Small Business Owners: Survey Says Yes, They Are Happy

While the media frequently paints a picture of the average small business owner as a stressed-out workaholic, slave to the smartphone and run ragged by the never-ending demands of his or her company, the reality is quite different. According to the first annual Yodle Small Business Sentiment Survey, small business owners are enjoying a pretty decent work-life balance, they’re working reasonable hours, taking vacations and generally loving what they do.

The small business owners survey of businesses with 20 or fewer employees found a whopping 91 percent are happy being small business owners, with 55 percent saying they’re “extremely happy.”

It’s No Wonder: More than half (52 percent) of small business owners say they work 40 hours or less per week, and 72 percent take at least two weeks of vacation annually. In fact, 27 percent take four or more weeks of vacation.

Of course, not everyone in the survey is living that large. About four in 10 (39 percent) work 41 to 60 hours per week. Still, the percentage of respondents who are living up to the stereotype of the crazy-busy entrepreneur is very small. Only 9 percent work more than 60 hours a week, and just 11 percent say they never take a vacation.

That doesn’t mean all is sunshine and rainbows in the world of the entrepreneur. In terms of their personal lives, small business owners’ biggest worries are:

• Being able to afford healthcare (48 percent).
• Putting aside enough money for retirement (46 percent).
• Being able to provide an adequate lifestyle for their family (33 percent).

On a professional level, the top three business concerns keeping small business owners up at night are:

• Finding new customers (42 percent).
• Being able to afford healthcare and other employee benefits (39 percent).
• Retaining current customers (33 percent).

Overall, 59 percent of business owners say they definitely wouldn’t or were unlikely to consider selling their companies in the next few years. One-fourth indicated they “might” sell “if they could get a fair price.”

Do these attitudes jibe with yours?

If not, here are a few suggested changes that could make you change your outlook:

Cut Yourself Some Slack

If you’ve been working day and night thinking that’s just what entrepreneurs do, it’s time to stop. Figure out ways to take time off to recharge your batteries. It doesn’t have to be a month-long sabbatical - even taking an afternoon off now and then can be enough to renew your love of your business.

Start small and build up to a real vacation - you deserve it.

Plan Ahead

Small business owners have to live with uncertainty, that’s the nature of the beast. You’ll never be able to be 100 percent certain of your income. But then, neither will the average corporate employee, right?

The difference is that you have the ability to take matters into your own hands. Take steps to feel more secure by figuring out how to put money away both for short-term needs (like a sales slump) and for your future. Meet with a financial adviser and talk to your accountant if you haven’t already.

Get Ready for Obamacare

Six in 10 respondents believe the Affordable Care Act’s implementation will have a negative effect on small business. While much of the outcome remains unknown, don’t hide your head in the sand. Start now and investigate insurance exchanges in your state. Talk to your insurance provider and accountant about what changes you’ll need to make, what your options are and how this will affect your business.

By being proactive rather than reactive, you’ll feel more positive about you and your business’s future and your ability to handle whatever life hands you.

Happy Photo via Shutterstock

Instagram Reaches 150 Million Monthly Users

If you haven’t yet used Instagram to market your brand, the time may be right to start. The photo sharing platform owned by Facebook announced recently it had reached 150 million active monthly users.

To put this into perspective, this means Instagram is only 50 million users short of overtaking Facebook rival Twitter.

Twitter currently says it has 200 million active monthly users. The company shared plans for an IPO last week.

Instagram Helps Small Business Marketing

An official post on the Instagram blog announcing the 150 million user milestone, focused on documenting protests in Egypt, sharing a trip across the U.S. or taking adorable animal photos.

Certainly, some of Instagram’s users are engaging in these uses of the platform.

But there are many possible Instagram applications for marketing your business too.

You can use Instagram to share sneak previews of your products, highlight your customer service, showcase your employees and company culture or show off your restaurant or new office.

Earlier this year, Instagram video was born with the possibility of shooting 15 second videos as a marketing tool.

Instagram also offers many “filters” to change the look of your photos and videos, rendering them in either a retro style or with intensified colors.

Where is Your Audience?

When deciding whether Instagram is the right platform for your marketing message, you should first look at its audience.

While Instagram’s community is large and growing, company officials say 60 percent of it is located outside the United States.

This might mean Instagram will be more effective marketing an international product than, say, a local pizzeria.

What products or services might you consider marketing on Instagram?

Instagram Photo via Shutterstock

3 Ways Duplex Printing Can Save Your Small Business Thousands Per Year

Printing is alive and well in the American workplace, costing businesses thousands of dollars in paper and printer consumables. This leads many businesses to look for ways to reduce these costs and print more efficiently. Duplex printing is one option to consider and here are three ways that it can save your small business thousands of dollars per year.

Brought to you by Staples, the world’s largest office products company and second largest internet retailer. Staples now carries the HP Officejet Pro X series, the world’s fastest desktop printers, with up to twice the speed and half the printing cost of color lasers, setting a new standard for business printing. You can visit them at http://www.staples.com/officejetprox

3 Ways Duplex Printing Can Save Your Small Business Thousands Per Year

According to a recent survey, the average employee prints 34 pages per day, with 17 percent of those pages never being used. For that reason, many businesses are opting to make duplex printing the default for each of its office printers, cutting costs by thousands of dollars each year. Duplex documents make full use of both sides of each side of paper, creating shorter document stacks without impacting the readability of the text on each page.

Paper Costs

Whether your concerns are for the environment or for your business’s bottom line, there’s no denying one-sided printing is wasting resources. The same amount of toner is used, granted, but by getting 1,000 print pages out of every 500-page ream of paper, businesses can stretch paper budgets twice as far.

With each case of copy paper costing $50 and up, workplaces that enforce duplex printing by default find they are able to free up funds for other things. When less paper is ordered, less paper is created, thereby preserving forests and avoiding the emissions that occur during the daily production of reams of paper.

Postage Costs

One ream of standard copy paper weighs several pounds, which can be costly to mail. For a business like a legal firm that is regularly required to mail sizeable stacks of paper, postage costs can easily add up to thousands each month. When documents must be mailed, duplex printing can make a big difference in printing costs, including allowing businesses to use less expensive packaging like manila envelopes.

Save Storage Space

Businesses are becoming increasingly aware of the amount of money they’re spending on wasted office space. Unused conference rooms are being repurposed into office spaces and years of files are being scanned and shredded.

With duplex printing, those paper files that must be kept can be stored in half the space. File rooms can be reduced to half their original sizes, allowing businesses to continue to grow without moving to larger office spaces.

Smaller file rooms aren’t the only way offices can free up space. Because offices can survive for twice as long on a case of paper, they can get away with a few cases at a time, which can be easily stored in a small amount of space. This allows businesses to keep work areas clean while still having enough paper on hand to meet daily printing needs.

To get the most out of duplex printing capabilities, businesses should first choose printers that allow automatic duplexing. The new HP Officejet Pro X Series of printers, which are sold exclusively at Staples, are perfect for duplex printing jobs at high printing speed. While manual two-sided printing is possible, printers with duplexers do the work for employees, making them far more likely to utilize it. Businesses should also set up each printer to duplex by default, thereby increasing the chances that employees will use the feature for every item they print.

3 Ways Duplex Printing Can Save Your Small Business Thousands Per Year

Printing is alive and well in the American workplace, costing businesses thousands of dollars in paper and printer consumables. This leads many businesses to look for ways to reduce these costs and print more efficiently. Duplex printing is one option to consider and here are three ways that it can save your small business thousands of dollars per year.

Brought to you by Staples, the world’s largest office products company and second largest internet retailer. Staples now carries the HP Officejet Pro X series, the world’s fastest desktop printers, with up to twice the speed and half the printing cost of color lasers, setting a new standard for business printing. You can visit them at http://www.staples.com/officejetprox

3 Ways Duplex Printing Can Save Your Small Business Thousands Per Year

According to a recent survey, the average employee prints 34 pages per day, with 17 percent of those pages never being used. For that reason, many businesses are opting to make duplex printing the default for each of its office printers, cutting costs by thousands of dollars each year. Duplex documents make full use of both sides of each side of paper, creating shorter document stacks without impacting the readability of the text on each page.

Paper Costs

Whether your concerns are for the environment or for your business’s bottom line, there’s no denying one-sided printing is wasting resources. The same amount of toner is used, granted, but by getting 1,000 print pages out of every 500-page ream of paper, businesses can stretch paper budgets twice as far.

With each case of copy paper costing $50 and up, workplaces that enforce duplex printing by default find they are able to free up funds for other things. When less paper is ordered, less paper is created, thereby preserving forests and avoiding the emissions that occur during the daily production of reams of paper.

Postage Costs

One ream of standard copy paper weighs several pounds, which can be costly to mail. For a business like a legal firm that is regularly required to mail sizeable stacks of paper, postage costs can easily add up to thousands each month. When documents must be mailed, duplex printing can make a big difference in printing costs, including allowing businesses to use less expensive packaging like manila envelopes.

Save Storage Space

Businesses are becoming increasingly aware of the amount of money they’re spending on wasted office space. Unused conference rooms are being repurposed into office spaces and years of files are being scanned and shredded.

With duplex printing, those paper files that must be kept can be stored in half the space. File rooms can be reduced to half their original sizes, allowing businesses to continue to grow without moving to larger office spaces.

Smaller file rooms aren’t the only way offices can free up space. Because offices can survive for twice as long on a case of paper, they can get away with a few cases at a time, which can be easily stored in a small amount of space. This allows businesses to keep work areas clean while still having enough paper on hand to meet daily printing needs.

To get the most out of duplex printing capabilities, businesses should first choose printers that allow automatic duplexing. The new HP Officejet Pro X Series of printers, which are sold exclusively at Staples, are perfect for duplex printing jobs at high printing speed. While manual two-sided printing is possible, printers with duplexers do the work for employees, making them far more likely to utilize it. Businesses should also set up each printer to duplex by default, thereby increasing the chances that employees will use the feature for every item they print.

5 Pillars of Visual Marketing Plus Some Free Tools

Visual marketing is one of those buzz terms circulating a lot lately. With the way the Internet itself has changed over time, that is to be expected. Users have a certain expectation that you have to meet, and a lot of it has to do with the visuals associated with the content you create. You are trying to engage people around the world with a universal language, one done through images rather than the standards of text.

Able to evoke emotional responses and long lasting associations, visual marketing is a crucial element to any strategy in branding today. Failing to meet this standard could be disastrous, and possibly lead to a lot of work with no payoff.

Isn’t that every company’s nightmare?

Visual marketing can be broken down into five pillars, and knowing them will help you to establish a better plan to increase visibility and generate brand loyalty.

Pillars of Visual Marketing

1. Use Various Media Types

A lot of people will make the mistake of sticking with one form of media over others. There is nothing wrong with having your primary content be a specific type, but you should still try and add in others on a regular basis. I usually suggest a 1/5 ratio. If you are posting five photos with funny captions, remove one of the pictures and add in a video instead.

While you might be sharing a lot of graphic quotes, make one of them an actual infographic. This also applies to shared content versus original content. Try to make as much as possible original, rather than all shared. And instead of making it all original, add in a few things you have found around the Web to connect with other sources. Just make sure people know where it originally came from.

Tip: Content re-packaging is one of the most effective ways to create different media types based on one research.

2. Keep Content Relevant

An occasional off-topic tangent or item is fine. But most of what you present should be relevant to your brand, even if that connection isn’t very strong. Some kind of link should exist, otherwise you are diluting the message you are trying to get across. If you are posting something completely off the subject, try to find a way to link it up to your brand.

For example, a picture of a smiling pig might not have anything to do with a sale your site is holding. But adding a caption where the pig is expressing its excitement about getting 40% off of all merchandise does. You will find you can stretch things pretty far to find relevance.

3. Optimize For Platforms

Certain platforms are better for different forms of media, and you should optimize to match their strengths:

• Pinterest is great for high quality images and infographics linking to outside links.
• Facebook is perfect for rapid-fire engagement and the spreading of potentially viral content of all types.
• Twitter is good for single photos, and linking to media off-site, then discussing it with short bursts of opinion and conversation.
• Reddit is good for building a real discussion on any media you might have produced.
• LinkedIn is good for getting visual content out to professionals in B2B marketing.

Remember to take advantage of different features each platform has, like hashtags, proper categorization, enticing titles, etc

4. Cross Promote Content

Most platforms will be good for more than one purpose, or the same purpose across sites. Cross promotion is a good way to get the same visuals seen on a larger scale and to increase your pool of who sees it. Sites like Twitter and Pinterest are more open natured, so you should definitely post any Facebook content on those pages as well. Or adapt visual content into other media formats in order to cross promote it further, like turning an infographic tutorial into a video for YouTube.

5. Make It Easy To Share

Part of marketing is getting others to get the word out for you. This can be encouraged by making it extra easy to share content. Have plenty of social media buttons on your website so it can be posted anywhere. Smartly double post things on your social profiles, such as cycling the same content after a couple of days so more people can see and share it. Ask for a like or share on Facebook if they agree or disagree. Include people to ensure they see they are meant to be a part of the conversation.

10 Free Visual Marketing Tools

Visual marketing is kind of like the industry’s new toy. People are only beginning to really understand and implement it and, as the buzz increases, it is becoming more crucial than ever to get on board. With the Internet more visual than it has ever been before, failing to properly provide such enhancements and engagement is a quick way to lose yourself a lot of visibility on an already saturated market.

There are many of them out there that you can use for free, and these are ten of the best (in my opinion):

1. Image Color Picker

The best colors are found in real life. Nature photos, the color of someone’s eyes, the fabrics of a woven blanket…they hold associations in our minds. But they aren’t always easy to break down, and finding the name or code of a color can seem impossible. This awesome tool lets you upload a photo or use a URL to the image, and click on the section you want. It will then tell you the HTML, RGB and HSV codes.

2. Google Fonts

Once again, Google is sticking their hand into the cookie jar. This time it is with their very own font collection. They have thousands available, and all of them are open source so you can use them without credit or payment. Search for fonts by category, thickness, slant, width, script, style and font family or collection. They are previewed using the sentence “Grumpy wizards make toxic brew for the evil Queen and Jack.” That has to be worth a little smile.

3. Font Space

Want even more fonts? This site has more than 21,000 options at the time of this writing, and all of them are entirely free. See what is popular, what is new, browse by category, year published or alphabetically, or find a specific character or letter. There is also a search option, though with how many fonts they have hosted, it isn’t always that accurate. Have some fonts to share? Upload them here.

4. Skitch

5. Piktochart

Infographics are sort of the ultimate visual marketing tool right now. People love them, and sites like Pinterest are especially aimed at letting you share them. But not everyone has the time or even skill for making infographics on their own. Piktochat streamlines the process and gives anyone everything they need to get it done. Marketing specialists are using it all the time, as it helps to get the point across more efficiently.

6. Design Seeds

Find gorgeous and unique color schemes based on photos of nature scenes. Flowers, beaches, forests, mountains…they are just some of the inspirations that create some spectacular combinations complete with codes. They also show similar colors that are slightly different, such as brighter or more understated to give you more options.

7. Haiku Deck

This one is cheating a little because while it is free it also has a lot of optional in-app purchases. But I wanted to include it on the list because it is a different kind of visual creation tool. Make stunning and professional presentations using images, graphs, animations and anything else you might like. Show off your data in a dynamic and interesting way that will keep people’s attention.

8. Quotes Cover

Another unique kind of tool, this one is all about visual versions of quotes. You can select from the thousands available in their database, or you can create a custom quote along with the optional date it was said. It allows you to select how it is going to be used for better customization, like Facebook Timeline, a status update or print. Then you select the font, color and resize it to fit your needs.

9. IcoMoon

Browse free vectors and icons, import your own, generate CSS Sprites, use a glyph editor and more with this all-in-one icon tool. They also have premium icons if you want to pay for the full app, which gives you more than a thousand more to choose from.

10. Visual.ly

Create infographics, videos, presentations and interactive graphics, browse through those that have already been uploaded by the Visual.ly community, and just get inspired. Not only is this a great tool for creative visual content, but it is an app that can teach you a lot about the process.

Have any good tools for visual marketing?

Pillars Photo via Shutterstock

Need Email Marketing Help? Here Are 9 Necessary Steps to Getting Customers to Open (And Read) Your Emails

Let’s say you dump your old email marketing software and employ the fanciest one on the planet. Are your sales going to increase because of it? Not even marginally. Steve Jobs once said that “it’s not the tools that you have faith in - tools are just tools.” He hit the nail right on the head (pun intended). A better email marketing tool will not make you a better marketer. It will simply aid you and hone the skills you already bring to the table.

This is why people get disappointed when they get something “better” and it’s not doing them any good. You have to help your software help you; and in email marketing, mastering it is mostly a matter of knowing what to say in your subject line and, of course, in the body. Once you learn how to compose an email correctly, you’ll catch your customer’s eye and entice him into reading your message with a properly-written body. Here are some steps you should follow to make sure each email you send is successful to some degree:

For Your Subject Line

• Charge up the subject line with powerful language. I just received an email from an IT supplies store I frequent, with the subject “We know you want it!” It raises curiosity and can be a powerful weapon in the right hands. Refer to the senses when you can to make the message even more powerful. One example of sensory messaging for a restaurant could be: “Deals so great they’ll make your mouth water!” If you’re a retailer, you can write: “This week’s most delicious promotions.”
• Use numbers. The title of this article might have caught your eye with the number at the beginning. For some reason, people tend to be more attracted to numbers at the beginning of titles rather than words. Don’t write out the numbers. Use digits and you’ll see how your opening rate will climb slightly. Here’s a creative way to do that: “50% off on these stylish winter coats!”
• Avoid being mysterious. While “We know you want it!” could be a powerful phrase, it’s not as powerful as one that’s more specific. Something like “Come see our best refurbished cameras!” works better and still manages to maintain the curiosity factor.

For The Body

• Mention your client by name. You’ll get better rapport from a person if you mention them by their first name. Be up close and personal.
• Avoid making your email look like a boilerplate. Nothing turns off a prospect more than sounding like you’re talking to everybody on “the list.” Make the email as personal as possible. Let the reader know you’re talking to him/her, rather than “them.”
• Don’t meander. Avoid writing long blocks of text that will bore your reader. Keep it below 300 words. A person’s attention span isn’t in top shape when cruising through the internet. They have work to do and you’re taking up their time!
• Change up the greeting. Don’t greet people the same way each time. Keep it different and creative. This serves as a reminder to the reader that the person who typed up the email is an actual human being, not a robot with a lever.
• Don’t focus too much on getting the grammar right. A little bit of proofreading can’t hurt, but don’t write your email like an essay. Write it like you’re having a conversation with your client. Picture yourself sitting down for a cup of coffee with this person, minus any awkward silences.
• Run promotions correctly! Don’t just tell your client that you’re having a sale. Put a deadline on it. It makes people hurry up to throw their money at you.

Oh, and one more thing: Let your customers reply to your emails!! If there’s one thing you should get out of all this, it’s that everything revolves around treating your customer like a human being. The more human you are with them, the more they’d like to get to know your business. Keep to this rule and - in all likelihood - your opening rate (the percentage of people who actually open your emails) will climb closer to its full potential.

Need Email Marketing Help? Here Are 9 Necessary Steps to Getting Customers to Open (And Read) Your Emails

Let’s say you dump your old email marketing software and employ the fanciest one on the planet. Are your sales going to increase because of it? Not even marginally. Steve Jobs once said that “it’s not the tools that you have faith in - tools are just tools.” He hit the nail right on the head (pun intended). A better email marketing tool will not make you a better marketer. It will simply aid you and hone the skills you already bring to the table.

This is why people get disappointed when they get something “better” and it’s not doing them any good. You have to help your software help you; and in email marketing, mastering it is mostly a matter of knowing what to say in your subject line and, of course, in the body. Once you learn how to compose an email correctly, you’ll catch your customer’s eye and entice him into reading your message with a properly-written body. Here are some steps you should follow to make sure each email you send is successful to some degree:

For Your Subject Line

• Charge up the subject line with powerful language. I just received an email from an IT supplies store I frequent, with the subject “We know you want it!” It raises curiosity and can be a powerful weapon in the right hands. Refer to the senses when you can to make the message even more powerful. One example of sensory messaging for a restaurant could be: “Deals so great they’ll make your mouth water!” If you’re a retailer, you can write: “This week’s most delicious promotions.”
• Use numbers. The title of this article might have caught your eye with the number at the beginning. For some reason, people tend to be more attracted to numbers at the beginning of titles rather than words. Don’t write out the numbers. Use digits and you’ll see how your opening rate will climb slightly. Here’s a creative way to do that: “50% off on these stylish winter coats!”
• Avoid being mysterious. While “We know you want it!” could be a powerful phrase, it’s not as powerful as one that’s more specific. Something like “Come see our best refurbished cameras!” works better and still manages to maintain the curiosity factor.

For The Body

• Mention your client by name. You’ll get better rapport from a person if you mention them by their first name. Be up close and personal.
• Avoid making your email look like a boilerplate. Nothing turns off a prospect more than sounding like you’re talking to everybody on “the list.” Make the email as personal as possible. Let the reader know you’re talking to him/her, rather than “them.”
• Don’t meander. Avoid writing long blocks of text that will bore your reader. Keep it below 300 words. A person’s attention span isn’t in top shape when cruising through the internet. They have work to do and you’re taking up their time!
• Change up the greeting. Don’t greet people the same way each time. Keep it different and creative. This serves as a reminder to the reader that the person who typed up the email is an actual human being, not a robot with a lever.
• Don’t focus too much on getting the grammar right. A little bit of proofreading can’t hurt, but don’t write your email like an essay. Write it like you’re having a conversation with your client. Picture yourself sitting down for a cup of coffee with this person, minus any awkward silences.
• Run promotions correctly! Don’t just tell your client that you’re having a sale. Put a deadline on it. It makes people hurry up to throw their money at you.

Oh, and one more thing: Let your customers reply to your emails!! If there’s one thing you should get out of all this, it’s that everything revolves around treating your customer like a human being. The more human you are with them, the more they’d like to get to know your business. Keep to this rule and - in all likelihood - your opening rate (the percentage of people who actually open your emails) will climb closer to its full potential.

The Evolution of Online Payments Brings More Security and More Players For Small Businesses To Consider

Accepting and making payments online is becoming the norm in business these days. If your business isn’t accepting online transactions in the year 2013 then, frankly, you’re long left in the dust. Thankfully these businesses are few and far between and many small-to-medium companies have embraced the change, particularly since the advent of  services like PayPal.

Bill.com, another payment processing service, is “the fastest-growing business payments network in the nation” with 240,000 users and the company recently announced a new method of authentication, which it claims is less invasive for the customer. Instead of requesting authentication on every step, which can be cumbersome, Bill.com will continually monitor all activity and prompts the user for second factor authentication, if needed, to avoid any possible risks.

“Unlike other basic ‘out of band’ authentication on the market today, Bill.com’s process is smart and non-invasive,” said Shirley Inscoe, Senior Analyst from Aite Group, an independent research and advisory company for business and technology. “This feature not only protects banks and their small business customers like never before, it also lets business go on without constant, unnecessary interruptions. The Bill.com Banking Platform is making it easier than ever for banks to better serve their small business customers and for small businesses to finally be able to embrace online banking with full confidence and few hassles.”

David Bakke of financial advice website Money Crashers is an advocate of Bill.com and a regular user of the service. “One of the major benefits of Bill.com is that it syncs up nicely with many popular forms of accounting software such as Quicken and Microsoft Money,” he says. “It also offers a quick and easy way to keep all your bills in one place and pay them conveniently.”

The market for online payment methods is now fiercely competitive and showing no signs of letting up, especially with the release of PayPal’s newest app that will allow its users to pay on the go with their credit or debit card or bank account and avail of deals and discounts via the app. Currently PayPal is the most widely platform for online transactions, with 110 million active accounts. PayPal maintains leadership and one of the disadvantages noted by David with Bill.com is the company’s paid membership, which he describes as “a bit costly, especially if you don’t have a lot of bills to pay.

Speaking of cost, this is one factor that all businesses should consider when looking to add a payment solution to their business, as the costs vary from provider to provider. For instance, Bill.com will allow you to pay and get paid electronically at $.49 per transaction, but there is also a monthly fee,the minimum solo plan being $24/month. Paypal allows online payments, which transfer from your customer to your paypal account, which you can then withdraw to your bank (notice…a few more steps are involved here). The costs vary, depending on the amount of money transferred each month, but averages at about 2.9% plus $.30 per transaction - so if you receive $500 from a customer it will cost you $14.50 plus $.30 for a total of $14.80.

Relatively new player, Zipmark, is making waves in mobile payments, where customers use their checking accounts to transfer funds to others, without Zipmark holding any money in the cloud. It’s a single step bank-to-bank secure transaction process that integrates with a number of invoicing solutions including Freshbooks, Working Point, Zero and others. The cost per transaction using Zipmark is 1%, with a max $5 charge, no setup or monthly fees involved. So on that same $500 your customer sends, you’ll pay just $5 and the money is directly in your bank account in 24 - 48 hours.

Regardless of what solution you choose, you’ll always want to take a hard look at what the costs and security of each are. Those two factors will play a major part in your small business.

What is your preferred method of online payments? Tell us in the comments section below.

The Evolution of Online Payments Brings More Security and More Players For Small Businesses To Consider

Accepting and making payments online is becoming the norm in business these days. If your business isn’t accepting online transactions in the year 2013 then, frankly, you’re long left in the dust. Thankfully these businesses are few and far between and many small-to-medium companies have embraced the change, particularly since the advent of  services like PayPal.

Bill.com, another payment processing service, is “the fastest-growing business payments network in the nation” with 240,000 users and the company recently announced a new method of authentication, which it claims is less invasive for the customer. Instead of requesting authentication on every step, which can be cumbersome, Bill.com will continually monitor all activity and prompts the user for second factor authentication, if needed, to avoid any possible risks.

“Unlike other basic ‘out of band’ authentication on the market today, Bill.com’s process is smart and non-invasive,” said Shirley Inscoe, Senior Analyst from Aite Group, an independent research and advisory company for business and technology. “This feature not only protects banks and their small business customers like never before, it also lets business go on without constant, unnecessary interruptions. The Bill.com Banking Platform is making it easier than ever for banks to better serve their small business customers and for small businesses to finally be able to embrace online banking with full confidence and few hassles.”

David Bakke of financial advice website Money Crashers is an advocate of Bill.com and a regular user of the service. “One of the major benefits of Bill.com is that it syncs up nicely with many popular forms of accounting software such as Quicken and Microsoft Money,” he says. “It also offers a quick and easy way to keep all your bills in one place and pay them conveniently.”

The market for online payment methods is now fiercely competitive and showing no signs of letting up, especially with the release of PayPal’s newest app that will allow its users to pay on the go with their credit or debit card or bank account and avail of deals and discounts via the app. Currently PayPal is the most widely platform for online transactions, with 110 million active accounts. PayPal maintains leadership and one of the disadvantages noted by David with Bill.com is the company’s paid membership, which he describes as “a bit costly, especially if you don’t have a lot of bills to pay.

Speaking of cost, this is one factor that all businesses should consider when looking to add a payment solution to their business, as the costs vary from provider to provider. For instance, Bill.com will allow you to pay and get paid electronically at $.49 per transaction, but there is also a monthly fee,the minimum solo plan being $24/month. Paypal allows online payments, which transfer from your customer to your paypal account, which you can then withdraw to your bank (notice…a few more steps are involved here). The costs vary, depending on the amount of money transferred each month, but averages at about 2.9% plus $.30 per transaction - so if you receive $500 from a customer it will cost you $14.50 plus $.30 for a total of $14.80.

Relatively new player, Zipmark, is making waves in mobile payments, where customers use their checking accounts to transfer funds to others, without Zipmark holding any money in the cloud. It’s a single step bank-to-bank secure transaction process that integrates with a number of invoicing solutions including Freshbooks, Working Point, Zero and others. The cost per transaction using Zipmark is 1%, with a max $5 charge, no setup or monthly fees involved. So on that same $500 your customer sends, you’ll pay just $5 and the money is directly in your bank account in 24 - 48 hours.

Regardless of what solution you choose, you’ll always want to take a hard look at what the costs and security of each are. Those two factors will play a major part in your small business.

What is your preferred method of online payments? Tell us in the comments section below.

Irreconcilable Differences: Best Buy CEO Sells 450,000 Shares to Pay for Divorce

If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know that Best Buy has had a rough go in the business world for the last few years. However, with a new CEO at the helm since September of 2012, the company has been performing better and seems steady. Until recently, when news broke that CEO, Hubert Joly, was selling about 450,000 of his shares in the company, despite Best Buy’s stellar performance since he grabbed the reigns.

So why the sale?

It turns out it’s for completely personal reasons - not something that CEOs of big companies are known for.

A Divorce Worth 451,153 Shares

Chris Isidore reported on CNN Money that “Joly disclosed in a filing that he sold 451,153 shares … for a total of $16.7 million.” The motivation is clear: Joly has to pay for a pricey divorce settlement. The problem here is that the actions of a CEO (especially when involved with his own company) generally reflect the health of the company and how others perceive it. Wall Street is definitely watching. But even without a public IPO, the same holds true for small business owners to an extent as well.

Despite the clear (and maybe a little sheepish) explanation that Joly is selling his shares for his divorce payment, those keeping an eye on the company might still suspect that something is going wrong at the highest levels. This sort of change in perception can cause serious problems for a public company and for their board of directors.

Remember, it was less than 18 months ago that the previous Best Buy CEO, Brian Dunn, had resigned “upon mutual agreement.”  His resignation was colored by allegations that he’d had an affair with a subordinate (he was married).

Most people, like Dhanya Skariachan in the Christian Science Monitor, recognize that Best Buy is currently on a comeback - with stock tripling over last year’s. In reality, Joly has done an excellent job at turning Best Buy around from a 9-year low on Wall Street.

But this is what makes his recent sell-off even stranger - it will no doubt work against the strong progress the company has made under his leadership. It looks like the company has managed to pull itself out of a troubling spot with Joly’s help. Yet the move to sell his shares in such a way could be seen as unprofessional.

I’m sure he and Best Buy wish the sale could remain private.

Small or Large Businesses: The Choices We Make

Running a small business is often a difficult and overwhelming task. I know it requires a great deal of time, especially for whoever is at the helm. We can say the same for the CEOs of many of the biggest companies. Of course, those bigwigs often get a bit more compensation for their work than small business owners do, however, they are also more constrained as to the actions they can take compared to small business owners.

Small business owners can be relatively lax when it comes to involving their personal issues in business, and using the business as a way to help deal with unplanned problems. This can be a risky choice to make as a business owner. There is a chance that everything will be fine, but other times, it can hurt the business immensely. Joly is certainly in a peculiar position with the selling of his shares, as it’s extremely rare for this to happen to CEOs at his level.

Whether large or small, business is business - and we can all learn from Joly’s actions when it comes to making risky or questionable moves with a business, particularly for personal reasons.

Have you ever made risky financial move like this with your business?

Shutterstock: divorce image