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How the Cloud Can Help Small Businesses Get Ahead

Some small businesses make the mistake of ignoring technology. The people who own these companies often believe that it’s only the corporate giants that can benefit from leveraging new tech, or that cloud services would be too expensive for their operation. Nothing could be further from the truth; in fact, small businesses that leverage the Web can develop the kind of loyal customer base that would never form under a monolithic corporation. People love to support those within their local community, and in order to reach them, businesses have to go where they are: on the Internet – in the cloud.

Free Promotion

Something as simple as a fan page on a social networking site can serve as an advertising platform. If 100 people see it, every person they have on their friend’s list will see it too, and the effect multiplies when someone spreads positive feedback about a local business. Promotion can go viral even at the local level, and businesses that take advantage of that can save a lot on advertising costs.

Cheaper Software

It costs thousands upon thousands of dollars to purchase every piece of software that’s necessary to run a business. Nearly all of these applications have a cloud-based counterpart, and cloud applications run the gamut between free and cheap. At most, someone will have to pay a low monthly fee to gain access to certain applications through a cloud storage service.

No Hardware Required

Purchasing cloud storage makes sense regardless of what someone needs for his business. Hundreds of gigabytes can be had for less than $20 per month. That eliminates the need to buy hundreds of dollars worth of storage devices and backup software. While it’s still a good idea to keep some physical backups on hand, some cloud services have that covered as well. A few business oriented services will allow customers to request certain files on disks or hard drives for a small fee.

There are other benefits that result from this. When less hardware is required to run a business, less office space needs to be purchased. When files can be accessed from the cloud, business owners can stay away from the office for extended periods of time and still have access to pertinent information. With certain businesses, a physical location is completely unnecessary once cloud services are brought into the picture. It makes it far easier to bargain for time, and business owners can do what they need to do far more easily when they’re not bound by the limitations of a low-tech enterprise.

Working With Other People

Business owners used to be restricted to selecting workers from local applicants. Now certain businesses can hire anyone from across the globe, or entrepreneurs can choose to hire independent contractors on a per-project basis. Day-to-day business operations can flex according to a business’ needs, and any enterprise with that kind of flexibility is far more robust than one that lacks it.

Everything is in the Cloud

Computers that use the cloud for everything have already hit the market. The cloud is not a gimmick, and it’s not a convenient but frivolous function of modern computing. It is what the entire world is now shaping itself around; the Internet is weaving itself into everything, and what’s beneficial for a business today will be necessary tomorrow. Small businesses need to adapt now in order to survive the future.

About the Author: Alan Martin is a tech blogger.

Why an Online POS System is Good For Your Business

A point of sale system plays an important role in retail business. If you wish to streamline your sales, it is essential that you choose a POS system that is efficient. When compared to the traditional systems used in stores, cloud POS systems are more efficient, and offer a number of benefits to the business owner. Besides convenience and improved efficiency, the cloud or online POS can help you save a lot of money in the process. Here is a note on some of the many advantages of switching to the cloud-based point-of-sale systems for your store:

cloud pos software

Reliability

When you choose the POS cloud system, which is offered in the SaaS or software-as-a-service model, the system downtime reduces drastically, as any problems in the system are usually fixed by the vendor immediately. This means, you wont have to worry about POS failure at rush hour, when your best customers visit the store to spend on your products.

Security

Another notable advantage of choosing a cloud POS is security. In the cloud-based systems, all the data related to the sales, the customer details etc. are saved on the remote servers of the cloud. When compared to the traditional systems, where the data is stored on hard disk of your computer, the online POS system is much more secure, as it removes the threat of data loss due to system crashes.

Compatibility

When you choose a specific POS software, there is often an issue of compatibility with the hardware that you use. But the cloud-based POS system is accessed online, through the internet, and is compatible with almost every device that is internet-enabled. This means you can access the POS system from your laptop, tablet or desktops, and even some of the smartphone models. So as long as the device you use has an internet browser, you should be able to access the system.

Easy Access

The data in the cloud-based model is stored in remote servers, which enable easy access online, no matter where you are. This is a big advantage for business owners who are frequently travelling. With the online POS systems, you don’t have to be tied up to the store any more. You can access the details and monitor the transactions and even rectify any issues in real time, round the clock. This not only improves the quality of service you provide your customers, but also ensures that you don’t lose them due to technical flaws.

More options with POS online

The online point of sale model gives businesses the freedom to choose the hardware of their choice, as long as the devices are WI-Fi or internet enabled. Not only that, business owners can focus on other aspects of the company instead of worrying about security of the data in their systems. More than anything else, the cloud-based POS model is designed to remove the technical difficulties that bog down retail business owners on a day to day basis.

About the Author: Claire Coulson is an expert associated with Triquestra, offering powerful business management solutions to retailers. The company offers Infinity Cloud, an online POS system that can support complex business models and structures, and reduce costs too.

How to boost eCommerce sales with an editorial calendar

If you have an ecommerce website then you know that most of your traffic is going to come from two sources: paid search and SEO. The first option will obviously cost money, but the second option is more about putting in the work and optimizing your on-site content. One of the best ways to focus on SEO is to implement an editorial calendar for your blog. Learn how to get started below.

Set up the calendar

Your editorial calendar should be based on a few different areas. First off, the regular calendar is a good starting point. Look at holidays and other important dates for content ideas. Then, move on to specific times that are important for your business. If you sell seasonal items it’s obviously going to be important for you to make a big content push in the times when your customers are buying. Likewise, you need to figure out strategies for addressing the times when your sales could slow down. The goal of the calendar is to create content that will pull in customers throughout the year.

Optimize your keywords

The next step is to figure out the right keywords to use in your content. Use Google’s tool to find the best terms that have a high volume of searches. Depending on your niche, some keywords might be very competitive. You want to choose keywords that you have a chance at ranking for, so don’t focus on search volume alone. Consider how stiff the competition is and choose some of the lower volume keywords if necessary. If you do keyword research far in advance you might want to check back in before you publish to make sure everything is still relevant. A lot can change in a few months, and you don’t want to lose out on traffic because you forgot to check your work. The goal of keyword optimization is to find the keywords people are searching and picking out the ones you can rank for.

Get writing

The next step is fairly simple: Get writing! Once you’ve created the calendar and found relevant keywords the content creation is all that’s left. Don’t forget to make the content appealing so it isn’t just a wall of text. Once you’ve published some content you can see what does and doesn’t work and change your tactics accordingly. As you publish good content and it catches on in your niche, you’ll be surprised at how quickly you can start pulling in free traffic. You might even get good enough where people are asking you to post on their blogs, which means even more exposure!

These tips will help increase your ecommerce traffic by optimizing your blogging efforts.

About the Author: Carolyn is a guest author and expert on order management software that tracks Shopify inventory.

Why is Internet fax the perfect faxing solution for SMEs?

When running a small business it is important to be able to communicate with clients in every possible way to meet their needs, but one channel that is often overlooked is fax.

Many people believe that faxing is a thing of the past and believe that they can get by with just email and telephone. But did you know that the contents of any email can be intercepted multiple times en route to its final destination? It is read and stored by ISPs, servers, firewalls, virus checkers and unscrupulous ‘bots’ that harvest email data.

This is just one reason why secure Internet faxing is so beneficial to small businesses, as it ensures that the sensitive data being sent and received is done so securely and that it is not going to be read or intercepted along the way.

Here are the main reasons why Internet faxing is a better option to manual faxing or emailing:

1. Cloud Computing

By embracing cloud computing and using Software as a Service, small businesses can benefit from numerous efficiencies without the need to buy, build and maintain IT infrastructure to support the technology.

Internet faxing allows businesses to access and send its documents via the Internet instead of installing and managing new software. This saves businesses both time and money whilst giving them the ability to automate processes, reduce risk, increase competitiveness and improve performance.

2. Time Saving

Time is a precious commodity for any small business and when using an Internet fax service, it’s possible to reduce any unnecessary time spent at the fax machine. Through this system, a fax number will be assigned to your business. But rather than receive faxes through traditional means, you’ll receive them to your inbox, just as you would an email.

3. Cost Reduction

Most Internet fax services cost just a small monthly fee, dependent on how often the service is used, but some can charge per fax sent, which could be a better option for those who do not regularly send faxes. Monthly charges range from as low as $2-10 upwards.

Faxing the old-fashioned way costs money on a regular basis: line rental, paper, ink and sending fees. Not to mention the time consuming nature of physically sending documents, especially if multiple documents need to be sent to multiple locations. And time is a cost in itself.

4. Eco efficiency

Online faxing helps companies eliminate paper and streamline business processes. This solution allows them to save on paper because instead of faxes being printed out automatically, you have the ability to select which documents need to be preserved on actual paper.

5. Security

One of the major benefits of Internet Fax is the improved security this system offers. For example, some services give you the ability to restrict access to your faxes, track usage data, and protect your important documents from outside interference. A manual fax machine can never provide this level of service.

Unfortunately, many people have a preconceived perception of fax, which is based on memories of the 1980s. However, modern internet faxing is so hugely different from the previous version with more flexibility, accessibility than ever before, it must be tried to be believed.

About the Author: Written by Aleks Szymanski CEO, SecureCare Technologies, Inc. SecureCare has spent 10 years securely digitizing, processing and storing sensitive information to eliminate  manual processes and paper. Today it provides a ‘double encrypted’ HIPAA-compliant Internet fax for the healthcare sector named Sfax.

5 Tools To Get Things DONE!

It is so hard to get yourself to work when you just don’t feel like doing it. From handling a deadline to working out or just cleaning your house, when you are feeling lazy it can be a real chore to get yourself started. Of course, once you get going you will probably find yourself breezing through it, which makes procrastination so pointless. But that doesn’t make the initial spark of activity any easier.

For the many people who find this to be the case, there is some help. No, it isn’t a swift boot in the behind, or some stupid platitude about picking yourself up by the belt loops and getting yourself in gear.

Instead, you can use these much more effective motivation tools that will help you get yourself moving and doing whatever is currently on the agenda.

1. Motivation Images

Motivation Images

This is a fun little Android app from the maker of House MD Quotes and WiFi Scanner. The idea is simple: having a few motivational, humorous images will go a long way to push you into doing what needs to be done. They have both common and rare motivationals with cats, weird pictures, laugh out loud observations and more. You can like/dislike select, add some to your favorites or share them with others on social networking sites synced with the app. He has so far started with more than 1,350 images, so you should be OK for awhile, until an update comes. It’s not practical, but its fun. Sometimes that is all you need to put your mind in the right place.

2. 8Tracks

8Tracks

If you haven’t found this site before, you will be in love by the time you finish your first browse of it. This is a place where you can make, share and listen to playlists with full songs. But this is more than just “good tunes for a good mood”. If you do a search for ‘motivation” or “motivational”, you will end up with hundreds of playlists. Some of these are up beat or inspiring songs, or even spoken word speeches, lectures and quotes. If you want something to help you while you work out, you can search for that. Or music to help you study or work. They have an iPhone/iPod app, so you can take them with you. Or just play them in your browser while you go about your business. It is my personal favorite music site, and one I use every day. Quick Tip: It can be annoying to search the site when you are signed in. Make sure you have selected the ‘Search All Mixes’ link for a broad search, or go by keyword to search your liked playlists. To make it really easy, sign out and search, then sign in if you want to like a playlist.

3. RoutineTaps

RoutineTaps

This is an extremely helpful app that you will be sure to love. It works by letting you set up questions about your own patterns and behavior. For example, how much time you spend working, exercising, sleeping or anything else. You save them on your profile, then answer it frequently. It recommends once a day, which will give you the most accurate results. It only takes a few minutes, so this shouldn’t inconvenience you. From there, it will create a graph of information so you can see all of your data in one place. It’s free to use and very helpful. It is surpris

ing to see how much you really do (or don’t do).

4. Don’t Break The Chain

RoutineTaps

The idea is a simple one based off of a motivation technique used by Jerry Seinfeld. It works by marking off the days you keep up with a single goal. The calender turns red on all the days you do what you are supposed to. The point is to not break the chain that results. It is a great motivator, effective in that it both gives a visual representation of your success, and keeps you focused on a single goal.

5. LazyMeter

LazyMeter

One of the biggest mistakes people make is forcing themselves to use endless to-do lists that leave them feeling horribly overwhelmed. This program works by focusing on daily goals only, and so keeping it all in scale. Instead of putting a goal far off, you get to see your success every day. There is nothing more motivating than success. It even has a reminder system that is really great.

Conclusion

Getting up and moving can take a lot more effort than you might have to spare. Laziness can gather and leave you feeling like your mind and body have been dipped in concrete and left to dry. But with the tools above, you can break through the apathy and get yourself going. So make sure to try them out, and see how easy it is.

Jess is a productivity geek and business writer for Dobovo, the free online tool for business travelers!