Even if you’re not enthusiastic about the whole “save our planet†business, you’d probably be interested in saving some money. Considering that lighting and air conditioning are two expenses you have complete control over, you might want to begin cutting costs in that department.
Approximately 30 to 50 percent of all your energy consumption goes into lighting. HVAC air conditioning accounts for around the same figure. Depending on its health, your air conditioning system might even be consuming more electricity than usual. Here are some ideas on how you can cut some of these costs and cut back in other areas.
Chances are you have some computers in the office. While you most likely need these for your operations, putting them on standby mode can really help reduce the amount of money you spend in electricty. Of course, there are many situations in which you can’t do this, but it’s good to keep computers off whenever they’ll sit idly for more than an hour.
Aside from that, there are also two green solutions you can use to make sure that your electrical costs will be minimal:
EnTouch Controls - This is a wireless and cloud-based solution, coupled with HVAC and lighting controls, that helps you manage energy for your location. You’ll be able to manage energy usage through multiple devices and even set up control for multiple locations. Their holistic solution has a high up-front cost ($1,500 for a lighting controller, for example), but it’s well worth it, especially if you’re living in a state that has many lighting regulations (such as California).
Nest Learning Thermostat - Marketed to home consumers, the Nest Learning Thermostat has a lot of features that businesses can also use. It automatically learns heating and cooling patterns based on several algorithms it operates with. After setting temperatures for about a week, the thermostat already starts gaining a mind of its own, adjusting itself without your assistance. To learn how it works, watch their video on the subject.
Energy is expensive. Whatever investment you can make to save a dime or two in this area will empower you to make investments elsewhere. It opens new doors and makes your business run less murky.
Apps, apps, apps. Some are good, some are bad. They’re money-making machines and only growing in popularity with each passing day. So the question is, should you build an app for your business? Is it essential to have an app that caters to your customers?
You might be in a situation where you’re thinking, “Yes, I want to make an app that caters to my customers. I have a great idea, but no way to execute it!†You might not know how to code, or just don’t have the time to do all that coding.
Well, have I got some good news for you. Several businesses have cropped up that offer a simple way to create your own apps without knowing anything about coding! Let’s take a look at a few of them!
It’s drag and drop! Remember Geocities? Drag and drop is where it’s at! Easy as you please. EachScape can create native iOS and Android apps, and has announced a new offering specifically designed for the SMB marketplace. EachScape is offering a DIY environment that enables companies to quickly and easily build and manage applications and bring them to market.
App builders can select from a variety of starter modules and use pre-configured components to build apps that will work seamlessly across the fragmented mobile environment. As a complement to its successful enterprise-grade app creation and management platform, this product allows SMBs an unlimited number of apps, users and builds for less than $1000 per month.
It’s not quite drag and drop, but it’s dead simple. There are a number of modules and types of apps you can choose from and you simple pick what you want in the app and ignore what you don’t. You can fill it with content from your website, or create what you like in the app builder. Include mapped directions, videos, podcasts and more. It costs $49 a month. It’s significantly cheaper, but less powerful!
Other companies you might want to consider are AppMachine and AppBaker. If you want to make a game, and you know some code, but not enough to code an entire app, check out GameSalad. It makes no sense to me, but I’m told someone who knows how to code will find it quite zippy to learn!
If you’ve made an app with one of these companies before, let us know which one is best in the comments below!
US federal authorities have charged eight hackers in connection with a $45m debit card fraud scheme linked to the hacking of card processors in the US and India.
"The defendants and their co-conspirators participated in a massive 21st century bank heist that reached across the internet and stretched around the globe," US attorney Loretta Lynch said in a statement.
"In the place of guns and masks, this cyber crime organisation used laptops and the internet," she said.
Police are holding seven people in custody, while the eighth suspect and leader of the group, Alberto Yusi Lajud-Pena, is reported to have been murdered two weeks ago.
The hackers are believed to have broken into prepaid debit card databases to raise the limit on cards before withdrawing money from cash machines in 26 countries using cloned debit cards.
In the place of guns and masks, this cyber crime organisation used laptops and the internet
US attorney Loretta Lynch
The indictment said in such operations hackers manipulate account balances, and in some cases security protocols, to eliminate withdrawal limits on individual accounts.
"As a result, even a few compromised bank account numbers can result in tremendous financial loss to the victim financial institution," the indictment said.
In a similar heist in 2008, a gang that took money from cash machines in 49 cities around the world using cloned debit cards.
It is not known if the payment card processors targeted in the latest heist were compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS), a code of best practices created by the card industry designed to prevent hackers from obtaining card details.
This is a serious incident that raises a lot of questions about the security of the current payment systems, said Costin Raiu, director of global research at security firm Kaspersky Lab.
However, he said while insecure magnetic stripes on cards are still used in the US when performing payments with cards, this has been mostly abandoned in Europe and replaced by more secure chips.
The cyber criminals specialised in card fraud, and focused on replicating real cards on "blank" cards by reprogramming the magnetic stripe.
“A lot of these attacks would go away or decrease by getting rid of the stripe and updating the US payment systems to use the chips,†said Raiu. “It makes sense for the banks to invest in upgrading the cards in the US and worldwide.â€
David Emm, senior security researcher at Kaspersky Lab, said the latest thefts highlight the global nature of cyber crime.
“This in turn highlights the importance of Europol's European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) as a focal point for combating cyber crime,†he said.
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A federal appeals court has overturned a decision that would have required small business owners to display “right to unionize†posters in the workplace. The posters would have been extremely detailed. The consequences of not displaying posters could have been severe.
The National Association of Manufacturers, the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) and others including two small business owners, had appealed a lower court ruling requiring the posters.
On appeal, the U.S. Court of Appeals determined the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) could not require this new rule.  The Court essentially said that (1) the compulsory posters violated the employer’s free speech rights, and (2) the NLRB’s proposed enforcement action exceeded its rule-making authority.
The right to unionize poster
Under the rule, small business owners would have been required to hang an 11-by-17 inch poster in the workplace. Posting also would have been required on a company’s intranet. The proposed posters would have had very detailed language (see embedded court decision below, pages 31 to 34, for the text).
The small businesses and groups that filed the challenge noted that the posters were one-sided. Â Among other things, the posters did not notify employees of their rights to decertify a union, to refuse to pay dues to a union in a right-to-work state, and to object to paying excess union dues.
The rule also attempted to require small business owners in right-to-work states to comply with the NLRB mandate.
Penalties for failing to post
The posters themselves weren’t the only issue, though.  It was the serious consequences of not posting them that had the two small businesses and their advocates up in arms.
Had small business owners not put up the poster, Â they could have been charged with unfair labor practices. On top of that, they could have been opened up to investigations and other broad actions on unrelated claims. Â The rule went beyond established labor law and regulations in existence today.
The NFIB, a non-profit that advocates on behalf of small businesses, spoke also about the concern of accidental  violations.  The NFIB noted, â€small businesses are particularly vulnerable to accidental violations because the regulatory compliance burden most often falls on the small business owner and because small businesses do not have dedicated compliance staff.â€
“During oral argument before the Court of Appeals, one judge asked the attorney representing the Board a basic question. What, if any, limits are there on the NLRB’s authority? The attorney quickly â€" and shockingly â€" responded that in the Board’s view there are no limits to their power. Yesterday, the Court issued a strong rebuke to that line of thinking and highlighted the shaky ground the NLRB is on with regard to its agenda.â€
The NFIB hailed the decision s a victory for small businesses. “Today’s decision is a monumental victory for small business owners across this country who have been subject to the illegal actions of a labor board that has consistently failed to act as a neutral arbiter, as the law contemplates,†NFIB’s executive director of its Small Business Legal Center Karen Harned said in a statement.
The National Association of Manufacturers represents 11,000 manufacturers in the United States. It was founded in 1895 and is based in Washington, D.C.
The NFIB is a Nashville, Tennessee based organization founded in 1943. It represents 350,000 small-business owners. Membership is made up of small businesses, 60% of which have 5 or fewer employees, and 55% of which have gross sales of $350,000 or less.
A federal appeals court has overturned a decision that would have required small business owners to display “right to unionize†posters in the workplace. The posters would have been extremely detailed. The consequences of not displaying posters could have been severe.
The National Association of Manufacturers, the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) and others including two small business owners, had appealed a lower court ruling requiring the posters.
On appeal, the U.S. Court of Appeals determined the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) could not require this new rule.  The Court essentially said that (1) the compulsory posters violated the employer’s free speech rights, and (2) the NLRB’s proposed enforcement action exceeded its rule-making authority.
The right to unionize poster
Under the rule, small business owners would have been required to hang an 11-by-17 inch poster in the workplace. Posting also would have been required on a company’s intranet. The proposed posters would have had very detailed language (see embedded court decision below, pages 31 to 34, for the text).
The small businesses and groups that filed the challenge noted that the posters were one-sided. Â Among other things, the posters did not notify employees of their rights to decertify a union, to refuse to pay dues to a union in a right-to-work state, and to object to paying excess union dues.
The rule also attempted to require small business owners in right-to-work states to comply with the NLRB mandate.
Penalties for failing to post
The posters themselves weren’t the only issue, though.  It was the serious consequences of not posting them that had the two small businesses and their advocates up in arms.
Had small business owners not put up the poster, Â they could have been charged with unfair labor practices. On top of that, they could have been opened up to investigations and other broad actions on unrelated claims. Â The rule went beyond established labor law and regulations in existence today.
The NFIB, a non-profit that advocates on behalf of small businesses, spoke also about the concern of accidental  violations.  The NFIB noted, â€small businesses are particularly vulnerable to accidental violations because the regulatory compliance burden most often falls on the small business owner and because small businesses do not have dedicated compliance staff.â€
“During oral argument before the Court of Appeals, one judge asked the attorney representing the Board a basic question. What, if any, limits are there on the NLRB’s authority? The attorney quickly â€" and shockingly â€" responded that in the Board’s view there are no limits to their power. Yesterday, the Court issued a strong rebuke to that line of thinking and highlighted the shaky ground the NLRB is on with regard to its agenda.â€
The NFIB hailed the decision s a victory for small businesses. “Today’s decision is a monumental victory for small business owners across this country who have been subject to the illegal actions of a labor board that has consistently failed to act as a neutral arbiter, as the law contemplates,†NFIB’s executive director of its Small Business Legal Center Karen Harned said in a statement.
The National Association of Manufacturers represents 11,000 manufacturers in the United States. It was founded in 1895 and is based in Washington, D.C.
The NFIB is a Nashville, Tennessee based organization founded in 1943. It represents 350,000 small-business owners. Membership is made up of small businesses, 60% of which have 5 or fewer employees, and 55% of which have gross sales of $350,000 or less.
Freelancer.com, one of the top online job portals for freelancers in the world, has just released a report on  growth in hiring across various job categories based on 300,000 jobs posted on its site for Q1 2013.  What makes this report interesting are the trends in industries, companies and products reflected from the growth of jobs.
Here are some of the key trends spotted in the report that are pertinent to growing businesses:
E-commerce continues to dominate retail space: Jobs pertaining to E-commerce sites grew by 19% in the first quarter on freelancer.com, confirming that growth in this sector continues unabated. A report on emarketer.com confirms that e-commerce sales (excluding travel and online event sales) grew by an average of 15% over the last 3 years, while overall retail sales growth averaged 5.5%. A significant reason for the growth in ecommerce retail is increased accessibility to e-commerce hosting technologies, as offered by sites such as Magento, Volusion and Shopify. The other reason, of course, is the change in consumer behavior driven by smartphones and tablets. It is estimated that sales on mobile devices or m-commerce, will grow by a staggering 56.5% this year compared to 2012 figures. This trend is an ominous sign for survival of brick and mortar stores that fail to adapt their selling models to include online sales.
Email marketing trumps social media (Facebook and Twitter): While email marketing jobs on freelancer.com grew by 21%, Twitter jobs grew by 18% and Facebook jobs fell by 4%. In other words, for businesses of all sizes, email marketing continues to make sense - it’s basic and gets the job done. A 2012 infographic released by Montate.com confirmed that in terms of driving actual sales conversions email marketing is 10 times more effective than social media.
Outsource your daily workload:Â Perhaps the most significant trend is the 113% growth in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) jobs, which includes virtual assistants, customer service and simple back office jobs being outsourced to save time and money by small businesses and entrepreneurs.
3D Printing for offices has arrived: 3D design jobs on the portal increased by 21% thanks to increasing affordability of 3D printers. Until just a few years ago the cheapest 3D printing machine was for $30,000, with the most expensive being $100,000. Today, you can choose from an array of options ranging from $499 to $2,500. Â Specialized professions, such as those that involve product design and rapid prototyping ( architects, designers, educators, engineers), will find lots of uses for 3D printers. In January this year Nokia released 3D templates that allow users to print Lumia 820 case using a 3D printer.
Other noticeable trends from the survey included rise in SEO jobs as businesses try to cope with Google’s Panda and Penguin updates and a 20% increase in Android development jobs, which soared past those for Apple, which only saw a 11% increase.
Microsoft is to address the vulnerability in Internet Explorer 8 that could potentially lead to zero-day attacks in its May Patch Tuesday next week.
The vulnerability has already been exploited during a watering hole attack targeting the US Department of Labor (DoL) website and security researchers are advising users of IE8 that this patch, rated ‘critical', should be implemented first.
In its Advance Notification, Microsoft announced that there will be a further nine bulletins addressing 33 unique vulnerabilities. Of these, one more is rated critical and affects Microsoft Windows and eight are ‘important' and concern problems in Windows, Office, Server, Tools and .Net Framework, Dustin Childs, group manager at Microsoft Trustworthy Computing, confirmed.
Wolfgang Kandek, chief technical officer at Qualys, said in a blog post that five of these bulletins allow for remote code execution and these “should be the focus points for your patching next weekâ€.
Kandek also revealed that Adobe will release a patch covering the zero-day vulnerability affecting ColdFusion and a new version of Adobe Reader on the same day.
Construction technology is an always-evolving field, with the outdoor nature of job sites making it difficult to access computer equipment. But today’s mobile devices make it easy for contractors to take software to the job site with them, even sharing it with subcontractors and site managers.
Below are examples of some common construction-site tasks that can be automated by technology.
Time-Tracking Tools
Construction teams need the ability to plan and track entire projects, storing timesheets, tracking time, and holding all relevant project documents on easily-accessible Cloud servers. Sage Construction and Real Estate now allows tracking of employee time worked in the field, giving employers the ability to track labor costs and employees to log time directly from a smartphone.
“One of the most common areas of opportunity for a construction company to strengthen a project’s financial performance is to improve its visibility into labor costs and potential profitability threats earlier in the project,†said Jon Witty, vice president and general manager of Sage Construction and Real Estate. “Making it simple for employees to provide employee timecard information in the field using phones and tablets better positions a company to collect necessary labor information sooner so they can course-correct faster.â€
Cost-Estimating Software
Estimating is one of the most crucial parts of a construction company’s operations. Creating competitive, professional bids helps construction businesses land those jobs that will help them succeed. By automating the process, contractors can easily obtain pricing on all parts and labor to ensure no surprises pop up once the job is awarded.
Look for a solution that factors in the cost of subcontractors, parts, business costs, and a small profit for your business. Sage, and ProContractorMX both provide the comprehensive tools businesses need to prepare proposals that win jobs.
Procurement Automation
For a small construction business, inventory, purchasing, and order processing are time-consuming tasks that take owners’ attention away from the work that keeps money rolling in. Procurement software like Maxwell Systems’ Procurement Management (from the makers of ProContractor MX) automate tracking of items received, invoiced, backordered, produced, and used. Inventory Control will protect against duplicate orders and supply shortages, which can delay projects.
 Project Management Software
One of the most important duties of a construction manager is ensuring projects progress on schedule. Construction-based project management software can provide 24/7 visibility of all projects and their statuses. For home builders, BuilderTrend provides multiple views, custom schedule templates, and multiple views. For other construction projects, ProCore is an easy-to-use Cloud-based solution. ProCore provides a centralized hub to allow owners, engineers, architects, and specialty contractors to view and update the progress of different facets of a project. This saves time on e-mails and phone calls, helping move things along more smoothly.
Billing Automation
If a construction business is still using paper billing processes, that business is already behind the times. Billing is one of the administrative functions your clients can clearly see. If you’re still sending paper bills and requiring payments be mailed, you will likely look less professional than your counterparts. For many construction businesses, general solutions like QuickBooks should suffice. Some of the above-mentioned solutions also provide billing automation as an option, so this may be something you’ll want to consider as you browse solutions.
Every facet of a project, from start to finish, can be automated to help keep construction projects moving. These solutions can take care of the grueling administrative tasks to let managers focus on the work itself.
Construction technology is an always-evolving field, with the outdoor nature of job sites making it difficult to access computer equipment. But today’s mobile devices make it easy for contractors to take software to the job site with them, even sharing it with subcontractors and site managers.
Below are examples of some common construction-site tasks that can be automated by technology.
Time-Tracking Tools
Construction teams need the ability to plan and track entire projects, storing timesheets, tracking time, and holding all relevant project documents on easily-accessible Cloud servers. Sage Construction and Real Estate now allows tracking of employee time worked in the field, giving employers the ability to track labor costs and employees to log time directly from a smartphone.
“One of the most common areas of opportunity for a construction company to strengthen a project’s financial performance is to improve its visibility into labor costs and potential profitability threats earlier in the project,†said Jon Witty, vice president and general manager of Sage Construction and Real Estate. “Making it simple for employees to provide employee timecard information in the field using phones and tablets better positions a company to collect necessary labor information sooner so they can course-correct faster.â€
Cost-Estimating Software
Estimating is one of the most crucial parts of a construction company’s operations. Creating competitive, professional bids helps construction businesses land those jobs that will help them succeed. By automating the process, contractors can easily obtain pricing on all parts and labor to ensure no surprises pop up once the job is awarded.
Look for a solution that factors in the cost of subcontractors, parts, business costs, and a small profit for your business. Sage, and ProContractorMX both provide the comprehensive tools businesses need to prepare proposals that win jobs.
Procurement Automation
For a small construction business, inventory, purchasing, and order processing are time-consuming tasks that take owners’ attention away from the work that keeps money rolling in. Procurement software like Maxwell Systems’ Procurement Management (from the makers of ProContractor MX) automate tracking of items received, invoiced, backordered, produced, and used. Inventory Control will protect against duplicate orders and supply shortages, which can delay projects.
 Project Management Software
One of the most important duties of a construction manager is ensuring projects progress on schedule. Construction-based project management software can provide 24/7 visibility of all projects and their statuses. For home builders, BuilderTrend provides multiple views, custom schedule templates, and multiple views. For other construction projects, ProCore is an easy-to-use Cloud-based solution. ProCore provides a centralized hub to allow owners, engineers, architects, and specialty contractors to view and update the progress of different facets of a project. This saves time on e-mails and phone calls, helping move things along more smoothly.
Billing Automation
If a construction business is still using paper billing processes, that business is already behind the times. Billing is one of the administrative functions your clients can clearly see. If you’re still sending paper bills and requiring payments be mailed, you will likely look less professional than your counterparts. For many construction businesses, general solutions like QuickBooks should suffice. Some of the above-mentioned solutions also provide billing automation as an option, so this may be something you’ll want to consider as you browse solutions.
Every facet of a project, from start to finish, can be automated to help keep construction projects moving. These solutions can take care of the grueling administrative tasks to let managers focus on the work itself.
What a difference a decade can make. Â Terry Jones, Founder of Travelocity.com and Chairman of Kayak.com, joins host, Brent Leary, to discuss adaptation to change and the differences between the early beginnings of Travelocity, founded in 1996, to the changes and opportunities that were in place when Kayak was founded in 2006. The end result is two companies of the same size in terms of visitors, yet one requires 3,000 employees while the other requires only 220.
* * * * *
Small Business Trends: Can you tell us a bit about your background?
Terry Jones: I started my career as a travel agent and did that for about five years. I built a pretty big company, a start up when I was in my 20’s, and then jumped over to tech. I worked over at a company selling tech to travel agents and we sold that company to American Airlines.
Then I spent 20 years at American in both marketing and IT. When I was CIO, I was given this little online department that had a product that was on CompuServe and AOL. We put that on the Internet and it became Travelocity.
Now I’m Chairman of Kayak.com, which we founded seven years ago. We took it public last year and hopefully we’ll close the deal to sell the company to Priceline.com for $1.8 billion some day soon pending government approval.
Small Business Trends:Â What are some of the big changes in technology and culture between what you did with Travelocity and what you did with Kayak?
Terry Jones: Travelocity has over 3,000 employees, Kayak.com has 220. Yet they are the same size in terms of Internet visitors. How in the world is that possible? Well part of that is because Travelocity started in 1996 and there really weren’t any Internet tools at all. We had to build everything by hand, so it is a legacy application. We grew that business through traditional brand advertising. They have a large customer service department that is probably easily 1,000 people if not more.
At Kayak there are computers in the Cloud, so we don’t have a data center. For the first six years, we got all of our customers from Google, so it was search based. We did not have to spend all of that money in advertising.
We’re not a travel agency, we’re a search company. So we don’t have a customer service function. We deliberately were very lean in how we did things. Today you can do something with just a couple of people and really create a very large business.
Small Business Trends:Â Was it difficult from a an organizational culture perspective to adapt to changes?
Terry Jones: I don’t think so. Kayak is the traditional startup, venture capital funded. We had two experienced leaders, one from Intuit and one from Orbitz. They really wanted to create a very lean, mean business. We ran the thing on QuickBooks up until we went public. We just didn’t have the courage to go public with QuickBooks. We thought Wall Street might be a little worried about that.
I think these guys were very good at culturing a team. I have a new book called ‘On Innovation,’ and it goes through the basics of innovation, which I think starts with culture and team. Watching Kayak, one of the most important things was to watch our CPO (Chief Performance Officer), who is focused in hiring absolutely the best people he can find.
You learn that rock stars hang out with rock stars. If you hire A- players, more A-players want to be there because they want to go and change the world together and they don’t want to be dragged back by C and D players.
Small Business Trends:Â In what ways have customers changed?
Terry Jones: When we started Travelocity, we had to spend a lot of time convincing them to put their credit card online. People were afraid to do that. We had a special number where they could call us to give us their credit card and we put it in. Of course we didn’t tell them we put it in online just like they did, because it was safe and they were afraid.
Today, they are very confident. They are so confident that at Kayak, we have over 24 million mobile downloads of our applications. They are even comfortable doing it over the phone.
I think people still shop around more than they have to, because at Kayak we are very comprehensive in terms of price. I think that people still want to buy direct, which is something that we allow them to do on Kayak.
We talk a lot about social media today. It is in every conference we all go to. But I think we have to realize very few people actually buy through social media. It’s an interesting place to build your brand, but it is really not a place that people buy yet, and certainly not in travel.
Small Business Trends:Â You mentioned Kayak is a search company not a travel company. Was that mindset something the company began with, or was it something you transitioned to?
Terry Jones: No, actually that was the idea. Ninety percent of the people that came to our websites would search for price, but then go direct to an airline, hotel or a car company to buy. We said, ‘Why don’t we just create a company that does that? That allows you to search very effectively, very quickly across all of the various sources of travel purchase. Then when you click, you buy direct. You burrow right down to the last page of Marriott, or the last page of Delta, and just fill in your name and you are done.’
We started out to be a search company and we started out to earn our money as Google does on a pay per click basis. We stayed that way until this year. Now you now can buy directly from Kayak. We did that because we were getting a lot of questions from people who wanted to buy from us. They now trust us.
Also from the mobile world that is pretty important. Because people don’t want to put in their credit card five times and fill out different forms. It is just too hard. Having them buy from Kayak makes it simpler and it increases the value of our mobile site.
I think we have always wanted to be a search company. We are a search company and I think that we will remain that way.
Small Business Trends:Â Is it more difficult meeting the expectations of customers today then it was back when you were starting out with Travelocity?
Terry Jones: Yes, I think it is. Because constantly innovating is so important to keep up with today’s customers. Twenty percent of Americans have a tablet device. We are constantly moving forward, and we expect from every website - what we get from the very, very best website. ‘So why isn’t Larry’s Insurance company site as good as Amazon?’ We get frustrated when it isn’t.
Small Business Trends:Â Where can people pick up your book?
Terry Jones:Â The best place to get it is Amazon.com.
Small Business Trends:Â Where can people find out what you are up to?
Terry Jones:Â TBJones.com has information about speaking, consulting, my blog and my books.
Small Business Trends:Â You mentioned a service you just invested in. Give a plug for that as well.
Terry Jones:Â We were talking about transcribing this interview, and I just invested in a company called TranscribeMe, a very interesting transcription company that does its transcription through crowdsourcing.
So this interview would probably be cut up into ten different parts, sent all over the world, and one individual might do five or six minutes of transcription. And the computer reassembles it and the transcribers are rated. The quality is excellent and the turn around is fast.
Crowdsourcing is the wave of the future in many new businesses.
This interview on adaptation to change is part of the One on One interview series with some of the most thought-provoking entrepreneurs, authors and experts in business today. This interview has been edited for publication. To hear audio of the full interview, click on the player above.
You’re in a stressful business that takes up a lot of your time. A new survey conducted by Carbonite and Wakefield Research has found that while small office/home office business owners make big sacrifices for work, they aren’t taking advantage of the resources available to them and having a hard time with the work-life balance!
Business owners forfeit about five personal commitments per month - such as a child’s recital, working out or happy hour - and 56 percent regularly skip events to finish projects. However, only one in five makes the most of cloud-based business resources, which can solve a variety of work-life balance struggles.
Nearly half (45 percent) have lost data or documents because a family member used their work computer.
41 percent have told a white lie after experiencing a technical glitch (actual responses below):
20 percent have blamed it on a computer or internet crash/malfunction. “I told my client my computer blew up!â€
11 percent blamed someone else. “I told the client that an intern ruined their document.†“My kids took the presentation to school for show and tell.â€
9 percent have blamed an illness, emergency or accident. “Our project was lost in a carrier jet that went down over the Pacific Ocean.†“Mother-in-law died.â€
A majority (78 percent) hide when at home to get their work done, finding safe haven in the bedroom (45 percent), with the bathroom and garage (12 and 13 percent respectively) also serving as office outposts.
There is hope: 97 percent of small business owners say using the cloud benefits their business, yet 79 percent aren’t taking full advantage. Seems like you can gain a little more family time when you make good use of technology! For the ten best productivity apps around, check out our archives!
I don’t tend to do a lot of musical jokes because I put a lot of pressure on myself to get music right. My mom was a piano teacher and I majored in music in college, so I take music seriously.
And I knew going in to this cartoon that a lot of people wouldn’t know what forte and crescendo mean (forte means to play at a loud volume, and crescendo means to increase volume) or even that they are musical terms, but I just couldn’t resist drawing that cresecendo in a presentation slide.
I don’t tend to do a lot of musical jokes because I put a lot of pressure on myself to get music right. My mom was a piano teacher and I majored in music in college, so I take music seriously.
And I knew going in to this cartoon that a lot of people wouldn’t know what forte and crescendo mean (forte means to play at a loud volume, and crescendo means to increase volume) or even that they are musical terms, but I just couldn’t resist drawing that cresecendo in a presentation slide.
This week Viber launched a desktop app to allow users to make video calls. The budding rival to Microsoft’s Skype calling service also announced it has reached 200 million users worldwide.
Viber is akin to Skype in some ways but differs in others.
Viber requires no username, unlike Skype. Users are  identified by their current phone numbers.
Calls are made to the recipient’s mobile phone number. If  the recipient is another Viber user, the service connects the call free of charge. If the person you are calling is a “non-viber userâ€, the call or text message is placed through your mobile phone service provider, using your mobile phone rate plan.
With Viber, there is no need to have separate contacts or go through the process of  asking someone connect, as you have to do today with Skype.  You just need the other party’s phone number to initiate a call or message with that party.  Contacts are synced in Viber with a user’s mobile phone contacts.
The new desktop app released this week for Windows and Mac contains a convenient feature that allows users to transfer a call between their desktop computer and a mobile phone, by clicking/touching a transfer icon. This feature could benefit small business owners who are with a client at their desktop computer but need to get away yet maintain the call uninterrupted. Â The call can be transferred from your computer to your mobile phone - and vice versa.
Prior to the release of the desktop app recently, Viber had been exclusively for voice calls and text messaging.
Currently, video calls can only be made “desktop to desktop.† In other words, you cannot do a Viber video call with one person on a mobile phone and the other on a desktop, or in mobile to mobile mode, currently.  Group videoconferencing is not yet supported, either.
To use Viber with your mobile device, you have to download a mobile app.  The mobile apps cover a variety of mobile operating systems and devices, including various versions of  iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry and Nokia.
Viber is a startup based in Cyprus. In an interview with Gigaom, Viber’s CEO Talmon Marco noted that, “Viber for desktop lets you do pretty much everything that Viber lets you do on your mobile phone, with minor exceptions such as stickers. What puts it apart from Skype is how tightly integrated it is with the mobile experience. Skype went from the desktop to the phone. Viber went from mobile to desktop â€" the implication for the user is amazing.â€
While services like Viber and Skype may never replace traditional phone service entirely, they do offer small business owners a way of keeping costs low. Â For that reason, such applications are important to small businesses.
This week Viber launched a desktop app to allow users to make video calls. The budding rival to Microsoft’s Skype calling service also announced it has reached 200 million users worldwide.
Viber is akin to Skype in some ways but differs in others.
Viber requires no username, unlike Skype. Users are  identified by their current phone numbers.
Calls are made to the recipient’s mobile phone number. If  the recipient is another Viber user, the service connects the call free of charge. If the person you are calling is a “non-viber userâ€, the call or text message is placed through your mobile phone service provider, using your mobile phone rate plan.
With Viber, there is no need to have separate contacts or go through the process of  asking someone connect, as you have to do today with Skype.  You just need the other party’s phone number to initiate a call or message with that party.  Contacts are synced in Viber with a user’s mobile phone contacts.
The new desktop app released this week for Windows and Mac contains a convenient feature that allows users to transfer a call between their desktop computer and a mobile phone, by clicking/touching a transfer icon. This feature could benefit small business owners who are with a client at their desktop computer but need to get away yet maintain the call uninterrupted. Â The call can be transferred from your computer to your mobile phone - and vice versa.
Prior to the release of the desktop app recently, Viber had been exclusively for voice calls and text messaging.
Currently, video calls can only be made “desktop to desktop.† In other words, you cannot do a Viber video call with one person on a mobile phone and the other on a desktop, or in mobile to mobile mode, currently.  Group videoconferencing is not yet supported, either.
To use Viber with your mobile device, you have to download a mobile app.  The mobile apps cover a variety of mobile operating systems and devices, including various versions of  iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry and Nokia.
Viber is a startup based in Cyprus. In an interview with Gigaom, Viber’s CEO Talmon Marco noted that, “Viber for desktop lets you do pretty much everything that Viber lets you do on your mobile phone, with minor exceptions such as stickers. What puts it apart from Skype is how tightly integrated it is with the mobile experience. Skype went from the desktop to the phone. Viber went from mobile to desktop â€" the implication for the user is amazing.â€
While services like Viber and Skype may never replace traditional phone service entirely, they do offer small business owners a way of keeping costs low. Â For that reason, such applications are important to small businesses.
Small Business Trends: Can you tell us a bit about your background?
