12 Ways to Avoid Hovering Over Employees

Regardless of the industry, entrepreneurs vary when it comes to leadership styles. Some employers prefer the traditional top-down approach, while others treat their employees like equals who can IM them throughout the day and grab drinks with them once that day is over. But altogether, teams are formulated at startups to create things, to get things done - without micromanaging.

The approach of “MBWA” or “management by walking around” might sound like an outdated technique, but for some business owners, it still works-if not in a new way. To do so without micromanaging your employees-or even being in the same office space-impacts both a startup's deadlines and the company culture as well.

We asked members of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invitation-only nonprofit organization comprised of the country's most promising young entrepreneurs, the following question to find out their advice for staying on top of their startup's projects:

“”MBWA” or management by walking around: do you use it and if so, what's your best tip to know what's going on without micromanaging?”

Here's what YEC community members had to say:

1. They're the Boss Now

“If you've hired well, every key employee is more talented than you in their domain. So your value in an MBWA session is to listen, and help untangle challenges. At LabDoor, I'll usually pull up a chair and sit quietly until I'm up to speed, offer a few pieces of helpful advice, and then let my teammate get back to work.”
~ Neil Thanedar, LabDoor

2. Gen Y Likes Frequent Check-Ins

“Micromanaging gets a bad rap because keeping close tabs on your employees requires a lot of time and effort on the part of the CEO or manager. Gen Y likes to have a lot of feedback, as long as you are allowing employees enough freedom to make mistakes and grow. I think frequently checking in can be a really great thing.”
~ Caitlin McCabe, Real Bullets Branding

3. Virtual Teams Tracking Time

“With my virtual team, the primary way I review my team's time is by asking them to log in to track their time reporting. We use oDesk, and when logged in, the program screen captures every few minutes so I can see what my team has done when they log time. This helps ensure that a VA isn't on Facebook when time is logged for article marketing and provides extra accountability.”
~ Kelly Azevedo, She's Got Systems

4. Integrate Inquiries into Conversations

“I have used MBWA, and I've found that it really helps to strengthen one-on-one relationships with the people with whom I work. Once we start talking, it eventually becomes natural to bring up what they're working on and get a status, and this way, I can motivate them with my excitement in person.”
~ Alexandra Levit, Inspiration at Work

5. Let Them Be Independent

“I don't use this management technique; I encourage my staff to do the best they can and be independent. My staff is held accountable for their projects by setting deadlines, but micromanaging is not useful for any of us. Weekly meetings to discuss project statuses overcome the need for micromanagement.”
~ DC Fawcett, Paramount Digital Publishing

6. Keep Your Eyes Peeled

“I have used this technique frequently, as it is the only true way to effectively understand how your staff spends its time. Often, I act like I'm merely wandering the floor rather than checking on my staff. I constantly take mental notes, which I later put in writing. When I discuss my findings with staff members, it often leads to great results.”
~ Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance

7. Truly Help Your Team

“Each member of our team is accountable for a dozen or more projects, some small and some large. We're a very collaborative team, but even so, it's impossible to know what the biggest pain point is at any time. My favorite question is “What can I do to help you?” The answer might be nothing, a small task, or a large one. Regardless, their answer gets me to the root need of everyone.”
~ Aaron Schwartz, Modify Watches

8. Don't Be Old School

“Get your team on project management software and begin tracking performance based on productivity and output. You should not be worried about what your team is doing by creeping behind them in the office. Empower your employees by giving them tasks to complete which you can track online and not by becoming that boss that's breathing down their necks.”
~ Raul Pla, SimpleWifi and UseABoat

9. Check In Weekly

“We use weekly meetings; I don't use MBWA. I meet with all my direct reports weekly (and they meet with theirs). We cover accomplishments over the past week and priorities for the next one. We also talk about any issues or questions the employee has. The employees are empowered to run with their priorities; I don't need to check in on a daily basis.”
~ Bhavin Parikh, Magoosh Test Prep

10. Go One-on-One

“I try to hold semi-weekly one-on-ones with as much of my team as possible. They're short and sweet (typically ten minutes), but give team members a chance to share what's on their mind, from work stuff to personal issues. I ask them what they were most proud of, what they've been struggling with most, and how I can help.”
~ Derek Flanzraich, Greatist

11. Hire People You Trust

“My office jokes that my management style is macromanaging. I hire people I can trust; I expect a lot of my employees, and I set that expectation from the first day. I'm not afraid to address issues with employees, letting them know that I know what's going on. We have an incredibly low turnover rate because we have open trust in each other.”
~ Peter Nguyen, Advertiser360

12. Don't Breathe Down Necks

“I do this unconsciously, in a social or creative manner. I'll chat someone up or ask him for ideas or suggestions. That sort of thing helps me see where people are at. I hate having people breathe down my neck, so I try not to do that myself-it leaves everyone much more content.”
~ Nicolas Gremion, Foboko.com

Micromanaging Photo via Shutterstock

Street Fight Summit 2012: The Next Generation of Hyperlocal!

 

Street Fight Summit 2012: The Next Generation of Hyperlocal!

 

New York â€" Oct. 30-31, 2012

 

With hyperlocal advertising on track for $100 billion in revenue by the end of the decade, it's fair to say that location and geotargeting have truly entered a stage of warp speed. With so much revenue on the line, gaining insights into best practices and sharing lessons and experiences has never been more important and timely for winning over local merchants and national retailers.

Join us for a two-day event on Oct. 30-31 in New York City for the second annual gathering of bleeding-edge practitioners in hyperlocal - on stage, in the exhibitor booths, and in the audience. Networking will begin in advance online and continue throughout the event and during the day-one happy hour.

Smallbiztechnology.com readers get 20% off with SBT20 coupon code!

Register now: http://bit.ly/PiNUdU

Speaker lineup includes:

• Steven Rosenblatt, Chief Revenue Officer at Foursquare: “Making Location Move the Needle for a Mobile App”
• Gail Goodman, CEO, Constant Contact: “What do SMBs Want From a Local Commerce Solution?”
• Howard Lerman, CEO at Yext: “The Future of Local Information Infrastructure”
• Zohar Yardeni, CEO at Daily Voice: “Hyperlocal Publishing Models that Work”
• Mark Josephson, VP of Revenue at Patch: “An Assessment of Patch at 3.5 Years”

Who attends Street Fight Summit 2012? 

Attendance includes key individuals in the hyperlocal ecosystem: publishers, location-based tech developers, directories, local search, advertisers, investors and more.

iPad mini? Announcement expected next week

Apple Inc. has sent out invites for an event next Wednesday, where it's expected to announce the release of a smaller iPad.

The invite, sent to reporters today, doesn't hint at what will be revealed, beyond saying that "We've got a little more to show you." The event will be held in San Jose, California.

Media and analysts have said for months that Apple has an "iPad mini" in the works. The tablet is thought to be about half the size of the regular iPad and to start at US$249 or US$299. The regular iPad starts at US$499 for the most recent models.

Apple founder Steve Jobs derided the idea of a smaller tablet two years ago, but Amazon.com Inc. has had some success with its Kindle Fire, which is about half the size of the iPad and starts at US$159. Analysts believe Apple wants to tackle that competition with its own similarly sized tablet.

Reports suggest that the smaller iPad would have a screen that's 7.8 inches on the diagonal, a bit more than the Kindle Fire or Google Inc.'s Nexus, with their 7-inch screens. The full-size iPad has a 9.7-inch screen, giving it about twice the display area as the 7-inch units.

Apple typically starts selling a new phone or iPad a week or two after announcing it. But it could treat the new iPad as a minor product update, in which case it could start selling it right after the announcement.

Apple shares rose US$14.02, or 2.2 percent, to US$648.78 in midday trading today. The shares are off their all-time high of US$705.07, hit September 21 when the iPhone 5 went on sale in stores.

- AP

App Of The Week: Ringya

Your phone is a powerful tool, but perhaps not powerful enough when it comes to manually inputting contacts from a printed list. The whole process can get boring and it's really easy to put it all off. One day, you find yourself without that contact list and one of the contacts decides to ring you up while you're on your way somewhere. It's tough not knowing whether to answer or ignore the call.

This week, we're presenting an app that helps you mitigate all of this through one simple interface. Ringya not only makes managing your contacts simpler, but it also utilizes your phone's camera to “scan” a shot of a contact list and organize it.

Ringya gives you the possibility of assigning roles to your contacts. In the product video below, a person demonstrates how the app distinguishes between work and school, showing contact lists for other moms within the school. In this example, the person in question quickly tries to find one of the other moms she knows to pick up her kid from school. You can create a multitude of different hierarchies and categories for your contacts to quickly remember what meaning that contact has for you. A simple name on a phone's list can't really help when you have more than 300 contacts on your phone. Check out the video:

 

Here's an example: I have two people called Ion on my list (with different last names, of course). One of them's a pizza guy and the other's a doctor. Unfortunately, I can't always remember which one's which. Keeping a straightforward “A to Z” list just isn't lucrative when I can't remember whether to call Ion the pizza guy or Ion the ophthalmologist. It would certainly be embarrassing if I called an eye doctor asking him for extra pepperoni, wouldn't it? Ringya helps solve this kind of dilemma quickly and easily!

If you want the app you can get it now on iOS or Android.

How to comply with updated NIST incident response guidelines

In August, the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) released an update to its Computer Security

SearchSecurity.com members gain immediate and unlimited access to breaking industry news, virus alerts, new hacker threats, highly focused security newsletters, and more -- all at no cost. Join me on SearchSecurity.com today!

Michael S. Mimoso, Editorial Director

Incident Handling Guide (SP 800-61) [PDF]. This third revision offers guidance on issues that have arisen since the last release in March 2008 with an emphasis on addressing new technologies and attack vectors, changing the prioritization criteria for incident response and facilitating information sharing. 

In this tip, we examine these major changes and discuss how to integrate them into a security and compliance program.

Web app design at the core of coding weaknesses, attacks, says expert

Developers need to work on creating strong designs for Web applications by rethinking their coding practices and the process in place to fix bugs, according to Mike Shema, director of engineering at Qualys, Inc. in Redwood City, Calif.

Innovation cuts costs for Telecom

Video conferencing and shared wireless 'hot desks' allow staff to work anywhere

With increasing pressure to cut business costs, manage work and family responsibilities and provide a desirable, smart environment for employees more companies are turning to the modern work space concept where closed offices are out and hot desks are in.

Gen-i, Telecom's ICT service division, had the prime opportunity to do just that 18 months ago when Auckland's Telecom Place and later Wellington's Telecom Central were built.

"As well as building really impressive spaces to work in, we've added lots of really cool technology," says Gen-i Australasia chief executive Chris Quin.

That technology includes 40 state-of-the-art TelePresence rooms throughout New Zealand and Australia, 100 video conferencing rooms and 200 wireless access points.

Employees don't have allocated offices or desks. Instead the completely wireless set-up allows them to work from shared "hot desks" anywhere in the building, which alongside a smart-printing solution, has saved the company 70 per cent in stationery costs and 30 per cent in land costs.

"I genuinely see people innovate faster and team-work more," says Quin. Instead of the traditional chief executive's office tucked away in the corner even Quin's desk is on the open floor.

"On the open floors I find out more about what's going on, I overhear conversations and can more easily solve or help with problems," he says.

Technology advances mean staff can also work from home when needed, a privilege the 7000-strong team appreciates.

After earthquakes left Telecom's Christchurch base uninhabitable 30 per cent of the call centre team were forced to work from home when the company moved to eight different buildings.

However, Quin says having the call centre staff based at home, where they have full access to all the systems they would in the office, has been so successful they will stay there when the company moves to a new base.

Gen-i Hawke's Bay client services manager Leisa Epplett knows how valuable working from home can be.

The mother-of-two has worked with Telecom for 10 years and says it is incredible to see how technology advances have changed the way she works.

"Work is no longer a place I go but something I do regardless of location."

Epplett lives 20 minutes from the Napier-based office, a long commute in Hawke's Bay she insists, and says scheduling her calendar so she doesn't have to go to the office at least two days a week saves a lot of time and money travelling.

"It's a change of mindset," she explains. "Because I live further away and don't want to travel as much, I have really embraced it. The time I'm not travelling means I have more time to spend with family."

"Just five years ago I had to go back to the office for everything, even just to write up notes after meetings.

"Now I take my iPad with all my notes and information on to meetings, it's pretty much a paperless workplace."

While the switch to modern workspaces was a big financial investment, Quin says it was worth it and Epplett agrees.

She says her modern workspace has made it less stressful to juggle work and family responsibilities.

"I find it fantastic. I have a 3- and a 5-year-old so I can finish work at 3pm in time to pick them up from school, have time with them and then do a bit more work after I put them to bed."

From the comfort of her lounge Epplett can even print something at the office to be ready and waiting for her when she goes in.

The radical shift to state-of-the-art video conferencing took a while to get used to but everyone has embraced it now, Epplett told the Herald over a Cisco TelePresence video conference.

The TelePresence system uses a series of cameras and microphones which activate and follow the voice of the speaker so they are shown on the screen.

It was funded by relocating travel budgets and has so far saved 175 days that would have been used by people travelling.

"I'm completely confident the investment has paid off - in fact it is more than paying for itself, it has generated cost saving against investments and increased productivity for people," says Quin.

Despite the increased use of video conferencing in place of face-to-face meetings, Epplett says she doesn't miss out on human interaction.

"If anything I have more now. Instead of sending emails I can just video conference because it is so clear and easy.

"I would just like to see more and more people embracing the technology and making the most of it."

This is a goal the Government supports, with Communications and Information Technology Minister Amy Adams announcing the inaugural Telework Week earlier this month.

Adams says the week-long initiative is designed to promote the benefits of businesses having staff work from home.

The initiative, led by Cisco which provides Telecom's video conferencing facilities, will run from November 12-16.

By Kasia Jillings

Incorporate A Business: Choosing A Legal Entity

If you're ready to incorporate a business, one of the simplest ways to create a legal entity for your company is to set up an LLC.  The LLC stands for “limited liability company,” and it gives you the ability to create a separate legal entity for your business which is separate from your identity as the owner. Like other corporate structures, the LLC gives you a “corporate shield” when you incorporate a business, to separate and protect your personal assets from those of your business.

About the LLC (Limited Liability Company)

The LLC is a popular choice with small business owners and solo entrepreneurs when it comes time to incorporate a business, because it does not have as many formalities and “red tape” requirements as a C Corporation or S Corporation. The filing requirements are easier, and you don't have to set up a board of directors, host an annual shareholders' meeting, or deal with as many other regulatory formalities.

An LLC also offers “pass through taxation,” meaning that the company itself does not pay income taxes. Instead, the company's earnings are passed through to the company owners. This makes the LLC a simple and effective choice for many solo entrepreneurs, who get the personal asset protection of a corporation without having to deal with the additional paperwork involved with setting up an S Corporation.  Here's a comparison of the S Corp versus the LLC.

Another unique feature of an LLC is that the owners can choose different “tax treatment” by filing additional forms with their tax returns. For example, you can choose to have your LLC taxed like a C-Corporation, or you can choose pass-through taxation like a sole proprietor, or you can choose to treat your LLC like an S-Corporation for tax purposes.  If you're ready to incorporate a business and form an LLC to protect your personal assets and boost your business credibility, talk to CorpNet today for a free business consultation.

About the S Corporation

If you've decided to incorporate a business, perhaps you've wondered:

“What is the difference between an LLC and an S Corporation and what are the tax benefits of choosing one business structure over another?”

One option for business owners who want to minimize the amount of taxes they owe while still enjoying the most flexibility in how to set up and run their company is to incorporate as an S Corporation.

The S Corporation is a corporate structure governed under subchapter S of Chapter 1 of the IRS Code. As such, S Corporations have unique tax rules which can offer special benefits for the owners. The S Corporation is one of the most popular business structures in America, with over 3 million small businesses incorporated as (or filing taxes as) S Corporations.

Perhaps the biggest tax advantage of an S Corporation is that they can help the business owner minimize the amount of self-employment tax that is owed. When you're a sole proprietor, often the biggest line on your tax bill is the amount of self-employment taxes collected for Social Security, Medicare, unemployment and other programs â€" this can add up to approximately 15% of your eligible earnings.

With an S Corporation, the company is governed by pass-through taxation (like an LLC), and so the company itself does not owe any taxes. Instead, the company's earnings are listed on the owners' individual tax returns. But with an S Corporation, the owners have some flexibility in how they report their earnings, and in doing so, they can often minimize their self-employment income tax liability.

For example, an S Corporation that earns $100,000 in profit could pay the owner a $50,000 salary (which is subject to self-employment taxes) and also pay the owner a $50,000 distribution (which is not subject to self-employment taxes). Assuming approximately a 15% self-employment tax rate, the owner of the S Corporation would have saved $7,500 on self-employment taxes.

One drawback of the S Corporation is that you are limited in the number of shareholders that can own a piece of the company. There is a maximum of 100 shareholders that can take part in an S Corporation, and only one class of stock can be issued. This means that S Corporations cannot be used for an initial public offering, and it also makes it hard to use an S Corporation if you want to raise venture capital. Another restriction of S Corporations is that only U.S. Citizens can be shareholders.

If you incorporate a business as an S Corporation, it is not to be taken lightly, as there are numerous business filings and regulatory requirements that need to be done throughout the year. So you'll have to decide if the S Corp is right for your small business.  If you want to learn more about how you can incorporate a business as an S Corporation to protect your personal assets, talk to CorpNet today for a free business consultation.

All About The C Corporation

The third main choice of business structure that entrepreneurs can choose when it's time to incorporate a business is the C Corporation. Although the C Corporation has more complicated tax and regulatory filing requirements, it is an ideal choice for certain types of companies with certain business goals.

A C Corporation is a standard corporation owned by shareholders who elect a board of directors to oversee the management of the business. Shareholders generally have limited liability, even if they are involved in the day-to-day management. The shares of a corporation are freely transferable unless limited by agreement of the shareholders.

The corporation exists indefinitely, unless and until it is dissolved by the shareholders. It is a separately taxable entity, meaning that the company must file its own tax return and pay corporate taxes on its profits. There is no limit on the number of shareholders a C corporation may have.

C Corporations can create multiple classes of stock, such as “preferred shares” with advantageous terms for certain shareholders. This makes C Corporations a popular choice for businesses that want to raise venture capital or make an initial public offering (IPO).

One potential drawback of C Corporations is that they are subject to “double taxation” â€" meaning that the company itself has to pay corporate income taxes on profits, and then those profits are taxed again as dividends when paid out to shareholders. Working with a professional tax accountant can help you understand your options to effectively minimize your tax liability.  If you're ready to incorporate a business as a C Corporation to protect your personal assets and boost your business credibility, talk to CorpNet today for a free business consultation.

Choosing a business structure can be complex, but you don't have to worry about making “the wrong choice,” because you can always change your choice of business structure by filing the appropriate forms. If your business is growing or your business needs have changed, you can switch from an LLC to an S-Corporation to a C-Corporation and back again.

Whether you need a basic LLC to protect your personal assets, or whether you need a more complex C Corporation structure that could help your company raise venture capital or “go public” someday, you can incorporate a business according to your needs and can change as your business evolves.

One of the best things about entrepreneurship is the way it enables us to adapt and evolve as our interests and the needs of our markets change â€" and incorporating a business is the same way.

Even if you're not sure of which business structure to choose, you don't have to fear making the wrong decision. Just get started.  Incorporate a business and protect your personal assets, and you can move forward from there.

Researching Photo via Shutterstock

5 Ways Businesses Can Boost E-Commerce Sales This Holiday Season

The holiday season is racing towards us and it's imperative for your bottom line that purses are willing to open when they get to your website.

According to Time's Moneyland, the upgraded National Retail Federation's  forecast recorded at least 2.8% increase leading to $469.1 billion overall sales in 2011. Online shopping alone galloped by 15%, and over 1.25 billion was spent online.

Going by the books, that number is set to grow again. As for individual e-commerce merchants, it's all about making dough when customers come shopping.

Here are five ways businesses can boost e-commerce sales this holiday season:

1. Maximize Customer Experience: If conversion rates are the crux of well-oiled sales machine, there's a reason why Amazon.com scores: customer experience is half-dead already for e-commerce stores compared to traditional retail stores due to the lack of sensory perceptions for customers while shopping. Customer experience on your e-commerce store is vital to make customers linger around, browse, and buy online. Steve Krug, author of Don't Make me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, writes “People won't use your website if they can't find their way around it”. Call it common sense of best practice; it's the first step to boost your sales. Easy navigation, intuitive search, optimized and streamlined product pages with great copy, fast-loading web pages, and a high-degree of interactivity are a given.
2. Don't make them drag a heavy shopping cart. The last thing customers want to have trouble with is their online shopping cart. If it disappears, stalls, miscalculates prices, and doesn't appear responsive enough it's a lost case.  Make it simple for online shoppers. Allow them to login with a minimum number of clicks, invest in intelligent shopping carts that do half of the customers' work (like filling in the details), add robust security features for the cart.
3. Show Off Your Products. Presentation is everything. Combined with spectacular product photography, an organized layout, great graphics, and a pleasant visual presentation, your e-commerce site will do a lot of heavy lifting for your business, just like that.
4. Use Effective Customer E-commerce Platforms. Often, the tools businesses use determine success (or the lack of it). Manage your e-commerce site, serve customers, and make profits while letting go of source code. Americaneagle.com's  idev® , for instance, is a simple-to-use CMS systems specially built for e-commerce sites. Starting with the idev® Intelligent Search tool, customers can find desired products more quickly without time-consuming searches. For merchants, a host of features make it easy to manage your website for maximum profitability.
5. Let customers shop, their style. Customers are as different as the choices they make. Make sure that you allow for faster shopping times, choices in the form of multiple options to search for products based on product type, brand, category, color or price. Give them room to browse, choose, and let the vision of these products marinate in their heads. Using state-of-the-art e-commerce sales management systems such as the iDev E-commerce Platform plugs intelligent cross-sell, social, and recommendation tools and you'll have ways to influence customer choices without coming on to them too hard.

Customers are ready to shop this holiday season. Are you ready for it?

Gary McKinnon escapes extradition after Home Secretary ruling

Home Secretary Theresa May has overruled the extradition order against Gary McKinnon.

McKinnon, who was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, will not face extradition to the United States due to his medical condition, according to the Home Secretary.

May said that her decision was based on article three of the Human Rights Act. She said: “There is no doubt Mr McKinnon has been accused of a very serious crime but he is seriously ill. I have very carefully considered the medical evidence and have taken legal advice and have concluded that his extradition would give such a high risk that he would end his life that it restricts his human rights.

“I have come to the decision that extradition would not be appropriate. That is the decision I have taken [with] the evidence available.”

Her decision was welcomed by Sir Menzies Campbell MP and Dennis Skinner MP, who praised the work of McKinnon's mother Janis Sharp in raising awareness of the case.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights group Liberty, said: “This is a great day for rights, freedoms and justice in the United Kingdom. The Home Secretary has spared this vulnerable man the cruelty of being sent to the US and accepted Liberty's long-standing argument for change to our rotten Extradition laws.

“This campaign [had been] led by Gary's fearless mother, united lawyers, politicians, press and public from across the spectrum in the cause of compassion and common sense.”

McKinnon hacked into the network of the Pentagon over a period of months during 2001 and 2002. He was accused of the crime in 2002 and has since endured a series of appeals against his extradition to the US to face trial over the course of three Prime Ministers, two Presidents and six Home Secretaries.

McKinnon admitted accessing US networks at the Pentagon, but said he was looking for evidence of UFOs.

Theresa May announced in September that the decision would be made ‘on or around' 16th October 2012, rejecting an appeal by McKinnon's mother Janis Sharp to bring forward the decision.

McKinnon failed in High Court bids to avoid extradition in 2007 and 2009 and he appealed to the House of Lords to overturn his extradition to the US in 2008. In 2010 the then Home Secretary Alan Johnson said that he believed McKinnon should be extradited, while Mayor of London Boris Johnson criticised the possibility of extradition as ‘brutal, mad and wrong'.

Don\'t Reward Bad Behavior – How To Address Challenging Team Members

What happens when a co-worker or team member speaks in an aggressive or passive aggressive manner that tends to take over or misdirect your meetings and your projects? If you sit there in silence, it's a passive way of condoning their message.

Of course, being silent doesn't automatically mean that you agree with what's happening - at least in your head. You just may be tired of addressing it. Or you don't think it's a big deal, so you let it go.

After 12 years in management I understand that the leader sets the tone. And whatever she allows will continue to happen.

Situations won't just disappear because you wish they would. 

You and your leaders have to address issues. And how you do this sets the tone for your company environment.

You won't have the privilege of being the teams BFF (best friend forever). But you can have their respect and be surrounded by a productive and effective group that moves your company forward - and that's good for business.

Instead of rewarding bad behavior with your silence, here are three decisive moves to help protect and restore your standards and the teams focus.

1) Create a standard for company behavior. 

Teach that standard during orientation and bring it up periodically during your regular staff meetings and trainings.

2) When a team member violates that standard, then remind them and move on. 

A former employee used to disrupt every staff meeting and training session that he was in with me. This included holding side conversations with other team members, changing the subject and/or consistently challenging why we had to do this type of training.

Nothing we did in that company was fluff, so I stood my ground and trained my team in a way that cut down the turnover rate. But I also addressed every aggressive and passive aggressive attack directly and calmly.

Being direct doesn't mean that you have to “go off.” It does mean, however, that you have to stand up and lead your team.  If you don't, an unofficial leader will.

3) If it continues to happen, then the reprimand needs to be formal and documented. 

Addressing them directly allows you to deal from one grown up to another. It demonstrates that “even though we have a problem, I'm looking to catch you doing good as much as possible.”

But as my father says, some people will “mistake your kindness for weakness.” And you will have to address that - all effective leaders do.

Your goal is to build a strong team that supports your clients. 

Likewise, as they serve your clients, you serve your team.

You have to train them to make sure they are qualified.

You have to work to understand their true motives to ensure that they match your company values. If those values don't line up, it will be a problem down the road.

And then you have to put them in the right position. And sometimes that position is not with your team or your company. Instead of letting it die a slow death and destroy your small business team in the process. You may need to get them out of the wrong position and the right person in as soon as you possibly can. You have a business to run.

Legal Issues

If you're concerned about potential legal issues, then talk to your human resources department, a lawyer who specializes in human resources, or the director at the department of labor to understand your rights as an employer.

I had to move that employee off my team. Eventually, he left the company on his own, and we haven't worked together in over 5 years. But he called last week praising the training and thanking me.

I appreciated the call. But isn't that funny?

Note to self:

1. Run your company or department,
2. Protect your team,
3. Respect your people - all of them, and
4. Keep it moving.
   

Bad Business Behavior Photo via Shutterstock

Beevolve Breaks Out Twitter\'s Vital Statistics

Beevolve, a platform for social media analytics, set out on a quest to break down Twitter's vital statistics and share them with users and marketers everywhere. Mining through data from 36 million Twitter profiles, the site analyzed everything from basic demographic information to gender preferences to smartphone & app preferences. If you're looking to get a better understanding of how normal users, not us tech geeks and marketers, are using Twitter, this is a good study to check out.

So what does the normal Twitter user look like?

• Most Twitter users have less than 50 followers and are following less than 50 people.

• “Family”, “technology”, “entertainment”, “education”, and “publishing” are among the most popular keywords in Twitter bios.

• More than 70 percent of users are between the ages of 15-25 years old.

• 68.9 percent of Tweeters use iOS devices.

• 25 percent of Twitter users have never sent a tweet(!)

The most common Twitter user is said to be an English-speaking 28-year-old female with an iPhone. She has 208 followers.

The data may serve as a reality check to some to show that normal users don't use the micro-blogging service the same way that they do. We're not all super-connected with mass followings, and many users spend more time listening to conversations than actually engaging in them.

For a small business owner or consultant looking to grow a healthy Twitter following, this is really important to take into account. It means you need to be more proactive about finding your targeted audience and starting conversations with them; we can't wait for users to engage with us. We often hear about the power Tweeters who are using social media to talk directly to the brands they love, but some Tweeters are waiting for you to open the conversation. It doesn't mean they're not listening, just that they're not sure how to get involved.

How can SMBs help start that conversation?

• Use tools like FollowerWork to search Twitter bios and locate people in your area interested in the things you do.
• Perform Advanced Twitter Searches to find people in your area who may be talking about issues related to your business.
• Create a list of Twitter conversation starters that you can use to engage people in conversation or to open up doors. If Twitter users are shy or are simply using the service to scan news, you'll need to grab their attention and pull those conversations out of them at first.
• Be proactive about identifying people who may be interested in what you do and getting them talking.

While the data pulled together by Beevolve is certainly interesting based on the large sample size, I can see how it might discourage some business owners at the same time. Accordingly to the results, more than 70 percent of users are between the ages of 15-25. If your target demographic is older, does that mean Twitter won't work for you?

Not at all! Remember, those ages were pulled from Twitter users who self-disclosed. I don't know many 40-year-olds who feel the need to put their age in their Twitter bio.

While Beevolve's data serves as a great starting point to understand the mindset of the “normal” Twitter user, I may not be your normal Twitter follower. If you don't know the demographics of who follows you on Twitter, I recommend using a tool like Beevolve or PeekAnalytics to help you get a better idea. By simply entering in your Twitter handle, you'll get information like audience demographics, age range (broken out by gender), interests, level of social media use (light, medium, heavy), etc.

Because at the end of the day, what's really important is the data that's going to help you connect with your audience, no one else's.

Normal Twitter User Photo via Shutterstock

By Mining Your Website\'s Visitor Info You\'ll Strike Gold More Often

If your website is set up to take information that your visitors enter, is it just name, address, e-mail, and phone numbers? It's pretty simple to set up a basic form on your website to e-mail or otherwise store information that your visitors share, but if that's all you're getting out of it, there are giant steps you can take towards leveraging even more valuable data.

A program named formIQ will not only capture the information that the visitors share, but it will also give you valuable information otherwise, including the physical location of your visitors, a thumbnail of their website (if they enter one), and many different reports that will organize all information automatically for you. You'll also find out how much time they spent on your site and how many of your pages they viewed.

What's more interesting is that formIQ will also provide links to your visitor's social media profiles, including LinkedIn, to add more dimensions to the information you can glean from them. Anything ‘extra' can provide a valuable edge to your lead generation.

A similar tool you can find is Formstack, which gives you an easy-to-use tool in creating forms for your website. Formstack has an easy drag-and-drop building function so pre-determined fields can be added quickly and in any format you might want. Also, if your visitors answer questions on your site (e.g. for a survey), there is a ‘conditional logic' function that lets you build your site's question generator and present them based on the answers they give, keeping information focused. Everything you build in Formstack generates under-the-hood HTML5 code to ensure up-to-date compatibility.

Both offer a free trial period (formIQ's trial is 30 days, whereas Formstack's is 14 days). Formstack is a bit more expensive than formIQ, but you can check those links and see what works for you. And even if the trial for one is only two weeks, you should know pretty quickly what will and what won't work for you and your website.

A few other options out there include:

• JotForm. This sports another drag-and-drop interface and has a quick video tutorial to watch, which goes a lot further to helping you visualize what this kind of technology can do for you.
• Google Docs is a very simple solution to any polling or survey forms you might want to create. If that's all you want to do, and you're already using some Google apps, you might check this out.
• Wufoo offers not only form building but also some integration with PayPal, making it a pretty strong competitor to all of the above if you have ecommerce desires.

Overall, there are a plethora of form building tools out there; these just scratch the surface. Consider it, if anything, because some of these can help you organize your site visitor data and give your sales a leg up on making contacts and customers for life.

Manchester Police fined £120,000 for loss of sensitive data on personal USB stick

Greater Manchester Police have been issued with a monetary penalty of £120,000 after a USB stick containing sensitive personal data was lost.

According to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the device was unencrypted and had no password protection. It contained details of more than a thousand people with links to serious crime investigations and was stolen from an officer's home.

The theft, on the 17th July 2011, happened when an officer employed by the data controller had his house burgled and his wallet was stolen, which contained the USB stick. To date this has not been recovered.

The officer had worked in the data controller's Serious Crime Division for around ten years and had used a personal USB stick to download information from his folder on the shared drive of the data controller's network, which was subject to access controls. He had been issued an unencrypted USB stick in 2003/4, but had replaced it with his own USB stick when it became full.

The ICO found that a number of officers across the force regularly used unencrypted memory sticks, which may also have been used to copy data from police computers to access data away from the office. Despite a similar security breach in September 2010, the force had not put restrictions on downloading information, and staff were not sufficiently trained in data protection.

David Smith, ICO director of data protection, said: “This was truly sensitive personal data, left in the hands of a burglar by poor data security. The consequences of this type of breach really do send a shiver down the spine.

“It should have been obvious to the force that the type of information stored on its computers meant proper data security was needed. Instead, it has taken a serious data breach to prompt it into action.

“This is a substantial monetary penalty, reflecting the significant failings the force demonstrated. We hope it will discourage others from making the same data protection mistakes.”

Terry Greer-King, UK managing director for Check Point, said:  “In November 2011, we surveyed 320 UK public and private sector organisations and 50 per cent of them were still not encrypting data on USB sticks, despite the high-profile security breaches of recent years. So these losses will keep happening.

“The fact that a subsequent amnesty by the GMP on personal, unsecured devices led to 1,100 such devices being handed in, highlights the scale of the problem. Without the proper controls in place, employees will continue to use personal devices for work, simply because they're trying to do their job more efficiently. Firms have to balance that against the need to protect confidential data.”

Smaller-scale state-sponsored malware detected, which acts as a module of Flame and Gauss

Kaspersky Lab has announced the discovery of the fourth piece of state-sponsored malware to have been created by the same 'factory'.

Named MiniFlame or SPE, it said that it is a high-precision, surgical attack tool that is used against high profile victims.

Kaspersky Lab said that it is an information-stealing backdoor that works independently, or as a module of Flame and Gauss, and its capabilities include the ability to capture screenshots or use USB drives to store data collected from infected machines that are not connected to the internet.

The research said that MiniFlame is able to communicate with its own unique command and control (C&C) servers or with Flame's servers, and it was most likely deployed during the initial Flame and Gauss infection.

The research said: “MiniFlame is different from Flame and Gauss in that the number of infections is significantly smaller. While we estimate the total number of Flame/Gauss victims at no less than 10,000 systems, MiniFlame has been detected in just a few dozen systems in Western Asia.

“This indicates that SPE is a tool used for highly targeted attacks, and has probably been used only against very specific targets that have the greatest significance and posing the greatest interest to the attackers.”

Roel Schouwenberg, senior researcher at Kaspersky Lab, said that MiniFlame serves as a backdoor, while Flame and Gauss were about data and information gathering. “MiniFlame gives more direct access to a target machine,” he told SC Magazine US.

So far, Kaspersky Lab's researchers have discovered six strains of MiniFlame and they believe that development began as far back as 2007. It also determined that the authors of Flame and Gauss, and those of other nation state-sponsored weapons such as Stuxnet and Duqu, are cooperating in their spy efforts.

In January of this year, Kaspersky Lab predicted that more variants of Stuxnet and Duqu would be created, as they were both produced on a platform named ‘Tilded'. Kaspersky Lab director of global research and analysis Costin Raiu said that there was evidence that the same platform that was used to build Stuxnet and Duqu was also used to create at least three other pieces of malware.

Staples Gambles On Mobile Over Brick and Mortar

A big box chain with a strong Web presence is betting heavily on the mobile revolution. Office products leviathan Staples says it will concentrate on mobile and online efforts at the expense of its brick and mortar business. The announcement comes after a report shows a dramatic increase in mobile ad share. Many experts argue mobile is becoming a huge channel for business. Here are some things every business owner should know when going mobile.

Buying In

Mobile becomes staple of retail. The days of the big box retailer may truly be numbered as Staples not only pushes to boost mobile and e-commerce efforts, but also vows to shrink its retail square footage in North America by 15 percent over the next three years. The company will also close 45 stores in Europe by the end of 2012, and says it will focus on mobile marketing to grow what it claims is already the second biggest retail business on the Web. ZDNet

Advertising is on the move. A study suggests a dramatic rise in online advertising over the past year, but nowhere nearly as stunning as over mobile channels. Here the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers claim an incredible 95 percent growth spurt in mobile advertising as customers communicate and consume information more and more over mobile devices. E-Commerce Times

Wake-up call

Why we're romancing the phone. Yep, no doubt about it. We're in love with our smart phones. So in love, in fact, that mobile communications may be more of a revolution than social media, and businesses need to understand where this relationship is headed, says live media expert Andrea Cook. She's brought along a big, colorful infographic to show you why. Social Media Explorer

Mobile imitates life. There are a lot of reasons that mobile is taking over, says Tim Hayden, a mobile marketing strategist. One is its ability to engage the offline world. Mobile engagement starts in the physical world, often with traditional media, with searches instigated from things seen on TV, in stores, or on billboards. There are some other reasons your business should be paying attention to the mobile revolution. Edelman Digital

Everything's In Motion

What's in store? A less anticipated use of mobile technology is this iPad Kiosk for your brick and mortar retail location. Imagine using mobile technology as way to help your real world customers meet their needs. The biggest question may not be whether this would be a good investment for your business, but rather, what might be the best place to put it. iPad Kiosk Solutions

The best way to talk to humans. If you want to engage with customers, there is no doubt that the way they prefer to communicate is via mobile device, says mobile marketing expert Jed Alpert. In this interview with Chris Hamilton, Jed talks about the best way to think about mobile marketing. It's doing all the things ordinary marketing entails, but using the channel that's now most popular with your customers. Sales Tip a Day

Mission critical. If you won't listen to us, listen to Google. The search engine giant says a mobile presence is critical for business. Here's a scary stat to consider: Sixty-one percent of users say they'll move on to another site if they can't find the information they're looking for in a mobile format. You may be loosing visitors right now who have no patience with a Web presence that doesn't cater to their smartphone or tablet! Small Business Trends