The Hype Around Windows 7: What Does it Really Mean for My Small Business?

I have just returned from the Microsoft World Partner Conference in New Orleans.  It’s fair to say there is a lot of excitement brewing around Microsoft’s new desktop operating system, Windows 7 (it’s still in release candidate, you can’t actually buy the final product yet).  However, I’m pleased to say it isn’t just Microsoft blowing their own trumpet – much of the excitement stemmed from the Microsoft partners.  Most of these guys are the “geeks” that know their stuff, so if they are genuinely excited (and I remember them applauding a demo!) then maybe Windows 7 is the real deal.

So what does this mean for your average, non-geek, change-averse small business owner?  Why would I want to move to Windows 7, I hear you ask?  Well if you are a business that uses technology as a key driver for success, here are my top reasons you might want to adopt Windows 7 on its release:

• Great performance on existing hardware:  Traditionally, a new Microsoft Operating System has always meant a new computer, which resulted in a costly exercise for most small businesses wanting to adopt the latest and greatest.  The murmur from the tech-heads at the conference, though, is that Windows 7 will actually perform just as well as if not better than Windows Vista on most current hardware!  Windows 7 could give a new lease of life to your existing fleet of computers plus you benefit from all the new features.
• Setup is easier than ever:  Installing Windows 7 is simpler than ever.  Even joining it to your business network is very easy.  So easy that small business owners could probably do it themselves, saving money on IT implementation costs.  Or for those who would still rather their IT partner install Windows 7, the service fees should be relatively low, leaving you with more cash in your budget to spend on developing your technology systems to further enhance your business success.
• Organising & finding information is better:  Windows 7 introduces the concept of libraries.  This is a new, more intuitive way to group documents and folders that will save you and your staff time.  For example, I might be working on a project for a client which requires me to have several Powerpoint presentations that I have created and stored locally on my computer, several pricing spreadsheets which are located on a share on my company server, and several proposal documents located on a different share on the server.  Ordinarily I would spend lots of time simply navigating around folder structures to find these documents when I needed them.  With Windows 7, I can simply add them to a library that I might call “Client Project” so that next time I’m working on the project, I simply open the library and am presented with all the relevant documents, regardless of where they’re located.  Cool!
• Secure files and folders:  No matter what the IT guys tell us, we all still like to keep both work and personal documents on our local computers.  This creates a real security risk for notebook users if their notebook is lost or stolen:  sensitive work or personal data might end up in the wrong hands.  In Windows 7, you can easily right click a folder or document to encrypt its contents.  What many companies spend extra dollars on for third party tools can now be done by a novice within Windows 7.
• Easy projector setup:  How unprofessional does it look when someone comes to do a presentation but spends 20 mins trying to get the laptop and projector talking?  Windows 7 makes sure this doesn’t happen to your sales staff by having a new projector setup and troubleshooting function.  Spend more time presenting, not sweating!

If you consider your small business to be technology strategic then take a look at Windows 7 and how it can enable your staff to do their job better.  It really will be a superior platform going forward for integration of new collaboration and productivity tools combined with the trend towards in-the-cloud computing.

Clayton Moulynox – Evolve IT Australia
We fix business problems, not computer problems -  Develop, Solve, Evolve.
Follow me on Twitter: @claytonhm

Amateur Journalists May Not Recognize Ethics of Journalism

I came across this article today and felt it important to share.

When I graduated journalism school I took a code of ethics as a journalist and publicist.  However, the dynamic of journalism has changed greatly and more and more every people are becoming “amateur journalists” starting blogs, and becoming thought leaders amongst key audiences.

We all want to generate press but it should never be at the expense of your ethics.  This is an example of something that happened recently that all small businesses should be aware of.  A real journalist would never, ever make such a threat to you or your business.   This is how paola began in the media industry and has been quickly sqaushed by the FCC.  However, we are just on the tip of the iceberg when it comes to moderating the Internet and these “amateur journalists”.  If you find yourself in this situation, it’s best to walk away.  If the blogger does write something negative, than set the record straight on your blog, as this social media specialists did, to ensure customers know the truth about the situation.

My advice to bloggers is this: if you’re going to make yourself out to be a “journalist” and key thought leader, than you must understand the responsibility you wield and be held accountable to and abide by the same standard code of ethics the res of us have committed to.

To get free shoes, blogger blackmails company with threat of negative press

From Ragan Newsstand: “Someone tried to blackmail me at BlogHer,” George Smith Jr., the social media specialists for shoe brand Crocs, wrote on his blog. He’s referring to the BlogHer conference in Chicago last week, where thousands of female bloggers (and some men) gathered for the organization’s annual event. According to Smith, a blogger asked him for a free pair of Crocs; Smith declined, saying he had run out of freebies. The blogger replied: “Ya know, if you don’t give me shoes—I could totally write something bad about you on my blog … “It’s just a pair of shoes. It’s a lot easier to give them to me than deal with the negative press I could make.” What a crock! So far, Smith’s not even day old post has about 200 comments.

Jennifer Fortney, Cascade Communications and SmallBizPRMadeEasy.com

Follow me on Twitter @SmallBizPRXpert

Seven Tips for Avoiding Costly Payroll Problems

Guest Post By Michael Alter, President of SurePayroll

It’s no secret that small business owners are busy.  That’s why payroll and other administrative tasks, though important, are often done quickly or pushed off until the last minute in favor of more pressing items.

Although these tasks often end up on the bottom of a business owner’s to-do list, one misstep in payroll could end up costing you big with fines or even lawsuits.

Here are seven tips for keeping your payroll processing headache-free:

1. Obtain a Federal Identification Number (FEIN) from the IRS: All businesses with employees need a Federal Employer Identification Number (also known as a Federal Tax Identification Number) before making their first tax deposit so the IRS can correctly identify you tax account.  You can get an EIN quickly by going to the IRS Web site (irs.gov) and applying online or calling the toll-free number listed on the site.
2. Correctly Classify Employee and Contractors: Your tax liability can differ greatly depending on how you classify your employees.  Business owners are responsible for paying taxes on a regular basis when they hire an employee, but independent contractors are responsible for their own taxes.  Also, classifying your employees as exempt or non-exempt is important for avoiding wage and hour suits.  Exempt employees are not entitled to overtime pay, while non-exempt employees are.
3. Collect the Appropriate Forms from Employees: There are several forms employees must fill out.  An I9 verifying their legal eligibility to work in the United States and a W4 that identifies the amounts withheld from their paycheck are the two most important.  However, you will also have to find out if the employee qualifies for advanced earned income credits.  If they do, they will need to complete an Earned Income Credit Advanced Payment Certificate.
4. Become Familiar with IRS Publication 15, Circular E — Employer’s Tax Guide: While drudging through tax materials may not be anyone’s favorite activity, the Employer’s Tax Guide will help you get it right. The guide contains a set of instructions for how to withhold and pay the right amount of federal income, social security and Medicare taxes.  It also provides information on wages, other types of compensation and a calendar of tax filing dates.
5. Learn about Your State Taxes, Local Taxes and Requirements: Taxes and determining your requirements for state and local taxes can be one of the most complicated payroll taxes since they vary so much from state to state.  You can get the most up-to-date information by contacting the government agencies in your area.
6. Understand Your State Unemployment Insurance Rate: State Unemployment Insurance, or SUI, works with federal programs to give unemployed workers partial wage replacement.  As an employer, you need to pay SUI each pay period.  Your SUI rate varies based on the number of unemployment compensation claims you’ve had.  Your state will give you your SUI rate annually and when you receive a notice of a new SUI rate, you’ll need to update your payroll.
7. Log Employee Hours Appropriately: Failing to pay an employee for time worked, or for overtime worked, is one of the easiest ways to get into trouble.  Some payroll companies offer time clock integration that automatically integrates your time clock with your payroll to ensure employees are paid for the exact time they worked.  However, if you are logging hours manually, make sure you take extra care to get it right.

Keep these essential tips in mind, you won’t have to sweat potentially costly mistakes.  If you are too busy to manage your payroll, labor and compliance issues, turn to a third-party firm for support.  With penalties, lawsuits and employee loyalty on the line, there’s too much at stake to not do it right.

Recommended Reading for SMB

Just a collection of some valuable online stories that all small business owners should read.  I picked up this collection through Twitter.

Three Reasons Your Business Needs a Blog

Free Apps for Monitoring Your Brand on Social Media

Six Laws of Small Business Advertising

Twitter Tips for Small Business

Why Your Business Needs a Policy and Procedures Manual

Jennifer Fortney, C ascade Communications and SmallBizPRMadeEasy.com

Follow me on Twitter @SmallBizPRXpert

Top 10 Business Books That Have Influenced Me

1. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

2. Primal Leadership by Daniel Goleman

3. More Than a Motorcycle by Tich Teerlink and Lee Ozley

4. Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Ram Charan and Charles Burck

5. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t by Jim Collins

6. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencionni

7. Hiring Smart!: How to Predict Winners and Losers in the Incredibly Expensive People-Reading Game by Pierre Mornell

8. The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense at Work by Suzette Haden Elgin

9. Crucial Confrontations by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler

10. Small Giants by Bo Burlingham

Michael Shapiro, Dynamic Management Solutions, Inc.

Online Press Room: One Stop Shop for Media

Last week I talked about the importance of SEO not just for your website but also your press releases (and distributing them online).  I will reiterate why this is important – so that people, especially journalists, can find you online! Remember this one thing, which I want to re-enforce, and I’m sure that Chris Nastav, a contributor, will back me up here – People, even media, don’t know they’re looking for you until they find you!

This leads me to the next important element for your PR….your online press room.    If you don’t have one on your website, you need to create navigation for it today.   An online press room is an essential element for your website for many reasons, but mostly so that when media come to your site they can easily find your business’ latest news and contact information for an interview.  Your story isn’t going to necessarily just tell itself with the basic information on your website.   Unless you paint it on your homepage, media aren’t going to know that you’ve finalized a merger, introduced a new product and more!  Besides, the practice of having an online press room is becoming a mainstream practice and a necessity.

Here are some of the elements to include on your press room:

• All press releases – be sure to archive anything over six months old
• Photos – product shots, CEO/president, interior of retail stores, etc
• Company backgrounder
• CEO/president bio
• Video clips – you can easily make them on your own and post them.  It gives broadcast media a chance to see how you speak and get a feel for how you’d perform in an interview
• Product or company fact sheets
• Any media you’ve received
• Contact information – this is the person a journalist should contact about a query.  It should be someone who can, without a doubt, get back to the journalist in a very timely manner (you don’t want to miss any opportunity.  Finally, you’d be amazed at how many people fail to include contact information on press releases, let alone their online press room

An online press room reflects professionalism, credibility and more importantly an understanding and respect of how media work.  There isn’t one major corporation that doesn’t have an online press room in today’s Web-driven environment for news and sources.  I suggest looking at some of them to get a feel for how you want to design your press room and what you need to include as it relates to your business and meeting journalists’ needs.

This is just another way of achieving positive PR for your business because some media may go to the press room, get what they need, download approved graphics and photos and run a story or mention without even contacting you.   And this is why you need to take time each week to search your business online to see if there are any stories that have run, blog mentions or comments about your business on various boards, like Yelp.com.

Jennifer Fortney, Cascade Communications and SmallBizPRMadeEasy.com

Follow me on Twitter for daily SMB PR Tips @SmallBizPRXpert

Top 10 Reasons To Start Your Business In A Down Economy

1. Everything is cheaper – From raw materials to real estate, these are the lowest prices you’ll see.
2. You can hire more and better-qualified people – Obviously…
3. People are looking to change suppliers if they can find one offering a better product or service for a lower price.
4. Ownership equals tax incentives related to business deductions not available to individuals.
5. Family and friends don’t want to invest more money into the stock or real estate markets – they might find your offering more secure.
6. Suppliers are giving better credit.
7. You can get good PR by showing you are going against the trend – it’s a great story.
8. You can buy everything you need at auction.
9. You can find great “no money” down deals.
10. You’ve lost your job, and unemployment benefits are running out – why not go for that dream.

Michael Slapiro, Dynamic Management Solutions, Inc.

How the Internet Can Up Your Chances of Generating PR

The Internet has done great things for our lives.  Seriously, think about waking up tomorrow without it!  Not only has it allowed us the opportunity to find news and information, resources and more, it’s given little stores across the world the chance to have customers around the world.  We’re no longer tied to doing business in our local regions, but we have the opportunity to expand and grow our businesses in a way that’s never really been available before.

It is also giving small businesses the opportunity to attract the attention of media….that’s if they can find you.

This brings me to the key connection between SEO (search engine optimization) and generating public relations.  PR strategy has always focused on the “traditional” with press releases and press kits being sent directly to journalists, follow up calls and emails sent and a proactive approach to results.  Today, the Internet is giving journalists a new way to search and find small businesses, new products and companies, experts to use as story sources…but that’s only if they can find you.

Remember: When using the Internet to market your business, most people don’t know they’re looking for you and your business until they find you!

This is why SEO becomes a critical part of the marketing mix for your business, and to further your chances of generating positive PR for your business.  It’s not enough to have a great website, you also need to make sure that it is built specifically for search – meaning what would the average person search for, or what terms would they use to find you?  The same goes for how you write your press release and distribute it online.  Like anything else, if you utilize your key search terms in your press release, the odds improve that a journalist, or new potential partner or vendor, will find you.

Crafting your story for SEO:

• Write your press release
• Write out a list of all the key search terms someone might use to locate your business
• Cut this list down to the Top 10
• Now compare your press release to this list.  Where are these search terms?  Are they located in the headline, sub headline or lead paragraph?  Well, they should be.

This can become tricky though as the lead paragraph of your press release needs to be kept down to three-four to the point sentences.  I know…tricky.  If it seems impossible, then you might consider writing two kinds of press releases – one for media and one for search.  Then make sure all of this is also available in your online press room, which I’ll talk about next week.

This one thing, if done correctly, will open new doors for you on the web.  Whether it’s getting the attention of a journalist or finding a new partner in business offering a mutually beneficial relationship.  It’s definitely worth giving it a go and seeing what happens.  Use some the free release distribution sites, see what kind of return you get and then make changes in future releases.

However, the most important part of your press release, the point of it really, should never be overlooked.  It’s about your story….something really, truly newsworthy.  It’s not about writing a release every week and spamming it across social media networks and free distribution sites.  It’s better to send them out when you really have news or something to share every now and again than each week.  If the content is not valuable, after awhile, people will just ignore everything you distribute.  It’s called…..crying wolf and when you do have huge news to share no one will be there to listen.

Jennifer Fortney, Cascade Communications and SmallBizPRMadeEasy.com

Follow me on Twitter @SmallBizPRXpert or join our new group on LinkedIn My Source for Stories – where we connect small businesses with the media

Twitter and the Bottom Line for a Service Business

Hey folks, cynical Sam here. Still looking for a answer to a question that has yet to yield a simple answer.

Q. Can I use Twitter or any online social media to improve the bottom line of my “Local Service” business?

A. So far as I can discern, no one has positive proof that I can.

What is happening, is every social media consulting company in the world (and there’s thousands of them now) are blaring at the top of their lungs how you have to be using Twitter and all the other social media tools that are out there, otherwise you’re going to be left in the business dust. And not only should you be using those tools, but because it’s so insanely complicated, you should be paying them to help you use all these social networking tools.

Now this is fine, because there’s a lot of consultants out there who know what they they’re doing in these tools. But here’s the kicker, they are all touting sucesses for non-service based businesses.

Where are the positive ROI success stories and examples for: plumbers, doctors, HR consultants, lawyers, liquor store owners, chiropractors, Web developers, graphic artists, jewelry sales reps, life insurance reps, day spas, stained glass restorers, auto body repair shops, carpet cleaners, dog walkers, foundation repairers, driveway sealers, gutter cleaners and the thousands of other home based and small service businesses?

I propose that those success stories don’t exist because service based industries have yet to figure out how to monetize social networking to their benefit, AND may never come up with a way.

So my questions to the world are these….

Are you a LOCAL home based or small service business? If yes! Are you using social networking and has it increased your bottom line? How much time are you spending on it per week? How can other LOCAL service based businesses repeat your example?

Time is money, and if you’re Twittering, Linked-Ining(sp?), FaceBooking, MySpacing, Plaxoing and the dozens of other social networking tools out there. If you’re using these, please provide some positive local service based business examples of how this social networking explosion has helped your business. How did you do it?

Thanks,

Chris Nastav, KC Web Specialists, LLC. www.kcwebspecialists.com
Experts in how business gets done on the Internet (913) 908.5642

How to Know You Need a Better Way to Manage Customer Information

In my last post I discussed ways that small businesses can utilise technology solutions to enhance their customer experience.  One of those enhancements was around storing and tracking your customer information.  I see lots of small businesses using Excel spreadsheets or their basic accounting system, like MYOB or Quickbooks, as the main database for customer information.  Sometimes this works, but often it doesn’t.  Here are some signs that indicate you might need a better solution for managing customer information.

• You communicate with customers via many different methods:  Some businesses are simple and have only one touch with a client during a buying cycle.  Others have much longer sales cycles and require many touches with the client via different mediums such as the phone, direct mail and email.  If you are the latter, then a CRM system will really help in organising and tracking your communications to clients.
• You have more than a couple of sales people:  Once you have a small team of sales people, it becomes hard for them all to know what the others are doing or have already done.  There’s nothing more off-putting  for a customer than having a sales rep call them one day, only to have another sales rep from the same company call them the next day!  CRM helps manage customer accounts and sales tasks and allows the sales team to have visibility of activities in any particular customer account.
• The types of customers you have vary:  If all your customers are in the same vertical market and around the same size, it’s easier to manage them.  For businesses that deal with all sorts of different customers from mixed industries and different market segments, managing marketing and sales efforts is a whole different ball game.  A CRM system can easily manage the demographics of your customers allowing you to customise different marketing and sales strategies at targeted groups or similar businesses.
• Your customers are repeat buyers: This point really depends on what you sell.  If you sell widgets that last for 20 years and need no attention, then you probably don’t have too much trouble tracking what your customers buy.  But if you sell widgets that have lots of different options, that require ongoing servicing, or that are quickly superseded by newer widgets then your customers probably have many more transactions with you which become complex to track.  Using a CRM system can simplify this for you and, even more importantly, provide you with terrific sales data with regards to cross-sell and up-sell opportunities.  This in itself is often how I prove to a small business that the investment in a CRM system will pay for itself in a very short amount of time due to all the additional sales opportunities it can create.

So there’s some points to think about if you’re wondering whether a CRM system is right for you.  And a final word of advice:  Don’t rush in to purchasing a CRM system.  Trial several to see which fits your needs best and, I think most importantly, which integrates with your existing software tools.  You can buy the biggest and best CRM system out there, but if it doesn’t integrate well with your existing tools then your staff aren’t going to use it.  Most small businesses tend to use the Microsoft Office suite as one of their main productivity tools (Outlook, Word, Excel etc) so looking for a CRM that integrates with these, such as Microsoft CRM, would be a wise choice.

Clayton Moulynox – Evolve IT Australia
We fix business problems, not computer problems -  Develop, Solve, Evolve.
Follow me on Twitter: @claytonhm