Information Filled Under 'General Outsourcing Trends' Category
Work From Home Tuesday: Client Communication During the Holiday Rush Thursday, December 31st, 2009
Chances are, your clients will be too swamped with office parties, last-minute shopping, and time off to be checking in with you over the next two weeks. But that doesn’t mean you are off the hook, whether or not you are taking a break of your own.
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Work From Home Tuesday: Client Communication During the Holiday Rush
This is the second installment of my post from earlier this month with a suspiciously similar title, where we looked at some of the techniques to help keep money coming in the door. Now that we’ve got the income coming in, what the heck do we do with it? Spend …
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How to Maintain a Steady Income: Addressing the Top Freelancing Concern, Part 2
Marketing to consumers’ cellphones has long been viewed as something of a holy grail by businesses – prized but always beyond reach. Recently however, new mobile technologies have gone mainstream, making the elusive goal of an always-on connection with customers firmly within reach of even the smallest business. Consider that: There are four times the number of cellphones in the world versus PCs (4Bn vs
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Five Can’t-Miss Mobile Marketing Trends For 2010
A Treasury report released on December 15, 2009 showed that major banks decreased their business loan balances by $1 billion in October, CNNMoney.com says. Starting in April, the 22 banks that received TARP funds as part of the federal government’s bank bailout had to start filing monthly reports with the Treasury Department. Since then, total small-business lending by the banks declined by 11.6 percent.
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Banks Vow to Do Better at Small Business Lending in 2010
The numbers show that companies will invest more resources into social media in 2010 as a way to market themselves and find new customers. And that trend won’t exclude small business owners. SMB owners who have previously ignored the medium completely will find themselves entering the fold.
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7 Ways to Get More From Social Media in 2010
Credit card interchange fees became a hot issue in 2009. Big retailers got hot under the collar — and so did small merchants who are watching their profits with a hawk’s eye. Interchange, or “swipe” fees are fees that credit card companies and banks charge every time customers use a credit card to make a purchase from them. These fees typically range from 1% to 3% of the price of a purchase. The fees are charged to the retailers. Some small retailers find these fees cutting unacceptably deep into already-slim profit margins. For instance, this article from Bozeman Montana points out how much credit card fees eat into small retail transactions and gasoline purchases. As a result, some retailers are offering discounts to customers who pay cash
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Small Retailers Seek Limits on Credit Card Interchange Fees, But Is It Protectionism?
Like the rest of the world this year has been rather interesting for small business in Australia. By all accounts our economy has weathered the economic crisis quite well with the economy forecast to grow in 2010. The latest MYOB Business Monitor revealed that business confidence is growing; especially amongst younger business owners with 65% expecting improvements in the next year
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Top Australia Small Business Opportunities in 2010
The long standing struggle between Israel and the Arab Middle East is certainly well known. But did you know Israel has produced more NASDAQ-listed publicly traded companies than Europe, Korea, Japan, Singapore, China, and India combined? Moreover, Israel has more engineers and scientists per capita than any other country
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Start-Up Nation: Business Lessons from Israel
What’s better than cash and prizes for your business in the new year? Lots of new contests and competitions for entrepreneurs and small businesses to enter in 2010, including a bunch in January. This listing is updated every two weeks and brought to you as a community service by Small Business Trends and Smallbiztechnology.com .
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Awards and Contests for Entrepreneurs
Lots of events for entrepreneurs and small business people are coming up. And we’ve got the good stuff for you, as usual. Check out the following list of seminars, conferences, webinars and summits for growing companies, brought to you every other Saturday as a community service by Small Business Trends and Smallbiztechnology.com . Emerging Technology Leadership Summit December 8, 2009, New York City Hosted by Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association (LISTA) at the Marriott Marquis, this daylong conference is focused on providing small business owners, technology professionals, analysts and executives alike with intensive information on the changing tides of technology
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Events for Entrepreneurs and Small Biz
“ BAM: Delivering Customer Service in a Self-Service World ” is the new book by Barry Moltz and Mary Jane Grinstead. “BAM” stands for “bust a myth.” The book debunks 20 myths about customer service: BAM! debunks the twenty common myths of of customer service — from “The customer is always right” to “Customer service means the same thing to everyone” to “Companies achieve customer service by under-promising and over-delivering.” Customer service myths run the customer policies of many companies without anyone even questioning them. Unfortunately, this ensures that customer service will only be a “bolt-on” and not a part of the DNA of that company. Inside the DNA of most companies is where customer service needs to be in order to retain profitability. This introduction grabbed me instantly! If you’re like me, you’ve heard those truisms about the customer always being right, forever. Few of us bother to question them anymore
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Busting 20 Customer Service Myths: Review of BAM
Late last week we kicked off the 2009 Best Small Business Book Awards — Reader’s Choice. It’s an opportunity for readers like you to vote on your favorite new business books of 2009. The response has been outstanding. Originally my goal was to get 1,000 votes. Well, we’ve already blown past that number
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Win Some Holiday Reading: Tweet About the 2009 Best Business Book Awards
This week’s compilation of small business events has some great opportunities to learn and connect with fellow entrepreneurs and small business owners – both live and online. This list is brought to you every two weeks by Small Business Trends and Smallbiztechnology.com . Google 101 for Small Business and Entrepreneurs November 23, 2009, 5:15pm EST, New York City A free interactive workshop with New York’s local business community on how Google tools can help entrepreneurs reach local customers, tap into new markets, and operate more efficiently. Location: Google New York, 76 9th Avenue, 4th Floor.
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Latest List of Startup and Small Business Events
If you are interested in using the Internet to grow your business virally, then “ Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter, How Today’s Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves ” is a must-read. I bought this book as part of my search for the “Not to be missed” books of 2009 (in preparation for the second annual business book awards). And I’m glad I’ve gotten to it before the end of the year because I believe that it is going to be my bible for helping small businesses build their brand and business online. Viral Loop literally dissects and breaks apart the code behind what makes some businesses and ideas go viral and others go fizzle.
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Review of Viral Loop
The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) has released its November Small Business Economic Trends report. When polled, small businesses believe conditions are getting a little better — but just a little. The problem, the report suggests, is that small businesses need customers and sales more than anything. When they get more customers and/or those customers buy more, small businesses in turn will be able to make capital purchases and do more hiring. But until customers loosen the purse strings, conditions for small businesses will remain challenging. The Small Business Optimism Index rose 0.3 percent to 89.1 in October, as the above chart shows
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Small Businesses: We Need Customers, Not Loans
A new study from Shop.org shows that not only are consumers looking to save money this Christmas, but retailers are starting marketing efforts early. Most are offering free shipping along with getting an early start by promoting their products on social sites (and so should you). “Of those intending to run free shipping offers almost 80 percent will make them conditional, which usually means a customer must purchase a specific item or spend a set dollar amount to qualify.” They are also getting their social networking sites ready for the holidays – especially their Facebook fan pages (60.3 percent).
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How to Avoid the ‘Bah Humbug’ Spirit from Consumers this Holiday Season
Home-based businesses employ more people in the United States than venture-capital backed companies. This surprising fact — along with a number of other myth-busting facts — comes from a new report titled “ Homepreneurs: A Vital Economic Force .” The report is culled from the recent Network Solutions Small Business Success Index (SBSI) survey, commissioned by Network Solutions, LLC and the University of Maryland’s Robert H.
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Home-Based Businesses Employ More People Than Venture Backed Companies
Patrick Schwerdtfeger, one of the Bay Area’s preeminent Social Media evangelists, will be hosting his next Entrepreneur and Small Business Academy event tonight at 6:00pm at the Hotel Shattuck Plaza, in Berkeley, CA. At the event, special guests Kane Minkus & Jeff Slayter will share their wealth of Entrepreneurial experiences with their presentation, “Blatantly Unfair …
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oDesk Demo at Tonight’s Entrepreneur & Small Business Academy Meetup in Berkeley
Diane Helbig has written an excellent little book for small-business people about how to make the sale. Lemonade Stand Simple does precisely what the title suggests: it makes the process of prospecting for customers, networking and retaining customers “lemonade stand simple.” Diane is one of our cadre of Small Business Trends Experts . I was honored when she showed me her manuscript and asked me to write the Foreword. I could identify with her book, because like many of us who start our own businesses, I had to learn how to sell, as I note in the Foreword: One of the most terrifying parts of leaving the corporate world and starting your own business is the sudden realization that no money will be coming in the door unless you bring it in. Eeek! YOU are now responsible for sales.
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Review of Lemonade Stand Simple
Every now and then I’ll open my e-mail to find a personal note from an author who is a regular reader of one of my blogs or the book reviews I do here on Small Business Trends . This is how I came across “ Leap: How 3 Simple Changes Can Propel Your Career From Good to Great .” Rick Smith, the author, contacted me. He asked if I was interested in reviewing his book and sent me an autographed copy
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Take the “Leap” to a Richer, More Fulfilling Life and Career
But how would it help the general public watching CNN or reading The Economist to distinguish between intra-firewall clouds (ready for prime time) and inter-firewall clouds (not secure).
Green Business Tips Contest Winners Announced Wednesday, November 4th, 2009This past September we asked you to contribute your best tips for going green with your small business . As a token of our appreciation, we gave every U.S. resident who contributed a chance to win a Free HP Desktop Computing Suite. And the winner is… Congratulations to Lizette Pirtle! Lizette is the co-founder and CEO of International Expansion Experts and blogs regularly on Small Biz Franchise Blog and Franchise Success: The New Formula
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Green Business Tips Contest Winners Announced
I got a reader comment so perfect that it calls out to be shared: I'm not the most technical tool in the shed, but I read a lot, and I have been reading a lot about cloud computing – and the lyrics of a song keep playing in my head: “I've looked at clouds from both sides now From up and down, and still somehow It's cloud illusions I recall I really don't know clouds at all” Cloud Computing – how does it affect me, the person on the receiving end (security issues, reliability)?
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"I’ve Looked At Clouds From Both Sides Now" (A Non-Technical Definition of Cloud Computing)
Why did the term cloud computing so quickly lose its original meaning? At first, cloud computing was about how to not build a data center, but it quickly morphed into an architectural description of how you should build a data center. The first definition is about accessing IT services over the Internet from computing resources that somebody else owns and operates
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Cloud/Grid/Utility: Definitions Drift Because IT Is In Denial About Outsourcing
Server virtualization represents a major infrastructure transition on par with past transitions, like the ones from mainframe to mini (e.g. VAX), mini to UNIX, and most recently UNIX to Wintel. (I don't mean the rise of Wintel on the desktop, although that's also an interesting trend, but the emergence of Wintel running critical business apps in high-end corporate data centers.) At VMworld last month, a customer mentioned that he felt this transition was harder and slower than the earlier ones
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Server Virtualization: The Fastest “Major Infrastructure Transition” Ever
One of the reason so many bloggers flock to WordPress has to do with the number of great plugins available to help them customize the experience for their readers. There are plugins to help make your blog more spiderable to the search engines, plugins that foster community building, those that make media integration and breeze and lots more. Here are some of my personal favorite WordPress plugins that I think bloggers and small business owners can benefit from
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Essential Plugins For Your WordPress Blog
WorkingPoint is online business management software for small businesses. It is an ambitious and comprehensive offering that includes bookkeeping, invoicing, contact management, inventory management, a public marketing profile, and more. As a web-based software solution, you don’t load any software on your machine; it is all on the Internet
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WorkingPoint: Bookkeeping, Invoicing and Contact Management in One