SMBs

Office 365 Aimed at Small to Medium-Sized Businesses, According to Microsoft

Leave a Comment

Microsoft Office 365For the launch of Office 365, Microsoft is paying special attention to how the new service could potentially help small to medium-sized businesses. According to Microsoft Corporate Vice President within the Microsoft Office Division Product Management Group Kirk Koenigsbauer, “While we launched Office 365 for all customers, we wanted to focus today on the small and mid-sized opportunities.”

During the New York City unveiling event, CEO Steve Ballmer did some name dropping of large companies already using Microsoft cloud services. These names included the likes of DuPont, Hyatt, Starbucks and Volvo. However, Microsoft’s overall marketing emphasis was centered on making Office 365 as appealing as possible to small to medium-sized businesses, the likes of which spend nearly $800 billion every year on IT products.

This market is fragmented in terms of what Microsoft products are being used. Some businesses may be using older versions of Exchange or Microsoft Office, or they may just be using a collaboration of multiple products. What is worse is that a lot of organizations have small, if not non-existent, IT departments.

According to Koenigsbauer, “Cloud services are a great value proposition for SMBs. They have very small IT staffs. They don’t have the infrastructure. They don’t have the capital to buy new racks of servers.” Over 70% of Office 365 beta users were SMBs, according to Ballmer. Ballmer also listed other potential users, including real estate agents, accountants, lawyers, cleaning services and auto dealerships.

According to Ballmer, “Office 365 can be exciting particularly for companies that have little or no IT support and very little time and financial resources to dedicate to technology. Office 365 … is a big step forward. These businesses really will be able to let their employees share information in new ways.”

Source: Network World – Microsoft aims Office 365 at small businesses

Put your eye on the problem with Camera Security Now, installing security cameras since 1999. We install in the US and we can help you do it yourself.

Call us toll free 877-422-1907 between 8am EST and 5pm PST M-F. Talk to an expert about your serious security camera needs.

3 Trends Currently Driving New SMBs

Leave a Comment

3 Trends Currently Driving New SMBs

Let’s face it, the American economy is still far from perfect. Even so, people are still starting small- and medium-sized businesses and some of those businesses are still thriving. Why? Simply because there are some business trends that are hot right now, even in this economy. The reasons vary, so let’s take a look at a few of them.

1. Going Green. Going green is big business right now. Many companies now include some kind of environmentally friendly incentives in their sales pitch for their products and services. What can this be attributed to? Government incentives are one reason companies are clamoring to be green. From automakers to the electric industry companies are receiving millions of stimulus dollars that revolve around creating and using renewable energy. Also, people are now understanding the importance of clean energy. Overall, the public sentiment about saving the environment has changed over the last decade or so.

2. Senior Citizens. Our population is getting older. Baby boomers are becoming senior citizens. Right now there are over 37 million seniors and in twenty years they’ll make up 20% of the United States population. They’ll also be looking to spend over $1 trillion. If that’s not incentive enough to get into the business of seniors, I don’t know what is. From anti-aging cosmetics and senior dating services to nursing homes and technical assistance if you’re thinking of starting a business, you may want to turn to your elders for guidance. As a matter of fact, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics says aging-services – home health care, elderly and disabled services, and community care facilities – make up three of the top ten fastest growing businesses.

3. Buying Local. There’s a desire to buy locally grown and made products sweeping the nation. That means more mom-and-pop stores. Farmers’ markets seem to be at the heart of this movement; there are currently about 5,000 across the United States and over the past five years that number has been growing at a 5% rate. Almost 60% of consumers say they try to shop locally. National chain stores like Wal-mart have tried to gain more business by adding “locally grown” sections to their grocery departments. The USDA has launched a program called “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food,” which encourages people to buy locally, and several cities, such as Orlando, Florida have been starting “buy local” campaigns.

Looking for a GeoVison Security Camera System to help secure your small or medium business? Call www.CameraSecurityNow.com today at 877-422-1907 for a free phone consultation. Ask about the new Hybrid DVR/NVR surveillance solutions.

Help for Florida SMBs Affected by Oil Spill

Leave a Comment

Help for Florida SMBs Affected by Oil SpillOn April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded, killing eleven workers and injuring several others. It also caused a sea-floor oil gusher, which has caused a massive oil spill. The spill, which has been called the largest offshore spill in United States history, resulted in hundreds of millions of gallons of oil polluting the Gulf of Mexico. Several governors of states along the Gulf Coast declared a state of emergency, as did the federal government. Marine life and wildlife habitats have been harmed, as have many small businesses.

Fishing was banned in about one-third of the Gulf by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and people canceled their vacations. BP gave the state of Florida $25 million to help promote their beaches, which were said to be unaffected by the oil spill. Hotels offered discounts and free deals and packages. Even so, a University of Central Florida economist called the spill, “the worst disaster in the history of Florida tourism.” It is estimated that Florida’s Paradise Coast could lose $3 billion in revenue this year.

However, the United States Small Business Administration has announced that it will be helping several of Florida’s small businesses. The SBA is offering loans and loan defermention options to fishing-related businesses who were shut down due to the oil spill. Hope is that the loans and deferments will provide temporary assistance to “overcome the loss of revenue” they have experienced this spring and summer.

Many Florida counties are included: Bay, Citrus, Collier, Dixie, Escambia, Franklin, Gulf, Hernando, Hillsborough, Jefferson, Lee, Levy, Manatee, Monroe, Okaloosa, Pasco, Pinellas, Santa Rosa, Sarasota, Taylor and Walton. The adjacent counties of Alachua, Broward, Calhoun, Charlotte, Desoto, Gilchrist, Glades, Hardee, Hendry, Holmes, Jackson, Lafayette, Leon, Liberty, Madison, Marion, Miami-Dade, Polk, Sumter, Wakulla, and Washington. Some Alabama and Georgia counties are included, as well.

The program will offer working capital loans for up to $2 million at 3% interest for non-profit organizations and 4% for businesses with terms up to 30 years. Loans can be used to make payroll, pay debts, accounts payable, and other bills that have been impacted by the oil spill. The SBA is also encouraging small businesses to file claims with BP.

Fishing, shrimping, crabbing, and oyster fishing who fish in the waters that have been shut down are among the main businesses being targeted. Other small businesses that are dependent on shrimp, crabs, and oysters are included, too. Also, businesses who supply fishing gear and fuel, docks, boatyards, processors, wholesalers, shippers, retailers, and other businesses that rely on recreational and sports fishing can get involved.

If you’re a small business in any of the Florida counties mentioned above and you think you may qualify for assistance, contact the SBA’s Customer Service Center at 800-659-2955. The deadline to return applications is February 14, 2011.

Check out these related stories:
1. Florida Computer Rentals
2. Independent Oil Producer Leader Says Senate Vote Sends Signal To Political Opportunists

Looking for a GeoVison Security Camera System to help secure your small or medium business? Call www.CameraSecurityNow.com today at 877-422-1907 for a free phone consultation. Ask about the new Hybrid DVR/NVR surveillance solutions.

7 Meeting Basics

Leave a Comment

7 Meeting Basics

Every SMB has meetings, whether they include five or fifty employees, are held weekly or monthly. But does every SMB know how to plan a meeting so that they are effective? if you follow these ten simple tips, your meetings will most definitely improve!

1. Don’t hold unnecessary meetings. If you hold meetings all the time, for every little thing, you’ll take time away from other tasks your employees need to complete.

2. Make your objectives clear. Again, don’t hold meetings just to hold meetings. If you want to discuss new sales goals, hold a meeting and let attendees know what the meeting will be about so everyone can attend with the proper expectations.

3. If your meeting requires discussion of sensitive information, you’ll want to invite a neutral party.

4. Inform your employees ahead of time. Let them know when and where the meeting will take place and what they’ll need to bring. Understandably, the occasional last minute meeting comes about, but for the most part, preparedness is important.

5. Keep meetings on time. Being them on time, end them on time. It’s that simple.

6. Have someone take notes about what happens at each meeting and keep that information archived. Document any decisions that were made or assignments that were given. You never know when you’ll need to refer back to it.

7. Reflect on your last meeting and look for ways to improve your meetings or ask your employees what they would suggest.

Looking for a GeoVison Security Camera System to help secure your small or medium business? Call www.CameraSecurityNow.com today at 877-422-1907 for a free phone consultation. Ask about the new Hybrid DVR/NVR surveillance solutions.

Keep Your Meetings on Time

Leave a Comment

Keep Your Meetings on Time

Let’s face it, meetings aren’t exactly everyone’s favorite activity, and a meeting that runs long leaves everyone tired and dragging and behind on the rest of the day’s goals. And a meeting that starts late can be just as bad. But if you’re planning a meeting for your employees, there are steps you can take to ensure your meeting starts on time and finishes on time.

The first thing you must do is let your employees know you will not tolerate tardiness. Teachers and schools reward and punish students who are always on time or never on time and in a way, you, as the boss, manager, or meeting planner are much like a teacher. If you want to change your attendees’ behavior, you must change your own behavior. If someone is more than five minutes late to a meeting, let them know that this will not be tolerated unless circumstances are extreme. When everyone is on time, reward them. You’ll set the standard for proper behavior and let everyone know you are taking these meetings seriously.

But before you can punish or reward your employees, you have to make sure they know when your meeting will begin and they are expected to be on time. When you first announce your meeting, make sure you clearly state the time when your meeting will begin; make sure you you state that meetings will begin exactly at this time and that attendees should not be late. You can also send out a reminder, usually via email, about half an hour before the meeting begins.

Next you’ll want to follow through with your plan. If your meeting is to begin at 10:00 AM, begin it exactly at 10:00 AM, not 10:15 and not when everyone’s finally arrived. That means you must be on time, too. If you’ve made a big deal about being on time to your employees, you’ll be awfully embarrassed if everyone’s sitting there, waiting, when you’re ten minutes late. As a matter of fact, it’s probably best to be at least 10-15 minutes early, and it’s probably best to go over your agenda, make sure you know your material and what you need to cover.

So, if you’ve done all this and you still don’t have everyone attending on time, then it’s time to let your employees know you mean business. Close the door to the meeting room and put a note on the door that says the meeting was supposed to start at 10:00 AM. Latecomers will most likely be worried about the consequences and try harder in the future. Finally, if you do begin a meeting later than you intended, make sure you end it on time anyway. Chances are, your employees do have other tasks to accomplish and it’s wrong to punish those who were on time for your own faults.

Looking for a GeoVison Security Camera System to help secure your small or medium business? Call www.CameraSecurityNow.com today at 877-422-1907 for a free phone consultation. Ask about the new Hybrid DVR/NVR surveillance solutions.

Carbonite Launches Carbonite Pro for SMBs

Leave a Comment

Carbonite has launched an online data backup service, aimed specifically at small and medium businesses. Carbonite Pro allows your SMB to back up-data automatically but without the per-PC fees other businesses charge. It’s compatible with external hard drives, priority support, and according to the company, “any office manager” can use the administrative tools.

The dashboard at the heart of Carbonite Pro makes system management super easy. There, you can see important information, including the back-up status of every computer in your office, how much data is backed up and which computers are not backed up. It’s also easy to install. An automatic invitation feature allows you to invite which users you want to join and they can click through email instructions to install. You can choose to back-up your files automatically or manually. If you do find yourself in a situation that causes lost or damage files, the Restore Wizard will guide you, step-by-step through the recovery process. And you won’t lose time as you do it because your computer is still usable in the meantime.

Add as many computers as you want or need to your account. You’ll receive access to unlimited phone, email, and chat tech support. Also, the program will not slow down your computer or internet connection.

You don’t have to be a security or encryption expert to use it either. Just like online banking, Carbonite encrypts your files before they are copied to their servers and transmitted over encrypted lines. This means that while being stored at the company’s data centers, no one can view them. Using an online server is much safer than using external hard drives or tapes because there are no gaps that leave your data vulnerable, it can’t be damaged or lost, and you can’t lose data due to human error.

Carbonite is currently offering a free one-month trial at their website, http://www.carbonitepro.com/. Simply sign up for a free account and start inviting your employees. If you like it, enter your payment information and your service will continue, without interruption, with monthly billing. How much you pay will depend simply on how many GB of storage you need, ranging from $10 a month for up to 20 GB to $250 a month for 300-499 GB of data.

Looking for a GeoVison Security Camera System to help secure your small or medium business? Call www.CameraSecurityNow.com today at 877-422-1907 for a free phone consultation. Ask about the new Hybrid DVR/NVR surveillance solutions.

McAfee’s New Products for SMBs

Leave a Comment

McAfee's New Products for SMBs

For the first time, McAfee has announced that it will be marketing new services for SMBs. McAfee Seurity Quickstart Services will deliver “full life cycle support from implementation assistance, to user training and ongoing maintenance, to optimization of security management best practices.”

Darrell Rodenbaugh, senior vice president of global midmarket for McAfee said in a statement, “This is the first time we have offered a broad array of services like this in the SMB space. They are designed to overcome the challenges faced by SMB organizations, at an SMB price, and also will allow them to get up and running fast.”

The online training package includes one year of unlimited access to the McAfee video training library. SMB’s can use it for training their IT people or departments or to just learn about various products and methods available for securing their business. Rodenbaugh said the library is very “rich” and will help businesses get up and running quickly. He said the company wanted to target SMBs who may not have full-time security specialists on staff.

McAfee Security Quickstart HealthCheck is designed to assess the security of the SMB with the simple click of a button. It interprets policy settings and compares them to a selected baseline, providing metrics based on at-risk settings. With it, SMB owners can upload security policies and find out just how secure they really are and where they might need to make changes.

The McAfee Security Quickstart Experts-On-Demand includes sessions with the company’s remote expert consultants with enterprise level expertise and can be recorded for future playback use. Through the sessions, SMB owners will learn to implement, optimize, and configure security solutions including the McAfee Security Quickstart Pack for Endpoint Protection, the McAfee Security Quickstart Pack for Total Protection for Secure Business and the McAfee Security Quickstart Combo Pack for total wellness of ePolicy Orchestrator.

Rodenbaugh said McAfee has the best products on the market, “But if our products aren’t installed and managed well, customers can’t take advantage of them.” The products are available in the United States and Canada and prices range from $700 to $5995 annually. They can be purchased only through the channel, but cannot be rebranded at this time. Rodenbaugh hopes that will change in the future.

Looking for a GeoVison Security Camera System to help secure your small or medium business? Call www.CameraSecurityNow.com today at 877-422-1907 for a free phone consultation. Ask about the new Hybrid DVR/NVR surveillance solutions.

"Buy Local" Campaigns Help SMBs Through Holidays

Leave a Comment

Buy Local Campaigns Help SMBs Through Holidays

As numbers and analysis of the 2009 holiday retail season are pouring in, there is a glimmer of hope for small and independent, locally-owned businesses. According to a survey of over 1,800 businesses, they saw an increase in holiday shoppers this year. While the United States Department of Commerce says overall retail sales were down 0.3% during December, 2009, the survey found that independent retailers’ sales were up an average of 2.2%.

So what helped these independent retailers? According to the survey, it was in part, cities with active “buy Local/Buy Independent” campaigns. Simply put, the cities with such campaigns enjoyed higher sales than those without. As a matter of fact, independent retailers in these 100 cities and towns with active campaigns actually saw a 3.0% increase.

Almost 80% of the businesses surveyed said they believed public awareness of buying locally had increased over the last year, while 16% said it stayed the same. Many business owners, including a shoe store owner in Michigan, a retailer in Maine, and a bookstore owner in Oregon, attribute everything from their ability to stay in business to through the recession to their growth in sales to the campaigns. One even said they had customers look up an item online or in a chain store and come back to their stores to make the purchase.

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance conducted the survey in partnership with a number of business organizations, including the American Booksellers Association, American Independent Business Alliance, American Specialty Toy Retailers Association, Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, and National Bicycle Dealers Association.. The Institute for Local Self-Reliance is a non-profit, research organization. Surveys conducted about the 2007 and 2008 holiday shopping seasons found similar results.

“This survey adds to the growing body of evidence that people are increasingly bypassing big business in favor of local entrepreneurs. Amid the worst downturn in more than 60 years, independent businesses are managing to succeed by emphasizing their community roots and local ownership,” said Stacy Mitchell, a senior researcher with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance told the American Independent Business Alliance.

Looking for a GeoVison Security Camera System to help secure your small or medium business? Call www.CameraSecurityNow.com today at 877-422-1907 for a free phone consultation. Ask about the new Hybrid DVR/NVR surveillance solutions.

Super Bowl Means Big Business for SMBs

Leave a Comment

Super Bowl Means Big Business for SMBs

When you think of the Super Bowl and business, you probably think of large, well-known companies who sponsor and vie for commercial time during the game. But in recent years, the NFL has been reaching out to SMBs, particularly those owned by women and minorities, and incorporating them into the bidding process for the big game.

The Emerging Business Program, which is coordinated by the host city’s organizers, helps SMB leaders win contracts for the Super Bowl, by providing them with information about the process and opportunities. According to their website, the goals of the program are to:

• Maximize and inform minority- and woman-owned businesses of available business opportunities surrounding the Super Bowl
• Encourage the pursuit of on-going business opportunities within the local community and to further empower vendors in the pursuit of future large scale events
• Provide access to industry leaders for the purposes of business development, education, training, and dialogue
• Provide business development programming that best reflects the needs of the local business community.

The program is win-win for both the NFL and SMB owners. It provides big, experienced contractors who work with the NFL the chance to meet their business needs by utilizing smaller businesses. The NFL puts together a database of SMBs based on information provided by civic groups, government agencies, and the host city’s Super Bowl committee and turns it into a “Business Resource Guide” for the larger contractors, sponsors and other Super Bowl-related groups. And it gives the SMBs an opportunity to make a name for themselves and grow their business like never before.

Tico Casamayor, the president of AC Graphics in Hialeah, Florida, told CNN he landed a contract to print media guides for 2007’s game, “The printing that I do for the game I don’t make much money on. You’re not going to become rich through the contract, but the fact that I do work for the Super Bowl has made it that much easier to get work with others.”

So, how can you get your business involved? Well, you have to act early. The application is generally available online up ten months before the actual game. This year, for the Super Bowl that will take place in South Florida on February 7, the application was available in March 2009 and contracts were being awarded in as early as April 2009. For more information, visit
South Florida Super Bowl.

Looking for a GeoVison Security Camera System to help secure your small or medium business? Call www.CameraSecurityNow.com today at 877-422-1907 for a free phone consultation. Ask about the new Hybrid DVR/NVR surveillance solutions.