Small Business

Small Business: 1-99 employees

5 Project Management Tools for Start Ups

Posted by Christophe Primault on May 23, 2012

0 comments | 129 reads

You might not think you are a project manager, but project management is a crucial element of your small business. Planning your activities with a strong focus on project management will help you boost your product quality -- because every good project manager should allocate budget, resources and testing methods to get the maximum out of production.

Having a project management mindset will also help you reduce the risk of unwanted or unexpected events. But trying to navigate the maze of available project management tools can be confusing. How do you choose? There are some solutions that stand out from the mass of software offerings. This article introduces you to five online project management software solutions and identifies each of their strongest points.

The Ultimate List of the 5 Best Value Project Management Applications You Should Test

1) AtTask
If you are in need of an online collaboration tool that provides a 360-degree view of all project activities, you might want to get a free trial of AtTask. With this web-based project management software, you can evaluate current projects, set financial objectives and identify the highest possible business value.
Why you should try AtTask: There are four different license types which will help you choose just the right option for your budget.

How B2B Marketers can connect to Small Business Owners

Posted by Dragan Mestrovic on May 8, 2012

0 comments | 468 reads

In March 2012, marketing agency Cargo and Inc. Magazine found the majority (52%) of US small-business owners felt companies did not market to them effectively.

Moreover 43% – 45% of the small business owners said companies made little effort to understand their individual needs and their business.

Most of the small business owners do the business important tasks them self, as they do their financials, marketing, sales and services. Their time is full stuffed with work and they do not sit behind a computer a whole day long. As they are mostly working their job and are with their employees and customers they are perfect to be reached by mobile devices as laptops and smart phones.

Yelp And Your Small Business

Posted by Jim Smith on May 7, 2012

0 comments | 504 reads

Yelp has become a wildly popular online social media site where real people leave real reviews on local businesses. Yelp’s purpose is to assist people in finding great local businesses. In Q4 2011, they had an average of approximately 66 million unique views in each month. Users have written over 25 million reviews on local businesses on Yelp. With just these few numbers provided, you can see how Yelp can be beneficial for your small business.

Set up your business account
It’s simple to set up a business account on Yelp. The accounts are free and allow you to upload pictures, message your customers and advertise specials just for Yelp users. Also, with a Yelp business account you will be able to view business trends and see how the reviews are affecting your business. Yelp provides you with various charts and stats to measure the performance of your business page.

May 4, 2012

DCIG Reports That Gridstore Scale-Out Storage Addresses SMEs' "Bigger Data" Needs Without the Complexity and Cost of Clustered NAS

Gridstore’s Scale-out Storage Solution Delivers Enterprise Class Performance, Reliability and Scaling that is Superior to Traditional NAS Alternatives

Gridstore™, the leader in grid-based, scale-out storage solutions, today announced that the leading analyst firm, DCIG, reports that Gridstore scale-out storage provides an answer to the “bigger data” needs of the mid-tier market, with the convenience and flexibility of enterprise scale-out NAS without the big scale-out cost.

“SMEs are asking, ‘What scale-out storage systems will enable us to affordably address our bigger data problems?’” said Jerome Wendt, lead analyst, DCIG. “These organizations are finding an answer to their question in the form of the Gridstore scale-out storage platform. The Gridstore architecture provides the convenience and desirability of scale-out NAS by creating a virtual storage grid that eliminates the most costly components of scale-out clustered NAS solutions – their controllers and complex clustering software.”

The DCIG report identifies the primary reasons why scale-out NAS is typically so costly: redundant disk controllers and complex clustering software. In the report, Wendt goes on to state that, “If a scale-out NAS provider could successfully decouple the controllers and the software from the storage, without sacrificing feature functionality or performance, the cost of scale-out NAS should plummet. That is exactly with Gridstore has done with its scale-out storage platform.”

Scale-out storage from Gridstore allows businesses to take advantage of a simple building block approach to storage that offers significantly better performance, reliability and scaling. Designed specifically for the mid-tier market, Gridstore uses an advanced grid-processing platform to dramatically lower the cost of scale-out storage.

The Gridstore architecture provides the convenience and desirability of scale-out NAS by creating a virtual storage grid that eliminates the most costly components of cluster-based scale-out NAS solutions – their redundant controllers, complex clustering software, backplane networks and 3-way replicas. By leveraging distributed, parallel processing and parallel IO - Gridstore also increases the scale, performance and reliability without adding complexity.

“Gridstore’s scale-out storage has been designed from day one to meet the dynamic storage needs of the SME while maintaining the flexibility and rich feature set of enterprise scale-out NAS solutions, without the management headaches,” said Kelly Murphy, CEO, Gridstore. “Now companies of any size can benefit from the robust storage features of a scale-out storage solution, including scalability and fault tolerance, without the big price tag of clustered-based offerings.”

To view the latest DCIG report on Gridstore Scale-Out Storage, visit: http://sponsored.dcig.com/2012/05/smbs-look-to-gridstore-scale-out-stora...

Tweet this: @DCIG reports that @Gridstore addresses SME big data needs http://bit.ly/J7ecj9

Follow Gridstore on Twitter at http://twitter.com/gridstore

About Gridstore
Gridstore is the leader in grid-based, scale-out storage products. The Gridstore scale-out NAS solution uniquely combines virtualization with a grid processing platform to deliver a single pool of storage that simplifies management while increasing performance, scaling and reliability. The Gridstore system is designed for organizations who struggle with the risk, cost and complexity of storage sprawl and who need enterprise class storage without the cost and complexity. Founded in 2009, Gridstore is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif. and has development facilities in Dublin, Ireland. For more information, please visit: http://www.gridstore.com
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Media Contact:
Sabrina Sanchez
Ventana Public Relations
(540) 253-5060
sabrina.sanchez@ventanapr.com

StumbleUpon And Your Small Business

Posted by Jim Smith on May 1, 2012

0 comments | 291 reads

For many small businesses, reaching the widest customer base possible is generally a priority. Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are useful but sometimes they do not offer the broad promotion that your business needs simply because they are based on the extent of your network. There are alternative methods to gaining a broad audience that will get people talking and more importantly, drive sales. Using social bookmarking sites, such as StumbleUpon, can significantly increase the amount of random hits on your website. StumbleUpon has been credited with being far better than any other site in this regard. Here, is why and how you can use it to promote your small business:

1. Easy to set up and use
StumbleUpon is self-explanatory, so setting up an account is simple. In order to establish an account for your small business, just follow the guidelines and you will be up and running in no time.

SEO Advice for Small Business Owners

Posted by Nick Stamoulis on May 1, 2012

0 comments | 385 reads

Even small businesses can benefit from a strong SEO program. We live in an online world, and even 50 year old mom-and-pop pizza joints have a basic web presence nowadays, even if it’s just a one page website with their address and phone number. If you are looking to take your small business SEO to the next level, here are three pieces of advice:

Try to learn the basics of SEO for yourself.
In my opinion, small business owners shouldn’t be so quick to outsource their SEO the minute their website is live. Take a year (which gives your site time to age and gain trust) and learn the basics of SEO for yourself! Maybe signup for a local SEO workshop or download a few SEO 101 webinars so you learn what goes into creating an executing a successful small business SEO strategy. Even if you just start reading a few SEO blogs each day (spend a ½ hour in the morning), you’ll slowly learn what is and isn’t white hat SEO, best practice SEO tips and other valuable small business SEO lessons. The more educated you are the less likely it is that you will be taken for a ride by a black hat SEO company, and the more your eventual SEO partner will be able to do for you. Since you have the basic knowledge and SEO framework in place, your white hat partner can help take your small business SEO campaign to the next level.

Making Pinterest Work For Your Small Business

Posted by Jim Smith on April 25, 2012

0 comments | 650 reads

If you haven’t heard by now, Pinterest is making waves through the Internet. It is now the third most popular social media site and anyone who enjoys sharing photos can register with Pinterest and share their interests through the art of pictures. Photographers, photojournalists and hobbyists alike gain a wealth of opportunity by signing up with this website. But not only these groups of individuals, but small business owners, as well can leverage this resource. While an online pinboard might seem like a strange place to grow a small business, it is very possible and makes a lot of sense. It is more about creating brand awareness than making money.

1. Create a small business account on Pinterest

The first order of business is to create a small business account on Pinterest. From there, start connecting with customers by creating pinboards where you pin photos or pictures that are of interest to your customers or followers.. You will be able to share your pin boards with them. Also, Pinterest users are able to post on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to get other customers or potential customers interested. Get them all involved. You might be doing them a favour.

2. Personal touch on your Small Business pinboards

April 19, 2012

Sage Enhances Mobile And E-Marketing Functionality For Sage ACT! Contact & Customer Management Users

Sage ACT! Connect and Sage ACT! Premium Mobile support multiple access methods and devices including iPhone and iPad; Sage E-Marketing for ACT! adds social sharing features

Scottsdale, AZ – April 19, 2012 – Sage North America today announced new mobile and e-marketing functionality for Sage ACT! Contact and Customer Management users. Sage ACT! Connect(1) provides an enhanced app-style interface for accessing contact, activity and notes/history data on popular smartphones and tablets including Android™, iPhone® and iPad®(2). The new Sage ACT! Premium Mobile(3) enables users of these devices and self- or partner-hosted Sage ACT! Premium 2012 v14.2 deployments to access the same data, and includes additional workgroup functionality. Sage E-marketing for ACT!(1) enhancements let users share email marketing communications via Facebook®, Twitter® and LinkedIn® when launching campaigns, and add links to these social networks in email footers so recipients can share them too.

“Letting Contact Management and CRM users access their data on virtually any mobile device is paramount for delivering an extraordinary customer experience, and advancing their sales performance for that matter,” said Denis Pombriant, Principal Analyst, Beagle Research. “Sage provides mobile flexibility using a dynamic web standard it was among the first to adopt [HTML 5], so the data users need to do business productively is made conveniently available and displayed perfectly on whichever devices are in hand.”

Sage ACT! is the #1 contact and customer management choice of small businesses and sales teams for managing everything related to contacts, schedules and business opportunities. Sage ACT! also connects to subscription-based services – such as Sage ACT! Connect and Sage E-Marketing for ACT! – and integrates with other business systems and social media to help users make contact, build relationships and get results.

Sage ACT! Connect is available for $69 per user annually. Sage ACT! Premium 2012 v14.2 is available for $549.99 (Upgrade $359.95) and includes Sage ACT! Premium Mobile at no additional cost. Sage E-marketing for ACT! plans start at $14.95 per user, per month. For more information call 866-903-0006, or visit www.act.com and community.act.com.

About Sage North America
Sage is a leading global supplier of business management software and services for small and midsized businesses. The Sage Group plc, formed in 1981, was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1989 and now employs more than 12,300 people and supports more than 6 million customers worldwide. For more information about Sage in North America, please visit the company website at: SageNorthAmerica.com. Follow Sage North America on Facebook.com/SageNorthAmerica and Twitter.com/sagenamerica.

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© 2012 Sage Software, Inc. All rights reserved. Sage, the Sage logos, ACT! and the Sage product and service names mentioned herein are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sage Software, Inc. or its affiliated entities. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

(1) Requires additional subscription.
(2) Review Sage ACT! Connect system requirements at www.act.com/connectsystreq to confirm supported mobile phones, tablets, and web browsers.
(3) Sage ACT! Premium Mobile requires set-up and configuration of Sage ACT! Premium (access via web). Data access available via active Internet connection from supported device browsers. Review Sage ACT! system requirements at www.act.com/systreq. You are responsible for all data-related charges to your device.

Important Notes: Review Sage ACT! system requirements at www.act.com/systreq. You must purchase one license of Sage ACT! per user. Scalability varies based on hardware, size, and usage of your database. Visit www.ActSolutions.com or contact your add-on product provider to determine compatibility for your add-on products. The mobile component of Sage ACT! Connect requires Internet connectivity. You are responsible for all data-related charges to your device. To facilitate mobile setup, Sage ACT! Connect sends a text message to your mobile phone. Based on your wireless plan, you may receive an extra charge from your carrier for this text message. Sage E-marketing for ACT! is powered by Swiftpage™.

5 Time Saving Systems Must Haves for the Small Business Owner

Posted by Suzen Pettit on April 18, 2012

0 comments | 503 reads

wonder womanIf you’re looking to grow you can’t do it all on your own. You just can’t. Your foundation must be laid so that you can be freed up to do your thing. You know, your thing? The thing that makes you money.

As much as we may look like Wonder Woman, or so as not to be sexist, Superman, and feel like them too, we cannot be a one person band and expect that the everything will just fall into place. It’ll fall alright, down, into bed, if you make it that far, from exhaustion.

A smart and successful small biz owner has back up, and I’d love to share my back up tricks honed from trial and error throughout the years that have saved me countless hours of unproductive work.

April 18, 2012

Storage Switzerland Lab Test Validates Zetta.net as Next Generation Appliance-Free Online Backup and Recovery Solution for the SME

SUNNYVALE, Calif. – Zetta.net, a provider of enterprise-grade online backup and disaster recovery solutions, today announced the results of a Storage Switzerland lab review that validates Zetta DataProtect as the next generation enterprise-grade server backup solution for small and medium sized enterprises that doesn’t require appliances and can be deployed within minutes.

The Storage Switzerland video review demonstrates the ease in which Zetta DataProtect was deployed and configured. From day one, it ran flawlessly on both Windows and Mac platforms. Granular data recovery was also simple with several options. The easiest method was mounting replicated file systems of backed up servers as web drives on a local system and just dragging and dropping the files that were needed.

“One of the key benefits was the speed with which we were able to get the system up and running, due to its 'appliance-less' design,” said George Crump, president, Storage Switzerland. “As a software-only solution that required no appliances or other hardware, installation was very simple - just install the agent and let it start replicating data to the Zetta cloud. This can be a significant advantage for backup administrators who need to deploy the agent across multiple offices or remote users.”

“Our enterprise-grade features, such as encryption, high performance and data redundancy across disks, nodes and datacenters give our customers an added level of assurance that they just can’t get with consumer-grade cloud backup or file-sharing providers,” said Gary Sevounts, vice president of marketing, Zetta.net. “And unlike other commercial-grade backup services, we don’t burden IT departments with managing yet another appliance. Zetta.net has designed a lightweight multi-platform (Linux, Windows and Mac OS) software client that outperforms appliances, delivers instant data recovery over the web, and can be deployed within minutes.”

To view the latest Storage Switzerland test and video, visit: http://bit.ly/Hc355o

Tweet this: @StorageSwiss calls @ZettaNet’s ZettaMirror #cloud #backup easy, reliable and worthy of strong consideration for #SMEs http://bit.ly/HQrEnV

About Zetta.net
Zetta.net is an award-winning provider of enterprise-grade online backup and disaster recovery solutions for small and mid-size enterprises. Zetta enables companies to simplify and automate backups and instantly recover data using just a Web browser. Advanced security, high redundancy and a high-performance architecture deliver true enterprise-grade data protection that scales to meet customers business requirements. With headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif., Zetta was established in 2008 by successful serial entrepreneurs and technology executives from companies such as Netscape, VeriSign, Symantec, EMC, and Shutterfly. For more information, visit www.zetta.net or www.facebook.com/zettastorage. Follow Zetta on Twitter at www.twitter.com/zettanet. For parties interested in online backup, cloud backup, disaster recovery, offsite backup, remote backup, server backup, data protection
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Contact:
Gary Sevounts
Vice President, Marketing
Zetta, Inc.
(408) 458-6175
gary@zetta.net

MarketPlace

Global Customer Experience Management (CEM) Certification Program

[May 30-31, Frankfurt; July 25-26, Hong Kong] An internationally recognized program with proven track record of success - being run for 34 times in 13 cities with attendees from 50 countries, the program is developed based on the U.S. patent-pending Branded CEM Method which aims to drive customer loyalty and brand differentiation with quantifiable business results. Limited offer: USD300 early bird discount.

Join us on May 29th in New York City. Stuart Ryder, SVP, Mobile Research Lead for Ipsos IOTX & Roxana Strohmenger, a leading Forrester analyst, will be in attendance to share best practices and new trends in mobile market research.

[June 12, Sir Francis Drake Hotel] Gregson Siu, Vice President, Ariba Business Operations, Ariba and Bob Thompson, CustomerThink, will be in attendance to share best practices, new trends and latest research to help you develop your customer experience program.

Social Networking and sCRM International Congress in Colombia

[June 25-26, Bogota] Thirteen international thought leaders will present, from different perspectives, the trends, the uses, and the magic - as well as the reality - of Social Networking and how it impacts the way customers are doing/will do business.

Driving ROI With VoC

Walker has identified multiple ways to measure ROI – there is not a one-size-fits-all solution. This paper will address each and conclude with some recommendations to help B-to-B practitioners evaluate which ROI approach will work best for their particular business need.