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Here’s a few neat tools that Staples is showcasing, on my Pinterest board
With the quarter coming to a close, many of us feel the pressure in hitting those quarterly sales goals. For many businesses, that last push can often be the difference between a springboard into a strong Q2 or a more challenging year ahead.
As a reactive measure, there’s often a rush to traditional channels to drive traffic and revenue. The reality is however, these channels can be costly (like search), take time to build results (like SEO) and deliver low click-throughs and ROI (like display ads).
Alternatively, content marketing is a highly effective way to help boost your web traffic and sales. While it is predominantly viewed as a top of funnel driver, engaging and useful content not only builds immediate audience interest but can trigger them through to conversion by way of this increased engagement.
Engaging content doesn’t have to drain the resources or the last of that marketing budget. Existing content can be repurposed: Older yet timeless blog posts can be surfaced, blog posts can become newsletters and earned media like great press coverage or product review can be re-circulated.
The beauty of content marketing is that its effectiveness isn’t limited to a specific vertical nor does it exclude the ability to engage a niche audience.
Boutique Homes, a vacation home and small hotel rentals site, wanted to distribute its company blog content across the web to increase bookings particularly over the holiday period. In the past, the company had worked with other travel blogs to promote its content but this tactic didn’t deliver the results or sales desired.
Working with Outbrain over a 4 month period, Boutique Homes was able to:
All of which led to an increase in newsletter subscriptions (hello, leads!) and new customer enquiries
Thinking about using content to boost your sales
Download Outbrain’s handy guide to the Do’s & Don’ts of Content Marketing
Natalie Chan leads the marketing acquisition efforts for Outbrain’s Amplify self-serve product. A native from Sydney, Australia, Natalie previously managed customer acquisition at the Financial Services Institute of Australasia. Prior to this, she was a Senior Business Manager at Saatchi & Saatchi spending time in both Sydney and New York office on accounts including Sony and P&G.
Pawning has always had a nasty reputation to it. People who walk out of pawn shops often find themselves feeling a bit weird. In today’s economic climate, such shops are starting to revindicate their reputations as more and more upstanding people are pawning their valuable stuff for money that they need quickly. Small businesses are no exception!
So, what’s the best way to pawn stuff at this point With a trustworthy online pawn shop, of course! Using services like Pawngo, you can take out small loans by exchanging valuable assets for the money.
With Pawngo, you ship out your asset (it pays for the shipping) instead of walking it to a store. After the item is shipped, you get your money straight to your bank account, no questions asked. While you’re paying a debt by getting into more debt, you can think about it as splitting the debt into smaller pieces you can pay back every month. It’s better than biting more than you can chew. The worst that can happen, as is the case with any other pawn dealer, is that they’ll end up selling the assets you left behind to recover the money.
Pawngo accepts anything from jewelry to designer handbags. Aside from firearms, large items, and common household stuff, you can put virtually anything in their hands. In fact, their interface lets you select what type of item you’re pawning and asks you for more details where necessary so a proper quote can be made. Here’s a video explaining everything.
If you feel like you’re a bit stranded, you can pawn some stuff through a trustworthy online pawn dealer. Times are tough and it’s better to have lost something valuable than lose your business, which is something you’ve most likely put a ton of hard work into developing.
Pawning has always had a nasty reputation to it. People who walk out of pawn shops often find themselves feeling a bit weird. In today’s economic climate, such shops are starting to revindicate their reputations as more and more upstanding people are pawning their valuable stuff for money that they need quickly. Small businesses are no exception!
So, what’s the best way to pawn stuff at this point With a trustworthy online pawn shop, of course! Using services like Pawngo, you can take out small loans by exchanging valuable assets for the money.
With Pawngo, you ship out your asset (it pays for the shipping) instead of walking it to a store. After the item is shipped, you get your money straight to your bank account, no questions asked. While you’re paying a debt by getting into more debt, you can think about it as splitting the debt into smaller pieces you can pay back every month. It’s better than biting more than you can chew. The worst that can happen, as is the case with any other pawn dealer, is that they’ll end up selling the assets you left behind to recover the money.
Pawngo accepts anything from jewelry to designer handbags. Aside from firearms, large items, and common household stuff, you can put virtually anything in their hands. In fact, their interface lets you select what type of item you’re pawning and asks you for more details where necessary so a proper quote can be made. Here’s a video explaining everything.
If you feel like you’re a bit stranded, you can pawn some stuff through a trustworthy online pawn dealer. Times are tough and it’s better to have lost something valuable than lose your business, which is something you’ve most likely put a ton of hard work into developing.
The move goes against the grain at a time when everybody from the federal government to tech startups is embracing the flexibility and cost savings of working remotely.
As someone who initiated working remotly for my team back when I was an employee, I’ve got a lot of experience with what works - and what doesn’t.
At bottom, the work-at-home issue all comes down to trust. In a recent Regus poll of more than 24,000 global workers, a whopping 88 percent say that managers need to be more accepting of flexible work arrangements, and 85 percent feel their bosses need to show more trust in remote employees.
Of course, Regus, which provides flexible workspaces, has a vested interest in the growth of remote work. But its survey points out a disconnect between how managers and employees view remote work. While managers are more likely (79 percent) to view employees who get to the office early and stay late as “hardworking,†employees don’t feel the same. Just 54 percent believe these individuals are hardworking.
If you’ve worked in an office for more than a day, you know there are just as many ways to goof off when you’re at your desk as there are when you’re at home. Face time doesn’t equal productivity, and the focus and concentration boost from working remotely can allow people (at least some people) to get more done.
Regus also found that younger employees have made flexible work more mainstream, which should serve as a warning that if your business plans to be around for more than the next five or 10 years - you’d better meet the younger generation halfway as to how they want to work.
If you’ve still got a nagging feeling that letting employees work at home means paying them to watch Cartoon Network in their jammies all day, how can you get over it
Here are some trust building tactics that worked for me when it came to working remotely.
I always let my team know that working remotely is a privilege, not a right. While everyone had the same right to try working from home, not everyone earned the privilege to keep doing it. Employees needed to show results. Set goals, quotas or whatever measurements work for your business, and make sure staffers are meeting them.
I’m not saying your whole team has to go virtual and begin working remotely. You set the rules, so if you want to limit work-at-home to Tuesdays or every other Friday, go ahead and do it. That way, you know everyone will be in the office on certain days, making it easier to plan meetings and events.
Working remotely may not be a fit in your business, so set a trial period to see how it works out. I’m guessing your team will be highly motivated to prove it can work, so you may see huge spurts in productivity.
Do you want all remote employees checking in via Google Hangouts for a 10-minute morning meeting How quickly do you expect them to answer their phones or IMs How detailed do they have to be in letting you know where they are at any given moment (do they need to IM you when they head to the restroom) Set control levels that make you comfortable.
When people are out of the office, it’s more important than ever for you to be plugged in. Pay attention to the buzz among your employees. If some people feel the program isn’t working out, ask why - then deal with the problem. Perceived unfairness can poison your business’s morale.
It’s my experience that slackers will be slackers whether they’re in the office or not. Hard workers will do their best no matter whether they’re on the couch at home or perched at an Aeron chair in your office.
Show your team a little trust, and they’ll pay you back in spades.
A Laptop and A Woman Photo via Shutterstock
Ramon Ray, editor of Smallbiztechnology.com, recently wrote an article for Dun & Bradstreet that talks about Knowledge Transfer Strategies: the method of transferring information from one part of an organization to another and four steps that you must consider during the process.
Read the full article here.
Ramon Ray, editor of Smallbiztechnology.com, recently wrote an article for Dun & Bradstreet that talks about Knowledge Transfer Strategies: the method of transferring information from one part of an organization to another and four steps that you must consider during the process.
Read the full article here.
Ready
When I first starting in the segment of franchising that I’m currently in, I thought that the type of franchise always determined the actual role of the franchise owner.
For example, when I first learned about Molly Maids, I figured that the franchisees were doing the actual house cleaning.
After all, why else would someone buy a residential cleaning franchise if they weren’t going to clean
Meet Margie. Margie Toombs doesn’t do the cleaning…and she never wanted to.
When I first discussed the Maid Brigade with Margie, the franchise that she’s been the proud owner of for the past several years, she didn’t get all dreamy-eyed with the prospect of owning a residential cleaning franchise-a really dirty business. That’s probably because her last position was that of an executive; she was the former head of quality advancement at the Timken Company, a global industrial technology leader.
But, it wasn’t that Margie was opposed to getting her hands dirty that led to her lack of excitement at the prospect of owning a cleaning franchise. It’s just that her visual of the business (everyone’s visual, actually) included scrubbing toilets in stranger’s homes and other assorted downright dirty duties.
When I told her that her role as the franchisee of a residential cleaning franchise would actually be a combination of management, HR, business development and customer service, her interest increased.
She didn’t know what she didn’t know.
Get Enough Information
Don’t assume.
If you’re going to make the move from employee to employer and with it, the inherent risk that comes along with starting a business of your own, make a commitment (right now) to get enough information about the opportunities you’re thinking of checking out.
Sometimes the information you need can’t be found in a brochure. That means that you’ll have to take the next step, and make actual contact with the franchisor. . .actually have a conversation. That way, you’ll be able to learn all about the franchise concept you’re interested in, including what your role would be as a franchisee. Then you can decide right then and there if you should continue pursuing the franchise. Or not.
More Dirt
I thought that this would be a good time to mention some other franchises that handle dirt.
And, while you’re looking over the franchise opportunities that I’ve listed below, I want you to think about something. I want you to think about how you want to be portrayed as a business owner. Read that sentence again.
Let’s look at a few franchises that clean-up:
Steamatic Total Cleaning and Restoration is a 500 unit franchise system that has a footprint in 24 different countries. Franchisees offer carpet cleaning, duct cleaning and restoration services for residential and commercial property. This company has been franchising since 1967.
This cleaning franchise offers light environmental services, from 120 or so offices around the US. But, they offer something else, too; a track record with US government agencies. AdvantaClean franchisees have provided environmental, indoor air quality (IAQ), and water damage mitigation services to numerous federal agencies and because of their experience, they have ongoing relationships with municipal, county, and state entities, too.
According to the executives at 360Clean, the most important attributes of clean cannot be seen - these are germs and infections that live in every public facility all across America. Franchisees use hospital-grade disinfectants to increase the odds of a germ-free environment. As an added bonus, franchisees can offer landscape management services to help beautify the exteriors of the office buildings and other commercial facilities that they are contracted with.
Homes and businesses aren’t the only things that get dirty. Superior Wash franchisees and their teams clean 47,000 fleet vehicles a week. And, since a lot of the companies they provide vehicle cleaning services too are large ones, the franchisor fronts the receivables to the franchisees, so they do not have to wait months to get paid. In addition, Superior Wash franchisees receive initial sales support from headquarters; a salesperson is assigned to the territory to help generate customers.
They bill themselves as “The first and only crime and trauma scene clean-up franchise.†Someone has to do it, and franchisees of Bio-One Inc. get called to do meth lab clean-up, tear gas decontamination and other assorted crime-scene disinfection. This is a very specialized field, and franchisees and their technicians receive highly-specialized training; very sophisticated equipment and chemicals are used to remove every trace of crimes and accidents that take place over the county, every single day.
Remember I asked you about how you want to be portrayed as an owner
Did you think about it
I’ve just shown you a few franchise business opportunities that provide needed services to both the residential and commercial markets. What do you think of them Can you see yourself owning one of them Would you be comfortable owning a cleaning business Or, do you need to own something cleaner…classier-something that presents a different image
Cleaning Photo via Shutterstock
Maid Photo via Shutterstock
Entrepreneurs are a special breed. They bring innovative solutions to complex problems. While each and every entrepreneur is impressive just by virtue of being an entrepreneur, what is equally impressive is when they are extremely young entrepreneurs. Whoever said that age always needs to accompany wisdom or success
In this young entrepreneurs infographic published by Masters in Marketing Degree Guide, meet ten impressive young entrepreneurs. Â All are under 30 years old. Â Each has a thriving business. All employ others. Â For example, Spotify founder Daniel Ek is responsible for 500 employees worldwide. Jeremy Johnson, founder of 2tor, is responsible for 400 employees.
Creating a successful company to make millions before your face gets wrinkled and your hairline starts to recede, is what these young entrepreneurs are all about.
[Click here for full size version]
Categories: Startup Trends
Small Business Trends is an award-winning online publication for small business owners, entrepreneurs and the people who interact with them.
Small Business Trends is the premier source of information, news and advice covering issues of key importance to the small business market.  Small Business Trends appears on countless “Top†and “Best of†lists of small business resources.
We offer a variety of newsletters and information feeds to help you stay informed about the small business market. As we like to Read More
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Business card readers are the latest innovation in smartphone technology designed to make doing business easier. In a nutshell, a business card reader is an app that allows you to capture an image of the business card, which is then stored digitally. The software will recognize basic fields (such as name, company, email, and phone) and organize it into your mobile address book. Having the information in electronic form, you can quickly share it with others. While some business card readers come with hardware - a device to hold your phone and set the business card into place - you can also use the software without it. Many companies make business card readers, and there are apps for whatever smartphone you use.
One popular business card reader for the iPhone is WorldCard Link. You can download the app for free, or pay an additional fee if you want the hardware (business card holder). Do you wish there was an easy way to get the business card information from your phone to your computer Try WorldCard Link Pro, where they take the technology of the business card reader and combine it with PC software that syncs to your PC and allows you to share over the cloud.
Android or Windows smartphone users can also enjoy the convenience of business card readers. CamCard makes a free app for Android, and the Windows version costs just $3.99. ABBYY’s Business Card Reader is another option. There are free ‘lite’ versions, as well as upgraded versions that you can buy for Windows, Android, and iPhone.
Business card readers are definitely a new technology that all small businesses should look into. They will help you avoid losing contact information, reduce clutter in your office, and save you time from manually entering the information in your address book. Since you always carry your smart phone with you, your contact information will be at your fingertips, and the ability to share contact information with the click of a button will help word-of-mouth advertising for small businesses. With all the free options available, why not try one out today
Business card readers are the latest innovation in smartphone technology designed to make doing business easier. In a nutshell, a business card reader is an app that allows you to capture an image of the business card, which is then stored digitally. The software will recognize basic fields (such as name, company, email, and phone) and organize it into your mobile address book. Having the information in electronic form, you can quickly share it with others. While some business card readers come with hardware - a device to hold your phone and set the business card into place - you can also use the software without it. Many companies make business card readers, and there are apps for whatever smartphone you use.
One popular business card reader for the iPhone is WorldCard Link. You can download the app for free, or pay an additional fee if you want the hardware (business card holder). Do you wish there was an easy way to get the business card information from your phone to your computer Try WorldCard Link Pro, where they take the technology of the business card reader and combine it with PC software that syncs to your PC and allows you to share over the cloud.
Android or Windows smartphone users can also enjoy the convenience of business card readers. CamCard makes a free app for Android, and the Windows version costs just $3.99. ABBYY’s Business Card Reader is another option. There are free ‘lite’ versions, as well as upgraded versions that you can buy for Windows, Android, and iPhone.
Business card readers are definitely a new technology that all small businesses should look into. They will help you avoid losing contact information, reduce clutter in your office, and save you time from manually entering the information in your address book. Since you always carry your smart phone with you, your contact information will be at your fingertips, and the ability to share contact information with the click of a button will help word-of-mouth advertising for small businesses. With all the free options available, why not try one out today
GFI has launched a new security business unit that will focus on advanced threats.
Named ThreatTrack Security, the new company will continue GFI's work on advanced threat detections solutions and sophisticated malware and offers re-branded products from the existing Vipre range, which was acquired along with Sunbelt Software in 2010.Â
According to ThreatTrack Security, it can offer more than a decade of experience analysing and remediating malware and developing proven solutions that defend against the escalating sophistication of cyber crime.
The first product to be offered is the ThreatAnalyzer, previously the GFI Sandbox, which is an automated malware analysis sandbox that provides malware behavioural reports to help enterprises defend against zero-day threats and targeted attacks by analysing files and URLs for malicious activity in a controlled, customisable environment, according to the company.
Also offered is real-time malware intelligence from ThreatIQ, which GFI said provides a continuous stream of malicious URLs and IP addresses, suspected files, phishing links and other malware data as it is discovered by ThreatTrack security labs.
Julian Waits, CEO of ThreatTrack Security, said: “Advanced persistent threats and other complex malware attacks have enterprises struggling to ensure the integrity of their networks and intellectual property. Moreover, many enterprises lack the necessary tools to know with certainty if they are a victim of an advanced malware strike. ThreatTrack Security was established to help enterprises bolster their cyber security readiness right now.
“In the coming months, ThreatTrack Security will unveil a new product roadmap that will augment our existing security solutions and enable us to deliver on our promise of a stronger, more secure enterprise cyber defence.â€
GFI has launched a new security business unit that will focus on advanced threats.
Named ThreatTrack Security, it will continue GFI's work on advanced threat detections solutions and sophisticated malware and offers re-branded products from the existing Vipre range, which was acquired along with Sunbelt Software in 2010.
According to the company, ThreatTrack Security offers more than a decade of experience analysing and remediating malware and developing proven solutions that defend against the escalating sophistication of cyber crime.
The first product to be offered is the ThreatAnalyzer, previously the GFI Sandbox, which is an automated malware analysis sandbox that provides malware behavioural reports to help enterprises defend against zero-day threats and targeted attacks by analysing files and URLs for malicious activity in a controlled, customisable environment, according to the company.
Also offered is real-time malware intelligence from ThreatIQ, which GFI said provides a continuous stream of malicious URLs and IP addresses, suspected files, phishing links and other malware data as it is discovered by ThreatTrack security labs.
Julian Waits, CEO of ThreatTrack Security, said: “Advanced persistent threats and other complex malware attacks have enterprises struggling to ensure the integrity of their networks and intellectual property. Moreover, many enterprises lack the necessary tools to know with certainty if they are a victim of an advanced malware strike. ThreatTrack Security was established to help enterprises bolster their cyber security readiness right now.
“In the coming months, ThreatTrack Security will unveil a new product roadmap that will augment our existing security solutions and enable us to deliver on our promise of a stronger, more secure enterprise cyber defence.â€
GFI has launched a new security business unit that will focus on advanced threats.
Named ThreatTrack Security, it will continue GFI's work on advanced threat detections solutions and sophisticated malware and offers re-branded products from the existing Vipre range, which was acquired along with Sunbelt Software in 2010.
According to the company, ThreatTrack Security offers more than a decade of experience analysing and remediating malware and developing proven solutions that defend against the escalating sophistication of cyber crime.
The first product to be offered is the ThreatAnalyzer, previously the GFI Sandbox, which is an automated malware analysis sandbox that provides malware behavioural reports to help enterprises defend against zero-day threats and targeted attacks by analysing files and URLs for malicious activity in a controlled, customisable environment, according to the company.
Also offered is real-time malware intelligence from ThreatIQ, which GFI said provides a continuous stream of malicious URLs and IP addresses, suspected files, phishing links and other malware data as it is discovered by ThreatTrack security labs.
Julian Waits, CEO of ThreatTrack Security, said: “Advanced persistent threats and other complex malware attacks have enterprises struggling to ensure the integrity of their networks and intellectual property. Moreover, many enterprises lack the necessary tools to know with certainty if they are a victim of an advanced malware strike. ThreatTrack Security was established to help enterprises bolster their cyber security readiness right now.
“In the coming months, ThreatTrack Security will unveil a new product roadmap that will augment our existing security solutions and enable us to deliver on our promise of a stronger, more secure enterprise cyber defence.â€
Business Cards
One of the biggest names in business cards online is VistaPrint. They’re known the internet over for their free business card promotions, and yes, their services are very cheap. Right now, you can get 250 business cards printed and all you pay for is shipping. The catch is that the cards are branded with the VistaPrint logo and the cards aren’t the greatest quality in the world. You can pay a little extra for better quality and no VistaPrint branding. Premium business cards start at $10 for 250.
Pro: Basic business cards are very cheap.
Cons: Few options for customization. You’re getting the basics, which means you might run into a lot of people with similar-looking, or the same card design.
Now, if you want really high quality, slick business cards with the greatest degree of customization and attractive design, MOO is the way to go. It’s pricey, yes, but you’re paying for quality. The best printing quality, the best customization, and great customer service â€" in fact, if your business has ten or more employees and you’re getting them all business cards, you can get MOO for Business service, which lands you a dedicated account manager and year-round discounts.
These cards are double-sided, and you can print a different photograph on the back of every card in your pack, so you can tell people you’re giving them one-of-a-kind works of art as a conversation starter, and you can get rounded corners. But for 200 MOO cards, it’s going to cost you $69.99. I should have told you to sit down first.
Pros: Great quality and attractive, customizable design. MOO specializes in business cards. They do very little else.
Con: Expensive.
Between VistaPrint and MOO, there’s OvernightPrints. The quality’s in the middle, the customization is in the middle (you can get them double-sided, with rounded corners) and the prices are quite attractive. For 250 premium double-sided cards, it’s $21.55. I’d give these guys a try.
Pros: Good quality, customizable designs. Relatively inexpensive.
Cons: Not quite as high quality as MOO, not quite as dirt cheap as VistaPrint.
Something to think about: In an Etsy discussion about business cards, one woman said she ordered most of her business cards from OvernightPrints, but ordered a small number of MOO cards to hand out to “extra special people.â€
Brochures, Sales Sheets and Pamphlets
When it comes to brochures and pamphlets, VistaPrint’s offerings aren’t the cheapest option around, despite their low price guarantee. One thousand tri-fold brochures from VistaPrint will run you $289.99, while OvernightPrints will get you 1000 for $170.15.
When it comes to known quality, MagCloud has that. They’re owned by HP and their printing quality is fantastic â€" it’s magazine quality. The thing is, MagCloud doesn’t do tri-fold brochures. Their bread and butter is print-on-demand magazines, so their brochures are essentially magazines without a whole lot of pages. Very appropriate for sales sheets. A four-page magazine-sized brochure/sales sheet costs $0.80. One thousand copies comes out to $600 with the 25% off bulk discount. It’s an expensive proposition, but, again, if you’re going for high quality images and color, it might be worth it to you.
For a good balance of quality and price, I’d go with OvernightPrints again. Their website is pretty close to a one-stop shop for your high quality business printing needs. VistaPrint has a lot more diversity in their product offerings, but their reputation isn’t the most sterling (judging by the number of complaints that turn up in Google searches â€" however, this may be the price of popularity) nor do they necessarily have the best prices.
Miscellaneous Documents and Presentations
Maybe I missed something, but does VistaPrint not offer plain old document printing It looks that way. Nor does OvernightPrints or MagCloud or any other business I’ve mentioned in this post so far.
FedEx Office (formerly FedEx Kinkos) to the rescue. They’ll do your document printing on plain white paper online and mail it to you, or you can pick it up at the nearest FedEx location. This is when you don’t need any of the fancy stuff. This is for when you need to hand out an update to the employee rule book â€" black text on white paper.
FedEx Office also offers brochures and business cards and everything mentioned above. Why didn’t I mention them above Because much of their printing is outsourced to VistaPrint. Your FedEx Office business cards are from VistaPrint, so in this portion of the post, I’ll be talking about what FedEx Office does that VistaPrint doesn’t do.
While FedEx Office is the best option for your non-fancy printing needs, they also do presentation booklets and manuals, which you might need on your way into a big meeting. They’ll put your pages together in binders, or coil binding. The prices vary, based on the paper quality and your needs, but a full-color 24-page coil-bound presentation comes to a little over $20.
If you need magazine-quality presentation booklets and binding, you’re looking at MagCloud again, but in this case, MagCloud is a cheaper option, with a full-color 24-page perfect-bound presentation coming to a little under $6. MagCloud is definitely my pick for your presentation needs.
I hope this article has been helpful to you. Let us know your experiences with online printing services in the comments! Where did your favorite business cards come from
Business Cards
One of the biggest names in business cards online is VistaPrint. They’re known the internet over for their free business card promotions, and yes, their services are very cheap. Right now, you can get 250 business cards printed and all you pay for is shipping. The catch is that the cards are branded with the VistaPrint logo and the cards aren’t the greatest quality in the world. You can pay a little extra for better quality and no VistaPrint branding. Premium business cards start at $10 for 250.
Pro: Basic business cards are very cheap.
Cons: Few options for customization. You’re getting the basics, which means you might run into a lot of people with similar-looking, or the same card design.
Now, if you want really high quality, slick business cards with the greatest degree of customization and attractive design, MOO is the way to go. It’s pricey, yes, but you’re paying for quality. The best printing quality, the best customization, and great customer service â€" in fact, if your business has ten or more employees and you’re getting them all business cards, you can get MOO for Business service, which lands you a dedicated account manager and year-round discounts.
These cards are double-sided, and you can print a different photograph on the back of every card in your pack, so you can tell people you’re giving them one-of-a-kind works of art as a conversation starter, and you can get rounded corners. But for 200 MOO cards, it’s going to cost you $69.99. I should have told you to sit down first.
Pros: Great quality and attractive, customizable design. MOO specializes in business cards. They do very little else.
Con: Expensive.
Between VistaPrint and MOO, there’s OvernightPrints. The quality’s in the middle, the customization is in the middle (you can get them double-sided, with rounded corners) and the prices are quite attractive. For 250 premium double-sided cards, it’s $21.55. I’d give these guys a try.
Pros: Good quality, customizable designs. Relatively inexpensive.
Cons: Not quite as high quality as MOO, not quite as dirt cheap as VistaPrint.
Something to think about: In an Etsy discussion about business cards, one woman said she ordered most of her business cards from OvernightPrints, but ordered a small number of MOO cards to hand out to “extra special people.â€
Brochures, Sales Sheets and Pamphlets
When it comes to brochures and pamphlets, VistaPrint’s offerings aren’t the cheapest option around, despite their low price guarantee. One thousand tri-fold brochures from VistaPrint will run you $289.99, while OvernightPrints will get you 1000 for $170.15.
When it comes to known quality, MagCloud has that. They’re owned by HP and their printing quality is fantastic â€" it’s magazine quality. The thing is, MagCloud doesn’t do tri-fold brochures. Their bread and butter is print-on-demand magazines, so their brochures are essentially magazines without a whole lot of pages. Very appropriate for sales sheets. A four-page magazine-sized brochure/sales sheet costs $0.80. One thousand copies comes out to $600 with the 25% off bulk discount. It’s an expensive proposition, but, again, if you’re going for high quality images and color, it might be worth it to you.
For a good balance of quality and price, I’d go with OvernightPrints again. Their website is pretty close to a one-stop shop for your high quality business printing needs. VistaPrint has a lot more diversity in their product offerings, but their reputation isn’t the most sterling (judging by the number of complaints that turn up in Google searches â€" however, this may be the price of popularity) nor do they necessarily have the best prices.
Miscellaneous Documents and Presentations
Maybe I missed something, but does VistaPrint not offer plain old document printing It looks that way. Nor does OvernightPrints or MagCloud or any other business I’ve mentioned in this post so far.
FedEx Office (formerly FedEx Kinkos) to the rescue. They’ll do your document printing on plain white paper online and mail it to you, or you can pick it up at the nearest FedEx location. This is when you don’t need any of the fancy stuff. This is for when you need to hand out an update to the employee rule book â€" black text on white paper.
FedEx Office also offers brochures and business cards and everything mentioned above. Why didn’t I mention them above Because much of their printing is outsourced to VistaPrint. Your FedEx Office business cards are from VistaPrint, so in this portion of the post, I’ll be talking about what FedEx Office does that VistaPrint doesn’t do.
While FedEx Office is the best option for your non-fancy printing needs, they also do presentation booklets and manuals, which you might need on your way into a big meeting. They’ll put your pages together in binders, or coil binding. The prices vary, based on the paper quality and your needs, but a full-color 24-page coil-bound presentation comes to a little over $20.
If you need magazine-quality presentation booklets and binding, you’re looking at MagCloud again, but in this case, MagCloud is a cheaper option, with a full-color 24-page perfect-bound presentation coming to a little under $6. MagCloud is definitely my pick for your presentation needs.
I hope this article has been helpful to you. Let us know your experiences with online printing services in the comments! Where did your favorite business cards come from
The problem here is the hassle. Vending machines are very tough to keep up to date. If you change a product, there’s a lot you have to do to update the nutritional information. What if you had a solution that could do all of this for you without having to make you run around in circles
Meet VendScreen, the company with a portable and accessible solution on the cloud that does exactly what I mentioned above. This company offers two very powerful products (among a number of others) that can really make your day:
Whether you’re looking to purchase and have a vending machine running at your business place, or you’re looking to integrate new compliant technologies in the vending machines you operate, you can easily give end users a very pleasant, interactive, and convenient experience!
You can reach a large number of people from your target segment in shortest possible time. When you are sending an email, you are not shooting in the dark; you know who is going to read the communication and what effect it is going to have. A recent study conducted by Monetate, a company that helps businesses optimize their online presence, Â shows that email marketing is the most effective marketing method in terms of driving actual sales. They also found out that 4.24 percent of prospects from email marketing actually make a purchase, as compared to 2.49 percent prospects from search engines, and just over half a percent from social media.
A 2012 survey of 1500 consumers conducted by ExactTarget, an interactive marketing company, revealed that 77 percent of the consumers prefer email as a medium to receive marketing messages. The study also reconfirmed that email marketing targets are more likely to make a purchase than targets of any other marketing communication
It is cheap. By spending only a few dollars on an email marketing campaign, you can generate considerable sales. The results are measurable; you know how many have people actually read your mail, and acted upon it.
There are several companies that offer comprehensive software packages for email marketing. Of them, ReachMail has recently launched a brazen military style ‘This Means More’ campaign, in which the company has taken a direct shot at two of their competitors and some of the more established players in the market - iContact and Constant Contact.
ReachMail company President, John Murphy, has this to say - “Small businesses could save hundreds of dollars by switching to ReachMail. We offer the same or better services as Constant Contact and iContact, free of charge and with better customer care.† The company allows users to send up to 15000 mails to up to 5000 subscribers for free. They also offer free templates, built-in social media sharing, tests to measure effectiveness of the campaign, designing of customer surveys and unlimited customer support.
So how much ‘more’ does ReachMail really offer Here is the roundup of the free offerings of other service providers.
Mailchimp: Allows you to send 12000 emails to up to 2000 subscribers per month for free.
Constant Contact: Offers a 60 day free trial, allowing you to send unlimited mails to up to 100 subscribers. Thereafter, you have to pay a monthly fee ranging from $15 for 500 subscribers to $150 for 25000 subscribers.
iContact: The free services are just for trial, and the minimum monthly fee is $10, which allows you to send mails to 250 subscribers. Rates increase with the number of subscribers.
Customer’s using ReachMail can save up to $600 annually compared to similar volumes utilized across its competitors. Given its price and offer of a free email marketing account for life,  ReachMail’s latest product offering is a wonderful display of business acumen and a clear winner in terms of pricing.  However, as per available reviews the winner in terms of service is Constant Contact with its above average service support.  Besides extended hours of customer service via phone, the company also has webinars and videos to help users understand the site. Its advanced features include multi-lingual templates and ability to add surveys as part of the email.Â
Its a classic battle between experience and quality versus lower pricing and ease of accessibility. We let you to decide who is a winner in terms of meeting your business needs.
You can reach a large number of people from your target segment in shortest possible time. When you are sending an email, you are not shooting in the dark; you know who is going to read the communication and what effect it is going to have. A recent study conducted by Monetate, a company that helps businesses optimize their online presence, Â shows that email marketing is the most effective marketing method in terms of driving actual sales. They also found out that 4.24 percent of prospects from email marketing actually make a purchase, as compared to 2.49 percent prospects from search engines, and just over half a percent from social media.
A 2012 survey of 1500 consumers conducted by ExactTarget, an interactive marketing company, revealed that 77 percent of the consumers prefer email as a medium to receive marketing messages. The study also reconfirmed that email marketing targets are more likely to make a purchase than targets of any other marketing communication
It is cheap. By spending only a few dollars on an email marketing campaign, you can generate considerable sales. The results are measurable; you know how many have people actually read your mail, and acted upon it.
There are several companies that offer comprehensive software packages for email marketing. Of them, ReachMail has recently launched a brazen military style ‘This Means More’ campaign, in which the company has taken a direct shot at two of their competitors and some of the more established players in the market - iContact and Constant Contact.
ReachMail company President, John Murphy, has this to say - “Small businesses could save hundreds of dollars by switching to ReachMail. We offer the same or better services as Constant Contact and iContact, free of charge and with better customer care.† The company allows users to send up to 15000 mails to up to 5000 subscribers for free. They also offer free templates, built-in social media sharing, tests to measure effectiveness of the campaign, designing of customer surveys and unlimited customer support.
So how much ‘more’ does ReachMail really offer Here is the roundup of the free offerings of other service providers.
Mailchimp: Allows you to send 12000 emails to up to 2000 subscribers per month for free.
Constant Contact: Offers a 60 day free trial, allowing you to send unlimited mails to up to 100 subscribers. Thereafter, you have to pay a monthly fee ranging from $15 for 500 subscribers to $150 for 25000 subscribers.
iContact: The free services are just for trial, and the minimum monthly fee is $10, which allows you to send mails to 250 subscribers. Rates increase with the number of subscribers.
Customer’s using ReachMail can save up to $600 annually compared to similar volumes utilized across its competitors. Given its price and offer of a free email marketing account for life,  ReachMail’s latest product offering is a wonderful display of business acumen and a clear winner in terms of pricing.  However, as per available reviews the winner in terms of service is Constant Contact with its above average service support.  Besides extended hours of customer service via phone, the company also has webinars and videos to help users understand the site. Its advanced features include multi-lingual templates and ability to add surveys as part of the email.Â
Its a classic battle between experience and quality versus lower pricing and ease of accessibility. We let you to decide who is a winner in terms of meeting your business needs.
The problem here is the hassle. Vending machines are very tough to keep up to date. If you change a product, there’s a lot you have to do to update the nutritional information. What if you had a solution that could do all of this for you without having to make you run around in circles
Meet VendScreen, the company with a portable and accessible solution on the cloud that does exactly what I mentioned above. This company offers two very powerful products (among a number of others) that can really make your day:
Whether you’re looking to purchase and have a vending machine running at your business place, or you’re looking to integrate new compliant technologies in the vending machines you operate, you can easily give end users a very pleasant, interactive, and convenient experience!
Here’s a bit of bad news for entrepreneurs seeking to finance high potential startups. Venture capitalists are doing fewer deals and investing less money than they did before the financial crisis and the Great Recession. According to data from Price Waterhouse Coopers and the National Venture Capital Association, the number of venture capital deals shrank from 4,211 in 2007 to 3,698 in 2012.
The amount that venture capitalists put into companies is also down substantially. Measured in inflation-adjusted terms, in 2012 venture capitalists only invested 75 percent of the amount they did in 2007.
Deals are also smaller than they were before the Great Recession. In real dollar terms, the average deal size declined from $8.4 million in 2007 to $7.2 million in 2012.
For entrepreneurs looking for a first time investment, the numbers are also discouraging. In 2012, VC’s made 1,163 “first sequence†deals, down from 1,418 in 2007, a decline of 18 percent.
The amount invested dropped even more. In inflation-adjusted terms, VC’s put a whopping 52 percent less into first time deals in 2012 than in 2007.
The average deal also has been shrinking since the Great Recession, as the figure above shows. In inflation-adjusted terms, the average 2012 first investment was only 59 percent the size of the average 2007 initial investment.
The shrinkage in “first sequence†deals has occurred across all investment stages, with the decline in the inflation-adjusted amount invested heaviest in the seed and expansion stages. For number of deals, the decline was present for all stages, except for the early stage.
First sequence deals have become more focused at the early stage. In 2012, early stage deals accounting for 51 percent of all first sequence venture capital funding, up from 38 percent in 2007. The number of early stage deals increased from 42 to 65 percent of the total.
However, the shift in the investment stage wasn’t towards younger companies. Both in terms of the amount invested and the number of deals, the growth in early stage financing came at the expense of declines in both seed stage deals and expansion stage deals (the stages before and after the early stage.)
In a move that has sparked negative criticism, Google has decided to delete the popular ad blocking application, AdBlock Plus, from its Android Play Store.
Although primarily known for giving both mobile and desktop users an undeterred web surfing experience by blocking any online advertisements, the application also offers features that block web tracking and bolsters privacy.
According to an email sent by Google to Till Faida, co-founder of Eyeo, a Germany-based tech startup that owns AdBlock Plus, the app was removed by the tech giant because it violated its Developer Distribution Agreement.
“After a regular review, we have determined that your app interferes with or accesses another service or product in an unauthorized manner,†the email read.
Faida defended its application, telling SC Magazine US that the software did no such thing. Faida said: “AdBlock Plus doesn't manipulate any apps, it only provides choices to the end user about the incoming web traffic. Taking away this freedom has serious privacy and security implications.â€
As the popularity of ad blocking software has increased, many have questioned if there are grounds for legal battle between the developers of the software and the ad industry. Many of the world's largest internet companies, like Google, depend on revenue from online ads, a fact that Faida believes is the real reason why the application was removed.Â
“It is very alarming to see that they put their business interests on top of accessibility and users' free choices,†he said.
“If this is their policy now, one can only guess what they'll remove for users next.â€
A recent blog post by Peter Eckersley, technology projects director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, called Google's move ‘shocking' and ‘disappointing'.
“It demonstrates that Google is willing to censor software and abandon its support for open platforms as soon as there's an ad-related business reason for doing so,†Eckersley wrote.
A spokesperson for Google said that the company does not comment on individual app removals, but it does remove apps from Google Play ‘that violate our policies'.
The U.S. patent system underwent an historic change this weekend.  No longer is it the “first to invent†who has the right to a patent.  Now the “first to file†a patent application will be awarded a U.S. patent.  The change is part of the America Invents Act and went into effect March 16, 2013.
Much of the rest of the world, including the European Union and Canada, has already been following a first-to-file rule.  The United States was an outlier in requiring proof of being the first to invent.  Critics long complained that America’s former system led to lengthy delays in reviewing patents, and to costly litigation that smaller businesses, especially, could not afford to fight.  In the past you were required to prove that you first invented the invention.
Under the new first-to-file rule it should â€" theoretically at least â€" be easier to determine who gets the patent. The U.S. Patent Office simply will look at who filed the patent application first.
Not everyone agrees, though.  Attorney Otis Littlefield of law firm Morrison Foerster, writes in a client alert (PDF) that the opposite is the case:  it will be harder to get a patent under “first to file.† Why Because under the new law, a public disclosure (even in an academic paper or at a scientific conference) of the invention may negate your patent application, despite being the first to file. It’s all due to complexities in the new law, around public disclosures.
Wired notes that there will be a new urgency to file early and often. That could work to the advantage of large corporations, and put small businesses and startups at a disadvantage.  Young and small businesses have fewer resources (time and money) to put toward patent applications.
So, what’s an inventor to do  Most legal experts are recommending these two things under the new first-to-file patent system:
File early -Â In the past, you might have waited until your product went to market before filing at the patent office. Â Now you need to consider filing earlier. For startups and individual inventors without customers, this could be a financial drain and difficult to afford for an unproven product. Â But waiting could be a bigger financial risk.
Don’t talk about or disclose your invention - I know, I know. There’s nothing that startup entrepreneurs love better than to show off their product and talk about how it will change the industry or the world. However, under the new patent law, public disclosure by a third party prior to the patent application can negate the “first to file†rule.  For example, if you discussed the invention with someone (with or without a nondisclosure agreement) and that person discloses your invention publicly, it could undermine your patent rights.  That person doesn’t even have to steal your invention. Merely revealing it publicly is a problem.
There is, however, a one-year grace period for your own public disclosures. That one year grace period is intended to give inventors a chance to test the market.
For inventors the first-to-file patent system will be a huge change. Â The best thing is to consult a patent attorney as early in the invention process as possible so you know how to protect your invention.
