National Small Business Week Two Months Away

An event meant to focus the nation’s attention on the importance of the small business community will focus events in five cities across the country this year. The U.S. Small Business Administration is holding its annual National Small Business Week from June 17-21, 2013.

This will be the 50th anniversary of the event, which the government organization uses as a chance to highlight the impact small businesses have in the U.S.

More than half of all Americans work for or Read More

The post National Small Business Week Two Months Away appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Turn Virtual Negativity Into Real Loyalty

Last week I spoke to a business group about the power of Facebook. During the conversation, someone asked me about reputation management and dealing with negative comments. My belief is that we should embrace negative comments and be glad people are sharing.

When they tell us about their experiences, they give us a chance to appreciate the good ones and fix the bad ones. Negative comments aren’t bad when we are aware of them. They’re only bad when we don’t hear them. When someone has a bad experience, chances are they are going to tell someone. If the experience is really bad, or they are really upset, they will probably tell a lot of people.

If they aren’t telling us too, we are giving them the upper hand. They now have influence over what people believe about our company.

When they share their thoughts with us as well, we now have the chance to address the situation and fix it. And, when they share on social media, we have the chance to show everyone else how we handle adversity. We can increase the loyalty of our clients, including that person, when we openly address difficult situations.

People want to be heard, and they want to be validated. Acknowledge their experience, apologize and repair the problem. They will thank you and everyone else will see how much you value your clients and connections.

So you see, how we deal with negativity can make the difference.

After my presentation, one of the audience members asked to speak with me about this subject. She works for a nonprofit and they were disparaged on their Facebook Fan Page by someone who was very upset. She was wondering what to do about it. After talking with her for a little while, I came to understand that she had tried several times to address the situation and get resolution.

Unfortunately, the individual could not be satisfied. This woman was concerned about the impact that thread could have on others. She really felt that the organization was being slandered.

What would you do in this circumstance

I told her that in this case, I would call the individual to try talking to them. And then, I’d remove the thread from my Fan Page. There is a point beyond which you can’t positively impact an outcome. If you hit that point, don’t be afraid to remove the situation from public view. You don’t want to say anything bad about the person who complains. Just remove the discussion.

If anyone asks about it, you can politely explain that resolution wasn’t realized through the online exchange so you moved it to a private conversation. Then emphasize how much your company values it’s clients and feedback. They know you well so they will understand.

When you are providing a valuable service and customer care, the majority of your contacts will respect and value you. They will understand that sometimes a problem occurs. And when you deal with it head on, their respect will increase.

At the same time, if you have an untenable situation, they will understand that too. We all know there are people who you just can’t please. Most people are reasonable and understanding. So, don’t avoid the negative; embrace it.

You can actually increase loyalty and connection through negativity.

Like Unlike Photo via Shutterstock

Turn Virtual Negativity Into Real Loyalty

Last week I spoke to a business group about the power of Facebook. During the conversation, someone asked me about reputation management and dealing with negative comments. My belief is that we should embrace negative comments and be glad people are sharing.

When they tell us about their experiences, they give us a chance to appreciate the good ones and fix the bad ones. Negative comments aren’t bad when we are aware of them. They’re only bad when we don’t hear them. When someone has a bad experience, chances are they are going to tell someone. If the experience is really bad, or they are really upset, they will probably tell a lot of people.

If they aren’t telling us too, we are giving them the upper hand. They now have influence over what people believe about our company.

When they share their thoughts with us as well, we now have the chance to address the situation and fix it. And, when they share on social media, we have the chance to show everyone else how we handle adversity. We can increase the loyalty of our clients, including that person, when we openly address difficult situations.

People want to be heard, and they want to be validated. Acknowledge their experience, apologize and repair the problem. They will thank you and everyone else will see how much you value your clients and connections.

So you see, how we deal with negativity can make the difference.

After my presentation, one of the audience members asked to speak with me about this subject. She works for a nonprofit and they were disparaged on their Facebook Fan Page by someone who was very upset. She was wondering what to do about it. After talking with her for a little while, I came to understand that she had tried several times to address the situation and get resolution.

Unfortunately, the individual could not be satisfied. This woman was concerned about the impact that thread could have on others. She really felt that the organization was being slandered.

What would you do in this circumstance

I told her that in this case, I would call the individual to try talking to them. And then, I’d remove the thread from my Fan Page. There is a point beyond which you can’t positively impact an outcome. If you hit that point, don’t be afraid to remove the situation from public view. You don’t want to say anything bad about the person who complains. Just remove the discussion.

If anyone asks about it, you can politely explain that resolution wasn’t realized through the online exchange so you moved it to a private conversation. Then emphasize how much your company values it’s clients and feedback. They know you well so they will understand.

When you are providing a valuable service and customer care, the majority of your contacts will respect and value you. They will understand that sometimes a problem occurs. And when you deal with it head on, their respect will increase.

At the same time, if you have an untenable situation, they will understand that too. We all know there are people who you just can’t please. Most people are reasonable and understanding. So, don’t avoid the negative; embrace it.

You can actually increase loyalty and connection through negativity.

Like Unlike Photo via Shutterstock

Next Generation Order Management With Freestyle Commerce

New order management has come to town. It’s Freestyle Commerce from Dydacomp, a cloud-based solution for small and mid-sized businesses.

What does it do It allows merchants to run retail or distribution operations smarter and simpler with just a browser and an Internet connection. Freestyle provides the ability to accelerate growth, process and fulfill orders, manage inventory and access customer information over the Internet. It keeps you up to date with the business insight you need to grow sales, while still providing the best customer experience.

Freestyle gives you a comprehensive list of features covering the entire life cycle of order management, including order entry, order processing, order import, inventory management, customer management and more for your cross channel fulfillment business.

You can integrate your retail operations across multiple channels including Amazon. Customer service staff can enter orders, calculate shipping rates, provide return shipping tracking numbers and take payment information. You can manage inventory, review previous orders, record payments, manage contacts, and update customer demographics. Plus you get business intelligence and QuickBooks integration. All that with one solution.

Freestyle Commerce aims to be your one-stop shop for order management.

“Small to medium-size merchants are operating in a business environment that is vastly different from even a few years ago, with a challenging economy, fluctuating market conditions and an abundance of information available to consumers at their fingertips,” said Fred Lizza, chief executive officer at Dydacomp. “Dydacomp has always offered our SMB retailers a solution that helps them increase customer retention and acquisition. Freestyle Commerce is a huge opportunity for SMB retailers to utilize the power of cloud computing to capitalize even further on these growth opportunities by enabling Dydacomp to make it even simpler and easier for them to manage orders from multiple channels.”

Freestyle is a subscription-based price model with a setup fee. Freestyle uses a tiered subscription pricing structure based on the number of users and the number of orders processed per month. If you’re interested, visit their website and give them a shout.

For more on order management, check out our archives!

If you have experience with order management solutions, tell us about it in the comments! What solution do you use

Flipboard App Reports Half-a-Million “Magazines” and Counting

The team responsible for the popular Flipboard app reports half-a-million new “magazines” and counting have been created since a new edition was launched two weeks ago. Observers are already saying the tool could become a unique way for businesses to promote themselves.

Flipboard offers an iOS app, also soon to be updated on Android, that turns Twitter, Facebook and other news feeds into a magazine-style format.

The news suggests that a lot of Web readers may be trending toward Read More

The post Flipboard App Reports Half-a-Million “Magazines” and Counting appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Next Generation Order Management With Freestyle Commerce

New order management has come to town. It’s Freestyle Commerce from Dydacomp, a cloud-based solution for small and mid-sized businesses.

What does it do It allows merchants to run retail or distribution operations smarter and simpler with just a browser and an Internet connection. Freestyle provides the ability to accelerate growth, process and fulfill orders, manage inventory and access customer information over the Internet. It keeps you up to date with the business insight you need to grow sales, while still providing the best customer experience.

Freestyle gives you a comprehensive list of features covering the entire life cycle of order management, including order entry, order processing, order import, inventory management, customer management and more for your cross channel fulfillment business.

You can integrate your retail operations across multiple channels including Amazon. Customer service staff can enter orders, calculate shipping rates, provide return shipping tracking numbers and take payment information. You can manage inventory, review previous orders, record payments, manage contacts, and update customer demographics. Plus you get business intelligence and QuickBooks integration. All that with one solution.

Freestyle Commerce aims to be your one-stop shop for order management.

“Small to medium-size merchants are operating in a business environment that is vastly different from even a few years ago, with a challenging economy, fluctuating market conditions and an abundance of information available to consumers at their fingertips,” said Fred Lizza, chief executive officer at Dydacomp. “Dydacomp has always offered our SMB retailers a solution that helps them increase customer retention and acquisition. Freestyle Commerce is a huge opportunity for SMB retailers to utilize the power of cloud computing to capitalize even further on these growth opportunities by enabling Dydacomp to make it even simpler and easier for them to manage orders from multiple channels.”

Freestyle is a subscription-based price model with a setup fee. Freestyle uses a tiered subscription pricing structure based on the number of users and the number of orders processed per month. If you’re interested, visit their website and give them a shout.

For more on order management, check out our archives!

If you have experience with order management solutions, tell us about it in the comments! What solution do you use

Social Commerce Sites Now A Billion Dollar Industry

Sites like Groupon and Living Social seem to be losing the online shopping war as the “go to sites” for social commerce, with many other sites now finding ways to cash into the “daily deal” idea a bit more strategically.

The growing trend for online shoppers today is browsing different retailers through just one social commerce website. These sites offer daily deals on specialty products from a list of different retailers. Whether it’s home décor, baby clothing or hunting and fishing gear, internet shoppers like deep discounts on the more unique items they can’t find in their nearby department store.

It started with sites like Zulily, where dozens of different deals on maternity and baby clothes change on a daily basis. The company is now in its 3rd year of business and is already estimated to be worth $1 billion. This is an accomplishment the CEO says was rooted in figuring out just how to drive a mass amount of shoppers to the site as fast as possible.

“Technology is an enabler for this business. We have over 10 million people signed up for our e-mail and our goal is to deliver 10 million e-mails in 15 minutes in the morning.  When we talked to the top e-mail providers, they said we can’t do this. We don’t think it can be done. But we have done it, and when you do this, a lot of people come to the site very rapidly.” Zulily CEO Darrel Cavens told Inc.com in January.

And Zulily isn’t alone, sites like Joss & Main offer unique home décor items in a similar format, while others like Wide Open Spaces are using the same idea to attract male shoppers in an attempt to take their share of the $90 billion hunting and fishing industry.

“The hunting and fishing vertical is ripe for disruption, and Wide Open Spaces is emerging as a leader in this space by leveraging their experience in commerce, social, mobile, and technology to deliver a social commerce experience to a market that was hungry for change,” said Mark Hasebroock, a Managing Partner at Dundee Venture Capital.

As this trend continues to grow, one thing is for certain; shoppers are making it clear what type of environment they want to shop in online, and that includes “one stop shopping” with lots of variety at deeply discounted prices.

Social Commerce Sites Now A Billion Dollar Industry

Sites like Groupon and Living Social seem to be losing the online shopping war as the “go to sites” for social commerce, with many other sites now finding ways to cash into the “daily deal” idea a bit more strategically.

The growing trend for online shoppers today is browsing different retailers through just one social commerce website. These sites offer daily deals on specialty products from a list of different retailers. Whether it’s home décor, baby clothing or hunting and fishing gear, internet shoppers like deep discounts on the more unique items they can’t find in their nearby department store.

It started with sites like Zulily, where dozens of different deals on maternity and baby clothes change on a daily basis. The company is now in its 3rd year of business and is already estimated to be worth $1 billion. This is an accomplishment the CEO says was rooted in figuring out just how to drive a mass amount of shoppers to the site as fast as possible.

“Technology is an enabler for this business. We have over 10 million people signed up for our e-mail and our goal is to deliver 10 million e-mails in 15 minutes in the morning.  When we talked to the top e-mail providers, they said we can’t do this. We don’t think it can be done. But we have done it, and when you do this, a lot of people come to the site very rapidly.” Zulily CEO Darrel Cavens told Inc.com in January.

And Zulily isn’t alone, sites like Joss & Main offer unique home décor items in a similar format, while others like Wide Open Spaces are using the same idea to attract male shoppers in an attempt to take their share of the $90 billion hunting and fishing industry.

“The hunting and fishing vertical is ripe for disruption, and Wide Open Spaces is emerging as a leader in this space by leveraging their experience in commerce, social, mobile, and technology to deliver a social commerce experience to a market that was hungry for change,” said Mark Hasebroock, a Managing Partner at Dundee Venture Capital.

As this trend continues to grow, one thing is for certain; shoppers are making it clear what type of environment they want to shop in online, and that includes “one stop shopping” with lots of variety at deeply discounted prices.

Summer Hiring Heating Up, Steps to Improve Your Hiring Process

Is your small business planning to hire hourly summer workers

If so, you’d best get hopping. Snagajob’s annual summer hiring survey found that more businesses are planning to hire hourly workers than last year, and they’re also planning to pay them more.

According to the poll of more than 1,000 hiring managers nationwide, 19 percent plan to hire more summer employees this year, up from 9 percent last year. In addition, wages are at their highest level since the survey launched six years ago. For the first time in two years, hourly wages are projected to rise, from $10.90 last summer to $11.50 on average.

The number of hiring managers who don’t plan to hire any summer workers dropped from 45 percent in 2012 to 31 percent this year. Why are some companies not hiring The biggest reason, cited by 36 percent was budget concerns. That’s up 9 percentage points from last summer. And while 36 percent plan to give current employees more hours this summer, that’s down 11 percentage points from last year.

Businesses expect just 55 percent of their summer hires will be returning from years past, down from 65 percent last year. That means it will be a good time for new employees to get a foot in the door. Similar to past years, the majority of summer hiring managers expect most of the applicants to be high schoolers or college students.

As in most years, the survey found most hiring will take place in April and May (24 percent and 30 percent, respectively), and 77 percent of all hiring will be done by the end of May. Just 11 percent will still be hiring in June.

Clearly, if you need hourly workers this summer, you shouldn’t delay. Below are some steps to speed and improve your hiring process.

Create a System

You probably hire for the same types of positions each year. So if you haven’t already, create a job description for each position that includes the duties to be performed, hours needed, skills or experience required and anything else that candidates need to know.

It’s simple to update these annually to add new requirements.

Maintain Records

Keep contact information for past seasonal workers whom you liked and get back in touch with them in advance of your hiring season. It’s always preferable to hire a known quantity than start from scratch.

Note what websites or job boards got good results in the past and use them every year as well.

Put the Word Out

Many good hires come from word-of-mouth, so let your social media friends, family and business contacts know you’re hiring.

Chances are everyone’s got a niece, nephew, son or spouse looking for a seasonal summer job.

Hire for Personality

Skills are important, but attitude is more so. You can teach someone to operate a cash register, but you can’t teach them to be friendly or energetic.

Put reliability, a positive attitude and friendliness above all and, in most hourly positions, you really can’t go wrong.

Do you hire summer workers, and what are your plans for it this year

Summer Heat Photo via Shutterstock

Summer Hiring Heating Up, Steps to Improve Your Hiring Process

Is your small business planning to hire hourly summer workers

If so, you’d best get hopping. Snagajob’s annual summer hiring survey found that more businesses are planning to hire hourly workers than last year, and they’re also planning to pay them more.

According to the poll of more than 1,000 hiring managers nationwide, 19 percent plan to hire more summer employees this year, up from 9 percent last year. In addition, wages are at their highest level since the survey launched six years ago. For the first time in two years, hourly wages are projected to rise, from $10.90 last summer to $11.50 on average.

The number of hiring managers who don’t plan to hire any summer workers dropped from 45 percent in 2012 to 31 percent this year. Why are some companies not hiring The biggest reason, cited by 36 percent was budget concerns. That’s up 9 percentage points from last summer. And while 36 percent plan to give current employees more hours this summer, that’s down 11 percentage points from last year.

Businesses expect just 55 percent of their summer hires will be returning from years past, down from 65 percent last year. That means it will be a good time for new employees to get a foot in the door. Similar to past years, the majority of summer hiring managers expect most of the applicants to be high schoolers or college students.

As in most years, the survey found most hiring will take place in April and May (24 percent and 30 percent, respectively), and 77 percent of all hiring will be done by the end of May. Just 11 percent will still be hiring in June.

Clearly, if you need hourly workers this summer, you shouldn’t delay. Below are some steps to speed and improve your hiring process.

Create a System

You probably hire for the same types of positions each year. So if you haven’t already, create a job description for each position that includes the duties to be performed, hours needed, skills or experience required and anything else that candidates need to know.

It’s simple to update these annually to add new requirements.

Maintain Records

Keep contact information for past seasonal workers whom you liked and get back in touch with them in advance of your hiring season. It’s always preferable to hire a known quantity than start from scratch.

Note what websites or job boards got good results in the past and use them every year as well.

Put the Word Out

Many good hires come from word-of-mouth, so let your social media friends, family and business contacts know you’re hiring.

Chances are everyone’s got a niece, nephew, son or spouse looking for a seasonal summer job.

Hire for Personality

Skills are important, but attitude is more so. You can teach someone to operate a cash register, but you can’t teach them to be friendly or energetic.

Put reliability, a positive attitude and friendliness above all and, in most hourly positions, you really can’t go wrong.

Do you hire summer workers, and what are your plans for it this year

Summer Heat Photo via Shutterstock

Executive Spotlight: HP MagCloud’s Andrew Bolwell Is Helping To Ensure Your Small Business Voice Is Heard

When asked what his least favorite part of his job is, Andrew Bolwell jokes, “Licking the stamps for our USPS deliveries.”

Bolwell is the General Manager of HP’s MagCloud, an online publishing business for magazine-quality printing. Magcloud allows anyone to upload, print, share and sell their content on the MagCloud website. It’s a simple and effective solution that we recently talked about  in our look at the best in online printing services.

Originally from Australia, Bolwell lives in Santa Cruz, California. Having worked for HP for a number of years, he’s worked in many different areas, from support to sales, and in many different countries, from Australia to Japan.

Bolwell says one of the biggest challenge for small businesses today is being heard above the noise. “You take the sheer number of businesses competing for customer attention and couple that with the volume of noise customers are deluged with across mediums … being heard is not just a small challenge, it’s like going for Olympic gold.”

MagCloud gives small businesses a voice, Bolwell says. “We let them tell their stories in unique and compelling ways, across mediums â€" print, on the web, via mobile devices, and at a fraction of the cost. We help make them look professional in front of their clients, customers and audiences by providing extremely high-quality print products at very affordable prices.”

Being able to help do this is very rewarding. “I love engaging with our customers, understanding their businesses and challenges,” says Bolwell. “When I can take that knowledge and make their lives a little easier and better by creating new features or services… I’m in job nirvana.”

Working closely with small businesses and big businesses for many years has given Bolwell a unique perspective. He says people just starting a new business shouldn’t expect things to happen overnight. It takes time and hard work to get a business going.

“A key one is the importance of staying flexible,” he says. “You must be flexible enough to tack and weave your way forward, evolving your idea as you go. There is also a critical balance you need to maintain between having a vision and not over planning. In a large company with volatile markets you need to analyze and plan extensively. In a small business over planning could cost you your competitive edge. It’s really important to have a vision for where you see your business evolving to, but staying nimble enough to be able to constantly innovate and react to customer needs and changing market conditions. Sort of like wearing a pair of business bifocals, being able to see into the distance, but also being able to read the writing up close.”

How have you made your business’s voice heard Let us know in the comments!

3 Benefits of Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) And Why It Might Be A Great Solution For Your Business

The jury is in on the traditional on-premise virtualization environment: It’s expensive and hard to set up. There are several complex steps to take and security measures to consider. Despite the advantages of taking a desktop everywhere you go, this kind of operation tends to cannibalize small enterprises from the inside out. But what if you can haul all of that wiring and equipment and throw it into the cloud

Dell has come up with an elegant solution: Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) Made Easier.

Their concept puts an entire hosted infrastructure into their cloud and allows client hardware to connect to virtual private networks (VPNs), through which they can securely access their desktops. Let’s say one of your employees needs to take his work home with him. He logs off the computer at work (which is connected to Dell’s DaaS platform) and quickly whips out his iPad. He then connects to the DaaS and logs into the same desktop.

This works very well for people who leave the workplace to go out on the field, but could also be useful for many other purposes. Let’s outline why DaaS is so beneficial:

• It’s cost effective. As an example, Dell’s service costs $50 a month per user. This beats the several grand you’d have to dump on an on-premise platform plus operating costs and maintenance. If you don’t have a lot of employees, using a platform meant for a 500-employee large enterprise really isn’t a logical decision.
• Its data is more centrally sourced. Let’s jog our imaginations a little: You have multiple workstations, each with their own hard drives. Each of them runs a different copy of an operating system. Chances are that one of them will be compromised at one point. The amount of copies of sensitive data sitting in the workplace is proportionately equal to the amount of hard drives running. Storing all of the data in one central secure location where the company’s sole duty is to ensure security and operate the servers is much more secure.
• It’s mobile! If the other two benefits don’t really put the icing on the cake, how about the fact that you can log in to the same desktop from a tablet in the middle of a busy airport in Hong Kong Perhaps you won’t be visiting Hong Kong any time soon, or maybe you’re just not a flying type of person. But the concept matters: You can take the desktop wherever you go, and your employees are no exception.

DaaS is pretty much one of the most elegant solutions for mobility desktop computing on the market. It’s time to grab the bull by the horns and take a leap into this great technology.

3 Benefits of Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) And Why It Might Be A Great Solution For Your Business

The jury is in on the traditional on-premise virtualization environment: It’s expensive and hard to set up. There are several complex steps to take and security measures to consider. Despite the advantages of taking a desktop everywhere you go, this kind of operation tends to cannibalize small enterprises from the inside out. But what if you can haul all of that wiring and equipment and throw it into the cloud

Dell has come up with an elegant solution: Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) Made Easier.

Their concept puts an entire hosted infrastructure into their cloud and allows client hardware to connect to virtual private networks (VPNs), through which they can securely access their desktops. Let’s say one of your employees needs to take his work home with him. He logs off the computer at work (which is connected to Dell’s DaaS platform) and quickly whips out his iPad. He then connects to the DaaS and logs into the same desktop.

This works very well for people who leave the workplace to go out on the field, but could also be useful for many other purposes. Let’s outline why DaaS is so beneficial:

• It’s cost effective. As an example, Dell’s service costs $50 a month per user. This beats the several grand you’d have to dump on an on-premise platform plus operating costs and maintenance. If you don’t have a lot of employees, using a platform meant for a 500-employee large enterprise really isn’t a logical decision.
• Its data is more centrally sourced. Let’s jog our imaginations a little: You have multiple workstations, each with their own hard drives. Each of them runs a different copy of an operating system. Chances are that one of them will be compromised at one point. The amount of copies of sensitive data sitting in the workplace is proportionately equal to the amount of hard drives running. Storing all of the data in one central secure location where the company’s sole duty is to ensure security and operate the servers is much more secure.
• It’s mobile! If the other two benefits don’t really put the icing on the cake, how about the fact that you can log in to the same desktop from a tablet in the middle of a busy airport in Hong Kong Perhaps you won’t be visiting Hong Kong any time soon, or maybe you’re just not a flying type of person. But the concept matters: You can take the desktop wherever you go, and your employees are no exception.

DaaS is pretty much one of the most elegant solutions for mobility desktop computing on the market. It’s time to grab the bull by the horns and take a leap into this great technology.

3 Benefits of Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) And Why It Might Be A Great Solution For Your Business

The jury is in on the traditional on-premise virtualization environment: It’s expensive and hard to set up. There are several complex steps to take and security measures to consider. Despite the advantages of taking a desktop everywhere you go, this kind of operation tends to cannibalize small enterprises from the inside out. But what if you can haul all of that wiring and equipment and throw it into the cloud

Dell has come up with an elegant solution: Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) Made Easier.

Their concept puts an entire hosted infrastructure into their cloud and allows client hardware to connect to virtual private networks (VPNs), through which they can securely access their desktops. Let’s say one of your employees needs to take his work home with him. He logs off the computer at work (which is connected to Dell’s DaaS platform) and quickly whips out his iPad. He then connects to the DaaS and logs into the same desktop.

This works very well for people who leave the workplace to go out on the field, but could also be useful for many other purposes. Let’s outline why DaaS is so beneficial:

• It’s cost effective. As an example, Dell’s service costs $50 a month per user. This beats the several grand you’d have to dump on an on-premise platform plus operating costs and maintenance. If you don’t have a lot of employees, using a platform meant for a 500-employee large enterprise really isn’t a logical decision.
• Its data is more centrally sourced. Let’s jog our imaginations a little: You have multiple workstations, each with their own hard drives. Each of them runs a different copy of an operating system. Chances are that one of them will be compromised at one point. The amount of copies of sensitive data sitting in the workplace is proportionately equal to the amount of hard drives running. Storing all of the data in one central secure location where the company’s sole duty is to ensure security and operate the servers is much more secure.
• It’s mobile! If the other two benefits don’t really put the icing on the cake, how about the fact that you can log in to the same desktop from a tablet in the middle of a busy airport in Hong Kong Perhaps you won’t be visiting Hong Kong any time soon, or maybe you’re just not a flying type of person. But the concept matters: You can take the desktop wherever you go, and your employees are no exception.

DaaS is pretty much one of the most elegant solutions for mobility desktop computing on the market. It’s time to grab the bull by the horns and take a leap into this great technology.

Dropbox does not have business or enterprise in its DNA

Dropbox does not have business or enterprise in its DNA, according to EMC Syncplicity's head of marketing Jeff Schultz.

Responding to the news last week of the launch of Dropbox for Business and the addition of single sign-on (SSO) technology to its administrator console, Schultz said that this move was no surprise considering how many vendors call themselves ‘Dropbox for Business'.

However Schultz said that rather than trying to tack on business tools after the fact, IT administrators should ask themselves whether this gives them control and visibility over file sharing, or if it does reporting and is there an option to keep company files inside your own data centre

He said: “Does it give you control and visibility over file sharing Users want to share folders inside and outside the organisation and will find a way to do it. Make sure your organisation's file sync and sharing solution allows IT to either restrict sharing (if that's your policy) or allow it. And if you allow it, make sure your solution gives you the tools and reports to always know what has been shared, and with who.

“Can you restrict where users access files File sync and sharing solutions make it easy to access file anywhere, but sometimes, that's too much. You may want to restrict file access to domain-attached devices and restrict use of public or home machines, or kiosks. You may also need to have different authentication requirements in different locations (for example, require two-factor authentication in some countries but not others).”

He also said companies should ask if their solution allows for new users to be added easily and for privileged access to be managed efficiently, and does this work with existing mobile device management technology

“Do you get the enterprise-level reporting you need Understanding usage at scale, and keeping tabs on all your files is critical. Can you monitor storage and create chargeback reports for different departments Can you monitor bandwidth utilisation Can you audit by user, file, folder and device so you always have visibility into where your corporate assets reside” he asked.

“While single-sign on (SSO) is a really important feature for businesses, it's only a start. True support for businesses and enterprises must include features that support IT in every gamut of what they do, from securing the environment to setting controls, deploying users at scale, providing end-user support, and monitoring the system every step of the way.”

Obama set to boost cyber initiatives with £500 million fund

The Pentagon will spend an extra $800 million (£520 million) on cyber security initiatives next year, despite defence budget cuts. 

US President Barack Obama has proposed a $3.8 trillion federal budget for the 2014 fiscal year, which begins on the 1st October 2013, and the US Department of Defense (DoD) would be allocated $4.7 billion for cyber security initiatives, up from $3.9 billion last year. However, the overall defence spending plan is $526.6 billion, a $3.9 billion cut from 2013.

Part of the additional funding would help develop 'cyber expert' teams, who will carry out both offensive and defensive operations and towards the creation of a cyber security information system.

Also last week, the contentious information-sharing bill CISPA was approved by the US House Intelligence Committee, and is now set for a full House vote.

DDoS attack threat continues to worry IT managers

IT managers are ‘highly or extremely' concerned about being the victim of a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack.

According to research by Corero Network Security of 100 mid to large-sized UK enterprises, 41 per cent were ‘highly or extremely' concerned about being the victim of an attack. To protect against the problem, 31 per cent said they already had purchased specialised anti-DDoS technology, while 36 per cent said that they were relying solely on their firewalls to protect themselves and did not intend to augment their protection.

The survey also found that the number of UK organisations experiencing attacks year-on-year had climbed to 25 per cent in 2013 from 18 per cent in 2012. Bob Tarzey analyst and director at UK-based analyst firm Quocirca, said: “Organisations believe they have the basis for protection against targeted attacks, such as DDoS, when in fact they are referring to traditional security technologies. To be fair, many do understand the changing nature of the threats faced, but over-estimate their capability to mitigate them.”

Ashley Stephenson, CEO of Corero Network Security, said: “It's interesting to note that in spite of the significant increase in perceived protection against DDoS attacks over the last year, IT managers are more concerned than ever about the threat of an attack.

“What's clearly apparent from this survey is that IT managers still do not properly understand the variety and sophistication of DDoS attacks and the risks that their organisations are taking in relying on firewalls to protect them.”

Executive Spotlight: HP MagCloud’s Andrew Bolwell Is Helping To Ensure Your Small Business Voice Is Heard

When asked what his least favorite part of his job is, Andrew Bolwell jokes, “Licking the stamps for our USPS deliveries.”

Bolwell is the General Manager of HP’s MagCloud, an online publishing business for magazine-quality printing. Magcloud allows anyone to upload, print, share and sell their content on the MagCloud website. It’s a simple and effective solution that we recently talked about  in our look at the best in online printing services.

Originally from Australia, Bolwell lives in Santa Cruz, California. Having worked for HP for a number of years, he’s worked in many different areas, from support to sales, and in many different countries, from Australia to Japan.

Bolwell says one of the biggest challenge for small businesses today is being heard above the noise. “You take the sheer number of businesses competing for customer attention and couple that with the volume of noise customers are deluged with across mediums … being heard is not just a small challenge, it’s like going for Olympic gold.”

MagCloud gives small businesses a voice, Bolwell says. “We let them tell their stories in unique and compelling ways, across mediums â€" print, on the web, via mobile devices, and at a fraction of the cost. We help make them look professional in front of their clients, customers and audiences by providing extremely high-quality print products at very affordable prices.”

Being able to help do this is very rewarding. “I love engaging with our customers, understanding their businesses and challenges,” says Bolwell. “When I can take that knowledge and make their lives a little easier and better by creating new features or services… I’m in job nirvana.”

Working closely with small businesses and big businesses for many years has given Bolwell a unique perspective. He says people just starting a new business shouldn’t expect things to happen overnight. It takes time and hard work to get a business going.

“A key one is the importance of staying flexible,” he says. “You must be flexible enough to tack and weave your way forward, evolving your idea as you go. There is also a critical balance you need to maintain between having a vision and not over planning. In a large company with volatile markets you need to analyze and plan extensively. In a small business over planning could cost you your competitive edge. It’s really important to have a vision for where you see your business evolving to, but staying nimble enough to be able to constantly innovate and react to customer needs and changing market conditions. Sort of like wearing a pair of business bifocals, being able to see into the distance, but also being able to read the writing up close.”

How have you made your business’s voice heard Let us know in the comments!

Washington, D.C. Could Help Small Business by Doing Less

Washington wants to be seen as helping small business. With approval ratings hovering around 25 percent, Congress wants to associate itself with one of America’s most popular institutions - small business - which 95 percent of Americans report viewing positively in a November 2012 Gallup Organization survey of 1040 randomly selected adults.

To aid small business, Congress has established small contracting set asides, written legislation to facilitate small company access to credit, sought to protect small business owners who use Read More

The post Washington, D.C. Could Help Small Business by Doing Less appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Small Business News Stories in Perspective - Week of April 12

Here is a recap of key stories and developments this week in small business news … in case you missed them.

Much of the small business news involves economic and policy issues.  Big picture issues like Saturday mail delivery not going away after all, the Federal budget, and the use (or misuse) of taxpayer funds were the biggest headlines.

The news in social media, commerce and online marketing was relatively light this week. LinkedIn introduced streamlined search, and the world Read More

The post Small Business News Stories in Perspective Week of April 12 appeared first on Small Business Trends.

8 Ways to Keep Customer Data Safe

What tools or steps are you using to ensure your customer data is safe across all your platforms

The following answers are provided by the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.

1. Build an API, Not a Product

One of the best things we ever did was build our product as an API before the first line of front-end code was ever written. Building the entire product as an API allowed us to have consistency across all platforms. For example, if we had a bug in our web app, we probably had the same bug in our iOS app. A product built on an API offers security through consistency.

- Chad Halvorson, When I Work

2. Use SSL Certification, Malware Scans, VeriSign

Our website is scanned on a regular basis for malware and other security risks, and we also possess an SSL digital certificate so our customers know our webpages are safe. Our website is also SSL encrypted. Lastly, our website displays the VeriSign seal, which is another way our customers know they can use our website without risk.

- Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance

3. Choose Partners Carefully

As a scrappy startup, it’s very easy to find low-cost providers of analytics or customer relationship management (CRM) software. We choose to work closely with name-brand partners. We research the security of those firms and trust them implicitly, given that a lot of the “big guys” â€" large companies with a lot more to lose â€" choose them. Invest in security from day one to ensure customer trust.

- Aaron Schwartz, Modify Watches

4. Plan, Then Create a Backup Plan

Take the most obvious steps in order to ensure the safety of your customers’ data â€" this includes ensuring all firmware/software is up-to-date, utilizing SSL certificates to encrypt important data transmission and focusing on code security to eliminate potential database and XSS vulnerabilities. Then, create a backup plan in case that fails. Store critical customer data in encrypted formats!

- Fehzan Ali, Adscend Media LLC

5. Install a Security System in the Office

It’s easy to focus on online security threats, but don’t forget about who can actually threaten your physical location. I consider having a security system for our office a minimum requirement for ensuring the safety of client data.

- Thursday Bram, Hyper Modern Consulting

6. Use Flurry Analytics

I’m not addressing the information that users input into apps to give data to a company. I’m speaking directly to the mobile app world that uses Flurry Analytics (flurry.com/flurry-analytics.html) to understand more about their customers’ experiences on multiple platforms and devices. Flurry is secure, and the portal allows you to review customer data in many ways with fewer hassles.

- George Mavromaras, Mavro Inc. | Praetor Global LLC.

7. Eliminate Possible Security Problems With Beyond Security

Our e-commerce site accepts large credit card payments daily for big-ticket items, so we understand the importance of protecting our customers’ data. For this imperative task, we use Beyond Security (beyondsecurity.com), a service that performs daily testing on our website to eliminate the possibility of website security problems, like malware, SQL injection and cross-site scripting.

- Anthony Saladino, Kitchen Cabinet Kings

8. Build Platforms With Security in Mind

We use third parties who specialize in securing data because they know way more about it than we ever could. We do what we do well, and we let them focus on what they do well. We also try to design our platforms with data security in mind from the beginning. If the architecture is full of holes from the start, no amount of security is going to help.

- Jim Belosic, ShortStack/Pancake Labs

8 Ways to Keep Customer Data Safe

What tools or steps are you using to ensure your customer data is safe across all your platforms

The following answers are provided by the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.

1. Build an API, Not a Product

One of the best things we ever did was build our product as an API before the first line of front-end code was ever written. Building the entire product as an API allowed us to have consistency across all platforms. For example, if we had a bug in our web app, we probably had the same bug in our iOS app. A product built on an API offers security through consistency.

- Chad Halvorson, When I Work

2. Use SSL Certification, Malware Scans, VeriSign

Our website is scanned on a regular basis for malware and other security risks, and we also possess an SSL digital certificate so our customers know our webpages are safe. Our website is also SSL encrypted. Lastly, our website displays the VeriSign seal, which is another way our customers know they can use our website without risk.

- Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance

3. Choose Partners Carefully

As a scrappy startup, it’s very easy to find low-cost providers of analytics or customer relationship management (CRM) software. We choose to work closely with name-brand partners. We research the security of those firms and trust them implicitly, given that a lot of the “big guys” â€" large companies with a lot more to lose â€" choose them. Invest in security from day one to ensure customer trust.

- Aaron Schwartz, Modify Watches

4. Plan, Then Create a Backup Plan

Take the most obvious steps in order to ensure the safety of your customers’ data â€" this includes ensuring all firmware/software is up-to-date, utilizing SSL certificates to encrypt important data transmission and focusing on code security to eliminate potential database and XSS vulnerabilities. Then, create a backup plan in case that fails. Store critical customer data in encrypted formats!

- Fehzan Ali, Adscend Media LLC

5. Install a Security System in the Office

It’s easy to focus on online security threats, but don’t forget about who can actually threaten your physical location. I consider having a security system for our office a minimum requirement for ensuring the safety of client data.

- Thursday Bram, Hyper Modern Consulting

6. Use Flurry Analytics

I’m not addressing the information that users input into apps to give data to a company. I’m speaking directly to the mobile app world that uses Flurry Analytics (flurry.com/flurry-analytics.html) to understand more about their customers’ experiences on multiple platforms and devices. Flurry is secure, and the portal allows you to review customer data in many ways with fewer hassles.

- George Mavromaras, Mavro Inc. | Praetor Global LLC.

7. Eliminate Possible Security Problems With Beyond Security

Our e-commerce site accepts large credit card payments daily for big-ticket items, so we understand the importance of protecting our customers’ data. For this imperative task, we use Beyond Security (beyondsecurity.com), a service that performs daily testing on our website to eliminate the possibility of website security problems, like malware, SQL injection and cross-site scripting.

- Anthony Saladino, Kitchen Cabinet Kings

8. Build Platforms With Security in Mind

We use third parties who specialize in securing data because they know way more about it than we ever could. We do what we do well, and we let them focus on what they do well. We also try to design our platforms with data security in mind from the beginning. If the architecture is full of holes from the start, no amount of security is going to help.

- Jim Belosic, ShortStack/Pancake Labs