Tech startup bought by Canadian IT firm

A small Christchurch start-up has been scooped up by a Canadian software company.

Appsecute, founded in 2012 by Christchurch's Mark Cox and Tyler Power, builds tools for a branch of cloud computing known as "platform as a service".

In a press release issued this morning Vancouver-based software firm ActiveState said they had acquired the Christchurch company, which employs four people.

The terms of the sale were not disclosed.

The Appsecute team, although now part of a larger organisation, will not need to shut up up shop and head to Canada, as their Christchurch headquarters will now become ActiveState's New Zealand office.

ActiveState, founded in 1997, makes solutions that allow companies to develop and manage software applications.

Ninety-seven per cent of Fortune 1000 used ActiveState's products and its customers include financial services firms including Credit Suisse and Bank of America, according to the company's website.

"This deal gets ActiveState some great technology. But just as important, it comes with some great people. ActiveState chief executive Bart Copeland said in a blog post today.

"When Mark Cox and Tyler Power founded Appsecute, they aimed to provide the next generation of cloud application management tools, and they've more than achieved that," he wrote.

An investor and advisor to Appsecute, Ben Kepes, said this morning:

It's news that is exciting for me on a number of levels - as an early backer of Appsecute I get to see their initial vision taken to a higher level with the addition of resource and market traction that ActiveState has. As an advocate for technology companies in New Zealand I see a local startup make good - and the local ecosystem benefit from the creation of what will become ActiveState's New Zealand operation. Most of all though I'm excited that Cox and Tyler will be able to continue developing and growing the Appsecute community under the umbrella of the broader ActiveState organisation, Kepes said.

By Hamish Fletcher Email Hamish

New jobs on the rise in Wellington - Seek

In the face of recent comments made about Wellington being a "dying" city, the number of vacancies in the city being offered online has risen sharply this year.

Employment site Seek today released the results of its latest New Job Ad Index, which showed a 5 per cent increase for Wellington-based jobs since January.

While new jobs fell by 1.8 per cent across the country between April and May, the number of ads for Wellington positions were up 2 per cent.

Auckland and Canterbury both dropped on the New Job Ad Index, by 2.1 per cent and 6.7 per cent respectively.

Prime Minister John Key last month provoked a furore with comments he made after a gloomy report on the region's economy.

"The reality is even Wellington is dying and we don't know how to turn it around. All you have there is government, Victoria University and Weta Workshop," Key told business leaders in Auckland.

But Seeks NZ's general manager Janet Faulding said there were currently more than 2,500 new jobs advertised online for Wellington.

"After a slow start to the year it's encouraging to see Wellington performing beyond many people's expectations with strong job creation in May."

The highest number of jobs available in the region was in Information & Communication Technology (ICT) roles, which made up nearly one third of all advertised opportunities.

This was followed by Administration and Trades & Services, and Accounting and Sales roles.

Faulding said it wasn't just job opportunities that were on the rise - employer confidence was also bouncing back.

According to a survey carried out recently by the Wellington Employers' Chamber of Commerce, a net 44.9 per cent of 366 Wellington businesses expected their business situation to improve over the next 12 months.

That was close to a 10 per cent improvement on the previous quarter.

"An increase in business confidence often leads to the creation of more jobs as companies feel positive about implementing plans for future growth," Faulding said.

"This is no exception with almost one third of businesses surveyed expecting to increase their full-time staff numbers in the next 12 months."

On a more negative note, Seek's Employment Index showed demand for jobs was higher than supply in New Zealand last month.

The index dipped by 1 per cent nationally and by the same amount in Auckland and Wellington, meaning applications for roles grew at a faster rate than the number of advertised jobs.

In Canterbury, the Employment Index decreased by 7 per cent.

By Ben Chapman-Smith Email Ben

I like You Tompkins; Waddle With Me

This cartoon took a while. For some reason I had, “I like you, Tompkins, walk with me” in my head. I could not figure out quite how to do it though and I tried all sorts of variations:

• “I like you, Tompkins. Speed walk with me.”
• “I like you, Tompkins. Piggy back ride!”
• “I like you, Tompkins. But not enough to walk with me while I talk. Maybe that will come in time, but I'm not there yet.”

Once I changed the executive into a penguin â€" everything just fell into place.

Success Story of an Indian College Drop Out

In India, college drop outs are not looked upon favorably. You can try telling the stories of super heroes like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates all you want, parents will go, “Um hmm, Um hmm, now go study for your IIT exams.” If you say you want to be an entrepreneur instead, you will get a whack, a spank, an outburst and any number of other unappetizing reactions.

Senthil Nayagam, co-founder of RailsFactory, a premier Ruby on Rails application development company, is the epitome of the new 21st century Indian entrepreneur â€" a college drop out.  In 1999, having started his first business, an Internet center, to mediocre success, Senthil taught himself an assortment of other skills such as troubleshooting, Linux and eventually Perl, php, python and mysql, to help supplement his income and support his family.

Not disheartened by his first relatively failed business attempt, Senthil moved to Bangalore in 2004 to try his hand at a software career.  It was then that he discovered the potential of Ruby and Ruby on Rails to explode onto the software scene.  It was also here that Senthil met Dinesh Kumar, who shared Senthil's passion for business.  Two years later and with the help of his newfound friend and co-founder, Dinesh, RailsFactory was born.

Think of RailsFactory as your extended team, or in the spirit of NBA playoff season, your 6th man on the court, designated to accelerate your current development by hiring additional developers to meet your company's tight deadlines.

RailsFactory focuses on consulting and delivering cutting edge Ruby flavored solutions to its global customers.  In the last seven years they have gained over 150 employees, completed over 200 projects and over the past five years they have maintained an enviable 100% year-over-year growth.

And RailsFactory can deliver these solutions without putting a hole in your pocket, too.  While big tech companies in the Silicon Valley are “acqhiring” most large US Ruby consulting firms (i.e. Groupon acqhiring Obtiva), which keeps rates high for their services, RailsFactory remains a volume player with the freedom to work with both small startups and enterprise businesses.

RailsFactory does this by utilizing two different billing options; fixed price and the elastic staffing model, both designed to provide the most bang for your buck.  The fixed price option is geared toward start ups and small companies that need additional short term help developing a specific product, whereas elastic staffing gives businesses the opportunity to hire their own team of Ruby developers to work side by side with their staff for as long as they are needed.

Whether a company needs iPhone or Android apps, complete eCommerce solutions, or even long term partnership for IT projects, RailsFactory can deliver quality, cost-efficient services with minimal turnaround time.  Their expertise in Ruby on Rails and adoption of strictly agile development principles makes RailsFactory one of the premier end-to-end RoR (Ruby on Rails) solutions development companies.

Although RoR was practically unknown in 2006, now all major companies in India, such as TCS, Infy and HCL, as well as companies around the world like Amazon, Cisco, NASA, BBC have dedicated teams to work on their RoR.  With the RoR demand dramatically increasing and the availability of RoR resources much slimmer than the resources for, say, Java, or .net, RailsFactory has an unparalleled advantage in the market.

In fact, the Ruby programming language is now being used in more ways than ever before. Whereas Ruby is gaining in popularity with companies such as global code sharing fulcrum, github, which is built on it, a language like Java is now only more useful as the JVM than the language itself.  Plus, there is Jruby, a Ruby implementation in Java, which allows for the combination of Java's good parts with the greatness of Ruby.  Software synthesis at its finest.

So how did RailsFactory, originating in the humble region of Chennai, India, grow to become a global player in RoR solutions?  With determination, creative problem solving and the desire for solidarity amongst fellow Chennai based software techies.

Chennai is a close knit region that has received major visibility and funding over the last two years, but back in 2006, when RailsFactory began, there were no role models or mentors to turn to for guidance. So Senthil took it upon himself to create his own network within Chennai's software ecosystem so that he could ask crucial questions regarding RailsFactory's growth spurts.

With the help of a few other Chennai tech enthusiasts, Senthil eventually formed Chennai Open Coffee Club, a networking group that holds monthly meetings in person and online.  This group has inspired many other tech networking groups and events such as Chennai Geeks and Nerd Dinner.

Transforming from a self proclaimed “lone wolf” to an inspiring leader in software services was no easy feat for Senthil, but with power comes great responsibility and he hasn't shied away from moving his company forward with authority.

Senthil's keen eye for identifying and capitalizing on growing industry trends has helped RailsFactory stay afloat during this age of ever evolving technological capabilities, one trend of which is particularly important; polyglot programming.

Polyglot programming allows for developers to combine the most advantageous aspects of any programming language so that they can use the best tool for the technology being produced.  For example, end users on a mobile phone or browser don't give a hoot what technologies are used in the server; they just want a fast, responsive service, am I right?

And although RailsFactory prefers Ruby, what is best for the customer comes first.  RailsFactory uses other languages and components built on these other languages all the time, ensuring customer satisfaction regardless of programming language prejudices.

Gee, if only every company had our best interests in mind instead of forcibly trying to sell a label to us lowly consumers.

But the reality is this; with more companies turning to polyglot programming, as well as the addition of yearly UI paradigm changes causing many startups to desire mobile play along with their web app rewrites, and on top of THAT start ups are exploring new ways to monetize using big data, a software service and consulting specialist like Senthil must keep pace in order to continue enjoying success and growth.

And this is where Senthil's inherent curiosity, passion for all things software and desire to transcend conventional industry limitations separates him from the pack.

Senthil and Dinesh have made RailsFactory a prototype for what they call “Centers of Excellence.”  They have started developing new business units in the form of independent COE's for various technologies and they operate under the umbrella firm, Sedin Technologies, Pvt. Ltd.

As of now, Sedin Technologies has RailsFactory, MobileTechFactory and PHPFactory, each dedicated exclusively to help clients manage the global convergence of software, mobile applications, Web applications, big data and cloud services.

So what's next for RailsFactory?

Naturally, they want to be the world's largest RoR development company in the world.

With over 150 developers growing and counting, an office in Chennai and the Silicon Valley, RailsFactory is determined to set up operations in every global region that brings in more than ten percent revenue.  That leaves Senthil contemplating a physical presence in Australia, the UK, as well as other additional locations in India for starters.

Not too shabby for a guy who dropped out of college, flopped on his first start up venture and got fired from his job in Bangalore in 2004.

Moral of the story: India needs to start thinking outside of the box and let its youth take more chances, fail more often and chart their own courses.

Success Photo via Shutterstock

Tom Byun of Yahoo! Small Business: Making That Next Sale

We're back with another 1-on-1 interview. This week's guest is Tom Byun, Vice President of Yahoo! Small Business. He joined me in a live Hangout, and yes, we have video!

According to Tom, Yahoo! Small Business serves over 1 million small business customers, primarily from the U.S.  Yahoo! helps them with their online presence, Web hosting, and eCommerce solutions.  Yahoo! also assists small businesses in driving more sales, he told us.   Yahoo! serves small businesses of all sizes â€" from solo entrepreneurs to ones with many employees - from local businesses to online businesses.  Many of them fall in the 10-employee-or-under  size range, however.

Below are a few highlights of that discussion, paraphrased in places.

Question 1: What have been some of the biggest changes you've seen [since last year] when it comes to small businesses?

We have a large group of merchants that [we serve] and year over year, we're seeing double digit growth, but it is slowing down.

Another trend we're observing is … we all know with the Internet that there's been a fair amount of fragmentation in terms of services that small businesses use to get customers. Back in the old days, you just put up your listing on the Yellow Pages or the White Pages and that's how people called you. But now with the proliferation of Internet services, you have everything from search and SEO and now with social and mobile, the acceleration of mobile, there just continues to be more and more outlets for small businesses to access customers.

Question 2: When you talk to small businesses … what are they asking you to help them with?

What's top of mind is … they want to know [what it takes] to get that next sale.  It's all about getting that next customer. They want to be able to cut through the clutter and just find one or two tools that can help them. And often the advice I start with is, focus on the fundamentals. You've got a business to run… .  And you only have so much time in the day. So just focus on some very basic things… to attract that next business that you need.

Question 3:  Are a lot of them focused on how they can leverage social media?

Social media is clearly important and it's clearly playing a more critical role.  Putting links on social media … is becoming a vehicle for driving  traffic to their business.    That's how a lot of small businesses are being found….

But when you think about social, think about which customers you are going after.   I was meeting with a merchant … they're in the … wholesale lighting business.  Facebook is not necessarily a place where they're going to try to do online sales. …   So really understand your audience. …  Start out with which audience you're going after, and which medium you're going to use.

Small businesses are still struggling … with marketing … [having only so many dollars to spend].  Focus on the fundamentals.  Things like directories. You'd be amazed if you … look at stats … a lot of consumers are still finding  [businesses] through directories. A lot of these directories are being accessed not only through desktop, but … through mobile access points.

Resources mentioned in this video:  Yahoo! Small Business, Yahoo! Small Business Advisor (an information resource), and Yahoo! LocalWorks (a place to list your business accurately and manage how it appears on 40 directory sites across the Web).

To listen to Tom in his own words, and to hear the full interview, we've embedded the video below.

Our Final Roundup of Small Business Week Announcements

The list of small business announcements coming out of National Small Business Week just keeps on coming. We've covered many products, tips, services and other small business news items thus far in our special collection of small business posts. If you missed them, please check the first and second editions of our Small Business Week announcements.

Let's kick off our final roundup of Small Business Week announcements with two contests of interest to the crowdfunding community:

NASE crowdfunding with Fundable. The National Association for the Self-Employed and the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council have teamed up with crowdfunding platform Fundable. The idea is to hold a contest the organizers claim will teach startups and existing small businesses more effective fundraising skills. Participants will use the Fundable platform to create their fundraising pages. Winners will be announced after Labor Day and will receive the money they've raised.

Crowdfunding community announces competition. Crowdfunding incubator ProHatch announces its first #GET_HATCHED crowdfunding competition. The incubator is now accepting project applications. Projects must be fully built and submitted for competition by July 29. A prize package includes $5,000 and mentoring. Learn more here.

Health care and immigration reform not big issues. At least, that's according to RocketLawyer's Small Business Index. It says only 10% considered health care reform a top priority issue, and only 50% were aware of insurance exchanges. Just 3% call immigration reform a top priority for the country. Such issues, however, tend to impact businesses differently, depending on their size. The survey covered small business users of RocketLawyer's services, which may skew toward fairly small businesses.

Small businesses are seeing the value in Facebook. The social media giant took the opportunity during National Small Business Week to share some stats about small business use of its advertising. In a small business roundtable called “Bringing Main Street to Madison Avenue,” Facebook announced one million advertisers on its platform. Facebook says these numbers largely reflect small businesses using the platform to grow.

IT managers say network disruptions can take you out. Or your business, that is. In fact, 97 percent of IT managers say network disruptions had a detrimental effect on business last year. An eWeek Infographic looks at how virtualized systems have changed how business is done.

Document Sign Off Service Launched. ApproveForMe is a Web-based tool. Businesses use it to create, track and manage document sign-offs from internal team members and external clients. The service was officially launched this week.

Small Business Person of the Year. The Small Business Administration announced the Small Business Person of the Year in the United States for 2013. It's John L. Stonecipher, CEO of Guidance Aviation, a high altitude flight school in Prescott, Arizona, established in 1998. Runners up include: Noah Leask, CEO of Ishpi Information Technologies, Inc. of Mount Pleasant, S.C., and Kari Block, Founder/CEO, Earth Kind, Inc. of Bismarck, N.D. Congratulations!

Mobile: How does Your Business Compare? According to a survey of global small businesses by Podio, a Citrix Systems company, 68% of employees in small businesses use their own personal devices for work - whether or not the company has a formal policy on it. And 76% of small business employees say they spend up to 10 hours a week in meetings. Let's hope they're productive!

Cash or check, please. According to a Small Business Week infographic by WePay, 72% of small businesses prefer to accept payment by cash or check.  Now that's interesting - cash is easy to understand, but NSF checks can be a costly pain to deal with. Even more to the point, the majority of customers prefer to shop at places where multiple forms of payment, including credit cards, are accepted.

Image credit: Citrix infographic

“Be The Red Jacket” to Be the Best Salesperson

Every year golf enthusiasts fix their gaze onto their televisions (or these days, online) for The Masters tournament.  Each year they watch another professional golfer receive the coveted Green Jacket in the heart of August, Georgia.  When you think “green jacket,” sports insiders know it refers to the Masters and the Augusta National Golf Club.

When it comes to business, that kind of identity, though with a different hue, can mean success.  At least that's what it means to Leanne Hoagland-Smith (@coachlee), author of “be The Red Jacket in a sea of grey suits“.

Leanne is no stranger to many businesses, particularly in northwest Indiana and Chicago.  She is owner of Advanced Systems, a business strategy consultancy, and hosts a friendly business group, the South Shore Business Club, from the Purdue Technical Center.  An accomplished networker, she is a stand out sales expert â€" listed by Openview Labs as among the 2013 Top Sales Influencers.

I met Leanne at a networking event a few months ago. When I learned about her sales book, I thought her terrific manner would potentially translate to text.

An Overview of How Sales Really Gets Done

And translate it did.  Terrific is definitely an apt description for how this book unlocks the small personality and psychological blocks that hinder execution.  Hoagland-Smith opens with how you can be your own worst obstacle for gaining sales:

Being in sales is an ongoing, formidable task. This role probably demands more developed and consistent self-leadership skills than any other job or position.  No matter who you are, your beliefs (attitudes) are driving all of your actions (and) creating your results.

Her recommendations to get past the emotional sales roadblocks can easily translate into how you establish your sales practices. Take this example of setting a value statement:

If you truly love to sell, then your ethics about selling should reflect that desire. What I have discovered is that many in sales do not have a written core ethics or Value Statement. Even if the company has one, all professional salespeople should have their own.

One nice aspect of the writing is that the imagery of the jacket and what it represents supports the presented ideas.  Check out how Hoagland-Smith explains how the aforementioned value comment fits into one's sales objectives:

For most garments, a loose thread indicates a weakness somewhere in the seams to a small hole. Ethics and values are the threads that bind the seams together to keep the jacket in one piece…When the threads are strong, the jacket is strong. Conversely, when your values are strong, your sales will also be strong.

The chapters include examples from Hoagland-Smith's experience â€" the CSI-style role-playing she does with her clients is a must-review. They also include “Sales Coaching Tips,” concise details that are smart but do not require heavy theory to appreciate their value.

What Does This Book Compare To?

Selling In a Skirt is a comparable book with respect to brevity. But Jacket has meatier details than lengthier sales books such as How To Sell When No One Is Buying.  The material will appeal to beginning salespersons as well as those who are beyond their freshman year of sales school, so to speak.

Interview with Leanne Hoagland-Smith

Jacket has been available for a while, so I asked Leanne for her latest reflections on the sales professional field:

Q: You mentioned how striking a balance between a personal and professional life increases sales. From your view since the book's publication, what has been surprising as sales professionals seek to gain a life-work balance?

A: What is surprising is this still remains true. Clients come to me to increase sales and yet they find that path begins with clarity around their own personal lives. In some cases, there is also required clarity around their leadership and overall business growth. However, to achieve business growth or professional growth starts inside of each individual because success and failure both start and end in the same place â€" between one's ears.

Q: In the book you mention how your coach David Herdlinger introduced you to the concept of weasel words â€" weak words in which their usage gives us “permission to fail.” As sales cycles increasingly include digital marketing, with its demand for transparent, to-the-point content, have sales professionals become better at removing weasel language?

A: My sense is by developing emotional intelligence and being very intentional, one's clarity respective to one's role awareness including talents is a great place to start. What I know to be true is that well over 95% of my clients initially lack clarity about their top 3 talents and almost that same percentage knew their lowest 3 talents.

Q: You mentioned that a red jacket must have separate pockets for marketing, sales and productivity. Do you think that the adoption of smart devices has confused some sales professionals in using them effectively for each “pocket?”

A: I believe there is confusion and this confusion starts with the belief that technology is the cure all for marketing and sales. People still buy from people. It is essential to pick up the phone, to physically meet people face to face when possible.  Technology can have us confusing motion with progress and activity with results.

Conclusion

Because so many sales books are released, many salespeople find themselves confused by what to read and what to put aside. My two cents is to not put this book aside. Be The Red Jacket in a Sea of Grey Suits offers simplicity in strengthening one's sales technique.

You will better clarify who you are in your industry and how you can make a difference with your customers.

Grumpy Cat is Heading to Hollywood

Grumpy Cat is headed from the computer screen to the big screen. Yes, the popular Internet meme is slated to star in an upcoming Grumpy Cat movie.

The movie is going to be a live-action family comedy movie with Grumpy Cat able to voice her dissatisfaction out loud. Broken Road Productions, the studio behind films such as “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” and “Jack and Jill,” will be responsible for bringing Grumpy Cat to the big screen.

Grumpy Cat's agent secured the one-picture Grumpy Cat movie deal, terms of which were not disclosed.

While the venue may be different, being in front of the camera isn't brand new territory for Grumpy Cat. The cat has already been the star of nearly 20 videos on her official YouTube channel. The channel has over 126,000 subscribers and some of the videos have over a million views.

Even before the Grumpy Cat movie deal, Grumpy Cat's owners, Tabatha and Bryan Bundesen, had already built a successful brand around the sour-faced cat, even though they've said she's actually very sweet and friendly.

To date, Grumpy Cat, whose real name is Tardar Sauce (spelled with a “d”), has nearly a million Facebook fans, over 92,000 Twitter followers, and over 66,000 Instagram followers. She's made a number of public appearances to greet fans at events like South by Southwest.

She's even the subject of a new book, “Grumpy Cat: A Grumpy Book,” scheduled to be released in July 2013.

Grumpy Cat first gained recognition from a post on Reddit.com in September 2012. Since then, the owners have created a website, sold Grumpy Cat merchandise, and even hired a manager who specializes in representing cats made famous on the Internet.

They also have filed for U.S. trademark protection to ensure they retain the intellectual property rights to images of their Grumpy Cat.

Everybody Seems To Be Into 3D Printers, Even Amazon

3D printing is on fire as a trend in small business.  It seems everybody is talking about 3D printers and suddenly more places are opening up online where you can purchase these extraordinary devices. Even online retailing giant Amazon -  which sells nearly anything else you can think of - has jumped on the 3D printer bandwagon.

The retailer recently opened up a new Amazon 3D printer store, making the machines easier and more convenient to purchase.

Small businesses can use 3D printers for everything from creating prototypes for new products, to industrial design models, and even small scale manufacturing of jewelry or similar items, as we noted last month.  You create a digital file of an item you want to produce, and then “print it” on-premise.  Printing involves layering plastic or another material until it builds up and turns into your item.  Usually the items are made out of plastic, but you can find 3D printers that use metal and even chocolate or cheese to make items.

We took a peek at the Amazon 3D store recently. There are about 35 listings for 3D printers currently.  The 3D printers are expensive. The lowest priced machine available is nearly $1,100 but it received just 2 out of 5 stars in its one review. The best one available at the most competitive price would be the Flashforge 3D printer at $1,199.

Along with printers, Amazon also has collected in one spot on its sites a variety of items you might need or want for 3-printing, including plastic filament (the material you make items out of), 3-D printing books, CAD design software, and parts and accessories for 3D printers.

A recent TechCrunch article reports the new Amazon store will feature printers from companies like Afinia and Flashforge. But the store also allows owners of 3D printers by Makerbot, a popular brand, to sell their used machines.  So if that 3D printing experiment doesn't work out, well, you can always try to sell it.

There are other places to get the printers too.

Staples began selling them in May, for example. And other brands are available for sale from manufacturer websites.

Companies like Shapeways provide 3D printing services for those who don't want to own a machines. An open source 3D printer platform offers another option.

But availability of these machines from the world's biggest online retailer places them more in the mainstream.

Image: Amazon

Two Services That Help You Document Procedures So You Can Free Up Time and Scale Your Business

Our readers are well-versed in automating business tasks and if, by this point, you've automated everything you can in your business, you might think that you've done all you can. However, there's a way to relieve even more of your business headache!

The first thing you need to do is systematize your business activities, to “ensure consistency and dependable performance in every area.” Then document the process for your employees or teammates!

In 2008, we wrote about putting your workflow on paper. Now, there's a better way.

SweetProcess is a web based software that allows you to document all of your standard operating procedures easily and efficiently. Essentially, you take the step-by-step process from inside your head or that ratty binder that no one can find when they need it and you put it on to SweetProcess's system. The result? Documented procedures your employees can easily follow so you no longer have to handle tasks on your own and answer endless questions that slow down productivity; which will allow you to scale your business by getting more done!

When your procedures are documented with Sweet Process, you get the following benefits:

• Free up your time: With repetitive tasks documented, someone else can do that while you're free to focus on growing your business.
• Employee turnover without the set-backs: When an employee leaves, training their replacement is a breeze since all of their tasks have been documented and refined over time.
• Reduce errors and re-do's: Procedures are easy to follow, illustrated with screenshots, videos and checkboxes to ensure no steps are missed.
• Add value to your business: A business built on a foundation of well-documented Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) has a higher value, which grows over time.

The plans start at $19/month and go up to $99, but you can try it for 14 days for free.

Another standard operating procedures service is offered by SOP MD. Their system allows the ability to add photos, screenshots, videos, audio clips, hyperlinks to documents, websites and much more. It's a heavy duty system for more in depth hands off training. It costs $200 to start, plus $30/month.

Are there other services that help you systematize your business processes this way? Let us know about them in the comments! And tell us how you've documented your standard operating procedures!

 

 

NYC Events: Upcoming NYC Business and Technology Events (6/21 – 6/27)

Here is a listing of NYC Business and Technology Events for the upcoming week (6/14 â€" 6/20) that we thought would be beneficial to our small business community in the Greater NYC area. Have a business and/or technology event coming up in the New York City area that you'd like us to add to our weekly post? If so, email us at eve...@smallbiztechnology.com.

 

Understanding Your Target Market

June 21, 2013, â€" 12:00 PM to 4:00 PM, General Assembly West, 10 East 21st Street, New York, NY 10010

When it comes to marketing, consumers are always in the driver's seat - how can you find out where they're going next? Start-ups and new ideas often fail not because the idea is wrong for the time, but because in the rush to launch an MVP, gaining a critical understanding of the audience often gets shortcut. In this workshop, you'll gain the tools to develop a strong understanding of the needs, wants, and behaviors of your target audience. You'll be prepared to go-to-market with a strong understanding of what will help you win: your customers.

 

Developing And Implementing Your Marketing Strategy

June 22, 2013, â€" 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Science Industry and Business Library (SIBL), 188 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016

Developing and implementing an effective marketing strategy is a key element in operating your business successfully. As a business owner, you must understand the environment in which you are selling your products and/or services, the needs and wants of your target market, the most effective ways of delivering your message, and the strategy and tactics of attracting prospects and converting them to customers. Critical to achieving your business goals is building a strong and individual brand identity.

 

A Business Of Your Own? Is It Right For You

June 25, 2013, - 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM, New York Public Library Science, Industry and Business Library, 188 Madison Avenue, Lower Level Conference Room 018, New York, NY 10016

A representative from the Workshop in Business Opportunities (WIBO) explores the misconceptions of owning a business and what it really takes to be a business owner. Registration required â€" sign up at WIBO.org under EVENTS

 

Selling To Why: Brain Based Selling

June 26, 2013,  9:00 AM to 11:00 AM, Regus Office Suites, 112 W 34th St, New York, NY 10120

In“Selling to Why: Brain Based Selling”, The Science of Motivation and Decision making will be discussed as it relates to developing and utilizing a selling system. We will examine how the Brain makes decisions to buy and how to exploit that to control the sales process. We will also look at how beliefs impact buying and how to blow up the prospects beliefs that are roadblocks to sales. After a theoretical overview on why and how people buy, we will discuss real world tactics and questions you can start using right away to qualify prospects, take control of the sales interview and to move the meeting or selling process to a faster close.

 

WordPress Bootcamp â€" Build a Website with WordPress

June 26 & 27, 2013, â€" 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM both days, General Assembly West, 10 East 21st Street, New York, NY 10010

WordPress is awesome, but often misunderstood. Is it a blogging platform? A CMS? Should you buy a custom theme or develop your own? WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org? In this course you'll develop a custom site starting from scratch. Basically, you'll take a static front-end HTML/CSS template and do all the necessary magic to have that site running live and dynamic using WordPress. Afterwards, your clients will be able to edit content themselves, manage the site's navigation, and leverage an array of existing plug-ins that will help take the site from a simple blog to a fully functional CMS. All customizable; all on WordPress.

 

The Basics of Bookkeeping 

June 26, 2013, - 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM, Tekserve, 119 West 23rd Street, New York, NY 10011

Attend this bookkeeping workshop to learn how to: set up and manage inventory; calculate, manage, andpay sales tax; and explore POS systems integration. Get your questions answers by bookkeeping experts- the Bookkeeping Company of New York City.

 

The Big Data Explosion: How to Process, Analyze, & Visualize in the Cloud

June 26, 2013, â€" 6:30 PM, 10gen, 229 West 43rd Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10036

According to IBM, “Every day, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data - so much that 90% of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone. Big data is more than simply a matter of size; it is an opportunity to find insights in new and emerging types of data and content, to make your business more agile, and to answer questions that were previously considered beyond your reach.” But, for businesses of all sizes, big data can be hard to collect, analyze, visualize, and process; and the information places tremendous stress on networks, storage, and servers, which is why cloud computing has become an increasingly attractive solution. Why? For several reasons, including ability to easily scale as the volume of data increases, seemingly limitless resources on demand, ability to quickly crunch large volumes of unstructured data, and potential cost savings. However, these benefits also come with legitimate concerns such as privacy and security, possibility of outages, and cost of data migration and integration.

The Secrets To Small Business Success From The Largest Business on Facebook

Lolly Wolly Doodle is a children's clothing company based out of Lexington, North Carolina. They also happen to be the largest business on Facebook, with over 589K followers.

Smallbiztechnology editor, Ramon Ray, recently caught up with Emily Hickey, COO of Lolly Wolly Doodle, at an intimate roundtable discussion on the state of small businesses using technology to grow their businesses held at Facebook headquarters in NYC. Emily shares some of the secrets to small business success that they used at Lolly Wolly Doodle, including how they overcame the hurdles of being a small business and the strategies they used to grow their business and achieve marketing success.

In this short video interview, they discuss tips on hiring and how to get the most out of the people that you have within your organization. Emily also shares her best ideas on marketing as a small business and how to put an effective plan together.

You can watch the full video of the interview below or click here.

5 Tips for Creating an Online Bio That Makes You Shine

If you're a small business owner, you've likely spent a great deal of time developing and maintaining a website for your business. But your own online reputation is just as important as your business's reputation, playing an important part in whether or not clients choose to do business with you.

Creating an online bio isn't as simple as typing a few words into your business's “About Us” section. A business owner's bio should be professional, informative, and, most importantly, search engine-friendly. When a client, colleague, or potential customer searches for more information on the leadership of your business, the professionalism of the content he or she finds will likely make or break your future with that searcher.

Creating a bio that sufficiently expresses your level of expertise and talent is a matter of following a few simple tips.

• Buy your domain name. Whether you link it to the bio on your business site or you create your own, having a bio under yourname.com will help ensure it appears first in search results. This puts you in control of the information others see about you.
• Use a personal web hosting service. About.me is a great way for professionals without a website to build an online presence. Now with the ability to link to a domain, About.me lets users link social media sites and any other sites relevant to individuals. About.me creates a one-page profile for a professional, along with a background of the user's choosing. It's a great way for a young professional to increase exposure.
• Put the most important information first. While we all like to believe visitors will read ten paragraphs of text about us, many will simply read the first paragraph or two and move on. State what you do in the first sentence, summing it up in just a couple of words. “Portrait photographer or “real estate developer” convey who you are without forcing readers to browse through 500 words or more to get there.
• Use third person. Your bio should sound as though it were written by someone else. It may feel awkward to write about yourself in third person, but it reads more naturally. If writing about yourself feels too awkward, this may be one task you delegate to a trusted staff member or freelancer. A third party can often write more objectively about you than you can.
• Regularly update it. A long-dormant online bio is worse than any bio at all. You should regularly revisit your online bio, adding any new accomplishments. By always keeping your bio updated, when someone requests a bio, you'll only need to direct them to that website.

For business owners, building a personal brand for themselves is just as important as branding a business. Through the above tips, you can not only provide an easy-to-read, up-to-date bio, but you'll ensure it features prominently in search results.

Three Apps That Help You Tame Your Expenses and Receipts Into A Paperless Wonder

Papers are everywhere. My desk is full of them, and you probably also have your share of papers sprawled all over the place on a busy day. There's just so much to do that sometimes you don't find the time to file them neatly into categorized indexes. Tracking expenses and receipts is probably the most vital function of your business as far as accounting is concerned and, is often the one that requires the most paper.

The paper sheet is an invention that goes back thousands of years. Traditionally, we've been writing on papers to keep track of things (and immortalize our words). We've been stuck with what we can now call a “wonderful burden” for quite a long time! Now, it's time to move on from that into the paperless 21st century.

Inventing digital electronics has led us into an era where we can now read the written word on a screen and change those words as we wish. Yet, we still somehow have the inability to transfer some of this technology into the accounting departments of most businesses. It's disappointing that, while we can replace even the most minute written data with digital equivalents, we seem to choke when it comes to doing it with receipts. Of course, there are technologies that can help you get around this:

• Expensify - Who needs a portable scanner when your phone can do everything? Expensify is a mobile app that lets you scan mobile receipts. It has all the features you need to do all of your accounting without flipping a single sheet, including scanning receipts from a picture you take on your smartphone. The text will be automatically extrapolated. This app is free to use, so give it a try!
• Concur - If you're a frequent flyer, you could certainly use a mobile app that does everything Expensify does, but also lets you book flights. Concur lets you manage travel expenses, book travel, and manage your day-to-day business accounting. At $8 per user per month for the small business package, and a free trial to boot, it's worth a try!
• NeatCloud - What could possibly be wrong with putting your expenses and other documents on the cloud? This is what NeatCloud does, and more. According to the creators, NeatCloud is a “digital filing system,” which means that you can also gather contacts and documents. This digital filing system also recognizes the text in receipts from a picture you take in your smartphone. In other words, you can throw away a receipt right after you scanned it and stored it in the cloud. Their popular “Home & Office” offer costs $14.99 a month and includes all the features mentioned above for two users. You can also get a business plan for $24.99 a month that includes five users.

If you're tired of using pieces of dead bark to keep your business running, it's time you threw away the tree pile and dived into silicon!

Founder of Barkbox Shares Three Ways Every Small Business Can Succeed

Ramon Ray, editor of Smallbiztechnology.com, recently attended an intimate roundtable discussion on the use of technology in small businesses at the Facebook headquarters in New York City. Here he met Matt Meeker, co-founder and CEO of Barkbox â€" a monthly way to spoil your dog with a box of doggie ‘goodies'.  Matt also happens to be the co-founder of another company many of us know of, Meetup.

Matt took a few minutes to discuss with Ramon the three ways every small business can succeed. He talks to the importance of creating and developing the right product for the market, finding the right customers for the product and how to get in front of those customers through effective marketing in order to continually acquire new business.

Matt also shares his thoughts on another small business issue we all face: hiring.

You can watch the full video interview with Matt and Ramon below, or click here.

Get Instant Vendor and Product Reviews With ExpertCircle

Successful business owners will tell you that running a business takes more than just blood, sweat and tears. It takes the assistance of other vendors and business products to handle the peripheral tasks to ensure the success of a business. Business owners cannot succeed working in a silo, but by seeking the resources of competent outsourcing services. The key is in finding these reputable businesses that can help. Docstoc, an online resource that provides tools for starting and running a small business, believes it can help businesses find the best vendors and products for their companies with its recent launch of ExpertCircle.  ExpertCircle provides vendor and product reviews across a spectrum of industries to take the guesswork, and the recommendations of friends, out of the picture.

Here's how ExpertCircle works. The business owner registers for free at ExpertCircle.com and creates a business profile including selection of business category and industry.  Then, the owner can select information about a particular product or vendor or simply state a need such as, “What is the best payroll outsourcing company to use?”  Docstock uses it's already registered 35 million users to comment and provide pros and cons of a particular product or vendor as well as allows a link-up to your Facebook and LinkedIn accounts for even more peer reviews.

The system provides a two-way review where you too can review products and comment on vendor services and either endorse or critique them.  The platform is helpful for entrepreneurs and business owners because of its simplicity.  For example, under the category of Home Business, you will find reviews on accounting software, blogging tools, CRM, logo makers, time management tools, and website design.  For the small business, the benefits of ExpertCircle include:

• Reviews of products and services from peers in your industry
• Ability to submit products for review from ExpertCircle community
• Save time researching a particular product
• Learn what your competition is using
• Leverage your business community on both LinkedIn and Facebook
• Provides “you might also be interested in” reviews

While not a cure-all for finding the best products and services for your business, it is another tool you can add to your arsenal to save hours of research time- especially if you are on the fence about a particular product.

 

Take Customer Service To The Next Level By Adding Live Chat To Your Website

Live chat support on your website gets you closer to your customers. Let's say your customer wants to buy a product, but they have a question that isn't answered on your website. The customer then has to find an email address on the site and email you, perhaps from an entirely separate site. Or they'll have to actually pick up a phone and call you, again, taking them away from your site.

You don't want that customer to leave. You want a self-contained experience. You want to keep your customer on your website. You don't want an opportunity for them to forget about your site or to decide it's not worth the effort to email you a question. Every question and every click between your customers and your product should be absolutely necessary. Anything that slows the process is a hindrance.

Thus, the major benefit of live chat support is that it allows your customers to have their questions answered fast. Where in the past, you might have lost customers because they either didn't put in the effort to email, or you took a day or so to respond and the customer ended up going with a competing product, live chat allows you to keep those customers.

Other benefits include productivity and an expense decrease. When you have customers calling, you can only deal with one customer at a time. On live chat, you can pretty safely deal with three customers at a time.

Here are three options to consider if you are thinking about adding live chat to your website:

Offerchat. Offerchat is 100% free all the time. They charge only if you are outsourcing to their agents. If you're using your own, you're good to go. There are no downloads or software and you can manage chats coming in from multiple websites on one web platform. Offerchat also allows you to store common (long) answers to FAQs for quick access later instead of typing them every single time.

Zopim. Zopim, one of the best recommended live chat service providers, also offers a free service. It allows for one agent and one conversation at a time. It also provides smart offline modes for when you go offline and the ability to email chat transcripts. With Zopim, you also receive real-time visitor information as well as automatic translation, which translates chat into your native language.

Jitbit. One of the newer players in the category, Jitbit now offers a cloud-based chat program that can be easily integrated into your website. With features such as desktop notification and sound alert,  Jitbit offers a 21-day free trial on their live chat service here, so you can check out how their service works for your company.

If you are ready to take the leap and add live chat to your business, you'll also want to check out our six tips for adding live chat to your website.

Do you use live chat? Tell us about your experience in the comments below!

Cory Booker\'s (Newark Mayor) 4 Lessons On Social Media and Personal Branding

Cory Booker, Newark Mayor

I predict that Cory Booker will be the next Senator of NJ because of his personal brand and social media.

This is NOT a political endorsement in any way â€" but LESSONS learned for all small businesses in the POWER of a personal brand and social media that Mayor Booker is teaching us all.

Small business owners with strong personal brands  can do big things and social media  for small businesses (see my social media 101 article) is critical â€" here's how Mayor Booker is doing it.

Cory Booker is a GREAT example of leveraging these two things quite well â€" as reported in the WSJ .

1. He has over a million Twitter followers (social media use â€" see my social media 101 article) (do you notice how he's active on social media, responds to Tweets and more?)
2. He has built a powerful PERSONAL brand (beyond being “a mayor”).
3. He's not just a “good weather” politician but has built a genuine care for his community AND he uses social media to let his tribe know about his activity in the community.
4. He has built a follower of INFLUENCERS (such as Oprah Winfrey) which will also help him.

Again, this is NOT a political endorsement in any way but lessons we can all learn from.

Today's politican like today's small business owners â€" MUST have strong personal brands to THRIVE and SUCCEED and leverage social media.

President Obama did much of what Cory Booker has done and this helped him win his first election. If Gov Romney had a strong online presence and other technology and analytical elements â€" maybe he would have been President today.

3 Cool Smartphone Cases That Also Double Your Battery Life

The built-in battery life on our smartphones often isn't long enough to last a full business day, especially one as long and as busy as your average tech savvy small business owner. You've got business apps to use and calls to make, so you need to augment that internal battery with an external one.

There are a number of fantastic cases that extend your phone's battery life. Let's take a look a some of your options:

Morphie Juice Pack

This is a known commodity. They're known for quality, attractive cases that will double your battery life on various iPhone models and a variety of Android phones. Right now, you can get a Morphie Juice Pack for your iPhone 5 from $80. Their $120 model will give you a 120% boost, which is really impressive, giving you ten hours of talk time or internet time. That'll get you through the longest days, or maybe even the weekend.

This $70 case snaps onto your iPhone in a… snap. In addition to iPhone 4, 4s and 5 cases, they also make some for the Samsung Galaxy S4. The case doubles your battery life for up to eight hours of talk or internet time. Maxboost offers ten different color options for the fashion-conscious among you.

Magnetyze

This case also doubles the battery life of you iPhone or Android phone, but the difference with this particular case is that you don't plug it in to charge it. With the above two cases, you have to plug in your USB into the bottom. With a Magnetyze case on your phone and a Magnetyze dock on your desk, you just put your phone down in its dock and it charges. The case and the dock connect and charge magnetically, which is pretty cool, though it's ultimately just a gimmick, isn't it? I'm not sure how much time it really saves you to be able to avoid having to plug a cord in. It's up to you to decide if the few seconds of saved time and the cool factor make this case worth $100.

Do you have a case that beats these three on functionality or price? Let us know about it in the comments below!

 

Lima Forensic Case Management Software

Lima Forensic Case Management Software from IntaForensics is a complete, end-to-end case management system that offers an easy way to organise every aspect of a digital forensic investigation.

The standout feature for Lima is its ability to tailor the system to the needs of the organisation. Whether it is being used for public or private sector use, Lima provides enough functionality and customisation capabilities to meet demand. 

Perhaps more importantly, this system can be used to establish case management procedures that follow industry regulations, legal requirements and digital forensic best practices. This will help to ensure that if a case goes to court, or the process is audited by a regulatory agency, that there is a defensible and repeatable process in place.

Additionally, Lima provides some out-of-the-box functionality that can be useful. It can be configured to use an SMTP server, allowing alert and update emails to be sent to designated users throughout an investigation. Lima also allows the use of custom-report templates. These can be populated at the click of a button with data from the case in those instances where a physical document needs to be produced. 

Another key strength of the system is extremely granular security controls, which allow user access to be locked down by modules, cases and even individual aspects of a case. It ties into Microsoft Active Directory for user access management, allowing user access provisioning to be integrated into existing processes. A log is generated of all activity that takes place within a case, making identifying which investigator made a change a simple task. 

There is a bit of a learning curve when it comes to installing this product and using it to its full potential, so IntaForensics highly recommends the optional training sessions they offer for new users. 

The server installation process required that an SQL database be created for the program. User accounts then had to be created and granted access to it. In addition, case-related configuration settings need to be entered during installation. This can be a daunting task for a less-experienced user. 

Fortunately, IntaForensics provides a detailed, step-by-step installation guide in the Lima Server help file, and has bundled all of the necessary tools to get the SQL database up and running. Once installed, the server administration interface is straightforward, and organisation-specific configuration of the case management system can be accomplished quickly. 

During our testing, we did not experience any significant performance or stability issues. The client and server interfaces and the included modules launched quickly. Processing time while using the system was negligible. 

The base price is £3,495, which includes a perpetual licence for the server and two clients, as well as one year of support and all updates. Training, additional client licences, optional modules and additional years of support are available as extra costs. The capabilities are well worth the price. Lima would be of value to any organisation that is struggling to manage a heavy caseload.

Everybody Seems To Be Into 3D Printers, Even Amazon

3D printing is on fire as a trend in small business.  It seems everybody is talking about 3D printers and suddenly more places are opening up online where you can purchase these extraordinary devices. Even online retailing giant Amazon â€"  which sells nearly anything else you can think of â€" has jumped on the 3D printer bandwagon.

The retailer recently opened up a new Amazon 3D printer store, making the machines easier and more convenient to purchase.

Small businesses can use 3D printers for everything from creating prototypes for new products, to industrial design models, and even small scale manufacturing of jewelry or similar items, as we noted last month.  You create a digital file of an item you want to produce, and then “print it” on-premise.  Printing involves layering plastic or another material until it builds up and turns into your item.  Usually the items are made out of plastic, but you can find 3D printers that use metal and even chocolate or cheese to make items.

We took a peek at the Amazon 3D store recently. There are about 35 listings for 3D printers currently.  The 3D printers are expensive. The lowest priced machine available is nearly $1,100 but it received just 2 out of 5 stars in its one review. The best one available at the most competitive price would be the Flashforge 3D printer at $1,199.

Along with printers, Amazon also has collected in one spot on its sites a variety of items you might need or want for 3-printing, including plastic filament (the material you make items out of), 3-D printing books, CAD design software, and parts and accessories for 3D printers.

A recent TechCrunch article reports the new Amazon store will feature printers from companies like Afinia and Flashforge. But the store also allows owners of 3D printers by Makerbot, a popular brand, to sell their used machines.  So if that 3D printing experiment doesn’t work out, well, you can always try to sell it.

There are other places to get the printers too.

Staples began selling them in May, for example. And other brands are available for sale from manufacturer websites.

Companies like Shapeways provide 3D printing services for those who don’t want to own a machines. An open source 3D printer platform offers another option.

But availability of these machines from the world’s biggest online retailer places them more in the mainstream.

Image: Amazon

Everybody Seems To Be Into 3D Printers, Even Amazon

3D printing is on fire as a trend in small business.  It seems everybody is talking about 3D printers and suddenly more places are opening up online where you can purchase these extraordinary devices. Even online retailing giant Amazon â€"  which sells nearly anything else you can think of â€" has jumped on the 3D printer bandwagon.

The retailer recently opened up a new Amazon 3D printer store, making the machines easier and more convenient to purchase.

Small businesses can use 3D printers for everything from creating prototypes for new products, to industrial design models, and even small scale manufacturing of jewelry or similar items, as we noted last month.  You create a digital file of an item you want to produce, and then “print it” on-premise.  Printing involves layering plastic or another material until it builds up and turns into your item.  Usually the items are made out of plastic, but you can find 3D printers that use metal and even chocolate or cheese to make items.

We took a peek at the Amazon 3D store recently. There are about 35 listings for 3D printers currently.  The 3D printers are expensive. The lowest priced machine available is nearly $1,100 but it received just 2 out of 5 stars in its one review. The best one available at the most competitive price would be the Flashforge 3D printer at $1,199.

Along with printers, Amazon also has collected in one spot on its sites a variety of items you might need or want for 3-printing, including plastic filament (the material you make items out of), 3-D printing books, CAD design software, and parts and accessories for 3D printers.

A recent TechCrunch article reports the new Amazon store will feature printers from companies like Afinia and Flashforge. But the store also allows owners of 3D printers by Makerbot, a popular brand, to sell their used machines.  So if that 3D printing experiment doesn’t work out, well, you can always try to sell it.

There are other places to get the printers too.

Staples began selling them in May, for example. And other brands are available for sale from manufacturer websites.

Companies like Shapeways provide 3D printing services for those who don’t want to own a machines. An open source 3D printer platform offers another option.

But availability of these machines from the world’s biggest online retailer places them more in the mainstream.

Image: Amazon

Grumpy Cat is Heading to Hollywood

Grumpy Cat is headed from the computer screen to the big screen. Yes, the popular Internet meme is slated to star in an upcoming Grumpy Cat movie.

The movie is going to be a live-action family comedy movie with Grumpy Cat able to voice her dissatisfaction out loud. Broken Road Productions, the studio behind films such as “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” and “Jack and Jill,” will be responsible for bringing Grumpy Cat to the big screen.

Grumpy Cat’s agent secured the one-picture Grumpy Cat movie deal, terms of which were not disclosed.

While the venue may be different, being in front of the camera isn’t brand new territory for Grumpy Cat. The cat has already been the star of nearly 20 videos on her official YouTube channel. The channel has over 126,000 subscribers and some of the videos have over a million views.

Even before the Grumpy Cat movie deal, Grumpy Cat’s owners, Tabatha and Bryan Bundesen, had already built a successful brand around the sour-faced cat, even though they’ve said she’s actually very sweet and friendly.

To date, Grumpy Cat, whose real name is Tardar Sauce (spelled with a “d”), has nearly a million Facebook fans, over 92,000 Twitter followers, and over 66,000 Instagram followers. She’s made a number of public appearances to greet fans at events like South by Southwest.

She’s even the subject of a new book, “Grumpy Cat: A Grumpy Book,” scheduled to be released in July 2013.

Grumpy Cat first gained recognition from a post on Reddit.com in September 2012. Since then, the owners have created a website, sold Grumpy Cat merchandise, and even hired a manager who specializes in representing cats made famous on the Internet.

They also have filed for U.S. trademark protection to ensure they retain the intellectual property rights to images of their Grumpy Cat.

Grumpy Cat is Heading to Hollywood

Grumpy Cat is headed from the computer screen to the big screen. Yes, the popular Internet meme is slated to star in an upcoming Grumpy Cat movie.

The movie is going to be a live-action family comedy movie with Grumpy Cat able to voice her dissatisfaction out loud. Broken Road Productions, the studio behind films such as “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” and “Jack and Jill,” will be responsible for bringing Grumpy Cat to the big screen.

Grumpy Cat’s agent secured the one-picture Grumpy Cat movie deal, terms of which were not disclosed.

While the venue may be different, being in front of the camera isn’t brand new territory for Grumpy Cat. The cat has already been the star of nearly 20 videos on her official YouTube channel. The channel has over 126,000 subscribers and some of the videos have over a million views.

Even before the Grumpy Cat movie deal, Grumpy Cat’s owners, Tabatha and Bryan Bundesen, had already built a successful brand around the sour-faced cat, even though they’ve said she’s actually very sweet and friendly.

To date, Grumpy Cat, whose real name is Tardar Sauce (spelled with a “d”), has nearly a million Facebook fans, over 92,000 Twitter followers, and over 66,000 Instagram followers. She’s made a number of public appearances to greet fans at events like South by Southwest.

She’s even the subject of a new book, “Grumpy Cat: A Grumpy Book,” scheduled to be released in July 2013.

Grumpy Cat first gained recognition from a post on Reddit.com in September 2012. Since then, the owners have created a website, sold Grumpy Cat merchandise, and even hired a manager who specializes in representing cats made famous on the Internet.

They also have filed for U.S. trademark protection to ensure they retain the intellectual property rights to images of their Grumpy Cat.

3 Cool Smartphone Cases That Also Double Your Battery Life

The built-in battery life on our smartphones often isn’t long enough to last a full business day, especially one as long and as busy as your average tech savvy small business owner. You’ve got business apps to use and calls to make, so you need to augment that internal battery with an external one.

There are a number of fantastic cases that extend your phone’s battery life. Let’s take a look a some of your options:

Morphie Juice Pack

This is a known commodity. They’re known for quality, attractive cases that will double your battery life on various iPhone models and a variety of Android phones. Right now, you can get a Morphie Juice Pack for your iPhone 5 from $80. Their $120 model will give you a 120% boost, which is really impressive, giving you ten hours of talk time or internet time. That’ll get you through the longest days, or maybe even the weekend.

This $70 case snaps onto your iPhone in a… snap. In addition to iPhone 4, 4s and 5 cases, they also make some for the Samsung Galaxy S4. The case doubles your battery life for up to eight hours of talk or internet time. Maxboost offers ten different color options for the fashion-conscious among you.

Magnetyze

This case also doubles the battery life of you iPhone or Android phone, but the difference with this particular case is that you don’t plug it in to charge it. With the above two cases, you have to plug in your USB into the bottom. With a Magnetyze case on your phone and a Magnetyze dock on your desk, you just put your phone down in its dock and it charges. The case and the dock connect and charge magnetically, which is pretty cool, though it’s ultimately just a gimmick, isn’t it? I’m not sure how much time it really saves you to be able to avoid having to plug a cord in. It’s up to you to decide if the few seconds of saved time and the cool factor make this case worth $100.

Do you have a case that beats these three on functionality or price? Let us know about it in the comments below!

3 Cool Smartphone Cases That Also Double Your Battery Life

The built-in battery life on our smartphones often isn’t long enough to last a full business day, especially one as long and as busy as your average tech savvy small business owner. You’ve got business apps to use and calls to make, so you need to augment that internal battery with an external one.

There are a number of fantastic cases that extend your phone’s battery life. Let’s take a look a some of your options:

Morphie Juice Pack

This is a known commodity. They’re known for quality, attractive cases that will double your battery life on various iPhone models and a variety of Android phones. Right now, you can get a Morphie Juice Pack for your iPhone 5 from $80. Their $120 model will give you a 120% boost, which is really impressive, giving you ten hours of talk time or internet time. That’ll get you through the longest days, or maybe even the weekend.

This $70 case snaps onto your iPhone in a… snap. In addition to iPhone 4, 4s and 5 cases, they also make some for the Samsung Galaxy S4. The case doubles your battery life for up to eight hours of talk or internet time. Maxboost offers ten different color options for the fashion-conscious among you.

Magnetyze

This case also doubles the battery life of you iPhone or Android phone, but the difference with this particular case is that you don’t plug it in to charge it. With the above two cases, you have to plug in your USB into the bottom. With a Magnetyze case on your phone and a Magnetyze dock on your desk, you just put your phone down in its dock and it charges. The case and the dock connect and charge magnetically, which is pretty cool, though it’s ultimately just a gimmick, isn’t it? I’m not sure how much time it really saves you to be able to avoid having to plug a cord in. It’s up to you to decide if the few seconds of saved time and the cool factor make this case worth $100.

Do you have a case that beats these three on functionality or price? Let us know about it in the comments below!

3 Cool Smartphone Cases That Also Double Your Battery Life

The built-in battery life on our smartphones often isn’t long enough to last a full business day, especially one as long and as busy as your average tech savvy small business owner. You’ve got business apps to use and calls to make, so you need to augment that internal battery with an external one.

There are a number of fantastic cases that extend your phone’s battery life. Let’s take a look a some of your options:

Morphie Juice Pack

This is a known commodity. They’re known for quality, attractive cases that will double your battery life on various iPhone models and a variety of Android phones. Right now, you can get a Morphie Juice Pack for your iPhone 5 from $80. Their $120 model will give you a 120% boost, which is really impressive, giving you ten hours of talk time or internet time. That’ll get you through the longest days, or maybe even the weekend.

This $70 case snaps onto your iPhone in a… snap. In addition to iPhone 4, 4s and 5 cases, they also make some for the Samsung Galaxy S4. The case doubles your battery life for up to eight hours of talk or internet time. Maxboost offers ten different color options for the fashion-conscious among you.

Magnetyze

This case also doubles the battery life of you iPhone or Android phone, but the difference with this particular case is that you don’t plug it in to charge it. With the above two cases, you have to plug in your USB into the bottom. With a Magnetyze case on your phone and a Magnetyze dock on your desk, you just put your phone down in its dock and it charges. The case and the dock connect and charge magnetically, which is pretty cool, though it’s ultimately just a gimmick, isn’t it? I’m not sure how much time it really saves you to be able to avoid having to plug a cord in. It’s up to you to decide if the few seconds of saved time and the cool factor make this case worth $100.

Do you have a case that beats these three on functionality or price? Let us know about it in the comments below!

“Be The Red Jacket” to Be the Best Salesperson

Every year golf enthusiasts fix their gaze onto their televisions (or these days, online) for The Masters tournament.  Each year they watch another professional golfer receive the coveted Green Jacket in the heart of August, Georgia.  When you think “green jacket,” sports insiders know it refers to the Masters and the Augusta National Golf Club.

When it comes to business, that kind of identity, though with a different hue, can mean success.  At least that’s what it means to Leanne Hoagland-Smith (@coachlee), author of “be The Red Jacket in a sea of grey suits“.

Leanne is no stranger to many businesses, particularly in northwest Indiana and Chicago.  She is owner of Advanced Systems, a business strategy consultancy, and hosts a friendly business group, the South Shore Business Club, from the Purdue Technical Center.  An accomplished networker, she is a stand out sales expert - listed by Openview Labs as among the 2013 Top Sales Influencers.

I met Leanne at a networking event a few months ago. When I learned about her sales book, I thought her terrific manner would potentially translate to text.

An Overview of How Sales Really Gets Done

And translate it did.  Terrific is definitely an apt description for how this book unlocks the small personality and psychological blocks that hinder execution.  Hoagland-Smith opens with how you can be your own worst obstacle for gaining sales:

Being in sales is an ongoing, formidable task. This role probably demands more developed and consistent self-leadership skills than any other job or position.  No matter who you are, your beliefs (attitudes) are driving all of your actions (and) creating your results.

Her recommendations to get past the emotional sales roadblocks can easily translate into how you establish your sales practices. Take this example of setting a value statement:

If you truly love to sell, then your ethics about selling should reflect that desire. What I have discovered is that many in sales do not have a written core ethics or Value Statement. Even if the company has one, all professional salespeople should have their own.

One nice aspect of the writing is that the imagery of the jacket and what it represents supports the presented ideas.  Check out how Hoagland-Smith explains how the aforementioned value comment fits into one’s sales objectives:

For most garments, a loose thread indicates a weakness somewhere in the seams to a small hole. Ethics and values are the threads that bind the seams together to keep the jacket in one piece…When the threads are strong, the jacket is strong. Conversely, when your values are strong, your sales will also be strong.

The chapters include examples from Hoagland-Smith’s experience - the CSI-style role-playing she does with her clients is a must-review. They also include “Sales Coaching Tips,” concise details that are smart but do not require heavy theory to appreciate their value.

What Does This Book Compare To?

Selling In a Skirt is a comparable book with respect to brevity. But Jacket has meatier details than lengthier sales books such as How To Sell When No One Is Buying.  The material will appeal to beginning salespersons as well as those who are beyond their freshman year of sales school, so to speak.

Interview with Leanne Hoagland-Smith

Jacket has been available for a while, so I asked Leanne for her latest reflections on the sales professional field:

Q: You mentioned how striking a balance between a personal and professional life increases sales. From your view since the book’s publication, what has been surprising as sales professionals seek to gain a life-work balance?

A: What is surprising is this still remains true. Clients come to me to increase sales and yet they find that path begins with clarity around their own personal lives. In some cases, there is also required clarity around their leadership and overall business growth. However, to achieve business growth or professional growth starts inside of each individual because success and failure both start and end in the same place - between one’s ears.

Q: In the book you mention how your coach David Herdlinger introduced you to the concept of weasel words - weak words in which their usage gives us “permission to fail.” As sales cycles increasingly include digital marketing, with its demand for transparent, to-the-point content, have sales professionals become better at removing weasel language?

A: My sense is by developing emotional intelligence and being very intentional, one’s clarity respective to one’s role awareness including talents is a great place to start. What I know to be true is that well over 95% of my clients initially lack clarity about their top 3 talents and almost that same percentage knew their lowest 3 talents.

Q: You mentioned that a red jacket must have separate pockets for marketing, sales and productivity. Do you think that the adoption of smart devices has confused some sales professionals in using them effectively for each “pocket?”

A: I believe there is confusion and this confusion starts with the belief that technology is the cure all for marketing and sales. People still buy from people. It is essential to pick up the phone, to physically meet people face to face when possible.  Technology can have us confusing motion with progress and activity with results.

Conclusion

Because so many sales books are released, many salespeople find themselves confused by what to read and what to put aside. My two cents is to not put this book aside. Be The Red Jacket in a Sea of Grey Suits offers simplicity in strengthening one’s sales technique.

You will better clarify who you are in your industry and how you can make a difference with your customers.

“Be The Red Jacket” to Be the Best Salesperson

Every year golf enthusiasts fix their gaze onto their televisions (or these days, online) for The Masters tournament.  Each year they watch another professional golfer receive the coveted Green Jacket in the heart of August, Georgia.  When you think “green jacket,” sports insiders know it refers to the Masters and the Augusta National Golf Club.

When it comes to business, that kind of identity, though with a different hue, can mean success.  At least that’s what it means to Leanne Hoagland-Smith (@coachlee), author of “be The Red Jacket in a sea of grey suits“.

Leanne is no stranger to many businesses, particularly in northwest Indiana and Chicago.  She is owner of Advanced Systems, a business strategy consultancy, and hosts a friendly business group, the South Shore Business Club, from the Purdue Technical Center.  An accomplished networker, she is a stand out sales expert - listed by Openview Labs as among the 2013 Top Sales Influencers.

I met Leanne at a networking event a few months ago. When I learned about her sales book, I thought her terrific manner would potentially translate to text.

An Overview of How Sales Really Gets Done

And translate it did.  Terrific is definitely an apt description for how this book unlocks the small personality and psychological blocks that hinder execution.  Hoagland-Smith opens with how you can be your own worst obstacle for gaining sales:

Being in sales is an ongoing, formidable task. This role probably demands more developed and consistent self-leadership skills than any other job or position.  No matter who you are, your beliefs (attitudes) are driving all of your actions (and) creating your results.

Her recommendations to get past the emotional sales roadblocks can easily translate into how you establish your sales practices. Take this example of setting a value statement:

If you truly love to sell, then your ethics about selling should reflect that desire. What I have discovered is that many in sales do not have a written core ethics or Value Statement. Even if the company has one, all professional salespeople should have their own.

One nice aspect of the writing is that the imagery of the jacket and what it represents supports the presented ideas.  Check out how Hoagland-Smith explains how the aforementioned value comment fits into one’s sales objectives:

For most garments, a loose thread indicates a weakness somewhere in the seams to a small hole. Ethics and values are the threads that bind the seams together to keep the jacket in one piece…When the threads are strong, the jacket is strong. Conversely, when your values are strong, your sales will also be strong.

The chapters include examples from Hoagland-Smith’s experience - the CSI-style role-playing she does with her clients is a must-review. They also include “Sales Coaching Tips,” concise details that are smart but do not require heavy theory to appreciate their value.

What Does This Book Compare To?

Selling In a Skirt is a comparable book with respect to brevity. But Jacket has meatier details than lengthier sales books such as How To Sell When No One Is Buying.  The material will appeal to beginning salespersons as well as those who are beyond their freshman year of sales school, so to speak.

Interview with Leanne Hoagland-Smith

Jacket has been available for a while, so I asked Leanne for her latest reflections on the sales professional field:

Q: You mentioned how striking a balance between a personal and professional life increases sales. From your view since the book’s publication, what has been surprising as sales professionals seek to gain a life-work balance?

A: What is surprising is this still remains true. Clients come to me to increase sales and yet they find that path begins with clarity around their own personal lives. In some cases, there is also required clarity around their leadership and overall business growth. However, to achieve business growth or professional growth starts inside of each individual because success and failure both start and end in the same place - between one’s ears.

Q: In the book you mention how your coach David Herdlinger introduced you to the concept of weasel words - weak words in which their usage gives us “permission to fail.” As sales cycles increasingly include digital marketing, with its demand for transparent, to-the-point content, have sales professionals become better at removing weasel language?

A: My sense is by developing emotional intelligence and being very intentional, one’s clarity respective to one’s role awareness including talents is a great place to start. What I know to be true is that well over 95% of my clients initially lack clarity about their top 3 talents and almost that same percentage knew their lowest 3 talents.

Q: You mentioned that a red jacket must have separate pockets for marketing, sales and productivity. Do you think that the adoption of smart devices has confused some sales professionals in using them effectively for each “pocket?”

A: I believe there is confusion and this confusion starts with the belief that technology is the cure all for marketing and sales. People still buy from people. It is essential to pick up the phone, to physically meet people face to face when possible.  Technology can have us confusing motion with progress and activity with results.

Conclusion

Because so many sales books are released, many salespeople find themselves confused by what to read and what to put aside. My two cents is to not put this book aside. Be The Red Jacket in a Sea of Grey Suits offers simplicity in strengthening one’s sales technique.

You will better clarify who you are in your industry and how you can make a difference with your customers.