Green managers stuff funds with Apple after environmental reforms

BOSTON (Reuters) - Apple Inc, criticized in the past for greenhouse gas emissions, use of toxic materials and the hiring of underage workers, has improved its practices and earned better scores from groups such as Greenpeace. That's good news for environmentally-aware mutual funds that hold Apple for another big reason – it makes money.

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Alibaba discloses powerful partners, reveals slowing growth

BEIJING (Reuters) - Alibaba Group Holding IPO-ALIB.N revealed the members of its powerful 27-person partnership and board on Monday, while disclosing that the Chinese e-commerce giant's growth has slowed from the red-hot pace of recent quarters.

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UK's cyber security strategy enters collaborative phase

Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude looks back at two years of the National Cyber Security Programme and says that public-private collaboration is key to protecting British businesses from cyber attacks. Go to Source

Chirpify Adds Analytics to Social Commerce, Acquires Measureful

The social commerce space is heating up. We recently learned about social commerce site Soldsie. The site lets customers buy from your Facebook or Instagram site just by commenting.

Now, Chirpify, a social commerce site that’s been around for about four years, is adding analytics to its social media selling tools with the acquisition of social analytics startup, Measureful.

The video below gives a quick overview of how Chirpify works from both a business’s and a customer’s perspective:

Chirpify allows businesses, marketers and customers to sign up for its services and buy and sell items through their social streams on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Using what Chirpify calls “action tags,” hashtags specially established to encourage a  particular action, the service allows customers to buy, enter a contest, donate and vote by commenting.

For example, users can search Instagram or another platform for an action tag like #instasale. Then by commenting “buy” an instant transaction takes place via PayPal.

Measureful collects a variety of data including information on visitor actions, mobile visitors, social channels, eCommerce and more.

The platform provides a dashboard with a drag and drop menu that allows you to build analytics reports from that data in any way you wish to view or present it.

The platform is designed to be used not only for businesses wishing to collect their own data from customer interaction online, it is also designed to be an easy way for marketers and agencies to provide information on the effectiveness of a campaign to clients.

In a post on the official Measureful blog, CEO John Koenig explains:

“Combining our existing marketing insight platform with theirs presents a unique opportunity for brands to leverage data to further fuel marketing conversions and retarget based on those specific insights.

We'll continue to support the Measureful platform as a stand-alone offering and provide the same outstanding customer support for existing and new customers. Furthermore, this gives the Measureful platform unique access to social media conversion data and more resources to integrate additional 3rd party social media data sources.”

Specific terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

The post Chirpify Adds Analytics to Social Commerce, Acquires Measureful appeared first on Small Business Trends.

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What Kickstarter’s Revised Rules Mean to You

Plenty of ventures have used the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter to get up and running. Projects range from a company offering a new home brewing kit to one creating an innovative new game console.

The site’s success has also spawned a wide variety of competing crowdfunding sites, giving those interested in raising money for a business or other project more options.

But Kickstarter has now made some changes in its rules that may make it even easier to crowdfund a project.

The changes don’t really amount to new rules. As Co-Founder and Kickstarter CEO Yancey Strickler explains in a post on the official Kickstarter blog, the rules have been simplified and no new ones have been added.

Strickler writes:

“Many changes were simple housekeeping — clearing out rules that didn't feel necessary anymore. Others open Kickstarter up to new kinds of projects, including bath and beauty products and more types of software. And we're now allowing hardware projects to offer multiple quantities of a reward.”

A quick glance at the current rules reveal no new products or projects mentioned specifically. So Strickler seems to be referring to past bans in the old rules that no longer apply.

The Verge reports the rules have been trimmed from about 1,000 words down to less than 300. For businesses, the main points to remember include the need for a prototype of a product, not just drawings, schematics or explanations. The product must also be something that can be shared with (sold to) others.

Finally, no financial incentives can be offered to those giving money to your project. So this is still not the place to seek investors for a business.

Kickstarter still maintains a list of prohibited items. These include illegal items and certain kinds of products and services ranging from energy drinks to money processing or credit services.

Another change at Kickstarter could affect the speed at which you can get your crowdfunding project up and running.

Strickler says Kickstarter’s Launch Now feature will let project creators decide whether to start their campaign immediately instead of waiting for feedback from the site’s “community managers.”

Strickler suggests the role of community managers is primarily to offer encouragement and advice for creating more successful campaigns. But it can be inferred they could also provide early warning if a project is in danger of violating Kickstarter rules. So this is something you may want to consider before bypassing the feedback stage.

Image: Kickstarter

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Get Ready for Lower Capital Investment Expensing

The amount the U.S. tax law allows businesses to deduct in a year for investments in new property, equipment and computer software is falling. From 2010 to 2013, businesses could deduct up to $500,000 in investments in a single year instead of depreciating that investment over time.

But this year, due to changes in the tax code, that amount could fall to just $25,000 a year.

You may have heard that last week the U.S. House passed a bill that would not only restore the $500,000 threshold, it would make it a permanent part of the tax law.

Back in April, U.S. Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-OH), chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures, and one of the bill’s sponsors along with U.S. Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI), said:

“I've heard from small business owners across Ohio who tell me one of their largest inhibiters to growth is uncertainty. While small business owners across the country take advantage of Section 179 small business expensing, the fluctuating rules surrounding the measure make it difficult to budget and plan. Representative Kind and I believe that by making the rules permanent, small business owners will have the stability and predictability they need to grow, expand, and create new jobs.”

As expected, the bill has the full backing of groups like the Federation of Independent Business. Last week in support, NFIB Manager of Legislative Affairs Matt Turkstra voiced his support saying:

"Small business expensing is a bipartisan policy that has been extended on an ad-hoc basis. Making this popular and effective tax provision permanent will help small businesses streamline recordkeeping, invest in their business and purchase equipment or other business improvements from their local community. Members of Congress often say they want to help small business – well this is a way to help right now. We thank those members that followed through when it counts and actually voted for small business."

As Forbes explains, back in 2008, businesses were allowed to deduct only $125,000 on qualifying investments, and even this was scheduled to be completely cut or phased out in the very near future.

Then along came the Great Recession and the stimulus packages. The expensing threshold was boosted to $500,000 to help the economy and was extended for a couple of years. But the tax break lacked what small businesses need most when trying to plan. There was no permanence or security to it.

In 2013, Congress simply allowed the limit to dwindle. And this year, small businesses will need to depreciate a lot more of their capital investments over time unless something is done. Unfortunately, that doesn’t encourage small businesses to make the kinds of investments that can lead to rapid growth.

Despite the House’s good intentions, it looks as if America's Small Business Tax Relief Act of 2014 will not get much further. The Senate is unlikely to pass it and the White House opposes it.

So despite the House vote, we should all ask ourselves – how much does Washington really care about small business?

U.S. Capitol Photo via Shutterstock

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13 Best Practices for Building Solid Small Business Operations

Running and scaling a business will always be challenging. But having a solid foundation of smoothly operating practices underlying your company can make it much easier.

To find out how successful entrepreneurs were building their operations, we asked 13 founders from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following question:

“As a business owner, what do you feel is most important when it comes to building solid small business operations?”

Here's what YEC community members had to say:

1. Setting Team Expectations

“Setting proper team expectations and accountability has become one of the most impactful things to my business. Twice a month we bring all managers and executives together for a big meeting to discuss each department and their accomplishments and challenges. It is also a time for other departments to give feedback to management. At the end of these meetings, everyone leaves with follow-up tasks.” ~ David Schwartz, EMMDeavor (DBA Qruber) & Wireless Watchdogs

2. Managing Without Ego

“Many CEOs, COOs and executive level staff have various methods that they swear are the best ways of doing things. But what many people don’t take into account is that there are other variables at work, such as the dynamics of the company and the people within it. Solid operations come from management who can admit when their systems are failing and are willing to change to improve.” ~ Travis Steffen, Cyber Superpowers

3. Having a Clear Process

“Having a clear process that every team member understands is extremely important. When a task needs to be completed, there is a clear funnel and order of operations that must be followed. This improves efficiency and reduces the chance of fumbling information and having things slip through the cracks.” ~ Michael Quinn, Yellow Bridge Interactive

4. Creating a Foolproof Foundation

“You have to start at the very base of your business in order to build a successful enterprise from it — and for me that is having a solid core team. I try to look at the first couple of people I hire when assembling a new business as a new family of people that will take me to the next chapter of an awesome life. They need to share my ambition and drive to accomplish.” ~ Rob Fulton, Matikis

5. Soliciting Feedback From Your Team

“To build a solid set of processes for your business a lot has to align. But the bigger you scale, the more you’ll likely need to delegate. So how does a business owner stay efficient when the day to day may be further away from the core operations? It’s important to gather feedback from your team often to make sure you’re addressing inefficiencies and constantly improving as you grow.” ~ Doreen Bloch, Poshly Inc.

6. Keeping Everything Transparent

“Yeah, I know it’s a buzz world. But I truly believe in the power of transparency to build solid operations. Cross-checks, social collaboration tools and breaking down silos are all ways to ensure that each operation is optimal for my unique business needs. Across levels and departments, operations should be communicated, tested and approved.” ~ Maren Hogan, Red Branch Media

7. Documenting Your Processes

“If you are able to provide clear and concise documentation for your team, it leaves very little room for things to be miscommunicated. It also leaves little room for your team to not know what to do or for them to be confused. These are the biggest time wasters in an organization. Documentation makes it easier to onboard new employees and saves your business from being reliant on any one person.” ~ Dave Nevogt, Hubstaff.com

8. Building for the Future

“Although it’s important that systems and processes address today’s pain points for your business, it’s much more imperative that they are built to handle changes that could be coming years down the road. You have to look ahead and plan for all plausible changes in your business to ensure the operations you’re building do not become quickly outdated.” ~ Brittany Hodak, ZinePak

9. Keeping the 3 P’s in Mind

“Marcus Lemonis of CNBCs show “The Profit” always says it, and it’s on point. Building a solid operation is all about the three P’s: Process, people and product. Build your operation to flow and operate well with that and you’ll have a successful business.” ~ Pablo Palatnik, ShadesDaddy.com

10. Using Data-Driven Decision Making

“Typically, operations is a complex initiative and involves various stakeholders. Additionally, there are various external conditions impacting outcomes. It is very important to maintain an objective view into how efficient your operations are. And the place to start is data collection. Data driven decision making should not be an afterthought.” ~ Ashish Rangnekar, BenchPrep

11. Choosing the Right People

“No one person is going to be be the best at everything. It all comes down to choosing the right person and personality type for each role so that no one is doing tasks that they resent. Forget coaching weaknesses and focus on leveraging strengths and passions. Then watch everything fall into place.” ~ Amanda Aitken, Girl’s Guide Courses with Amanda Aitken

12. Providing Excellent Customer Service

“Provide the best customer service you can. That is the most important thing you can do. You will at some point have a dissatisfied customer, but how you handle it will give you a solid reputation in your industry.” ~ Amanda Barbara, Pubslush

13. Owning the Operation From Start to Finish

“Hire someone to own the operation from start to finish. This person should be obsessed with the details, the metrics, the numbers. They should be elated when they hit their goal and inspired to do better when they miss it. They need to eat, sleep and breathe it.” ~ Phil Dumontet, DASHED

Team Photo via Shutterstock

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SanDisk to buy Fusion-io to boost flash storage business

(Reuters) - SanDisk Corp SNDK.O said on Monday it will buy Fusion-io Inc FIO.N for about $1.1 billion to bolster its fast-growing business of providing flash storage drives to companies.

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Alibaba discloses powerful partners, reveals slowing growth

BEIJING (Reuters) - Alibaba Group Holding revealed the members of its powerful 27-person partnership and board on Monday, while disclosing that the Chinese e-commerce giant's growth has slowed from the red-hot pace of recent quarters.

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