocking bottled water produced by Goldin’s new business, Hint. Soon thereafter, Goldin hired NetSuite to incorporate technologies that would support rapid growth.

As a long time former executive of AOL, Goldin summed up her business vision during a recent interview. “I didn’t set out to launch a beverage company, but as I learned more about the options available to consumers, I realized that it was time to shake things up,” said Goldin. “The market was ready, but it was still dominated by centuries-old stalwarts. To have our voice heard in such a crowded space, we needed to couple all of our startup energy and enthusiasm with business processes that allowed us to operate like a much larger firm. NetSuite has given us a platform to grow our business so that we can focus on delighting our customers.”

NetSuite Helps Small Businesses Incorporate AI

The Hint success story offers just a glimpse into the powerful impact NetSuite applications have made on small businesses. Small business owners can no longer afford to depend on applications that look backward for data. Standard business intelligence (BI) does not pass the test for growing a small business and adapting to rapidly changing customer dynamics. NetSuite works with small businesses to implement NetSuite OpenAir Solutions that provide real time data.  By integrating advanced machine learning and multi-layered data science under the technical umbrella of a unified cloud suite, small businesses have the tools to analyze data and make quick decisions.

R “Ray” Wang, who is the founder and principal analyst at Constellation Research said, “A future where AI drives new business models is quickly becoming the present. Having business applications that can deliver predictive, prescriptive and automated outcomes is going to be an imperative for businesses that want to grow and succeed in the years to come.”

NetSuite’s revolutionary AI and machine learning technologies ensure small businesses have improved insights by using automated data analysis processes to decide the most efficient courses of action. The intelligence cloud suite helps small businesses rapidly grow by allowing users throughout expanding organizations to benefit from new technologies.

The post Wrapping up SuiteWorld 2018: NetSuite Announces Hint Water Growth and AI Technology Advances appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Advancements in Big Data – or the analysis of customer behaviors online and off – and automation technology are making it easier than ever before for marketers to connect and engage with their audiences. By following the customer journey more closely, and in real-time, marketers can deliver better options that are personalized and relevant. Understand the basics of a customer profile is just the starting point; marketers must understand the nuances of that customer during the buying journey.

To accomplish this, marketing teams need to leverage a variety of technology solutions along with streamlined workflow management. Speed is the name of the game and the strategies below will help you get there.

Chatbots

Offering Insurance Carrier Automation Solutions to customers is important but often costly when it comes to manpower. Using chatbot technology, though, cuts costs while helping customers find quick answers.

Chatbot technology analyzes patterns and word choices of consumers to help find immediate solutions. Chatbots can provide links, give answers to frequently asked questions and even file support tickets if more action is needed. Instead of consumers searching for an email address, then waiting a day or two for a response, chatbots can give immediate answers to common questions.

Consumers like transparency, so when chatbots are implemented, it’s best to let people know that they are interacting with an automated system right off the bat. Chatbot software like SecondEgo communicates with website visitors in real-time. The software uses artificial intelligence to get smarter over time based on data you provide and how people interact with it.

Real-Time Decision Making

Marketers are always looking for ways to speed up the data analysis time so decisions can be made quickly. Data analysis is only part of the picture. Streamlining communication and automating workflows free up team members to focus on optimizing campaigns. The faster marketing teams can make adjustments to campaigns the more revenue they can generate with lower expenses.

Project management solutions like Wrike allow marketing teams to create systematic workflows that speed up communications between team members on specific tasks and create a shared knowledge base for quickly accessing information. Wrike even uses artificial intelligence to automate repeatable tasks that intelligently suggest next steps and notify managers if there’s a possible project delay.

Suggested Items

Having brands suggest items you may like is nothing new – consider the “you may also like” product suggestions that Amazon has been offering post-sale for over a decade. What’s changing is the ability to suggest items across several sites and channels through secure computer software platforms. The right tracking and AI platform can follow customers from one online location to another, and remind them of what they liked on your brand’s site or social media platform. This type of tracking and marketing can also tell you what people are doing after they leave your site, like heading to competitor sites or looking up reviews on your brand.

When marketers better understand consumer behavior, they can better deliver personalized messaging that results in higher return. Big Data and AI benefit both brands and customers by providing custom information.

The post How Big Data and Automation are Giving Marketers Real-Time Solutions appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

What time-saving technology would you recommend to any entrepreneur?

These answers are provided by Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. YEC has also launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

1. Zapier + IFTTT

With Zapier, I have moved my to-do list from my inbox. Email is meant for communication, but far too often it winds up as a to-do list. Every time I star an email, I have it run through Zapier and add to a to-do backlog. When I have a new meeting scheduled, Zapier adds it to my to-do list for tomorrow, 24 hours in advance. This helps me use one to-do list that is built from multiple technologies. – Michael Averto, ChannelApe

The post 14 Entrepreneurs Share Their Favorite Time-Saving Tech Tools appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

These answers are provided by Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. YEC has also launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

1. Cities

Major cities in the U.S., such as Boston, have already started planning for internet of things implementation. Everything ranging from street lights and parking meters, to sewage grates and sprinkler systems will be connected to the internet and interlinked. These will be huge breakthroughs in terms of saving energy and money. – Karl Kangur, MRR Media

2. Healthcare

Our healthcare system is slow, inefficient, and sometimes prone to error, yet it relies on many things that could be effectively automated and improved with technology. Telemedicine will be big, and so will additional technology to support operations such as record keeping, sharing reports across multiple locations, and dispensing antiviral medications. – Jessica Gonzalez, InCharged

3. Smart Body Analyzers

I could see these making a much bigger impact in 2018. Advances in devices that monitor oxygen levels, blood pressure, EKG, and temperature and are connected directly with all of your doctors could alter how we approach wellness check-ups moving forward. – Adrien Schmidt, OpenBouquet

4. Home Appliances

I think the more people understand this, the more it will have an impact on their home life. From their heaters adapting to the external temperatures, to their lights reacting to them entering the room, to their alarm clocks syncing to traffic. The IoT is going to completely change how everyone lives at home. – Colbey Pfund, LFNT Distribution

5. Video Doorbells

In the age of getting almost anything delivered to your door in only two days, it gives consumers additional peace of mind knowing who is at the door before opening — even allowing you to speak to someone at your door remotely. Video evidence also goes a long way in helping police prosecute package thieves. Plus, they are much easier to install than home security cameras. – Shawn Schulze, Names.org

6. Data Centers

We run several data centers in the U.S. and Canada. One of the most interesting IoT developments from our perspective will be the intersection of smart devices and augmented reality. Integrating IoT monitoring devices throughout the data center will allow operations and support teams to visualize the status of servers, network devices, and other infrastructure using augmented reality interfaces. – Justin Blanchard, ServerMania Inc.

7. Schools

I think schools will work on ways to create a more connected network between students, teachers and parents. This would change the learning experience and how homework and research is conducted away from the classroom. It may even make learning and school more interesting and engaging. – Angela Ruth, Calendar

8. Blockchain Technology

Blockchain adds a layer of security to digital transactions. As our smart home devices become more integrated into our daily lives, privacy becomes a concern, and especially who owns our data. Blockchain will allow IoT device owners to be in charge of their data. They could monetize and sell it in exchange for digital currency or choose to keep it private. – Jared Atchison, WPForms

9. Large Retailers

I think large retailers may use IoT to create large digital shopping malls that completely replace brick-and-mortar ones, where people can shop virtually and use augmented reality and their personal data from their own devices to enjoy a personalized experience.- Zach Binder, Bell + Ivy

10. Security

With growing adoption of IoT devices and ability to use them to buy things, IoT security has to be one of the next big things in order to provide consumers the peace of mind they need so as to share their health or payment information.- Zohar Steinberg, token payments

The post What’s Next: 10 Potential Applications for IoT Technologies appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

For businesses with limited budgets, resources, or employees, cloud-based software can often fill in the gaps and allow smaller operations to perform with enterprise efficiency. That’s why the majority of small businesses have transitioned from storing their customer data in Excel spreadsheets to managing their entire sales cycle with an online CRM system.

Working with a user-friendly, multichannel CRM tool, businesses of any size and industry can perform their daily sales, marketing, and support tasks with a speed and efficiency that no spreadsheet or post-it-note strategy can rival.

But small businesses can grow, quickly. At least, that’s the goal, right? Maybe you want to add a new product or service to your offerings or expand your sales or marketing team. How do you manage a more complex sales cycle, keep track of new accounts, and, most importantly, ensure that your CRM is working just the way you need it to?

When operations kick into high gear, some smaller businesses turn to outside consultants, analysts, or marketing agencies to help them better understand their growing customer base and improve their processes—if they can afford it. Others work overtime to internally fine-tune their workflows, better interpret customer sentiment, and predict the likelihood of hitting sales targets in order to fix their weakest links.

But contrary to either of these options, the right technology can—yet again—fill in the gaps.

Similar to the advancement that comes when a business transitions their sales management from spreadsheets to online CRM, a new level of productivity occurs for those who incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) into their daily workflow.

This technology that was once hard to imagine is now more accessible and easier to use than you might think. Although a new frontier, there are already well-established software companies offering AI as a game-changing sales tool for small and medium-sized businesses—allowing them to sell faster, smarter, and better.

As a leader in the multichannel CRM space, Zoho understands the nuances of sales force automation and how our users operate at their peak when using a sales tool updated with AI and machine learning.

With the introduction of Zia and Zia Voice last year, all Enterprise edition CRM users can now work with an artificial-intelligence powered, 24-hour sales assistant.

Instead of replacing your workforce, as opponents of AI would claim, Zia allows each of your team members to operate more quickly and with more accuracy, noticeably improving every one of your customer-facing activities—at no extra cost.

Zia is designed to work and learn right along with you. As you log more data into your CRM, Zia will home in on processes and activities that you carry out often, to spot patterns and suggest improvements.

Notably, this AI tool comes with lead/deal prediction abilities, anomaly detection, workflow advice, and it even gets to know your customers.

With Zia Voice, the first conversational AI for CRM, you can talk to your personaI digital assistant. Use the “Ask Zia” chat box on your desktop, or call her directly on your phone, to request to add, view, or change any information in your CRM. Ask her to pull up a report, set a task or reminder, or dictate what’s on your calendar for the week. Small business owners wear many hats, and when you have to juggle multiple tasks at once, being able to communicate in real time with a smart CRM can help you get it all done.

By understanding which leads are likely to convert and which deals are quicker to close, Zia helps your sales team balance their time and effort on the accounts that need the most attention. Zia can even forecast how each activity will affect your overall sales revenue, whether or not you’ll meet your targets, and where your team might be underperforming.

And while she’s working hard behind the scenes creating these predictions and reports, Zia will also be automating the repetitive, manual tasks that would otherwise take up much of your time. Why send the same email and update the same fields, day in and day out, when Zia can alert you to create a workflow instead? You may even find her suggesting a macro you didn’t know existed.

With the assistance of Zia, you can tap into your customer preferences faster than before. By using calculations from SalesSignals, Zia will let you know which day and times are best for contacting a specific lead or customer. Create follow-up reminders based on her suggestions, and cut down on time wasted on missed calls and lost opportunities.

Zia can further improve your relationship-building efforts by alerting you to customer sentiment in emails and social media posts. Knowing, at a glance, whether the customer is happy or frustrated will help you quickly craft the best response.

Using an AI tool, in combination with your familiar CRM, your business will save time and money by eliminating the need for third-party consultants to streamline common processes. Your sales will become more efficient, your marketing more targeted, and your customer support less repetitive and more customer-focused. Upgrade your business with a more intelligent CRM.

Author

Sarah serves as a product marketing manager for the SMB segment of the Zoho suite of applications. She creates content that reflects the needs of small business owners and connects with customers over the benefits of using cloud-based software. With 30+ applications built on the same platform, Zoho provides companies of any size the tools they need to successfully run their business.

The post How AI is Transforming Small Businesses and a Look at Zoho AI appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

What’s a basic tech skill that small business owners must have to oversee day-to-day operations?

These answers are provided by Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. YEC has also launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

1. Public Cloud Navigation

The on-demand servers available from public cloud platforms can host websites, business applications, collaboration and communication tools, analytics, data and a lot more. A basic understanding of what the cloud is and how to deploy and manage cloud servers can help small business owners access infrastructure that was once only available to much larger companies at an affordable price. – Justin Blanchard, ServerMania Inc.

The post 12 Basic Tech Skills You Need to Master to Run a Business appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

What’s one thing to know when shifting your business to the cloud, and why is this important?

These answers are provided by Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. YEC has also launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

1. Test Your Custom Functionalities First 

All servers are different and can sometimes recognize custom code differently. If you have any custom functionalities on your current site, be sure to test them on the new server prior to making the transfer and going live. Testing is important, not only to ensure that the custom functionalities work but also to make sure nothing else broke along the way. – Duran Inci, Optimum7

The post 12 Things Every Business Owner Should Know Before Shifting to the Cloud appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

These answers are provided by Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. YEC has also launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

1. Keep the Customer Front and Center

AI and chatbots can be used to improve service levels … or destroy them. So make sure you keep the customer front and center. Will your customer be delighted by this solution or enraged? Remember that if you give a customer a bad answer, you risk losing them forever. We recommend taking it slowly. If you deploy a chatbot, make sure it has the option to transfer the customer to a human agent. – Jonathan Steiman, Peak Support

2. Test Them Out Internally

Before making them available to the public, try using them on an internal basis to test how they work and better understand where they could provide a benefit to your operations. It’s important everyone get to use them first, so they feel comfortable with the idea. – Serenity Gibbons, Calendar.com

3. Have a Clear Objective

Make sure you have a clear objective in mind. AI and chatbots can be utilized in several ways, so understanding what you wish to get out of them plays a crucial role in their development. If you are using chatbots for lead generation, make sure it does just that. Your chatbot should engage users and ask the right questions to receive the crucial information you need to complete your objective. – Duran Inci, Optimum7

4. Be Conversational

Chatbots are the best of texting and email combined. If you want people to interact with your bot you need to be conversational, which means asking lots of questions, providing short answers that give value and most importantly, not spamming them. When planning out your chatbot experience, you want your bot to act more like a friend or family member, and not like a car salesman. – Bryan Kesler, CPA Exam Guide

5. Have Chatbots Take the Lead

Instead of hiding your chatbot icon in the bottom right of your site, let visitors know it’s ready to help with a welcome message. Ask questions to your customers directly related to their visit. Design questions that offer support and lead customers to actions such as, “have you ever worked with an SEO company in the past?” or “what are you looking to improve on your website?” for an SEO site. – Kristopher Jones, LSEO.com

6. Account for AI Learning Time

A major point to keep in mind when implementing AI or chatbots into your company is that AI takes time to learn speech patterns in order to respond accordingly. With so much AI tech now available, it seems building your own software may save money, but using an existing platform will save you the time it takes to get through the inevitable learning curve the software needs to work correctly. – Jason Criddle, Jason Criddle and Associates

7. Have a Good Script

You need to have a good script. Think of all possible questions and answers, and then flow chart the entire experience. There is no harm in trying this out, but you need to dedicate the time in setting up a good chat system with a lot of possible questions and answers. Then you need time to keep adding information. – Peter Boyd, PaperStreet Web Design

8. Anticipate the Unanticipated

You are going to provide a lot of value for your customers, but it isn’t without additional employee cost. Ask yourself if you’re ready to handle the increased workload that will be generated by creating a new channel for customers to seek help and suggest feedback. Consider potential unintended consequences of any changes in how your app seeks to help its users. – Tim Chaves, ZipBooks Accounting Software

9. Link Them to Your Apps for Fast Assistance

I recently instituted chatbots, and I was able to link it to my company’s Slack so that messages to the bot show up where I’m reviewing all other notifications. Doing this for yourself can give you the freedom to see when customers are contacting you, and give you the freedom to hop in and replace the bot without a delay or confusing transition. – Adam Steele, Loganix

10. Understand Their Limitations

Even though AI is advancing quickly, it still doesn’t take the place of personalized customer service. Chatbots are good for certain tasks, such as helping website visitors find what they’re looking for. But don’t expect too much from them, and make sure you also give people an easy way to get more detailed help if they need it. – Shawn Porat, Scorely

The post 10 Things to Consider When Automating Your Customer Support Services appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Host employee training

You want to train your employees – that’s how they learn what is expected of them. An employee training on cyber security is a must and will give you the chance to explain the importance of protecting computer systems from theft and damage. Informed employees are the best employees – this is why more and more companies are cultivating work culture through motivation and leadership.

Post simple online safety tips in view

Take some time to post actionable online safety tips in the break room, on the doors to the restrooms and in the company newsletter. These tips will act as reminders to make smart choices to maintain cyber security. One of the most important steps in setting up a business is taking steps to make sure your business not only gets off the ground, but that it has a solid foundation and well-trained employees to keep it alive and thriving.

Create complex passwords

You’ve probably heard this tip before, but you need to create strong passwords for your critical accounts – unique passwords are the best way to ensure your information stays safe to avoid widespread corporate hacks. If you reuse your passwords for multiple accounts, a hacker can utilize the leaked data from one attack to login to the other accounts. If you can’t keep track of your passwords, use a password manager to help you store the passwords for the various accounts.

Invest in VPN software

Once your logins are safer, it’s time to make sure that your connections are secure. Never underestimate the importance of secure Virtual Private Network (VPN). This software provides online safety so you can login from any location with complete anonymity. Choose a company with great security, high upload and download speeds, and 24-hour customer service. Check out the various software available with the help of the Internet and read about the company to learn more about what they offer. An expressvpn review can inform you of what a good VPN software company will do for you.

Use a firewall

Protect yourself with a secure network, but go ahead and use a firewall too. A firewall is an electronic barrier that blocks unauthorized access to your devices and computers. It’s sometimes included with comprehensive security software. The use of a firewall ensures that all devices connected to your network are secured – even security cameras and smart thermostats. It’s important to secure there devices; many of them are not equipped with any security measures, so hackers have a point of entry to your entire network if you fail to use a firewall.

A culture of privacy in the workplace is ideal – your employees need to know and understand what privacy means to your organization. Give your employees the tools they need to make sure privacy is both achieved and maintained and you will empower them to do their part to keep your business safe.

The post 5 Ways to Encourage Cyber Security in the Workplace appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Nearly 1 in 5 US businesses have gone the paperless route. How can you do the same? In this article, we offer 7 tips that will help make your business completely paper-free.

1. Use a Project Management Tool

Company projects often require the coordination of multiple people working from multiple departments with each department having their own timeline and resources to get things done. Monitoring progress on paper can work, but it is inefficient. You have to print and distribute copies to every person involved, and if project information changes, you need to edit your document and print out additional copies. All of this costs time, energy, and resources

Instead of relying on paper to keep track of your projects, your business can leverage cloud-based project management apps such as Basecamp, Asana, and Trello for the same purposes and more. Project management apps enable you to run a project online with no team member limit.

Here are some of the things you can do with a project management app:

• Assign a specific task to a team member or group of people complete with instructions.
• Provide updates on the task in real time, reducing the need to hold meetings and print reports.
• Create a calendar of their own timelines which can be viewed by members from other departments which helps keep everyone involved on the same page.
• Prioritize specific tasks and set deadlines for every part of a project. This lets members identify which tasks to work on first and how much time they have so that projects can move according to schedule.

With project management applications, you can reduce paper use while improving your project’s efficiency.

2. Adopt Electronic Payroll

Nearly half of small businesses pay an average of $850 per year to fix payroll issues, such as missed payments or tax penalties. Reduce the likelihood of errors and go paperless at the same time by using a reliable payroll software.

Instead of tracking employee hours worked, computing salary, and filing taxes manually, payroll software lets you to automate these tasks while reducing paper use and eliminating human error. In addition, the software can also pay employees via direct deposit, saving your accounting department the hassle of making a trip to the bank every pay day or having to print checks.

Your employees stand to benefit as well. Many electronic payroll software have employee self service features. Employees can log in to access their payroll data online using any device. They can view their personal details, direct deposit information, tax deductions, and pay stubs. This gives employees more privacy and security over their personal details and compensation information.

3. Switch to Google Business Suite

Google offers amazing cloud-based apps that can help you significantly reduce paper consumption, including the following:

• Google Mail & Chat – Use for online communication with employees and customers. No need to print and send memos.
• Google Documents – Scrap paper use by collaborating, storing, and managing files electronically.
• Google Sheets – Save more paper by using Google’s spreadsheet functions for database management, charts, scheduling, audits, and feedback forms.

A personal Google account is free, but most businesses will want to get a G Suite business account, and the pricing starts at $5 per user. Included in the cost is a business email account (e.g. JaneDoe@ABCCompany.com).

Google Suite, which is used by 3 million businesses, enables your employees to access data anywhere with an Internet connection. With G suite, you don’t have to pay for licenses, as you would have to if you used word processing software and email clients. In addition, all of your data are saved on the cloud so you don’t have to worry about backing up your system

4. Digitize Receipts & Invoices

Another way to purge paper from your business is by going digital with receipts and invoices. You can start by offering customers the options to get receipts in digital format. Square’s Point of Sale, for example, allows you to send receipts online or via text. This gives your customer the advantage of saving the transaction record for future reference instead of throwing it in the trash.

While you’re at it, ask your suppliers to issue digital receipts/invoices as well. They can send their invoice to you via email. You can create a dedicated email account for this purpose or store electronic invoices in your accounting software program.

5. Store Data in the Cloud

Research reveals that companies spend around $25,000 to fill file cabinets with documents and another $2,000 annually to maintain and safeguard that information. Your business can do away with such expenses while going paperfree by switching to cloud storage. Cloud-based platforms like Dropbox and Google offer massive storage capabilities with an option to organize your files into separate folders.

Best of all, these cloud-based platforms are free up to a certain storage limit. For instance, Dropbox offers 2GB of free storage per user, which is usually enough for text files and images. You can even earn more space by referring friends, family, and coworkers.

6. Invest in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software

A CRM is powerful software with a broad set of applications that can reduce your company’s reliance on paper to store internal and external documents. 

Popular CRMs in the market offer the following features:

• Storage of customer data and customer interaction
• Storage and management of employee details
• Management of leads
• Assignment of tasks
• Management of vendor and affiliate data
• Project and task management
• Storage of company documents such as contracts and invoices

In addition, you can use your CRM with other apps discussed in this article. For example, you can save the links of Google Documents and Google Sheets on your CRM. You can also attach digital receipts for storage and easier tracking to projects within your CRM. With your data stored online, all you need is an Internet connection, and you can access it anytime from anywhere.

7. Move Your Marketing Strategy Online 

You don’t need to print mountains of paper to reach your customers. According to Harvard Business Review research, online and email marketing are cheaper but just as effective as direct mail marketing campaigns.

Direct mail campaigns can cost as much as $10 per customer when you factor in design and printing costs. In contrast, you can set a daily budget as low as $5 when you advertise on Facebook, and the average cost each time a user clicks on your ad on Google is just $0.58. Several popular email marketing platforms, such as MailChimp, are completely free for a basic account. Plus, both Facebook and Google offer remarketing campaigns where your ads are shown only to users who have previously visited your site. This is a powerful feature that no print ad can offer.

Conclusion

Going paperless is healthy for both the environment and your business. You save trees by eliminating paper consumption. Furthermore, investing in online software and applications such as G suite, CRM, and email marketing keeps your business competitive while driving down operating costs. There’s a lot of incentive for you to take the paperless route now.

The post 7 Ways to Make Your Business Completely Paper-Free appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Using an email marketing platform will greatly improve your results, as well. However, more and more organizations are adding Salesforce to their email marketing assets to win far more conversions than with just a single platform.

Using Salesforce to Improve Your Email Marketing Platform’s Results

Email marketing platforms, such as GetResponse, will still be in charge of automating the next email message in a chain, but you can use Forms integrated  to send much more customized emails based on where they are in the sales funnel, information you have about them and actions they’ve taken such as purchase history.

The combination of these platforms will also give your marketing and sales team a far more comprehensive view of how your leads behave. This, too, will make it easier to improve everything from your actual emails to the offers you use to nurture these leads. If you have no experience in marketing then you can contact Conversant Media for professional assistance.

2 Ways to Use Field Change Triggers During Your Email Campaigns

Fortunately, this is actually very easy to do when you use Salesforce. Any time a change is made to a value field on the lead or contact form, you can use automation to begin an email nurturing process that targets recipients based on these changes.

Here are two examples to show you how easy this can be.

1. Bringing Cold Leads Back to Life

Often, a lead will give you every indication that they are on their way to converting and then – all of a sudden – fall off the face of the earth.

Reviving these cold leads is difficult when all you have is your traditional email marketing platform, but when you combine it with Salesforce, you can easily reroute these recipients right back to a “Nurture” status. Then, use the Field Changed trigger to begin nurturing them anew.

Just be sure you give these leads some breathing room before sending them the first email in this new sequence. For example, if they went cold on you right after a trial service offer, give them five days before sending out the email.

Also, that new message should be educational in nature. Even after waiting five days, it is too soon to try again for the conversion if a lead has been unresponsive.

What happens if the lead still is not opening the email?

Do not cut your losses quite yet. Give them about 10 days and then send an email that will reconfirm your mindshare and position as a thought leader. Again, it should be educational, so something about industry trends would be the perfect choice.

You may still not get the conversion, but by reestablishing yourself with the recipient, you will be top-of-mind when they do decide to purchase.

Now, for those leads who do click, send them a nurturing email for a webinar or some other offer that requires a substantial investment of their time. A deeper commitment will bring them closer to converting.

 2. Load an Upsell Campaign for Qualified Customers

Upsells are vital to increasing profitability over time. With Salesforce, you can establish a threshold for when a subscriber becomes a “Power User.” When that happens, an email goes out to your marketing team to let them know about this opportunity.

An upsell email is then sent to this recipient with all the relevant details about this new offer. An account manager is also notified to follow up with this user in the near future over the phone if they do not place an upgraded order.

Getting the Most Out of Your Email Campaigns Is Easy with Salesforce

These are just two examples of how you can use Salesforce as a force multiplier to improve your email marketing campaign. While a high-quality email automation platform is still as important as ever, Salesforce can increase your ROI further by helping you better target your recipients with less work.

The post How Email Marketing Platforms Combine with Salesforce to Boost Sales appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

1. Have a Plan 

Data is only as good as the plan you have for it. Know what information you need and why you need it. Nothing is worse than spending countless hours setting systems only to realize it doesn’t answer the questions you need answers to.

– Jessica Gonzalez, InCharged

2. Start Small When Studying Your Data Stream 

Look at the data you’re collecting through your CRM. As you begin your analysis, it’s wise to start small — perhaps with one data stream at a time. For example, you might initially look at the main products being purchased in a particular geographic area. You can then use this information to produce customized offerings to specific segments of your customer population.

– Alexandra Levit, PeopleResults 

3. Understand Your Competition 

Information on your competitors used to be difficult to come by, but now with big data, it is all right there for the taking. Knowing what other businesses are making and how they spend their capital can be a huge leg up for a small business.

– Abhilash Patel, Abhilash.co 

4. Identify Beneficial Supplier Relationships 

One of the easiest ways small businesses can use big data to improve production is through analysis of supplier data, such as pricing or material quality, to identify the most beneficial vendor relationships for their business. By doing so, companies can make sure they’re getting the best quality materials for the lowest price with every deal they make.

– Stan Garber, Scout RFP 

5. Align Yourself With the Most Data-Centric Vendors 

I wish we had the budget to hire analysts and a full complement of technical teams to slice-and-dice data. We don’t! However, we can find vendors and partners that are data savvy and align with them. Whether a fulfillment center, shipping company or even marketing firm, companies that can truly analyze data will win. We just need to find them, and our business will naturally improve.

– Aaron Schwartz, Passport 

6. Track Sales Activity and Customer Data 

In order to make the smartest decisions about your business, tracking sales and customer data is a must. Making sure your payment processing technology has a robust data analytics feature will ensure that all of your production decisions are based on the actual activity of your customers or clients. Connectivity is key.

– Suneera Madhani, Fattmerchant 

7. Analyze by Season 

Big data can be analyzed by seasons, which helps better understand when demand is greater or less than the average. This helps ensure the right level of production so that sales are not missed because not enough was produced. This also helps plan for cash flow and future marketing endeavors, in order to see how slower periods can be ramped up.

– John Rampton, Calendar 

8. Refine Your Data to Improve Effectiveness 

Data is often compared to oil in terms of how well it can fuel production. However, much like oil, it isn’t very effective in a crude state. Refining data in order to yield important information that can improve production will involve a great deal of testing. This can include A/B testing, with new variations on a product, or tracking interdependencies by tweaking individual aspects of a product.

– Bryce Welker, Beat The CPA 

9. Examine Turnaround Times 

Whether you’re generating graphics for your clients or assembling bottles, you can use big data to analyze the process and determine how long it takes to finish a project. This can help you find areas that can be streamlined in your production process, or just identify where the major slowdowns are.

– Karl Kangur, MRR Media 

The post 9 Ways Small Businesses Should Use Big Data to Improve Production appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Contractors

A contractor is someone you hire for a specific length of time rather than on a permanent basis or for an unspecified period of time. While contractors are sometimes more expensive than workers in the short term, they come with the advantage of not requiring you to pay them if the work they do slows down or becomes unnecessary. Bringing ir35 contracting for important work projects lets you scale up expertise quickly and without the necessity of a long-term commitment to the employee that can become onerous in later days.

Rentals

Similar to hiring contractors, renting equipment that you will only need temporarily can cut long-term costs by keeping your physical space usage down and keeping capital from getting tied up in heavy machinery. Renting equipment for a project ensures that you have the tools you need for as long as you need them. Of course, in the modern cloud computing environment, increasing numbers of businesses are also outsourcing functions like IT, storage, and other technology issues. Doing so keeps your in-house IT trim and fit and helps businesses that are not primarily IT-driven avoid carrying too many expensive technologies and staffers.

Set Objectives

Growing businesses can too easily lose sight of where they need to be going. Setting a long-term goal is a great way to focus the company on a singular vision, but big-picture goals are often too lofty to guide day-to-day decisions. Instead, try setting up a group of medium-range goals to inform immediate progress. Try to focus on growing a specific product or enhancing one area of the business. If you want to get ambitious, you can set reasonable medium-range goals for each of your departments.

Watch the Customers

Every business in the world has one thing in common, and that is its ultimate dependence on the goodwill of its customers. Businesses deliver products or services to their customers, and these customers either like or dislike what they get. And those customers are often not shy about letting you know where they stand. Sending out customer satisfaction surveys is a reasonable way to gather information, but sending too many or soliciting them too intrusively can make you look pushy. Asking big customers if they have the time for a more personal talk about their experiences is a decent tactic. Moreover, make sure you have a clear route to receive and resolve any complaints.

Growth need not to be a scary thing. A well-prepared company will embrace growth and come out stronger on the other end. Just be sure you have a plan, and things should go seamlessly.

The post 4 Hacks to Manage Growth Like a Pro appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Their press release reads, “While Bright LED screens or safety regulations can pose limitations with traditional lasers, the Kensington Ultimate Presenter is optimized for use in conference rooms with TVs, online meetings with remote participants, and large auditoriums with multiple presentation screens for greater user flexibility. Kensington has removed the laser from the pointing feature to help address the growing need for a presentation tool that can be used where laser devices are not allowed as well as for online meetings where remote participants can see the pointer onscreen when using web meeting tools. The presenter is also adaptable and customizable to the user, with its companion software KensingtonWorks ^TM  for assigning different features to the top button. New customization features include mouse click, pen and magnifier, to improve upon the user experience.” See the full details here.

The post Kensington Announces Ultimate Presenter with Virtual Pointer appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Increase website security

Many small business owners don’t know that a website, no matter how secure it seems, isn’t as secure as you think. The reason why is that when the site is placed on an unsecure server with various websites, there is a chance of one being hacked. It’s frustrating to know that no matter how secure your site is, it’s not fully protected and poor security can destroy your business. A minecraft server hosting will take preventative measures to reduce risks of privacy violations with the help of firewalls and other electric barriers between a site and those trying to access it with malicious intent. If your site is compromised due to a hosting issue with a well-known company and you chose a low tier plan, the chance of a speedy solution is slim. Business owners sometimes fail to realize the importance of knowing the types of web hosting available and choosing the most reputable providers. Both decisions have a direct influence on the success of your business. We are an IT support services company in Houston that constantly strives to provide dynamic, innovative, and practical consultative design and IT services that will save you a lot of time, reduce costs, and improve the key deliverables for all information technology teams. 

Receive better customer service

When your small business site goes down, you’ll get to know the customer service team of your hosting platform. The difference between good and bad hosts is the speed at which the issue is resolved. A good host offers knowledgeable representatives who will assist you with your problems and answer your questions, whether by phone or chat. Clients with a more profitable account will likely take priority and earn immediate attention. If you went cheap on hosting, you’ll probably be faced with longer wait times, less than stellar assistance, and a fix to your issue that won’t last long. Many small business owners wouldn’t associate customer service with a hosting platform, but it is something you need to think about since it actively affects the experience.

Offer your customers reliability

Your business website often makes the first impression – you want to make sure your customers see a website that runs well and best represents your brand. Visitors may not notice that your website is good when they’re browsing around, but they will notice  if your site is consistently down or isn’t user-friendly. There is always a possibility a website will crash, it’s far less likely if you have a good host. Good hosts are consistently backing up data and cloning sites to ensure they can always provide a fast solution to get your website back and running online so you can sell more products. Less expensive hosting often leads to a slow website – a frustration for many users. There is never a guarantee your website will consistently run without a glitch, but better hosts provides better care to their clients and more efficient web speeds with enhanced security. Reliable hosts minimize many risks involved with your site, which means you’ll have less of a headache if the site experiences any problems.

Small business owners don’t always realize how much hosting matters. There are various options available to everyone who launches a website so make sure you educate yourself before you select your host. A reliable host is the key to overall functionality of a website leading to happier customers and more sales.

The post 3 Reasons Hosting Matters appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

In partnership with Adobe, we’re excited to provide these tips and insight with you!

It is tough, running your own business. Everything is riding on you and the amount of progress you make every day. The successes you ultimately achieve all come down to how much you can accomplish in the time you have carved out for your business—and sometimes that is not a lot.

As the owner of a small business, productivity is not something that will come naturally to you, you will find lots of distractions at work. That is not to say you are not capable of being productive; it is just the nature of the job. Competing priorities all calling for your attention, mistakes of the past calling you to return to them, and your mind wandering over to the lofty goals you have set for the future. It is a lot to process, all while trying to focus on the tasks at hand.

Productivity in business is not impossible to achieve though. It simply takes some work and a little help.

Here are some tips for how you can start being more productive for the well-being of your business.

7 Tips for Being More Productive

1. Don’t Power Through

There are many who say that working in small increments with a pre-set break schedule is beneficial to keeping productivity and energy levels up. That is why there is such a thing as the Pomodoro Technique.

2. Remove Temptations

Whether you run your business out of your home or an off-site workspace, temptations are everywhere. Anything can break your concentration and force you to have to “reboot” and refocus again. Put a lock on your door, close out your email, and put a distraction blocking tool on your phone and computer to keep those temptations out.

3. Stay Accountable

Employees are not the only ones who are guilty of time theft. If you find that you are not generating as much work as you thought you would each day, use a time tracker to see what’s going on.

4. Schedule Everything

There are so many project and task management tools available for a reasonable price that there is no excuse not to schedule your workday. This includes breaks, meetings, assignments, business management tasks, and so on.

5. Delegate When You Can

Perhaps your lack of productivity is not that due to distractions. Perhaps it is that you have too much on your plate and you are burning out. Don’t be afraid to outsource tasks to other team members or freelancers when you can.

6. Use Software to Streamline and Automate

Cloud-based software is truly revolutionizing the workplace—especially for small businesses that now have tools available to help them run as efficiently as large corporations. If you are not using it to automate your workflows, outsource administrative tasks, or streamline your process, you are missing out.

7. Work Smarter with Those Tools

There are so many wonderful things about cloud-based tools; I am not even sure where to begin. How about their ability to empower users to work from anywhere and from any device? How about their ability to sync up with other systems to cut down on the back and forth of transferring files and information to one another? How about their real-time applications?

Adobe’s Contribution to a More Productive Small Business

Here’s an example of one of those smarter business tools: Adobe Document Cloud. This tool provides small businesses with all the tools they need and, more importantly, tools that should be integrated with one another in supportive of a more productive work environment.

If you have not heard the big news yet, Adobe Document Cloud is bringing some big changes to the small business landscape.

The one I am most excited about is Adobe Scan, which I think has huge promise to be a game changer for small businesses.

Up until now, software that enabled users to scan images or text and convert them to PDF just weren’t “smart” enough. They only worked well on desktop computers. They could not extract text out of a scan and make it selectable or copyable. They also couldn’t do anything to improve the appearance of photos captured. However, that is not the case anymore with Adobe Scan.

“Adobe Scan represents a radical reimagination of how to capture your most important document content. Adobe invented PDF creation for PCs, and with Adobe Scan we are doing the same for a mobile-first world,” said Bryan Lamkin of Adobe.

“Adobe Scan represents a radical reimagination of how to capture your most important document content. Adobe invented PDF creation for PCs, and with Adobe Scan we are doing the same for a mobile-first world.”

The post How Adobe Scan and These 7 Tips Can Make You More Productive appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Having one noisy keyboard might not be so bad. But having an office full of noisy keyboards, with actively typing people can be down right disruptive and annoying.

Here’s my review of the quiet keyboard.

The post VIDEO: How Noisy Is Your Keyboard? Ramon Tests The Cherry MX Silent Keyboard. appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

In our digital age, it might be hard to keep up with all the advances in technology. So if you don’t know what are chatbots is, you’re probably not alone. Let’s begin with defining that term. Essentially, a chatbot is simply a type of computer program that engages in conversation with people, either through text messages or audibly. Popular chatbots include IBM’s Watson, LiveChat, and LivePerson, to name just a few. But even if you don’t own one of these devices, you have probably interacted with a chatbot without even knowing it. Many companies currently implement this technology, particularly for information gathering tasks or customer service purposes.

Given the global nature of our modern world, as well as the fact that chatbots are already a commonly used form of artificial intelligence, it will probably come as no surprise that one of the most sought-after products in this field is the multilingual chatbot. The technology is still in its infancy, and it’s easy to understand why. Programming a chatbot with the capability of simultaneously translating language is extremely complicated and time-consuming. There are rare examples of multilingual chatbots on the market today – such as Language I/O® Chat, a product designed to be a customer support tool – but they are few and far between. However, the day will certainly come when a variety of multilingual chatbots are available to businesses. After all, there are several situations where these programs would be useful.

Users typically access chatbots in messenger apps and communications platforms like WeChat, Facebook Messenger, iMessage, Kik, Slack, and Skype. Users type or ask a question, and the chatbot responds with the right information. Just as important as the ability to understand the context of a user’s question or command is the ability to “learn” from that interaction so it can offer more personalized information the next time. For example, if you ask a chatbot for recommendations for a local restaurant, it will analyze volumes of data so it can be proactive in suggesting restaurants that match your preferences the next time you’re out and about.

Next-Gen Marketing

Chatbots are relatively new to the marketing technology scene, and their arrival could not come at a better time. Traditional digital advertising tactics that provide only one-way interactions – from brand to customer – are becoming less effective. Brands push messaging, offers or services to users, but that should just be step one. Moving beyond the one-time interaction and creating an avenue for back-and-forth engagement is the key to building long-term customer relationships.

Conversational bots enable you to communicate the value of your brand to a vast audience, but do so via one-on-one conversations that make users feel like you’re tailoring those interactions to their individual likes and needs. They feel empowered by having command of ongoing interactions that more closely resemble two-way conversations. They can conduct research, ask questions, make a purchase, request help and share experiences with friends.

Email may still be King of the Marketing Hill, but chatbots are proving to be much more effective at getting your brand and messaging in front of customers, and more importantly, getting them to engage with you.

According to MailChip’s February 2017 report on Email Stats^[1], the open rate of email campaigns range from 16% to 27%. In contrast, chatbots deployed on messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger boast an open rate over 90%. Even better, the user typically opens and reads a message within five minutes. Think about how you interact with email compared to messaging clients. It’s a good bet you don’t open every single email as soon as it hits your inbox. But when you receive a notification from Facebook Messenger, chances are you read and respond within a few minutes.

Another key difference between email and chatbots is how users consume a message. Emails show all messaging in one window, and frequently include links to web sites that force you to leave the email app. Chatbots show only a bit of information at a time, so the interaction more closely resembles an exchange you have with a friend in your network. The ability for a chatbot to engage with your customers in “conversational commerce” is a key reason why chatbots have a higher stickiness factor than email.

Behind the Curtain

Of course, most small businesses do not have the massive budgets or teams of software engineers necessary to develop their own chatbots. All good AI implementations require the the ever-growing volumes of customer information businesses collect, and investment in technologies that enable the AI to analyze all that data. Additionally, chatbots requires effective natural language processing and neural networks to “understand” and process the context of a user’s question or command.

That’s where partnering with a company like Botworx can help. We have developed a bot platform that allows brands to use chatbots and messaging services not just for customer service and retention, but for acquiring customers. The platform features full lifecycle management and analytics, an AI-powered natural language engine and industry-leading commerce, trust and security features.

Before you create and launch a chatbot, the first step is to determine why you want to use it in the first place. For instance, do you want to attract new customers, improve engagement with current customers, improve customer service levels? All of the above? Don’t start building a bot until you know what purpose(s) it will serve.

The next step is to decide whether you want to build and maintain the chatbot in-house, or partner with a developer.

Just like an e-commerce web site, a chatbot is built on two main components: the user interface on the front end, and the data collection and analysis on the back end. The user interface needs to be simple to use and provide a compelling experience that keeps the user engaged. That’s only possible if the artificial intelligence technology on the back end enables the chatbot to not just provide immediate answers to a user’s question today, but also analyze data on all interactions over time. This enables the chatbot to “learn” to anticipate the information a user will want or need and offer it up on a more proactive basis.

Keep in mind that enabling conversational commerce is just as much as marketing challenge as a technical one. Building loyalty with customers is not as simple as rolling out a new chatbot. You must earn their trust, and that takes more work than convincing a customer to continue interacting with your chatbot after the novelty factor wears off. This requires time and constant effort, but the payoff will be well worth it. The chatbot gives you greater power to acquire customers, engage them with compelling content that’s relevant to them, and monetize those engagements.

^[1] Average Email Campaign Stats of MailChimp Customers by Industry, MailChimp. February 1, 2017

The post Chatbots Are Not Just for the Big Brands appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

So where should you focus your technology integration?

Above all else, focus on revenues.

Ideally, as a business owner, you should spend most of your time on production (of your goods or services) or marketing. Everything else is extraneous and eats into your profits, and if you really want to do a good profit, learning about useful strategies for this like Earnandgo, which is highly influencer network and could really make a difference in the way you make money online.

So take a hard look on where you’re spending your time and resources. Identify the tasks that, if automated, could free you up to do what you do best, which will of course equate to higher revenues.

If you’re looking for some inspiration, check out these three powerful and trusted software services that, if used properly, can equate to more cash for your company.

#1: ClickMeeting

Webinars are an undeniable force for driving sales in today’s world.

The near feverish clamoring that consumers have for video content only adds fuel to the growing application and use of webinar technology by a myriad of established brands.

Since webinars are so effective at helping to educate consumers and convert them into full-fledged customers, webinar providers like ClickMeeting are an excellent resource to help a business pull in some extra cash.

ClickMeeting recently released a free eBook  which outlines numerous ways that a business can leverage webinar technology to drive sales; the perfect guide for anyone looking to leverage the monetary benefits of this technique.

ClickMeeting’s platform provides users with an assortment of features that assist brands in appearing professional, engaging audiences, and collecting the insights needed to attain better results with each subsequent broadcast.

With a ton of presentation tools, customized invitations, webinar recording options, in-depth analytics, and a host of other prosperous elements, this is an ideal platform for leveraging your thought leadership into an additional revenue stream.

#2: Famebit

Famebit, recently acquired by Google, is an influencer marketing platform where marketers can acquire some of the most impactful social authorities for a campaign.

You don’t need to just run a traditional influencer campaign with these folks. As ClickMeeting points out in the eBook, you can also gather these experts for a guest speaking webinar:

“Many businesses or entrepreneurs pay big bucks to get an expert to teach their audience what the business offers and how to grow an area of business or succeed with a product.”

Using this platform, however, you are likely to pay far less than through direct outreach efforts. And considering that influencer marketing delivers a higher ROI than most other tactics, it’s safe to assume that you will earn your money back and then some.

To get started, users simply need to create a campaign in which they select the platforms they wish to target; options include YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, and Twitter.

Next, choose the type of content your brand desires – review, unboxing, tutorial, etc. – set up your campaign details, choose your audience specs and budget, and submit for influencers so influencers can start bidding.

This tool is easy to use and can help your business prosper in a multitude of ways.

#3: Affiliate Window

Affiliate marketing programs are an excellent source of income for blogs, and brands that are struggling to make ends meet.

Affiliate Window is one of the most popular affiliate networks and touts more than 1,600 brands across 11 global territories and an ocean of products to promote.

When combined with webinar technologies, ClickMeeting has found this marriage to be a powerful force:

“If you’re an affiliate offering a product or a service provided by someone else, offer it in a sales webinar – without sounding like you’re pitching, of course. Take the role of a recommendation genius and apply it in a webinar setting, and you’ve got the easiest money-making machine in the world!”

The tool features a robust analytics platform that allows affiliates to view real-time reports featuring click rates, commission earned, and other vital data points.

In 2016 alone, Affiliate Window claims to have generated over $6.7 billion for its clients – this equates to a pretty decent chunk of change for the advertisers as well.

These tools are excellent additions to any entrepreneur’s toolkit as each possesses its own unique revenue-generating capabilities. If you need more inspiration for how to use technology to generate webinars, the eBook is chalk-full of additional ideas.

The post 3 Services that Help Generate Income for Your Brand appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

In tech, it’s often said that the big no longer eat the small — the fast eat the slow. Being quick and nimble is key in today’s tech landscape. However, it’s essential for entrepreneurs to ensure that their products are ready to bring to market before doing so.

INVESTMENT BANKER PROBLEMS

My company, FactGem, was born out of personal frustration from juggling hundreds of Excel spreadsheets. In 2011, I started what would later become FactGem with the simple acknowledgment that I was an investment banker with a problem. I had just completed a more than $100 million, multi-year transaction for a Fortune 200, new, world headquarters project. I ended the transaction with hundreds of Excel models and realized that I needed a better way to extract insight for my customers and investors. I wanted Bloomberg for data— a place where I could log in and extract insights with speed.

IN GOOD COMPANY

The journey from conception to launch was a long and winding road and it was necessary for it to be a timely process. I remember sitting on my then-boyfriend’s couch talking about my challenge. Being a successful tech investor, he told me that the technology itself would be next to impossible to build.

With this news, my Midwestern roots and work ethic took over and I decided that I was going to solve this problem. I knew that others had to have the same challenges as me and I was unwilling to let it go. As it turns out, many companies out there did have the same problem that I did – they could get their data into one place but could not easily connect it and extract insight. They were stuck dealing with IT departments who wouldn’t make the data easily accessible and once business leaders finally received the data, they couldn’t make sense of it.

THREE KEYS TO BULLETPROOF TECH

For other entrepreneurs who have identified a common challenge that they are passionate about solving, keep the following tips in mind as you begin your journey:

• Build a team that understands the pain points of your end users. It wasn’t until 2013 that FactGem hired our CTO and started the true development process. Our top engineer who came from the intelligence space, understood the challenges of integrating big data and being able to change the data model in real time to fit the logic of the business itself. The technology of the last 30 years has forced companies to fit their business logic around the data which makes getting to meaningful insight rather tricky. It has been a long road and the tech is as hard as my now husband said it would be.

• Work hard. Try new things. Ask for customer feedback. FactGem is “Rated E” for Everyone. We offer a solution that enables the business analyst, data scientist, marketer or executive to use their knowledge to connect data quickly and extract insight without spending time writing code to get through an integration. Our “ah-ha” moment came only through customer interaction and feedback. We realized that the professionals who needed business insights were often being held hostage by IT departments who were hoarding data and not dedicating the necessary time and money to the integration process. The executives who needed to make decisions quickly couldn’t get what they wanted. Trial and error and customer feedback helped us test and develop a product that effectively addresses common challenges.

• Don’t rush launching and accept that tech is always going to evolve. After a year into working for a Fortune 500 retailer, we have learned a great deal. Our product offering is clear. We understand the need for continued enhancements to our data science stack and are working with major BI vendors to build connectors to make those tools useful to our customers. At this point, we felt ready to launch our application. Tech advancements will happen but ensuring your product is in a state that will welcome enhancements will lead to more success.

Gartner anticipates that the BI market will reach $18 billion this year – FactGem is going to make that investment worthwhile for companies everywhere. Instead of getting to a few insights with just a selection of data, FactGem’s Data Fabric will instantly connect all data within a business. Waiting until 2017 to bring our product to market not only ensured that the tech is sound but ensured that there was a market need.

As you begin the process of becoming a tech entrepreneur, remember to not only surround yourself with passionate individuals but ones who challenge you, your ideas and plans. Listen to the customer and be disciplined about what your product does and who you are serving. These things alone can’t guarantee success, but their absence will certainly prevent it.

The post How to Ensure that your Tech is Bulletproof Before Launching appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Why is the Project Plan so important before project management ?

The Project Plan is one of the most important and useful documents in your toolkit, and should be referred to and updated throughout the project lifecycle. Its initial purpose is to kick-start the project by convincing the decision makers (usually the people who control the funds e.g. the Project Board or Steering Committee) that the project is viable and and will meet their needs and timeframes / budgets / expectations. If the Project Plan is poorly written or contains insufficient detail, the project may not even get past this first decision gate and may never actually get off the ground. Many viable projects have floundered at this stage due to poor planning and communication. On the flip side, if you can deliver a great Project Planning, it establishes your credibility as a Project Manager, starts the project on a sound footing, and provides the team with a mandate for action and a clear direction to follow. In dock scheduling software , There are a multitude of possibilities to enhance dock scheduling operations, and dock operations in general, through our software solution.

The good news: there is! The technology is called project management software, and it helps you organize projects and tasks so everything is completed on time and you no longer have to worry if something has fallen through the cracks. Two of the most popular project management systems are Asana and Trello. This quick comparison is designed to help you figure out which is right for your small business.

Asana

Asana is a web-based “collaboration information manager” that was founded in 2008 and helps you “move work forward.”

• Teams of 15 or less can use the free version, while larger teams can purchase the premium version at $9.99 per month.
• The software is user-friendly, with an intuitive navigation system that includes a task view and calendar view.
• Within Asana, you can set up projects, tasks, and subtasks, assign items to team members, add due dates, share files and post comments. All activities take place in real-time.
• Several integrations are available, for example, Google Drive, Slack, and Github.
• Support is available via email, and the Product Guide will get you up to speed fast. Organizations with over 50 team members get additional support through a ‘success’

Trello

Trello is a web-based service founded in 2011, aimed at helping you “work more collaboratively and get more done.”

• Trello has a free version that comes with some limitations (example: file attachments are limited to 10MB), and two paid options: Business Class ($9.99 per month) or Enterprise ($20.83 per month).
• Projects are set up as “boards,” and within the board, users can set up task lists and cards (individual tasks), which can be assigned to specific team members.
• Integrations are known as Power-Ups. They offer the ability to connect with programs like Evernote, Salesforce, and SupportBee (although free users are limited to one Power-Up per board).
• Trello offers support via its contact page and also a searchable knowledge base. Paid users get priority support with a guaranteed 1-day response time.

If you are still undecided as to whether Asana or Trello is right for you, the free versions will give you a chance to explore. There are other project management options too, including Basecamp, Teamwork and Microsoft Project.

Finding the right project management software is important, but it’s only beneficial if you know how to use it to your advantage. For this reason, small business owners and their employees may be interested in furthering their education. Schools like Campbellsville University offer fully online programs like the MBA and the Master of Science in IT Management to help boost your skills.

Project management software can help your small business get ahead. Imagine being able to visually see all your projects and tasks laid out, knowing who is working on what, and having one dedicated space to go to for access to all project files and updates. Not only would your small business be a smooth running operation, but you would also gain valuable peace of mind.

This post is written in partnership with Campbellsville University, which offers dynamic online degrees for students and professionals seeking to boost their business knowledge and skills.

The post Asana or Trello? Comparing Project Management Software for Small Business appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Now, with this influx of credit card breaches, however, hackers are dedicating a lot of time for small profits on the dark web. Researchers estimate U.S.-based credit card data can be sold for $5-$30 depending on the data. Why so little? It’s basically supply-and-demand fundamentals. Data breaches become more prevalent and, thus, the market for stolen credit cards is flooded… therefore driving the price down.

Carding web security threat in which attackers use multiple, parallel attempts to authorize stolen credit card credentials. Carding is performed by bots, software used to perform automated operations over the Internet. The objective of carding is to identify which card numbers or details can be used to perform purchases.

Besides the damage caused to card owners, a carding attack can negatively affect businesses whose websites are used to authorize stolen credit cards. Carding typically results in chargebacks – these are disputed transactions that result in a merchant reversing the transaction and refunding the purchaser’s money. Carding forums used to share stolen credit card data, and discuss techniques for obtaining credit card data, validating it and using it for criminal activity

Chargebacks can happen for legitimate reasons (for example an erroneous purchase or a clerical error), but are very often the result of fraud techniques like carding. Every chargeback hurts a business’s reputation with credit card processors. Carding executed against a website can lead to poor merchant history and chargeback penalties.

So what’s to stop the POS malware trend from turning into the potentially devastating threat of POS ransomware? If retailers don’t protect themselves properly, this isn’t much of a stretch. Malware takes months to siphon credit card data from infected systems. Rather than gain access to a national chain’s POS to exfiltrate credit cards, cyber criminals could deploy ransomware that shuts down the POS systems… effectively bringing the business and all revenue to a screeching halt. This would likely prompt stores to pay the ransom right away, allowing the threat actors to profit within minutes. And with the impressive success of the global WannaCry outbreak, cybercriminals are taking notice of what works.

It’s no secret that major retailers and small businesses alike need to protect against malware and, now, ransomware threats to protect their customers’ data, as well as their brand and reputation. If customers lose trust, business suffers. So what can retailers do better to prevent these attacks from occurring, let alone reoccurring, in the first place?

How Can Retailers Protect Themselves?

Start by deploying a managed firewall across all locations, which can be done quickly and easily. These firewalls monitor payment card processing activity to ensure that malware is not entering and sensitive data is not exiting the network. The most important feature to look out for when selecting a firewall is the ability to control outbound network traffic—that way stores can prevent payment data from being sent to suspect sites and countries.

The latest string of breaches, however, reiterates that multi-location retail security requires a new approach, beyond the absolute minimums of maintaining PCI compliance and implementing a managed firewall. For a comprehensive toolbelt to stop cyber criminals before they do real damage, retailers should consider implementing the following technologies:

• File integrity monitoring (to tell you when files have changed that weren’t supposed to change)
• Unified threat management appliances (used to integrate security features such as firewall, gateway antivirus, and intrusion detection)
• Security information and event management, ideally with dormant malware hunting capabilities (used to centrally collect, store, and analyze log data and other data from various systems to provide a single point of view from which to be alerted to potential issues)
• Managed detection and response (brings advanced threat detection and response specifically to the POS systems to reduce malware detection gap and incident response times)
• Next-generation endpoint security solutions (used to stop attacks on the endpoint computers and servers before they can wreak havoc on other systems)

Merchants should also remember that being compliant may not be (and is usually not) the same thing as being secure. It’s one thing to do basically the bare minimum to meet compliance mandates, but it’s completely another thing to do IT security properly. Properly locked down systems take a willingness to bring in experts that have ‘been there, done that’ and know how to lock payment terminals down to where they can only operate as payment terminals and not as general use computers. While there are many tools available to help with many required tasks, the basic concept of proper security starts with an understanding that doing it right takes time, patience, and yes, at times, it will take money.

Netsurion, for example, offers managed security services to help highly distributed businesses achieve enterprise-level security. With its managed network security, these businesses can defend payment and other critical data from cyberthreats with 24/7 firewall uptime monitoring. PCI compliance support relieves the stress with on-on-one merchant support and an intuitive management portal. In addition, Netsurion subsidiary EventTracker’s security information and event management (SIEM) technology has made SIEM-at-the-Edge a reality. It is an advanced threat detection tool with log analysis, awareness, detection, and incident response that is effective and affordable.

EMV Implementation was Active During Breach

Regarding the most recent breach discussed above, it’s important to note that all of this brand’s stores did have EMV-capable credit card terminals. But not all banks have provided their customers with chip-enabled cards just yet, leaving those customers that used magnetic stripe cards more vulnerable to counterfeit fraud.

To minimize the damage hackers inflict on retail companies and their customers, retailers not only need to bolster network security, but the entire payments industry must work together to further the EMV migration and adoption of point-to-point encryption technology.

Lessons Learned

Hackers are after something– credit cards, personally identifiable information, bank credentials, or anything else that they can use to steal or sell for money. It is difficult and expensive for retailers, especially smaller ones or branch locations, to hire and retain an IT security team to combat these threats. For optimal success, security, and growth, advanced tools, including SIEM, should ideally be outsourced to a managed security firm that specializes in this type of service, which includes having expert threat researchers that are constantly looking for new activity that could point to a hacker trying to steal data from your systems. These tips should enable retailers to expand their businesses while keeping their customers’ data secure and loyalty strong.

The post POS Malware, Ransomware Threats are on the Rise. How Can Retailers Protect Themselves? appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

In the past, running your own business meant being tied down most of the year and buried in work. However, with today’s incredible array of online tools, the modern-day entrepreneur can work almost anywhere at any time they want, becoming a Digital Nomad or Expat Entrepreneur. You might still have the same workload, but at least you can chip away at that workload at home in the Caribbean or at a coffee shop in Bali.

But don’t pack your bags and buy your plane ticket just yet. A smart entrepreneur also knows there’s plenty of value in planning ahead before taking off on year or more of remote work. Here are 10 things to do before you start your journey as a nomadic entrepreneur:

1) Create Your Brand and Website

Since your laptop is your mobile office, your website is your mobile storefront. Your business name, logo, Pantone colors, slogan, voice/tone and font all flesh out online as your brand to potential customers. Your website is what ties all these elements together and brings your company to life. With a professional brand and website, you’re more likely to get clients that will help fuel your digital nomadic travels. So, spend some time creating (or paying someone to create) a great website for you. A popular option is SquareSpace since their tool has drag-and-drop widgets to easily build a website if you’re not a website designer. WordPress is also a universally great option for the back-end of your website.

2) Determine Your 30-second Elevator Pitch

It’s been said that first impressions are made within seven seconds. To create a positive, lasting impression on people who could become paying customers of refer your business in the future, you’ll need an excellent elevator pitch. This is your micro-commercial about who you are, what you do and why a customer needs your service or product. A strong pitch shows passion, organization and direction.

3) Create Business Cards

Do people still use business cards in this digital age? Yes! Hand one to the person who just heard your elevator pitch, so they’ll have a way to find you and your business afterward. People may forget your name, business name or website after a quick conversation, but giving them something tangible will jog their memory and provide a way to get in touch later. And, a small box of business cards is easy to add to the one suitcase or bag you’re bringing with you from the states. A popular option for high-quality business cards is Moo.com.

4) Choose a Business Structure

No matter where you live and work, there’s a government that wants your money and potential risk with doing business. Choosing the right entity type can protect your assets, give customers confidence that you’re a legitimate business and provide legal protection if you happen to have partners or investors. An LLC is a great choice for digital nomads.

5) Get Accounting and Business Expense Software

Dealing with the bookkeeping side of your business can feel like a full-time job on its own. Fortunately, you have a plethora of amazing accounting and business software options to choose from. PC Magazine has a great list of 2017’s best accounting software where you can find the one that best fits your needs. The right accounting software will set your business up for success, ensuring you get paid on time, track your business expenses and have time to explore the city you’re traveling.

6) Sign up for Remote Work Websites

You have the ability to work anywhere in the world, but you’ll also need a dependable workload to fund these adventures. The good news is now that working remotely is increasingly more popular and entrepreneurs are setting out for distances unknown, there are a ton of websites dedicated to remote job listings. While some websites focus on a specific industry, others have job boards for endless opportunities. You might want to check out FlexJobs, We Work Remotely, Working Nomads and CloudPeeps (to just name a few).

7) Determine a Communication Platform

Whether you’re keeping in touch with clients or calling your mom, you don’t want a sky-high phone bill. Skype is the old standby that works great and syncs with your mobile phone, but there are also great alternatives like Join.me. For a small fee, you can add members to conference calls, record the conversations and incorporate a variety of helpful tools.

8) Get a Bank Account That’ll Work Internationally

There’s a lot to consider when choosing the right bank for your business: you may have an ecommerce business with international customers, need to do all of your banking online or have a small business that requires a cost-effective solution with minimal fees. It’s also important to find a bank that’s going to allow you to relocate full-time outside the U.S. if this is your plan (for example, Simple does not). And, fees like Foreign Transaction Fee can add up, so check if you’re bank charges these types of international fees. Spend some time researching what bank will work best for you while traveling internationally. Discuss your needs with a representative before handing over the cash.

9) Buy Extra Electronics

You have a conference call in 10 minutes, but your computer is about to die; the power cord prong is bent and won’t work. How are you going to access that Google Doc to see your client’s proposal? Here’s the answer: you go back in time, think about what could go wrong and buy an extra power cord, battery, headset, phone charger and anything else you need to run your business consistently.

10) Join Online Networking Resources

Stepping into the unknown can be terrifying, but having support as you plan your journey can feel like the best kind of safety net. Check out these helpful resources: The Digital Nomad Empire is like the ultimate guidebook written by those in the know. Tons of digital nomad networks have been created such as NomadList, Nomad.Network and Web, Work, Travel.

Pursuing one dream doesn’t mean you have to give up on another. With planning and the right tools, you can live your dream of traveling the globe while building a business that you love. Who could ask for more?

The post 10 Things to Do Before Heading Off as Digital Nomad Entrepreneur appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

You may think that there is just no way you’ll ever get rid of all that paper and that going paperless isn’t for the type of business you run.

But this is 2017, and going paperless isn’t such a big deal as it once was. Numerous apps and gadgets make the transition easier and if you put just a little bit of effort into it, you too will be able to enjoy all the benefits of a paperless business.

EVALUATE YOUR CURRENT SITUATION

Firstly, do a thorough check of the paper that flows through your office and make adjustments. In every office there is a ton of unnecessary paper that just flows around. Make sure you:

• Opt out of any unnecessary mailing lists
• Switch to paying your bills electronically
• Reuse any paper that is already out and about and recycle anything that you can’t use

Though getting rid of a single piece of paper may not seem important, every small step in the right direction counts.

In order to make any real progress, you’ll have to be ruthless. Though it may seem that it is absolutely necessary to hold onto that specific bill or a note, but more often than not, it’s not true.

There is a simple rule to follow when throwing away stuff: when in doubt, get rid of it! At the beginning it does seem scary, but you’ll soon realize how satisfying it feels to de-clog your professional life.

A GOOD SCANNER IS YOUR BEST FRIEND

Once you’ve sorted things out, you will have to transfer all the relevant leftover paper data into an electronic version. This means you will have to invest in a scanner. If you regularly scan double-sided documents, a double side document scanner can offer speed, convenience, and efficiency.

Luckily, scanners nowadays are no longer expensive, nor do they take much space. An investment in a small, quick scanner that provides you with solid images won’t cost you too much. There are also scanners which are integrated with planning apps and digital filing cabinets, which is always useful!

Another necessary step you’ll have to take is to digitalize your signature. If you are running any kind of serious business, often times you have to sign a receipt, a delivery list, or any number of documents that regularly pass through an office.

Sign your signature clearly and scan it. That way, you’ll get a digital version of your signature so you’ll no longer have to print things out to sign them.

MAKE THE BEST OF AVAILABLE APPS

You will also have to think about how to manage your documentation. Cloud document management systems, like the versatile FolderIt, will allow you to share the documents among the employees, approve documents or workflows, set up notifications and reminders, search your documentation and much, much more.

Not only that, but if you opt for a cloud based solution, you will also be able to access all of your files remotely from any device that has internet access. You will no longer be confined to a single work space and you and your team will be able to do serious work wherever you are.

Don’t be afraid to utilize more than one app. Smart use of available technology will get you much further than just plainly managing your documents.

Apps will help you:

• Be productive and stay on track
• Collaborate more easily and with less paperwork
• Plan, strategize and organize
• Make networking easier
• Manage e-mails and much more

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A SOLID BACKUP

The good thing about paper is that it was palpable. Even if something got lost in the filing, 9 out of 10 times you were able to find it with a thorough search expedition.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the case with the electronic documentation. A dead hard drive will take your data to the grave with it. So make sure that everything that is important has a solid backup.

This also means you should inquire with your cloud service provider how protected your data is and what is their recovery policy if anything goes wrong (and if recovery is included in the price or will you have to pay extra).

DIGITAL NOTEPADS

You and your team will no longer be able to write down notes by hand. No more carrying around pens and pads, and scribbling down things in meetings.

Instead, you’ll have to utilize touch screen laptop, smartphones and tablets.

If investing in tablets for every member of your team is just too expensive for you, designate a person in every meeting that will take notes for everyone and distribute them to team members afterwards.

GOING PAPERLESS IS A TEAM EFFORT

One thing worth mentioning is that going paperless is not only about installing the apps and getting the necessary gadgets. It is about changing the work culture and a strong team effort. Everyone in the team will have to be up for making a change. This means that each and every member of your team will have to think twice before deciding to print out a document or writing down something instead of using a digital planner.

Experience has shown that the biggest problems small and medium businesses have when switching to a paperless work mode is not the lack of necessary tools or equipment, but the uncooperative workers who are deeply set in the way they’ve worked so far.

Getting everyone aboard and really standing behind the idea of a paperless office is crucial for success.

Explain to your teammates that the benefits are clear. They will be able to work faster and more efficient. A lot of money will be saved in the end while at the same time less clutter will be created and the work environment will be nicer. Searching for specific data or documentation will be faster and easier. And in the end, it all has a special plus of being positive for the environment (which also means that you can advertise your company as eco-friendly)!

So don’t be afraid to take the leap! It’s guaranteed you’ll be happy with the results of a paperless work environment.

The post It’s 2017 – Time To Go Paperless In Your Office appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

But we live in modern times now, and the spreadsheet, while it still has its place, is slowly becoming passé for many functions.

If you’re still relying on spreadsheets to organize data, manage finances, and keep on top of customer contacts, try these better solutions instead.

1. Invest in Accounting Software

Business schools still teach accounting using spreadsheets, and while understanding formulas may be necessary for MBA students, it’s not required for you as a busy entrepreneur. Spreadsheets become unwieldy after a certain point, and they can’t do even half of what good accounting software can.

For example, platforms like QuickBooks let you invoice clients and receive payments, sync your bank account info with your accounting system, and generate reports without spending hours in a spreadsheet.

2. Manage Customer Data

Staying on top of who your customers are, what they’re buying, and your communications with them requires more than a spreadsheet. In days gone by, you’d simply have contact details in a spreadsheet, but today, customer relationship management platforms like Insightly let you do so much more than that.

Need to find an email to a client? It’s right there in your contact file. Want to assign a follow-up call to your sales rep? Some CRM platforms have project management features baked in. Thanks to today’s CRM technology, we’ve moved away from passive customer contact to more active and integrative software, and that’s good news for all.

3. Create a Better Content Calendar

As blogging and social media have taken a more important role in marketing campaigns, we’ve seen a move toward using content calendars to organize efforts across different media. Spreadsheets have come in handy, though they require a lot of legwork to set up and manage.

A better way to get visibility into the calendar view of your content and social media is content calendar software. Brands like CoSchedule have developed sophisticated platforms that integrate with tools like WordPress and social media, and that give you the big picture view of the types of content you have scheduled.

4. Manage Projects Smarter

If you work with a team and use a spreadsheet to stay on top of assignments, you know that doing so usually requires more energy than it’s worth. You’ve got multiple people accessing the spreadsheet, and sometimes people can delete the wrong entries or not see notes they need to complete a project.

Project management platforms like Asana let you assign tasks to team member, communicate on projects, share files, and set deadlines. Nothing slips through the cracks!

We must give props to spreadsheets. After all, they lay the foundation for the technology that followed. But when there is a better solution, why not use it? Today’s software industry is chock full of innovative solutions that can make your life and your work much, much easier.

The post 4 Innovative Ways to Organize Data (NOT Using Spreadsheets!) appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

If you use a time tracking service then this is absolutely possible. At the same time, you can also more effectively schedule tasks and make invoicing and payroll run more smoothly. But, with so many options, which services should you look into? Here are ten suggested service to get you started.

1. Due

Known for it’s intuitive dashboard and professionally designed invoice templates, Due.com also comes equipped with a powerful tool that’s perfect for freelancers and small business owners. The tool keeps track of every minute that you and your team spend on a task. The timer also comes in the form of a pop out widget so that you’re free to browse around other sites and work on other tasks.

Due.com is a free signup site, and also integrates with third party sites like PayPal, QuickBooks, and Basecamp.

2. Toggl

Toggl is lauded for being one of the simplest time tracking tools available. How easy? Just signup, click start on the clock, and hit stop once you’ve completed your task. Toggl records the session time and then allows you to describe the assignments. You can use this information to create reports for your clients when it’s time to invoice them for your services.

Toggl integrates with Basecamp, Asana, Freshbooks, and Zapier. The basic plan is free, but there are also paid plans at either $9 or $49 per month.

3. Harvest

Harvest is a popular time tracking app for freelancers and small business owners since 2006 thanks to having top notch reporting options. For example, a project manager can open up the dashboard and easily review the status of a user, client, project, budget, or subtasks. When you switch to “Day” view, you can add daily sessions and begin the clock and even sends automatic reminders to team members to submit timesheets.

Harvest integrates with Basecamp, Trello, Asana, Quickbooks, and Xero. Flexible monthly plans start at a free basic option to $99 per month.

4. Timely

Unlike most other time tracking services, Timely focuses more in being a weekly planner. This means that you fill out your daily or weekly schedule first and then use the timer to record the time spent on a various projects. Timely doesn’t record start and stop times, instead it records the length of a session and the date that it was recorded.

Timely integrates with calendars like iCloud, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo and offers either a free plan or more robust option for $14/month.

5. Paymo

Paymo is more than just a time tracking tool. It’s also a solid project management app that allows business owners to manage their teams, create invoices, and review reports like timesheets. As for the time tracking app, it’s an easy-to-use timer where you simply create a project, task, notes, and then hit the start button. Paymo also comes with an automatic time tracking app that will run in the background of your computer and monitors your activity.

The Paymo app can be used on mobile devices or desktops. There’s a free version, but for access to all of the features you’ll have to select either the $4.95 or $9.95 monthly option.

6. TimeCamp

TimeCamp was specifically designed to assist teams with time tracking. That’s pretty much it. However, this easy-to-use tool comes packed with features ranging from one-click/automatic tracking, reporting tools, to-do-lists, and timesheet approval. It also integrates with Podio, Basecamp, Trello, Asana, Wunderlist, and QuickBooks.

There is a free option, but most business owners will have to select either Basic ($6) or Pro ($9) monthly options.

7. Paydirt

Paydirt is another service that provides online invoicing, business reports, and team management tools. But, the Paydirt time tracking feature is one of the more unique options available. It automatically determines the client you’re working for and then starts tracking the hours you’re putting in automatically. There’s also a one-click time tracking feature, the opportunity to start a timer if you already started, and works on any web page or mobile app.

Starter plans begin at $8 per month and go up to $149 for agencies.

8. Bill4Time

This service actually lets you select your industry, such as Legal, Accounting, Architects, Freelancers, or just small business owners in general, so that the company can determine how to assist you better. Overall, Bill4Time comes with one-click timers, one screen batch time entry, and the ability to sync appointments so that you simplify your billing.

Pricing varies depending on your industry, but the average price is $15/month.

9. Timesheets

With this cloud-based service you can view the real-time totals on your employee’s timecard. This includes hourly and project timesheets, as well as mileage and expenses so that you can quickly identify billable and unbillable hours. There’s also a GPS tracker if you really want to keep tabs on your team. It also integrates with Quickbooks so that you can quickly invoice clients.

The monthly price is based on how many employees you have. If you’re working solo, Timesheets is free. But, if you have 20 users, for example, you’ll be charged $90 per month.

10. Deputy

With Deputy you can quickly and easily verify employee timesheets with reliable time-tracking software. The software is extremely user friendly and easy to learn, both for employees and HR staff. Breaks are even trackable with an easy toggle option.

Like many other services, pricing varies depending on the amount of users you have. The starting price is $4.50 per user per month. If you are a small team, though, Deputy does offer a free option where you can approve 100 timesheets. This option comes with less features, but it provides you an opportunity to test out the platform. 

The post 10 Time Tracking Services for Small-Business Owners appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

If you focus on each individual, you’ll end up perceiving retention as this formula full of fine details where even the tiniest misstep can completely ruin your vibe. The truth is that customer retention—at least in the initial stages of growth—involves painting with the broadest strokes possible. Get too caught up in the details, and you’ll spend too much time on minutiae to run your business efficiently.

Repeat customers are the lifeblood of small businesses, with about a third of them reporting that 71-90% of their customers visit more than once per year and 70% of their profits come from their loyal customer base. Once you’ve gathered steam, you have to know how to keep it without blowing it all out. Here are a couple of guidelines that will create an environment that’s conducive to that kind of momentum:

Show Your Expertise

Let’s suppose you’re running a hardware shop and you don’t know how a rotary-percussion drill works. That would leave a horrible impression on customers even if they themselves don’t know this information. The moment someone walks up to you, they come with the expectation that you’re the authority on everything you’re offering.

Make sure that any employees you hire have a passion for what it is you offer. They should be willing to walk up to customers and assist them even when such assistance wasn’t requested. Interacting with people who represent a business makes it feel more “alive”. Even if you’re selling hammers, your customers want to feel like they also bought a service. They want to value the time that they spent with you.

Don’t Be Shy About Social Media

Surely your idea of running a business 10 years ago didn’t involve spending time on the laptop or tablet typing up tweets, did it? Oh, how times have changed! Almost half the world’s population is connected to the internet, which gives you a potential reach that stretches far beyond your local area.

Keep in mind that buying ads on social media has its uses, but it only takes you so far. People on the web pay more attention when you speak with them directly and give them a line with which they can reach you anytime. Facebook is great for this since it allows people with accounts to send your business page a message that you can reply to. Twitter on the other hand is great for inserting your brand into conversations. Get active on the web and see where it takes you. People who like your attitude will feel as if they “fit in” with your business culture. When others see that you are responsive to messages, they’re more likely to send you one, too. It’s up to you if you want to take advantage of the potential snowball effect.

Organize Your Background Processes

The modern-day small business runs on coffee and technology. The days of the “mom and pop” shop that closed at odd hours of the day to do its inventory and get its papers in order were left behind back in 2011.

Today, we are overwhelmed with the sheer amount of applications we need to keep everything running smoothly. Having most day-to-day functions handy in your point of sale system would not only ease this burden, but also keep your customers’ data safe. Modern POS systems offer you the possibility of introducing reward systems like loyalty cards and give you access to a variety of payment systems that anticipate any needs a customer might have.

Modernizing your infrastructure no longer requires the large investment it did back in the early 2010s and most applications now mold themselves around your business model. You now have a plethora of options that can give customers more incentive to return while at the same time improving their overall experience during visits. This two-pronged strategy provides you with the synergy you need to keep people coming to your door.

Reward Your Most Loyal Customers

Loyal customers often have a tendency to spend more. The 80-20 rule comes to mind, which states that 80 percent of your revenue will come from 20 percent of your customers. They’ve stuck with you and have given you the largest chunk of your revenue. Perhaps it’s time to think about how you can reward that.

By providing a reward, you’re giving your customers a clear signal that you appreciate their patronage. That may provide just the incentive they need to stick with you through the long run. Perhaps you can give them a discount on their next purchase or provide them with a higher-tiered loyalty program with which they can save more as they make larger purchases. Whatever you do has to be sufficiently memorable enough for you to have a reasonable expectation that the customer will come more often.

It’s All About The Experience

Customer retention goes hand-in-hand with quality of experience. If your customers walk out with warm, fuzzy feelings, they’re more likely to put your business in their “mental speed-dial”. This makes them more likely to think about your brand the next time they need something you have to offer. Rewarding loyalty will solidify the relationship you have with your customers, establishing a bond that gets more difficult to break as time passes. Building upon that increases your customer retention and makes life easier for everyone!

The post How to Become a Customer Retention Guru appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Greater Investment in Leading Database Technologies

Unless you have buried yourself in huge volumes of old data for the past few years, you already know that more businesses are now committing more investments to fast-growing database technologies like NoSQL and Hadoop. Top-tier companies and middle-sized enterprises alike are pumping more and more money into these database technologies.

Based on a technology that uses distributed file systems to enable running of computing jobs on multiple servers, the use of Hadoop has increased significantly in the last couple of years. Businesses now have an opportunity to say it loud with this new-generation database technology. The surge is even greater on NoSQL, a system that offers scalable substitution to the traditional relational database systems. In the past year alone, venture funding for Hadoop companies rose by 50%. At this rate, you can expect even more.

Greater Market for Big Data

What has fuelled the recent interest and intensive investment in more reliable databases? For an entrepreneur who is still considering his options, it is worth asking this question. Until the early 2000’s, the big data market seemed dull and less commercialised. Databases were simply for references and backups. Many businesses did not consider it necessary to analyse and store some information sources. Take, for instance, log data and sensor data. Very few people thought useful insight could stem from such data. A couple of years down the line, companies are beating each other off in building databases and other software systems to harness and analyse such data. What has changed? An experienced dba consultant will admit to you that the average entrepreneur has learnt and now appreciate the importance of information.

A run for their money

Several other people have realised the importance of reliable databases, not just businesses. Today, many enterprising firms are finding their way into the already competitive database technology market. Take, for instance, Splice Machine. In the recent past, it has introduced new database designs suitable for solving every day emerging computing problems. This database is based on SQL usage, which is a common formula for query databases. If you are to have a closer look at their models, you won’t be wrong to say that they are giving dominant giants like Oracle a run for their money.

There is a tremendous shift in the IT industry and many innovators are sailing in to capitalise on this. According to Splice Machine, they are in the industry to provide solutions to businesses with a surging need for huge databases. However, that’s not all. They aim to enable businesses to run databases on more affordable commodity servers. Already, the velocity and volume of data streaming into many companies’ servers is more than what can be handled by the currently available relational database management systems.

Why Invest in Reliable Databases?

The fact that the database technology industry is getting more competitive can only mean one thing; it is bound to get even better. Besides the common players like Microsoft, IBM, and Oracle, many other service providers will step in to develop systems that offer better solutions to the ever-present computing systems. If past businesses have benefited from investment in databases before, there is much more to gain including but not limited to:

Advanced Planning of Marketing Campaigns

Already, businesses are taking advantage of big data from their databases to revolutionize their marketing strategies. With detailed information on customers, it is possible to segment them based on their interests. This goes a long way in targeting the right customers.

Enhanced Product Development

Thanks to latest-generation databases, it is now easier to collect more data on product reviews. With customers being more open and willing to share their experiences with products and services, nothing can prove better for businesses than harnessing such information and using it for product redevelopment. Businesses can therefore modify their products based on appropriate analysis of the concerns voiced by customers. Only reliable databases can guarantee easy access to such information.

Easier Exploration

For any business to succeed, it must strive to gain access to new markets with each passing day. However successful an enterprise is, it will not remain profitable unless it explores new markets. With a reliable database,getting the response of customers from various areas is easy. Based on the results, a company can easily decide whether to move into a new area or modify their product further before penetrating some markets. Today, in-memory databases help in collecting tones of data from different customers across various platforms.

Enhanced Communication to Customers

Staying in touch with customers is one effective way of promoting relations and enhancing the growth of brands. With customers’ information, you will be able to stay in touch through wishes, reminders, and routine promotions. Coupled with analysis tools, it is easier for an enterprise to establish what most of their consumers are browsing and their likes, thereby communicating to them on various platforms based on their needs. The result is effective communication strategies which if employed perfectly can result in extensive brand awareness. In the end, you will become more vocal about your enterprise.

Conclusion

Essential data generated from huge databases have the power to make bigger changes in the market. If used extensively alongside business analytics, entrepreneurs can expect to reap big from reliable databases. If you have never given the idea of investing in huge, reliable database a second thought, now is the time!

The post Why it is the Right Time for Entrepreneurs to Invest in Reliable Databases appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Technology is the prime mover of that change in almost every industry—and the restaurant industry is no exception. Restaurants can no longer measure their success just by the quality of their food. So much more is involved. They have to improve guest experience, hire the right employees, provide proper restaurant training materials to employees, install striking and eye-catching Restaurant Signs, and make the best business decisions possible to stay competitive. Technology can help with those things—and much more, as you’ll see below. All you have to do is embrace it. Here are 5 ways technology is improving the restaurant industry in the 21st century.

1. Create New Revenue Streams

Technology opens up new profit streams that were, perhaps, out of reach before recent years. In fact, technology can open up new profit streams that didn’t even exist just 10 short years ago. Take delivery for example. Sure, this service has existed for a long time, but it hasn’t always been a viable option for many restaurants. Startups like Ubereats and ChowNow are changing all that.

Instead of relying solely on bringing the customers to the food, restaurants can now take the food to the customer. These novel technologies can also be used to promote your menu in places that it otherwise wouldn’t be seen, boost volume, keep operations smooth, and impress customers—all important variables in the equation to increase profits.

2. Make Better Business Decisions

In the past, making good business decisions was often hit or miss. Managers and owners relied on experience or a gut feeling to get things done. Now, though, technology takes a lot of the guesswork out of making important decisions.

Restaurants have so much data available at the touch of a few buttons, that all it takes is a bit of reading and analysis to make better business decisions. Take Avero’s technology for example. In addition to helping managers analyze marketing and finances by harnessing their data, it helps restaurateurs improve guest experience by tracking customer preferences, past visits, and promotions. This provides a 360-degree view of what’s going on inside and around your restaurant and helps you make the best business decisions possible.

3. Provide The Best Experience For Guests

The restaurant industry is all about guest experience. We put a lot of effort into how our restaurant looks, the image we display, and the food that we serve. But once that’s done and our doors are open, we may only focus on the latter. Improving guest experience is about so much more. It’s about knowing your customers by name, keeping track of vital information like birthdays, allergies, and dietary restrictions, and making the dining experience as smooth and enjoyable as possible.

This process often required multiple customer visits and relied on flawed human memory. But with new technologies like Resy, data can be discreetly gathered by servers and host staff through conversations and observations on the very first visit, stored in the cloud, and be made instantly available on the customer’s next visit…even if they’re visiting a different location. That’s a guest experience unlike any other.

4. Recruit The Best Employees

Recruiting good employees has long been dependent on the local talent pool. If your restaurant was in a small market, you may have just a few good employees to choose from. If your restaurant was in a large market, you may have lots of good employees to choose from. Technology is changing all that.

With job boards like Snagajob and Recruiter, the playing field has been leveled. Now, restaurants in any market can pull from every other market. So a restaurant in a small market like Fort Wayne, Indiana can now recruit employees from a large market like New York City or Los Angeles. Interviews can now be done “face to face” via Skype or Facetime so recruiting from all over the country (or all over the world) becomes a reality.

5. Automate Time-Consuming Tasks

The restaurant business is rife with time-consuming tasks that must get done for everything to flow smoothly. But these tasks are often not the best use of a manager’s time. Jobs like scheduling and communicating with employees distract from the more important work of providing a good guest experience and marketing effectively. New restaurant technologies can automate these time-consuming tasks and reduce the time required to get them done. That gives manager’s more time to focus on the more important issues that their restaurants face on a daily basis.

Employee scheduling, for example, is one of those time-consuming tasks that all managers contend with. New apps like Sling can help make short work of even the trickiest schedule. These apps allow you to set up shifts, manage time-off requests, confirm availability, deal with shift-trade requests, and handle unexpected changes all with one cloud-based tool. Many of them even offer alerts to help you avoid scheduling conflicts, double bookings, and overtime issues. By streamlining the scheduling process, new technology gives managers more time to focus on the restaurant itself rather than the small details that keep it running.

The post How Technology Is Changing The Restaurant Industry appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Attendees interacted with cutting-edge technology related to music, video, and gaming, and listened to thought-provoking sessions like “How VR Could Change the Way We Do Everything,” “You’re Secure but Is Your Workplace?” and “What It Means to Build an Open Source Culture.” But the real treat for small business owners was the ability to connect with Dell representatives to learn how technology can help them grow.

Interview with @Erik_M_Day at the 2017 @SXSW @Dell Experience: #tech advice for #smallbiz.
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At The Experience, I caught up with Erik Day, Vice President & GM, North America Small Business at Dell Technologies. He spoke about the excitement of being able to connect with customers at SXSW and the fact that Dell is much more than just products.

“The great thing about Dell is that we really are an end-to-end solution provider for customers,” said Erik.

As always, you can access the full interview by clicking Play below.

Before I said goodbye to explore other parts of SXSW (more video interviews and articles to come!) I asked Erik to share his advice for small business owners. Here are his tips:

(1) No question is a dumb question.

At Dell, they understand that technology isn’t what keeps you up at night as you focus on getting the next customer and creating the next product. Their team is ready to answer ANY technology questions you might have.

(2) Move forward with the cloud.

The cloud is a big buzz word right now, although some may not even know what it is. That’s okay! Not only can they answer your questions (see point #1), they can help you with everything you need to create a cloud computing environment and explain what it means to the future of your business.

(3) Security is important.

The backbone of your company is your customer base. Keeping your customer data protected is a vital part of business growth.

(4) Financing is available.

Dell works with customers to provide financing and lines of credit so your technology needs are covered, and your capital can go to finding the next customer, product, or innovation.

To learn more about Erik, Dell, and The Experience, watch the video above…and stay tuned for  more SXSW coverage in the days and weeks to come.

The post The Experience: Dell Showcases the Power of Technology at SXSW 2017 appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Are you setting them up for success? With these four tips and tools, you can improve workflows and make your team more productive.

1. Take the Project Management Out of Email

Project management is a huge time suck. You have to break down large jobs into small tasks and then dole them out to the respective team members. That’s not the hard part. What’s more difficult is tracking deadlines, who’s finished what, and the progress completed.

There are several free tools to manage projects for IT teams in small businesses.

One great platform is Trello. Trello is a project management app accessible on both the computer and on mobile devices. No matter where your team members are, they can access updates about specific projects, see deadlines, find the tasks assigned specifically to them, and get moving. Under each project you can use lists to track each team member’s progression, and assign individual tasks to the person responsible.

Asana is another project management tool ideal for team members. This tool has its own mobile app so team members can log in anywhere, anytime. There is a small learning curve, which shouldn’t be a hindrance for your IT team. Once you get your projects up and running, it’s easy to use.

2. Collaborate Virtually

These days, there’s no reason IT teams need to come together in a conference room to hash out projects that need completing. Save your team hours on drive times by collaborating virtually.

GoToMeeting is a great collaboration tool for bringing geographically diverse teams together online. Send each team member the login link and when you expect them to be on screen, and away you go. You can share your screen, connect on video for a face-to-face feel, or even mute teams if they need to keep working while listening to your message.

Skype is another great tool for connecting virtually. This offers the same features (albeit a little less robust) as GoToMeeting, without the price tag.

3. Share the Big Picture

IT teams tend to focus on problem solving. It’s rare they’re in the trenches with the overall strategy of the business, and that could be a lost opportunity. By looping them in via your customer relationship management (CRM) tool, you can show the importance of their work in keeping the customers happy and dollars flowing into the business.

Insightly is commonly used by small businesses to manage customer concerns with IT departments. Customer relationships teams connect directly with the people in the IT department who can resolve issues with checking out online, problems with the website, or other IT related difficulties. The IT department can see the conversation and have full insight into what the customer needs fixed. This saves hours eliminating the middleman and getting customers’ needs resolved quickly.

4. Allow Virtual Work

Today’s workforce should be less centered on when and where the person is working but whether the employee is getting the job done. This is especially true in the world of IT.

Most IT jobs can be done virtually, which means you can offer your team a tremendous perk by allowing them to work anywhere. Still, as a business, you want to track what’s happening and how many hours your team is spending on IT tasks.

Toggl is a free tool that can help you see the breakdown in hours for your IT team. Using this tool can help you get deeper insight into your IT member’s day than if he was in your office working. It tracks time spent on specific tasks so you can see exactly what’s draining his hours and assess where he could be better utilized in the company.

Time Savings Starts With Tools

Technology today continues to advance in a way that allows you to spend less time on administrative tasks and more time getting work done. By using these tools in your business, you set your team up to be more productive and more effective without working overtime.

The post 4 Time-Saving Tricks to Manage IT Teams appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Public computers are found in a range of places, including libraries, schools and universities, cafes, and more. Free public Wi-Fi hotspots are also popping up all around us, including restaurants.

These public internet access points get used extensively and as per the Fifth Geek blog you should be carefully when using them if you have sensitive data.

In fact, in 2010 a national study found that 77 million people – that is one-third of the American population 14 and older – used a public library computer or wireless network to access the Internet within the past year. Researchers found that over 75 percent of these people had Internet access elsewhere but used the public computer for convenience.

That convenience comes with a price. Using a public computer can put your data at risk, including usernames, passwords, and other private information. Hackings of public computers frequently make the news, including just recently as the St. Louis Public Library system was hacked and held for ransom on January 19. 2017. And while there are no estimates of how often hacking occurs on public Wi-FI, we do know it is eerily simple for an experienced hacker.

This brings me to my latest Tech and Business video where I share four tips to keep your info safe when using a public computer, which can be fixed at whitcroft it. I will share the essential tips below, but please watch the video for more valuable information.

1. Don’t save your login information.
2. Use private browsing.
3. Be careful what you enter.
4. Choose technology that has security software built in.

The post 4 Tips for Staying Safe on a Public Computer appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Video.

Video humanizes your brand and builds trust.  There are countless tips to use video for your business if you aren’t sure where to begin. Video boosts conversions and sales and shows great return on investment.  Plus, Google loves videos – your business is 53 times more likely to show up first in Google if you have a video embedded on your website, according to Moovly.

Credit Management.

If you have poor credit, you aren’t doomed. It is never too late to find ways to build strong business credit.  It’s smart to use a credit-monitoring service to monitor your credit to ensure you don’t lose money to fraudulent activity.  Make sure to open your credit statements as soon as they come in the mail and review the statement carefully. Most small business owners aren’t accountants and often fail to realize how important managing business credit is to the success of their business. Hence it is highly recommended to contact the personal tradelines to manage your credit.

Social media and blogging.

Social media sites are the perfect place to showcase your business, products and services. It’s also the place where brands and customers can have meaningful conversations and build a real relationship, which leads to customer loyalty.

Blogging is the ideal way to speak to and engage with your target audience. It gives you the unique opportunity to inject your personality into your blog posts and provide valuable insight to prove yourself as a thought leader in your industry. These actions will help your business acquire more customers.

Security

Thе uѕе оf HID access cards hаѕ bееn prevalent nowadays, аѕ mоrе companies realized thе benefits thеу соuld gеt оut оf іt. Sized like a credit card, thе access card works nоt just аѕ аn identification tool but іt саn аlѕо validate аnd store data. Thе HID card саn аlѕо bе uѕе fоr different application processes. Alѕо referred tо аѕ smart cards by some companies like Smart Card Store, thе HID cards саn аlѕо bear a photo оf thе wearer fоr added security аnd аnу оthеr information typically seen іn аn ID card. Aside frоm thаt, thіѕ small plastic card hаѕ embedded electronics like a microchip, custom barcode labels оr magnetic stripes. Thіѕ feature іѕ whаt makes іt different frоm уоur typical company ID.

Customer service.

More customers than ever are turning to social media to get their customers service requests answered.  Make sure someone checks your accounts regularly – your consumers expect you to be able to help them promptly when they have questions or problems related to your products or services. I. Remember that today, customer service is more important than pricing. Customer service needs to be at the heart of your business model if you want to be successful.

Invoicing software.

Track time, request online payments, and create recurring invoices with invoicing software. Save yourself time and effort and ensure invoicing is done correctly every single time.  Nothing looks as unprofessional as bad invoicing – and it’s essential to come across as a professional at every touchpoint so you don’t lose your customers.

Online payment services.

It was reported that 66 percent of mobile users carried out at least one form of transaction in 2015.  By giving customers the choice to pay in a way other than cash, check and credit card, you can capture more sales. Electronic payments can make the process of getting paid convenient for both the small business owner and the customer.  This form is payment is one that will be big in the future due to the convenience and security of the method.

Email marketing.

Email marketing is a great way to send people the content that they want. You can use email marketing to build credibility and strengthen relationships – people prefer to do business with those they like, know and trust. Email marketing is also a great way to get in touch with people on any device – something that is crucial now that more than half of all emails are being opened on a mobile device.

Running a small business is no easy feat – it’s often you and a few trusted members of your team working diligently around the clock. Turn to technology to help you build your business, take better care of your customers and streamline your operations.

What ways has technology improved the flow of your small business?

The post 7 Ways to Use Technology to Efficiently Run Your Small Business appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

What is VoIP

voice over ip line is a technology which enables you to make phone calls over the internet as opposed to using traditional phone lines. Rather than having to worry about long distance charges and other hefty costs, many VoIP services enable you to make cheap phone calls for either pennies on the dollar, or a low flat rate. A few other helpful features provided by these voice services include voicemail, call waiting, call forwarding, a web based control panel, voicemail received as email, and much more.

One of the primary requirements for VoIP systems are a high speed internet connection such as Cable, DSL, T1, or even satellite connections. Aside from that, you might need an adapter, but that’s about it.

Assess your business needs

Unlike landlines and traditional phone services which require you to fit a standard mold, VoIP systems are engineered to work around your needs. Below is just a brief sampling of the configuration options you can choose from when purchasing VoIP services.

Freelancers

If you’re a freelancer working at home, your VoIP connection will likely share a digital line with your internet connection. Business phone lines should always have a dedicated internet connection or else calls might become garbled when people are streaming media, playing games, or just browsing the web on their computers. If you live in a rural area, you should look into whether the connection relies on the internet or goes straight to the phone provider. While a direct connection is likely to be more expensive, the quality is going to be noticeably better.

Startups

When you’re in the startup stages, doing more with less often is one of the biggest challenges you can face in your day to day operations. With VoIP systems, if you’re just starting out, you might want to consider only using software phones (e.g. apps for mobile devices or calling through the computer), or you can also purchase a couple of standard household phones and connect them to your system. Just remember that you should have at least one line for each phone along with an extra for customers who are placed on hold.

Businesses

In addition to the previously mentioned features and functionality, a key staple of business VoIP systems is the prescience of a PBX (Private Branch Exchange) system. With a PBX, your business is able to route calls from a central receptionist and make it possible for multiple people to use the same phone lines (helpful if you have ten employees or so and only five lines). Additionally, the systems enable employees to forward calls to other extensions and place customers on hold as needed.

How VoIP compares to alternatives

As per some of the VoIP providers calling via internet is much cheaper and easier Compared to landlines, VoIP systems are noticeably cheaper than comparative landline packages. For example, some estimates put the cost of five VoIP lines (with call waiting, caller ID, call forwarding) at $232.92/month while a similar configuration from a traditional landline provider can cost $467.20 a month. On average you can expect VoIP services to cost between $30 to $60 a month depending on the features along with taxes.  

Budget Friendly VoIP Options

The great thing about VoIP technologies today are that there’s a variety of options to fit virtually any budget out there. Most providers price subscriptions on a per-line basis at an average cost of $30 to $60 a month after taxes and fees are added. VoIP phone headsets can run from $50 on the low end to a few hundred dollars depending on the features you require.  There’s no installation costs associated with these services since they’re an additional layer on top of your internet connection.

If you’re looking to use VoIP for freelance operations or as a solopreneur, a good starter option for you is to setup Google Voice. The main reason for this is mainly because it enables you to easily add a second number to your mobile devices. You can even take calls through your laptop or tablet if the need ever arises. Google Voice is free to use however it’s not designed to replace your existing phone service. Rather it’s designed to enable you to take calls via existing connections.

Scaling to Your Needs

As mentioned earlier, VoIP systems are engineered to fit your needs rather than the other way around. With this in mind, you can start small with a couple of lines and scale up as needed. Most services use simple per-line pricing so you’ll never have to worry again about unexpected costs.

The post How to Setup VoIP on a Budget – Internet Telephony appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Sometimes there’s so much to do, and so many hats to wear that I’ve found myself wishing for more hours in the day. So how can we get the most work done without losing your bearings? Easy. By stocking an arsenal of reliable productivity tools.

Here’s a few.

Todoist: one tool to rule them all

Why use ten tools when one integrates them all? Todoist carries over 10+ integrations across different platforms. This lets you manage tasks and projects anywhere, anytime inside a single app. Online or offline.

Asana: keep all of your tasks in one place

Our team loves to keep their to-do lists in a single place. Having a holistic overview of all the things you need to do (personal and professional) is one of the best ways we’ve found to our manage time. Keep those lists is Asana. It works great for teams and individuals. It also has amazing integrations that help you improve your workflow.

SaneBox: keep a sane mind

Achieving “inbox zero” might seem hardcore, because not a lot of people have the tenacity to follow through. Because staying organized requires focus and dedication, especially if you’re subscribed to tons of newsletters like me. (I have a serious case of FOMO.) SaneBox, like the name suggests, keeps your mind sane by cleaning your inbox and snoozing emails for later.

Feedly: find the best content

Reading and browsing for inspiration are some of my favorite things to do. Whether it’s on Pocket or my Twitter feed. The downside? Finding great content can be difficult if you don’t have an enterprise content management system. That’s why Feedly is my go-to source. It allows me to carefully curate lists based on my interests—making the process of discovering, reading, and monitoring content a simple task in my daily routine.

Hootsuite: monitor your brand

Monitoring your brand is a big part of managing how people perceive your company. Need help with that? Enter Hootsuite. This tool lets you view several social media streams at the same time. From mentions, to direct messages, to scheduled tweets—Making it awesome for a social media team, customer success departments, and support channels.

My favorite feature? Bulk uploads. Being able to upload tweets for several different purposes is very helpful. Mostly because we can take care of that task at the beginning of the week and not worry about it until the next. Saving a lot of time.

Next steps:

Let’s be honest, multitasking is innate to our career as digital marketers. Tools can help. Your challenge? Setting goals, getting organized, and making these tools work for you.

The post 5 Tools To Help You Get the Most Work Done appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

As flexible as this model is, there are still some challenges. The biggest one? Keeping teams on the same page when they lack daily face-to-face interaction. Here are a few tips, tricks, and tools to keep remote teams productively organized and working efficiently.

Project Management

Step number one to getting your team more organized is to get yourself more organized.

If your project management is taking place in your (and your team’s) inbox, you’re in trouble. Emails can easily get accidentally deleted, buried, and ignored. No matter how organized your inbox might feel, your team’s email might not be as well put together. It’s easy for a task to get lost in the shuffle and ignored.

When you have multiple people working on pieces of a project, you’re juggling due dates and assignments. When you need to bring someone new into the mix, you have to start from scratch explaining all of the project details. This takes time and you risk forgetting important details, which could lead to communication breakdown.

To speed things along while at the same time keeping everyone on track with what’s happening, you need a project management tool.

Basecamp is one of the first web-based project management tools. It has seen several iterations over its existence, evolving each time to meet today’s remote work styles. In it, you can set up several different projects, assign tasks to other users (even if they don’t have their own Basecamp account), assign due dates, track conversations, upload files and more. It keeps everything for the project central in one place so you remain organized and efficient.

Basecamp comes with a price tag. The more projects you have, the more expensive it gets. Many small businesses prefer to use one of the free, but very robust, project management tools available.

Trello is perhaps the most simple of the free ones, yet also the most powerful. This drag-and-drop tool lets you create boards for projects, cards for tasks and lists to keep it all organized. It takes a little bit of creativity to set it up for your specific work project, but once you’re going, it’s easy to track who is doing what and when items are due.

Communication Software

Another way to take communication out of the inbox and into a more organized location is with communication software.

Slack is one of the most popular choices for communicating via text with large groups of people. This free chat tool incorporates popular social media communication tools into an internal company communication tool. For example, you can use the @ sign to comment to a specific person. Or, you can use hashtags to organize your conversations. It’s fast to learn and easy to use.

Customer Relationship Management

When was the last time you reached out to your customer? Who was the last point-of-contact with your customer from your company? Do you have a lot of leads sitting in the pipeline waiting to be nurtured without anyone from your company taking charge and reaching out?

A customer relationship management (CRM) tool tracks all of this and more.

If you have remote sales teams, a CRM is invaluable. It lets hungry salesmen know when there’s a hot lead ready to buy. It also ensures a smooth experience for your customer, which helps brand your business as one that’s put together, organized and on the ball.

Beyond sales teams, a CRM can help other departments do their jobs better. For example, marketing departments often times tap into a CRM to do customer research and come up with new campaigns. By having a CRM in place, remote teams don’t have to wait on someone else to respond to an email. Instead, the information they need is at their disposal.

Insightly is one of the most robust small business CRMs. In it, you can pull quick reports to send to other departments, see at a glance who has connected with hot leads and how long it’s been since someone reached out to a customer, review notes about each customer and more. It also has built-in project management tools, which can simplify communication between customer information and tasks.  It keeps every client relationship organized so everyone, regardless of distance, can know what’s happening and how they can better serve your customers.

Video Meeting Software

Even in the constantly connected world we live in and the wealth of communication tools available, distance can lead to disconnect. It’s times like these that it’s beneficial to suit up and sit “face-to-face” for meetings.

There are several video meeting tools to facilitate the reconnection.

If you’re meeting with a small group of people, a quick video call on Skype can suffice. Skype is free and allows you to share your screen and/or share your webcam.

For larger teams, you might want a more robust meeting point online. GoToMeeting is a popular choice because it too has quite a few capabilities. For example, you can share presentations, cameras, allow participants to raise their hand to speak, encourage conversation in the chat box without worry of people talking over each other. GoToMeeting was built for remote teams, while Skype was originally built for more basic face-to-face connections.

Either tool will work. The goal is to get your eyes peering into the eyes of your team so you can reestablish that connection and rekindle the fire in everyone’s belly, even from afar.

Setting Your Team Up for Success

It’s not easy to manage a team of people across a wide distance. Set yourself up for success with a project management tool and CRM. Then, keep the connection strong by using video meeting software to shorten the distance and maintain that face-to-face interaction. Doing this will keep your team engaged and focused, helping you see bigger results from your remote workers.

The post All Around The World: Keeping Remote Teams Organized appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

How can a small business use open source software to stay ahead of their competition?

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

1. Customize It to Your Needs 

Proprietary software can be restrictive in evolving industries. Open source software gives small businesses access to affordable software that can grow with their company and can be customized to their specific needs. Because the money made off of open source software is support driven, the programmers are unbiased, less expensive, and easier to work with.

– Hillary Hobson, Highest Cash Offer

2. Get Products on the Market Faster 

Cloud infrastructure and open source software give businesses a head start, allowing them to prototype, test, and get products to market faster and with less expense. Of course, their competitors have access to the same tools, so it’s the quality of the ideas and their execution that really matters — cloud and open source facilitate the journey from idea to product.

– Justin Blanchard, ServerMania Inc.

3. Give Developers Specific Feedback 

If you embrace the culture of “make it work while you work,” which is essentially what makes open source so beneficial, providing developers with feedback and suggestions allows you to almost design the software specifically for your business. It means that with a few tweaks, an unpopular piece of software can become the next Google Docs.

– Cody McLain, SupportNinja

4. Enhance Deliverables to Clients 

One of the best uses of open source software when it comes to enhancing client deliverables is Google Charts. Providing robust visuals, like graphs and bar charts, will not only maximize the value of your services but will also help you stay ahead of the competition. Whenever possible, you should use open source software to take your product or service to the next level of quality.

– Kristopher Jones, LSEO.com

5. Don’t Reinvent the Wheel 

We’re focused on delivering a great product, and open source software lets us focus on solving the problems that matter to us rather than reinventing the wheel in every aspect of our software. Using open source software also allows us to tap into a huge community of developers that are advancing the software we use every day, which ensures we stay on top of the curve.

– Jayna Cooke, EVENTup

6. Leverage Existing APIs 

There are some incredible open source platforms out there that developers can customize to speed up development time and tailor existing workflows. Don’t just rely on open source software; build on it using the APIs of other apps or tools that you use. There’s no limit to what you can create to automate workflows and improve processes by leveraging and streamlining what’s already available.

– Marcela De Vivo, Gryffin

7. Build Customized Solutions on the Cheap 

Open source software means a lot of things, and one of these things is a mass amount of freelance services. Instead of going directly to expensive providers, coders and designers, there is always going to be a better and cheaper option. A perfect example of this is WordPress. Take the time to explore your options when using open source solutions and put your money to its best use.

– Zac Johnson, Blogger

8. Leverage It as a Marketing Tool 

Many companies release some of their in-house code to the community. Becoming an active open source contributor can be a powerful promotional tool. It helps promote the company among technical users, shows a willingness to contribute to the community, and showcases the company’s technical prowess. You can think of it as a form of content marketing that uses code rather than text or video.

– Vik Patel, Future Hosting

9. Empower Your Users 

Not everyone understands the beauty of open source software. Instead, our SaaS business gets a lot of feature requests, integration questions and frustrated “Why can’t your software do this?” questions. Empower your users to create what they need and they’ll feel like partners in your product.

– Jared Brown, Hubstaff Talent

The post 9 Smart Ways for Small Businesses to Use Open Source Software appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

According to those that offer wireless internet services, most traditional wireless network management solutions fail to stop rogue devices from connecting to their networks or block threats like wireless denial-of-service attacks. If they have a wireless intrusion protection system (WIPS), it delivers a high rate of false positives, incorrectly categorizing neighboring hotspots and innocuously connected devices as malicious, which creates unnecessary frustration and end-user complaints.

According to WatchGuard, with their new cloud-ready APs (AP120 and AP320), it automatically classifies wireless devices as Authorized, Rogue, or External, resulting in a very low false positive rate. This advanced rogue detection process can safely and automatically shut down unauthorized access points and clients, while nearly eliminating the risk of illegally interfering with neighboring wireless networks.

There’s more to WatchGaurd’s new wireless access points, but overall, whether you look at theirs or another vendor’s, if you have an OLD access point, it might be worth you upgrading to a new one that’s more secure and gives you user data you can use to improve your home internet system.

The post Is It Time To Upgrade Your Wireless Access Point? New Devices From WatchGuard Boost WiFi Security appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Determining which are your best leads — in other words, those most likely to turn into customers — can help you increase your conversion rate and boost sales. Also, putting more focus on your most likely prospects in your pipeline will save you time (because you won’t be chasing dead-end leads). But how can you figure out which are the best leads?

First, Categorize Leads

Did you realize that 73% of new B2B leads aren’t ready to make a purchase? That doesn’t mean they’re not worth pursuing, but you will want to handle them differently than you would a lead who’s ready to buy.

Create “buckets” for your contacts. These buckets might include:

• People you’ve met in person
• People who downloaded an ebook
• Social media contacts

You could also categorize them by how they ended up in your lead funnel, such as “downloaded our 10 Reasons to Invest in Financial Software ebook,” which you’ve targeted at a particular audience.

Next, Score Those Leads

This part is fun, and a bit like a game. You can assign points to each lead to give it a score. The higher the score, the better the lead. You can give points for things like:

• Job title
• Location
• Interactions with your brand (downloaded whitepaper, attended webinar)

Also take away points for any negative actions that a lead takes, like unsubscribing from your email list.

Decide on Nurturing Techniques

Even if a lead ranks high on your scoring matrix, she might not be ready to buy from you right now, so it’s imperative that you invest the time and energy in nurturing her appropriately. If you can further break down your bucket of high-scoring leads into where they are on the buyer’s journey, you can give what each lead needs at the particular stage she’s in.

For example, if a lead is in the Consideration stage, she’s past needing to be informed about your general category of product. Now she’s comparing you to the competition. Make it easy for her. This is the ideal time to send her a free graphic that puts you (in a favorable light without being promotional) against the other top players in your space. Remember: you want to communicate that you’re trying to help her on her buying journey, not push her into a decision, so focus on being informative, not salesy.

Leverage that CRM

Your CRM platform can be hugely helpful in nurturing your best leads…but only if you maximize your use of it. Take copious notes about your leads’ activities, and tag each contact with that lead scoring information. You can even more a contact from one category or stage of the buying cycle to the next so you can easily view everyone who’s at the same stage.

These days, we have so much data at our fingertips, that chasing bad leads is nearly obsolete. Instead, put your efforts toward ensuring that those ideal leads grow to love and trust you, and eventually become customers.

The post Using CRM To Nurture Your Best Leads into Sales appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

One such company that is trying to help businesses with this very endeavor is Xero. In this interview, we talk to Russ Fujioka, Xero’s President for the Americas region. He provides us with some vital financial tips and advice that are useful to all entrepreneurs.

Xero

Xero is a New Zealand-based company that was founded in 2006. Since then, it has been one of the fastest growing Software as a Service companies in the world. They are leaders in the New Zealand, Australian, and United Kingdom cloud accounting markets. Over 1,400 employees are located in 20 offices across the globe. Forbes even identified them as the World’s Most Innovative Growth Company in both 2014 and 2015.

The business was started because they wanted to change the game for small businesses. Their cloud-based accounting software helps people do their accounting anytime, from anywhere. It enables millions of small businesses to thrive by using better tools, information, and connections.

Russ Fujioka’s Financial Tips for Small Businesses

One of the more important aspects of running a business is keeping your finances in order. And we find Russ Fujioka’s advice incredibly valuable:

1. Invest in Technology

Many small business owners either feel strapped for cash or think they are not technologically savvy. Because of this, they might avoid making an investment in software that can actually help their business. Russ stresses that when you purchase software like the kind Xero offers, it takes an entrepreneur’s attention away from everyday details and allows them to re-focus their attention on taking action that will grow their business. Xero software automates financials which frees up time for small business owners.

2. Get an Accountant, Bookkeeper, or CPA

Not all entrepreneurs are skilled at accounting or keeping their finances in order so don’t be afraid to outsource those jobs. Accountants, bookkeepers and CPAs are trained to deal with money, and so you should seriously consider hiring one of these people long term. Then, you can put your efforts into other business-growing activities.

3. Don’t Do It Alone

Sometimes small business owners feel as if they need to know it all – and do it all – by themselves. But Russ points out that there are many people out there who can mentor and give advice along the way. In fact, he suggests that you assemble a team of trusted advisors made up either of professionals and/or friends who have different experiences that you do. Their assistance can greatly benefit you and your company.

The Takeaway

The ultimate goal of technology should be to help businesses alleviate mundane tasks. Too many people work too many hours that don’t actually lead to their businesses growing and thriving. Follow Russ’s financial tips by putting some thought into how you can invest in technology to make your business the best it can be. Investment in technology is the key to your business’s growth..

The post Financial Tips & Advice from Russ Fujioka of Xero appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Why You Need Video

You should be using video to get more customers, but what makes it different from other marketing approaches? Customers get more information in a shorter amount of time by viewing one well-made video. Videos give your customers an impression of you and your business. It’s more personal than an email or blog post. Video is used in marketing in many ways today. Short videos posted to Vine and Instagram are short and easily shared. Tutorials and vlogs on your website or YouTube are a bit longer and more informative. Whether you film it yourself or hire a professional, video is one marketing tool you need.

DIY Video

Small businesses often take the DIY approach to save money where possible. Apps such as Vine and Instagram make it possible to create short videos. They’re free and simple to use. You can make new videos quickly, edit clips, and reach all your followers instantly. This option is excellent for things like contests, previewing new products, and even speaking directly to your followers, such as Q&A videos. Doing it yourself isn’t without pitfalls, however. While apps make it seem easy, they can’t make a poorly shot video look good. Take a few steps to make your DIY videos look their best.

Storyboard. Use paper or software to plot out each scene for your video and the dialogue or narrative that goes with it. Come up with a few versions, then narrow it down to the best one.

Lighting. Poorly lit videos look awful. Make sure you have at least one bright light source. Whether it’s sunlight through a window or a floor lamp aimed at your product, be sure the thing you’re filming is brightly lit.

Script. Stumbling over your words makes you sound like a novice and increases editing time. It helps to practice speaking a few times before shooting, even if it’s only a few second clip for social media. The script is even more important when filming a longer video, such as a tutorial for YouTube.

Sound. Tiny smartphone microphones aren’t the best at capturing clear sound in your film production. Be sure there is silence when you’re filming (unless background noise is intentional). Try using the earbuds with mic that came with your phone for clarity. You can also purchase a microphone that plugs into the 3.5 mm jack on your phone or a clip-on mic.

Stability. Don’t make your customers nauseous with shaky video. Invest in a tripod before shooting videos for your business. Choose a full size tripod or a little Gorillapod^® depending on what and where you’ll be filming. Some lower end tripods can droop or slowly move while filming, so look out for that while testing it out.

Image licensing. Avoid getting sued by only using commercially licensed images and video clips. You’ll either need to purchase a license, get permission from the creator, or use Creative Commons (CC) images. Be aware “free to use” and CC works are not always commercially licensed. Read the fine print to be sure you’re allowed to use the image.

Professional Video

Even if you’re able to film a decent video yourself, you may not realize just how labor intensive video editing is. It can be a lengthy and complex process to get to the final, polished version of your video. While you may be capable of doing the editing yourself, it may make more sense as a business owner to pay a professional to spend hours creating a great video for you while you focus on other responsibilities.

Hiring professionals to create your video will ensure a polished final product. The obvious difference in quality gives the impression that your business is trustworthy. When it comes to video ads, tutorials, help videos for your product, and any video featured prominently on your website you’ll want to consider investing in a professional to create your videos. The impact it has on your customers is invaluable.

The post Video Production Tips for Small Business appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

No business wants to have to break the news to their customers that their personal information has been compromised due to a security breach. Use these tips for top-notch security to ensure your business never has to make that painful announcement.

Keep Passwords Strong and Difficult to Guess

Strong passwords are the first line of defense. If you’re worried about being able to remember passwords, create a naming convention. Start a word that’s easy to remember, and spell it with a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters. Then, attach something, either at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end, that reminds you what the account is for. For example, you could use FAC for Facebook, GMA for Gmail, etc. Avoid using things easy to guess, like pet names and birthdates.

For a Star Wars fan, “skyw4!kerFAC” would make a strong Facebook password that’s easy to remember.

A naming convention should make your passwords easy to remember (or work out), so you won’t need to write them down. Don’t use the same password for everything – that makes it really easy for hackers to take over accounts and wreak more havoc.

Use Secure Servers

Host your website on a secure server. You may have to pay extra for security certificates, but that HTTPS will help you. In 2014, Google announced secure sites will get a small ranking boost. If your business takes online payments of any kind, SSL is highly critical.

Keep Firewalls and Antivirus Running

Make sure you have firewalls and antivirus software on all computers in your network, and any others remote workers may be using, to keep data on your local machines safe. These should always be running since your computer is “always on” the Internet, and these should always be kept up to date. Run scans on a regular basis to remove viruses and other malware hackers could use to access your data.

Check Permissions on All Applications You Use

Keep employees in line with the right permissions on everything you use. This way, only the people who need access to sensitive information have it. Don’t share files with more people than you have to. While your employees are likely trustworthy, you never know when a disgruntled employee may leak private information online.

Back up Data on Physical Drives

Always have copies of data on physical drives – whether they are external hard drives, CD/DVD-ROM, or flash drives. Even if the data isn’t breached, there’s always a possibility the hard drive will fail – as all of them eventually do. This way, you’ll be able to load your data onto a new machine and keep working.

Consider a Cybercrime Insurance Policy

If your business deals with a lot of risky information, or you just want extra peace of mind, you could invest in a cybercrime insurance policy. These policies can be quite pricey, depending on the level of coverage you want. However, they will help recoup some of the costs in the event there is a data breach. This can also assist with regaining customer trust after a data breach.

No plan is ever 100% fool-proof to protect your business data, but implementing these strategies can go a long way toward prevention. It’s also a good idea to only collect data your business needs, and to use a privacy policy so employees can follow best practices. Security is one of those things that is much better to be proactive, rather than reactive.

The post Is Your CRM Data Safe From Hackers? appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

The Wall Street Journal Reports that Google Calendar was inaccessible last week, for a few hours. Sure – that’s a LONG time and it could be another online service next week. However, for me, the world of online computing – internet based software – is still a great (the best) option for your business.

Online service providers have the resources and the incentive to ensure their applications are working at a 99% uptime (or more) and for the most part they succeed.

Keep in mind, when your server or computer goes down, you have to fix it or hire someone to fix it for you.

Long live cloud computing.

The post Google Calendar Went Down. Don’t Give Up On Cloud Computing. appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Establishing Culture in Your Business

Culture is what differentiates those companies where the employees love to come to work from those where the employees dread ‘punching in.’ How your employees feel about their job is then reflected down to the customers, which is why every business owner should think carefully about the kind of culture and the core values they want the business to represent. Need a little guidance? This article offers four great tips for how to improve your work environment.

Click to read How to Build a Rock Slid Company Culture

Making Analytics Work for Your Business

Business data provides valuable insights into how to improve your business, but many times, business owners collect data and then aren’t sure what to do with it. Ideally, analytics should be the driving force behind the decisions you make, and all employees should understand how to use analytics. This article will help, with four training tips that will teach your whole team how to use analytics effectively.

Click to read How to Train Your Team in Better Analytics

Upgrading the Point of Sales Experience

The point of sales is that final moment in the journey where a person officially becomes a customer. Think now to the point of sales experience in your business – does it positively add to the customer’s experience or does it hurt your chance of making a sale? This article has a valuable lesson on what not to do, then some tips for improving the experience, like upgrading your point of sales technology and empowering your sales staff.

Click to read 3 Ways to Improve the Point of Sales Experience

Business Tips for Artists

Although artists funnel their passion into their artwork, interview guest Crista Cloutier says that artists are also entrepreneurs and they must learn how to build their business if they want to be successful. An artist herself, Crista also runs a program called The Working Artist which teaches artists the business skills they need. In this interview, Crista gives tips for how people in creative industries can plan out their business and execute their marketing.

Click to read The Working Artist, Crista Cloutier, Shares Business Tips for the Creative Industries

Successful business owners know they have to pay attention to those important details, including creating a positive culture, listening to analytics, and giving customers a good point of sales experience. What little details in your business could use some TLC? Chances are you’ll find the tips and advice you need on SmartHustle.com.

The post Smart Hustle Recap: Establishing Culture in Your Business, Better Analytics, & More appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

The Importance of Existing Customers

These days, people do business with companies that they’ve formed “relationships” with, which means that a focus on existing customers can boost your customer retention, customer loyalty and, therefore, your profit. This article features four best practices for paying attention to existing customers, including how to deepen your relationships, stay in contact, and give your customers exactly what they’re looking for.

Click to read Why and How Successful Businesses Grow Revenue by Paying Attention to Existing Customers

Should You Surcharge?

Surcharging has definite benefits and costs. On the one hand, it helps you recoup the costs of credit card charges. However, on the other hand, your customers might not appreciate these extra fees. This article is designed to help you decide if surcharging is right for your business, sharing pros, cons, considerations, and alternatives to surcharging.

Click to read Surcharging Credit Cards in Your Small Business: What You Need to Consider

Boost Your Training with a Learning Management System

Training is an important part of bringing new employees aboard, implementing new systems and procedures, and keeping all of your team members at the top of their game. Have you ever considered a learning management system? These online systems help you create training programs that standardize the training process in an online e-learning program that you can customize to employees and also use to track their progress.

Click to read Why Your Company Needs a Learning Management System

What Is Holding You Back from Success?  

Do you ever feel frustrated because you seem to be hitting an invisible brick wall – that there is something holding you back, but you can’t quite pinpoint what it is? It’s time to let go of these hidden blocks so you can find the success you deserve! This article reveals three potential sources of your hidden blocks, so you can resolve the issue and move forward in your business.

Click to read 3 Ways to Uncover Your Hidden Blocks to Business Success

Smart Hustle aims to tackle the various problems that small business owners face, whether related to sales, marketing, business operations, technology, or any other area that is crucial to small business success. So what is on the top of your mind these days? Bring it to our attention in the Smart Hustle Community, and for other great stories, visit SmartHustle.com.

The post Smart Hustle Recap: The Importance of Existing Customers, Surcharging Credit Cards, & More! appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

The Reasons Behind the Deal

The purchase of LinkedIn was the first acquisition for Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. In an email, he explained the move, saying:

“With the new growth in our Office commercial and Dynamics businesses, this deal is key to our bold ambition to reinvent productivity and business processes. Think about it: How people find jobs, build skills, sell, market, and get work done and ultimately find success requires a connected professional world. It requires a vibrant network that brings together a professional’s information in LinkedIn’s public network with the information in Office 365 and Dynamics.”

Others say that Microsoft sees LinkedIn as a way to access a professional network of over 433 million members, and if they can leverage that platform then they can drive usage for their many business apps and programs. Some say that this is part of a broader shift that has been taking place for a while but had gone relatively unnoticed by consumers – a shift away from PC software to online services for business owners.

The Future of LinkedIn and Microsoft

Although LinkedIn will operate as “a full independent entity within Microsoft” we are sure to see integrations in the months and years to come. However, experts say that these integrations will likely roll out slowly, for fear of alienating LinkedIn users.

Many of the possible integrations were outlined in a presentation to investors. This includes:

• Gathering data to create complete professional profiles, which you can call up using Microsoft products like Outlook or Cortana.
• Creating a more intelligent newsfeed so professionals can stay connected with what is happening in their network, industry, and profession – and integrating the LinkedIn newsfeed with Office 365.
• Connecting the LinkedIn Sales Navigator with Microsoft’s Dynamics CRM to improve social selling.
• Providing insights about your employees and team members to better understand their capability and productivity.
• Integrating LinkedIn Learning (Lynda.com) with Office to provide educational experiences and on-demand courses.

What The Microsoft LinkedIn Deal Means for Businesses

First and foremost, the acquisition demonstrates Microsoft’s shift away from the consumer market and toward business customers. It reaffirms that Microsoft is putting businesses first in product creation, so we should see even more online and cloud-based services that improve productivity, efficiency, and connection.

While those who don’t like Microsoft products may find the acquisition annoying, many experts say that the move will be good for businesses. For example, Lee Odden, the CEO of TopRank, says,

“I think the combination of Microsoft, especially Office 365 and Dynamics, with LinkedIn’s network will create opportunities for companies and marketers on several levels. Empowering individuals with customized news, learning and access to relevant professionals, to increased advertising options and sales through Dynamics CRM and LinkedIn Sales Navigator, are a great start.”

The Wall Street Journal echoes this sentiment, saying, “We now work by toggling between our productivity software and our social networks. But why should the two be separate?”

When announcing the acquisition, the presentation to investors pointed out that Microsoft and LinkedIn share a common mission of empowering people and organizations. If the acquisition plays out correctly, it should create several products, services and features that empower small businesses and improve business operations.

The post What the Microsoft LinkedIn Deal Means for Businesses appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Smart Hustle Conference – A Must-Attend Event

Ramon Ray recently announced the 11^th Annual Smart Hustle Small Business Conference, a day-long event specifically for small business owners and entrepreneurs. On October 20, 2016, over 400 will gather to learn from some of the smartest small business minds of our time, including Peter Shankman, Joe Connolly, Gene Marks and more. The Smart Hustle Conference will feature lessons, seminars, and an exhibit of the latest small business products and services. Early bird pricing is available until August 20, so click to learn more about the event and buy your ticket.

Click to read 11^th Annual Smart Hustle Small Business Conference Launches October 20^th – NYC

B2B Marketing Mistakes

We often cover marketing from a general perspective, but if you’re a B2B business, you’ll want to check out this article that is just for you. Mobile marketing is hot right now, but it’s only effective if you do it correctly. The article covers the seven top mobile marketing mistakes that B2B businesses make – and how you can avoid them.

Click to read 7 B2B Mobile Marketing Mistakes that Chase Away Buyers

Digital Tools for Small Business

Let’s be honest – there are way too many digital tools available for the average small business owner to sort through. However, choosing the right digital tools is important to the success of your business. This article is meant to help by offering a three-step system for evaluating, choosing, and implementing digital tools (such as CRM social media managers, project management systems, etc.). If you want to cut right to the chase, Ramon also offers up his five favorite digital tools for communication and connection.

Click to read How to Choose the Right Digital Tools for Your Small Business

The Conversations You Need to Have Before You Start a Business

Starting a business is a decision that will impact the whole family, and we’ve all heard stories of families who have been torn apart, unable to withstand those hard start-up years. To ensure your family makes it through the hard times, there are several conversations you must have upfront. This article covers the three most important discussions to have before you dive into entrepreneurship.

Click to read 3 Important Family Discussions to Have Before Starting a Business

At Smart Hustle, we like to cover a range of topics including marketing, technology, lifestyle, sales, operations, finance and more. If you like staying up-to-date on these topics, then I know you will also love what we have planned for the Smart Hustle Conference! Get more information by clicking that link above, and for other information and inspiration, check out SmartHustle.com.

The post Smart Hustle Recap: Smart Hustle Conference, Digital Tools for Small Business & More appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Prezi the leading “non-linear” presentation creator. Whereas Microsoft Power Point is linear, meaning your points are in a traditional outline format and go from point to point, with Prezi you can have multiple pathways throughout your presentation.

If you have been wanting to “jazz” up your presentations, consider Prezi. But remember, whatever you choose, your digital presentation is only a PROP. YOU are the main actor and your speaking skills should be amzing!

Prezi recently launched the business edition which includes the following features:

• Advanced Collaboration – Co-editing and commenting features support real-time collaboration and eliminate the need for version control, allowing users to talk to each other directly in their prezis, no matter their location. Prezi Business also stores presentations in the cloud, letting users sort, select, or link them together from a single location. This content can then be shared with colleagues for collaborative development, and with customers who may then bring it into their own organizations to continue the conversation as needed.
• Prezi Analytics– Real-time analytics give organizations feedback to help sales and marketing departments focus on customers with the highest need. Presenters can employ real-time usage data to determine when to follow up with a prospect, or learn which topics resonated with their audience. Managers can use the analytics leaderboard to track their entire team’s performance and improve productivity. 
• Integration with Slack — Slack gives Prezi Business users a unique way to enhance collaboration on the presentations they build through the communication channel that has significantly improved business productivity. Prezi users can now receive Slack notifications when  someone has commented on their prezi; when someone has shared a prezi with them; and when someone has edited their prezi. It also sends notifications when their prezi is being viewed and analyzed so they can get real-time feedback from their audience.
• Remote HD Presenting – Every Prezi Business customer gets their own password-protected virtual meeting room, where they can host remote presentations to be viewed by anyone, anywhere. Remote presentations are smooth and unpixelated. They can be viewed or presented in HD, without the need for screensharing software.

The post Prezi Upgrades: Adding Business Features To Power Point Competitor appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Choosing the right point of sale (POS) technology is one of the many tasks for setting up your small business, and like other areas of building your business, it is complicated by the variety of choices available. There are hundreds of POS systems to choose from, and they’re certainly not created equally. Choose the wrong system and you’ll encounter headache after headache, including lost productivity and unhappy customers. Make the right choice and you’ll streamline your processes, with the ability to simplify and automate tedious tasks that you used to handle manually. In an effort to help you make the RIGHT choice of POS technology for your small business, ShopKeep has just released a free resource called the Ultimate Guide to Choosing a POS System.

Goodbye Cash Register, Hello Modern POS Technology

Historically, the cash register has been the go-to device for ringing up sales. However, today people pay with a variety of methods, including credit cards, debit cards, and even contactless payments. These multiple payment methods make calculating daily transactions much more difficult than simply counting up the cash in your till. POS technology can efficiently handle daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual sales tracking, and it can even perform additional duties, such as inventory management.

The earlier generations of POS systems were PC-based, which came with drawbacks such as software costs, crashes, repairs, maintenance and more. However, technology has progressed so that today small business owners can choose iPad-based POS systems that are cheaper, more reliable, and easy to use.

What to Look for When Choosing POS Technology

The guide walks small business owners through what to look for when choosing POS technology. This includes:

• Usability – The technology should be easy to set up & use.
• Customer Support – The system should come with 24/7 support.
• Simple Pricing – You should look for simple, pay-as-you-go pricing.
• Quality Hardware – The hardware should be both durable and stylish.
• Cloud Data – The POS data should be held in the cloud and accessible anywhere.
• Security – The technology should keep customer and business data safe and secure.

The guide reviews these and other important aspects of POS technology. You’ll learn how making the right choice in POS can also help you with sales reports, business insights, accounting, and even building better relationships with your customers.

It’s Time for a POS Makeover

Whether you’re just starting out, or you’ve been in business for a while, it’s definitely time to look at the latest POS systems and update accordingly. The ShopKeep Ultimate Guide to Choosing a POS System features a variety of quotes about payment systems, and this one by Greg Burch, VP of Strategic Initiatives U.S. for the Ingenico Group, really stood out to me:

“It’s crucial for small retailers to keep their payment technology up to date both to ensure security and to let customers pay the way they want to pay. Ultimately, small merchants who don’t keep up with payment technology are likely to lose business to their competitors.”

Your customers ARE looking for the convenience and security of modern systems, where their transaction with your business can run smoothly. Having the wrong POS can make your business look dated, and any mishaps with the POS transaction will cause customers to shop elsewhere.

Choosing the right POS technology can also help small business owners who run brick-and-mortar businesses to streamline their processes.  Since modern POS systems can automate many tedious manual tasks, business owners can become more efficient and productive. This gives them more time to devote to the most important aspects of running and growing the business.

The ShopKeep Ultimate Guide to Choosing a POS System has everything you need to make an informed decision about POS technology. Grab your free download today and you’re one step closer to choosing the right point of sale system for your small business.

The post Choosing the Right POS Technology for Your Small Business appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Last week I was printing lots of documents. One of the pages came out white with faint lines across it. YEP – my inkjet printer ran out of ink. I ordered more ink but wish I had ink readily available.

Brother released a new line of printers to help solve this problem.

While it’s getting more challenging for printer vendors to create printers that are different, the new battle is making printers that use less ink – at least that’s what the vendor’s say.

HP’s solution is an instant ink solution wherein the printer automatically orders more ink. Epson’s solution is a larger ink tank. Brother’s solution is providing two years worth of high capacity ink.

The post Brother Adds 2 Years of Ink “INKvestment” To New Printer Line appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Accelerate Your Business Recap

Accelerate Your Business was a symposium aimed at sharing information that will help small business owners take their businesses to the next level. It featured sessions that shared best practices in cloud-based technology, and new devices & apps that can make your business more productive and efficient. Attendees also had the opportunity to network with business leaders, industry experts, and digital innovators. It was a high-energy, high-impact event for all who attended.

The event started out with a keynote from Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit and an investor in tech startups. He spoke about “Building a Community of Hundreds of Thousands of Communities,” which is exactly what he was able to do with the creation of Reddit in 2005.

The morning continued with three sessions that touched on different aspects of business growth and technology:

• Staying Safe in the Current Cyber Environment – Moderated by Gene Marks, this session focused on data security for the modern cloud-based workforce, with an emphasis on keeping both customer and business data safe.
• Managing the Modern Customer – Moderated by Carol Roth, this session focused on using technology to create a holistic approach to customer service.
• Q&A: What’s Hot, What’s Happening and What’s to Come – This Q&A session with Amy Cosper (Entrepreneur), Jordan Chrysafidis (Microsoft) and Eric Day (Dell) tackled questions about the future of business and what businesses today can do to prepare.

The Accelerate Your Business symposium then ended with a keynote and workshop on “Influencing Influencers” with Jon Levy, who shared his experience working with brands and companies as well as strategies for businesses to improve their product development, customer acquisition, and customer engagement.

Accelerate Your Business with Safer Technology

I participated in the session on staying safe in the current cyber environment. Today’s technology and cloud-based solutions have made it easier to run your business, but there are also data security concerns that every growing business should be aware of.

One way to keep your business safe is to upgrade your devices, because older devices are slower, heavier, bulkier, and pose security risks. This infographic explains the huge differences between old and new devices.

If it’s time to modernize your business technology, consider updating to devices based on the 6th generation Intel® Core vPro processor family  and Windows 10 pro.

• Fast boot and wake up times.
• Easy multi-tasking between apps, files, and websites.
• True Key technology to safely reduce the number of passwords you use.
• Facial recognition technology for simple and safe log in.
• BitLocker encryption that keeps your data safe even if your computer is lost or stolen.

You can get 6^th generation Intel Core processors and Windows 10 pro in a range of devices, such as desktop towers, touch screen All-in-ones, mini PCs, laptops, tablets, and 2-in-1s. Check out the Accelerate Your Business site for more offers, information and the latest devices.

The Accelerate Your Business symposium emphasized the fact that to grow your business you have to be constantly moving forward with the latest technology and strategies for developing products and reaching customers. One way to get started right away is by upgrading your devices today.

This post was written in partnership with Intel; however, all opinions and experiences expressed are my own.

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While you’re out there getting things done, your staff might be anywhere, working from home, traveling, at a conference, or meeting customers across town. Most businesses are far more mobile than ever.

One great thing about Insightly is that you can take your CRM wherever you—and your tablet or phone—need to be. Snagging first place in GetApp’s ranking of the top CRM solutions for Q1 2016, the Insightly mobile app lets you to take your info, insights, contacts and calendars with you no matter where you’re headed.

Never Miss a Beat with Instant Sync

Keep up to date while out and about with the Insightly app’s ability to instantly sync your changes, updates and more to your home (Web) CRM. Manage your team’s day-to-day agenda by scheduling events, and adding or assigning tasks, in Insightly calendar.

You can also add comments to any notes you take while away from “home,” such as voice recordings, pictures from your device or camera, or just plain old text. With information that instantly syncs, you can be sure all users are working off the latest information.

Real-time information means your whole staff is apprised, even if the customer forgets something and calls back immediately. The next rep can pick up right where the last call left off, and the customer won’t waste time repeating the story to multiple CSRs.

Dynamic Contact, Lead and Customer Management

Stay on the pulse of what’s happening with your customers day-to-day with mobile contact management. The Insightly mobile app lets you scan business cards to create contacts and leads, set direct relationships between records by “linking” them and see opportunity values for each customer or prospect. Make a call from within your app and a note is automatically attached to the contact, creating a call log.

No more fumbling around for a contact’s cell number because you forgot to punch his digits in and his business card is back at the office. No more forgetting which customer that new lead is connected to and why it’s even relevant to your business. No more hearing, “You guys just called me about this an hour ago,” from the other end of that now awkward touch base call. You’ve got all the contact management essentials with you, accessible and updateable at a moment’s notice.

Sales and customer satisfaction often hang on how fast you respond. Fast, reliable answers are an important element in a competitive market. Instead of stuck-in-traffic excuses, your customers hear, “How can I help you?” Access builds the trust you need to nurture relationships and keep the interest of your customers.

Everything You Need at your Fingertips

Available for tablets and phones, the Insightly app supports Android and iOS users alike, so there’s no reason you can’t be a step ahead. App users have access to project management and event scheduling, notification setting and social network integration, as well as the ever-useful power to search your CRM for the right info right when you need it. The Insightly mobile app also comes in five different languages, in case something other than English floats your boat.

Let’s face it—you are busy. And staying connected and organized is hard if you don’t have the right tools to make it happen. The right CRM for you will be available whenever and wherever you are. It’s just that simple.

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The Quest of an Unlikely Entrepreneur

This first interview tells the inspirational story of Fred Magnanimi, the owner of the jewelry company Luca + Danni. As we learn in the audio, Fred went on a quest to save the family business after his brother died from cancer – even though Fred had previously sworn off the family business and took a career in investment banking. In addition to inspiration, you’ll learn some tips and strategies for how you can transform a business that uses dated methods into one that is capitalizing on the latest trends and technology.

Click to read Reinventing the Family Business to Find Success in a New Era

The Importance of Online Reviews

In our next interview, we take a trip to SXSW 2016 where Ramon learned about a new company that can help small businesses manage their online reviews. ReviewTrackers is a software platform that gathers customer reviews from all the major review websites into one dashboard, where you can monitor what people are saying, respond to comments, track analytics, and encourage more reviews. Founder Chris Campbell also shares two tips for managing customer reviews that every small business owner needs to hear.

Click to read Why ReviewTrackers Says Asking for Customer Review Is Critical

Building the Best Small Business Team

In our final interview, Ramon has a chat with Erin Walter of Nuphoriq, a Chicago-based marketing company that focuses exclusively on catering companies. As Erin explains, Nuphoriq is a company that was first and foremost built around its team, and after years in business, Erin still attributes the success of the company to her team. In the audio interview, Erin explains why having a great team is essential, and from her experience, we extrapolate 3 team-building tips for small business owners.

Click to read 3 Team-Building Tips to Create an Active and Innovative Team

This selection of recently published Smart Hustle interviews demonstrates how we can lean on other small business owners for both inspiration and information. To join forces with other small business owners around the country, make sure to join the Smart Hustle Community and subscribe to the newsletter to stay informed about the latest Smart Hustle interviews and articles.

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Printing technology is sometimes overlooked, but choosing the right printer for your business can greatly improve your operations. Since printers are used so frequently, small differences in costs and speeds add up to big differences over time.

The HP OfficeJet Pro Series

This series of printers is for small business owners who want professional color in a compact, affordable package.

• Professional-quality color documents will cost you up to 50 percent less per page than laser printers.
• Employees can also boost productivity with the ability to print from their smartphones and tablets.

There are a number of models in this series. Prices start at $199.99, and they are sold both in-store and online at staple

HP PageWide Printers

This series of printers is for small business owners who need professional-quality color documents from a printer that delivers exceptional efficiency:

• In a single pass, you can print professional-quality color documents across any width you need.
• With just 0.5 second prints, you’ll get record-breaking speed.
• Other benefits include energy efficiency and exceptional security.

Models in this series start at $499.99, which makes them the lowest total cost of ownership in their class. They are sold online only. Companies nowadays switch business energy suppliers to be able to be energy efficient and lower their costs.

Find the Printing Technology that Fits Your Business Needs

Each of the new offerings is a “series” of printers. This means that you can choose the exact model that will work best for your small business, based on what other specific functions you’ll use and your daily printing needs. Like any other business purchase you make, it’s important that the printing technology you select fits with the needs of your business.

Shopping at Staples has perks as well. Staples Rewards members get up to 5% back on their purchases and free shipping on any HP purchase of $14.99. They also have auto restock programs for your ink and paper so you’ll never run out of these essential office supplies.

By partnering on this latest innovative printing technology, Staples and HP are reaffirming their commitment to the small business community. Your office technology can either hold you back or push your business forward. When you purchase your next printer, don’t underestimate the importance of low costs, fast speeds, and professional quality.

This article was written in partnership with Staples; however, all views expressed are my own.

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Why Is Invoicing a Challenge?

As Greg mentions in the interview, many small business owners are still using traditional methods of invoicing, like invoice books and computer files. Sure, these methods will get the job done, but small business owners often feel overwhelmed and disorganized.

It’s not just about the method of preparing an invoice either. The problem goes deeper, into how you accept payment on your invoices with this automatic invoice generator to get organized.  “People forget, small businesses in the U.S. are driving in their cars to pick up checks,” says Greg. “Something is wrong with that in 2016. You shouldn’t need to be driving to pick up a check.”

So why are so many small business owners using dated invoicing methods when invoicing technology is readily available? Greg says that it’s because small business owners are simply very busy people. They feel pressure to make improvements in so many areas of their business that it’s hard to choose what to start with, and even harder to get started TODAY.

Why You Should Switch to Invoicing Technology Today

“I wish I had done that sooner.”

That’s the feedback Greg gets from new small business owners who have made the switch to Invoice2Go. He says that it’s not hard to convince people that there are better invoicing solutions. Small business owners know there must be a better way of invoicing because they feel disorganized all the time and particularly stressed at tax time. Invoice2Go has made it their mission to make it easy to switch to invoicing technology TODAY.

Invoice2Go is an app that includes a free trial. Simply visit the app store on your phone to download the app. During the free trial, you can explore how Invoice2Go works. As Greg mentions, the system is so simple that you will be ready to send invoices in minutes. Small business owners also use their free trial to send test invoices to themselves and to set up invoices that will look similar to their current invoices.

Beyond the simplicity of Invoice2Go, there are several benefits of switching to invoicing technology:

• The ability to quickly send invoices, no matter where you are, right from your mobile device.
• The peace of mind knowing that the work is done, the invoice has been sent, and you are closer to getting paid.
• Not being held back because you don’t have access to physical or computer invoice files.
• The ability to accept credit card payments and electronic transfers.
• Better organization of invoices, which is particularly helpful at tax time.
• The ability to present a more professional appearance of your business.

There are many invoicing technology options on the market, but what makes Invoice2Go special is their dedication to small business owners. With it, you can create an invoice that gets you paid easily and seamlessly. The company has found its “sweet spot” working with small businesses and they have no plans to move out of the small business space. Invoice2Go’s niche is solving the invoicing problems of small business owners, so they have developed solutions specifically for you.

In the end, Greg’s main piece of advice is to make the switch TODAY. “Just do it today. Don’t do it tomorrow or the next day. You’ll be really happy with how much more organized you feel. You will feel so much better about your business.”

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