Think Starting a Business in The US is Hard? Try Italy

If you think it’s hard to start a business here in the United States, you might just consider how hard people perceive it in other countries.  A whopping 96% of Italians say their government makes it hard to start a business. Greece, Spain and Portugal aren’t far behind â€" with 93%, 82% and 80% respectively saying their governments make it hard.

And what are some of the places where entrepreneurs think their government doesn’t give them such a hard time?  Try Malta, Sweden and Luxembourg.

This chart from a recent Gallup Poll says a lot about the perception of how regulations hurt small business and startups in Europe today:

Meanwhile, back in the United States, don’t pat yourselves on the back yet.  We Americans are not immune from our own perceptions about government interference and obstacles.

There’s a strong perception among small businesses that regulations hurt them.  Citing different Gallup polls from 2013, Professor Scott Shane pointed out how small business owners perceive regulations as being a problem. And business owners â€" the ones who actually have to comply with regulations - see regulations as more of a hindrance than the average citizen.

Shane wrote:

“Similarly, 72 percent of small business owners said that government regulations were a problem, while only 48 percent of American adults said so.  * * *  Taxes and regulation are problematic for a larger fraction of small business owners than Americans overall.”

With unemployment still high in Europe, you’d think entrepreneurship could be part of the answer.  Say the Gallup pollsters:

“While residents in most EU countries are more likely to feel the government makes it hard, rather than easy, to start a business, this perception is particularly troublesome to future growth in countries such as Greece and Spain, where unemployment is not expected to drop much lower than 26% this year. New jobs in these and several other European countries will largely need to come from the private sector after austerity measures forced some of the deepest public-sector job cuts in a generation.”

Many Europeans have a good opinion of entrepreneurs.  They believe entrepreneurs to be good role models, a Gallup Poll says.  Compare this chart to the one above:

And what about the United States?  According to the 2014 Edelman Trust Barometer, small businesses and family-owned businesses are trusted more than their larger counterparts or government in North America.   Family owned businesses are trusted by 85% and small and midsize businesses are trusted by 78%.

Bottom line: The majority of people in the United States and Europe view entrepreneurs and small businesses owners favorably.  Yet those same business owners and entrepreneurs believe their governments get in their way far too much and that regulations hurt small business and startups.

Italian Entrepreneur Photo via Shutterstock

Technology Does Not Have To Intimidate, If You Buy It With Thoughtful Planning, Says Brother Printer Exec

John Wandishin, VP of Marketing, Brother International discusses how small business owners don’t have to be intimidated by technology. He also advised to not buy technology without knowing what you want to do with technology. Don’t just by a tablet for the sake of buying i, for example,  but have a clear business purpose in mind for how it will help your business.

Watch our discussion here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpDiL3zlDO8 or below

Maybe you’re looking to update your email marketing software. Think of WHY you want to upgrade it and/or what the problem is that you want the new software to solve.

Could it be that you need training in using what you already have? Maybe it’s that what you have is not working well. Could it be that the vendor has upgraded software (or hardware) that might make what you have operate better?

I met with John on the occasion of the release of Brother’s 5th annual small business survey

Still Googling Your Contacts? Nimble Says Kiss That Goodbye

Nimble, the customer relationship management application that automatically connects social networks with other contact information, has just kicked it up a notch. The company claims you can quit Googling your contacts to find out more about them.

Nimble recently introduced a new feature called Smart Summary that company executives say accomplishes far beyond what most CRM applications can. The app uses social intelligence when compiling information about your most important contacts.

Smart Summary compiles this information on the fly assembling a user-friendly overview of important information about a contact. Now you can see at a glance what’s most important about all those to whom you are connected.

That includes details like Facebook and LinkedIn connections, Klout score, website URLs and more.

According to Alyson Stone, Director of Content Strategy at Nimble, what’s different about Smart Summary is that the profile is created automatically once you have identified a contact.

The information is pulled from publicly available sources and compiled by the Nimble app into a “dossier-type” format. While other applications may have fields where you can summarize information, you typically have to manually enter it. Or you get bits and pieces of information, without seeing a good overview of your contact. Not only does Nimble create the summary initially, Stone emphasizes, but it updates it daily to reflect changes.

What’s more, the information is “portable.” In an email conversation with Small Business Trends, Stone explained:

“…users can click the Share button next to the Title ‘Smart Summary’ and are then able to quickly email a Smart Summary dossier to anyone. This is aimed at making it easier for people to become known as ‘super connectors’ who help others meet.”

Unlike searching for available information about contacts on Google, Nimble uses social intelligence, drawing data from social profiles like LinkedIn, Facebook, Foursquare and other social sites.

From these, it creates a mini-profile including experience, education, shared connections, location and more.

In addition to basic background like work experience and education, Nimble’s Smart Summary also identifies shared influential topics with your contacts based on social media activity. For example, if one of your contacts posts regularly on topics like social media or content marketing, these topics might also be listed with his or her profile.

The app uses keywords in common between the you and your contacts to help emphasize common interests and ideas. The mini-profile sits at the right side of your contact screen while the app is open.

According to Stone, the problem that Nimble’s Smart Summary is designed to solve is the overwhelm from being involved in so many social networks. These networks provide so much information that it’s hard to keep it straight. Nimble, she says, aims to address this issue by organizing the important information and helping you step back to see the forest instead of just the trees. First, it takes away the grunt work of inputting all the information manually. Then it frees you of the need to update that information regularly.

But also, Stone says, the app allows you to prioritize the information and contacts you are most interested in keeping up with. This is handled through a “Mark as Important” button that organizes your contacts based on your priorities.

Stone explained:

“Nimble offers you the choice to mark any contact as “Important.” The effect of this action is that the system will present their updates and communications to you at the top of the results. Marking someone as important is a way of keeping the most important people front and center.”

Here’s a closer look at how Nimble’s Smart Summary works:

Nimble, based in Santa Monica, California, was founded in 2009 by Jon Ferrara, who previously founded GoldMine. Nimble has more than 60,000 customers. Well over half of those are small to medium sized businesses.

Like more and more leading apps these days, Nimble offers a freemium model with a free personal plan, and a paid business plan. The company also offers a no-credit card limited free trial. Nimble integrates with over 45 other applications. They include Constant Contact, Freshbooks, Google Contacts, AWeber, Evernote, MailChimp, GoToWebinar, Salesforce, QuickBooks, Magento and Xero.

Survive Tax Season With Shoeboxed

Tax season strikes certain weariness into small business owners. Some say its fear, but I think it is more likely that we dread the time sink of preparing our own taxes or working with a CPA or accountant.

Enter Shoeboxed - a receipt capture and tracking service that lets you improve how you approach expenses and how you organize receipts.

Shoeboxed is one of the market leaders in receipt and expense management for small business owners. The concept is you can snap a simple photo with your camera or smartphone and instantly upload the receipt to the web-based service. The goal is to get that receipt out of your “shoebox.” As you upload each receipt, the service asks you how to categorize the item and creates an expense report on the fly.

There’s so much to like with this service. It really is a time-saver and a valuable service. How many receipts do you have piled up on a desktop or in a drawer or envelope? I save all of mine until tax season and then manually tally them up. Silly really, when this could save me so much time, effort, and a bit of anxiety getting all my stuff in order each year. Paid plans start at $9.95 per month.

A few minutes after uploading my first receipt screenshot, I received an email confirming that it would be processed within one business day. Your receipts will process more quickly on the paid plans, I’m sure, but you receive 50 free receipts on the forever free plan if you can deal with the slight time lag.

If you upload a bunch of receipts, you will only receive one email saying “submission received.” If the receipt is invalid, not readable, or otherwise unacceptable, the email states that they will notify you separately, otherwise, assume all is well.

What I Really Like

• A confirmation email. Shoeboxed emails you almost immediately that your receipt is accepted and pending. The forever free account has a slight processing delay of up to one business day, but I found it was often less.
• When you change a category, the system asks you if you want to do this for all similar receipts, as in this example, for Starbucks receipts. It will go back and change existing ones, plus it will not allow you to choose that category again (if you mark that option) in the future.
• Bulk receipt envelopes. On the paid plans, you can simply mail Shoeboxed that stack of receipts you have been saving all year in what they refer to as a “Magic Envelope.” Pretty handy at this time of year, or a bit earlier.

What I Would Like to See:

• An end to the misleading signup process. Let me be very clear: Shoeboxed offers a valuable service, but in the process of signing up you may click the wrong button and move into a paid option. The landing page shows a super, super simple signup - enter your email for the “forever free” plan. But then it takes you to a full signup page where you have to navigate options and hunt for that “forever free” option that appears at the very bottom of the page. I’m sure you could opt out of the paid plan easily enough, but I prefer to see all options more clearly than one buried at the bottom.
• A direct link for Android mobile devices. The mobile link on the main site takes you to the iOS version in iTunes. You can find it by searching in Google Play and install it from there.

I mentioned Shoeboxed in a popular article titled, “7 Essential Productivity Tips - and The Tools to Achieve Them.” If you have been struggling with keeping up with your bookkeeping, this is a service you will definitely want to test.

After many years of trying to keep up - I’m now going to start actively using the service for my own financial record keeping.

Images: Shoeboxed

CERT UK finally launches to counter cyber threats

March 31, 2014

The UK government finally launched its first national computer emergency response team, CERT-UK, in London today.

Initially announced as part of the government's £650 million cyber security strategy in December 2012, CERT-UK has been hindered by numerous delays (it was initially set to launch in late 2013).

But that wait came to an end in Chatham House, London on Monday however as the group - which is headed up by Chris Gibson, the former director of e-Crime at Citigroup and global chair of the International Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (First) - was announced as expected.

The meeting was overseen by Gibson and Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude, and while the launch coincided with that of the group's website and Twitter account, it turns out that CERT-UK has been running for two months at an undisclosed location in central London.

CERT-UK will be tasked with liaising with UK businesses and other national CERTS - including those in financial services and education - on cyber security issues, particularly those relating to national infrastructure. The UK government's Cyber Security Information Sharing Partnership (CISP) has been integrated as part of the group, and will interact with businesses to improve their cyber awareness, while CERT-UK is already said to have collaborated with the National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU) and Janet Computer Security Incident Response Team (JCSIRT).

Cyber awareness seems to be an important crux of what CERT-UK is trying to achieve, both in the public and private sectors, and this is something that Gibson was keen to promote at the briefing earlier today.

"Cyber situational awareness is at the heart of what we'll do,” he said, before later adding that the group's ambition for awareness is “greater than our remit for incident handling.” The group's website promotes links for cyber security awareness schemes like Cyber Streetwise and The Internet Watch foundation, as well as industry bodies like CPNI, ICO and CREST.

The group certainly demonstrated how big cyber security is at the event, claiming that there are 28 DDoS attacks every hour in the country, while also citing one example of a London-based company that lost $800 million due to a cyber attack.

The launch has been to a generally positive reception, with many observers saying that it could be crucial to guarding the country's critical infrastructure. 

"This is a smart move from the government, and comes at an important time as the threat of an attack on national infrastructure grows,” said Rob Cotton, CEO at NCC Group.

"The key to effective cyber incident management is good communication, co-ordination and technical ability. As the speed and scale of cyber attacks grow it is essential for countries to provide a central co-ordination point and a greater focus on collaboration of threat intelligence sources. Ideally, this should happen at geo-local and sector levels.” 

Phil Cracknell, head of security and privacy services at Company 85, said that he too hoped CERT-UK would address critical infrastructure defences. “I would be interested to see what proactive initiatives to get elements of the critical national infrastructure up to a reasonable standard are being planned.”

Martin McKeay, senior security advocate at Akamai Technologies, was at the event and is encouraged by the government participation.

“It was unsaid but what was significant to me was that this (CERT-UK) seems to be getting serious backing from the UK government,” he told SCMagazineUK.com. “It sounds like a large number of people are starting to see that this is important and needs to be done.”

Like other commentators, McKeay noted the importance of protecting critical infrastructure, but said that the challenge is going to be to create awareness and show value.

“The first step is talking about it in person, building a baseline knowledge that you exist. After that, it's word of mouth.

“Secondly, it needs to show that it can provide additional value and help spread knowledge across businesses. It's an uphill battle…the first step in a long road.”

Verizon Introduces Single Security Suite for All Devices - Mobile and Desktop

A new survey reveals 88% of consumers around the world own more than one Web-enabled device. And 62% of U.S. consumers own more than three devices, another concludes.

In its recently released Digital Assets survey, online security company McAfee reveals there is also a lot of value on those devices. Globally, the average person has up to $35,000 in personal assets and information stored on these Web-enabled devices. This goes beyond personal data like your credit card information, login names and passwords. It also includes things like photos and entertainment files, too.

By now you’ve probably become attuned to the need for security on desktop and laptop computers. But that concern has apparently not spread to mobile devices where the threat may be just as great.

On the official McAfee Blog, company Online Security and Safety Evangelist Robert Siciliano explains:

“And while we have all these devices and have valuable assets on them, we don’t take enough precautions to protect our valuable assets. Nearly 15% of consumers globally don’t have comprehensive security on ANY of their devices and 20% are unfamiliar with cyber risks and security dangers.”

Small businesses in particular are increasingly targeted by cyber criminals seeking not only their information, but the information of their clients and customers.

McAfee (acquired by Intel in 2011) and wireless communications company Verizon are partnering to extend security to multiple devices, using a single application and central dashboard, called the Verizon Internet Security Suite Multi-Device program. The program is aimed at creating more security for both consumers and small businesses.

With the Verizon offerings, subscribers protect all of their PCs, laptops, Macs, and Android smartphones and tablets via one central management console.

Verizon customers can get Internet security for all their devices starting at $6.99 per month. Cloud backup and storage can also be added in. Small business owners, who use more data, might also want a bundled package including 50 or 150 GB of cloud storage also protected by McAfee. Those bundles start at $11.99 per month.

The service features automatic updates for all devices. Verizon says you’ll be able to monitor activity on all your devices from one desktop app, too. This feature would include the ability to lock certain apps when others are using your devices.

Image: Verizon

Why the IRS and BLS Disagree on Self-Employment Trends

Are more or fewer Americans engaged in self-employment than a decade ago? While you might think that this is a simple factual question, its answer depends on which federal government agency’s numbers you look at.

Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data indicates that self-employment is growing. The tax authority estimates that the number of self-employed Americans increased 26.4 percent between 2000 and 2011, the most recent year data is available.

By contrast, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data indicates that self-employment is shrinking. The statistical agency responsible for measuring the condition of labor markets finds that the number of self-employed Americans decreased by 0.7 percent between 2000 and 2011.

Some might see these conflicting numbers as an illustration of Benjamin Disraeli’s famous observation that “there are three kinds of falsehood: Lies, damned lies, and statistics.” But I believe that the numbers can be reconciled if we understand the source of each.

The IRS measures self-employment by looking at whether or not a taxpayer claimed the self-employment deduction on his or her 1040. Because taxpayers must pay self-employment taxes if they have “net earnings of $400 or more as a self-employed person” - which the IRS defines as someone in business for him or herself. A self-employed person in the IRS data is anyone who has a non-trivial amount of self-employment income, regardless of their other income sources.

Take me, for example. I would be included among the self-employed in the IRS data because I earn more than $400 per year writing, even though my primary job is as a professor.

The BLS measures self-employment by conducting a monthly survey of approximately 60,000 households to identify the employment status of household members 16 years of age and older. To figure out each household member’s employment status, the BLS asks the respondent to identify whether each adult member of the household worked for pay or profit in the week of the survey.

If the household member had more than one job in the week, the respondent is asked to focus on the household member’s primary job, which is defined as the one on which they spent the most hours. Respondents are then asked (PDF) if the household member was “employed by the government, a private company, a nonprofit organization, or were they self-employed” to determine if they are self-employed.

If we return to me as the example, we can see why the IRS and BLS self-employment numbers differ. I would not be included among the self-employed in the BLS data. Because my full-time job is as a professor. I would be classified as wage employed, even though I earned more than $400 per year writing.

Understanding the source of the BLS and IRS self-employment numbers helps to tease out trends in self-employment. Fewer Americans appear to be making self-employment their full-time jobs than was the case a decade ago, but more of us are engaged in self-employment on the side.

That conclusion jibes with anecdotal evidence. Many observers have noted that rise of the Internet has made it easier for people to earn a little side income by buying and selling goods on eBay or by renting out rooms in their homes through sites like Airbnb.

Receiving Information Photo via Shutterstock

Anonymous Ukraine credit card leak is old data

March 31, 2014

Last week's reports of Anonymous Ukraine obtaining and leaking seven million credit card details may be erroneous, with the data having apparently been disclosed in older data breaches.

Risk Based Security revealed last Monday that an organisation claiming to be Anonymous Ukraine had posted the first million user credentials on Pastebin and laid claim to having information on “more than 800 million credit cards”.

These details were believed to have come from customers with card brands Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express, and included valid credit card numbers, banking routing numbers and full user names. 

At the time, researchers told SCMagazineUK.com that their investigation was continuing and that they were unable to identify where the card details had come from - although they suspected that they may have come from compromised ATMs or POS systems. 

When first investigating the data dump on Pastebin, the firm said that there were 6,064,823 new cards, with this breaking down as 668,279 American Express, 3,255,663 Visa, 1,778,749 MasterCard and 362,132 Discover.

However, the same analysts told us over the weekend that the leak looks increasingly likely to be old data from previously disclosed data breaches. 

Inga Goddijn, a researcher with Risk Based Security, told SCMagazineUK.com via email:  “Further analysis shows that, while the data appears to be legitimate, there are strong indications the data contained in the dump was previously disclosed.” 

The firm also updated its DataLossDB website, which tracks public data breaches, with the following statement: “Based on further analysis along with discussions with journalists, it appears that this credit card dump contains valid, but older card data that had been previously disclosed. To date, there is no solid evidence this represents a new breach. “ 

Goddijn stressed that the firm has been unable to unearth “where the data was previously disclosed” or who the group behind the attack is - although she admitted to hearing the same rumours - via numerous technology news websites - of it being a smear campaign by Russian opponents . “All I can say is the group is claiming an affiliation and seems to want to disrupt the financial system. Unless there are additional disclosures, it's anyone's guess.” 

These findings resulted in part out of the discovery that two of the Pastebin posts had been removed over the weekend, as well as the links to the .exe files - some 300GB in size - containing the credit card details. Malwarebytes analyst Chris Boyd told SC that he had noted that “cached versions seem to be dead this end too.”

Meanwhile, Lee J, a fellow researcher with Risk Based Security, told this writer that ‘very trusted sources' had told him that the leak was a ‘false flag' and said that his firm is now investigating the motives and links. 

He was, however, more reluctant to admit that it may not be Ukraine Anonymous. “Well anyone can be part of Anonymous so hard to say [it's] not Anonymous but [it] is fake old data but unsure to its source,” he told SCMagazineUK.com.

The theory of this being the work of Russian protesters certainly stands up on some grounds, with the Twitter account @Op_Ukraine - which originally broke the news of the data dump - having been suspended this weekend. The website had only been active since the initial disclosure on the breach. 

Furthermore, Anonymous usually publishes its news on its official social media accounts, while Brook Zimmatore, CEO of Massive PR - which provides cyber security intelligence to banks and other companies, told The Register that the leak was being discussed “almost exclusively” on Russian web forums.

Never Start With a Great Idea

That’s not that your product or service isn’t a great idea. But before you assume that concept in your head is solid gold, author and business writer Paul E. Brown has a suggestion for you.

Take a trip to the local closeout store and take a look at all the things someone else thought would be a good idea, too.

Brown says it’s a useful exercise to help entrepreneurs avoid the greatest pitfall when launching a new company, product or service.

In a recent Forbes post, Brown explains:

“Sure, some of the stuff was way over-priced to begin with.

And yes, some of the designs and colors left a lot to be desired.

But, invariably why the merchandise ends up being sold for literally pennies on the dollar is that their creators began by saying ‘wouldn’t it be cool if…’ instead of going and discovering ahead of time if there was a market need for what they were thinking about selling.”

Well, nothing, in theory, so long as a big enough consumer base agrees with you, says Jones.

There are all kinds of reasons they might not.

For example, nobody might care about your idea. Jones uses the example of an Agatha Christie themed set of pots and pans for people who like English mystery fiction and cooking. How many people are there who share those two particular passions? And how many of them will be really excited about your product?

There also may simply be no demand. Maybe there are a bunch of people who might buy into your idea. In this case, Jones uses the example of a “cable box cozy” for people who think an exposed satellite or cable box on your TV is ugly. But that doesn’t mean they’re going to run out and spend money on one.

People May not be willing to pay. Remember the Iridium satellite phone, says Jones. Yes, you can call anywhere, but those phone bills are murder.

So, aren’t there exceptions to some of these rules?

Think how indifferent Steve Jobs supposedly was to customer demand when developing products for Apple. But remember the strong demand for powerful personal computers, digital music players and portable devices. These markets were already present when Apple unveiled signature products like the Mac, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad.

In the end, Jones insists, the best reason to create a product for an existing market is the time you’ll save.

He writes:

“Once you come up with your new idea you have to go out and find customers. If you start with a market need, you already have them.”