Best Technology Platforms for Office Management

I am blogging on behalf of Visa Business and received compensation for my time from Visa for sharing my views in this post, but the views expressed here are solely mine, not Visa's. 

Visit http://facebook.com/visasmallbiz to take a look at the reinvented Facebook Page: Well Sourced by Visa Business. The Page serves as a space where small business owners can access educational resources, read success stories from other business owners, engage with peers, and find tips to help businesses run more efficiently. Every month, the Page will introduce a new theme that will focus on a topic important to a small business owner's success. For additional tips and advice, and information about Visa's small business solutions, follow @VisaSmallBiz and visit http://visa.com/business.

Office management was once a complex task, requiring at least one skilled full-time employee to be put in charge of purchasing, receiving, developing office procedures, scheduling appointments, and more. This proves challenging to small business owners who often lack the resources to pay a full-time employee. Yet all of these tasks are necessary, especially if a business employs two or more people. Issues like dress codes, disappearing inventory, and scheduling can easily fall into disarray without someone staying on top of it all.

Thankfully, there's an app for that. In fact, technological solutions exist for just about every task an office manager could be asked to handle. Below are a few of the best digital tools for managing office inventory and people.

• Evernote- This service acts as your own personal assistant, keeping up with your random thoughts and carefully crafted ideas on your smartphone. You can also snap photos of things you need to remember for later reference and share your notes with your workers. Best of all, Evernote is free.
• TribeHR- Office managers are required to handle HR and this software makes it effortless. After a free 30-day trial, you'll pay only a couple of bucks per month per user for the basic version. This will allow you to manage multiple team members' vacation time and set up employee profiles. More extensive plans include recruitment and team motivation tools, as well as assisting with strategic planning. Elance is also a great service for finding, hiring and managing contractors.
• InDinero- Office managers often keep up with a company's budget and payroll, controlling all money going out and coming in. All of this can be extremely time-consuming for a small business owner, but this app keeps up with it for you, putting it all in one easy-to-access place, available both on PC and mobile device. The software can be pricey, however, with packages starting at $349 per month.
• Freshbooks- If you're looking for free accounting software, Freshbooks is both highly-reviewed and free. FreshBooks provides time tracking, online payments, and expense tracking. Snap a picture of a receipt and it's automatically stored for record-keeping or attaching to invoices. Other accounting solutions include Xero, Outright, Quickbooks, Sage, and Wave Accounting.
• PrimaSoft Purchase Order Organizer Pro- For creating and managing professional purchase orders, this software comes highly recommended. Track all of your purchases using this software, which comes with a 30-day free trial. After the trial, you'll pay $245, which allows you to operate without an office manager while still placing professional orders.
• BizManualz-Problem with an employee's work attire? Need a disaster recovery policy? Don't reinvent the wheel. BizManualz provides free templates that will give you a starting point. Simply download the template, make a few tweaks to meet your specific needs, and distribute. Other sites you should consider include LegalZoom.com and Nolo.com

By saving money on an office manager, you'll be able to channel funds to other expenses, including marketing and sales efforts. This puts dollars where they should be-bringing in money, rather than taking care of day-to-day in-office operations.

Yes, Some Small Businesses Have Social Media Budgets over $100,000

How does your social media budget compare with other small businesses?

If you’re like 5% of the small businesses that have a social media strategy, then you have a social media budget over $100,000 annually.

But what if you’re not part of the $100K club for social media budgets?  Well, the fact is, most of your peers that are already using social media have much lower budgets.  The median budget for social media among those small businesses is far smaller Read More

The post Yes, Some Small Businesses Have Social Media Budgets over $100,000 appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Best Technology Platforms for Office Management

I am blogging on behalf of Visa Business and received compensation for my time from Visa for sharing my views in this post, but the views expressed here are solely mine, not Visa's. 

Visit http://facebook.com/visasmallbiz to take a look at the reinvented Facebook Page: Well Sourced by Visa Business. The Page serves as a space where small business owners can access educational resources, read success stories from other business owners, engage with peers, and find tips to help businesses run more efficiently. Every month, the Page will introduce a new theme that will focus on a topic important to a small business owner's success. For additional tips and advice, and information about Visa's small business solutions, follow @VisaSmallBiz and visit http://visa.com/business.

Office management was once a complex task, requiring at least one skilled full-time employee to be put in charge of purchasing, receiving, developing office procedures, scheduling appointments, and more. This proves challenging to small business owners who often lack the resources to pay a full-time employee. Yet all of these tasks are necessary, especially if a business employs two or more people. Issues like dress codes, disappearing inventory, and scheduling can easily fall into disarray without someone staying on top of it all.

Thankfully, there's an app for that. In fact, technological solutions exist for just about every task an office manager could be asked to handle. Below are a few of the best digital tools for managing office inventory and people.

• Evernote- This service acts as your own personal assistant, keeping up with your random thoughts and carefully crafted ideas on your smartphone. You can also snap photos of things you need to remember for later reference and share your notes with your workers. Best of all, Evernote is free.
• TribeHR- Office managers are required to handle HR and this software makes it effortless. After a free 30-day trial, you'll pay only a couple of bucks per month per user for the basic version. This will allow you to manage multiple team members' vacation time and set up employee profiles. More extensive plans include recruitment and team motivation tools, as well as assisting with strategic planning. Elance is also a great service for finding, hiring and managing contractors.
• InDinero- Office managers often keep up with a company's budget and payroll, controlling all money going out and coming in. All of this can be extremely time-consuming for a small business owner, but this app keeps up with it for you, putting it all in one easy-to-access place, available both on PC and mobile device. The software can be pricey, however, with packages starting at $349 per month.
• Freshbooks- If you're looking for free accounting software, Freshbooks is both highly-reviewed and free. FreshBooks provides time tracking, online payments, and expense tracking. Snap a picture of a receipt and it's automatically stored for record-keeping or attaching to invoices. Other accounting solutions include Xero, Outright, Quickbooks, Sage, and Wave Accounting.
• PrimaSoft Purchase Order Organizer Pro- For creating and managing professional purchase orders, this software comes highly recommended. Track all of your purchases using this software, which comes with a 30-day free trial. After the trial, you'll pay $245, which allows you to operate without an office manager while still placing professional orders.
• BizManualz-Problem with an employee's work attire? Need a disaster recovery policy? Don't reinvent the wheel. BizManualz provides free templates that will give you a starting point. Simply download the template, make a few tweaks to meet your specific needs, and distribute. Other sites you should consider include LegalZoom.com and Nolo.com

By saving money on an office manager, you'll be able to channel funds to other expenses, including marketing and sales efforts. This puts dollars where they should be-bringing in money, rather than taking care of day-to-day in-office operations.

(Video) Without An Email Newsletter Sign Up Form On Your Website You Are Losing Customers

In this video Ramon Ray shares some quick insight on why an email newsletter is so important.

He's prompted after visiting a web site with (gasp) no email newsletter sign up for.

He also shares it's not an email newsletter form you have but a LEAD MAGNET.

Watch it below or here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XJXBTzjw_8

(Video) Without An Email Newsletter Sign Up Form On Your Website You Are Losing Customers

In this video Ramon Ray shares some quick insight on why an email newsletter is so important.

He's prompted after visiting a web site with (gasp) no email newsletter sign up for.

He also shares it's not an email newsletter form you have but a LEAD MAGNET.

Watch it below or here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XJXBTzjw_8

Hire Vendors Who Embrace Mobility and Your Employees\' Productivity Will Increase

I was looking at a press announcement from Concur speaking about how companies can better handle employee travel reimbursements. Doing this manually is an arduous process, but letting technology facilitate the process can be much more efficient.

Concur cited an Aberdeen study in their press release:

A recent report by Aberdeen Group found that it costs the average U.S. company approximately $18 to process each expense report. This same study found that the cost drops below $8 per report in “best-practice” companies that have automated the process. Based on these findings and internal data, Concur estimates that U.S. companies are wasting more than $2 billion annually as a result of these inefficient manual processes. Companies interested in addressing this issue can learn more here.

I started this about this more. As small business owners, if we work with vendors who have products and services that are mobile ready, this ensure our own companies are operating more efficiently. Let's look at Concur again. They enable employees to use their phones to upload receipts to Concur's travel and reimbursement system and in fact manage much of the entire expense reporting process on a phone. What if the other vendors you worked with also had mobile enabled services â€" HR, travel, payroll, telecommunications and more. Instead of you footing the bill to ensure your employees can be productive on the road your VENDORS  are helping you do this.

So the next time you are looking to buy services from a vendor, for some service your business needs, ensure their products and services are mobile enabled.

You'll boost productive in your company and your employees will feel better about their work environment.

 

 

Hire Vendors Who Embrace Mobility and Your Employees\' Productivity Will Increase

I was looking at a press announcement from Concur speaking about how companies can better handle employee travel reimbursements. Doing this manually is an arduous process, but letting technology facilitate the process can be much more efficient.

Concur cited an Aberdeen study in their press release:

A recent report by Aberdeen Group found that it costs the average U.S. company approximately $18 to process each expense report. This same study found that the cost drops below $8 per report in “best-practice” companies that have automated the process. Based on these findings and internal data, Concur estimates that U.S. companies are wasting more than $2 billion annually as a result of these inefficient manual processes. Companies interested in addressing this issue can learn more here.

I started this about this more. As small business owners, if we work with vendors who have products and services that are mobile ready, this ensure our own companies are operating more efficiently. Let's look at Concur again. They enable employees to use their phones to upload receipts to Concur's travel and reimbursement system and in fact manage much of the entire expense reporting process on a phone. What if the other vendors you worked with also had mobile enabled services â€" HR, travel, payroll, telecommunications and more. Instead of you footing the bill to ensure your employees can be productive on the road your VENDORS  are helping you do this.

So the next time you are looking to buy services from a vendor, for some service your business needs, ensure their products and services are mobile enabled.

You'll boost productive in your company and your employees will feel better about their work environment.

 

 

Embedding Videos Into Android Apps Just Became Easier

Online videos have been used as a promotional tool for businesses for many years. And mobile technology has more recently become just as essential for many types of businesses. So it was just a matter of time before these two types of tools fused together to give mobile consumers access to the same videos and information as those using more traditional devices.

Now, YouTube is giving mobile app developers easier ways to incorporate videos into their applications through its Android API.

Android app developers can load or cue videos into a player view, which is then embedded into the application's user interface. Developers can program the playback options, such as play, pause, or skipping to a certain point in the video or playlist.

The API was first announced at this year's Google I/O event, and is being launched on an experimental basis now, though it isn't expected to change much going forward.

The photo above shows a “video wall,” which is one example of what you can create using the YouTube API. In this example, the developer would put many different components of the app together on one page, and then one of the thumbnail images would flip over and turn into a video. There are more simple options as well, such as embedding one simple video into a basic app page.

The video playback feature is available for Android 2.2 (Froyo) or newer devices. It also provides access to full screen videos, closed caption displays, support for YouTube apps, and direct access to the Android YouTube app.

Since so many consumers and professionals alike are spending more time on mobile devices and less time on traditional computers, it's important for mobile apps to be able to support the same types of media that people are accustomed to.

This new feature simply makes it easier to integrate YouTube videos into Android applications, which can help developers create more in-depth and media-centric apps. Depending on your business type or your purpose for creating an app in the first place, this type of feature could certainly be helpful in getting a message across to users and customers.

Do Small Business Lending Programs Work?

You gotta love the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Their job is to do the research requested by Congress or written into legislation in order to makes sure that government programs are doing what they are supposed to be doing.

My only complaint about them is that they are not required or requested to go back and look at tax policy to make sure it accomplishes what it was designed to accomplish. If I had to guess, I'd say there are probably some folks on Capitol Hill who don't care whether it accomplishes its goals or not, because they have ideology to defend and never mind the practical concerns involved with running the country.

But that's a different article.

The GAO was just doing its job when it recently released a report on the implementation of a couple of new Treasury Department small business lending programs created through the Small business Jobs Act of 2010. The two programs are the Small Business Lending Fund (SBLF) and the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) and they appear to be doing mostly okay.

The SBLF provides capital to small banks - defined as qualifying banks with less than $10 billion in assets and comprised of local community banks and community development loan funds - in order to encourage them to increase their lending to small businesses. The SSBCI supports state and municipality small business lending programs that operate on much the same premise as the SBA small business lending programs do. These are state and local programs that provide loans to creditworthy small firms and manufacturers that cannot (for unspecified reasons) otherwise get credit.

Naturally, the Treasury Department has developed processes and procedures in order to monitor participating banks' compliance with the legal and reporting requirements of the SBLF program. There are also such requirements for the financial institutions with which the states partner if they want to use SSBCI funds within the context of that relationship. The GAO's last audit of the programs recommended those procedures and so they were happy to see that Treasury took at least some of their advice.

Meanwhile, the programs appear to have had some measurable impact. On average, SBLF participants increased their total business lending by 31% and increased small business loans under $1 million by 14%. The SSBCI program has not made quite the same impact, at least in the context of what has been used versus what was made available. States have used about 10% of program funds so far and the law provides that Treasury can (but doesn't have to) terminate funds that haven't been allocated to states with two years of that state's participation in the program.

In this most recent annual report, the GAO notes that the Treasury Department has had some reporting issues with both programs. It's methodology in its evaluation of the SBLF program, the results of which were publishined in a report to Congress, had some problems that the GAO found appeared to overreport the impact of the program. SBLF officials, in response to teh GAO's findings, said they are continuing to evaluate possible evalutation methods, including possibly collecting additional data from a sample of participating financial institutions.

Meanwhile, another set of stuff Treasury has yet to do concerns the SSBCI program. For starters, they haven't figured out what their procedure is going to be for terminating state funds that have not been allocated to states with the 2 year timeframe. Treasury officials say they currently have no intention of using this authority but, as the GAO points out, just because you aren't going to do it right now, that doesn't mean you don't need to figure out how it will be done later or down the line or under another Administration. The proceedure should be developed, finalized and written out whether it is used now or not.

Another problem with the SSBCI is that, while Treasury has developed performance measures for the program, they have not yet figured out how to make the information public. (I wonder if that sounds as strange to you as it does to me? How hard is it to figure out how to publicize this information?) The information is shared with the states “through conferences and technical assistance,” but apparently it is not written down in a form in which it can be of real use to either the states, the Congress or the voting public. The GAO seems to object to that.

In light of the probability that these programs are gonig to continue to operate at least during the current Administration, it would probably be a good thing for Treasury to get its reporting act together. With all the talk of fiscal cliffs and looming budget cuts, every program is going to have to justify its existence and, if these programs are really helping firms to stay afloat and create jobs, then Treasury should be shouting that news from every rooftop in Washington.

United States flag with american money Photo via Shutterstock

Black Women\'s Hair and CRM: What I Learned About Tech & Customer Service From A Hair Car Store

Image from http://thirstyroots.com

On Monday, New Year's eve, I went to a local hair care supply shop. I went on this errand for my wife.

Like many black women (as opposed to white women) with Afrocentric hair*, my wife has a range of products she uses to maintain her hair. Products for conditioning it, for the ends, for the scalp, I can't even keep up â€" there at thousands of different products from hundreds of different brands.

So I went our local “ethnic” hair care store to get some creams and things for her hair and the experience was frustrating. Almost as frustrating as shopping for food items that I'm occasional sent to get!

I took with me 3 empty containers of what my wife wanted, to show to the store staff.

At the store, I told the friendly guy that I didn't have the patience to look through the 8 million aisles of hair care products. These products slightly change name and/or design, so it makes it much harder to find them when you need to stock up again.

He said to me “sir, be patient, your wife needs you….”. He carefully looked through the shelves for what I needed. He did not have one of the products I was looking for. He then took a note pad, wrote down what I was looking for and said he'd get me the product in a few more days. I was amazed.

WHAT LESSON DID I LEARN ABOUT CRM?

This retailer was not using any technology, except for some video cameras to monitor theft and a dinky cash register.

But where the “customer relationship management” (CRM) came into play was the person who helped me. He soothed me and then proceeded to make a solution to my problem. Using a simple pen and paper (not computer) he used “CRM” quite effectively.

Sure, I advocate using TECHNOLOGY to better know your customers and service them, but the BIG LESSON HERE is that you do not need technology to establish good relationships with your customers. You need employees (and yourself) who have a heart  to serve customers and fulfill their needs. You need a mind set to be able to create solutions for your customers, even if you do not have what they need.

This year, resolve to TRAIN your employees to serve customers. Resolve to IMPLEMENT technology to know WHO your customers are and WHAT they want and ensure you have consistent delivery of service to their needs.

If you're looking for an all in one CRM software, do check out Infusiosnsoft (my employer), an all in one software with email marketing, lead scoring, marketing campaigns and more. Other solutions include Salesforce, Hubspot, BatchBook, SageCRM, Nimble CRM, 37 Signals many products and so many more.

*meaning not straight hair like women with European, Hispanic, Asian or Arabic decent might have

PS â€" I'm sure you'll never look at a black women's hair again!

Black Women\'s Hair and CRM: What I Learned About Tech & Customer Service From A Hair Car Store

Image from http://thirstyroots.com

On Monday, New Year's eve, I went to a local hair care supply shop. I went on this errand for my wife.

Like many black women (as opposed to white women) with Afrocentric hair*, my wife has a range of products she uses to maintain her hair. Products for conditioning it, for the ends, for the scalp, I can't even keep up â€" there at thousands of different products from hundreds of different brands.

So I went our local “ethnic” hair care store to get some creams and things for her hair and the experience was frustrating. Almost as frustrating as shopping for food items that I'm occasional sent to get!

I took with me 3 empty containers of what my wife wanted, to show to the store staff.

At the store, I told the friendly guy that I didn't have the patience to look through the 8 million aisles of hair care products. These products slightly change name and/or design, so it makes it much harder to find them when you need to stock up again.

He said to me “sir, be patient, your wife needs you….”. He carefully looked through the shelves for what I needed. He did not have one of the products I was looking for. He then took a note pad, wrote down what I was looking for and said he'd get me the product in a few more days. I was amazed.

WHAT LESSON DID I LEARN ABOUT CRM?

This retailer was not using any technology, except for some video cameras to monitor theft and a dinky cash register.

But where the “customer relationship management” (CRM) came into play was the person who helped me. He soothed me and then proceeded to make a solution to my problem. Using a simple pen and paper (not computer) he used “CRM” quite effectively.

Sure, I advocate using TECHNOLOGY to better know your customers and service them, but the BIG LESSON HERE is that you do not need technology to establish good relationships with your customers. You need employees (and yourself) who have a heart  to serve customers and fulfill their needs. You need a mind set to be able to create solutions for your customers, even if you do not have what they need.

This year, resolve to TRAIN your employees to serve customers. Resolve to IMPLEMENT technology to know WHO your customers are and WHAT they want and ensure you have consistent delivery of service to their needs.

If you're looking for an all in one CRM software, do check out Infusiosnsoft (my employer), an all in one software with email marketing, lead scoring, marketing campaigns and more. Other solutions include Salesforce, Hubspot, BatchBook, SageCRM, Nimble CRM, 37 Signals many products and so many more.

*meaning not straight hair like women with European, Hispanic, Asian or Arabic decent might have

PS â€" I'm sure you'll never look at a black women's hair again!

Anti Virus Software Alone Is Simply Not Enough Protection

I've told you this so many times, Anti-Virus Software is NOT enough to completely protect your business. You need anti-virus software on your mobile devices, computers and servers. You also need properly configured routers, intrusion detection software on your network, completely backup and recovery software, analysis of your logs and more â€" if you want to be as protected as possible.

You also to need to ensure that you train your employees to be AWARE of digital threats â€" which can come through their computers or a hacker calling them up impersonating the “IT department”.

Hackers are on the prowl to be STEPS ahead of the security industry.

The New York Times writes:

Consumers and businesses spend billions of dollars every year on antivirus software. But these programs rarely, if ever, block freshly minted computer viruses, experts say, because the virus creators move too quickly. That is prompting start-ups and other companies to get creative about new approaches to computer security.

“The bad guys are always trying to be a step ahead,” said Matthew D. Howard, a venture capitalist at Norwest Venture Partners who previously set up the security strategy at Cisco Systems. “And it doesn't take a lot to be a step ahead.”

Read the full article here.

5 Small Business Trends for 2013

Tis the season to make predictions.  If my crystal ball is working, 2013 is going to be a good year for small businesses.

The economy (fiscal “cliff” threat notwithstanding) seems to be on track for a stronger recovery in 2013, buoyed by consumer confidence and more Americans going back to work.

Below are some of the trends that I feel will be driving small business in 2013:

Startup Surge

Many are predicting more businesses will be started in 2013.  Part of it led by Millennials who have wholeheartedly embraced entrepreneurship, and part of it from the explosive growth of the freelance economy.

In the latest Elance Global Business Survey, 40 percent of respondents were doing online freelancing work on the side while working full-time jobs. Elance predicts with the advent of Obamacare, many of these part-time freelancers will ditch their jobs for full-time freelance entrepreneurship. In fact, Elance CEO, Fabio Rosati, says:

“The number of full-time employees that quit corporate jobs to work online will triple in 2013.”

Adding to this trend, says Rosati, is the increased adoption of online employees by businesses of all sizes. While 85 percent of small business respondents in Elance's Global Business Survey say hiring online provides them with a competitive advantage, bigger businesses are expected to:

“Hire virtual teams as an extension of their onsite employees.”

Mobile Matters

The increasing dependence on mobile devices tops nearly every trend watcher's 2013 hot list.

JWT, a global marketing communications agency, named “The Mobile Fingerprint” as one of its 2013 trends in their 10 Trends for 2013 report. And Trendwatching.com, in their report, “10 Crucial ConsumerTrends for 2013” notes a survey from Harris reveals 63 percent of women and 73 percent of men check their cell phones at least hourly.

This means you need to make sure your website is mobile-ready. According to a report from comScore, 86 million Americans get retail information from their mobile devices.

Gamification

Businesses large and small are adding some type of game to their websites.   According to Brian Burke, vice president of research at Gartner:

“Gamification could become as important as Facebook, eBay or Amazon. The opportunities for businesses are great - from having more engaged customers, to crowdsourcing innovation or improving employee performance.”

This trend is reflected in the marketplace with Elance reporting an increase in demand for freelance entrepreneurs with skills in cover design (+303 percent), game development (+88 percent) and game programming (+76 percent).

Healthy Pets

The organic movement has been going strong for the last few years now, and now the trend is sweeping the pet industry. Overall, pets are a huge industry-the American Pet Products Association reports about 73 million households own pets and spend north of $52 billion on them.

Food, accessories and toys are now being marketed to eco-conscious consumers anxious to keep their pets as healthy as their families. While there are plenty of organic and natural pet products already stocked on store shelves, there are numerous opportunities for entrepreneurs to introduce new products, or sell them on- or off-line.

Gluten-Free Foods

Once thought to be a passing fad, gluten-free foods and beverages are increasingly being incorporated into American diets. Food research firm Packaged Facts reports revenues for gluten-free foods will reach $4.2 billion in 2012, higher than originally projected.

Originally marketed to sufferers of Crohn's and celiac diseases, now gluten-free products are consumed by about 17 percent of all Americans, primarily, says Packaged Facts research director David Sprinkle, because they:

“. . .believe these products are generally healthier.”

Packaged Facts reports there will be an increased variety of gluten-free snack foods and even frozen pizza. Entrepreneurs who own bakeries and restaurants should pay particular heed to this trend, and make sure you offer gluten-free choices on your menus.

Crystal Ball Photo via Shutterstock

Anti Virus Software Alone Is Simply Not Enough Protection

I've told you this so many times, Anti-Virus Software is NOT enough to completely protect your business. You need anti-virus software on your mobile devices, computers and servers. You also need properly configured routers, intrusion detection software on your network, completely backup and recovery software, analysis of your logs and more â€" if you want to be as protected as possible.

You also to need to ensure that you train your employees to be AWARE of digital threats â€" which can come through their computers or a hacker calling them up impersonating the “IT department”.

Hackers are on the prowl to be STEPS ahead of the security industry.

The New York Times writes:

Consumers and businesses spend billions of dollars every year on antivirus software. But these programs rarely, if ever, block freshly minted computer viruses, experts say, because the virus creators move too quickly. That is prompting start-ups and other companies to get creative about new approaches to computer security.

“The bad guys are always trying to be a step ahead,” said Matthew D. Howard, a venture capitalist at Norwest Venture Partners who previously set up the security strategy at Cisco Systems. “And it doesn't take a lot to be a step ahead.”

Read the full article here.

Brit is runner-up in US Department of Defense challenge

A software developer has been named as the number one civilian in the world after winning a US Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center challenge.

After independently beating over 1,200 cyber teams from 53 countries in the US Military Cyber Security Competition to finish as the number one civilian in the world, Chris Doman will receive training courses from 7Safe and will have the chance to compete for career-enabling prizes as part of the Cyber Security Challenge UK.

He finished second overall in the 2012 DC3 Digital Forensics Challenge, a global cyber security challenge designed and hosted by the US Department of Defense Cyber Crime Centre (DC3). First place was taken by a team of professionals from American global aerospace and defence technology company, Northrop Grumman.

The challenge took the form of several individual scenario-based exercises representing the complexity that digital forensics examiners face in extracting and scrutinising data to solve cyber crime. Areas covered included file signatures, hashing metadata, data hiding, communication data recovery and information concealment.

Doman said: “It's a year-long competition, but I only decided to enter a month before it closed so time was a bit of an issue. I looked through all 34 challenges and wrote a plan of how to do them all and how long it would take. It's all certainly possible to solve but it's not easy and you have to think carefully about the time required for each challenge.

“Security has always been an interest. At school I would publish computer security and operating system design tutorials. However setting up my own company left me with less time to pursue this interest. The Cyber Security Challenge has certainly reignited my love for cyber security and problem solving. I did better than I expected, and it's given me a boost to start applying for work in this field.”

Stephanie Daman, CEO of the Cyber Security Challenge UK said: “Chris' success in this global competition and the performance of UK competitors more generally is a powerful demonstration of the level of amateur talent we have here in the UK.

“Unfortunately for a profession like cyber security where employers are desperate to find new talent, Chris' story of an early interest in the subject that wasn't pursued in later life, is worryingly familiar. Without the opportunities provided by the competitions like the DC3 Digital Forensics and the Cyber Security Challenge UK, Chris and many others like him will be lost to the profession completely despite their undoubted ability.”

Jim Christy, director of Futures Exploration at the Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center, said: “This year's DC3 Digital Forensics Challenge saw the highest ever number of players and submissions, and a significant increase in the standard of the competition. All this makes Chris' achievement, finishing second as an individual and beating teams of professionals from some of the largest companies in the world, and government's cyber workforces all the more remarkable.”

Doman will next face the Cyber Security Challenge's Sophos Malware Hunt in January, where he will be among 30 talented amateurs taking on the role of forensics and defence specialists working for the UK Government and facing the nastiest creations of both cyber criminal gangs and nation states.

Chris will be joined at the Malware Hunt by Matt Bartlett and Chris Moore, who finished ninth and 12th overall in the DC3 competition.

The new 2013 DC3 Digital Forensics Challenge will open from 17th December, for more information visit the website: http://www.dc3.mil/challenge/2012/

Government security education programme to target children and \'risky men\'

The government is to target children and ‘risky men' in an effort to educate them about online security.

Planning a campaign to encourage better online security, the government will aim to get messages on cyber security into primary and secondary schools, arguing that children cannot be too young to learn how to protect themselves when using the web.

According to a report by the Guardian, children as young as three or four are going online, so educating on issues such as managing your online identity and not posting inappropriate details online will be covered.

There was also a need to educate those deemed to be ‘risky men', who use the internet frequently and who think that they are capable of managing the risk.

An official said that its big goal for the next 12 months is to get somewhere transformative in terms of business and public understanding of this issue.

Chloe Smith, parliamentary secretary at the Cabinet Office, who is spearheading the government campaign, said that she was not sure whether it will be possible to talk about being invulnerable, but it is possible to talk about being well prepared for incidents, for being well skilled across society and for government and industry and academia working together to take it seriously.

“Citizens having to be aware just as much as government employees and private-sector leaders. Tackling these skills in the classroom is the place this needs to be in the future. We need to be working at all levels of society. I am passionate about young people being prepared for the [cyber] world,” she said.

“When we use the term cyber, there is a wealth of opportunity as well as threat. There are massive benefits of living in a networked world. But it has its dark side. The truth is that we have to work in partnership with people in every walk of life to make cyber security a success.

"It means a 13-year-old using Facebook for the first time does so safely. It means a twenty-something new employee in a firm knowing how to use the firm's networks safely. It means a person doing their Christmas shopping online … safely, and it means that a silver surfer has to be supported to use it safely. The challenge of raising awareness is absolutely key and a big part of the work.”

Pinterest: Really Useful Tools to Measure Each Pin Impact

Despite its growing popularity and the way the business and marketing implications are becoming clearer, Pinterest is shockingly under represented when it comes to analytics. We have read multiple stories about Pinterest being a great traffic source (even when compared with any other social media channel), but how to effectively measure that traffic as well as “viral” spread?

How do you find out your Pinfluence? Is there any way to figure out if your pinning efforts are gaining the reach you would expect as a return on such a campaign? Here are three analytics tools made specifically for Pinterest.

In summary: See most popular pins and boards of yours based on the number of repins. See how popular you are (based on your PinReach Score.)

Price: Free

Best application: Identify your best-working pins and boards to get an idea of what seems to appeal to your following.

More cool features to check out:

Right away, you can see some useful information on the front page here. They have sections for highest reach, most popular pins, trending pins, trending members and more. On a site based entirely on sharing, this can all be very helpful when trying to find unoriginal content to boost your visibility on the site. You may also find current competitions, such as the Messy Desk Contest going on right now. At the very least, you can establish a pattern and come up with some ideas for your own pinning.

In summary: Allow the tool to access your site Google Analytics data to pull all visits from Pinterest and see which page was pinned, who pinned it and how many visits the pin resulted in.

Price: Free

Best application: (1) Identify your site most successful pages on Pinterest to push them harder, (2) make friends with your site random promoters who seem to love your site!

More cool features to check out:

This UK based tool is really simple to use, but very effective. You can search for pins based on subject, keyword or category using their search engine. It is very helpful in seeing what kind of influence various pin topics have, and what specific images are currently trending. The great thing about Pinterest is that you will notice a trending pin making its way through the ranks for months, rather than days or weeks. So you can squeeze more out of it.

In summary: Add new pins from inside the tool to enable campaign tracking. Track clicks, repins and likes that generate your pins.

Price: Free

Best application: Compare impact from various campaigns. The site shows time (!), day and date of each campaign making it easy to identify your most effective time to pin.

Note: I wish it could support pinning videos as well.

More cool features to check out:

Formerly, this tool was called Pinerly. It has since been rebranded, but the tool itself is the same. You measure your reach using basic analytics and come up with a blueprint for marketing your brand on Pinterest and through the wider social web. They have a great understanding of visual reach and the way you engage a target audience on Pinterest â€" which is much different than how you do it using any other social platform.

Do you know any good Pinterest tools? Let us know in the comments.

NetWrix launches digital surveillance tool

A tool that records user activity for security, compliance, audit and troubleshooting has been launched by NetWrix.

Called the User Activity Video Reporter tool, it said that it acts like a surveillance camera for critical servers and other IT systems by capturing metadata during the recording process, which allows IT administrators to fast- forward or link directly to specific tasks or actions.

Available as a standalone product or as part of the powerful NetWrix Change Reporter Suite, it said that the monitoring software provides complete visibility of IT systems and applications that may not produce logs or enough information to investigate user behaviour.

Aidan Simister, country manager (UK & Ireland) for NetWrix, said: “Complete visibility over critical IT systems can be difficult, inefficient and expensive, but without ‘who, what, when and where' audit detail, vital issues can go undetected and unresolved, risking security and compliance as well as compromising auditing requirements and troubleshooting.

“Our new User Activity Video Reporter captures every single user action for forensic review without having to filter through thousands of hours of activity or reports.”

Relief Act Changes Taxes for Small Businesses

The U.S. American Taxpayer Relief Act approved by Congress January 1 has a number of changes with important implications to businesses large and small. In this roundup, we examine some of the most important provisions your company may need to know about.

Business Tax

Depending upon the type of business you operate, a number of extensions have been included in the new Act. Among the more general ones applicable to many businesses are the extension and modification of bonus depreciation, the extension of increased expensing limitations, the extension of treatment of certain real property as section 179 property, and the extension and modification of the research credit.

A gaggle of other extensions include individual tax, business tax, and energy tax, as well as unemployment, medicare and health. Read some other business-specific extensions established by the Act here.

Personal Tax

Numerous personal tax provisions are also outlined in the new bill according to Jim Forbes, CPA Principal for business and financial advisory firm Skoda Miotti, who issued a special summary of the changes Wednesday. While an original proposal prescribed tax increases for individuals making more than $200,000 a year and for households bringing in $250,000 a year, the new act compromises on this original point. The increases are especially relevant for small business owners who report their revenue as individual income.

Rate Changes. Taxes are still increasing for the nation's highest earners. Essentially this could include small business owners who may now need to fork over more money in taxes rather than reinvesting that money in growing their businesses. While taxes for individuals paying at the 10, 15, 25, 28, 33, and 35 percent rate will remain unchanged, a new 39.6 percent rate now applies to joint filers and surviving spouses making more than $450,000, heads of households making more than $425,000, single filers making more than $400,000, and married couples filing separately who make more than $225,000.

Capital Gains and Dividend Earnings. Taxes on capital gains, including profit realized on the successful sale of a business or on dividends for investors will also be increasing for some earners. The new act permanently raises the tax rate to 20 percent for individuals with incomes exceeding $400,000 or married filers exceeding $450,000. That tax rate rises to 23.8 percent after adding on a Medicare surtax on investment income.

Estate and gift tax. Potentially important to family owned businesses, rates will be raised, but only at the upper end of the spectrum. The act permanently boosts the top estate, gift, and generation-skipping-transfer (GST) rate from 35 to 40 percent for individuals dying and gifts given after 2012, and sets the exemption after which the that tax must be paid at $5 million.

Other Important Provisions

Some other provisions of the U.S. American Taxpayer Relief Act may be of importance to small business owners and entrepreneurs. For example:

• Alternative minimum tax relief. The act permanently increases the exemption rate for the Alternative Minimum Tax to $50,600 for unmarried taxpayers, $78,750 for joint filers, and $39,375 for married couples filing separately.
• Personal Exemption Phaseout reinstated. The new act reduces the total amount of exemptions claimed by taxpayers by 2 percent for every $2,500 of adjusted gross income earned over $300,000 for joint filers and a surviving spouse; $275,000 for heads of household; $250,000 for single filers; and $150,000 for married couples filing separately.
• Limits on itemized deductions. The act also reduces itemized deductions by 3 percent of the amount by which each taxpayers adjusted gross income exceeds the thresholds established under the personal exemption phaseout.

Reaction

Reaction to the new act from the business community has been mixed. However, National Federation of Independent Business CEO Dan Danner seemed to greet the news with some relief, at least as far as small business taxes are concerned, in a brief statement yesterday.

“It's hugely disappointing to the small-business community that the legislative bridge to avert the ‘cliff' did not address our country's most pressing economic issue: unchecked spending that leads to crushing deficits and debt. Small business owners need to balance their books to stay in business and they think the federal government should do the same-no more excuses,” Danner said. “That said, there were some positives for small business on a few of the specifics in this deal. A substantial majority of small firms will be permanently spared a tax increase on their income and their estates, and certainty on the individual rates will help small-business owners with planning and cash flow. The mystery of what their tax rates will be is finally over, and there is relief in that, but there is much more work to be done to address spending and out-of-control deficits.”