The Rebel Entrepreneur Rewrites The Rulebook

To the mainstream business world we entrepreneurs are extremely unusual. The mainstream business world doesn't understand us. They don't understand how we do business. They don't understand our creativity. Our drive. Our ambition. The risks we take every day. And how in the world could we be successful doing some of the things we do?!

We may not wear expensive suits. We may not be comfortable at a cocktail party or at the country club. And we may not be people who everyone in town knows. But we are the people who make this country strong. We are the driving force to the economy.

When it comes to entrepreneurship, the rules of good business are the same but also different. To be a successful entrepreneur, there's got to be some rebel inside of you.

So needless to say the book, The Rebel Entrepreneur: Rewriting the Business Rulebook by Jonathan Moules (@Jonathan_Moules), got my attention when the book publicist contacted me. As I began to read the book, I found the book to be right up my alley with its direct and candid approach about how to run to a successful business in the post Great Recession era.

The book would be a good business read for anyone thinking of going into business, just starting out on their rebel entrepreneur journey but also any longtime rebel entrepreneurs with any sort of a business track record.

The Rebel Entrepreneur is filled with examples of entrepreneurial success citing companies new and old, big and small, familiar and those not quite so familiar, plus companies of this global, Internet age we currently do business in. Some well-known entrepreneurs are mentioned too such as James Dyson, Richard Branson, Walt Disney and Steve Jobs.

But beyond the names of companies and entrepreneurs who have made it big in business, the book has a lot of practical advice for business people. As I was reading the book I found myself often relating to and agreeing with the information in each chapter. It's business advice I have given to CEOs, business owners and entrepreneurs over the years.

Here's a summary of what's in the book:

• Chapter 1: Funding: Loans, bank alternatives and bootstrapping
• Chapter 2: Innovation, imitation, timing and execution
• Chapter 3: Leadership: When to lead and when to step aside
• Chapter 4: Pricing: To increase or cut prices in today's economy
• Chapter 5: Business plans: Constant change, testing, and pivoting
• Chapter 6: The title says it all: You cannot cut your way to success
• Chapter 7: Sales: Hiring right to build a team and identify the right sales opportunities
• Chapter 8: Again, the title says it all: Failure is not failure if you learn

In Chapter 8, there is a quote from Samuel Goldwyn, the famous American film producer:

“The harder I work, the luckier I become.”

How true. Being an entrepreneur takes will, drive and determination. Plus a lot of long days and late nights. Constant dedication to your goal of business success.

The Rebel Entrepreneur offers good, sound, practical business advice to help you build a better company no matter what is happening in the economy.

Now go out and sell something. Make it happen. Be a rebel entrepreneur!

The Rebel Entrepreneur Rewrites The Rulebook

To the mainstream business world we entrepreneurs are extremely unusual. The mainstream business world doesn't understand us. They don't understand how we do business. They don't understand our creativity. Our drive. Our ambition. The risks we take every day. And how in the world could we be successful doing some of the things we do?!

We may not wear expensive suits. We may not be comfortable at a cocktail party or at the country club. And we may not be people who everyone in town knows. But we are the people who make this country strong. We are the driving force to the economy.

When it comes to entrepreneurship, the rules of good business are the same but also different. To be a successful entrepreneur, there's got to be some rebel inside of you.

So needless to say the book, The Rebel Entrepreneur: Rewriting the Business Rulebook by Jonathan Moules (@Jonathan_Moules), got my attention when the book publicist contacted me. As I began to read the book, I found the book to be right up my alley with its direct and candid approach about how to run to a successful business in the post Great Recession era.

The book would be a good business read for anyone thinking of going into business, just starting out on their rebel entrepreneur journey but also any longtime rebel entrepreneurs with any sort of a business track record.

The Rebel Entrepreneur is filled with examples of entrepreneurial success citing companies new and old, big and small, familiar and those not quite so familiar, plus companies of this global, Internet age we currently do business in. Some well-known entrepreneurs are mentioned too such as James Dyson, Richard Branson, Walt Disney and Steve Jobs.

But beyond the names of companies and entrepreneurs who have made it big in business, the book has a lot of practical advice for business people. As I was reading the book I found myself often relating to and agreeing with the information in each chapter. It's business advice I have given to CEOs, business owners and entrepreneurs over the years.

Here's a summary of what's in the book:

• Chapter 1: Funding: Loans, bank alternatives and bootstrapping
• Chapter 2: Innovation, imitation, timing and execution
• Chapter 3: Leadership: When to lead and when to step aside
• Chapter 4: Pricing: To increase or cut prices in today's economy
• Chapter 5: Business plans: Constant change, testing, and pivoting
• Chapter 6: The title says it all: You cannot cut your way to success
• Chapter 7: Sales: Hiring right to build a team and identify the right sales opportunities
• Chapter 8: Again, the title says it all: Failure is not failure if you learn

In Chapter 8, there is a quote from Samuel Goldwyn, the famous American film producer:

“The harder I work, the luckier I become.”

How true. Being an entrepreneur takes will, drive and determination. Plus a lot of long days and late nights. Constant dedication to your goal of business success.

The Rebel Entrepreneur offers good, sound, practical business advice to help you build a better company no matter what is happening in the economy.

Now go out and sell something. Make it happen. Be a rebel entrepreneur!

RSA Conference: Businesses have a right to \'self-defence\'

In the face of increasing threats and a lack of protection from law enforcement, businesses may have to think about using 'active self-defence' strategies used by military and intelligence agencies.
Experts speaking at RSA Conference Europe warned businesses that criminals were getting past standard security defences, and due to lack of skill and numbers, law enforcement might not offer the required protection.
Instead, businesses were advised to think about adopting legal and technological solutions to find ways of actively fighting back against hackers. This could involve for example, hacking and inserting code on a criminal botnet to find out the source of the attack.
Davi Ottenheimer, president of security assessment company flyingpenguin, said: “We have more connectivity. Ten years ago I wouldn't have advocated active defence - the danger of hitting the wrong person is too high.

“Today we're so hyper connected. The very reason people can attack us due to having all of our data is the same reason we can attack them. Finding the attacker becomes easier and easier. I think that's a subtle point people overlook. Because we are so vulnerable, so are they.”
David Willson, attorney at law at the Titan Info Security Group, warned that before businesses could think about active defence, they needed to have their own basic security in order. They also needed to consult their legal teams, so that active defence wouldn't become an illegal attack.

“You have to think about the right to defend yourself, and you have to think about the circumstances and situations it would be justified. If somebody came up and punched me and I chased him, that's retribution. If he was beating on me, I would have the right to defend myself,” he said.
Ottenheimer used the example of Microsoft, which is fighting back against criminals by actively taking action to take down botnets, expanding its technical and legal toolkit to fight back.

AVG launches small business-specific management software

AVG Technologies has launched a simplified security and IT management service, specifically built for small businesses.

Named AVG CloudCare, it said that the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) technology allows users to protect everything they store in the cloud remotely across a number of endpoints and remotely manage AVG anti-virus and content filtering services.

It also permits secure access of desktops remotely in order to carry out troubleshooting on their customers' devices from anywhere in the world. 

J.R. Smith, CEO of AVG, said: “Small business owners already have enough to think about without having to deal with complicated IT administration. Now, AVG CloudCare allows them - through their preferred IT provider - to have managed, pay-as-you-go IT services so they can fully concentrate on their businesses, knowing their IT is in good hands.”

Conficker Working Group claims that people are still being infected

The Conficker worm is still actively infecting users, yet its creators are still unknown.

According to a report by PCAdvisor, Conficker Working Group member and researcher Jose Nazario said that it is still working to try to find Conficker's master. He said that the problem is that the botnet's operators have stayed away from Conficker and not tried to reclaim it, a welcome development, but one that leaves researchers with a lack of fresh electronic leads.

Nazario said: “Well, we sort of won in that regard. They had to walk away from it. On the other hand, if they're not interacting with it, there's no more evidence coming in.

“It feels like a stalemate. It feels like we're kind of in a holding pattern but there's still effort that goes into it.”

He claimed that Conficker used a private key to sign encrypted updates, and if that key were to be found, it would represent the needed crucial evidence but this has not come to light so far.

Nazario said that the group is still interacting with sinkhole operators, top-level domain operators and ICANN, while the malware remains on autopilot, taking advantage of vulnerable computers and proving to be a long-term nuisance.

Joona Airamo, CISO of Stonesoft, said: “Conficker is a well-made piece of code, signifying that the programmer was not an amateur. With the collateral damage being far greater than what the creator may have intended, it could have been an attack gone wild â€" even more reason for someone to not what to come forward.”

Microsoft announced a $250,000 reward for information that resulted in the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the Conficker malware in 2009.

RSA Conference: Wikipedia founder claims that HTTPS should be used everywhere

Speaking at a press Q&A session at the RSA Conference Europe in London, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said that all users and websites should move to using HTTPS everywhere "in the longer term, so [they have] secure access all of the time".

He said: “There will be some exceptions to that, but I think we are moving to a level of computational power and it is possible that as Google has moved to do it and it didn't really cost anything, and it is clear that websites can afford to do it. That is something that we should all be doing, as it is something we should all be concerned about, such as session hijacking.”

Wales highlighted the Firesheep plug-in, which can be used for sniffing unencrypted sessions and hijacking online services that require a login. He said that with a friend, he was able to get into his Facebook page and said it was "absolutely trivial to do" and this led him to immediately change his options so it was always secure.

“I would say everyone should do this. In this case I think that privacy and security go hand-in-hand as well as the freedom to not be pursued by your own government,” he said.

“The argument for the Communications Data Bill is that all it wants is to keep up with technology, as before we couldn't listen to the content of your phone calls but we could go to the phone company and get the data of who you were talking to.” He said this may frighten people into being more interested in security.

He later said that the Electronic Frontier Foundation offers an HTTPS port but he had never used it, but it was more important to be secure. He said: “I have never bothered, I made sure my Facebook was secure though, we are moving in a direction where we will use encryption by default so let's assume that your connection to a site will be encrypted and the general public know it but do they understand it? “

“If you give people the choice between a browser that is more secure, then they will choose the one that is more secure,” he said.

Wales said that there were plans to make Wikipedia encrypted, but it required a lot of testing, and he understood it should not be expensive in terms of CPU cycles.

RSA Conference: Wikipedia founder takes \'a lot of credit\' for collapse of SOPA

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has claimed that its 'blackout' on 18th January had a major effect in the freezing of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) by the US Congress two days later.

Wales, who delivered the closing keynote at the RSA Conference Europe in London this week, said that he took ‘a lot of credit' for the freezing of the act two days later on 20th January, as ten million people contacted the US Congress on 18th January and 160 million looked at the banner.

He said: “Tons of people saw the banner, the phone system in the House of Representatives crashed so it had a big impact on Capitol Hill and their response was immediately to drop it, so yes it is good.

“We're not Google who has full-on lobbyists, we had one guy [to] help us navigate and one guy who was the main opponent of it, but we are such a small team that we do not have the ability to reach out one-on-one.”

In his keynote, Wales said that Wikipedia was one of many to fight against SOPA, as it saw it as a law that would allow the US government to block websites. Also, its decision to take the website offline outside of the US was due to all websites potentially being impacted and while he was not pro-piracy, it put the expectation of copyright levels in doubt.

He said: “This strike was not about piracy, it was against bad legislation. Sometimes there is too much power in government and it is a bad thing, so don't do it.”

Asked by RSA Conference program committee chairman Hugh Thompson if that power wielded by Wikipedia on 18th January could be done so again, Wales said that there was an 80 per cent vote in favour of the blackout within Wikipedia and he said it was important to blackout globally, as it would have ramifications globally.

He said: “We should not get involved in general political issues, there are no firm resources. we are only interested in freedom of speech and openness of the internet.”

Broadband rivals bring out their cheap deals

More data, faster speeds and lower charges on offer as internet competition heats up

Broadband users are being bombarded with offers of higher data caps, Sky TV discounts, free surfing on unmetered websites and cheaper prices.

And an industry expert says New Zealanders will soon have access to even more data without any great cost increase.

Orcon is leading the charge with a $99-a-month plan that includes unlimited data and national landline calls of up to an hour.

It also gives its users unmetered access to websites including iSKY, nzherald.co.nz and Trade Me.

Vodafone is also upping the ante with increased data allowances and free nationwide calls to five mobile or landline numbers, and Telecom is offering heavy users up to half a terrabyte of data.

Telecommunications Users Association chief executive Paul Brislen said the broadband market had become "far more competitive" since the demerger of Telecom and Chorus last year.

Upgrades to the Southern Cross cable had enabled internet service providers (ISPs) to increase customers' data allowances.

"Now all the ISPs are positioning themselves for when the UFB [ultra-fast broadband] starts, so you are starting to see some much better price points coming through."

A year ago, customers on Vodafone's Ultimate package paid about $120 for 30 gigabytes of data and anytime national toll calls.

Now their data limit has been lifted to 80GB - at no extra cost.

Telecom has also increased its 30GB data allowance to 50GB - also at no extra cost.

Mr Brislen said broadband caps were likely to increase further and ISPs would offer more free services.

Michelle Baguley of Vodafone said consumers were getting better value than ever, and the introduction of naked broadband - which means customers do not have to have a landline account as well as an internet contract - meant they could still get high-speed broadband at a good price.

Telecom's head of marketing, Chris Thompson, said more of its customers were spending time online and increasing their data use mainly because of the availability of music, video and on-demand TV services.

Among its packages is a 500GB plan for heavy users. "We are also seeing usage increasing on mobile data very strongly as Kiwi take-up of smartphones rapidly increases."

Orcon's general manager of retail, Taryn Hamilton, said that three years ago, customers paid $81 for 1GB.

"Now we do 30GB and free national calling for $75, or unlimited data for $99."

Its customers' average data use doubled every 18 months as more New Zealanders used data-heavy services such as music streaming (Rdio, Spotify etc) and downloaded films through iTunes and other services.

Consumer New Zealand spokesman Hadyn Green said the broadband market was "saturated" but users needed to brace themselves for the introduction of ultra-fast broadband, when prices could rise for a while as ISPs covered cost increases.

Despite the data cap increases and the reduced costs, New Zealand broadband deals remain well behind those in most developed countries, many of which do not have caps on the amount of data downloaded.

By James Ihaka Email James

Oyster Raises $3 Million, Becomes Spotify for Books

Offering a distinct service or value is the key to success in any business. Sometimes, even when going up against a well established rival, creating a unique business can be an effective strategy. For example, the founders and backers of Oyster, a New York based startup some are referring to as Spotify for books, expect success with a service allowing subscribers to read just about anything for a low monthly fee. They feel being known for this service will set them apart even against Amazon's recently launched lending library. For many businesses, the challenge is to create a product or service that is distinct and then to get the word out.

The World Is Your Oyster

Fitting into your customers' lives. For the founders of Oyster, the idea behind the company is very simple. It's about creating a service useful to customers. “We want to create a product that fits into people's lives and lets them find books and read all the books they wished they had read,” says co-founder Eric Stromberg. Gigaom

The cost of doing business. But sometimes even simple ideas get complicated when cost of delivering a service becomes a huge drain on profitability. Oyster, for example, has chosen to deal with publishers, not with writers directly. A similar arrangement may be killing Spotify, with one report suggesting the company is paying out most of its revenue in royalties to the music industry. The New York Times

When A Plan Comes Together

Keep it simple, silly. In businesses the size of Oyster or as small as your own modest company, you'll always be tempted to be all things to all people. Resist the temptation, says blogger and marketing expert Susan Oakes. Simplifying your objectives in your own business reduces stress and increases clarity while making critical decisions about your business. M4B Marketing

The plan's the thing. Your business plan is very important in charting your course. It can also help you focus your objectives when creating a business model. Consider whether you are using your plan correctly, however. Your business plan should be a road map for the development of your business not a historical document of the business that might have been, says blogger Gary Shouldis. The Small Business Playbook

Finishing Touches

If the price isn't right. When seeking to create a business or Website that stands apart, don't let price be your only consideration. It's true that products or services sometimes cost too much to make your business profitable, don't short change your business by chasing bargains that could cost your business more in the long run. Pixel Blog

Attracting their attention. Once you've created a great product or service, whether online or at a physical location, you must focus on helping other people find you and more particularly, focus on how to connect with the people who will appreciate the product or service you offer. When it comes to a Web based business, this requires getting ranked by Google. SEO blogger Emma-Julie Fox suggests how to get started. The Frugal Entrepreneur

Alerting the media. No, not the social media! Remember, in whatever field your business happens to be, there's still likely some industry media that covers it. Distinguishing your product or service may depend not just on the content you create and share through social media channels, but on convincing these news sources to write about or interview you too. Diane Seltzer has these suggestions. Small Business Marketing Tools

Come Hell Or High Water

“Come hell or high water!”

That was one of my former manager's favorite phrases:

“We're going to get sales up come hell or high water!”  ”You're gonna get that account come hell or high water!”  ”Our team is going to be #1 come hell or high water!”

Oh sure, he'd pepper meetings with other phrases and axioms, but this one was the clear favorite.

So one day the idea popped into my head â€" what if both things happened? I mean, it's bound to happen eventually, right? How bad would that be?

I almost raised my hand and asked about the possibility in a meeting once, but instead I just tucked it away in my brain for later use in this cartoon.

Sanjeev Aggarwal of SMB Group: Strategic Social Media

When it comes to social media and small business, having a strategy can produce greater benefits.  Benefits such as increased traffic, reduced marketing costs and increased branding.  Tune in as Sanjeev Aggarwal, Founder and Partner of SMB Group, joins Brent Leary to discuss the results of the 2012 SMB Social Business Study and why a strategic approach is better than an ad hoc approach.

* * * * *

Small Business Trends: Can you tell us a little bit about your background?

Sanjeev Aggarwal: I founded the SMB Group roughly three years ago, and the driving force was lack of specific focus on the SMB segment. Prior to that, I worked on the market research side.  Focusing again on the SMB area at Hurwitz, and at AMI.

I started doing this at the Yankee Group about 10 years ago.

Small Business Trends: Maybe you can fill people in on the 2012 SMB Social Business Study?

Sanjeev Aggarwal: We took a slightly different tack compared to what most of the studies looked at.  We took a top down approach to the problem. We looked at the business challenges small businesses face, and the business functions they use to address these challenges.

Then we drilled down further to look at how they accomplished the business function using both traditional tools and social media tools. Then we drilled down even further to look at the specific social media tools they used to accomplish each of these business functions.  Hence the focus of the study on social business instead of social media by itself.

For example, how are small businesses reshaping their sales and marketing, customer service, product development, HR efforts and other strategies in an increasingly social landscape? What obstacles stand in their way as they transition from the traditional world to the social media world?

Small Business Trends: When looking at the results of the study, how would you categorize the way small businesses are using social media today?

Sanjeev Aggarwal: In the study, we categorize social media users into two buckets. Those that are taking the planned strategic approach to social media and those that are taking an informal ad hoc approach to social media.

Overall, while we saw social media use among small businesses grew from 44% in 2011 to roughly 53% in 2012, the strategic users remained locked for both years at around 24%.  And 29% of the small businesses we surveyed were using social media in an ad hoc manner.

In essence, a large number of businesses are experimenting with Facebook, Twitter and the like, and guessing what sticks without any planning behind it.

A large number of businesses, roughly 25%, do not use social media today but are planning to use social media in the next 12 months. Then there are a significant number of diehards, or antisocial small business companies, which don't have social media use in their plans for the next several years.

Small Business Trends: Is there a positive impact from being a strategically social business as opposed to using social media from an ad hoc approach?

Sanjeev Aggarwal: What we found in the study was small businesses that use social media in a strategic way are the ones that are more bullish about their growth. They are using social media in a plan where they are enjoying business boosting benefits, like traffic to the website. They are seeing increased branding, and a lot of them are seeing things like reduced marketing costs as they reduce the use of traditional marketing tools and replace them with social media.

Small Business Trends: How are some of the ways that strategic small businesses are using social media to address those particular areas?

Sanjeev Aggarwal: Some of the key areas that strategic small businesses are using social media is to improve market awareness and to connect with people who aren't customers today.  They're using it to increase traffic to their website; to generate new leads and opportunities, also to create more and better interaction with their customers and prospects.

Also, marketing types of functions which address the top business goals small businesses have like increasing revenues, increasing customer satisfaction and improving customer experiences.

Small Business Trends: Are they using social tools as replacements for some of the more traditional things that they do?  Or are they using it as an extension or an enhancement of some of the traditional things?

Sanjeev Aggarwal: In the study, 37% of the small businesses reported reduction and replacement of some traditional marketing tools. In some cases, they are replacing the traditional tools and applications.  Others are reducing the use of traditional tools.

The area I have seen the greatest reduction in marketing is using business journals and magazines â€" and especially the print portions like the yellow pages.

Small Business Trends: We talked about the categorization of strategic users of social media.  We called them strategic social businesses, at this point, versus the folks who are just more informal.  What are some of the main differences, or maybe some of the things they seem to be doing a little differently, that helps us to understand strategic businesses?

Sanjeev Aggarwal: Businesses that use social media in a strategic way not only feel positive about their future, but their current prospects also look brighter too. In general, the strategic users supported higher satisfaction rates in areas like improving procuring services and generating more web traffic. Also, coming back to ad hoc users, I think overall strategic users definitely expected higher revenue and also higher growth expectations for next year.

The dramatic increases in satisfaction from strategic users in some of the functional areas also explains the value that they are getting from the social media tools compared to the informal users. Some of these statistics we got from the report are that strategic businesses are three and a half times more likely to be very satisfied with tools like Twitter. Two and a half times more likely to be very satisfied with tools like Linkedin, and about two times or more likely to be very satisfied with engagements on Facebook.

In addition to that, 20% of the respondents that use social media as part of their strategy are also using it for customer service, compared to only 13% of the users from ad hoc approach. The value that these strategic users are getting becomes very apparent when you compare these numbers, year-over-year.

There is definitely a very strong case to be made for small businesses that are using social media in a strategic way.

This interview is part of our One on One series of conversations with some of the most thought-provoking entrepreneurs, authors and experts in business today. This interview has been edited for publication. To hear audio of the full interview, click the right arrow on the gray player below. You can also see more interviews in our interview series.

Whether you're growing your business or starting a new venture, BlackBerry solutions provide you with the freedom you want and the control you need. [Series sponsor]

Sanjeev Aggarwal by smallbiztrends

Reverse Customer Service Strategy

I recently had a fascinating experience with my cellphone service provider that was a great example of reverse customer service. And it went a little something like this. . .

My children and I started experiencing call and text interruptions over a couple of days. These breaks in service were happening in my house. We've had this service for many years and have never had a problem like this.

Over a two day period I texted, visited and called the provider about this situation. Apparently they were working on a tower in my area and this was causing the problem. I mentioned to several people what I thought was a common sense customer service tactic that would have helped:

“Since you have all of our cell numbers, why not text us when you are going to be working on a tower? Then we'd know what was going on in the event we had reception issues.”

No one I spoke with thought it was a good idea. Frankly, I don't think they understood what I was trying to tell them.

Guess what happened a day later?

I received a text message telling me I'd be receiving a text survey about the customer service I received.

Seriously?

They could use the text messaging feature to find out how my experience was with their customer service department but they couldn't use it to keep me informed about the use of the product I was paying them for?

We Can Learn A Lot From This Experience

It shows that companies often spend more time thinking about what THEY need instead of what their CLIENTS need. That's backwards. I know it may seem like they care when they want to be sure the customer service experience was good.

However, if they would focus on how their clients are experiencing the product or service they'd have fewer problems to handle.

Put Yourself In The Client's Shoes

At the beginning, not at the problem stage:

• What might they want to know?
• What might they need to know?
• What information do you have that if shared with them, would make their experience better or not bad?

I think we are trained to offer our product or service in its most basic form. Then we establish a system for dealing with issues when and if they arise. We consider ourselves stellar if we then add in a follow up to that customer service experience. See, we really care!

Hold the phone! If you really cared you'd make sure my experience with the product or service was stellar; not the follow up to the complaint.

You can work on this backwards and implement a strategy that will prevent the reverse customer service experience described above. Think about your own business. Think about any and all situations when clients called or emailed your customer service department:

• What was their issue?
• Was it something you were aware of?
• Could you have avoided the call by sharing information?

If so, implement a communication strategy for reaching out to your clients. Don't be afraid to tell them something if that knowledge will help them understand their experience. In all honesty, they'll love you for thinking about them instead of yourself.

That is true customer service.

Upset Customer Photo via Shutterstock

TappIn Releases App That Lets Businesses Access Data Anywhere

Every day, business professionals learn about new and different ways to store and share their data. Cloud storage and SaaS programs offer features and usability that users can't get from traditional methods. But some people still keep some of their data on a computer or hard drive for security or convenience. Keeping all this data secure but easily accessible can prove to be challenging.

But now file sharing and storage app TappIn has released a new product specifically for business users that allows access to data stored in all different types of places.

Said TappIn President Chris Hopen:

“The reality is that people have content stored everywhere, and moving all of that data to one place isn't realistic or cost-effective. Why pay for more storage in order to gain access?  TappIn is different from other personal cloud vendors in that it offers “Content Mobility and Control” for the end customer, without requiring them to move content from the original storage repository.”

For small businesses, different types of data might fit better in different types of storage solutions. So this type of program allows users to keep their data organized and accessible without actually having to move everything to one cloud based program or startup. TappIn can access data from computer hard drives, NAS, and cloud storage, and also connects to SaaS systems like Salesforce.

Hopen said:

“TappIn leverages your business's existing investment in storage, and it embraces the BYOD trend that employees find attractive and keeps them productive without requiring businesses to compromise the security and integrity of their data. If we have learned anything from BYOD, it's that people are going to adopt the technologies that help make their lives as convenient and streamlined as possible.”

TappIn is a subsidiary of GlobalScape, Inc., a developer of secure information exchange solutions, and is based in Seattle. It was known as HomePipe before joining GlobalScape in 2011.

The professional edition of TappIn is priced at $39.99 per year. There is also a standard edition available for $19.99 per year, which offers features like music streaming and photo sharing.

It\'s Your Business Delivers 183 Simple Tips to Grow Your Business

Over the last several years, I've heard so many of you say how busy you are and how you don't often have time to read through a whole book to get the nuggets of how-tos or strategies that you want to put into practice inside your business.

If that sounds like you, then you'll definitely want to read this review and possibly pick up a copy of It's Your Business: 183 Essential Tips that Will Transform Your Small Business by JJ Ramberg (@JJRamberg) with Lisa Everson (@EversonLisa) and Frank Silverstein (@SliversteinF).

I was lucky enough to receive a review copy of It's Your Business the other day and I had an absolute blast reading through it this weekend.  Notice that I didn't say that I read it back to back, I said that I was reading through it.  This is a book that you can open to any page and get your golden nugget of best small business practices for the day.

Each tip is a chapter that is titled with the tip itself such as “decrease job related injuries.”  Then it goes on to state the problem as it is expressed in small business:

“Job related injuries are scary and expensive, harmful to morale and can cause costly delays…”

The next part of the chapter gives the solution â€" reward people for staying safe. (Just that short and sweet.  No more. No less.)

This solution is followed by a real case study of a small business that has dealt with the problem and implemented the solution.  In this example, it was the owners of Amy's Kitchen, an organic food company.

At the end of each accident free day, the company makes a contribution to a “safety fund” and once a month they hold a contest for the best suggestion on how to improve workplace safety.  The person who comes up with the best idea gets to spin a giant wheel of fortune and win a cash prize from $100 â€" $500.

There are 183 of these “essential tips” that you can literally take on every other day in your business and will keep you busy for the year.  Here are some more examples that were featured in the book:

• Tackle unpleasant tasks first thing in the morning â€" ZipCar
• Hire staffers who match your target demographic â€" Harvard Business School
• Be ready with a photo pitch on your phone

As you can see from these quick and dirty examples, none of these suggestions are rocket science, and yet they can be very powerful actions that will not only grow your business, but might keep you sane as well.

Main Street Lessons from MSNBC

If you watch a lot of MSNBC, you'll recognize the author; JJ Ramberg and the stories that she tells.  JJ Ramberg is the host of MSNBC's Your Business, the only television show dedicated to featuring small business issues and how they affect small business owners.  The program is in its sixth season and features advice from many small business experts.

What gives this book real credibility is that JJ Ramberg is an entrepreneur herself.   She co-founded GoodSearch.com with her brother.  GoodSearch is a company that helps users transform every day actions into ways to support their favorite cause.  She's also been a reporter for CNN and has been awarded Self Magazine's “Women Doing Good” award.

Ideal For Businesses of All Shapes and Sizes

There are several reasons why I enjoyed this book:

• It is realistic and unpretentious.  The advice you'll get here can be applied to any kind of business big or small, one thousand employees or just one.
• The advice is more focused on actions to take, then items or products to buy.  Because so much of my business is focused on getting big results from small budgets, this really resonated with me.  These are tips more focused on quality than quantity.
• You won't have to read hundreds of pages to get the message.  This is a book you can have on your shelf and pull down, open, read a section and get on with your day.
• There are lessons for everyone â€" not just the owner.  While the book is written for small business owners, larger organizations can certainly take on several of the tips and apply them as a group.

See For Yourself

If anything I've said sparks your interest, check out the web site for It's Your Business and download a free chapter.  You can also check out the It's Your Business Facebook page and share your own lessons with the community or check out more current It's Your Business tips.

One of my coaches likes to say:

“It's simple, but it isn't easy.”

I think that those words of wisdom apply to this book as well.  It's Your Business takes a lot of simple tips and gives you the push you need to easily put the advice to work for your business.  

Fusion Marketing: Connect The Dots Between Marketing Plans To Increase ROI

Making your business present in the eyes of your prospects is probably the most important thing you do to achieve a sale. There's advertising, web presences, social media, direct email marketing, and a whole bunch of other stuff you can do online to make yourself heard. But which ones are most successful to you?

A new concept, called “fusion marketing,” is on the rise. The concept, born out of the mind of author Lon Safko, teaches you how to fuse two different types of marketing together in a way that makes sense. In an interview with journalist Andrea Vahl, he explains it more clearly. You can see the interview in the video below:

Within the video, Safko explains the necessity of analyzing your entire marketing scheme. Indeed, you first must find out what's getting you the best return on your investment by calculating how much you invest in a marketing tactic for a period and seeing, within the same period, how many customers you've gotten. Sometimes, you'd find that you've spent thousands on a marketing method that didn't work at all.

Now, here's where the beautiful part comes along. It all has to do with his “Safko wheel” â€" a wheel that lets you “connect the dots” between different marketing methods within traditional media, digital, and social media. After connecting the dots, the “fusion marketing” process begins. It can be something as simple as his example in the video with putting a QR code on the back of a business card to show a kind of call to action or brochure.

The fusion marketing concept can help you do two things:

• It can save you money by putting two things into one platform. The business card example mentioned earlier would save you money because you don't have to print extra material to fit your QR code in. On the other hand, you'll be spending a tad more on ink, but it's worth it!
• It can make your business more uniquely fitted to the customer, effectively letting you combine two things you already know work to attract a greater amount of customers and eventually achieve sales.

If you want to read his book on this, you can find The Fusion Marketing Bible on Amazon. You really don't have much to lose from this. If fusion marketing doesn't bring you a ton of sales in droves, at least you took the time to see what marketing works out for you and what needs to be thrown out. You save money either way!

Groupon Enters The Online Payment Game Letting Merchants Take Payments Via Mobile Device

When I first heard Groupon was entering the mobile payment business, I was curious. As an occasional user of the online coupon service myself, I've occasionally come across a merchant who was unable to process credit card payments easily. The hair stylist you need to tip or the local tour company that gathers in front of the state capitol at a designated time. Some of these small businesses participate in PayPal Here, but for some small businesses, participating in Groupon is the first step toward a larger customer base.

By providing payment acceptance, Groupon is offering one-stop shopping for these kind of businesses. The module will be built into the merchants app for iPhone and iPod Touch, available to any merchant who runs a deal through Groupon. The company promises the lowest rates, at 1.8% and a $.15 fee per transaction for MasterCard, Visa, and Discover.

Sage Payment Solutions, a leading provider of online payment solutions, has been watching as the market has become saturated with online payment options. While it's impossible to deny the technology is an important part of today's global marketplace, Sage's president, Greg Hammermaster, notes that the customer must come first.

“My first thought is the customer, which is a business,” Hammermaster says. “There is a significant difference between a business's payments environment and a consumer payments environment.”

While providing payments through mobile devices is exciting, Hammermaster cautions that supporting the day-to-day operations of businesses should be the primary goal. This, he emphasizes, is the part that is too often overlooked. A mobile payment processor should offer telephone support. Hammermaster also expresses concern about the complication of combining mobile payment with an existing coupon service.

One plus is Groupon's low rates. “It would appear that Groupon is bundling two business models in hopes of making one that works,” Hammermaster says. “And, if businesses see it as an adjunct to their current commercial payments environment, it may find a niche over a period of time.”

Still, small businesses are looking for financial service providers with a proven track record in the business. Providers who exist to provide financial services, like Sage and PayPal, will have an edge over bundled services. Additionally, social media sites tend to be seen as transient, especially since the meteoric rise and fall of MySpace. Even if Groupon is here to stay, customers are tentative about its long-term viability, and this could hurt the chances of a company interested in developing relationships with businesses.

Whether Groupon's mobile payment service catches on or not, the availability of multiple online payment options creates competition, which can only be good for small businesses looking for reasonable rates. Small businesses interested in offering deals through Groupon have many options for mobile payment solutionsâ€"or traditional payment solutions. Be sure to investigate your options before making a choice.

2 Great NYC Events: Dating Your Leads, Marrying Your Customers and Top 10 Tips for Killer Presentations

There are two great events coming up in New York City this month that we wanted to let you know about.  Both events will focus on how showing you how to bring your business to the next level with marketing, offer great networking opportunities and, undoubtedly, some fun along the way!

Here are the details:

 

 LifeCycle Marketing Helps You Get Prospects To Be Customers and Customers To Become Prospects.

 

When: Tuesday, October 23rd, 8:30am â€" 10:30am (we will start at 8:30am sharp)

Where: Emerge 212, 1515 Broadway, 11th floor (near 44th Street), New York, New York 10036

(Register Here)

 

Join Adrian's Network member Ramon Ray (Smallbiztechnology.com and Infusionsoft) as he presents an insightful, informative and engaging workshop on how to better date your leads and marry your customers â€" Lifecycle Marketing. Using a workbook, which you will personalize and take with you, Ramon will share with you the 7 ways to get more customers and make loyal customers of the ones you have.

Your Hosts:

Ramon Ray, Regional Development Director, Infusionsoft (and Tech Evangelist, smallbiztechnology.com)

Infusionsoft provides all in one sales and marketing software to small businesses â€" integrating ecommerce, analytics, contact management, CRM, automation (and more) in one software suite with one database for a comprehensive view of the customers. Ramon is a technology evangelist, author (3 books), event producer, national speaker, journalist and freelance writer with over 8,000 articles to his name. As a former technology consultant Ramon has hands on knowledge of technology and as a business owner, knows the challenges and joys of growing a business. Read more about Ramon at www.RamonRay.com.

Adrian Miller, Owner, Adrian Miller Sales Training and Adrian's Network

Adrian Miller is a recognized sales training expert. She developed Adrian Miller Sales Training, which delivers executive-level strategic consulting and sales-level performance training for your unique business. Adrian's results-driven solutions go far beyond ‘theory' and ‘feel-good' rhetoric. Her vision is focused exactly on what you need: a sales force that is achieving more. Adrian is also the creator of Adrian's Network, a business networking community that meets 8 to 10 times per month and truly enables you to network your way!

 

REGISTER HERE FOR DATE YOUR LEADS. MARRY YOUR CUSTOMERS.

 

 

 

Grab the attention of your prospects with an amazing presentation AND learn how to nurture them and convert to sales with LifeCycle marketing.

 

When: Tuesday, October 24rd, 8:30am â€" 10:30am (we will start at 8:30am sharp)

Where: Emerge 212, 1515 Broadway, 11th floor (near 44th Street), New York, New York 10036

 

Attend Infusionsoft and eSlide's ‘Top 10 Tips for Killer Presentations' where you'll learn how to deliver presentations that get results. While it's easy to put a bunch of bullet points on a Power Point and talk, it's more difficult to deliver a presentation that gets the results you want. In this session, Marshall Makstein, President and Founder of eSlide will share with you, from his over 20 years of experience, 10 tips to deliver “killer” presentations that won't bore your audience. In fact they'll leave your presentation ready to take the action you want. Ramon will walk you through 7 Tips to Date Your Leads and Marry6 Your Customers, called Lifecycle Marketing that will help you see opportunities for growth in your business and focus on how to WOW your customers. He'll show you how to nurture your prospects, how to convert to sales and more.

Your Hosts:

 Ramon Ray, Regional Development Director, Infusionsoft (and Tech Evangelist, smallbiztechnology.com)

 Infusionsoft provides all in one sales and marketing software to small businesses â€" integrating ecommerce, analytics, contact management, CRM, automation (and more) in one software suite with one database for a comprehensive view of the customers.Ramon is a technology evangelist, author (3 books), event producer, national speaker, journalist and freelance writer with over 8,000 articles to his name. As a former technology consultant Ramon has hands on knowledge of technology and as a business owner, knows the challenges and joys of growing a business. Read more about Ramon at www.RamonRay.com.

 

 

As a longtime presentation evangelist and a true believer in the power of a well-designed presentation, it only makes sense that Marsh initiated the concept that would become eSlide.

While the business world was on the “Death by PowerPoint” bandwagon, Marsh felt strongly enough about well-designed presentations that he decided that it was time a company specialized in PowerPoint design and production.

Marsh believes that presentations are a critical corporate communication tool, and promotes the idea that effective PowerPoint can actually bring LIFE to ideas and organizations. In his 20+ years in the industry, he has seen many examples of the influence a good presentation can have on a company. He has seen great presentations motivate firms to survive tough challenges, and has witnessed stock prices soar after a strong presentation by company leadership teams.

Along with a B.S. degree in Organizational Communication, Marshall brings a unique combination of creative, technical and managerial talent that provides clients with effective and efficiently produced visual media. When not in front of a computer screen, Marshall can be found fishing or just floating around the Navesink River on the Jersey Shore with his wife and two daughters. In the winter he hibernates and dreams about warmer weather.

 

REGISTER HERE FOR TOP 10 TIPS FOR KILLER PRESENTATIONS

Running A Private Practice? List With The Right Online Locaters So Clients Find You

It seems like a no-brainer, but it's not exactly as simple as it sounds when someone tells you to “give your clients the possibility to find you.” What does that even mean? What ever happened to “if you build it, they will come?”

Today, there are droves upon droves of “me too” businesses, presenting the average prospect with a multitude of choices. It's not a bad thing, but it dilutes things so much that you have to find a new way to navigate the river. Word of mouth is only going to get you so far. Because of this new “me too” climate, most prospects don't even bother doing a very refined amount of research to find out who's right for them. Instead, they behave just like an electrical current and find the path of least resistance. In this case, that path usually involves finding a business that's going to give them what they want, period.

So, how do you become a part of that “path of least resistance?”

The Internet is a very handy tool for this kind of thing. Let's say you're a lawyer with a professional private practice. A lot of your local prospects will look up a personal practice on the web, like “family lawyers in Miami” or something like that. They'll use places like Rocket Lawyer to get good prices and decent service. If you're not there, you probably don't exist to them.

If you're a dentist, try getting into MouthHealthy. If you're a freelancer, start looking at newsletters and job sites like Craigslist.

The point is that you have to look at where your clients are searching for your services. If you don't open yourself to your clients, they'll never know you're around. And if you don't exist, you're not selling anything. I'm a writer born in the US and based in Romania. I obviously can't wait for a client to fall on my lap (although that has happened once or twice). I started with really low-balled offers until I built a portfolio, then marketed myself wherever my dream clients were hanging out. Now, I'm talking to at least 3 a month, and usually turn them down because I feel secure where I'm at. You can get to this point as long as you let your clients find you!