Self Employment: How to Translate Your Efforts Into Success

In this article, we’re going to explore the:

• Differences between employment and self-employment.
• Reasons that make self-employment so popular nowadays.
• Ways to curb the risks associated with self-employment.

Have you asked yourself, “Is it the right time to quit my job and start a business on my own”

The answer, as much as you hate it, is - it depends. Your circumstances are unique; they determine whether this is the right choice for you.

While self employment seems to be a safer option than paid employment in present times, whether it suits you or not depends on a lot of factors. Before you try to determine which option is right for you, you need to understand the difference between employment and self employment.

Employment Versus Self Employment

Employment is Like Renting, Self Employment is Like Owning 

The latter option gives you the flexibility to make alterations and modifications according to your wishes. Something you cannot do in the former case.

Employment Gives You a Single Source of Income - Your Employer

Whether you are earning a salary or incentives, all of these come from this single source. However, this is not a constraint if you choose self employment. You may be able to earn from different sources, such as product sales, client consultations, etc.

Employment Can Never Guarantee Job Stability, Even When You’re a Star Performer

Self employment, on the other hand, may take time to establish. However, it can guarantee stability after a specific period - and with considerable effort.

Now that you are aware of the ways in which self employment differs from employment, the next question is:  Why should you consider it

Reasons for Self Employment

No Considerable Difference in Income

While it takes time to earn profits from a new business, once it is up and running, the income can be as much as employment. Moreover, the rewards you get are directly proportional to the efforts you put in. Something that may not be available in a corporate environment.

Ease of Availability of Government Programs

Your eligibility depends on a number of factors. However, if your business idea is viable, you may be able to find assistance from government programs aimed at entrepreneurs.

Options Available Whatever Your Age

It may be difficult to find a new job after a certain age, especially at times of economic crunch. There are no such limitations on opportunities when you work for yourself. Furthermore, you may continue working for as long as you wish when you own and operate your own business.

Achieve a Work-Life Balance

If your work is all that you have, you are losing out on precious “me-time.” When you opt for self employment, you can create a work-life balance and maintain it too.

You Get to Chase Your Dream

The most important reason for self employment is perhaps the fact that this gives you the way to chase your big dream and make something out of it. If you have a vision, but never try to realize it, you may have to live with this regret your entire life. Self employment gives you the chance to be your own boss.

It seems that it truly is the right time to try your hand at your own business. However, it is more easily said than done. This is a big decision and it involves a lot of risks as well. Before you take the plunge, below are a few things you need to know to reduce the risks.

Reduce the Risks of Self Employment

Make Sure You Have Enough Security Money

When starting a new business, the first thing you need to keep aside is ample security money. Nothing can guarantee the absolute success of a new venture. For this, you need to make sure that you have adequate funds to pay your bills for at least a few months.

Make Sure You Have Work Experience in the Same Field

If you are venturing out into a field you know nothing of, chances of failure increase. It is better to acquire some experience before you take any step in this regard.

Make Sure You Have a Business Plan

Creating a business plan can make or break your business. For this, you have to find answers to a number of questions regarding the viability of the idea, the availability of the market for your products or services, the position of your competitors, etc.

Make Sure You Have a Plan of Only What You Can Afford

Big plans may not mean anything if you do not have a sound basis for such plans. The finances you can arrange and attract play a significant role in the business plan you prepare.

Make Sure You Have Additional Financial Resources

Keep in mind that you have to spend more than you plan initially. The costs, almost always, are more than what you planned. In such a circumstance, you may have to arrange for more funds. It is, therefore, important that you have sources from which you can borrow.

Assessing your circumstances is necessary for determining whether it is the right time for becoming an entrepreneur. Ample planning and research are necessary for starting a new business and making it a success.

Self Employed Photo via Shutterstock

CSIT Summit: Visa Europe say \'right to be forgotten\' law cannot work

User expectation on mobile payments and privacy needs to be realistic, until a solution emerges.

Speaking at the Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) conference in Belfast, Colin Whittaker, vice president of payment system risk at Visa Europe, criticised proposed changes to the European Data Protection Directive as he said that 'the industry is not ready to be forgotten', and he complimented the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) on their response.

He said: “The point is that to make something secure, you need one technology to close it down and make it secure, and the other problem is that users want to do more with their technology and they are missing the point. We need to balance both sides of the ecosystem.

“We keep data to manage trends and we need it to meet our obligations for law enforcement and can use encryption and tokenisation to do it in an efficient manner. The proposed directive changes say what the expectations are on privacy and anonymity and and we are clear on when we need that data and we need direction on data.”

Whittaker also talked about the challenge of modern payments for Visa Europe, especially as mobile devices become more prevalent. He said that most threats at the moment are to do with secure web design, vulnerabilities and multiple platforms with the expansion of mobile and tablet devices.

He said: “We want to accept payments via mobile as users have the expectation to do so and we need to facilitate that and accept that there are vulnerable applications. What we want to do is avoid using PIN numbers and cards on a mobile device, it is not sensible. There was a suggestion that a user could take a photo of their card and submit it, I said that is not a good idea!

“We have got to find a strong way to connect the mobile, secure the data and send it and trying to avoid a solution that does anything stupid. We are trying to promote a way with mobile that avoids additional accessories around and the risk that they provide.”

Whittaker said that the biggest challenge is user expectation, and there needs to be a way to educate politicians 'as society debates this and we want to do everything we can with the technology we are given'.

CSIT Summit: Secure cloud and infrastructure today as tomorrow demands it

The internet of things is about more than connected machines, it is about secure technology and connectivity.

Speaking at the Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) conference in Belfast, Raj Samani, EMEA CTO of McAfee and EMEA strategy advisor at the Cloud Security Alliance, said that a 'greater impact demands greater assurance', and it was about greater confidence in technology.

He said: “The funny thing is, 15 years ago it was about floppy disks and modems, and I remember walking around switching off modems at the end of the day in the job I was in at the time. Now it is about how many entry points there are into the network and how many third party suppliers you have.

“In that job we had 10,000 applications and I had three members of staff. Greater management necessitates greater assurance.”

Samani argued that the recent ENISA report on 'cloud computing being a safe environment' made the cloud a jucier target, and argued that rather than assessing once a year, there was a need to do constant, real-time assessments.

“It has been said that 'you need to address the cloud security challenges before cloud computing becomes ubiqutous'; well that horse bolted two years ago. Now we need to address cloud security today as tomorrow demands it,” he said.

DoD security panel calls for new cyber-defense, offense

Amid budget cuts and growing cyber-tensions with China, a Pentagon advisory panel has recommended beefing up U.S. cyber-defenses while creating a new offensive cyberwarfare capability.

"The adversary is in our networks," warned the unclassified version of a Defense Science Board (DSB) report, Resilient Military Systems and the Advanced Cyber Threat.

The 18-month study warned that the U.S. IT infrastructure is ill-equipped to handle cyberattacks launched by "full spectrum" adversaries using cyber-capabilities, along with military and intelligence assets.

The task force recommended that the Department of Defense (DoD) take the lead by building "an effective response" to cyberattacks that would harden public and private IT systems from attack. It called for development of a "ladder of capabilities" to defend against known vulnerabilities -- up to and including a nuclear option -- as part of an American response. Arguing in favor of Cold War-era deterrence, the panel argued that such hardened systems would reduce would-be attackers' confidence in their ability to degrade military networks.

The report's attempt to link cyberwar with nuclear deterrence and Cold War struggles puzzled some analysts. While the DSB report highlighted the vulnerability of far-flung military networks with varying levels of security, references to the U.S. nuclear arsenal gave it an "other-worldly quality," said James Lewis, a cybersecurity specialist with Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"Would deterrence work in cyberwarfare" Lewis asked.

The panel, made up of ex-DoD officials, industry executives and scientists, said its warnings were prompted by the alarming ease with which U.S. military networks have been penetrated, along with exercises in which so-called "Red Teams" have used widely available Internet tools to defeat DoD cyber-defenders.

The report also noted the "weak cyber-hygiene position of DoD networks and systems." One of the most egregious known breaches in 2008 involved leaving thumb drives scattered in a parking lot at the U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla. Investigators concluded that malware was introduced into DoD networks when at least one drive was picked up and plugged into DoD computers.

Military networks are increasingly vulnerable because they are "built on inherently insecure architectures," the report warned. Hence, its "dependence on this vulnerable technology is a magnet to U.S. opponents."

Along with upgrading defenses, the panel said DoD should develop an offensive cyber-capability, even though the rules of engagement for cyber-warfare are still being hotly debated. The U.S. Cyber Command should develop a war-gaming capability while recruiting offensive cyber-warriors, the DSB panel urged.

Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta laid out the Pentagon’s cyber-strategy last fall, roughly three years after the formation of a U.S. Cyber Command headed by Gen. Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency.

"We won't succeed in preventing a cyberattack through improved defenses alone," Panetta said. "If we detect an imminent threat of attack that will cause significant, physical destruction in the United States or kill American citizens, we need to have the option to take action against those who would attack us to defend this nation…."

Conspicuously absent from the report were references to China despite recent reports of widespread hacking efforts thought to have been launched from within the People's Liberation Army.

Tom Donilon, President Obama's national security adviser, said Monday that "U.S. businesses are speaking out about their serious concerns about sophisticated, targeted theft of confidential business information and proprietary technologies through cyber-intrusions emanating from China on an unprecedented scale."

Donilon pressed Beijing in a speech before the Asia Society to acknowledge the threat and stop it, then worked with the U.S. to "establish acceptable norms of behavior in cyberspace."

Lewis, the analyst, said a possible "trigger" for the recent flurry of U.S. activity related to cybersecurity may stem from computer attacks thought to have originated last fall from Iran against banks and Saudi Arabia's national oil company, Aramco. "That worried people" in the government, Lewis said.

The DSB panel also proposed ways to measure progress in the unrelenting cat-and-mouse cyber-struggle. The metrics would be used to determine DoD's investment priorities.

Those priorities are under review in response to steep budget cuts known as sequestration, which took effect on March 1. Most DoD programs are facing across-the-board 8% budget cuts through Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year.

The "bottom up" review will help determine Pentagon spending priorities for what is expected to be a new era of austerity after a doubling of the U.S. national security budget over the last decade. Along with a reduced spending for IT, mandatory budget cuts are expected to result in furloughs of contractors working for the U.S. Cyber Command.

Secunia: More focus needed on third-party application security

According to a report on endpoint security released this week by Copenhagen, Denmark-based security vendor Secunia, third-party application security issues are far more problematic for users and enterprises than issues affecting Microsoft programs.

Frankly there is not much financial incitement to spend time and money on developing zero-days when there is so much vulnerable, unpatched software around.

Thomas Kristensen,
CSO, Secunia

Throughout 2012, Secunia gathered anonymous data from millions of computers that had its Personal Software Inspector (PSI) installed. The 2013 Secunia Vulnerability Review highlighted the vulnerabilities identified in the 50 most common programs -- 29 of them from Microsoft and the rest from other, third-party vendors -- installed on those computers.

A whopping 86% of the vulnerabilities found in the top 50 programs affected third-party programs. Among the most exploited third-party programs are the usual suspects, including Oracle Corp.'s Java and Adobe Systems Inc.'s Flash and Reader applications.

Of the vulnerabilities identified, 80% had a patch available for them on the day they were disclosed, representing an increase of 8% from the number reported in 2011. However, Secunia's experts estimated that this number is unlikely to improve further, meaning that enterprises must go beyond patch management to solve these issues. As for the programs left with unpatched vulnerabilities, Thomas Kristensen, chief security officer at Secunia, recommended enterprises take a hard look at the third-party applications deployed to determine whether they are worth the risk, and if not, whether they can be replaced by more secure alternatives.

"There are only two ways to secure these programs: deploy patches or refrain from installing them," said Kristensen in an email interview with SearchSecurity. "For organizations, it is necessary to assess whether the programs are business-critical -- if not, it is worth considering not using them in the organization at all."

Despite concern in security circles over zero-day vulnerabilities, Secunia noted that the number of zero-days declined year-over-year. Only eight zero-day vulnerabilities were identified in 2012, down from the 14 discovered in 2011. For Kristensen, this indicates the economic realities of hacking and the poor state of software security in general.

"Vulnerabilities are much cheaper and easier to use than zero-days," he said. "Frankly there is not much financial incitement to spend time and money on developing zero-days when there is so much vulnerable, unpatched software around."

On the flipside, Microsoft was commended in the report for continuing to improve the security of its applications. While its XP operating system once served as the punching bag of choice for attackers, Secunia reported that the share of vulnerabilities affecting Microsoft programs fell from 43% to 14% in the past five years.

Users must demand application security

Web browser security is one of the bright spots in the Secunia report. While more vulnerabilities were reported for the most popular browsers, patches were generally made available quickly, which, in part, serves to highlight the highly competitive software vendor market. Though history suggests that security isn't a selling point, Kristensen feels that users do value security when it comes to Web browsers.

"Security has been a primary competitive parameter. … If you provide an insecure browser, you lose market share, because in a competitive market, users go across the street to the competition," he said. "With programs like Java and Flash, users have no alternatives, which is why they survive despite their many insecurities."

When consumers don't demand that their products be secure, the result is the current state of SCADA software security, which the report compares to mainstream software security from 10 years ago. The number of SCADA software vulnerabilities has risen over the last five years, but more worryingly, updates are described as "erratic." SCADA and industrial control system (ICS) security issues have emerged in recent years as the subject of national security concerns, with stories of critical infrastructure failing under the pressure of cyberattacks. While Kristensen believes SCADA software does represent a security threat, he feels customers can pressure SCADA developers much like Web browser developers to increase security.

"Customers must start making demands of the software vendors. SCADA software is never as exposed as browser products, but there is always money involved," he said. "SCADA customers must and can demand the products they pay for are secure; this should be stipulated in the contract. Money talks, and customers have influence over the quality of the products they pay for."

3 Things to Look for When Hiring an SEO Company

There have been plenty of articles out there about choosing or hiring the right SEO company, but I am going to offer 5 different suggestions based on my personal experience with clients.

There are always things to ask SEO companies to see if they are qualified, but the big question is:

Do they care or take an interest in what is best for the client

If they do the following 3 things will be important to them.

Strategies Based on Goals, Not Traffic Numbers

All SEO and Internet marketing strategies should start with the goals a business has for improving branding, sales, traffic and/or anything else.

An SEO company that doesn’t even ask what your goals are or what you are hoping to achieve is not focused on the right things. Their goals might not match your goals and if they are not asking about your goals, they are most likely focused on their own (which to me means they have little experience).

Increased traffic cannot be the only goal an SEO company works towards. I know I can get people traffic all day long, but is it quality traffic Quality traffic buys, invests, shares, begins the trust process and/or meets one or more of your goals. The strategies put into place must be focused on goals.

Take away: If a SEO company doesn’t bring up goals, they are not the company for you. You should not have to point out that goals are a priority.

Educating the Client as Part of the Process

Every so often I hear people tell me that their SEO company cannot tell them what the company is doing because it is “secret.” Okay. . .well, let’s analyze this. I educate my clients, but I don’t tell them everything. Nor do I tell things or answer detailed questions to people that are not paying me. However, if I have a potential client in front of me, I often educate them enough to understand what the issues are with their SEO and/or website. These are not secrets, but the basics of what an SEO company does.

I tell a lot and I educate a lot. But even with the knowledge I give away, the client would still need my services. Even if I told a “secret” the person most likely wouldn’t have the knowledge or experience to use the “secret” effectively. I can say a lot without rendering myself useless.

Educated clients know they are not wasting their money with me and they know what to look for in regards to traffic, leads and goals. By educating, we become a “team” and long-lasting working relationships are formed.

Take away: I think an SEO company that wants their clients to be educated (to a point) on the services they are offering is a good sign. Those that refuse to truly educate make me nervous.

Understanding of User Experience

An SEO company has to understand how critical the user experience (UX) is for visitors to a website. SEO and great rankings are wonderful, but if a visitor comes in to a site and cannot find what they are looking for or the site is difficult to use then sales are lost.

A good SEO company should be focused on everything from the beginning to the end: goal-oriented traffic that results in a conversion. When they are talking to you about your website, they should be able to point out things that could cause a problem or discuss things that could be improved to help meet the goals of the SEO strategies.

Take away: If a company only discusses changes to meta tags and has nothing else to offer, then they are not the company you should be working with. They should be focused on the usability of the website, the user experience start to finish and most importantly, page content and features supporting SEO strategies and goals.

Do They Want What is Best for YOU

There are lots of little questions to ask SEO companies, but I am encouraging you to look a bit further. A good SEO company will want what is best for you and what is best for you includes:

• SEO strategies based on your goals: SEO should meet a need for you. If the company is not focused on your needs, they are not focused on what is best for you, period.
• Educating you: You are the client and you should be educated on the services you are paying for and what they will offer you. You should have at least a basic understanding that allows you to monitor what is working and what isn’t. Without this knowledge, you could be paying for services that do nothing for you. Is this what is best for you
• An understanding of user experience: If an SEO company isn’t concerned with the UX (user experience) of your website then they are not thinking about what is best for your company. UX is a critical part of what real SEO companies do. Real SEO companies are not focused on just meta tags and traffic. They are focused on how each and every single thing will impact your SEO, your UX, your sales and your goals.

There are a lot of other factors to look at when hiring an SEO company, but as someone that owns their own SEO company, I encourage you to remember the three things I mentioned above.

Optimization Photo via Shutterstock

3 Things to Look for When Hiring an SEO Company

There have been plenty of articles out there about choosing or hiring the right SEO company, but I am going to offer 5 different suggestions based on my personal experience with clients.

There are always things to ask SEO companies to see if they are qualified, but the big question is:

Do they care or take an interest in what is best for the client

If they do the following 3 things will be important to them.

Strategies Based on Goals, Not Traffic Numbers

All SEO and Internet marketing strategies should start with the goals a business has for improving branding, sales, traffic and/or anything else.

An SEO company that doesn’t even ask what your goals are or what you are hoping to achieve is not focused on the right things. Their goals might not match your goals and if they are not asking about your goals, they are most likely focused on their own (which to me means they have little experience).

Increased traffic cannot be the only goal an SEO company works towards. I know I can get people traffic all day long, but is it quality traffic Quality traffic buys, invests, shares, begins the trust process and/or meets one or more of your goals. The strategies put into place must be focused on goals.

Take away: If a SEO company doesn’t bring up goals, they are not the company for you. You should not have to point out that goals are a priority.

Educating the Client as Part of the Process

Every so often I hear people tell me that their SEO company cannot tell them what the company is doing because it is “secret.” Okay. . .well, let’s analyze this. I educate my clients, but I don’t tell them everything. Nor do I tell things or answer detailed questions to people that are not paying me. However, if I have a potential client in front of me, I often educate them enough to understand what the issues are with their SEO and/or website. These are not secrets, but the basics of what an SEO company does.

I tell a lot and I educate a lot. But even with the knowledge I give away, the client would still need my services. Even if I told a “secret” the person most likely wouldn’t have the knowledge or experience to use the “secret” effectively. I can say a lot without rendering myself useless.

Educated clients know they are not wasting their money with me and they know what to look for in regards to traffic, leads and goals. By educating, we become a “team” and long-lasting working relationships are formed.

Take away: I think an SEO company that wants their clients to be educated (to a point) on the services they are offering is a good sign. Those that refuse to truly educate make me nervous.

Understanding of User Experience

An SEO company has to understand how critical the user experience (UX) is for visitors to a website. SEO and great rankings are wonderful, but if a visitor comes in to a site and cannot find what they are looking for or the site is difficult to use then sales are lost.

A good SEO company should be focused on everything from the beginning to the end: goal-oriented traffic that results in a conversion. When they are talking to you about your website, they should be able to point out things that could cause a problem or discuss things that could be improved to help meet the goals of the SEO strategies.

Take away: If a company only discusses changes to meta tags and has nothing else to offer, then they are not the company you should be working with. They should be focused on the usability of the website, the user experience start to finish and most importantly, page content and features supporting SEO strategies and goals.

Do They Want What is Best for YOU

There are lots of little questions to ask SEO companies, but I am encouraging you to look a bit further. A good SEO company will want what is best for you and what is best for you includes:

• SEO strategies based on your goals: SEO should meet a need for you. If the company is not focused on your needs, they are not focused on what is best for you, period.
• Educating you: You are the client and you should be educated on the services you are paying for and what they will offer you. You should have at least a basic understanding that allows you to monitor what is working and what isn’t. Without this knowledge, you could be paying for services that do nothing for you. Is this what is best for you
• An understanding of user experience: If an SEO company isn’t concerned with the UX (user experience) of your website then they are not thinking about what is best for your company. UX is a critical part of what real SEO companies do. Real SEO companies are not focused on just meta tags and traffic. They are focused on how each and every single thing will impact your SEO, your UX, your sales and your goals.

There are a lot of other factors to look at when hiring an SEO company, but as someone that owns their own SEO company, I encourage you to remember the three things I mentioned above.

Optimization Photo via Shutterstock

Do Tablets Have An Effect On Eyesight Study Shows They Help Elderly Read Faster!

For years parents have been warning their kids about the dangers of reading in the dark, and the strain that it could cause eyes. New studies suggest that in fact maybe a little more light is the answer. Researchers from the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany have recently found that, for those sixty and older, reading on a bright tablet actually reduces reading time.

The study was conducted comparing the time it took age-bracketed groups to read through text, first in print and then on Kindle e-readers and iPads. For those between the ages of 21 and 34, there weren’t actually any big differences. However, for the group containing people ages 60 through 77, the results were much different. On the iPad, set at the highest brightness, subjects were able to read a short page of text 2.5 seconds faster than in print. For those who read rarely or only in short sections this may not mean much of a difference, but for those bibliophiles glued to the latest best seller or those who sit to read the news dily, this could end up becoming a real time saver. The researcher’s conclusions were that the strong contrast caused by the iPad’s backlighting are the cause of the reading differences.

However, there are some risks to spending all that time with a blindingly bright screen. Computer Vision Syndrome is a group of eye and vision problems that may cause dry eyes, blurred vision, headaches, and neck and shoulder pain. Ways to treat CVS include getting glasses that meet the visual demands of computer viewing, blinking often to keep the eye moist, and resting approximately every two hours of screen use. Age-related macular degeneration, a vision disorder that occurs most often on those 50 and up is another risk for those who use any backlit screen often. Phones, computer, and yes, even tablets give off a “blue light” that has been linked to age-related macular degeneration, as well as insomnia. The iPad can reduce emissions by adjusting to a lower brightness, and a white on black feature lso helps and is offered by many tablets.

As far as the ramification for businesses, it means that employees could be able to work into old age. As eyesight becomes worse, the brightness of a backlit screen will compensate for it, possibly extending work for a few years. So while it may be negligible now, the long term benefits of tablets could be a big deal for businesses.

Do Tablets Have An Effect On Eyesight Study Shows They Help Elderly Read Faster!

For years parents have been warning their kids about the dangers of reading in the dark, and the strain that it could cause eyes. New studies suggest that in fact maybe a little more light is the answer. Researchers from the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany have recently found that, for those sixty and older, reading on a bright tablet actually reduces reading time.

The study was conducted comparing the time it took age-bracketed groups to read through text, first in print and then on Kindle e-readers and iPads. For those between the ages of 21 and 34, there weren’t actually any big differences. However, for the group containing people ages 60 through 77, the results were much different. On the iPad, set at the highest brightness, subjects were able to read a short page of text 2.5 seconds faster than in print. For those who read rarely or only in short sections this may not mean much of a difference, but for those bibliophiles glued to the latest best seller or those who sit to read the news dily, this could end up becoming a real time saver. The researcher’s conclusions were that the strong contrast caused by the iPad’s backlighting are the cause of the reading differences.

However, there are some risks to spending all that time with a blindingly bright screen. Computer Vision Syndrome is a group of eye and vision problems that may cause dry eyes, blurred vision, headaches, and neck and shoulder pain. Ways to treat CVS include getting glasses that meet the visual demands of computer viewing, blinking often to keep the eye moist, and resting approximately every two hours of screen use. Age-related macular degeneration, a vision disorder that occurs most often on those 50 and up is another risk for those who use any backlit screen often. Phones, computer, and yes, even tablets give off a “blue light” that has been linked to age-related macular degeneration, as well as insomnia. The iPad can reduce emissions by adjusting to a lower brightness, and a white on black feature lso helps and is offered by many tablets.

As far as the ramification for businesses, it means that employees could be able to work into old age. As eyesight becomes worse, the brightness of a backlit screen will compensate for it, possibly extending work for a few years. So while it may be negligible now, the long term benefits of tablets could be a big deal for businesses.

Tech Thursday (3/14): News From Basecamp, Constant Contact, Mozy and Brother

It’s Tech Thursday from Smallbiztechnology.com. Each week we take a quick look at business and technology news and updates for the small business community and share them with you in a quick and simple round-up.

The Official Basecamp App for iPhone

Basecamp announced the first iOS app developed completely in-house at 37signals

Basecamp announced the first iOS app developed completely in-house at 37signals: the official Basecamp app for iPhone.

Get it now for free on the App Store. 

Here’s what you can do with it:

• Check in on your projects from anywhere. Basecamp for iPhone shows you the latest news on each project.
• Jump in on a discussion and post your thoughts.
• View progress as team members complete to-dos and upload files.
• Look up anything in a project. Refer to a document or make a decision no matter where you are.

See more about the new app and it’s features here.

EventSpot from Constant Contact Brings Mobile Advances to Check-In and Ticketing Process

With EventSpot’s Passbook® integration, Constant Contact takes first step in making Passbook relevant for small businesses and nonprofits

More Americans now own a smartphone (45 percent of adults) than a traditional cell phone. This tipping point represents a tremendous opportunity for small organizations to more efficiently engage with their customers and members through mobile technology. To support this growing trend, EventSpot from Constant Contact®, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTCT) has introduced mobile-enhanced features that allow small businesses and nonprofits to promote and manage their events in a dynamic new way. 

EventSpot’s new features streamline the ticketing and check-in process. Tickets generated for each event attendee contain valuable, time-saving registrant information, including name, payment status, guest information, fee type, items purchased, and a QR code. With the Event Check-In for Constant Contact App,
event planners and attendees benefit from an accurate, fast check-in, alleviating lines. 

You can see more about EventSpot from Constant Contact here.

Mozy Cloud Backup Now Available on the Upware Marketplace from Comcast Business

New online app marketplace from leading communications provider meets evolving needs of growing businesses

Mozy by EMC, the most trusted provider of cloud backup and access, has joined the Upware marketplace<#13cf8c288471d40e_business.comcast.com/upware>from Comcast Business to offer the industry-leading Mozy backup service to small and midsize businesses (SMBs).

The Upwareâ„¢ marketplace is a suite of cloud-based business solutions that can be purchased through one easy-to-use web portal. It contains a carefully selected list of third-party, cloud-based business applications from industry-leading companies in key categories such as data backup, data security, document collaboration and web collaboration. Upware is designed to meet the needs of small and medium businesses looking to use cloud-based solutions to simplify their IT systems, control costs and increase productivity.

Mozy is available now on the Upware marketplace for Comcast Business at. You can see more about the Mozy addition to Comcast here.

Brother Introduces A Digital Color Printer Under $300 Featuring Wireless Connectivity And Duplex Printing

New Brother Digital Color Printers Deliver Professional Results and Big-Business Features for the Small Business Budget

Brother International Corporation, a leader in small business technology, today announced the launch of its new HL-3000 series of digital color LED printers that allow small businesses to produce professional-looking color documents at speeds up to 23 ppm, giving them a competitive edge in the marketplace.

A recent study among small business owners by Brother reveals that presenting their business in a professional light is the most important influence for printing in color1. With this in mind, Brother recognized the need for small businesses to print high quality, professional color documents at speeds up to 23ppm without spending time and money at local copy centers or over-spending on expensive printers to get the business-focused features they wanted.

Brother’s new HL-3000 printer series is an ideal solution for those needs. The low starting price of just $249.99 makes them affordable to small business owners and the new cost-saving high capacity replacement toners (approximately 2,200 pages) can help reduce their cost per page. Additionally, fast print speeds, two-sided (duplex) capability, advanced wireless and mobile device printing; all in a compact footprint give users a host of features previously unavailable in a reliable digital color printer under $300.

You can see more about the new Brother printer here.

Skills shortage puts IT grads in the driver\'s seat

When it comes to hiring IT staff, there's at least as much pressure on employers to put their best foot forward as there is on job candidates.

With more than 2000 computing jobs listed on one website alone, it's a candidates' market, says Natasha Hubbard, the head of human resources at accounting software company Xero.

"You have to be realistic about the fact that candidates have options. Xero is fortunate that we have a lot going for us in terms of our culture."

The six-year-old stock exchange darling - its share price has more than trebled in the past 12 months - retains its start-up energy and has a "fun, funky vibe", Hubbard says.

"At this stage we're in a nice, sweet spot of people genuinely wanting to come on board. For us it hasn't come down to wage wars."

However, the wages certainly aren't bad for a fresh graduate. James Corbett landed himself a $50,000 a year programming job at Xero as soon as he finished his three-year computer science degree in the middle of last year.

The 22-year-old had applied for several jobs, but liked what Xero had to offer, and it liked him, so he signed on.

"It was definitely a good market for a graduate to be looking in. I applied for jobs all over the show and had a lot of luck with people getting back to me."

Corbett left thinking about jobs until near the end of his degree, even though employers were already scouting for talent - and promoting their organisations as good places to work - in his second year. By the time he was ready to make his first career move, plenty of opportunities presented themselves.

"There was a lot of employer interest. I didn't have to go searching and found a job quite easily."

At Xero the focus was less on his grades and more on his ability to work in a team.

That appealed to Corbett just as much, as his abilities clearly matched what Xero was after.

In Christchurch, 20-year-old Ben Munro could also pick and choose. The University of Canterbury computer science graduate had a job lined up two months before completing his degree.

"I was quite lucky in that I had a few opportunities offered to me."

Having an A-minus grade average was no doubt an advantage, Munro says. So was experience as a summer intern at IT company Hewlett-Packard.

After a three-hour interview that involved aptitude tests and meeting several of the people he could be working with, he opted for a developer job at Christchurch fleet-tracking software company Telogis on a salary of just over $50,000. The work is as interesting as he'd hoped, and the workplace welcoming.

"They really do make it a fun place rather than just being here for your eight hours a day with your head down."

The popular image of an IT worker might be a young male whose closest relationship is with his computer. But the reality is different, says Xero's Hubbard.

"When I look around Xero we have techie bods, we have a range of ages, we have great diversity, so it's not your traditional nerds all in a room not talking to each other."

First on the list of attributes employers look for is a candidate's team-working ability, says University of Canterbury computer science professor Tim Bell.

Problem-solving, creativity, technical interest, mathematical ability and leadership skills are also sought.

"There is a role for very technical people who can solve hard problems and also a role for those who are much more people-oriented," Bell says.

By Anthony Doesburg Email Anthony

Does not compute - Where are the IT workers

The money's good, the jobs are plentiful - so why does New Zealand's growing IT industry find it so hard to attract skilled staff Anthony Doesburg reports

With the unemployment rate nudging 7 per cent for three years now, many employers can pick and choose from scores of job seekers.

But not in the world of information and communications technology (ICT). A chronic shortage of ICT skills is forcing software companies to carry out development overseas because they can't find local programmers to do the work.

With one website showing 1300 ICT vacancies in Auckland alone, pay rates of up to $1500 a day are being offered for some specialist roles.

"Recruitment is one of our big challenges," says Natasha Hubbard, general manager of human resources at accounting software company Xero.

"We've got lots on the go at the moment."

While the six-year-old Wellington company has yet to make a profit, it is in growth mode and hired 200 staff last year. Xero will be looking for a similar number of recruits this year.

Xero typically takes about two months to sign up a new employee, Hubbard says, despite having three in-house recruiters and the advantages that come from being a high-profile, fast- growing business.

"It is a challenge to find suitably qualified, experienced and savvy people who also fit our culture.

"Our philosophy is hiring the best - not just getting people who can do the role but finding recruits who can do it exceptionally well and who aspire to future roles."

There's just one problem: lots of other organisations are competing for the same recruits.

Among them is Orion Health, which provides software for the medical industry. Although it is 20 years old, the Auckland company is also growing quickly, hiring more than 50 people since mid-November and needing another infusion of staff to handle new projects.

"We're competing in a small pool of graduates, of job candidates, and we're all after the best we can get," says Orion Health chief executive Ian McCrae.

"Some of those end up going overseas as well, so it is a tight market."

Both Xero and Orion are resorting to hiring overseas staff for jobs they would rather fill locally. When Xero's search for New Zealand candidates for software quality assurance positions last year drew a blank, it found one overseas, and of last year's roughly 200 hires, 70 came from outside New Zealand.

"We will take people from offshore if they're the best candidate for the role," Hubbard says. With development centres in Melbourne, Canberra and San Francisco catering to the Australian and US markets, hiring locally is a deliberate policy.

At orion health, two of its four software development centres and half its 725 employees are overseas.

McCrae says the skills shortage means opportunities are going begging in this country.

"If we could find people it would mean more of our development would occur in New Zealand. If we can't find the resources here, we have no choice but to hire people elsewhere."

But that's not the best answer for the country, which is missing out on jobs, nor for the company, because of the difficulty of managing a dispersed software development team.

"We can do it, but it is advantageous to have people clustered together," says McCrae.

Other ways around the skills shortage - "repurposing" people who have science and engineering degrees - aren't ideal either.

"What we have to do is take people with other qualifications and repurpose them for IT, which seems a real shame, because they've spent many years studying something else. They find there is no work for them in that field, so we move them into IT.

"At one point we had three people with fantastic PhDs in our documentation area, and while there they learn about our products and ultimately they'll go into other parts of the business."

The opportunities for IT workers were highlighted last month by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. According to the ministry's Occupation Outlook report, job prospects in ICT are among the best in the country, along with engineering and other professional roles.

The report says strong growth in jobs for ICT and business analysts - of whom there are about 9500 earning an average of $76,700 - can be expected in the medium term.

Similar growth in software development jobs is also forecast. There are about 17,000 software developers earning an average of $76,600.

The pay and prospects for ICT and telecommunications technicians are slightly less rosy: average earnings are just under $50,000 and their numbers fell slightly last year to about 10,100, although they are forecast to pick up.

Jobs in ICT were the most abundant of any category on the seek.co.nz job website in the middle of last month, the second-most numerous on nzherald.co.nz and the third biggest category on Trade Me's jobs site. More than 100 jobs were listed on Seek at pay rates of $200,000-plus and one 12-month contract for someone with SAP financial software experience was offering $850 to $1500 a day.

That may sound an astronomical sum but it's not unusual for the sector, says Paul Matthews, head of the Institute of IT Professionals, and is partly a symptom of the scarcity of experienced workers.

"The skills shortage today is as bad as it's ever been, which is a crazy situation when you consider overall unemployment. But we have a significant problem attracting people with the right skills into the industry."

Matthews says ICT company bosses tell him this is the biggest drag on their ability to increase exports and it pains him when companies such as Orion Health are forced to do software development overseas that could be employing New Zealanders.

Raising awareness of IT's earning potential is part of attempts to change perceptions of the industry so more people are attracted to work in it, he says.

However he concedes that years of work on an image makeover - that you don't need to be a geek to work in IT - haven't made much difference.

"That's true - trying to do something about this isn't new. But we have a major project that is working to change those perceptions."

Called ICT Connect, and sponsored by companies including Datacom, Simpl and Orion Health, the initiative involves IT professionals standing up in front of school classes and telling them what an "interesting, challenging, rewarding and diverse profession" they work in. Matthews says the goal is to speak to 50,000 school students this year.

It's an uphill battle, however. Despite the jobs, and salaries, on offer, the number of students doing IT-related degrees is going backwards, according to the Occupation Outlook report. It quotes Ministry of Education figures that show the number of students completing IT and computer science degrees fell 42 per cent, from 2240 in 2005 to 1300 in 2010.

The fall in numbers has been accompanied by a decline in the quality of graduates, argues Orion Health's McCrae. "The smart people we want who build things, who create things, are not doing IT. So the quality and calibre of graduates may have fallen as well, although I don't have scientific evidence of this."

What he does have is a suggested remedy: McCrae thinks the teaching of IT in high schools needs to be upgraded so more bright students are attracted to it. He would like computer science to have the same academic standing as the other three sciences - physics, chemistry and biology - in the school curriculum.

"At the moment IT is on a par with metalwork and soft materials. It is taught as technology but it needs to become an academic subject."

Rather than a curriculum that teaches the basics of using common software packages, students should be exposed to the fundamentals of software design, McCrae says. "It needs to appeal to the innovators, the tinkerers. New Zealand has a culture of creating things, and IT in schools needs to appeal to those people. Learning to use Microsoft Word or PowerPoint doesn't get them excited."

McCrae acknowledges the work of Tim Bell, the deputy head of the University of Canterbury's computer science and software engineering department, in helping bring this about.

Since 2011 the high school curriculum has been expanded so schools have the option of teaching digital technology as an achievement standard under NCEA, covering topics such as the basics of information management. Achievement standards are graded as not achieved, achieved, merit or excellence.

Previously, the only choice was to take computing as a unit standard course covering low-level skills such as finding information using the internet, at which students would either pass or fail.

"Achievement standards give students the chance to excel and are much more useful for getting into higher education," Bell says. "That makes the subject more attractive to better students."

BUT IT'S a big change for schools to adopt and the bottleneck is the supply of skilled teachers.

About 100 teachers at the country's 400 high schools have "rolled up their sleeves" and begun teaching the new topics to hundreds of students, Bell says.

Teachers have had more support from the industry than from the Ministry of Education, he says, which doesn't have money to train them in the new material.

Not that New Zealand is alone. "Google has put a huge amount of funding into helping train teachers." That's a reflection of the difficulties it, too, has recruiting IT workers, Bell says.

Whether the curriculum change will have an impact on the skills shortage will begin to be apparent next year, when the first achievement standard students leave school.

They might find a fresh hurdle in their way as cash-strapped tertiary institutions consider enrolment caps, although Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce has threatened to step in if IT, engineering and science degree places are cut.

Bell sees signs of a reversal in the decline in the number of computer science graduates

"Canterbury's first-year enrolments look to be significantly higher," he says, although the earthquakes did throw a "statistical spanner in the works", making comparisons with past years tricky.

"We're in a skills crunch at the moment, but the pipeline is filling up."

HOW MUCH

- Permanent staff salaries
From: $40,000 (average for bottom quarter of hardware engineers, help desk/support staff, web/multimedia designers)

To: $136,500 (average for top 25 per cent of software architects)

- Contract rates
From: $14/hour (bottom quarter of data record management staff)

To: $160/hour (top earning 25 per cent of software architects)

Source: absoluteit.co.nz

By Anthony Doesburg Email Anthony

Tech Thursday (3/14): News From Basecamp, Constant Contact, Mozy and Brother

It’s Tech Thursday from Smallbiztechnology.com. Each week we take a quick look at business and technology news and updates for the small business community and share them with you in a quick and simple round-up.

The Official Basecamp App for iPhone

Basecamp announced the first iOS app developed completely in-house at 37signals

Basecamp announced the first iOS app developed completely in-house at 37signals: the official Basecamp app for iPhone.

Get it now for free on the App Store. 

Here’s what you can do with it:

• Check in on your projects from anywhere. Basecamp for iPhone shows you the latest news on each project.
• Jump in on a discussion and post your thoughts.
• View progress as team members complete to-dos and upload files.
• Look up anything in a project. Refer to a document or make a decision no matter where you are.

See more about the new app and it’s features here.

EventSpot from Constant Contact Brings Mobile Advances to Check-In and Ticketing Process

With EventSpot’s Passbook® integration, Constant Contact takes first step in making Passbook relevant for small businesses and nonprofits

More Americans now own a smartphone (45 percent of adults) than a traditional cell phone. This tipping point represents a tremendous opportunity for small organizations to more efficiently engage with their customers and members through mobile technology. To support this growing trend, EventSpot from Constant Contact®, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTCT) has introduced mobile-enhanced features that allow small businesses and nonprofits to promote and manage their events in a dynamic new way. 

EventSpot’s new features streamline the ticketing and check-in process. Tickets generated for each event attendee contain valuable, time-saving registrant information, including name, payment status, guest information, fee type, items purchased, and a QR code. With the Event Check-In for Constant Contact App,
event planners and attendees benefit from an accurate, fast check-in, alleviating lines. 

You can see more about EventSpot from Constant Contact here.

Mozy Cloud Backup Now Available on the Upware Marketplace from Comcast Business

New online app marketplace from leading communications provider meets evolving needs of growing businesses

Mozy by EMC, the most trusted provider of cloud backup and access, has joined the Upware marketplace<#13cf8c288471d40e_business.comcast.com/upware>from Comcast Business to offer the industry-leading Mozy backup service to small and midsize businesses (SMBs).

The Upwareâ„¢ marketplace is a suite of cloud-based business solutions that can be purchased through one easy-to-use web portal. It contains a carefully selected list of third-party, cloud-based business applications from industry-leading companies in key categories such as data backup, data security, document collaboration and web collaboration. Upware is designed to meet the needs of small and medium businesses looking to use cloud-based solutions to simplify their IT systems, control costs and increase productivity.

Mozy is available now on the Upware marketplace for Comcast Business at. You can see more about the Mozy addition to Comcast here.

Brother Introduces A Digital Color Printer Under $300 Featuring Wireless Connectivity And Duplex Printing

New Brother Digital Color Printers Deliver Professional Results and Big-Business Features for the Small Business Budget

Brother International Corporation, a leader in small business technology, today announced the launch of its new HL-3000 series of digital color LED printers that allow small businesses to produce professional-looking color documents at speeds up to 23 ppm, giving them a competitive edge in the marketplace.

A recent study among small business owners by Brother reveals that presenting their business in a professional light is the most important influence for printing in color1. With this in mind, Brother recognized the need for small businesses to print high quality, professional color documents at speeds up to 23ppm without spending time and money at local copy centers or over-spending on expensive printers to get the business-focused features they wanted.

Brother’s new HL-3000 printer series is an ideal solution for those needs. The low starting price of just $249.99 makes them affordable to small business owners and the new cost-saving high capacity replacement toners (approximately 2,200 pages) can help reduce their cost per page. Additionally, fast print speeds, two-sided (duplex) capability, advanced wireless and mobile device printing; all in a compact footprint give users a host of features previously unavailable in a reliable digital color printer under $300.

You can see more about the new Brother printer here.

How To Set Up and Structure Multiple Businesses

Today’s small business owners often earn income through a variety of ventures. For example, a restaurateur may open a wine shop or a caterer may also double as a part-time copy editor.

If you’re running multiple business projects, you’ve probably wondered what’s the best way to structure all these ventures. Should you form one corporation to cover them all Should you form an LLC for each one

You need to answer these questions from both a marketing and legal perspective. For marketing, you need to consider the markets and target customers for each venture. Are they synergistic Are they relevant and will they appeal to the same customer

If so, it makes sense to market them under a shared brand. For example, it may make sense for a restaurant and side wine shop to share the same branding.

In other cases, your businesses might target different customer types (for example, the copy editor and caterer). In this case, you want to use different websites, business names and branding for each venture.

But how do you structure multiple business ventures from a legal perspective

There are three ways to legally structure multiple businesses. Each option has a different set of advantages and disadvantages - and the “right” approach depends on your unique needs. Here’s what to consider:

Option 1: Create a Separate Corporation or LLC for Each Venture

You can form an LLC or corporation for each business venture. For example, you can form an LLC for a bookkeeping business and then form another LLC for selling homemade soaps.

While this seems straightforward enough, be aware that this approach will result in considerable paperwork. You’ll need to file separate forms (i.e. annual reports, meeting minutes) to the state for each structure. And if you’ve formed corporations, you’ll need to file separate tax forms for each corporation. If you’re looking to minimize your administrative requirements, consider another option.

There’s one exception to this rule and that’s for real estate investors. If you’re investing in rental properties or other real estate, you may want to consider forming an LLC for each property in order to protect each investment on its own. Then if property “A” is sued, only the assets belonging to LLC “A” are affected. Your own personal assets are shielded, as well as the assets belonging to Property B, Property C, etc.

This is the best way to contain liability in potentially risky ventures.

Option 2: Create One Corporation/LLC and Have Multiple DBAs Under the Main Corp/LLC

Your second option is to create one main company as an LLC or corporation. Once that LLC or corporation has been established, it files multiple fictitious business names, also called DBA (doing business as) registrations, for each of the ventures within the same state/county.

With this approach, each business can have the right name and branding for their specific market, while still enjoying the legal protection of the main holding company. When it’s time to file your taxes, you can take the income earned from each DBA and report them in a single tax filing under the main LLC or corporation.

Of course, situations vary and you should always consult with an attorney or tax advisor for individual advice regarding your particular situation.

3. Create One Corporation/LLC with Other Corporations or LLCs Under the Main Holding Company

In the third approach, a holding company will own individual Corporations/LLCs for your multiple businesses. This scenario often comes into play for companies that are looking to be acquired. It also applies for those cases where an established company is looking to start a new business (and the established or holding company will fund the new business).

The particular tax and legal implications can become complex for this scenario. Consult with a tax advisor and/or attorney for the best way to structure your holding company and its subsidiaries.

Final Thought

Consider this overview of how to structure multiple businesses as just a starting point. And if you’re working hard to build your businesses, make sure you’re also doing everything you can to protect them.

Multiple Businesses Photo via Shutterstock

How To Set Up and Structure Multiple Businesses

Today’s small business owners often earn income through a variety of ventures. For example, a restaurateur may open a wine shop or a caterer may also double as a part-time copy editor.

If you’re running multiple business projects, you’ve probably wondered what’s the best way to structure all these ventures. Should you form one corporation to cover them all Should you form an LLC for each one

You need to answer these questions from both a marketing and legal perspective. For marketing, you need to consider the markets and target customers for each venture. Are they synergistic Are they relevant and will they appeal to the same customer

If so, it makes sense to market them under a shared brand. For example, it may make sense for a restaurant and side wine shop to share the same branding.

In other cases, your businesses might target different customer types (for example, the copy editor and caterer). In this case, you want to use different websites, business names and branding for each venture.

But how do you structure multiple business ventures from a legal perspective

There are three ways to legally structure multiple businesses. Each option has a different set of advantages and disadvantages - and the “right” approach depends on your unique needs. Here’s what to consider:

Option 1: Create a Separate Corporation or LLC for Each Venture

You can form an LLC or corporation for each business venture. For example, you can form an LLC for a bookkeeping business and then form another LLC for selling homemade soaps.

While this seems straightforward enough, be aware that this approach will result in considerable paperwork. You’ll need to file separate forms (i.e. annual reports, meeting minutes) to the state for each structure. And if you’ve formed corporations, you’ll need to file separate tax forms for each corporation. If you’re looking to minimize your administrative requirements, consider another option.

There’s one exception to this rule and that’s for real estate investors. If you’re investing in rental properties or other real estate, you may want to consider forming an LLC for each property in order to protect each investment on its own. Then if property “A” is sued, only the assets belonging to LLC “A” are affected. Your own personal assets are shielded, as well as the assets belonging to Property B, Property C, etc.

This is the best way to contain liability in potentially risky ventures.

Option 2: Create One Corporation/LLC and Have Multiple DBAs Under the Main Corp/LLC

Your second option is to create one main company as an LLC or corporation. Once that LLC or corporation has been established, it files multiple fictitious business names, also called DBA (doing business as) registrations, for each of the ventures within the same state/county.

With this approach, each business can have the right name and branding for their specific market, while still enjoying the legal protection of the main holding company. When it’s time to file your taxes, you can take the income earned from each DBA and report them in a single tax filing under the main LLC or corporation.

Of course, situations vary and you should always consult with an attorney or tax advisor for individual advice regarding your particular situation.

3. Create One Corporation/LLC with Other Corporations or LLCs Under the Main Holding Company

In the third approach, a holding company will own individual Corporations/LLCs for your multiple businesses. This scenario often comes into play for companies that are looking to be acquired. It also applies for those cases where an established company is looking to start a new business (and the established or holding company will fund the new business).

The particular tax and legal implications can become complex for this scenario. Consult with a tax advisor and/or attorney for the best way to structure your holding company and its subsidiaries.

Final Thought

Consider this overview of how to structure multiple businesses as just a starting point. And if you’re working hard to build your businesses, make sure you’re also doing everything you can to protect them.

Multiple Businesses Photo via Shutterstock

CSIT Conference: Secure cloud and infrastructure today as tomorrow demands it

The internet of things is about more than connected machines, it is about secure technology and connectivity.

Speaking at the Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) conference in Belfast, Raj Samani, EMEA CTO of McAfee and EMEA strategy advisor at the Cloud Security Alliance, said that a 'greater impact demands greater assurance', and it was about greater confidence in technology.

He said: “The funny thing is, 15 years ago it was about floppy disks and modems, and I remember walking around switching off modems at the end of the day in the job I was in at the time. Now it is about how many entry points there are into the network and how many third party suppliers you have.

“In that job we had 10,000 applications and I had three members of staff. Greater management necessitates greater assurance.”

Samani argued that the recent ENISA report on 'cloud computing being a safe environment' made the cloud a jucier target, and argued that rather than assessing once a year, there was a need to do constant, real-time assessments.

“It has been said that 'you need to address the cloud security challenges before cloud computing becomes ubiqutous'; well that horse bolted two years ago. Now we need to address cloud security today as tomorrow demands it,” he said.

Five Must-Do’s For Email Safety In Your Small Business

So I’d like to start this blog on a somewhat personal note. My father who owns a local tax consultancy firm was surprised to receive a phone call one day from a lady client asking if he had sent some pornographic material to her email address. Shocked, he immediately checked his Hotmail account only to find out that several of his clients had been sent the notorious mail. Besides writing an apology to the clients explaining what had happened, he immediately changed his password. He continues to do so more frequently than before to avoid a recurrence.

Not to single out any one provider, such breaches are on the rise across the board. In July 2012 hundreds and thousands of accounts on Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, and Hotmail, among others, had been compromised. A month prior the same year, LinkedIn had reported that 6.5 million passwords of its members had been published on a Russian website. Come to think of it, the U.S Government, for all its sophistication, could not prevent cyber attacks that supposedly emanated from the Chinese mainland.

But in the interest of keeping the discussion less controversial and far more relevant, what can local business owners, like my father, do to prevent their email accounts from being compromised Here are five good tips to keep you safe:

1. Register a Domain Name for Your Company: CMIT Solutions an IT solutions provider for small businesses, recommends that business owners should never use free email services for official purposes.  Instead they should acquire their own domain name and use email addresses which carry the domain name. What this simply means is John...@smallbiztechnology.com instead of John...@gmail.com. Not only does having an email address with a customized domain name project a more professional image of the business, it is also a more secure way of communicating on email.
2. Update your anti-virus software regularly : Make sure that all systems including mobile devices are protected by malware detection programs and the anti-virus software being used is updated with the latest version. Ask your vendor to enable auto patching and auto updating so that your systems are never stale.
3. Secure Mobile Devices used for Commercial Operations : A gaping hole in the IT security of most small businesses as per CMIT Solutions is easy access to mobile devices (smart phones, tablets and laptops).  It is imperative that all mobile devices be protected with robust passwords and that the passwords are changed mandatorily on a regular basis. While some experts recommend changing passwords every month, others recommend changing it at least once in six months. Passwords should be at least 14 characters long, with numbers and special characters included to make them more ‘unhackable’!
4. Have a user policy in place : Having a mobile device user policy is a good idea. For instance, applications that are unimportant for business should not be downloaded on official mobile devices. Malicious apps could send text messages or email to everyone on the contact list. Another guideline could be to ensure that all devices such as laptops are locked when not being used to safeguard against any internal misuse which could prove disastrous for business. Clicking on links in emails from unknown senders is a big no-no! Reinforce the acceptable mobile device user guidelines with your staff on a regular basis; let the guidelines not just be communicated as a notice on the office dashboard or as a one-off group email.
5. Use email filtering software: All of us read company policies but tend to overlook them and then one day….bam!! you have someone clicking on an interesting looking email that contains a malicious link. To prevent infected emails from being accessed, security experts recommend that small businesses must implement email filtering software which prevents suspicious emails from reaching employees.

Perhaps you have faced a similar situation. Is there anything more that small business owners could do to prevent their emails from being compromised Share your experiences and suggestions; we’d love to hear from you.

Five Must-Do’s For Email Safety In Your Small Business

So I’d like to start this blog on a somewhat personal note. My father who owns a local tax consultancy firm was surprised to receive a phone call one day from a lady client asking if he had sent some pornographic material to her email address. Shocked, he immediately checked his Hotmail account only to find out that several of his clients had been sent the notorious mail. Besides writing an apology to the clients explaining what had happened, he immediately changed his password. He continues to do so more frequently than before to avoid a recurrence.

Not to single out any one provider, such breaches are on the rise across the board. In July 2012 hundreds and thousands of accounts on Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, and Hotmail, among others, had been compromised. A month prior the same year, LinkedIn had reported that 6.5 million passwords of its members had been published on a Russian website. Come to think of it, the U.S Government, for all its sophistication, could not prevent cyber attacks that supposedly emanated from the Chinese mainland.

But in the interest of keeping the discussion less controversial and far more relevant, what can local business owners, like my father, do to prevent their email accounts from being compromised Here are five good tips to keep you safe:

1. Register a Domain Name for Your Company: CMIT Solutions an IT solutions provider for small businesses, recommends that business owners should never use free email services for official purposes.  Instead they should acquire their own domain name and use email addresses which carry the domain name. What this simply means is John...@smallbiztechnology.com instead of John...@gmail.com. Not only does having an email address with a customized domain name project a more professional image of the business, it is also a more secure way of communicating on email.
2. Update your anti-virus software regularly : Make sure that all systems including mobile devices are protected by malware detection programs and the anti-virus software being used is updated with the latest version. Ask your vendor to enable auto patching and auto updating so that your systems are never stale.
3. Secure Mobile Devices used for Commercial Operations : A gaping hole in the IT security of most small businesses as per CMIT Solutions is easy access to mobile devices (smart phones, tablets and laptops).  It is imperative that all mobile devices be protected with robust passwords and that the passwords are changed mandatorily on a regular basis. While some experts recommend changing passwords every month, others recommend changing it at least once in six months. Passwords should be at least 14 characters long, with numbers and special characters included to make them more ‘unhackable’!
4. Have a user policy in place : Having a mobile device user policy is a good idea. For instance, applications that are unimportant for business should not be downloaded on official mobile devices. Malicious apps could send text messages or email to everyone on the contact list. Another guideline could be to ensure that all devices such as laptops are locked when not being used to safeguard against any internal misuse which could prove disastrous for business. Clicking on links in emails from unknown senders is a big no-no! Reinforce the acceptable mobile device user guidelines with your staff on a regular basis; let the guidelines not just be communicated as a notice on the office dashboard or as a one-off group email.
5. Use email filtering software: All of us read company policies but tend to overlook them and then one day….bam!! you have someone clicking on an interesting looking email that contains a malicious link. To prevent infected emails from being accessed, security experts recommend that small businesses must implement email filtering software which prevents suspicious emails from reaching employees.

Perhaps you have faced a similar situation. Is there anything more that small business owners could do to prevent their emails from being compromised Share your experiences and suggestions; we’d love to hear from you.

Five Must-Do’s For Email Safety In Your Small Business

So I’d like to start this blog on a somewhat personal note. My father who owns a local tax consultancy firm was surprised to receive a phone call one day from a lady client asking if he had sent some pornographic material to her email address. Shocked, he immediately checked his Hotmail account only to find out that several of his clients had been sent the notorious mail. Besides writing an apology to the clients explaining what had happened, he immediately changed his password. He continues to do so more frequently than before to avoid a recurrence.

Not to single out any one provider, such breaches are on the rise across the board. In July 2012 hundreds and thousands of accounts on Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, and Hotmail, among others, had been compromised. A month prior the same year, LinkedIn had reported that 6.5 million passwords of its members had been published on a Russian website. Come to think of it, the U.S Government, for all its sophistication, could not prevent cyber attacks that supposedly emanated from the Chinese mainland.

But in the interest of keeping the discussion less controversial and far more relevant, what can local business owners, like my father, do to prevent their email accounts from being compromised Here are five good tips to keep you safe:

1. Register a Domain Name for Your Company: CMIT Solutions an IT solutions provider for small businesses, recommends that business owners should never use free email services for official purposes.  Instead they should acquire their own domain name and use email addresses which carry the domain name. What this simply means is John...@smallbiztechnology.com instead of John...@gmail.com. Not only does having an email address with a customized domain name project a more professional image of the business, it is also a more secure way of communicating on email.
2. Update your anti-virus software regularly : Make sure that all systems including mobile devices are protected by malware detection programs and the anti-virus software being used is updated with the latest version. Ask your vendor to enable auto patching and auto updating so that your systems are never stale.
3. Secure Mobile Devices used for Commercial Operations : A gaping hole in the IT security of most small businesses as per CMIT Solutions is easy access to mobile devices (smart phones, tablets and laptops).  It is imperative that all mobile devices be protected with robust passwords and that the passwords are changed mandatorily on a regular basis. While some experts recommend changing passwords every month, others recommend changing it at least once in six months. Passwords should be at least 14 characters long, with numbers and special characters included to make them more ‘unhackable’!
4. Have a user policy in place : Having a mobile device user policy is a good idea. For instance, applications that are unimportant for business should not be downloaded on official mobile devices. Malicious apps could send text messages or email to everyone on the contact list. Another guideline could be to ensure that all devices such as laptops are locked when not being used to safeguard against any internal misuse which could prove disastrous for business. Clicking on links in emails from unknown senders is a big no-no! Reinforce the acceptable mobile device user guidelines with your staff on a regular basis; let the guidelines not just be communicated as a notice on the office dashboard or as a one-off group email.
5. Use email filtering software: All of us read company policies but tend to overlook them and then one day….bam!! you have someone clicking on an interesting looking email that contains a malicious link. To prevent infected emails from being accessed, security experts recommend that small businesses must implement email filtering software which prevents suspicious emails from reaching employees.

Perhaps you have faced a similar situation. Is there anything more that small business owners could do to prevent their emails from being compromised Share your experiences and suggestions; we’d love to hear from you.