5 Business Apps Guaranteed to Increase Your Productivity in 2016

The age of the paperless office is well and truly upon us. One need only pay a visit to a shared workspace like WeWork or The Office Group in London, to witness the army of entrepreneurs and small businesses busily working from hot desks. Their offices simply consisting of; a tablet, a Smartphone, a MacBook Air, white ear phones, and an array of chargers.

For these tech entrepreneurs, their offices are virtual, and provided they can access the Internet they can operate from pretty much anywhere. Amongst the key enablers is the growing ubiquity of Software as a Service (SaaS) or cloud based solutions, that facilitate access to data stored remotely freeing the user from the need to work in one physical location. The days of desktops overflowing with icons, files and folders are also well gone, with many screens reduced to 4 colourful icons representing; Dropbox, Firefox, Skype and Spotify. These 4 links with the world are all that is needed to operate effectively.

Google is often a first port of call for many of these same users, as many use the Google suite to manage mail, calendaring and to share documents. However, while we are all familiar with the flexibility the Google application brings, there are a number of other less well known solutions that are increasing in popularity. These tools are very different in terms of how they help businesses, but share common traits, as they all benefit their users by enhancing productivity and efficiency via SaaS based solutions.

What are these tools and how can they help your business?

1/ Klipboard – Organize Field Employees & Eradicate Paper

Klipboard is a mobile field service platform for the management of field based employees, and the capture of data from a tablet. It is suitable for undertaking assessments, maintenance records, inspections, surveys or just about any process you can imagine. Gone are the days of relying on paper based methods, instead, Klipboard simplifies data collection, task scheduling, location mapping and messaging. The easy to use, consumer style app, enables employees to capture text, images, signatures or view documents, plus more – even when offline. No more printing, filing or lost paper forms!

Where: Klipboard.io

2/ Docusign – Send, Sign and Approve Documents

Docusign enables parties to electronically sign documents replacing the need to print out documents, to sign them and then to either scan, fax or post them. Again the solution is a simple one, however the benefits are significant in terms of efficiency and productivity gains especially for those who need to obtain lots of signed documents.

Where: Docusign

3/ eFax – Easy Faxing Anywhere

For most of us the days of waiting impatiently by fax machines are well and truly behind us. However, there are numerous professions (including the legal one) where faxes are still used on a daily basis. While this will undoubtedly change in the years to come, faxes remain an important communication tool for certain documents. What has changed however, is the reliance on physical fax machines has evaporated, and efaxes are widely used as viable alternatives where the fax is transmitted directly to your phone or computer.

Where: eFax

4/ Scanner Pro – A Scanner in Your Pocket

Scanner Pro allows you to turn your iPhone or iPad into a portable scanner. The simple app enables you to capture an image which is converted to a PDF, which can then be emailed, printed, uploaded or faxed from the app. The use cases are varied, and with its extremely competitive pricing it serves to yet again replace scanners, a hardware device that was commonplace in most offices up until fairly recently.

Where: iOS, Readdle

5/ Xpenditure – Claim Back Your Time

Xpenditure is a leading expense management solution that works on a very simple premise. Employees simply take a photo of their receipt (using the app), submit it, and the software does the rest. It reads the key data including; the date, merchant, currency, amount and spend category. The net result is that the finance team have real time access to expenses, enabling them to have full visibility on company expenses, while also enabling them to review, to process and to reimburse employees in real time. The entire process is transformed, and the days of multiple steps, involving a range of different parties, and envelopes stuffed with receipts are consigned to history. (Disclosure: the author works with Xpenditure)

Where: iOS, Android

In summary, a number of factors have combined to enable employees to work efficiently while on the road. Hardware has become more powerful, with increased battery life and lighter models (especially for laptops) enabling workers to be truly mobile. Wifi has also become much more ubiquitous, enabling employees to connect to applications more easily (alternatively they can tether from their mobile devices).

Business software has also matured, and a whole range of applications have been created which replace older more paper based processes. What is most attractive about these developments, is that for the most part the cost of these applications is much more competitive than existing solutions without even factoring in the significant efficiency gains, improved security and reduction in errors that these solutions bring.

This article originally appeared here

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Shrewd Decisions To Manage Small Businesses Finances

As a small business owner, you must operate your company with limited resources. You have limits on your available cash, your equipment and limits on your staff’s time. If you don’t operate productively and manage your finances, your business may fail. Use these tips to reduce costs and to manage finances.

The benefits of cloud computing

Cloud computing allows you to store and manage data on remote servers. You can sharply reduce the need for paper files using this technology. By using remote servers, you can keep your data secure. You don’t have to worry about security breaches on servers in your office.

Businesses that use the cloud can operate more productively. Your staff can share documents, make changes and upload files by email. Cloud computing eliminates the need to fax or email documents.

Another great tool for productivity is an e signature for staffing companies. With an e signature solution, you can send a document and get a signature electronically. Once the document is signed, you can backup the document and send it over the cloud. This tool helps you turnaround paperwork quickly. Employee agreements and project contracts can be processed in less time.

Planning and monitoring your budget

Many entrepreneurs start selling their product or service without creating a budget. If you don’t take the time to plan your business operations, you may run short on cash or operate at a loss.

Think carefully about the costs you incur to make and deliver your product. Say, for example, that you manage a catering business. To serve your customers, you incur food costs, food preparation expenses and cost to deliver and serve the food. Invest the time to fully document the costs required to manage your business.

Using accounting software

Once you decide on a budget for your catering business, use accounting software to post all of your transactions. QuickBooks, for example, is an easy-to-use online accounting system. You can quickly learn how to post transactions and generate financial reports. A business owner can also input budget assumptions into QuickBooks.

At the end of each month, produce a set of financial reports, including a profit and loss statement for the month. Compare your budgeted sales and expenses to your actual results.

If actual costs are higher than you planned, think about making changes. Assume, for example, that your food costs were higher than budgeted. Consider ordering food from other vendors that can offer a lower price. Making these changes can help you keep your business on track.

Increasing productivity with mobile apps

Many business owners spend most of their time away from the office. The catering owner, for example, may be out marketing the business or meeting with clients. If you’re frequently out of the office, it’s important that you stay on top of your finances.

Consider using mobile apps to you manage your business. You can find apps to scan receipts and post them to your accounting records. You can also connect you mobile device to your cloud computing system. This technology lets you access and change any document without the need to be in the office.

Managing your small business can be time-consuming. Create a budget for your business and compare your budget to actual results. Use technology to keep your accounting records up to date. These strategies can help you grow your small business and generate a profit.

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Xceptional Execution – A Small Business Guide to Profitability

What if launching and leading an xceptional business was simpler than you’ve ever imagined? Not easier. Not less time consuming. Not less gut wrenching, but simpler. Guess what: It is.

What if I told you many successful entrepreneurs didn’t start with a compelling vision or indeed a workable business plan? Guess what: That’s true.

What if it was possible to dominate a market without any previous background in it? Well: It is.

Xceptional execution is about taking a relatively simple idea from brainstorm to breakout hit. Ground-breaking research conducted by Columbia University’s Amar Bhidé in 2000 titled “The Origin and Evolution of New Businesses” revealed that 88 percent of “breakthrough companies” were the result of xceptional execution of an ordinary idea, according to their owners. Only 12 percent were the result of new inventions.

In my latest book “DO! the pursuit of Xceptional Execution,” described by Tom Peters as the one he would love to have written; I interviewed nine CEO’s from some of the biggest break-through start-ups, e.g. Dwolla, Globant, Balsamiq, Blo Blo Dry Bars and Outfit 7. In it I delve into the DNA of the CEO’s of these start-ups, who I call the ‘Xceptionalists’, highlighting the thinking behind those who live and breathe the Xceptional Execution mind-set and approach to business and life.

So how does one achieve xceptional execution of an ordinary idea? And let’s not forget we are all in the ‘ordinary idea business.’

As highlighted in my research there are four pillars that underpin an xceptional execution culture.

Self awareness

Self Awareness – described by Stanford Business Advisory committee as the most important attribute a leader should develop; Xceptional leaders know who they are, their strengths and weaknesses, their dreams and their fears.

In a small business, the leader is the culture creator. Their presence either creates an empowering or disempowering working environment.

So the question that you the leader needs to ponder is – what are you projecting? And just to challenge you further – do you know?

Over the past 25 years as a consultant, one thing I know for sure – if I sought only the wisdom of the CEO or owner when assessing the prospects of a company, this would have been a grave error. In the majority of cases, the owner’s opinion was far removed from what I was getting from employees or the marketplace.

Numerous studies highlight the gaps between leaders’ perceptions of reality and insights on the ground: Some companies believe they are providing a good service, but customers don’t concur. A study by Avaya showed that 80 percent of companies believed they were providing a quality service, only 8 percent of customers agreed. The message is clear – take timeout to develop and understand yourself and also surround yourself with people who can assess your eyesight!

The critical ability to deliver the most powerful drug in business to both customer and employees – quality authentic Attention

The average attention span in 2012 was 8 seconds, which is down significantly from 2000 where it was 12 seconds, according to statistics published in the Associated Press. The average attention span of a goldfish is 9 seconds. Are you a goldfish because if you are – your business is suffering?

One of our Xceptionalists Tim Clark founder of Business Model You sums it up: “There’s a reason it’s called “paying” attention: it’s a substantial cost in terms of time and energy. But nothing fundamental has changed. Everyone is still amazed when you actually listen deeply to what they are saying, and respond to that rather than simply waiting them out so you can spew forth your own talking points.”

Are you paying attention? Have you detailed each contact point with the client, set standards for each and strive to exceed this every time.

The customer as a concept is dead so a focus on building friendships, not customer relationships will give you a better ROI. Customers leave unannounced – friends at worse tell you before they do.

The power of friendships helped Globant the Argentinian technology giant build their global business. When they committed to starting a company, their first exercise was to write down all their friends and contacts on a white board. Then, with a developed sales presentation and a $5000 start-up budget, they sat down with them in different parts of the world and ended up identifying many business opportunities. It was the start of an xceptional journey that has brought them from 4 owners to 3500 employees and a client list that feature Linkedin, Google, Electronic Arts etc.

Learning but not just as you know it!

Xceptional business people are lifelong sponges but not in the traditional way – they learn from everybody from the Janitor to the award winning thought leader. In their mind everybody is a potential teacher regardless of who they are.

Do!

And finally all Xceptionalists are Doer’s – they don’t just dream, they execute on their ideas. They learn, they pivot, they persevere and in the end find themselves at their chosen destination.

Very often they Do! even when knowledge stands in their way or so it appears! In my early days I worked as a feasibility consultant –charged with saying whether or not an idea had potential. Looking back I can recall easily finding enough reasons why many ideas shouldn’t get the green light.

And therein lays the challenge for owners/entrepreneurs who dare to dream – knowledge will always give you enough reasons not to act.

Regardless the true entrepreneur DOES!

Go on! Let’s DO! it.

Speaker Summit

On Feb 19^th we are holding the inaugural Speaker Summit for coaches/speakers/consultants in Croke Park, Dublin. Be inspired and informed by some of the best speakers in the world –for more info www.speakeracademy.ie

Also as a special offer to Small Business Can readers I am offering a signed copy of my book “DO! the pursuit of Xceptional Execution” delivered to your door for €12. (Just pay via Paypal to kevin@kevinkellyunlimited.com)

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If you are exporting to the UK ..

There is no rugby on the weekend of the 19th of February. That doesn’t mean we can’t go shoulder to shoulder with our exporting partners in Northern Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland.

Highlight
One of the highlights of the conference season is the annual British Irish Chamber of Commerce dinner and conference.Exporting or thinking of exporting?
If you are exporting, or thinking of exporting, this is the event to go to. Particularly with the upcoming Brexit referendum, which will bring its own challenges and opportunities.

The Conference
The structure of the conference is a mix of politics and business, discussing not just Irish and UK politics, the elections, Brexit and the EU, but also leadership, strategy and export.

Speakers
To give you a flavour of some of the contributors:

Tony Hanway of Virgin Media
Ann Heraty of CPL
Sarah O’Connor of Cool Beans
Barry Andrews of Goal
Tim Arnold of Hailo
Niamh Townsend of Dell
Conor O’Leary of Greencore
Ambassador Dominick Chilcott
Paul Drechsler of the Confederation of British Industry
John Fitzgerald of Trinity College
Ellvena Graham of ESB

Meet your potential clients
During the annual British Irish Chamber of Commerce conference there is an opportunity to meet your counter parts from Ireland and the UK. To accommodate these meetings, there will a separate meeting room where you can meet your potential buyers, speakers, experts, customers and partners. We will endeavour to facilitate those meetings.

Panel discussions with your peers
If you are not interested in the politics and if you want to talk to other small businesses from Ireland and UK on a collective basis, you can participate in a number of open panel discussions, where business people from Ireland and the UK share their business lessons and experiences. Topics that will be covered are culture, selling, social media, lessons from failure and lessons from success.

Book now

Tickets for the dinner and conference are € 195. Places are limited and you need to book before 25 January in order for us to try to arrange the meetings you want. We cannot guarantee that all meetings will happen on the day, but we will do our best to facilitate the introductions during and after the conference. Contact alison.cotter@britishirishchamber.com

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7 Inexpensive Benefits to Show Your Staff They’re Appreciated

Health insurance, retirement plans, and paid time off are some of the most common benefits employers provide to their staff – and with good reason. While a competitive salary can attract top candidates to your company, the key to retaining highly qualified staff is showing them how much they’re valued. Offering additional benefits to your employees not only shows them how much you care, but it motivates them to put their best foot forward on the daily basis. If you’re interested in extending a little appreciation to your staff, here are some lesser-known benefits that won’t break the bank:

Telecommute Opportunities

Every now and again it could prove beneficial to allow your staff to work from home. In this ever evolving digital world of business, connectivity is now easier than ever. Management tools such as Asure software makes it easier for you to manage employee time and collaborate on company projects. Offering telecommuting benefits lets employees know that you understand their need to care for their loved ones and that you trust them to get the job done from home.

Commuter Benefits

Transportation costs can bite a big hole in anyone’s budget. Whether your staff utilizes public transportation or drives themselves to work the cost of fair, parking, gas, and car maintenance is often strenuous. Setting aside a monthly stipend of let’s say $50-100 per employee can save them hundreds of dollars per year.

Tuition Assistance

In order for your company to grow you must continually invest in the growth and development of your staff. A great way to show them that you want them to achieve greatness is by offering to pay for a portion of their college education. Whether your company creates a scholarship fund and awards it to a recipient each year or you have enough funds in the budget to pay for a percentage of your employee’s education, they will be grateful.

Family Days

Want to show your employees that you care about them as individuals? Introducing a company family day is a great way to show it. Any time your staff can spend with their families and away from the desk is a perk. Take a day out of the year and plan something nice for your staff and their families to do (i.e. picnic, games, a nice luncheon). This is a great way to get to know more about your employees and to cultivate a more family oriented work environment.

Wellness Programs

Although health insurance covers the bulk of your employee’s health needs it can also be beneficial to offer wellness programs. There are so many options for you to choose from that can fit within your budget. From giving your staff discounts at local memberships to having meetings with popular weight loss programs your staff will love the idea that you’re keeping their health in mind.

Dress Down Days

Here’s a perk that won’t cost you a penny to implement in the office. Instead of always having your team dressed like they’re heading to a meeting, you could cut them some slack and allow them to dress down on occasion. Casual Fridays have always been a popular choice allowing your staff to dress down just before the weekend.

Flex Time

Do your employees really need to be in the office from 9 to 5 or can you vary their schedules a bit? Employees would appreciate having the opportunity to alter their schedules to fit their personal lives. Offering flex schedules such as 8-4 or 7-3 for employees who have been with the company for at least a year is a great way to vary the schedules and motivate them to stay with the company.

As an employer it is imperative to remember that your employees are your best asset. Keeping them happy doesn’t always have to mean large pay raises or tons of time off. In other words, you don’t have to break the bank to be a top employer like Google. Small benefits such as these described above can go a long way for motivation and longevity. Take the time to evaluate your company finances to see how you can do just a little bit more to show your team how much you value them.

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10 Things That Pull You Down From Getting More Business

There are businesses that do well. There are ones that hold the edge. There are businesses that lead the competition. And, there are the ones which struggle with getting more business.

The number of start-ups, small & medium enterprises & heavy investment enterprises has grown exponentially over the years. However, with all the problem-solving ideas, innovative concepts, well-researched products, and customized service projects businesses these days are finding roadblocks. Their stuff remains unsold due to lack of penetrating marketing strategies.

For small business owners or self-employed individuals, the business revolves around their passion with scanty knowledge about marketing their stuff. On many occasions, it has to with the lack of intent to engage in a planned promotion or having an effective marketing plan.

Peek into few factors that kill sales and obstruct organizations and businesses from acquiring new customers and getting more business.

1. Undefined goals

Setting the goal is the first step to turning the invisible into the visible. Businesses need to clearly define the reason for their existence. A big chunk of start-Ups & small businesses does not document a clear vision statement and goals.

Write the vision statement that will help you ascertain the goals, the mission, and act as a guide to the core activities of the business, and help in the formulation of policies and taking an ethical stand.

2. Insufficient research & awareness about the markets

The obstacle to discovery is not ignorance. It is the illusion of knowledge. Businesses think that they know swimming and get into the ocean. And then they get drowned. The strategy that may have worked for you formerly may not work today. The markets are changing- If I correct this phrase, the customers are changing. Nowadays customers have access to information and pricing strategies.

A customer has grown smarter and is well informed about purchase decisions. In such scenario, businesses have to constantly be engaged in market and customers and be smart in terms of pricing, features, services and over experience selling.

3. Not working out on products

Clinging to a product or a service that may look attractive, may be economic to manufacture and easy to distribute but has no practical value is practically unsalable. Start-Ups & businesses need to understand what the customer needs.

Check out the relevance of the concept for the target audience. Also, verify if the target audience is well defined and correct. If required, conduct a pilot run & take feedback. Iron out the deficiencies into usability, features, pricing, competitiveness & offers.

4. Lack of proper sales process

The Company that doesn’t have a proper sales process is surely going to get stuck sooner or later. Lack of documented sales process & written sales presentation, Non-existence of staff training procedures, Inability to generate quality leads, Inadequacy in sales follow-up processes or Using inappropriate promotional channels is enough to screw down your business.

Define the products/services.
Create a sales presentation citing features & advantages, competitive edge & stress on how the customer will advantage out of your offer.
Identify the Sales resistances and develop answers and explanations so that customer is forced to purchase the offering.
Develop a well-trained sales staff and create options to generate quality leads.
Install a mechanism to monitor sales pitches & follow up procedures. When a deal is done, make sure you retain the existing customers.
While planning a promotional strategy, use those that maximize the outreach in the budgeted costs.

5. Inability to generate funds

The chief job of a business owner is to generate funds for keeping the business alive, whether via sales or through funding, loans or from capital markets. The biggest reason why start-ups fail is because of inability to generate the necessary resources that help the business tide through the tough phases and become strong to acquire new customers.

Consider friends, family or bootstrapping. Develop options to raise capital from Angel investors. Crowd-funding from social circle comes handy in such circumstances. If you are looking at a little larger picture then you can get fund from the micro-loan organizations. It may take time, but losing heart is definitely not one of the ways. Keep calm and move ahead.

6. Inappropriate management of Customer Data

Not managing the customer’s data properly can get even the biggest of the companies in trouble. Keep your customers happy and other things will become easier.

So, it is highly necessary to record analyze and manage customer data. Customers’ preferences, likes & dislikes provide an insight into current & future trends. This will help a correction in strategy & improvise the purchasing experience. Good quality crm software can help manage customer interactions, recording feedback and improvising relationships.

7. Overlooking the need of your own people

It’s not you alone who has set up the business. There are people you need to take care of so that they take care of your valuable business. The way customers are important to you, the employees are as much your priority.

Understand your employees for better. Communicate with them often and value their opinions & suggestions. Create a dedicated team that strives to achieve the set goals.
Train them, provide them with necessary tools, motivate them and they will do their best, always.

8. Weak online promotion strategy

Being absent on the internet impacts heavily on the scalability of the business. Being present without any promotional activity adds no good.

Businesses & Start-Ups should promote their business online through the website, portals, blogs, & Social media sites. Keeping the customers engaged by developing mobile games, & mobile applications are some of the good ways to being visible to customers.

9. Improper inventory & logistics management

The inability to deliver when the customer demands is one of the easiest ways to kill the business. The marketing team may have made promises, but the delivery & logistics has got the responsibility to deliver in a timely manner.

An impeccable way to make a place in your customer’s heart is to deliver the product on the date you promised. It is always an emergency on the customer’s side and inventory management, shipping process needs to be one of the selling points.

10. Restricting to a Comfortable geography

The home territory has a capped potential for any business. Beyond this, the businesses must look for newer geographies and probably think about exploring a newer market. Lack of such a planning can be enough to keep the business as a small player and deny the chances to acquire customers.

Slowly and steady, a business need to penetrate in the other geographical areas but before doing that, they need to study the market carefully, plan the strategy and do a SWOT. It is good to move ahead with a proper planning.

It is not the failure of one or other strategy that would eventually decrease the number of customers and lead to the business failure but yes, not willing to invest resources and hard work would.

A good business will keep customers at the top and would define every strategy around them. This is the easiest way to reach the goal you set for the business.

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Worst Social Media Mistakes

With the world we live in today becoming so reliant on online outlets, businesses need to make the most of their presence on social media. However, always remember to be careful not to misrepresent your image while using those social platforms. Read on for some tips to avoid making the worst social media mistakes.

Many social media pages are built to engage with people and build a decent depiction of your company, product or name. While many have wildly successful media operations set up, others have failed for various reasons.

We’ve seen it time and time again.

Avoid that misconception by reading just how a blunder can influence your media pages, and the most common mistakes that you can avoid.

Top Social Media Mistakes you Shouldn’t Make

Too many words. Stick to your point. Followers aren’t reading your feed to spend five minutes scrolling down a post with too many commas.

Using words you don’t understand. DiGiorno’s mistakenly used a trending hashtag to their marketing advantage on Twitter in 2014 to promote their pizza. #WhyIStayed was trending in opposition to domestic violence, and DiGiorno’s got quite the reprimand from its misuse.

Not keeping a focus. Just as your word count should be limited, be sure to keep the concentration on your topic.

Over-posting. Once you find your rhythm of posting, stick to it, if it is working well with your audience. Over-doing the frequency of updates could negatively impact your strategy.

Being a ‘Debby Downer’. Positivity spread from your social media manager is essential to the continued support of your company, and just good customer service.

A shortage of media. Balance the ratio between images, video content and plain text. You need to keep people engaged while reading your feed, but not overwhelmed with too much text.

Bringing in politics. If it doesn’t support the nature of your company, or bring guaranteed positive responses from your followers, then it isn’t worth the risk.

Not engaging in conversations. You’re on social media for a purpose. How can that purpose be achieved without maximizing opportunities to use your expertise? Communicate with the people in your network.

Pay attention to the responses from the users you are trying to engage with and use them to restructure your strategy, if needed. They will be your best source in the changing market.

Deleting comments that are inconvenient. If the comments are inappropriate or hinder your strategy or image as a company, by all means you withhold the right to remove them.

If the comments are not rightfully lewd, and the operator of the media page just doesn’t want to deal with the ‘hassle’ of handling the situation, then you have a problem.

Your presence on social media is contingent on responses you give to your followers, or any commentor. Don’t let an honest answer hurt your name; let your honesty speak for your reliability and morality.

Posting controversial topics. Why bother? Everyone is a heckler on social media. It’s unavoidable, but it is somewhat controllable.

Any hot topic is likely to get publicity over media, but if it is irrelevant to your intention and purpose of being on social media then avoid it. We all know what happened with Adam Goodes; why contribute where it may not be needed?

Lack of context. It doesn’t matter what you say if the context of what you’re saying isn’t connected in an appropriate way. Context is key. Isn’t it?

Lack of content. Amnesty International Australia used Tinder to launch a campaign to raise awareness for women in forced marriages. As a sensitive topic, presenting their ideas without an effective strategy in place would be useless.

In the case of Amnesty International, thousands of people clicked the link provided; their mission was successful due to the compelling content successfully integrated in their advertisement.

Not staying informed. With technology changing just as fast as world events happening, this is essential to executing a successful social media strategy.

Just as Nike had to revoke a t-shirt design after its significance shifted. The t-shirt started as a competitive baseball rivalry between New York and Boston, and quickly changed to an image that misrepresented the horrific scene in Boston in April 2013.

Nike had to react quickly. Once the directive dialogue over social media began, they immediately removed all t-shirts from their shelves.

No filters. We’re not talking about Instagram filters here but with regard to a chain of command.

Bloomingdale’s recent ad sparked major controversy and is now being referred to as a “date rape ad”.

How could such an inappropriate ad, which completely misconveys an acceptable public opinion on rape culture, pass through several stages of approval?

Dozens of people had to have seen this advertisement before it was released; Bloomingdale’s is no small business. Once it was published, the backlash began.

You can avoid this by refining your editing process: checks and balances.

Generating automated responses. This can backfire, and backfire quickly. In addition to installing checkpoints for potential media content, ensure that if you are using an automated response system always be aware of what is posted.

Forgetting to filter the extra noise. Stick to your strategy and your purpose of using social media services and get rid of the distractions. This will help with your time management in addition to increasing efficiency.

Rid your news feed and/or Twitter feed of pointless conversations. Fill those spaces with constructive outlets that will be beneficial to you, and will make your sites easier to manage.

Final Thoughts

Some mistakes are excusable, while others take a lot of time and money to fix. Take caution in what you post and remember to use the resources easily available to you. Including getting a second opinion on content, and making sure you stay caught up with current events.

Overall, social media services should hold the capability of making you more successful if used properly. Take advantage of the opportunities it provides and don’t waste time making mindless errors that are avoidable.

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Madness at the Ulster Bank #hackmakethebank hackathon

Was just part of a meeting preparing for the upcoming Ulster Bank hackathon in the Dogpatchlab in CHQ on 29-31 January.

On the programme, apart from hacking is Techball, lessons in Irish dancing, food, drink and massages.

For good measure, participants can win Spheros. Yep, the robot that is the basis of BB-8 in Star Wars

I am concerned! If you want to be part of this madness, you need to be fast, tickets are quickly running out. Book your place here

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How to Choose a Web Host for Small Businesses

A web hosting service is a kind of internet hosting service that will allow an organization or any business to make their website accessible with the help of the World Wide Web. This kind of service is very essential for any business as it ensures that the website is visible to the consumers. It also makes it easy for the business to update their websites as and when needed.

A good web host provider will provide many useful features to the businesses that want online exposure. For any organization that wants to go digital it is very essential to get hold of a top web host service provider.

Be aware of your web hosting needs:

One should be aware of the hosting needs before choosing the right web host provider. You should be aware of the kind of website you are building, whether the website needs special version of any software and if any windows application is needed. Also you should keep in mind about your requirement regarding Windows applications and the web traffic volume.

Support uptime record:

You should pick up a web host providers that operates 24×7. It should be able to operate on a powerful server having stable network connections. The recommended uptime score is 99.5% and you should not go beyond anything below 99%.

Ability to add-on multiple domains

Nowadays, domain names are very cheap and most of the masters in web have more than one domain name. Extra hosting space is very much required to add these domains. Go for a provider that allows adding multiple domains. Generally most of the web host providers allow you to add 25 domain names in one account. This is one of the most important factors that you should check while choosing a particular web service provider.

Go for a provider having good refund policy

One can cancel their account after the trial period is over in a particular web host service provider. You should go for those providers who have a good refund policy and do not charge a huge amount as cancellation fees. It is very important for you to know that the web host provider handles customer refunds so as to avoid a huge loss.

Features of ecommerce portals

If you business involves an ecommerce portal, you should go for web service providers that have enough features to support your ecommerce portals. Most of the people need to process any kind of business transactions or use any specific shopping cart software. Go for those web service providers that have features like dedicated IP, SSL certification or one-click shopping software features.

Checking the renewal prices

Any kind of hosting deals involves cheap sign up prices but the renewal proves are generally higher. Unless you are willing to switch the web host service providers every after two or three years, the charge is pretty high on renewals. So before selecting any particular web hosting service you must check the renewal price of that provider.

Apart from the following considerations, Hosting Facts also recommends considering other factors. Such factors might include the environment friendliness of web service providers, whether it provides 24×7 live chat support and easy going hosting control panel. A proper web hoist service provider is very important for any organization to get the right kind of exposure in the World Wide Web.

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Monthly Archives: January 2016