My Small Business Consultants

This article will walk you through a number of different steps you can take to improve your wireless connection.  Read through the article before you start and find the tip/trick that makes the most sence for your situation.

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/setup/wirelesstips.aspx

I have been using a dual monitor setup in my office for a long time.  I cant imagine working without it.  I have the ability to put webpages on one screen and email on the other.  Pull up reference material and Microsoft Office Word on the other.  Keep in touch with friends while watching a video.  All of these are possible with dual monitors.  This article explains how you can set up a dual monitor system. 

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/organization/twomonitors.aspx

If you need help or more information, please contact me.

The following was sent to me by a Media Relations Specialist.  I love this concept and use a form of this in my business.  If you would like more information about how to set this up for your business, please contact me.

-Dean

Make Vacation Communication a Day at the Beach
By Steve Adams

The peak summer vacation season is still in full swing. And with it comes the dilemma small business owners have been facing since the beginning of the Industrial Age: Take therapeutic time off to clear your mind and recharge, or make the choice and fear that you’re not going to be available when an urgent client need arises.

Fortunately, these days it doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing choice. There are technologies available that can help you stay in contact with the office and/or your customers while still allowing you to get away from – well, if not all, at least most.

Virtual phone service for small business – These services are the most significant vacation-enablers, because they offer so much flexibility and mobility at such a low cost. A virtual phone service provides businesses with a single phone number for the entire business. The service then allows you to assign extensions to different people in the organization, both inside and outside of the main office. A virtual receptionist greets callers with a professional greeting and provides a dial-by-name directory, generally helping get callers get where they need to go.

Where they really pay off come vacation time, though, is with their smart call forwarding capabilities. You can set your office phone to forward all of your calls to your mobile phone, allowing you to answer them just as though you’re in the office. You can even specify when the phone rings and when it goes to voicemail if you want to keep normal “business hours” while you’re basking in the sun or climbing that mountain.

If you don’t want to be disturbed at the moment but want to stay on top of things, you can set your virtual phone service to send all calls to your business voicemail, then receive an email telling you when you have voicemails waiting. It’s a great way to organize your time so you can both participate with the family and service your customers.

Internet fax service – If your business relies on faxes, having an Internet fax service is indispensable during a vacation. After all, if you’re vacationing hundreds or thousands of miles away from the office it’s going to be a little tough to pop in just to check faxes. Of course, even if you’re enjoying a “staycation” you probably want to avoid the office so you don’t stop by for a few minutes and wind up there all day.

With an Internet fax service you can send and receive faxes anywhere you can get an Internet connection. And on any device – a laptop, smart phone or even one of those hotel lobby PCs. You have a choice of using your email account or a secure online portal so there’s no worries about how to get connected.

If the fax requires further action from someone else, forwarding it is as easy as forwarding an email. You can even add comments before you send. With most Internet fax services you can even have the fax sent to one or more partners’ or business associates’ emails as well as your own – just in case you’re having too much fun to take care of it right away.

Technology has definitely added to the sense of urgency in our everyday lives. But the right technologies can also help restore some order.

So as you enjoy the nearing final days of summer, make sure you have the tools that will allow you to keep your business running while you are taking some time off. It’ll make getting away from the office a literal day on the beach.

Steve Adams is the vice president of marketing for Protus, a provider of communications tools for small-to-medium-businesses and enterprise organizations, including the MyFax (www.myfax.com) internet fax service; my1voice (www.my1voice.com), a virtual phone service; and Campaigner, an e-mail marketing service. He can be reached at sadams@protus.com.

The following article was sent to me by a PR agent.  It has some great information about setting up Telecommuting in your business.

Establishing a Telecommuting Policy for Your Employees

If you’re a business unit manager or small business owner you may have considered the idea of allowing staff to telecommute.  You’ve come to that notion through many possible routes of inspiration. Perhaps you would like to occasionally work from home yourself to better focus on a project; perhaps someone you manage needed an extended leave for medical or personal reasons, and had your organization supported it, they could have been at least partially productive while out of the office.  Maybe the example of a mobile sales force that is rarely seen, but somehow effectively managed, has you thinking that the same model could apply for other job roles.

Telecommuting as a concept has been around for decades[1], but certainly is a more viable option now than ever before.  The arguments to support telecommuting for cost savings are stronger than ever given increases in energy costs impacting everything from transportation to office expenses.  So let’s assume you’re at the last step, have decided that telecommuting is right for your business, but you’re not sure where to begin.

Like every business decision, step one of implementation is policy, policy, policy.  If you are a small business that ordinarily does not write policy or document decisions, this is one decision you should communicate via a written policy to impacted employees.  Telecommuting is an obvious double edged sword.  It empowers employees to be productive at times they otherwise might not be, but also provides a mechanism to shirk job duties if expectations and policy are not clearly understood.  Writing a clear policy that is relevant for your organization will help you organize the reasons why you want to support telecommuting, and clarify the benefits for employees,  risks for the employer, and develop a checklist of practical (and technical) items to be considered.  Policy areas to cover include:

• A general rationale for the policy.  Is it employee flexibility (reward) related? Cost savings related, productivity related, or even part of an incentive of “flex work” plan. 
• Hours per week (month, quarter year) employees are permitted or expected to telecommute.
• Expectation of when a telecommuting day will commence and how it will proceed.  Will employees be expected to be online and available for specific time intervals, or is the time spent discretionary and the productivity value of the day measured by work output or assignment completion?
• Telecommuting location.  Must an employee work from a designated location at home, or will any location that supports the overall communications need suffice?
• Communications requirements.  Must employees be “live” and on-line?  If so, who bears the costs associated with communications?
• Technical requirements:
  •  How will information be shared and work distributed?  Do you use a VPN, cloud storage or cloud desktops, simple email or move work back and forth on USB thumb drives?
  • How will you manage privacy and information security concerns? You must address the issue of maintaining corporate information on personal computers, or in hardcopy documents maintained at home.
  • Pay adjustments.  Is there incentive pay for telecommuting? Is there a reduction in wage for the privilege of telecommuting?  Are there tax implications for the business or the employees? 
  • Meeting scheduling and telecommuting conflicts.  What are the requirements when multiple employees need to meet face to face, who has to “give up” a telecommuting day?  Can employees meet off site to conduct a meeting during a telecommuting day?
  • Policy exceptions and revocations.  Consider including an “out” clause providing for management to cancel telecommuting whenever it sees fit for any reason.  For most organizations, or job roles telecommuting is a privilege not a right.

What should you expect once you implement a telecommuting policy? Anecdotal reports indicate that acceptance of telecommuting follows a predictable path. When the policy is first introduced some employees and many managers may be skeptical. As staff work out the technical issues, and realize the personal cost savings (commuting expense reduction alone is often equivalent to a significant raise) the skepticism yields to appreciation.
 
“Appreciation and enthusiasm give way to a sense that telecommuting is ordinary or mundane.  This is the critical point for any organization. When the “new” policy is accepted corporate culture, even taken for granted, managers need to be extra vigilant about maintaining expectations of assignment output and work quality, and strictly enforce policy guidelines,” explained Dr. Gilda Carle, management consultant and lifestyle expert.
 
This is also a point to review and refine the initial policy adjusting for the real experiences the company has encountered. “Telecommuting employees will also begin to respond differently after the initial ‘break-in’ period. Some will seek to return to more in-office time since the personal interaction with other employees is either psychologically supportive, or important to their job roles,” commented Dr. Gilda Carle.
 
Some will thrive in an independent working environment and may be even more productive given more flexibility of schedule and hands off, outcomes based management. If the transition to telecommuting is thoughtfully prepared and proactively managed, many companies will reap the rewards of a more satisfied and productive work-force, and the potential cost savings on physical resources at the home office.  Some organizations may transition completely into virtual or near virtual enterprises where the need for a central office becomes superfluous.  Advances in network (cloud) computing, voice over IP, and video conferencing truly render the technical issues easily manageable for many organizations.  Parallel advancements in software systems such as CRM, business intelligence, ERP, private portals, document management, project management and work flow management, provide excellent tools for remote and/or asynchronous assignment and monitoring of employee projects. 

So, if you’ve been thinking about telecommuting, there is no time like the present.  Recessions are the perfect time to restructure your business, re-think your management approach, and increase competitive advantage.  

 About the author:

Charles (Chip) Buck has more than 20 years of experience in management and with PC-based business applications, and is COO and co-founder of independence IT (www.independenceit.com/whitepaper1). Mr. Buck earned his B.S. in computer science from Muhlenberg College and his master’s in information assurance from Norwich University. He is also a member of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) and Armed Forces

For more than a decade, independenceIT (www.independenceit.com/whitepaper1) has been giving small businesses a way to leverage technology without the burden of owning and maintaining it. The company offers its customers a path to freedom from “technology tyranny” by giving employees the ability to work where and when they will be most productive – whether they’re in the office, at home, or on the road.

[1] http://www.examiner.com/x-8570-Phoenix-Telecommuting-Examiner~y2009m6d17-Telecommuting-101-Series-3

The following is a press release I recieved.  It has some great information.  If you would like to talk about using Email Newsletters and Email Marketing, please feel free to contact me.

Why Are Small Business Owners Email Marketing in the Dark?

Small businesses owners are like marathon runners. Just when they feel like they are going to cave in from stress and tiredness they see the finish line and keep on pushing. Think about the average small business owner who has 10 employees or less. They spend most of the day running the business operations. But when do they have time to work on other aspects of their business, such as vital components like marketing?

For many of them, it’s usually only after the shop closes. And unfortunately that’s also when other businesses close, leaving small business owners to scramble for answers to any questions they might have whether it’s about IT deployments or financing.

Fortunately, however, there are technologies available today that cater to small businesses, their work schedules and need for simplified processes. Take for example email marketing services like Campaigner (www.campaigner.com).

While many email marketing services still only offer customer service support during normal business hours- making small business owners virtually marketing in the dark if they have any technical issues with their email marketing tools- Campaigner worked with its customers to identify the critical support they need to design email marketing campaigns.

So what were some of its small business customers saying? According to Wendy Lowe, director of product marketing at Campaigner, one of the top priorities for small businesses is having somebody available 24×7 to answer questions and provide technical support. Other concerns now turned into features of the service include:

. Easier campaign creation to help businesses build their opt-in lists
. A redesigned email editor that resembles a Microsoft Word interface
. The ability to import contacts directly from Microsoft Excel
. A full-screen editing mode to make it easier to evaluate the overall look of the email.

So if you’re a small business looking for cost efficient tools that will cater to your needs, rest assured knowing there are companies out there keeping their lights on just as much as you are to help you and your business succeed.

Wendy Lowe is director of product marketing for Campaigner (www.campaigner.com), the email marketing solution that enables organizations to have highly personalized one-to-one email dialogues with their customers, measure how they respond, and analyze those responses to interact in a more intelligent, automated way – resulting in more profitable relationships. Campaigner is provided by Protus, provider of the highest quality Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) communication tools for small-to-medium businesses (SMB) and enterprise organizations, including my1voice, the cost-effective, feature-rich virtual phone service, and award-winning MyFax, the fastest growing Internet fax service. Wendy can be reached at wlowe@protus.com.

This is a great article for those looking for Images.  If you need something for your blog, website, marketing material or other documents, check out some of the sites listed in the following article. 

This is also a podcast.  It’s about 5 minutes and covers all the information in the article.

The Digital Marketer : Free and Cheap Stock Images :: Quick and Dirty Tips ™.

The following link is to an article from a good friend of mine, Douglas E Welch.  He is taking his weekly podcast asking his listeners to try different things this year.  I really like what he has to say about Facebook and Business.  If you have about 5-8 minutes, please check out his site. 

http://welchwrite.com/career/2010/01/10/career-prescription-3-use-facebook/

Comment from Douglas.  The information was too good to leave out in the Comments.

Thanks for your kind words! The full text of the column is also available, if people prefer to read instead of listen. Your readers can also discuss this column, and others, on the Career Opportunities Community Site at http://careercommunity.welchwrite.com.

Thanks again!

Douglas

I recieved the following in my inbox.  Lots of good info for my small business clients.

Oz Was No Wizard at Customer Service
By Kevin Baker

In The Wizard of Oz, the title character is beloved and revered by all the people in that magical land over the rainbow. Yet when you look at it from a small business/customer service perspective it’s really hard to understand why.

In fact, the Great and Powerful Oz is probably one of the best examples of what not to do if you want to grow your business. Let’s take a look at some of his mistakes, and see how an alternative strategy might suit your business better.

. Be difficult to reach. In order to seek an audience with the Wizard, Dorothy and her friends must first navigate a strange and unfamiliar landscape with confusing twists and turns. It’s a little more difficult than the simple advice to follow the yellow brick road. How tough are you to reach? Is your contact information (phone number and/or email) clearly spelled out on your Web site, or do you hide behind a contact form? Customers and prospects don’t like filling out forms. They want to speak to a real person. Make it easy for them. Actually publish your phone and email information in the ‘Contact Us” section. Even better, add a “Call us” button on the site that automatically makes the call for the customer.

. Hide behind a gatekeeper. When Dorothy and friends finally get to Oz, they think they’re going to make an appointment and see the Wizard. Instead, the gatekeeper says Oz never sees anyone. When customers or prospects call your business, can they get through to the person they’re calling? You want to make sure your phone system makes it easy to get to the right person. A virtual phone system helps with that, because its virtual receptionist can direct callers to the right extension – even if they’re not sure what that extension is. It also provides options to forward office phones to home, mobile or other phones, making you and your employees reachable even when you’re out of the office.

. Work in an ivory tower. Or in this case in Emerald City. The Wizard only knows his own perspective because he never sees or talks to the regular people. He thinks it makes him mysterious, which is true. But it also means he has difficulty relating to the people who need his help. It’s important to maintain regular contact with customers, prospects, business partners and others so you can seek out their perspectives and points of view, and understand better what motivates them so you can deliver what they want.

. Go back on your word. The Wizard tells Dorothy if she and her friends want him to grant their requests, they must first bring back the broomstick of the Wicked Witch of the West – a daunting task. When they return after fulfilling their end of the bargain, though, the Wizard starts to backtrack because he knows he can’t actually do what he promised. As a small business you have to know what your capabilities are, then A) be sure not to promise things you can’t deliver, and B) deliver on the things you do promise.

All that being said, the one thing the Wizard got right was creating that larger than life image. Today, small businesses have the opportunity to make themselves look larger and more professional by using tools and technologies that provide the same capabilities as those enjoyed by large enterprises.

Oz may have been great and powerful, but when it came to customer service he left a lot to be desired. Learn from his mistakes and you’ll have more happy customers saying there’s no place like your company.

Kevin Baker is my1voice Product Marketing Manager for Protus (www.protus.com), provider of the highest quality Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) communication tools for small-to-medium businesses (SMB) and enterprise organizations, including my1voice, the cost-effective, feature-rich virtual phone service that travels with the user from phone to web, award-winning MyFax, the fastest growing Internet fax service and Campaigner, an email marketing solution with advanced automation features. Kevin can be reached at kbaker@protus.com. .

Save Energy and Get Organized

Phantom or “standby power” refers to electric power consumed by electronic appliances while switched off or in a standby mode.  While this wasted power in a single appliance is very small, the sum of all the electric devices in your home can quickly add up. So taking action to reduce this waste can make a difference on your electric bill.

Get started reducing your phantom load by using a power strip to create a charging station.  Designate a common area of the house to be used for all cell phone, MP3, video game, etc recharging and plug in the power strip. When charging is complete, simply flip the power strip off to eliminate any standby power usage. We bet you’ll also save on time by having all your personal devices in one spot.

Read more tips on how to rid yourself of “phantoms” lurking in your home.

Another great “Getting Stated” article from Microsoft.  Full article with links: http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/help/ec3fff68-e53c-4168-ae74-8557325e57e21033.mspx

Windows Movie Maker is a feature of Windows Vista that enables you to create home movies and slide shows on your computer, complete with professional-looking titles, transitions, effects, music, and even narration. And when you’re ready, you can use Windows Movie Maker to publish your movie and share it with your friends and family.

If you’re new to digital video editing or just new to Windows Movie Maker, keep reading for an introduction to the different tools you’ll use in Windows Movie Maker and for links to help you learn more.

Keep reading here: http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/help/ec3fff68-e53c-4168-ae74-8557325e57e21033.mspx