How to Gauge Your Crowdfunding Potential

Crowdfunding is one of the hottest new strategies for small business owners and entrepreneurs to raise capital for their startups, expansion projects or new ideas. This investing style first saw widespread use in 2012, mostly through online platforms like Kickstarter and GoFundMe, and it’s still going strong for 2013.

What is crowdfunding?

Basically, it’s getting a whole bunch of people, the “crowd,” to believe enough in the concept of your business or idea to donate small amounts of money, often in exchange for rewards that range from acknowledgements to free products or services. The best part? These are donations and therefore, don’t have to be paid back.

However, there are good and bad parts to crowdfunding on both sides of the equation. Not every business idea is a good candidate for this platform. With crowdfunding expected to double in 2013, how does your business or idea measure up?

Crowdfunding Pros and Cons

Aside from the obvious advantage of not going into debt on your investment, crowdfunding can offer some great benefits. When you use a crowdfunding platform, you’re already receiving market exposure before you get off the ground. You can rack up quite a lot of investment capital. For donors, it’s exciting to feel like they’re helping to build a concept they believe in.

The downside is that crowdfunding is still in its infancy and therefore, not regulated. There are no guarantees for entrepreneurs and businesses, and no legal recourse for investors should your concept fail. While it sounds like free money, the fact is that you still have to offer your investors something in return â€" and if you don’t follow through, your credibility is shot.

Checklist: Your Crowdfunding Potential

Is your business or idea conducive to crowdfunding? What is your crowdfunding potential? Below are some questions to ask yourself:

• Is your business or concept truly unique or is there an aspect that makes you stand out? Does it make most people say, “Wow, that’s awesome!”
• Does your company or idea have strong, lasting growth potential? Is this concept more than a fad or passing trend?
• Will your business be able to sustain interest in the long run without becoming outdated?
• Is your company or idea based on concepts, wants or desires that appeal to a broad, general audience and not just a niche group?

If you answered these questions with a resounding “yes,” then you have some crowdfunding potential and crowdfunding could be a great fit for you. If you’re not there yet, your best bet is to sit back and watch the crowdfunding landscape and be alert for new or changing opportunities.

Will you be giving crowdfunding a try as a financing option for your new business?

Crowd Funding Photo via Shutterstock

3 Mobile Website Tools To Help Restaurants Fill The Seats And Get Cooking

Speaking from personal experience, few things are more frustrating than needing information about a business and finding the information is unavailable online. If a business doesn’t have a website, they are doing business wrong. Restaurants, if you don’t have your hours and your menu online, you are doing it wrong. The more information you have online, the better.

A mobile website helps get you that customer that’s standing under an awning in the rain, looking for the perfect restaurant for lunch on his or her iPhone. Make it easy for your customers to give you their money. They want to!

According to SiteApps, only 5 percent of independent restaurants have a mobile-compatible website to attract customers. OpenTable and Google have both released products to entice small businesses into going mobile, but there’s still a huge demand for the restaurant industry to get up-to-speed. SiteApps recently announced a free service, SiteApps Mobile, that instantly creates a mobile version of a restaurant’s website. Here are some additional choices that can help you get started.

OpenTable’s Mobile: launched in 2012, this tool includes locations, contact details, menus and a link to make a reservation, among other key information; free for members paying a monthly subscription of $200.

Google’s GoMo: launched in 2011, GoMo offers various professional templates that are customizable for any business; free for one year, then $9/month after signing up.

SiteApps’ Mobile: designed specifically for restaurants, this includes a description, phone number, address/directions (with a live Google Maps view) and working hours; free without a membership required.

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Don’t forget this great list of five ways to improve your restaurant’s website. The tips are so, so important. I’ll state one of them here, because of how important it is: Drop Flash. Stop using Flash! You need searchable text on your website. Bonus points if your menu isn’t a PDF.

And get your specials out there! Make them common knowledge!

Let us know in the comments how you’ve used technology to make your restaurant a success!

3 Mobile Website Tools To Help Restaurants Fill The Seats And Get Cooking

Speaking from personal experience, few things are more frustrating than needing information about a business and finding the information is unavailable online. If a business doesn’t have a website, they are doing business wrong. Restaurants, if you don’t have your hours and your menu online, you are doing it wrong. The more information you have...

The post 3 Mobile Website Tools To Help Restaurants Fill The Seats And Get Cooking appeared first on Small Business Technology.

Google Drive Now Lets You Chat and See Pics of Collaborators

Google Drive, which lets you share files online, now makes it easier to chat with and work with collaborators on a shared file or document. And do it real time.

We’ve been playing around with the new features a bit the last few days here at Small Business Trends. While they may seem like small changes, we think they add a lot to the give and take of the collaboration process among small business teams. Here’s what’s changed:

First, the profile photos of the other person or persons who are working on documents with you in a session are now visible along the top of the screen. Previously, collaborators were designated by a little colored square. You had to click on the square to see the person’s name.

The new photo enhancement feels a lot more like Facebook chat, or similar experiences, because you can see the other person’s picture. When you click on the person’s picture, it opens up a box with their Google+ profile. You can even add them to your Google+ circles right from that box or see if you are already connected to them. This is great for networking with people you may be meeting for the first time or are not yet connected with them on Google+.

The second enhancement is that you can open up a chat session with another collaborator right there in the document. A little chat window pops up when you click the chat icon next to the profile photos. That way, everyone in the session can converse quickly and efficiently as you’re editing or making other changes to a document or file.

Of course, you always had the alternative to open another application like Google Talk or Skype chat and run it in a separate screen while in the Google Drive session. But if you were not connected with the person in one of those other services, you had to take time to connect first. On top of that, you would have had to have multiple applications open or glance back and forth between screens.

Having the new chat feature built right into Google Drive certainly streamlines the process.

Google announced these new updates to Google Drive last week and it took several days to roll out to all users.

And also writing on the Google+ page for Google Drive, Software Engineer Eric Zhang says that anonymous users will now be identified in a collaboration group with animal icons.

For small business teams that are collaborating, the Google Drive enhancements offer a more efficient way to work with partners and co-workers.

Turning Data Into Profits: 5 Tips On How To Get The Most From Your Business Intelligence

Business intelligence. For many small business owners we have access to all kinds of business data, but we get lost when it comes to sorting it out and using it effectively to grow our businesses.

In a recent article from Smallbiztechnology’s own Ramon Ray, that appeared in the Wells Fargo Business Insight Resource Center, he talks to how small businesses can harness business intelligence to get an edge up on the competition.  He speaks to how Business Intelligence (BI) software can help owners quickly compile and analyze information relative to sales, inventory, customer satisfaction and other key metrics, identify primary business challenges and make data-driven decisions.  He also provides 5 tips on how to get the most of your data, including:

• Look at what drives a products performance
• Learn from your peers and neighbors
• Analyze the bottom line
• Find ways to improve processes
• Know where to look.

You can read the entire article here and find out more about how to harness all that overwhelming data and turn it into profits and increased productivity in your small business.

With 3.5 Billion Check-Ins, Foursquare Revolutionizes The Way We Explore Cities

Have you ever been out of town and you wanted to stop for “____” but you had no clue where to go? Feel free to fill in that blank with anything you want - coffee, dinner, entertainment, whatever your momentary desire. How do you choose where to go?

One option is searching through lists online, although that can take too much time and often it’s hard to find trusted recommendations and ratings. Another possibility is to randomly choose a place, although we’ve all had a bad experiences with this method. What you really want is a quick and easy way to find the best “____” in the area. You’d also like recommendations from real people, who actually visit the business, so you can enjoy the best of what the town has to offer.

If this sounds like you, it’s time to check out Foursquare.

Foursquare was launched in 2009 as an app for people to easily tell their friends where they were hanging out. Using the GPS on your smartphone, the app is able to pinpoint your location. You then make a “check-in” announcement, telling friends where you are. However, as more and more people began to check-in at their favorite locations, Foursquare expanded from its original design. With 3.5 billion check-ins within four years, Foursquare has collected a huge database of information about the hottest locations all around the world. At this point, it has become more than just a way to announce your location: it is the ultimate search tool to find the best places, see where your friends have been, read recommendations and comments, view pictures from other Foursquare users like you, and much, much more.

With it’s huge success, Foursquare recently announced some new additions to the app in the latest version - Foursquare 6.0. The app now has a sleek design that is organized into four main sections. For added ease, the Search feature is now located at the top so you can quickly find what you’re looking for - just enter a search term (such as “coffee”) and you’ll immediately see the best places for your location. Underneath you’ll find a map, with interesting places and friend check-ins labeled. This great visual feature allows you to explore the area around you and where you friends have been. Under the map you’ll now find a section for personal recommendations. Knowing your interests and check-ins, Foursquare can find the perfect matches for you based on the data from 3.5 billion check ins, which paint a great picture of every city. Finally, at the bottom isyour own check-in button. Use it to tell your friends where you are and to highlight your favorite places for others to find when they’re in the area.

To get an idea of the valuable information Foursquare offers you, you can go to their website and do a search, even if you don’t have the app yet. When you’re ready to join, the Foursquare app is completely free and you can download it to your iPhone, Android phone or BlackBerry, as well as many other devices.

Next time you’re at a business meeting in another city, on vacation anywhere around the world, or just stopping by a nearby town that you rarely visit, you’ll be prepared to get top recommendations from a 3.5 billion “check in” dataset of Foursquare users like you. In addition, business owners should consider using Foursquare to promote their own business. Having customers check in to your location will get you increased visibility, which could ultimately lead to a boost in profits.

With 3.5 Billion Check-Ins, Foursquare Revolutionizes The Way We Explore Cities

Have you ever been out of town and you wanted to stop for “____” but you had no clue where to go? Feel free to fill in that blank with anything you want - coffee, dinner, entertainment, whatever your momentary desire. How do you choose where to go?

One option is searching through lists online, although that can take too much time and often it’s hard to find trusted recommendations and ratings. Another possibility is to randomly choose a place, although we’ve all had a bad experiences with this method. What you really want is a quick and easy way to find the best “____” in the area. You’d also like recommendations from real people, who actually visit the business, so you can enjoy the best of what the town has to offer.

If this sounds like you, it’s time to check out Foursquare.

Foursquare was launched in 2009 as an app for people to easily tell their friends where they were hanging out. Using the GPS on your smartphone, the app is able to pinpoint your location. You then make a “check-in” announcement, telling friends where you are. However, as more and more people began to check-in at their favorite locations, Foursquare expanded from its original design. With 3.5 billion check-ins within four years, Foursquare has collected a huge database of information about the hottest locations all around the world. At this point, it has become more than just a way to announce your location: it is the ultimate search tool to find the best places, see where your friends have been, read recommendations and comments, view pictures from other Foursquare users like you, and much, much more.

With it’s huge success, Foursquare recently announced some new additions to the app in the latest version - Foursquare 6.0. The app now has a sleek design that is organized into four main sections. For added ease, the Search feature is now located at the top so you can quickly find what you’re looking for - just enter a search term (such as “coffee”) and you’ll immediately see the best places for your location. Underneath you’ll find a map, with interesting places and friend check-ins labeled. This great visual feature allows you to explore the area around you and where you friends have been. Under the map you’ll now find a section for personal recommendations. Knowing your interests and check-ins, Foursquare can find the perfect matches for you based on the data from 3.5 billion check ins, which paint a great picture of every city. Finally, at the bottom isyour own check-in button. Use it to tell your friends where you are and to highlight your favorite places for others to find when they’re in the area.

To get an idea of the valuable information Foursquare offers you, you can go to their website and do a search, even if you don’t have the app yet. When you’re ready to join, the Foursquare app is completely free and you can download it to your iPhone, Android phone or BlackBerry, as well as many other devices.

Next time you’re at a business meeting in another city, on vacation anywhere around the world, or just stopping by a nearby town that you rarely visit, you’ll be prepared to get top recommendations from a 3.5 billion “check in” dataset of Foursquare users like you. In addition, business owners should consider using Foursquare to promote their own business. Having customers check in to your location will get you increased visibility, which could ultimately lead to a boost in profits.

3 Counterintuitive Ways to Reach a New Audience Through Partnerships

Traditional wisdom teaches small businesses to partner with people whose services complement their own. If you’re a wedding planner, partner with a caterer. If you’re a landscaper, partner with a house painter, etc.

But to truly stay ahead of the competition, small-business owners need to think outside the box by initiating partnerships that dramatically increase the value that they offer their current and prospective clients.

Below is a guide to implementing three counterintuitive strategies that will expand your business reach and let you tap into new market segments through business partnerships.

Strategy #1: Go Where Future Clients Are Already Fans

In 2009, Chicago-based insurance company Aon signed on as the new sponsor of England’s celebrated Manchester United soccer team. Commentators questioned the connection.  Aon is strictly a business-to-business company, and the most visible part of a Manchester United sponsorship would be the addition of the company’s name to team jerseys.

But Aon stood by its decision. After all, millions of soccer fans wear those jerseys and the sponsorship would effectively turn them into what the company’s chief executive called “walking billboards.” Even better, Manchester United boasted a large fan base in Asia, one area where Aon was looking to grow at the time it secured sponsorship rights. This partnership allowed Aon to flood its future target market with its name, thus building brand recognition.

How to Make This Strategy Work For Your Small Business

Looking to expand into a new market? Join forces with a business that’s already serving that market, and you’ve got a friendly introduction to the people you want to serve.

One effective way to do this is to sponsor an event (such as a trade show, lecture series, workshop or conference) where a lot of your potential clients will be in attendance. These potential clients will be open to engaging with you because, in that context, you are not trying to sell to them. You can have an honest conversation and learn where their pain points are, which is information you can use to tailor your services to them down the road.

Strategy #2: Find a Partner Who Embodies Your Company Values

Last month, Insureon, the online business insurance agency of which I’m CEO, launched a partnership with Women’s MMA Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey. As with Aon, some people questioned the connection between a professional fighter and a company that sells small business insurance.

But to us, it’s clear. Like the small business owners we serve, Ronda Rousey works hard every day, often by herself, to be the best that she can. Though Ronda has only recently gained major media attention for her success in the ring, she has been toiling at her sport for years.  She often faced significant setbacks, including injuries and naysaying from league insiders who claim women have no place in professional MMA.

As a product of sheer determination, commitment and talent, Ronda has overcome these setbacks and is changing the face of her sport in the same way that America’s small business owners are transforming the face of the U.S. economy.

The partnership with Ronda has helped reinforce our commitment to supporting hard-working business owners in their grueling and often lonely journeys.

How to Make This Strategy Work For Your Small Business

Find a values-based partner to boost brand recognition by sponsoring a local little league team, charity event or community group. Associating your business name with people and events that reflect your values helps you build your image among potential customers and establish yourself as a valuable part of the community.

Strategy #3 Share Your Rewards Program

In 2012, Chase Bank and Southwest Airlines announced a partnership that let Chase cardholders transfer their points into Rapid Rewards airline miles with Southwest. The partnership came on the heels of a similarly structured Chase-United partnership the year before.

Why did this joint venture make sense for both companies? Because Chase and Southwest saw that their respective products (credit cards and flights) have massive target audiences and that their products and services are, in some ways, indistinguishable from what their competitors offer. In that context, increasing the value of a product or service is essential to maintaining customer loyalty and winning new customers.

Chase and Southwest did exactly that, and by doing so made it that much more appealing for potential customers to use their products.

How to Make This Strategy Work For Your Small Business

Just because you’re not a major corporate player doesn’t mean you can’t offer a major rewards program. Make this strategy work for you by setting up a system where clients can work toward a discount or freebie (you’ve seen this dozens of times as punch cards at ice cream shops), then increase its effectiveness by letting clients get credit for purchases made with your partner.

You’ll both benefit from increased loyalty and customer satisfaction.

How do you reach new audiences? Have you ever launched business partnerships to reach a new target audience or customer base?

Manchester United Photo via Blackberry

Top Secret Way to Save 50% or More on Your AdWords Bill

Do you advertise on Google AdWords? If so, did you know that there’s a top secret way to save 50% or more on your monthly Adwords cost if you create awesome ad campaigns? Alternatively, did you know that you might be paying up to a 400% surcharge on your AdWords cost if your ads stink?

How does this work? It has to do with an ingenious yet also somewhat confusing billing system that Google AdWords employs when calculating the Cost Per Click (CPC) when a user clicks on one of your search ads.

In AdWords, advertisers specify a maximum CPC, which is the most you’re willing to pay if a user clicks on your ad. But your maximum CPC is not the same thing as your actual CPC, which is always less. Exactly how much less depends on your secret AdWords discount (or surcharge).

Understanding Your Quality Score in AdWords

Quality Score is Google’s method of rewarding advertisers that have high quality ads and well structured campaigns, and also penalizing advertisers with lousy ad campaigns.

Google assigns a “Quality Score” between 1 and 10 to each of your keywords. It’s a grade for your keywords and ads that is calculated based mostly on the Click Through Rate (CTR) of your keywords and ads.

Relevance

The reason for this is relevance. Google wants to serve up relevant ads that help its users, because then they’ll be more likely to keep using Google, as well as to click those ads (which puts more money in Google’s pockets). If users are clicking on your ad more often, then there’s a good chance that your ad is relevant to those searches. If users aren’t clicking on your ad that often, then your ad probably just isn’t that relevant to the user’s search.

To Summarize

Google wants to incentivize and reward advertisers to write high quality, relevant ads and pick specific, relevant keywords that earn high Click Through Rates and thus High Quality Scores. The higher your Quality Score, the higher your secret AdWords discount.

But how much you ask?

The Typical Quality Score Distribution

Recently, I did a survey of the average impression-weighted Quality Scores across the accounts of several hundred WordStream clients acquired in 2013. Here’s a summary of what I found:

As you can see, Google grades all keywords on a curve.  Some keywords get a score of 10/10, but others get just 3/10 or 4/10. But on average, the typical keyword Quality Score is 5/10.

This means that having an above average Quality Score of greater than 5/10 results in a “discount,” and having a below average Quality Score of below 5/10 results in a surcharge.

Below are the benefits of having high Quality Score. As you can see in the following table, having a Quality Score of 10 affords you an estimated 50% discount:

Alternatively, a Quality Score of 6/10 means you save approximately 16.7% on your Cost Per Click (CPC). Furthermore, having a below average Quality Score of 2/10 means your CPC’s are actually increased by approximately 150% relative to the average CPC.

The key to getting your big discount is by having a higher Quality Score, which means doing stuff to ensure higher Click Through Rates (CTR) on your ads, such as writing great ads, using negative keywords, being picky in choosing your keywords, leveraging ad extensions and so on.

It’s also worth noting that in the last 4 years, Google has become a “tougher grader.” Meaning the average Quality Score grade used to be 7/10 and now it’s just 5/10. This means that a high Quality Score is worth much more than it was four years ago, in that it will result in a substantially higher discount.

Are Your Quality Scores Helping or Hurting Your AdWords Cost?

This new data illustrates just how crucial good Quality Scores are to your AdWords ROI (Return on Investment), since they can save you up to 50% on each click. So where do your Quality Scores fall in the grand scheme?

I suggest using the AdWords Grader to check your impression weighted Quality Score distribution. This free tool shows you what your Quality Scores look like across your account and where the curve should be for better cost efficiency, as shown here:

In this case, the advertiser has an average Quality Score of just 3.8/10, which is below the average score of 5/10. According to the preceding Discount / Surcharge Table,  they’re stuck paying the AdWords surcharge of between 25% and 67%.

Are you receiving the top secret AdWords Quality Score discount - or are you paying a surcharge on your Adwords cost?

Top Secret Photo via Shutterstock

How You Can Lower Your Self Employment Taxes

The end of tax time typically brings renewed interest in business structures. Fresh from filling out their tax forms, sole proprietors and partners in a general partnership are often concerned about self employment taxes and wonder if there’s a way to legally keep more of their hard earned money.

If you have a sole proprietorship or general partnership, read on to learn if incorporating or forming an LLC for your business can help you reduce self employment taxes. In addition, if you’re thinking about starting a business this year, you have an opportunity to start off right with a formal business structure.

An Intro to Self Employment Taxes

The self employment tax is an extra tax that self employed business owners, independent contractors and other independents need to pay. Self employment taxes are how sole proprietors (and partners in a general partnership) pay social security and Medicare payroll taxes.

When you’re an employee at a company, you split these taxes with your employer (typically, each pays 7.65 percent of eligible wages for the tax). But when you’re self employed, you’re essentially both the employer and the employee and thus, you’re responsible for both contributions.

Note that self employment taxes were reduced for 2011 and 2012, but are set to rise to the regular level for tax year 2013. This provides added incentive to take a look at your business structure for the years ahead.

LLC and S Corporation: Can They Lower Self Employment Taxes?

The LLC and S Corporation are popular business structures for small businesses, freelancers and entrepreneurs. Many small businesses begin as a sole proprietorship or general partnership and then ultimately transition to an LLC or S Corporation.

Both entities let you “pass through” your taxes. Meaning, the company itself doesn’t pay taxes, but profits and losses are passed on to your personal tax return. This is an important distinction from the general C Corporation that must file its own taxes (and often results in an increase in taxes for the small business owner).

For the S Corporation and LLC taxed as an S Corporation, you’re able to split your profits into two payment types - salary and S Corp distributions. You pay social security/Medicare tax only on the salary portion. This means that if your business made $80,000 in profits and you pay yourself $40,000 in salary and $40,000 in distributions, you only have to pay social security tax on the $40,000 salary.

Sounds good, right? Why not take it a step farther and pay yourself $1,000 in salary and $79,000 in distributions? That way you can really minimize your self employment (social security/Medicare) taxes. However, that type of compensation is not allowed, as the IRS requires you pay yourself a “fair and reasonable” salary and these distributions are watched very closely. You’ll have to pay yourself fair market rate for whatever services you provide to the company. Yet even so, small business owners can often significantly reduce their self-employment taxes by setting up as a corporation or LLC.

For example, if you’re running a sole proprietorship and you’re bringing in more in profit than a “fair and reasonable” salary, then it probably makes sense to form an S Corporation or LLC that’s taxed as an S Corporation.

Bear in mind that with a formal business structure, you’re generally required to operate your business at a higher administrative level than with the sole proprietorship (where there’s no paperwork at all). If you’re concerned about having too much paperwork and legal formalities, opt for the LLC and then elect to be taxed as an S Corporation. In general, the LLC has fewer legal requirements than corporations (S Corporations and C Corporations).

The Other Upside: Protecting Your Personal Assets

While lowering one’s taxes is often the driving force behind incorporating, LLCs and S Corporations offer another significant benefit for the small business. That is, protecting your personal assets.

With a sole proprietorship or general partnership, your own personal savings, property and other assets are at risk to settle any debts of the business. Yet once your business becomes an LLC or S Corporation, it exists as its own entity. This offers a shield between your personal assets and the business, giving you added peace of mind.

While most small business owners I know have little time to spare, I encourage you to take some time and investigate the various business structures. Speak with a tax advisor to learn more about your own personal situation.

As self employment taxes are set to rise back to the pre-2011 levels, it’s smart to act now to get ready for your 2013 taxes and beyond.

Grasping Money Photo via Shutterstock

42% of April Jobs Created by Small Businesses Per ADP Employment Report

[Click for larger image]

Forty-two percent of all jobs created in April came from small businesses, an ADP Employment report released this morning said.  Small businesses were responsible for 50,000 jobs out of a total of 119,000 created for the entire job market.

And most of the small business jobs (a total of 34,000) were created by the smallest of the small, those with under 20 employees.

And when you add in the number of jobs created by medium size businesses with up to 499 employees, we see that small and medium businesses were responsible for nearly 64% of total job growth during April 2013.

Service Sector Source of Most Jobs

Of the small business jobs created, an overwhelming majority, 41,000, were created in the service sector.  If you’re thinking that means slinging hamburgers, “service sector” covers much more.  It’s a large classification that includes financial, professional and business services, but also includes employees like restaurant workers, housekeepers, teachers, health care workers and retail sales workers.

Service jobs were also important to the overall employment numbers among large, medium and small businesses, officials said.

“The services sector generated the overwhelming majority of new jobs in April, contributing a total of 113,000, which helped to offset overall softness in the goods-producing sector, which was marked by a loss of 10,000 manufacturing jobs,” Carlos A. Rodriguez, ADP’s president and CEO, said with the release of this report.

Overall Job Growth Slowed, Says Employment Report

However, job growth slowed compared with previous months.  Today’s report notes that the pace of job growth has hit its slowest since September 2012.

There are several factors that are likely slowing job growth, said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. It should be no surprise that small businesses saw the most growth over the last month because larger businesses are currently weighing the expenses of providing healthcare to their employees before the end of the year, he said.

In 2013, businesses with 50 or more employees will be required to provide medical coverage to their employees or face federal penalties. This uncertain expense is a leading contributor to a lack of new jobs being created from these companies. This, along with tax increases and government spending cuts were leading factors in the weakened jobs market.

“Companies that have close to 50 employees, you have some big decisions to make,” Zandi said.

The rate of job growth in the last month is a sign that U.S. economic recovery is slowing out of the Great Recession, Zandi said. He told reporters Wednesday morning that the rate of growth is not enough to offset unemployment numbers and that similar numbers could be expected over the next three-to-six months.

“The ADP number was disappointing. The job market and economy are slowing,” Zandi said. “It’s OK but it’s certainly not enough to generate any declines in unemployment.”

Is Your Business Delivering a Seamless Customer Experience on Mobile Devices?

Important question to all entrepreneurs and small business owners: Is your online media strategy dedicated to traditional desktop and laptop users?  Have you invested adequately in a strategy to drive access to your business via mobile devices?  If the answer is yes and no respectively, well you are putting yourself in the undesirable position of missing out on the next wave of online business communication.

The good news is that you are not alone. The fallacy that most businesses continue to suffer from is viewing mobile as an intermediary medium between the client and their website or an SMS campaign tool at the most. Even gargantuan businesses like Facebook have been hit with this reality. While more and more users are accessing Facebook on their mobile devices, the company, as yet, has been unable to replicate the success of its desktop based advertising on the mobile platform.

Enter Brian Solis, a digital analyst, sociologist, self proclaimed futurist and published author of books such as ‘What’s the Future of Business’ and ‘The End of Business as Usual’ who states that the effervescent mobile devices - smartphones and tablets, are now worthy of having their own client engagement experience. With more than 100 million smartphone users (as of 2011) and an expected base of 90 million tablet users by 2014 in the U.S alone, this is one creamy pie that the business owners can ill-afford to not grab a bite of.

As an end user how often have you tried to access a website on your mobile and it fails to function with the same veracity as on the desktop? Booking tickets, paying your bills, renewing your insurance online can be nerve wrecking experiences on a mobile device, with no surety of the transaction actually going through or worse still your credit card being debited while the website flashes a transaction failed message.

Brian in his latest post asks the crucial question - with technology and customer behavior evolving, are you evolving your digital strategy as well? Mobile apps, besides being the new form of information exchange, are changing the way businesses do business.  My colleague Vincenzo Ravina’s recent article on Smallbiztechnology regarding how the hotels are now catering to mobile users,  also showcased a great example of this. The iConcierge App developed for Radisson allows its guests to use their mobile devices to plan their itinerary, request for room services, book additional services like a spa, check flight details and book a cab.

Ask yourself the basic questions of who in your business is responsible for driving the mobile platform, what is the experience of your customers on mobile devices and how well is it integrated with your social media and website? And even though you may feel that you need to do a lot more before you can invest in a highly developed mobile platform, make sure it’s part of the overall growth strategy chalked out for your business.

47 Year Old Small Business Builds Custom Apps And See’s Big Results

Illinois-based Bahrns Equipment is a 35-person, family-owned company specializing in heavy equipment rental and supply. Like many other small companies today, the Bahrns management team has been eager to find ways to increase their efficiency and their productivity on a tight budget. The never-ending pile of paperwork and forms to document all of the sales and service calls were becoming a time consuming and costly part of the Bahrns day-to-day operations.

After a little research, the team at Bahrns knew that creating custom apps designed specifically for their business could be exactly the solution they needed. But like many other companies their size, it appeared initially that the high costs of these more advanced applications could make them impossible to obtain. Beyond that, they needed to ensure that any new technologies they employed would need to be easily adoptable by their employees and manageable without a dedicated IT team.

The team at Bahrns stumbled on another option. Canvas, a developer for business mobile applications, offered an interesting solution. The company provides ready-made applications that offer a quick, do-it-yourself process to personalize mobile business applications. The applications come equipped with features like electronic signatures, GPS, barcode scanners and access to business lists and catalogs.

Since discovering these custom built applications, Bahrns has now deployed 25 Canvas-made applications. They utilize them during service calls, in the sales department and even for employee time tracking. They also utilize an application that allows their customers to submit their own service requests outside of their normal business hours.

Since the implementation of the applications, Bahrns Equipment is experiencing a noticeable improvement in their sales and service processes. Their technicians now have accessibility to customer information while out on the job using a tablet instead of returning to the office. This process is saving the company on travel expenses while increasing their employees’ productivity. The team at Bahrns also reports an increase in their customer service levels because of their ability to now quickly invoice customers and respond promptly to service requests.

Trustwave launches three mobile-specific services

Trustwave has launched a mobile security practice to offer enterprise compliance and risk services to address the challenges and complexities of mobility.

Part of its SpiderLabs services, it includes: the Trustwave Enterprise Mobility Assessment Services that it says helps businesses identify gaps and potential risk exposure; and BYOD ‘Self-Sealing' Network Protection, which integrates network access control, a secure web gateway, data loss prevention and system information and event management (SIEM) to identify mobile devices on the network, and enforce BYOD and data access policies, according to the company.

Finally, the Trustwave SpiderLabs Services for Mobile contains a team of threat researchers, forensic investigators and ethical hackers to help businesses test security and identify vulnerabilities in BYOD deployments, mobile applications and mobile point-of-sale systems.

Leo Cole, general manager of security solutions at Trustwave, said: “Our new mobile security practice allows us to serve as a trusted advisor to our customers as they create a more holistic approach to mobility that includes risk assessments and proven technologies, that enables them to improve their risk and compliance posture, deploy secure mobile applications to their customers, and protect their network from emerging vulnerabilities and threats.”

Key and certificate challenges could end up costing UK businesses £247 million

A lack of control over cryptographic keys and certificates could leave large UK businesses open to attack.

According to research by Venafi and the Ponemon Institute, the typical UK Fortune 500 company has five or six million keys and certificates in use at any one time, potentially creating a significant target for attack. This, the report said, could amount to a potential threat exposure costing UK businesses £247 million.

Calum Macleod, EMEA evangelist at Venafi, said: “With every business and government department across the UK relying on cryptographic keys and certificates in order to operate, failure to manage just one can result in serious attacks or unplanned system outages.

“Criminals understand how difficult it is to control trust, and by failing to have the correct controls in place to manage or secure certificates and keys, businesses have opened themselves up to risk on a daily basis.”

The report said that on average, enterprises are projected to risk losing an average of £22 million every two years due to attacks on cryptographic keys and digital certificates, with a maximum possible cost exposure of £247 million per organisation. It also found that there are 1.3 exploits against weak cryptography per 24 months per enterprise - leading to costs of approximately £80 million for each business.

Macleod said: “It is extremely concerning to know that so many businesses are aware of the security impacts certificate and key oversight can have on a business, yet are still doing nothing to combat the problem. Unless organisations sit up and take notice of this growing problem the threat and the amount of money lost by organisations each year will only increase.”

Reputation.com attacked and user details are breached

Hackers have hit the database of online ‘reputation management' company Reputation.com, exposing names, email and physical addresses, phone numbers and personal details.

According to a letter from the company, it "identified, interrupted and swiftly shut down an external attack on our secure network". It said that its network security team detected the breach shortly after it began, and took immediate steps to stop the attack before it could be completed.

“At Reputation.com, transparency and openness are part of our culture. That's why, although the extent of the breach and the limited kind of information accessed during this attack did not legally obligate us to provide notice to our users, we nevertheless felt it was important to let you know that this event occurred,” it said.

“Following the attack, our engineering and security team immediately conducted an exhaustive investigation, working closely with independent security experts to determine what information may have been accessed. We are also implementing additional security measures, beyond the high level of security that is already in place, to ensure your continued protection.”

It confirmed that financial information, social security numbers, account details, communications and "any details about the services we provided to you" were not accessed.

It also said that a list of salted and hashed user passwords for a small number of users was accessed, but while it said that "it was highly unlikely that these passwords could ever be decrypted, we immediately changed the password of every user to prevent any possible unauthorised account access".

“Based on the type of information accessed, we do not believe it's likely that you will experience any future issues as a result of this incident. However, out of an abundance of caution, we are offering free credit monitoring for a year to those affected clients who request it within the next 30 days,” it said.

“Security and your privacy remain our absolute first priority.”

Two Online Servcies That Can Lead You To A Larger Fan Base On Facebook

Today, businesses not only have to focus on orders and sales, but they also have to consider social media a part of their operations. We’ve gotten to a point we cannot turn back from anymore. Social media is the new newspaper. It’s the 21 century’s local shopping guide. If you’re not out there getting a ton of likes, you’re missing out on an enormous part of your potential customer base. If you’re not focused on this, you’re in trouble!

This isn’t to say that a small business can’t survive without Facebook, but you’re certainly sticking a dagger in your chest if you choose to ignore its potential. If the number of fans on your page doesn’t bring a smile to your face, you have a serious problem. There’s one way to put a hamper on the issue, though: Get your hands on a social media marketing platform.

Here are a couple of services that provide exactly what you’re looking for and streamline it so you don’t have to go through the incredible pains that going solo usually implies:

• Vertical Response Social - A lot of people know Vertical Response. It’s almost become a household name in social media marketing. It never hurts to stick by tried and true methods to make sure you’re getting the most out of what you pay for. Their platform is very easy to use and provides a wealth of data on your page, letting you know what you’re doing right and what you need to work on. Bundled with other services, they’re offering social on top of that for $9 a month. If you want social marketing on its own, then you’ll pay $18 a month.
• GroSocial - Birthed by Infusionsoft, this social network marketing platform has quite a reputation standing for it after the success of the Idaho Central Credit Union. The ICCU has gained 4,000 likes through the use of this GroSocial. It’s a proven service that also lets you easily create a presentable and professional page by leveraging their drag-and-drop designer interface. Social media marketing has never been so painlessly fun! After a 30-day free trial, you pay $29.95 per month as a base cost and $9.95 for each extra page.

There you have it! These are sufficiently innovative and powerful services that can really take you places if you know what to do with that kind of power. They may not be magical tools that beam you into other dimensions, but they certainly come close to it.

Two Online Servcies That Can Lead You To A Larger Fan Base On Facebook

Today, businesses not only have to focus on orders and sales, but they also have to consider social media a part of their operations. We’ve gotten to a point we cannot turn back from anymore. Social media is the new newspaper. It’s the 21 century’s local shopping guide. If you’re not out there getting a ton of likes, you’re missing out on an enormous part of your potential customer base. If you’re not focused on this, you’re in trouble!

This isn’t to say that a small business can’t survive without Facebook, but you’re certainly sticking a dagger in your chest if you choose to ignore its potential. If the number of fans on your page doesn’t bring a smile to your face, you have a serious problem. There’s one way to put a hamper on the issue, though: Get your hands on a social media marketing platform.

Here are a couple of services that provide exactly what you’re looking for and streamline it so you don’t have to go through the incredible pains that going solo usually implies:

• Vertical Response Social - A lot of people know Vertical Response. It’s almost become a household name in social media marketing. It never hurts to stick by tried and true methods to make sure you’re getting the most out of what you pay for. Their platform is very easy to use and provides a wealth of data on your page, letting you know what you’re doing right and what you need to work on. Bundled with other services, they’re offering social on top of that for $9 a month. If you want social marketing on its own, then you’ll pay $18 a month.
• GroSocial - Birthed by Infusionsoft, this social network marketing platform has quite a reputation standing for it after the success of the Idaho Central Credit Union. The ICCU has gained 4,000 likes through the use of this GroSocial. It’s a proven service that also lets you easily create a presentable and professional page by leveraging their drag-and-drop designer interface. Social media marketing has never been so painlessly fun! After a 30-day free trial, you pay $29.95 per month as a base cost and $9.95 for each extra page.

There you have it! These are sufficiently innovative and powerful services that can really take you places if you know what to do with that kind of power. They may not be magical tools that beam you into other dimensions, but they certainly come close to it.

Computer science students claim experience is more worthy than qualifications

A work placement is as important for today's computer science students as a degree.

Meeting final year computer science students at the University of Surrey, SC Magazine found that some students were considering masters and post-graduate degrees, while others saw a career option in programming and network management rather than security.

Sitting down with two groups of four students from the course, a mix of both British and overseas and male and female students, some said that they were considering a career in security, while others were unclear on where their future lay.

One student told SC Magazine that they needed to look at further education "to get a career" and qualifications "add a value" and an employer would look at it on a candidate's CV. The university currently offers a three-year course, with a year spent on a work placement.

Another student said that they had enjoyed their paid work placement at a defence contractor and had lined up a job with them already. They said: “I enjoyed it and it was very interesting work and I definitely want to go back there.”

When asked where others would consider working, one mentioned a major security consultancy "because they always look like they are enjoying themselves", while another said that they would consider a job in programming when they left university, as their work placement "was good experience in the real world".

Others said that there were numerous opportunities, but would consider their options upon graduation when they planned to find a job and had the advantage of experience. However one student admitted that the work placement year "meant that the degree was pretty pointless as you can learn and explore what you want to do".

They continued: “An internship is the way in, they don't care if you have a degree. With an internship, it is more value than a degree and you get more experience, you have got to try different areas and find what is right for you.”

Students also told former Eli Lilly CISO and Jericho Forum board member Adrian Seccombe, who teaches the security modules in the course, that one security module was not really enough and that they "had not learned enough as we need skills".

Seccombe, who retires from this position this summer before moving to work on other initiatives, said that he would feed the remarks back to the course professor, and said that when he was at Eli Lilly, it would accept university placement people, as the value that they contribute was worthwhile. “Whether they were doing web application development or security administration, it was about giving them value,” he said.

Asked if universities were doing enough to meet the skills gap, Seccombe said that the skills gap works both ways - that gap is management not knowing what they are missing, and the other that people can bring in.

Avast acquires social networking security specialist Secure.me

Avast has announced it has purchased privacy protection company Secure.me.

Incorporating Secure.me's Facebook-connected cloud service that aims to offer social media privacy, advanced content inspection and mobile device application security, the acquisition will see Avast add sophisticated algorithms to help analyse social networking threats that could damage a user's privacy, security and reputation.

Ondrej Vlcek, CTO of Avast, said: “We were always fans of the solutions and underlying technologies that Secure.me has developed and brought to market, and now we're working at light-speed to fully integrate them into both our free and premium offerings, so our couple hundred million users can get all of the great benefits these capabilities deliver.”

Avast CEO Vincent Steckler said: “By including Secure.me's cutting-edge social-privacy and security technologies in our own security offerings, we will be giving customers even greater confidence in their online experience, whether they are on a PC, tablet, or a mobile device.”