Small Business Technology

pI've been online for a LONG time, like when Prodgy was hot and AOL was cool..../p pI remember when Internet Service providers and web hosts started offering "shopping carts" enabling us to sell online and it was like really neat to start selling online. Many of these providers have been bought out or are out of business./p pHowever, there's lots of new companies emerging (like a href="http://www.merchantcircle.com"Merchant Circle/a and a href="http://www.3dcart.com"3dCart/a) and older ones, like a href="http://www.netsol.com"Network Solutions/a, a href="http://www.godaddy.com"GoDaddy.com/a and a href="http://www.register.com"Register.com/a are still around and doing well./p pOne of the things that EVERY business must consider for their online sales is mobile sales. Your current web site is NOT optimized for mobile browser purchasing. This means that when customers want to buy from you from their smartphones (or other tiny screen devices) they are getting a pretty annoyed experience./p pIf you want to BOOST your online sales revenue, you've got to ready your web site to sell to mobile customers. If your e-commerce / web host can't help, consider switching./p pE-commerce provider 3dcart writes, the internet leaders like Amazon, Bestbuy, Walmart, Target and others have been exploring into the mobile arena for quite awhile now, and small online businesses might be losing out on this opportunity. Existing websites do not perform well on mobile devices, many elements cannot be displayed, sites get distorted and the variety of browsers and screen resolutions that exists between blackberries, androids, iphones and ipads, make imperative the need to optimize your site for mobile devices and avoid causing frustration to visitors./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/FP9p6jKsUlKNvra4q7ZSNdWkTDM/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/FP9p6jKsUlKNvra4q7ZSNdWkTDM/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/FP9p6jKsUlKNvra4q7ZSNdWkTDM/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/FP9p6jKsUlKNvra4q7ZSNdWkTDM/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=RS3GyQdwkLM:xTOBKc7QfbU:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=RS3GyQdwkLM:xTOBKc7QfbU:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=RS3GyQdwkLM:xTOBKc7QfbU:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=RS3GyQdwkLM:xTOBKc7QfbU:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=RS3GyQdwkLM:xTOBKc7QfbU:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=RS3GyQdwkLM:xTOBKc7QfbU:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight/~4/RS3GyQdwkLM" height="1" width="1"/

ul liVerticalResponse Online Community Unveiled: Helping Small Businesses Grow Email Marketing Lists/li liSage Payment Boss Helps Small Businesses Get Paid Anytime, Anywhere/li liFree Shipping a Must for Small Business Online Purchases/li liIT Professionals Use Personal E-Mail to Hide File Transfer Activity from Management/li liNew Desktop Computer for Growing Small Businesses/li liNew iPhone Application Gives MyFax Customers Access to Faxes at Their Fingertips/li liHow to Use Email Marketing to Develop Customers for Life/li liTech Leaders: Should You Knock Them Down or Keep Them on Their Thrones/li /ul pbr / strongVerticalResponse Online Community Unveiled: Helping Small Businesses Grow Email Marketing Lists/strong/p pimg alt="Thumbnail image for verticalresponse.gif" src="http://smallbiztechnology.com/assets_c/2008/07/verticalresponse-thumb-150x59-438.gif" width="150" height="59" class="mt-image-left" style="float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;" /SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Today marks the launch of a new community resource aimed at small businesses that are interested in growing their email marketing lists #8212; thereby increasing their sales. The VerticalResponse List Building Bank is a community for small businesses to post tips and tricks while learning more about new and improved list building tactics from their peers as well as the experts at email marketing company VerticalResponse. Following on from the success of the VR Marketing Lounge, a community forum for marketers to meet and share their expertise, VerticalResponse has launched this latest forum for small business owners. /p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/MGWs3MGBss9tadTLGDciUpUnTUY/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/MGWs3MGBss9tadTLGDciUpUnTUY/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/MGWs3MGBss9tadTLGDciUpUnTUY/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/MGWs3MGBss9tadTLGDciUpUnTUY/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=uQL-AQAc77g:zN5adC4J3f8:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=uQL-AQAc77g:zN5adC4J3f8:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=uQL-AQAc77g:zN5adC4J3f8:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=uQL-AQAc77g:zN5adC4J3f8:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=uQL-AQAc77g:zN5adC4J3f8:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=uQL-AQAc77g:zN5adC4J3f8:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight/~4/uQL-AQAc77g" height="1" width="1"/

pLast week we hosted the latest webinar in our email marketing series with email marketing company a href="http://www.campaigner.com"Campaigner/a. Wendy Lowe, Regional Development Director, talked about the MOST valuable asset your business has - your customers - and how you can keep them loyal to your brand or company using email marketing. /p pWatch a video replay of the entire webinar: /p div style="text-align: center;" embed src="http://blip.tv/play/A42VcaCfYw" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="320" height="270" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"/embed/div pDownload a pdf file of the presentation slides a href="http://smallbiztechnology.com/media/Developing%20loyalty%20through%20email%20marketing-august-webinar.pdf"here/a. /p pWendy explained that loyalty to your brand or business goes way beyond having a terrific product or flawless service - it's the overall experience that a customer has with your company and how they relate to it on an emotional level. /p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/QXKG9yDt4Z_xOdBwlbQ4hBAV59o/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/QXKG9yDt4Z_xOdBwlbQ4hBAV59o/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/QXKG9yDt4Z_xOdBwlbQ4hBAV59o/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/QXKG9yDt4Z_xOdBwlbQ4hBAV59o/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=WNmWkr8pNJo:-NSYLJ349Ng:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=WNmWkr8pNJo:-NSYLJ349Ng:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=WNmWkr8pNJo:-NSYLJ349Ng:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=WNmWkr8pNJo:-NSYLJ349Ng:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=WNmWkr8pNJo:-NSYLJ349Ng:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=WNmWkr8pNJo:-NSYLJ349Ng:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight/~4/WNmWkr8pNJo" height="1" width="1"/

pI've reviewed a lot of CRM services. Most all of them are hosted, online, and not software. The biggest competitor for these tools is one of two things: a) doing nothing or b) using Excel./p pAs most of us know, Excel is NOT the best tool for data management, but many businesses use it as it's simple to use, fast and already on their desktop./p pI was recently introduced to a $10 CRM application that's built within Excel - it's called a href="http://www.crm-on-excel.com/"CRMxl/a. It's NOT fancy and slick with Web 2.0 looking buttons. However, for $10 (one time payment) and for those who want a TASTE of better data management of contacts, leads and things like that, you might want to try it out./p pI would recommend it for the smaller businesses and solo entrepreneurs who are probably already using Excel and want a step up from Excel to Excel on steroids...with CRM./p pThe publishers of CRMxl have done a great job of taking the power of Excel adding intuitive and easy to use navigation buttons and turning Excel into something that most of us have not seen before and didn't know it was able to manage data in this way./p pCRMxl reminds me of the guys who take Twitter and use it to make telephone calls from airplanes. There's nothing to say but "wow". It might not be for everyone, but there's someone who could use it./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/ro85kWxnv6bwk8I6x9w5nmLphs0/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/ro85kWxnv6bwk8I6x9w5nmLphs0/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/ro85kWxnv6bwk8I6x9w5nmLphs0/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/ro85kWxnv6bwk8I6x9w5nmLphs0/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=wPl-s90q1Vc:-Q1rPAnvaCU:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=wPl-s90q1Vc:-Q1rPAnvaCU:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=wPl-s90q1Vc:-Q1rPAnvaCU:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=wPl-s90q1Vc:-Q1rPAnvaCU:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=wPl-s90q1Vc:-Q1rPAnvaCU:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=wPl-s90q1Vc:-Q1rPAnvaCU:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight/~4/wPl-s90q1Vc" height="1" width="1"/

pimg alt="sethgodin2.png" src="http://smallbiztechnology.com/media/sethgodin2.png" width="247" height="291" class="mt-image-left" style="float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;" /Seth wrote in this blog that he's no longer working with traditional publishers. According to the Wall Street Journal, which covered this news, Seth will publish his own books and sell them directly to customers. He'll publish "books" in digital format according to what I've read on this./p pWhat does this teach all of us?/p pOnce you KNOW who your customers are, CAN DIRECTLY reach them and have a PROFITABLE number of them, you can bypass traditional channels of marketing and sales - bypass the "middle man"./p pSeth's a href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/08/moving-on.html"blog post read/a that the customers of authors are publishers. They (the publishers) pay money and distribute a book to readers through book stores. /p pHowever, if you have an author who has an audience that you can reach directly, why not leverage technology and sell a book (be it digital or otherwise) directly to your readers? Like Seth is doing. Of course, if you want a full media tour, fancy graphics in all the stores, book signings, you'll have to put a team together to help with this...you won't have a book publisher to help you do this./p pI told a friend of mine today that the most important thing he can do (related to marketing) for his business was to build a large database of customers (leads, potential customers). Everyone who walks into his door, he should capture their contact information (cell phone, email, all of it) and market to them, with permission. Once he builds a nice, large database of leads, he'll have a steady flow of customers (kiddies) to his day care week after week. He can spend less time handing out flyers and have customers beating a path to HIS door. Just like we beat a path to Seth's blog and events!/p pbSo what about you? Can you ditch the middle man and market directly to your customers? What's Seth's secret? Here's what I think./b/p h2Do Awesome Work/h2 pRule Number 9 of Ramon's Business Rules ( a href="http://www.ramonsbusinessrules.com"http://www.ramonsbusinessrules.com/a ) is "do awesome work". Seth has built a following of hundreds of thousands of readers, of his blog alone, who will buy from him, attend his events and more. He does not need any middle man to have them buy from him, because they TRUST him, ENJOY his writing and LEARN from him. His writing and speeches are the best. Period./p pIf you want to be able to bypass the middle man in your industry, do awesome work and stop doing work that's just "good enough"./p pPS - Keep in mind that the "middle man" is critical and very important for many businesses. Most businesses need some sort of middle man. Middle men are not bad. However, some people, like Seth Godin, once you reach a certain point of customer intimacy and volume can free themselves of middle men and communicate and sell DIRECTLY to their customers./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/O9ka8zfs53vUOIv1JqS-DIqvkA4/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/O9ka8zfs53vUOIv1JqS-DIqvkA4/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/O9ka8zfs53vUOIv1JqS-DIqvkA4/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/O9ka8zfs53vUOIv1JqS-DIqvkA4/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=NBFJigZ4kh4:9BybHEGPFCQ:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=NBFJigZ4kh4:9BybHEGPFCQ:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=NBFJigZ4kh4:9BybHEGPFCQ:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=NBFJigZ4kh4:9BybHEGPFCQ:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=NBFJigZ4kh4:9BybHEGPFCQ:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=NBFJigZ4kh4:9BybHEGPFCQ:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight/~4/NBFJigZ4kh4" height="1" width="1"/

pMicrosoft is a leader in software for businesses. However, they have been forced to AGGRESSIVELY shift their model to hosted applications and fight in the dirt (or marketplace) with Google and dozens of other hosted application providers./p pI was looking at a href="http://www.ticketleap.com"TicketLeap/a's ticket solution, which competes directly with the leader in event ticket sales, a href="http://www.eventbrite.com"EventBrite /a(which I use) and a href="http://www.constantcontact.com"Constant Contact's/a event system./p pI then got pinged from a href="http://www.shareddoc.com"SharedDoc/a and they're positioning themselves as cheaper and easier to use than a href="http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint"Microsoft Sharepoint/a but more feature rich and robust than a href="http://docs.google.com"Google Docs/a./p pSo the dilemma you have is when do you stick with a market leader, even one that's good and when do you switch and/or at least try another vendor./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/SBjxANKbWP6HI7OSLuPpupHnSJw/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/SBjxANKbWP6HI7OSLuPpupHnSJw/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/SBjxANKbWP6HI7OSLuPpupHnSJw/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/SBjxANKbWP6HI7OSLuPpupHnSJw/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=4ZGZ8aJQYL4:Hwe0bMn5QMA:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=4ZGZ8aJQYL4:Hwe0bMn5QMA:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=4ZGZ8aJQYL4:Hwe0bMn5QMA:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=4ZGZ8aJQYL4:Hwe0bMn5QMA:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=4ZGZ8aJQYL4:Hwe0bMn5QMA:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=4ZGZ8aJQYL4:Hwe0bMn5QMA:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight/~4/4ZGZ8aJQYL4" height="1" width="1"/

pimg alt="phone keys.jpg" src="http://smallbiztechnology.com/media/phone%20keys.jpg" width="240" height="160" class="mt-image-left" style="float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;" /I've covered virtual phone systems for years - Gotvmail (now a href="http://www.grasshopper.com"Grasshopper/a), a href="http://www.ringcentral.com"RingCentral/a, a href="http://www.my1voice.com"my1Voice/a, a href="http://www.virtualpbx.com"VirtualPBX/a, a href="http://www.google.com/voice"Google Voice/a and so many others make competing phone systems./p pThese systems are feature rich and help companies without a traditional phone system in their office, but maybe only cell phones or just separate telephone lines, can communicate just like a company with a fancy "please press 1 for sales" type phone system. And more./p pIt's about time to re-look at your virtual telephone system. I bet there are features they have which enable you to do more, including interacting smarter with your customers, including CRM and social media hooks./p pPersonalizing the customer experience for every call, a href="http://www.ringio.com"Ringio /a recently announced that it can automatically greet callers by name. It can also automatically route them to the person they spoke with last. The service can also reach employees on the fixed or mobile phones they desire. Calls can also be routed to a predefined list of employees -- for a particular skill set, language or marketing campaign, for example -- or evenly distributed to all employees to handle particularly heavy call volumes. Companies can also record, install and change custom greetings as often as they wish. /p pThis is all possible as even more than a system it's a CRM platform helping you serve customers more./p pWhatever phone system you choose, ensure it's working for YOU and YOUR not working for it. Ensure it's helping you do MORE for your customers and not less!/p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Gb-GTVBf3Kh7PpHj-bWjCsP9nHo/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Gb-GTVBf3Kh7PpHj-bWjCsP9nHo/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Gb-GTVBf3Kh7PpHj-bWjCsP9nHo/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Gb-GTVBf3Kh7PpHj-bWjCsP9nHo/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=3jUajHEg_cU:BoRH3alnat8:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=3jUajHEg_cU:BoRH3alnat8:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=3jUajHEg_cU:BoRH3alnat8:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=3jUajHEg_cU:BoRH3alnat8:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=3jUajHEg_cU:BoRH3alnat8:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=3jUajHEg_cU:BoRH3alnat8:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight/~4/3jUajHEg_cU" height="1" width="1"/

pToday, I heard a sound clip of a lady who lost a home she lived in for only 4 months. She said, "we never new this would happen", talking about the floods in Long Island, New York, in which her entire new home was destroyed. a href="http://newyork.cbslocal.com/?podcast_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.podtrac.com%2Fpts%2Fredirect.mp3%2Fnyc.podcast.play.it%2Fmedia%2Fd0%2Fd0%2Fd0%2FdV%2FdE%2FdO%2FdK%2FVEOK_3.MP3%3Fauthtok%3D5561227672123783697_pFQ0QwQytfYbd2sdoLz7AosIf4podcast_name=Heavy+Rain+Leads+to+Flooding%2C+Forcing+Evacuations+and+Damaging+Homespodcast_artist=station_id=91tag=" target="_blank"You can listen to the sound clip here/a./p pThis was a home, but it I'm sure there were memories lost, not to mention much more if it was a home office or imagine if it was YOUR corporate office and you lost everything in a flood, fire, or man-made disaster./p pa href="http://kineticd.com/en/"KineticD/a gives some simple and very useful recommendations for backup and recovery strategies for your business. Hire a technology consultant to help you, but ensure they're following these 10 rules - at the very least./p h2Always On/h2 pLook for services that perform continuous online backup of files as soon as they are modified or updated. It is not enough to simply have an online storage space on the Internet. Periodically dragging files there will only work as a backup if it is done moments before a computer failure. Even if the service has a scheduled backup agent that runs weekly, consider how much data a business could lose since the last time it ran?/p h2Encryption/h2 pIt is important that files get encrypted before even leaving the original system, and that the account holder is provided a unique encryption key for authorized access. Even though most online backup services use encryption to protect data as it traverses the Internet, many do not use encryption when they store data on servers. This might be fine for saving MP3 music files, but is not sufficient for protecting private business information like customer data, banking records and emails./p h2Ease In/h2 pMany online backup tools are designed to be used by expert IT administrators. Many of these services require intimate knowledge of the operating system in order to perform a backup. For example, a Microsoft Outlook email file may be kept in a special folder hidden six levels deep in a PC. Look for systems that automatically determine where Outlook email, My Documents, Desktop, and Favorites are located to help ease the setup./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/YhP8eQ2Dhgj1FfJAlHR0xKD1wDQ/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/YhP8eQ2Dhgj1FfJAlHR0xKD1wDQ/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/YhP8eQ2Dhgj1FfJAlHR0xKD1wDQ/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/YhP8eQ2Dhgj1FfJAlHR0xKD1wDQ/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=xR-5PQfdz2w:mUvCcRCt2Y4:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=xR-5PQfdz2w:mUvCcRCt2Y4:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=xR-5PQfdz2w:mUvCcRCt2Y4:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=xR-5PQfdz2w:mUvCcRCt2Y4:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=xR-5PQfdz2w:mUvCcRCt2Y4:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=xR-5PQfdz2w:mUvCcRCt2Y4:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight/~4/xR-5PQfdz2w" height="1" width="1"/

pIt's pretty safe to assume that every business professional understands that cloud computing is "the way to go". Whether every business embraces cloud computing (online computer, software as a service) or not, is another story. However, I do think it's useful, from time to time, to review "hot" technology and really understand why we are investing in it and if we should keep doing so./p h2No Need to Buy Software/h2 pNick Vossburg is President of a href="http://www.alteritech.com/"Alteritech/a says that one benefit of cloud computing is that there is No Need to Buy Software. This sounds obvious, but not buying software means no procurement, no installation, no management of licenses, no surprise cost increases and no worries about if you should upgrade to the latest version of the software./p h2Easier connectivity of data to mobile devices/h2 Another benefit is the power of leveraging anytime, anywhere computing. With all your data and related applications in the cloud, you are free to use mobile products and still access your data and applications as long as you have access to the Internet. h2Better security/h2 Your computing platform, in some ways, is much more secure. If your computer crashes or otherwise goes down in a traditional software environment, you lose your data or hope that your backup works. If the only software you're really worried about is a browser, then your data and software are safely protected and you could just walk into your local Best Buy or Staples and buy another computer, and you're up and running again. h2With data living in the cloud you can easily share data across online services./h2 pRarely do you want your data to live in ONE application. But often times your customer names should be integrated with your financial application. Your product list needs to populate your e-commerce web site. /p pCheck out a href="http://www.thesmallbusinessweb.com"The Small Business Web/a/p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/wOaOz9f1bL8WqfGFBhxFFCgPXH4/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/wOaOz9f1bL8WqfGFBhxFFCgPXH4/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/wOaOz9f1bL8WqfGFBhxFFCgPXH4/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/wOaOz9f1bL8WqfGFBhxFFCgPXH4/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=2ZzFJ3uRCiA:8fkZLzVqQj4:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=2ZzFJ3uRCiA:8fkZLzVqQj4:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=2ZzFJ3uRCiA:8fkZLzVqQj4:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=2ZzFJ3uRCiA:8fkZLzVqQj4:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=2ZzFJ3uRCiA:8fkZLzVqQj4:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=2ZzFJ3uRCiA:8fkZLzVqQj4:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight/~4/2ZzFJ3uRCiA" height="1" width="1"/

pimg alt="linchpin-book-cover-51fMyB3O1TL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" src="http://smallbiztechnology.com/media/linchpin-book-cover-51fMyB3O1TL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" width="200" height="200" class="mt-image-left" style="float: left; margin: 0 10px 10px 0;" /I've got a stack of great books to read and review. I'm so behind, but one must start somewhere. The first book in the "re-launch" of my review series, as it were, is Seth Godin's book, a href="http://www.amazon.com/Linchpin-Are-Indispensable-Seth-Godin/dp/1591843162"LinchPin: Are You Indespensable/a. I know the book is not "new" as in just printed, but it's been relatively recently, so it's "new" enough./p pbI'll grade books on a 1 - 5 rating. With 5 being "you've got to buy this book today and buy 20 copies for all your friends and keep your competitors from reading it." For books that rate a 1...../b/p pbI'd give this book a 3.5./b/p pI found the opening pages of the book great. The book gives us hope and insight that we all, whatever our profession and/or professional status, can be Linchpins. Seth is great at awesome anecdotes to illustrate his point./p pWhat's a Linchpin?/p pThis means that when we leave a job, people cry and mourn at the loss of seeing us go. /p pUnlike a cook at a McDonald's that's paid at or near minimum wage and is simply a cog in the factory. When they go someone else replaces him or her./p pSeth said that Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson, CEO of Virgin, is nothing special. Most of the work he does during a day, anybody can do. But the small percent of time that he really gets paid for is THINKING. It's his brain. His UNIQUE (Linchpin) way of thinking of great products, relationships, etc for Virgin to expand, grow and innovate as a company./p pWhy did I give the book a 3.5. I felt that a lot of the book was repetitive. In fact, I think Seth could have made this a much smaller booklet and got the insight covered just the same./p pIt's a great book. All should read it. But the repetitiveness left me annoyed after a while. /p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Oe2VJHTZ7toNYrQQl0JBaVZ-xyA/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Oe2VJHTZ7toNYrQQl0JBaVZ-xyA/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Oe2VJHTZ7toNYrQQl0JBaVZ-xyA/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Oe2VJHTZ7toNYrQQl0JBaVZ-xyA/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=Hkkd8WCRDHo:Xxbb0Q2Vl_g:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=Hkkd8WCRDHo:Xxbb0Q2Vl_g:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=Hkkd8WCRDHo:Xxbb0Q2Vl_g:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=Hkkd8WCRDHo:Xxbb0Q2Vl_g:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=Hkkd8WCRDHo:Xxbb0Q2Vl_g:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=Hkkd8WCRDHo:Xxbb0Q2Vl_g:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight/~4/Hkkd8WCRDHo" height="1" width="1"/

pInc Magazine's written a nice article in how Cree, Inc, manufacturer of components for LEDs, hired their first social media guru. You'll learn from this story key insight into how your first social media hire can be the best!/p pEver heard of Cree, Inc.? It's a 4,500-person company that manufactures basic component LEDs, like chips and modules, which it sells to distributors who incorporate them into their products (digital cameras, flashlights, work lamps, etc.). You still awake? Stay with us. This company has more than 1,500 Twitter followers and 1,000 Facebook fans./p pWhat's the secret?/p pCree started a campaign last September called Lighting the LED Revolution, which markets itself as leaders of the revolution toward energy-efficient lighting. Its followers, in exchange for being online fans, have pledges to sign, videos to watch, before-and-after pictures to marvel at, and free lighting to win. In essence, Cree has given its audience a consistent, and interesting, message to stand behind. Surreptitiously facilitating these hundreds of comments and thousands of page hits is one woman. Her name is Ginny Skalski, and she is Cree's social media Specialist./p pa href="http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/08/how-to-hire-a-social-media-specialist.html"Read Inc Magazine's full article here./a/p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/IKuOwDcza4FWwxQbjgYYeWiuX8M/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/IKuOwDcza4FWwxQbjgYYeWiuX8M/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/IKuOwDcza4FWwxQbjgYYeWiuX8M/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/IKuOwDcza4FWwxQbjgYYeWiuX8M/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=d9KwiMKA4Ps:HB-3Rnk8y24:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=d9KwiMKA4Ps:HB-3Rnk8y24:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=d9KwiMKA4Ps:HB-3Rnk8y24:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=d9KwiMKA4Ps:HB-3Rnk8y24:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=d9KwiMKA4Ps:HB-3Rnk8y24:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=d9KwiMKA4Ps:HB-3Rnk8y24:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight/~4/d9KwiMKA4Ps" height="1" width="1"/

pFor those of us in very populated areas of this great country, having broadband access to the Internet is pretty much expected - whether its through DSL or cable. However, there are hundreds of thousands of customers (and potential customers) that can ONLY get access to the Internet through a dial up connection./p pThe alternative is an often expensive and slow connection through satellite. This solution is better than nothing, but it's not as fast as the higher speeds of cable, DSL or fiber./p pThe NY Times reports that satellite providers are boosting their speeds and will be able to offer customers faster - much faster - speeds./p pThe NY Times writes iBut two companies, WildBlue and HughesNet, are now in a race to change all that. Both plan to launch satellites in the next couple of years that will dwarf their predecessors in space./p pWildBlue#8217;s alone will have 10 times the capacity of its three current satellites combined. Such behemoths, the companies say, will enable them, at prices similar to what they now charge, to provide Internet service at speeds many times faster than they now offer #8212; as fast, in some cases, as fiber connections. Further, the companies argue, satellites can provide service more easily and cheaply per subscriber than their earthbound cable and phone company competitors, particularly to the 14 million to 24 million Americans who live in areas without broadband service./i a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/technology/16satellite.html?pagewanted=1themc=th"Read the full article here./a/p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/76f49os6rz5xunwAUs2EJrXoStw/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/76f49os6rz5xunwAUs2EJrXoStw/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/76f49os6rz5xunwAUs2EJrXoStw/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/76f49os6rz5xunwAUs2EJrXoStw/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=Pmgkv2leGoY:UVlLifdAILM:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=Pmgkv2leGoY:UVlLifdAILM:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=Pmgkv2leGoY:UVlLifdAILM:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=Pmgkv2leGoY:UVlLifdAILM:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=Pmgkv2leGoY:UVlLifdAILM:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=Pmgkv2leGoY:UVlLifdAILM:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight/~4/Pmgkv2leGoY" height="1" width="1"/

pYou know you have to secure yourself online, worry about viruses, attacks from hackers and so many other things, including mobile security./p pFurthermore, David Strom writes that you also need to be cautious when using geo location based services. Ensure that you are not being reached or someone does not visit your home and you wish they hadn't./p pbDavid Strom (from a href="http://www.strom.com"Strom.om/a writes a very sobering article on this here:/b/p pWhat do a DC drug dealer and a TV show host have in common? The ease at which they both can be tracked by GPS devices without their knowledge. Through a combination of Web technologies and cheaper, more ubiquitous devices, we are now witnessing what could be the golden era of geo-stalking. It is both thrilling and scary at the same time./p pLast week, a man arrested for drug possession was set free in DC because the police put a GPS on his car to track his movements. The courts ruled that without a search warrant and without the person#8217;s knowledge that he was being tracked, the arrest couldn#8217;t stand./p pThen there was the case of the host of the TV show Mythbusters who was tracked by virtue of information that he posted of a photo of his car. Because he took the photo in front of his house, and because the photo contained geo-tagging information, an enterprising reporter could piece together where the host lived, and bring up an actual picture of the host#8217;s home on Google Maps./p pCertainly, having a GPS inside your phone is convenient. No longer can men claim that they know where they are going when their wives can pull up a screen and give them turn-by-turn directions. Another click, and you can find the nearest drugstore or burger joint when in a strange town, or even a not-so-strange one. It amazes me how far we have come and how much and who you can track these days. a href="http://strom.wordpress.com/2010/08/16/geotag/"Read his full article on this here./a/p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/AZ0C1kbLcjtUTRsBmlUgjNXbSIw/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/AZ0C1kbLcjtUTRsBmlUgjNXbSIw/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/AZ0C1kbLcjtUTRsBmlUgjNXbSIw/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/AZ0C1kbLcjtUTRsBmlUgjNXbSIw/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=wgYLiuG0vy4:EDAQ8AylHNI:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=wgYLiuG0vy4:EDAQ8AylHNI:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=wgYLiuG0vy4:EDAQ8AylHNI:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=wgYLiuG0vy4:EDAQ8AylHNI:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=wgYLiuG0vy4:EDAQ8AylHNI:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=wgYLiuG0vy4:EDAQ8AylHNI:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight/~4/wgYLiuG0vy4" height="1" width="1"/

pWhen I talk with small businesses about technology buying decisions, the question of mobile platforms always comes up - with good reason. /p pCompanies of all sizes are investing significant resources in deploying mobile applications for their staff, as well as building applications for a new generation of mobile users. They need to know what mobile platform is right for them, and for the types of uses strategic to their business./p pHere#8217;s my take: When considering these types of purchases, consider the hardware features of the phone to make sure they align with your strategic business needs. You should also consider what applications the phone supports and which ones might be quite useful for your business./p pbr / Here's an overview of the four dominant smart phone platforms in order to help inform your business needs./p pa href="http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/technology/article/what-mobile-platform-is-right-for-your-business-ramon-ray"From my article on OPEN Forum. Read the full article/a/p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/xrBSfWfI83lSs2TFZUlL1r_tNxU/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/xrBSfWfI83lSs2TFZUlL1r_tNxU/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/xrBSfWfI83lSs2TFZUlL1r_tNxU/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/xrBSfWfI83lSs2TFZUlL1r_tNxU/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=3j45fEyGr3Y:KYi6AgzQLQ8:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=3j45fEyGr3Y:KYi6AgzQLQ8:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=3j45fEyGr3Y:KYi6AgzQLQ8:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=3j45fEyGr3Y:KYi6AgzQLQ8:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=3j45fEyGr3Y:KYi6AgzQLQ8:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=3j45fEyGr3Y:KYi6AgzQLQ8:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight/~4/3j45fEyGr3Y" height="1" width="1"/

pWe've all used a href="http://www.microsoft.com/powerpoint"Microsoft's PowerPoint/a for years. It's the best traditional software tool for making presentations. However, once you try out a href="http://www.sliderocket.com"Slide Rocket/a you realize that presentation creation can be downright FUN./p pI'm leading to something here.../p pI had a demo of a href="http://www.mindflash.com"MindFlash/a, an online presentation service, which enables corporate trainers (or anyone who creates training programs) to create powerful programs and manage who has gone through the training (and who has not)./p pWhat was most impressive about MindFlash is that it allows you to easily integrate video, PDFs and other documents. You can build in questions (and answers) and lots more./p pHere's a video interview with a href="http://www.mindflash.com"MindFlash /aCEO Donna Wells/p centerobject width="480" height="385"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QCKiZm_mKSo?fs=1amp;hl=en_USamp;rel=0"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QCKiZm_mKSo?fs=1amp;hl=en_USamp;rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"/embed/object/center pbVideo transcript/summary:/b/p pMindflash makes it easy to transform your presentations, documents and videos into multimedia web courses. You can also embed quizzes and get real time reporting. The software is very intuitive, easy to set up, easy to use and it is easy to get value out of it, Mrs. Wells says. It#8217;s a real time-saver for small businesses. /p pWhat does the world of on-line training look like?/p pTrainers, like other professionals, are trying to achieve more with less./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/mM1ddo5MgQYtWFQpsSJH5gK7MQw/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/mM1ddo5MgQYtWFQpsSJH5gK7MQw/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/mM1ddo5MgQYtWFQpsSJH5gK7MQw/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/mM1ddo5MgQYtWFQpsSJH5gK7MQw/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=eQcnaA61z6w:bPsrhSUi4OA:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=eQcnaA61z6w:bPsrhSUi4OA:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=eQcnaA61z6w:bPsrhSUi4OA:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=eQcnaA61z6w:bPsrhSUi4OA:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=eQcnaA61z6w:bPsrhSUi4OA:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=eQcnaA61z6w:bPsrhSUi4OA:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight/~4/eQcnaA61z6w" height="1" width="1"/

pI received this press release from a href="http://www.nuancesoftware.com"Nuance software/a, maker of PDF conversion software and Dragon Naturally speaking, speech to text software. /p pThe release was so well written, meaning it's a TRUE STORY, that I'm publishing it here in its entirety. Sure, it's a press release, but it's a great story of how a small realtor moved their business to being a "paper-less" office. /p pWhen economic conditions created an #8220;upside down#8221; housing market in Las Vegas, Nevada, The Karten Group at Realty Executives of Nevada saw this as an opportunity to leverage their commitment to quality and client service to focus their business on short-sale housing transactions./p pA short sale is a highly specialized transaction. For the homeowner, it can be an extremely emotional process where delays and uncertainties generate anxiety. For the lender, it is a complicated procedure, requiring extensive layers of paperwork that need to be complete and managed in an exacting way to work within short-sale guidelines./p pIt was this combination of demands that led Mark Karten, Realtor at The Karten Group, to search out a software tool to streamline the paper-intensive process - to make creating and managing the documentation associated with a short-sale painless for the client and efficient for the lender./p p#8220;Most real estate agents don#8217;t want to handle short-sale transactions because of their complications. Realtors are sales people, not paper pushers. We adopted Nuance PDF Converter software because it allows us to work and collaborate in a paperless way,#8221; said Karten./p pNuance PDF Converter Professional 7 software enables The Karten Group to create PDF files from virtually any PC application and also convert PDF files back into fully formatted, editable Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and Corel WordPerfect documents./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/8TztDx6zgIBGnUhDuZ817Winq9M/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/8TztDx6zgIBGnUhDuZ817Winq9M/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/8TztDx6zgIBGnUhDuZ817Winq9M/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/8TztDx6zgIBGnUhDuZ817Winq9M/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=Fr7Fceiocjw:xZT1F0PPvSg:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=Fr7Fceiocjw:xZT1F0PPvSg:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=Fr7Fceiocjw:xZT1F0PPvSg:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=Fr7Fceiocjw:xZT1F0PPvSg:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=Fr7Fceiocjw:xZT1F0PPvSg:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=Fr7Fceiocjw:xZT1F0PPvSg:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight/~4/Fr7Fceiocjw" height="1" width="1"/

pThere are some great contests and competitions going on for growing companies over the next few months. Don#8217;t wait till summer is over to think about it - there are some deadlines coming up soon./p pThis list of contests, competitions and awards is brought to you by a title="Small Business Trends" href="http://smallbiztrends.com" target="_self"Small Business Trends/a and a title="Small Biz Technology" href="http://smallbiztechnology.com" target="_self"Smallbiztechnology.com/a./p div style="text-align: center;" *********/div pbr / a href="http://smallbiztechnology.com/media/secondchance.JPG"img alt="secondchance.JPG" src="http://smallbiztechnology.com/assets_c/2010/08/secondchance-thumb-150x97-2041.jpg" width="150" height="97" class="mt-image-right" style="float: right; margin: 0 0 20px 20px;" //astronga href="http://secondchance.onlinepromo.com/"Second Chance/a/strongbr / emEnter by August 23, 2010/em/p pSecond Chance is a 7-part web series on BusinessonMain.com that will feature 4 entrepreneurs, whose first attempts at having their own business failed. They will compete against each other in challenges for a second chance to start a new business. During each episode, the entrepreneurs will be given a fake business concept that will test the skills that contributed to the failure of their previous companies./p pAlong with the $150,000, the Second Chance winner will have the opportunity to present their business concept to a team of Angel Investors who may invest even more money and their expert knowledge in the business./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/1Y_Dnf0YcOF0PTWpifwy-M28B9g/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/1Y_Dnf0YcOF0PTWpifwy-M28B9g/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/1Y_Dnf0YcOF0PTWpifwy-M28B9g/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/1Y_Dnf0YcOF0PTWpifwy-M28B9g/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=UtRNUSXKyiE:IByqAg3s3wE:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=UtRNUSXKyiE:IByqAg3s3wE:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=UtRNUSXKyiE:IByqAg3s3wE:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=UtRNUSXKyiE:IByqAg3s3wE:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=UtRNUSXKyiE:IByqAg3s3wE:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=UtRNUSXKyiE:IByqAg3s3wE:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight/~4/UtRNUSXKyiE" height="1" width="1"/

pbBrent writes in Inc Technology how Google is a pretty neat tool for Social CRM.../b/p pOver the past 12-18 months, major customer relationship management (CRM) players like Salesforce.com, Sage, SAP and others have been adding "social" abilities to traditional CRM applications -- like viewing social profile information from Twitter and Facebook. Additionally, newer services such as BatchBook, BantamLive, and others are creating CRM applications on a social foundation aimed at the small and mid-sized business market. And with every passing day, social technologies are merging with traditional CRM functionality, giving companies more efficient ways of transforming clicks into valuable customer relationships. /p pA little over two years ago I wrote about the Three A's of Social CRM. Back then most people were focused on social media, but not so much on its impact on customer relationship management tools and strategies. Even a year ago when I compared traditional CRM with Social CRM the interest was pretty much limited to industry insiders. That's not the case today, as the topic of Social CRM has become the focus of many in business. /p pHaving focused on CRM for almost two decades -- as an application developer, early Salesforce.com certified implementation partner, and finally as an industry watcher -- this may be the most important development I've seen. I say this because technology has amplified the voice of the customer, and given them greater control over who they engage with, when they do, and how they do so. This in turn is forcing those charged with engaging them to change their approach: in order to connect with customers who Tweet to thousands of followers, watch videos on mobile phones, and form their own online communities. This also is forcing CRM vendors to provide services that do more than just store customer information and track activities./p pa href="http://technology.inc.com/managing/articles/201008/leary.html?partner=newsletter_Technology"Check out his full article here. Excellent read./a/p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/gtp5KiEU4eL9teR49C5xcU7EKY8/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/gtp5KiEU4eL9teR49C5xcU7EKY8/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/gtp5KiEU4eL9teR49C5xcU7EKY8/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/gtp5KiEU4eL9teR49C5xcU7EKY8/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=-k5-pteI_EE:98-hSmsDEBc:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=-k5-pteI_EE:98-hSmsDEBc:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=-k5-pteI_EE:98-hSmsDEBc:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=-k5-pteI_EE:98-hSmsDEBc:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=-k5-pteI_EE:98-hSmsDEBc:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=-k5-pteI_EE:98-hSmsDEBc:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight/~4/-k5-pteI_EE" height="1" width="1"/

pThe iPhone is hugely popular, we all know that. We also know that there are hundreds of thousands of applications for this popular platform. But here's the real question, should you build an application for the iPhone?/p pMarketing Sherpa offers some guidance:/p pIn March 2010, the law firm Morrison Foerster LLP became one of the first professional services firms to create a branded iPhone App when it launched "MoFo2Go." The application put news, attorney bios, a GPS-based location finder and a simple game directly onto customers' iPhones, giving them new ways to connect with the firm while they are away from the office./p pLaunching the app was both a test of a new channel for the firm's marketing team, as well as a complement to the firm's reputation and market share among high-tech companies, says David Harvey, Senior Marketing Manager./p p"It was a combination of wanting to make something that was useful for our clients, but also that lived up to our brand as a firm that 'gets' tech," says Harvey./p pSince then, there have been more than 1,500 downloads of the app -- not to mention positive feedback from clients and press mentions about the firm's foray into new technology. /p pa href="http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=31694"Read the full article here./a/p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/IXkkhQmkGoN3IEtu46zdW6RMvKw/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/IXkkhQmkGoN3IEtu46zdW6RMvKw/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/IXkkhQmkGoN3IEtu46zdW6RMvKw/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/IXkkhQmkGoN3IEtu46zdW6RMvKw/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=QnPH0ECLh5o:fQ_Vn_nFq6g:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=QnPH0ECLh5o:fQ_Vn_nFq6g:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=QnPH0ECLh5o:fQ_Vn_nFq6g:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=QnPH0ECLh5o:fQ_Vn_nFq6g:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=QnPH0ECLh5o:fQ_Vn_nFq6g:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=QnPH0ECLh5o:fQ_Vn_nFq6g:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight/~4/QnPH0ECLh5o" height="1" width="1"/

pMany of you use, or at least have heard of location based services like a href="http://www.foursquare.com"Foursquare/a, which help you let your friends know where you are and engage in local businesses that you frequent./p pOf course a href="http://www.8coupons.com"8Coupons/a, a href="http://www.yelp.com"Yelp/a, a href="http://local.google.com"Google Local/a and similar local, location based services are ideal for finding local businesses to frequent./p pLet's not forget that for LOCAL BUSINESSES you can use these services to market your businesses to local customers right at the time they're interested in your service./p pa href="http://www.facebook.com"Facebook /arecently released a new local service, Places. /p pThe NY Times a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/technology/19facebook.html?_r=1nl=technologyemc=ctb2"writes /aiUsing Places on hand-held devices like the iPhone and other smartphones, users will be able to check in, for example, at a restaurant, bar or museum, alerting their friends on Facebook of their presence. They will then be able to see, using the service, any friends that are nearby, as well as other people who have checked in at the same location and have agreed to have their location broadcast widely. /i/p pSure, becoming an "expert" in every new service that launches is not possible, for most of us. But at least being informed of the new services and working with an expert (or encouraging some on your staff to be that expert) is possible./p pLocal marketing is VERY powerful. Get with it. Learn it. And see how you can use it for your business./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/XqJv1-RVcynlJgaEWiJHKcNTIxo/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/XqJv1-RVcynlJgaEWiJHKcNTIxo/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/XqJv1-RVcynlJgaEWiJHKcNTIxo/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/XqJv1-RVcynlJgaEWiJHKcNTIxo/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=NycG8MYwEIY:UwLFLIaY3rU:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=NycG8MYwEIY:UwLFLIaY3rU:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=NycG8MYwEIY:UwLFLIaY3rU:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=NycG8MYwEIY:UwLFLIaY3rU:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=NycG8MYwEIY:UwLFLIaY3rU:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=NycG8MYwEIY:UwLFLIaY3rU:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight/~4/NycG8MYwEIY" height="1" width="1"/