Mac Planet: Management on shuffle

New Zealand seems a very long way from California, where Apple is based, sometimes, but every now and again we get a first - this time around, we're the first country in the world to get iPad 4 and mini on sale.

Meanwhile, in distant Cupertino, Apple seems to be shuffling more decks than one: not just the iPad and Mac lines, but top management staff, too.

Apple explained all this by talking about new responsibilities for current top managers.

Apple's vice president of retail John Browett is gone. Previously, Browett was CEO of Dixons, a UK retail electronics company apparently regaled for substandard customer service. Browett was always considered a surprising choice: once at Apple he promptly ignored advice about staffing levels and started making cuts and other changes. When the word got out that he was effectively stripping Apple retail of its 'Apple-ness', the staffing order was rescinded.

Possibly this is one reason Apple's Annual Retail Conference was cancelled at short notice, but that's speculation.

Management changes echo the fact that Apple has to effectively recreate some products to correct a recent string of failures, most notably the iOS6 Maps debacle, but also difficulties with Siri (which I always considered a hugely ambitious enterprise).

So-called 'skeuomorphic design' has been roundly criticised. I would better characterise this as 'that horrible faux leather' look on Mac OS apps like Contacts and Calendar. Basically, it's making software look like real-world equivalents. Apparently, the impulse for this visual yetch was Jobs himself, but who knows?

Other examples abound - the Note apps looks like a yellow legal pad. In iOS, the Find Friends app is decorated with what's supposed to look like sewn leather. The new Podcasts app actually has a reel-to-reel tape playing as you listen (at least it looks like a Bauhaus-styled tape player). The Compass and Voice Memo apps appear as quasi-realistic compass and microphone. Game Center has a green felt texture with wood trim. The iBooks app looks like a wooden bookshelf ... not so bad in themselves, perhaps, but they all clash with the visual aesthetic of the minimalistic and clean-lined hardware that hosts them.

Of the staff to get the chop, the most significant is Scott Forstall. When Steve Jobs passed away, it was said that the main people at Apple each embodied significant aspects of Jobs: Cook was the details man, Schiller the engineer, Ive the designer - and Forstall was the evangelistic enthusiast.

Apparently he also had an ego to match not just the enthusiasm, but also the ego of the younger Jobs, at least. (The older Jobs did at least apologise for mistakes.) Cook apparently dismissed Forstall after he refused to sign a public letter to Apple customers apologising for the mapping software's flaws ... so Cook had to sign the letter himself. Ouch. Forstall oversaw the mapping software, not to mention Siri voice-recognition.

Those who worked for Forstall seemed to be loyal to him and certainly put in the hours; relationships with other management was a different matter. Several senior executives left Apple because they found working with Forstall difficult, according to former Apple employees. The mapping missteps were the final straw, people said.

As Bloomberg reported, "Forstall was effectively a component of friction in Apple's otherwise very collaborative senior management structure," said Charlie Wolf, an analyst at Needham & Co.

Apple shares dropped on the news,and dropped again once the New York Stock Exchange reopened after the storm, but concerns about Apple being able to maintain its competitive edge against Amazon, Google and Microsoft might be squashed once the iPad mini is on sale. If Apple reports strong initial sales of the iPad mini after the weekend launch, the stock price wil probably jump back up.

Executives Jony Ive, Eddy Cue, Bob Mansfield and Craig Federighi now all have to take on added management responsibilities, according to Apple, which may be a a good thing. Or not, since we can only imagine the workloads they were already carrying.

As for Jony Ive, he gets more power over the whole of Apple's device look and feel, as he also now has the responsibility for 'human interface', aka the software that governs how customers interact with their Apple devices. Before he died last year, Jobs controlled that experience, melding input from disparate teams. Forstall ended up somewhat in this space, but in the latest structure, it's definitively Ive, making him the creative integration point for both hardware and software. This was one of the more important roles Jobs played himself.

Craig Federighi is one of the less familiar names in Apple's top team. He was only recently elevated to the company's executive team, but before that played a crucial role in OS X for many years. He has been running the Mac software division since the departure of Bertrand Serlet last year.

Siri and Maps have been assigned to senior vice president of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue, who previously assumed control of both MobileMe and iAd after those services' somewhat lacklustre performances.

He's most likely the right person for the job; the major complaints for both Siri and Maps seem to be more about the service aspect than the software itself, so we should expect to see both Siri and Maps improve their capabilities in future. CEO Tim Cook said in the company's financial results call last week that Apple has already spent time and effort to bolster Maps, and that it won't stop "until Maps lives up to our standards."

Bob Mansfield is to lead a new group called Technologies, which combines all of Apple's wireless teams across the company in one organisation, fostering innovation in this area at a higher level.

It's unclear exactly what falls under the purview of Mansfield's new Technologies group, but the broader implications are clear, since wireless technology is perhaps the most key component of current and forthcoming Apple devices.

What's missing from this team, you might ask? I hope it was as obvious to you as it is to me, and I think it's a serious issue: no women.

But for the rest, take heart, Apple fans - all the changes underline that Apple is at least focussed squarely on its products.

By Mark Webster

DDoS, SQL injection discussions trending in hacking forums, study finds

Hackers are continuously chatting on hacker forums about attack techniques, and one new study is attempting to shed light on the threats to enterprises that matter most.

Cybersecurity legislation mired as executive order looms

The 112th Congress is in a virtual state of paralysis after having balked at several opportunities to pass comprehensive cybersecurity legislation.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid expressed hope recently that progress could be made during the post-election lame duck session, but experts familiar with the legislative process believe the chances of that happening are slim at best.

"The only cybersecurity bill I can see possibly moving in the lame duck session is the Cyber Information Sharing & Protection Act (CISPA) passed by the House earlier this year," said Internet Security Alliance President (ISA) Larry Clinton, who frequently briefs Congress and the White House on cybersecurity policy issues.

ISA's mission is to integrate technology and business needs to promote public policy addressing cybersecurity at the national level. The organization represents organizations from the aviation, communications, defense, education, manufacturing, technology and financial sectors.

"CISPA is the only bill in the current Congress that enjoys true bipartisan support and addresses an issue the House, Senate and the Administration all agree needs to be addressed: information sharing," Clinton told SearchSecurity.com: "Moreover, this bill takes an approach broadly supported by industry of using incentives rather than government-centric and determined mandates to promote good security behavior."

CISPA is problematic though, having been spurned by a host of civil liberties groups for being too vague in its wording, for enabling the monitoring of private communications with no judicial oversight, and for allowing the private sector to hand over a multitude of information otherwise protected by privacy laws.

Clinton believes there is little chance of passing the bill during the lame duck session given how much work still needs to be done to gain enough support, noting that "it's almost impossible to see how a bill that big, complicated and controversial can get passed in a couple of weeks when it couldn't even get to the floor during the previous two years."

Realistically, the opportunity for the passage of legislation will come in the next session of Congress, probably in the form of a revamped Cybersecurity Act of 2012, Clinton said. He pointed to a bipartisan group of senators led by Democrats like Coons, Whitehouse and Blumenthal who worked with Republicans like Coats and Lugar to reform the original bill.

"This group did not really have enough time to transform the bill enough to make it politically practical to move forward this year, however the existence of a truly bipartisan group more in tune with their House colleagues does offer the prospect that Congress may seek a more progressive and pragmatic approach to cyber legislation," Clinton said. "Of course that rests on either the Obama administration moving toward an incentive model or there being a new administration both of which are at this time unknown."

Clinton believes the typical enterprise CISO should not be focused so much on the prospect of legislative action, but instead on the potential impact from an executive order President Obama is likely to issue sometime after the election in November, especially if the Senate bill fails again to pass.

While executive orders cannot create new authority, the most immediate impact will likely be for industries that are already subject to regulatory authority, such as public utilities, transportation and communications.

"In these areas I suspect the executive order will follow the path of the proposed Senate bill by calling on the existing regulatory authorities to develop best practices for cybersecurity in conjunction with Sector Coordinating Councils, as well as reviewing their current authorities to see how they can best enforce them," said Clinton, who is also chair of the IT Sector Coordinating Council.

Clinton also believes that non-regulated industries such as IT will be asked to come up with a set of industry best practices, and that CISOs in these sectors should be in active discussions with their respective Coordinating Councils to assist in developing effective policies, especially with respect to items like cost recovery, which will likely have to come through some form of enticements that have not yet been fully developed.

"ISA has been working on these economic incentives for years, but until now we have had only limited collaboration from our government partners. We think that will change when this Congress ends without passing the Senate bill and the president responds by issuing the Executive Order, which we hope will produce an incentive program for cybersecurity."

EMC to acquire security software provider Silver Tail Systems

EMC has signed an agreement to acquire California-based Silver Tail Systems.

Silver Tail Systems, a web fraud detection and security software provider, is to be incorporated into EMC's RSA security division at the close of the deal, expected to be the end of the year.

EMC said it will enhance both RSA's identity protection and verification solutions and its enterprise security portfolio.

"Customers need better intelligence, analytics and the ability to respond in real-time, which is a capability that Silver Tail's products do extraordinarily well to help foil web-based attacks,” said Art Coviello, RSA executive chairman. “Silver Tail offers proven anti-fraud solutions that complement RSA's portfolio of risk-based and adaptive products and services.”

According to EMC, Silver Tail's products will add a disruptive fraud fighting and its core transaction and behavioural analysis technologies to RSA's enterprise security solutions.

“Silver Tail pioneered an approach that uses web session intelligence to provide unmatched visibility and the behavioural analysis that detects these threats and protects web-based platforms around the world. Together with RSA, we have an incredible opportunity to extend these capabilities beyond what we do today to protect web-based platforms,” Tim Eades, CEO at Silver Tail Systems, said.

Police net suspected phishing gang

UK police have arrested three men suspected of being involved in thousands of phishing attacks on banking customers.

One Nigerian and two Romanian men were arrested at a central London hotel on Monday evening on conspiracy to defraud and money laundering charges. The men were taken to a central London police station for questioning.

The three men were allegedly involved in an operation that placed over 2,000 phishing pages on the internet, the Met Police said in a statement on Tuesday.

The phishing pages mimicked banking sites, and were designed to harvest credentials from unsuspecting users, said the police. Fraudsters then illegally accessed the accounts and stole money.

Police have seized computers for forensic examination, and searches are continuing in London and in the Midlands, said the statement.

The arrests were made as part of a joint operation between the Metropolitan Police Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU) and the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) cyber unit. The two units are to be folded into the upcoming National Crime Agency (NCA), which is due to become operational by December 2013.

The NCA cyber unit will start operations on 1 October 2013, PCeU head detective superintendent Charlie McMurdie said in the statement.

"This is the first joint operation between the PCeU and SOCA cyber as we move towards full integration and inception of the National Cyber Crime Unit on 1 October 2013," said McMurdie.

"The dynamic nature and successful outcome of this operation, which has prevented distress and financial loss to numerous UK victims, clearly demonstrates the benefit of brigading resources and expertise in this increasing and specialist area of criminality."

Splunk claims speedier reports with Enterprise 5

Splunk Enterprise 5, the latest version of the company's flagship big data indexing and analysis product, promises faster search and reporting capabilities than previous versions, the company has said.

Splunk could not offer any benchmarking evidence to back its claim to speedier reporting in Enterprise 5, but said on Wednesday that ad hoc report generation had shown that search for events over large-scale enterprise environments incorporating cloud could be up to a thousand times faster than Splunk Enterprise 4.x.

"An ad hoc report on 'Web Errors broken out by URL and WebServer over the Last Month' in a large multi-data centre web environment across multiple terabytes of data might take 30 minutes to run [in Splunk 4.x] ," Splunk's EMEA senior director of technical services DJ Skillman told SC Magazine UK on Wednesday. "With report acceleration in Splunk Enterprise 5, that same report would render in less than two seconds."

In Splunk Enterprise 4.x., skilled users could refine searches to save time, but "most users didn't have the skill set required", said Skillman.

"Now it's as simple as selecting the report acceleration button in the report builder to invoke the patent pending technology to get things back faster than previously possible, with or without the search skills," said Skillman.

PDFs of reports can be generated with a button in Splunk Enterprise 5, and PDFs can be scheduled to be shared with colleagues, said Skillman. Security professionals in large organisations may want to build reports that aggregate data such as firewall, IDS, authentication or anti-malware log events, to spot trends or deviations, said the company.

Splunk Enterprise 5 allows drill downs from one dashboard to another, without drilling down into raw data, said Skillman.

"Splunk Enterprise already provided the ability to search, analyse and visualise machine data on tablets, smartphones, laptops and non-flash browsers," said Skillman. "In Splunk Enterprise 5 we provide the ability to integrate simple workflows into dashboards, so users can click through to another dashboard, form, view or external website and carry forward any relevant context."

The product allows security professionals to control user drill downs from one dashboard to another, rather than a user drilling down from a dashboard into raw machine data, the company said in a blog post on Monday

Access to raw company data can be controlled for compliance purposes, said the company. For example, a user can click on a link that lists security events in progress, and be taken to a case management system for the detail behind a specific attack, without being able to access the raw data about the attack.

Splunk Enterprise 5, which was made generally available on Tuesday, has a feature called 'index replication' designed to make data more resilient and more available during search. Splunk indexers can be grouped to replicate each other's information, said the company.

Russian black e-market prices are falling, says Trend Micro

Russian e-crime tools and services are getting cheaper, and the black market that supports them is becoming more diverse, according to research by IT security company Trend Micro.

Overall, the range of Russian cyber tools and services on offer are becoming cheaper, Trend Micro senior threat researcher Max Goncharov told SC Magazine UK on Wednesday. For example, the average price of a distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS) has gone from US$50-80 per day in 2011 to $30-70 per day in 2012. Stolen credit card details are also cheaper.

Average prices are probably going down due to more efficient technologies in the hands of criminals, continuing insecurities in software, and lack of general consumer security, said Goncharov.

"Technologies are getting faster, software [security] is not really getting better, and consumers still rely on luck," said Goncharov.

Some services, such as malware programming and cryptography, have stayed at the same price, said Goncharov.

The Russian black cyber market is becoming more organised, and the ecosystem that supports it more diverse. Trend Micro is tracking more than 80 Russian-speaking e-crime forums, and increasingly communications are initiated on forums which then move to encrypted VPN (virtual private network).

More individualised, specialised services are emerging, such as file crypting services, which conceal infected files or malware from security software. Some groups specialise in preparing phishing and web scamming resources for sale, and others will prepare drop files for use in exploit kits, for example.

The range of Russian e-crime products and services includes dedicated servers, proxy servers, VPN services, social engineering services and hacking services, according to a Trend Micro report published on Tuesday.

Despite a trend towards specialisation, some groups still run several areas of a malware business to keep costs down and retain control of their products, Goncharov added.

Bucky Box software helps farmers deliver the goods

Kiwi software company Bucky Box today globally launched software aimed at helping to level the playing field between small farmers supplying directly to consumers and large supermarket chains.

The web-based application was launched with local vegetable box schemes in New Zealand, Australia and Mexico.

Food-box schemes act as a go-between for farmers, by delivering boxes of fruit, vegetables or meat directly to consumers' doors.

Bucky Box helps food-box delivery companies to take care of the IT, administration and the operational side of things, including subscriptions, packaging and delivery logistics, plus billing and invoicing.

Bucky Box founder Will Lau said the software was simple, easy to use and received great feedback from schemes within New Zealand and internationally.

"The local food movement is already in full flight around the world especially in the countries where food has become highly industrialised."

Lau said Bucky Box held private trials with food-box schemes in Wellington and a small town near Sydney.

He said 200 schemes worldwide, mainly in the United States and Britain, had shown an interest in the software.

"We've differentiated ourselves from other sites because we're providing this software worldwide. Other sites are country-specific, so only people in the UK can use a UK site."

The team is also interested in trialling the technology in India to see if it would work in a less technologically developed country.

"It's cost somewhere between half and three-quarters of a million dollars to develop this."

He said most of this investment was made during Bucky Box's time with Wellington incubator Enspiral.

The company would donate two-thirds of its profit to local-food movement organisations, educators and researchers.

Bucky Box charged $19 per month for small start-up schemes which had less than 100 customers. Larger ones in first-world countries were charged $69 per month.

However, Lau said schemes in Third World countries, including India, would pay one-eighth of this.

"We're trying to make pricing as low as possible, while still making enough to optimise our business."

Most of the advertising was carried out through social media in order to "connect with our customers".

By Siobhan Leathley

Hurricane Sandy Hammers Small Businesses: How to Prepare for The Next Disaster

Residents on the East Coast of the U.S. continue cleaning up following Hurricane Sandy, and small businesses have been especially hard hit. Entrepreneurs and small business owners are used to the unexpected, and it doesn't take a hurricane to disrupt your business operations. Here's an update of how small businesses have been affected by this particular disaster and more about how your business can stay prepared for the unexpected emergency.

Eye of the Hurricane

Businesses weather the storm. As seen by this sampling of experiences from up and down the eastern sea board, small businesses can be affected in many ways by huge weather emergencies like a hurricane. Weathering a widespread, unexpected event depends upon flexibility and preparing for the worst. Those businesses most affected by Monday's storm were those susceptible to storm damage or whose employees lived too far away to get to work. Businesses were also impacted by the degree weather forced customers to stay away. CBS Money Watch

Data drowns in deluge. Your business doesn't need to be exposed to the elements or even located anywhere near a natural disaster to feel its effects. If your small business depends on data centers, like these damaged by flooding as a result of Hurricane Sandy, it's important to be sure that backups are available. Data Center Knowledge

Resources offer road to recovery. Many small business were affected by Hurricane Sandy, as they can be by any natural disaster. Fortunately, there is help to get your business up and running again. Business mentor and angel investor Amy Rees Anderson shares this comprehensive list of resources that can help your company cope after disaster strikes. Forbes

State of Preparedness

Emergencies come in many forms. You don't need a Hurricane with 90 mile an hour winds to threaten your small business. Sometimes a faulty network node at your Internet provider will do. In this scenario, O2, a UK broadband provider, suffered an outage affecting 2 million users, 10 percent of its customers, with many small businesses claiming they were unable to operate as a result. Make sure your service provider doesn't leave you hanging. bOnline Blog

Prepare for your next disaster. Just like homeowners, small business owners must prepare for the worst. For many business owners in the wake of Hurricane Sandy may have found out first hand how important emergency preparedness is. For other small business owners, it's an important wake up call about steps everyone should take to protect their investments. SBA.gov

Better safe than sorry. As blogger Arthur Piccio observes, disasters that threaten your business can come in all shapes and sizes, from a gigantic hurricane to a computer outage or data loss affecting only your hosting or data storage company. In many cases this can be really bad news for your business, so why don't more businesses take it seriously? Here's a long list of suggestions that will help you get prepared. UPrinting

Another Day at the Office

Don't confuse urgency with emergency. If you don't know the difference between these two ideas, you might face a danger more insidious than any mother nature can throw your way. Martin Zwilling teaches us about the dangers of managers or leaders who can make every day and every situation an emergency and how this behavior can slowly sap any business of its strength. When you declare a state of emergency for your business, make sure the threat is real. Startup Professionals Musings

SMBs Moving Toward Digital, Diversified Marketing

Internet marketing as a small business owner sure has gotten more complex over the past few years. It used to be that direct mailers and newsletters were the way to go. Then you needed a website and an online presence. Now? Well, turns out it takes a bit of everything to be effective and small businesses owners are ready to take it on, changing their marketing efforts to not only be more digital-based, but more diversified, as well.

eMarketer reported on a survey of 300 SMBs in the US conducted by BIA/Kelsey which found that small businesses are adopting a multichannel approach to marketing, and that 40 percent of SMBs plan to increase their digital spending budgets within the next year. Not surprisingly, less than 4 percent said they were would decrease digital marketing. Small business owners know where their customers are and, increasingly, it's online.

They also recognize that channels are becoming more fragmented. The fact is, we're all using digital channels, but we're not using the same ones. That means small business owners now need to focus on building a presence on multiple sites to hit their customers. Marketing efforts must be spread out. This year the average small business owner is using 5.8 channels to reach their customers, almost double from five years ago.

Where are SMBs moving toward?

• Facebook â€" 52 percent
• Newspapers â€" 31 percent
• Community sponsorships â€" 27 percent
• Email Marketing â€" 25 percent
• Google Places â€" 21.3 percent
• Video (on website) â€" 17 percent
• Online banners â€" 14 percent

As small business owners trying to stay afloat in a more fragmented market, it's interesting to take notice of where they're moving. Facebook is an obvious standout with its low barrier to entry (Matt McGee recently shared 12.8 million local businesses now have business pages), and the promise of an already-existing user base. Newspapers, sponsorships, and email marketing are all areas familiar to many SMBs. And now eyes are turning to Google Places, video (on website) and online banners to engage and entice a potentially new audience, as well.

While it's arguably harder to be a small business owner right now, it's also incredibly exciting as the opportunities that exist are great. Personally, I love to see that SMBs are beginning to integrate a multi-channel marketing approach because it's through the integration of all these different services that you're really able to stand out and take advantage of the Web's benefits. It's also how many SMBs will be able to establish a level of credibility and brand awareness they haven't had before.

What's interestingly not on the list above is mobile. According to the survey, for as much talk as the idea of SoLoMo (social, local, mobile) has received since 2010, most SMBs don't yet understand how to link mobile to their local marketing efforts and may not even be aware of the benefits of doing so. This is definitely an area where business owners will want to pay more attention. There are an incredible amount of tools out there to help SMBs take advantage of mobile and use it attract consumers on the go, that to not leverage mobile really is doing your business a disservice.

How has your marketing adapted to a more digital, diversified audience?

72 Percent of Freelancers And Consultants Say They\'re Entrepreneurs

We train our children to be consultants. We don't call their careers by that name. We call it a reliable job, security and good pay (or at least we used to). According to Susan L. Reid in Freelancer, Consultant, Entrepreneur: Which Are You?:

“Fields where consultants are especially common include: Financial planning, strategic planning, marketing, research, training, business planning, business review, computing, and integration of new technology, medicine, psychology, and law.”

I remember my father being particularly happy if I had chosen to be a doctor or a lawyer, either one was fine. But I ended up in business just like him - well sort of. Which brings me to an ongoing question about the difference between freelancers, consultants and entrepreneurs.

In a nutshell, freelancers offer a specific service, consultants offer targeted advice, and entrepreneurs build a sellable and sustainable business. Susan says:

“Fields where freelancing is especially common include: Journalism, writing, copywriting, computer programming, software development, graphic design, film production, landscaping, architecture, translation, fine art, music, and acting.”

In findings from the 2012 Freelance Industry Report, Ed Gandia surveyed 1491 freelancers and 72% of those polled see themselves as entrepreneurs (note that majority of those surveyed fall into the writing, designing and technology skills that Susan mentioned above as well as some of the consulting skills in marketing, business planning to name a few).

At The Root, The Word Entrepreneur Means Undertaking

These are the people that dig into a risk and build out of it something that will last long after they're gone. When we think of entrepreneurs, traditionally our mind goes to all the physical, brick and mortar businesses that we walk in and out of daily. And that makes sense.

But there are consultants and freelancers who are developing the entrepreneurs mindset. Of course, there is a difference between the ones who think they are entrepreneurs and the ones whose actions back it up. If your business dies when you die, then according to Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, it wasn't really a business.

Businesses Are Sustainable. Period. 

You don't have to be brick and mortar and you don't have to be huge to be sustainable.

Dale Carniege's literature and training has become an empire. He was an author, a lecturer, and developed training programs. It was the type of business that could easily fall into the freelance or consultant categories.  But if it's sustainable and sellable, then it's a business.

In fact, Carnegie writes me every week and he's been gone since 1955 (long before I was born). His voice, his take on things, has become a training empire in it's own right.

So my question is not new, but I keep asking it because we do have to decide at some point about what we're building.

What Happens To The “Business” After You're Gone? 

A wise entrepreneur makes that decision now. He doesn't leave it to his widow to figure out.

And personally, I think the strategy work is tougher than the daily grind of running your business. Because you have to create something that others can help you deliver.

You have to establish a system, but I won't get on that soap box again. At least not today.

Child Businesswoman Photo via Shutterstock

When It Comes to Retirement, Small Business Owners Need a Reality Check

What are your retirement plans? Are you expecting to sell your business and retire on the proceeds? Do you dream of passing on your business to your kids?

A new global survey of small business owners' succession plans by Sellability Score found that small business owners' expectations for retirement have changed. Since 2008, almost half of business owners over age 50 have delayed their retirement due to economic conditions.

Says the study's lead author and Sellability Score founder, John Warrillow, who also wrote the book Built to Sell:

“The recession has had a profound impact on small business owners across the U.S.  Older business owners are delaying their retirement, desperately hoping for better market conditions ahead.”

Despite the delays in retirement, all is not doom and gloom. Some three-quarters of business owners surveyed say they expect to exit their company in the next 10 years, and 40 percent expect to exit in the next five years. More than half of the business owners had already owned their companies for at least eight years.

What do small business owners expect to happen to their businesses when they leave?

Passing a business down from one generation to the next is becoming less popular; just 1 in 10 surveyed say they expect to pass their business on to their kids. By comparison, 61 percent expect to sell it to an outside buyer, while 10 percent expect to sell the business to a partner or key employee.

Meanwhile, 14.5 percent plan to essentially work until they drop, and 8 percent plan to just shut the business down entirely when they retire.

When they do leave their businesses, one-third of respondents expect the sale of their businesses to fund at least half of their retirement. However, those dreams might well turn out to be pipe dreams, given that a whopping 90 percent of business owners don't have a formal exit plan in place.

The survey findings also suggest that small business owners may be underestimating the complexity of selling a business. Just one-third say they expect selling their business to be difficult. However, the majority of businesses in the study were in service industries-which often find it more difficult to sell since these businesses are more likely to be dependent on the owner's personal efforts to land and keep new business.

If you ask me, it's time for a reality check. First, whether or not you're planning to retire in the next few years, a succession plan is important for every small business to have. Not only will it make selling your business easier when the time comes, it can also protect your business should anything happen to you unexpectedly.

Second, if you're expecting the sale of your business to be easy, you're likely in for a rude awakening. If you haven't already done so, start now to work with your attorney and accountant and get advice on how to build value in your business.

That way, you'll be better positioned for a successful-and profitable-sale that will see you into a happy retirement (or a whole new venture, if that's what you choose to do).

Do you have a succession plan for your small business?

Business For Sale Photo via Shutterstock

5 Steps To Ensuring Your Services Add Value and Your Customers Stay Loyal

Offering and selling a service isn't quite the same thing as selling a tangible item because, although it's important,  the sale really isn't your endgame. Sure you need to ‘sell' yourself service to gain the customers, but where you really make your money is by retaining that customers for as long as possible. Like all products, service offerings need to be high quality and have a true value that exceeds the alternatives. But sometimes, regardless of the service you are offering, some customers run off to find another service. How do you keep that from happening? How do you get them back?

A lost customer could mean that you have to cut expenses, and that's never a great alternative, especially considering the current economic climate. Now, more than ever, it seems that retaining your customers is the one thing you must do to keep your head above the water. So, how do you do this? Here's some advice from Totango, a company that understands the need to retain your customers and helps you keep them:

• Cater your product to the customers. Run a survey to ask your customers whether your service is valuable to them. Ask them to answer honestly and ask for suggestions to improve. Ask them if the service delivers on its promise, if it's enjoyable to use, and if they feel they're getting help quickly and easily.
• If you've got the dough, hire someone who can be your “customer advocate.” You need someone to tell you what you should do to better cater to the customers. Someone who keeps their ear very close to what the customer is saying about your service.  If you can't afford to hire someone to specifically do this, then you can also assign one of your team members to do this.
• Use a scoring system in your surveys so that customers can rate your services. This helps you crunch the numbers and find an average customer health score. If the score drops, take action to correct the situation, depending on what respondents tell you about the service's problems.
• Once customers have bought into your service, don't treat them like ghosts. Keep marketing to them by continually reminding them that you exist and care. This can be done easily through newsletters. Follow up and try to cater as much as possible to customers who are reacting poorly to your services. Not all customers are the same, so don't treat them all the same. Lift the morale of those who could use a little spoiling.
• Take some extra steps to learn why customers stopped subscribing/calling upon you. You seriously need to learn where your company's failing if you don't want to fall down the slope. Consider it like driving a large vehicle uphill. Pumping the pedal a bit more helps you inch higher, but letting it go will just make it slide down the hill.  If you've lost a customers, simply reach out to them and ask ‘Why'.  Without the data, you cannot solve the problem.

When you combine all of these, you create a harmony that helps you learn from those who use your service. Customers are the center of every business, and if you don't cater to them, they will take their dollars elsewhere.

Using Apps? Why Your Password and User Name May Not be Safe

We enter everything into apps these days. Usernames, passwords, personal data… But what if you were told your smartphone may be giving information to third parties about you?

According to a recent study, that's exactly what's happening. Ten percent of mobile apps leak passwords, the study from Zscaler found. Additionally, the study revealed that 25% of apps reveal personally identifiable information and a full 40% communicate with third parties. This is dangerous news for a world where small business owners are beginning to use third-party apps for work duties.

Understanding how important protection of data is for businesses, Zscalar has released the Zscalar Application Profiler (ZAP). ZAP scans iOS and Android devices and analyzes security risks. In addition to workplaces moving toward mobile devices and bringing their own devices into the workplace, many businesses are outsourcing app development to third-party companies that may not be as careful about protecting data.

“While malicious apps grab headlines and have a greater impact on overall risk, vulnerable apps are far more prevalent,” said Michael Sutton, ZAP developer and VP, security research, Zscaler. “We understand the importance of finding out the security risk users face before they download an app. It is far better to proceed with caution and minimize any security threat by running a quick and simple report, than to have to deal with the aftermath of a security breach, whether on a personal or corporate device.”

One of the best things about ZAP is that it doesn't require a security expert to deploy. You'll merely need to download a SSL certificate to your phone, which is available here. You can download it by scanning a QR code with your phone or by navigating to the site with your phone's browser and downloading it through a link. This SSL certificate provides ZAP with the information they need about the apps you're accessing every day.

You don't have to download the SSL certificate to get information about an app, though. To access ZAP's database of apps that have been scanned before, simply go to your web browser and visit http://zap.zscaler.com/. Paste or type the URL into the box and ZAP will do its work, scanning for security leaks. Or you can type in the name of the app with the word iOS or Android (depending on your device's operating system). ZAP looks for the following issues in your favorite apps:

• Authentication flawsâ€"Apps that inadequately encode login information.
• Device identificationâ€"Apps that give away a user's device information, including the Unique Device Identifier (UDID).
• Personal information leakageâ€"Apps that leak an individual's personal information, including e-mail addresses, phone numbers, or street addresses.
• Analytics and advertisingâ€"Apps that expose information to analytics services and sites for advertising purposes.

ZAP works by first capturing HTTP traffic, then analyzing that traffic to find security and privacy holes. Once your app has been scanned, you can access detailed data about what that app was doing in the background while you were enjoying using it. This allows you to make the decision about whether this information leak is acceptable enough to keep using the app.

As small businesses make the decision about whether to allow employees to download apps onto work devices, ZAP can give you the concrete information you need to prohibit certain apps. With an interface that's easy to deploy, ZAP can be one of the best free tools your small business uses.

Hurricane Sandy Wrecks North East and Creates Business Relations and Technology Workarounds

I'm sitting in Above and Beyond Virtual Staff Offices with 8 other professionals.

One of them works for a large entrepreneur organization, the other works for a wireless street meter service and others have a variety of businesses and 6 degrees close to me personally and/or professionally. For example, my daughter's soft ball coach and a financial consultant is housed here.

Although Hurricane Sandy has brought destruction, annoyance, inconvenience for many of us n the North East, it's also brought us closer together.

I've talked more to my neighbors yesterday, than I have in the 8 years I've lived in New Jersey â€" I even lent them some tools.

My family sat in the darkened living room and my wife read us stories on her Kindle Fire.

It's not easy and a bit rough, but we're alive and for ME no harm to us or our property, unlike so many others.

Technology has also played a leading role. We sucked the juice out of a Black Berry provided PowerBag (from the Small Business Influencer Awards) to recharge some phones.

See my earlier article on 7 reasons why Hurricane Sandy won't harm your business operations.

Those with multiple technology solutions will have an easier time than others. My tech world: iPad, 3 notebooks (2 Dell's, 1 Acer), 2 phones (BlackBerry and Droid), broadband hotspot and a chargeable bag.

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly: Can You Upgrade Your Current System To Windows 8 and What To Expect If You Can

Windows 8 is a whole new thing; presenting a new interface on top of the desktop called Metro, or as Microsoft decided to call it since August, the Modern interface. This presents a whole new world that fuses the mobile and desktop experience into one bundle. As Windows 8 was released near the end of October, everyone hankered down to see whether they can upgrade their current operating systems to it or not.

Not everyone was brave enough to install the consumer and release previews of the operating system to their current installations of Windows, as there was one very important looming question: “Does my current installation support an upgrade?” The answer could make or break someone's ambitions to immediately hop to the local store and get a copy. Here are some points made by CMIT Solutions about how the upgrade scheme is going to work with your current version:

• If you're upgrading from Windows 7 Professional, you need Windows 8 Pro or Enterprise to keep everything. Anything else and everything gets wiped out in a flurry. You won't even get the chance to gasp. If you upgrade from Windows 7 Professional/Ultimate/Enterprise to Windows 8 Professional/Enterprise, you won't lose everything and the upgrade should go through seamlessly.
• With Windows Vista, it gets a little complicated. You must install at least SP1 to get the upgrade to work. You'll get to keep personal files and settings, but application records on your registry will be eliminated, meaning that you will have to reinstall every application. It's not as bad as it sounds if you only have Office and a couple of other things installed.
• For Windows XP, you're out of luck. Not only do you have to install SP3, but you also have to reinstall all your applications and reconfigure the computer. Your personal files, like pictures and videos, will remain intact, though.

If an upgrade to Windows 8 presents a problem, you might want to purchase a newer version of the operating system than what you currently have as an extra step to upgrading. In other words, if you're upgrading from XP, first upgrade to Windows 7 and then get Windows 8 in there. That way, you don't really lose much.

While it may not be convenient, this is the unfortunate reality if you are looking to upgrade. As with any system upgrade, just make sure you have done your research to ensure you don't loose any valuable data that can't be retrieved.  Hopefully, with all this information, you'll know what you need to do and you won't have too much trouble!