Articles about Small Business

Digital data has become central to all our lives and businesses from the largest multi-national organisations to the smallest family run start-ups now store the majority of their data in bytes instead of boxes. Current estimates are that there is now up to five zettabytes (the equivalent of one trillion gigabytes) of information on the planet and it could be ten times that by the end of the decade.

Many of us blissfully assume that the data we store electronically will be eternally safe. However, the real world is fraught with potential "data disasters". The data loss scenarios painted in the media may focus on cyber attacks or natural disasters, but often it is the everyday occurrences such as accidental file deletion, an overnight waterpipe breakage or spilling a hot drink on a piece of hardware that can cause the biggest disruption to a business if data is not properly stored and backed up.

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With each new generation comes a new object, trend or fad that people point back to down the road and say "I remember the days when THAT was popular!" Baby boomers grew up with parents who told tales of walking uphill both ways to school, and Millennials heard their parents talk about waiting in line for gasoline and when penny candy actually cost one cent. For Millennials who grew up with VCRs and CD players, there’s no question they’ll be telling their future children and grandchildren of the days of rewinding tapes and scratched CDs.

One technology that has dominated the 21st century is the mobile phone. After adoption began growing at an exponential rate, it was clear that mobile phones would disrupt the telecommunications industry as it had existed for decades. It seemed that the popularity of landlines in both businesses and homes might fall into the "what used to be" category -- that is, until a recent study from Invoca found that not only is the landline far from dead, it’s thriving when it comes to business use.

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As a small business owner, you have a lot on your plate. You’re managing your business’ value in the marketplace on a daily basis while at the same time striving to maintain superior customer service and employee satisfaction. There’s a lot on your mind and the minds of your employees, too. Some days, it feels like nine a.m. becomes five p.m. in a heartbeat. At times like this, you spend most of your time just trying to keep the ship afloat.

Of course, you also want your employees to feel accomplished and productive at the end of the day. Professional success is largely a mental game, after all. If you believe you are getting things done and doing good work -- then you will probably get things done and do good work! The following are steps you can take to ensure that your team is put in the best possible position to effectively manage their time.

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One size does not fit all when it comes to laptops. Sure, everyone loves a super-thin and sexy notebook, but business users in particular have much greater needs. For instance, an optical drive is much less popular with consumers nowadays, but many business workstations still have the need. Many consumers have moved on to HDMI and DisplayPort, but businesses still have older monitors and projectors that are VGA only, so a VGA port on a laptop is needed.

While Toshiba makes great consumer-grade computers, its business-class machines are where it truly shines. The 13.3 inch Portégé R30, a small and medium business laptop I have been testing lately, is no exception.

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Over on the Skype community pages there are lots of disgruntled Skype users. For a number of weeks now, many users have been plagued with spoof messages from people on their contact list, telling them to visit a Russian website. Others complain that their contacts say their own account has sent out a similar message. Despite the problem having been reported nearly a month ago, Microsoft has still to address the issue.

For now, all the company has to say is "change your password", insisting that a team is working on the issue. The spoofed message includes a shortened URL, so those clicking it have no idea where it leads until it is too late. Rather than offering a full solution, all Microsoft has to suggest is to change Skype passwords -- it seems the company is too busy focusing on Windows 10 at the moment.

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Today Logitech launches the Logitech Collaboration Program (LCP) with the aim of simplifying collaboration for its customers. With partners including BroadSoft, Lifesize Communications, Vidyo, and Zoom, LCP helps to bring about what Logitech calls the 'anywhere workplace'.

The program features a combination of hardware and software solutions to facilitate remote collaborative work. It allows for the creation of virtual meeting rooms, mobile communication, and videoconferencing as part of a complete collaborative ecosystem.

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For smaller businesses cyber security isn't always their highest priority which means they can be left vulnerable to attacks.

In an effort to beef up protection for small and medium businesses, the UK government is launching a voucher scheme as part of a package of measures designed to increase the resilience of UK businesses to cyber-attacks.

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Pitiful Wi-Fi implementation is so prevalent these days that people take it for granted. From the hotels we visit, to the cafes we frequent, down to the offices we call home 9-5 daily. And that's unfortunate, because when done right, Wi-Fi is an enabler for connecting us wherever, whenever.

Why can't most organizations get Wi-Fi right?

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Startups are a lot easier than stay ups. Within the first 18 months, 50 to 70 percent of new, small businesses crash and burn. Only a fraction of that number ever make it to the ten year mark. That is what happens to US businesses started by US citizens. They know the language, the geography, understand the money and finances, are familiar with the weather patterns, and are fully assimilated into society. With all those advantages, they still fail at an alarming rate.

The risk of failure is even higher when setting out to do business overseas, in a land that is completely foreign. The language is Wookie-speak. And the currency might just as well be monopoly money. Then, there are the politics and laws. It is hard enough to keep up with ours own here in the US. What about taboos and social mores? It is all too easy to cross lines you don’t know are there. While a risk is nothing more than a challenge, to some, consider these challenges before setting up "shoppe" abroad.

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Today’s small business requires PCs that drive productivity and collaboration without the premium price tag. Whether it’s the clarity from visualizing data, the smoothness of streaming media or the responsiveness of modern apps, every detail matters to effectively run a small-to-medium-size organization.

When searching for a PC that best suits a small business, whether it’s a desktop or a laptop, be sure to consider the following features and capabilities.

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If you have a small business, and that business doesn’t have its own Facebook page, then you’re doing your business wrong.

Come on, people’s pets have Facebook fan pages, and your business doesn’t. Many will agree that having a fan page is essential to your business, but with basically everyone on there, the rules have changed.

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Many small business owners see accounting as a necessary evil. They know they need to stay on top of their sales, cash flow and so on but the actual process of doing so is a chore.

Now a new mobile app called ONE UP is claiming to reduce the amount of time taken to handle accounts to just a few minutes per month. It automatically synchronizes with banks and provides suggested entries that can be validated with a single click. In addition the ONE UP suite includes automatic inventory, CRM and invoicing.

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The good news is that your company is growing -- sales are up and you are hiring more employees. However, there are some challenges that go along with that growth. As your company grows, so does the number of employees and customers, which can put more strain on the IT system that supports all those new people. IT systems can get taxed and overloaded. For example, you could have a large increase in visits to your website during a successful product launch, but that could lead to slow performance or even a total outage. Any type of delay or disruption can lead to lost customers, lost revenue and could hurt your company’s overall reputation.

Managing this type of IT strain is especially challenging for small companies and startups that often have only one person working in IT. Some aren’t even that well-staffed, with 27 percent of small businesses having no IT support, according to a 2014 SMB Group study. So, how does a growing startup business survive its success and keep IT systems running properly? To do that, they first need to understand the potential issues that could arise, and then examine what they can do to fix or prevent them.

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Staff members present the biggest security risk to a company, and the most likely weak point when it comes to data in the cloud.

According to the recent State of SMB Cybersecurity report from CloudEntr, which took in the opinions of 438 IT pros across 20+ different industries, 77 percent said that staff members are the weakest link in their security infrastructure, and a liability when it comes to cloud usage.

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There’s no shortage of cut-price mono laser printers on the market, but the multifunction Canon i-SENSYS MF229dw is the perfect example of why it’s worth paying a little extra to get a printer that can do everything you’d want it to, and more besides.

Obviously it’s a mono printer, so the one thing it can’t do is output color pages, but aside from that it can print single and double-sided, scan (in 24-bit color), copy pages, and fax documents. It’s a wireless printer, and you can send photos and documents to print directly from iOS and Android devices.

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