If you are an executive of a large company, one of your responsibilities is to make sure that all your employees are using the right software and hardware so they can do their jobs properly. It is not enough to buy just the hardware. You also need to buy software licenses so that your workers are equipped with all the proper tools. And when new employees come in, you have to make sure that the current software license lets the new user work. This task alone can be quite stressful. To make things easier, you must make use of cloud computing. But what exactly is cloud computing, and how can it help your company?
Cloud computing is a style of computing offered as a service over the internet that is often virtual and dynamically scalable. One of the most often used is email hosting. The best thing about it is that users are not required to learn the technological infrastructure that supports them. Cloud computing will take care of it all. Most applications cloud computing uses are business related such as an email server platform. Users can access them through a web browser. You may wonder why it is called cloud computing. Well, the term ‘cloud’ is actually used as a metaphor for the Internet and the idea is composed of a combination of platform, software, and infrastructure services. The actual software, however, are kept securely on the servers rather than on your computer.
The truth is you may have used some sort of cloud computing and may not even aware of it. You already have an experience with cloud computing if you have an email account with Hotmail, Yahoo mail, or Gmail – these are popular Web-based email services. What you do is to log-in to your email account remotely instead of running an email program on your PC. But is cloud computing really secure?
A lot of people admit that cloud computing is here to stay, and pretty soon millions and millions will be using it as well. Many companies are really worried about this due to the security concerns that come with jumping the firewall. Furthermore, how can you trust the cloud if you don’t even know where exactly your data is being stored? The worst thing that could happen is when its systems are down, you are down as well. And if you did not purchase all those servers to run the application, there would be no local systems for back up.
But others are saying that there is nothing to worry about because the security of data in cloud computing is quite the same as with the data security at a remote data center. This means that data at the majority of companies actually has higher security risks in their own environment compared to a well-managed cloud.
The best thing to do is to teach your team about cloud computing. To learn more about the security implications of cloud computing, you can go to Cloud Security and other trustworthy online resources. To ensure data privacy, make sure that you always know where your data is stored and who has access to it and who doesn’t.

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Small business marketing is in the midst of a major organizational shift. Social networking is reinventing the entire online landscape and marketers had better tune in. We are seeing consumers that are more in charge. They are more efficient in organizing and are fantastic connectors who can be a marketer’s best friend (since they can be recognized by peers as experts when making recommending your products or services. This is Seth Godin’s permission marketing coming of age. It is now not enough to just get your target market’s permission. You have to give this increasingly powerful marketing segment opportunity to participate. This means your website must be now more than a static company brochure. It has to go beyond videos too. It needs to facilitate conversations and be seen as a recipient of opinions and ideas. Your target audience wants to know that it makes a difference (especially if they are in Gen Y).

Whether you have a startup business or an established one marketing in this economy (and beyond) will require new strategies and tactics. You will need to capture the consumer’s interest, loyalty, imagination by creating an interactive experience that is greater than your goods and services. To do this, businesses will need to have a greater understanding of their customers and prospects. It’s about marketing with the consumer (through engagement) instead of at them.

The time to adapt new skill sets and rethink your company’s marketing approach is now while most of your small business competition is still deliberating about whether or not they should get online. What changes are necessary? Here are a few ideas: an interactive website that allow visitors to interact (it needs to have a blog at the very least); create a social media optimization marketing plan that is sensitive to your target market (not self promoting) and stick with it (it does not happen overnight); use video, chat and messaging when appropriate (be accessible) and most importantly provide ways for your target market to easily communicate their wants and opinions. Using the services of a social media consulting company will help you make the best choices to market effectively.

The internet is an invaluable resource for today’s businessman and customer. The businessman can project his product, his service to the consumer. The consumer can easily find products and services not only in their area, but globally that would not have been previously found. Businesses can blossom without a location or a staff. All that is needed is an idea, management and a way to be found. You’ve covered the idea, and surely the management. You crave to be found. There are of course many ways to promote your website and services. The internet is more interconnected than ever, and taking advantage of that is simple. Social networking is a phrase often tossed around that can help you out. It is not good enough to have a website anymore; you must be active on various social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and Hub pages. These sites will allow customers to interact with you on a daily basis. With Twitter, you can update your clients regularly, whether it’s press releases, updates, or even daily tips. Daily tips are a great way to get customers to keep coming back. It will also allow users to explore what else you have to offer, and leave a positive opinion in his mind of your services. With exploration, the user will be able to find services they never expected or knew you had. Also it will allow the user to come back if he needs further products or services. Daily tips will also show the quality of your services and products. If the user finds them helpful, they will surely come back for more. Facebook is a great way of making business connections on a casual and personal basis. Conversations are built with your peers in the industry, as well as partnerships can be formed. It is a great way to network yourself, to find new experts that you can combine your talents with it. It is also a great way to slip your business in and allow others to learn about it. Customers can also ask you questions on a quick and more personal level. It is also a great way to establish a question and answer section. Facebook also has the ability to create “fan pages” in which individuals can support a certain idea. This is also an excellent of gaining support from the masses, and allowing them to display it. These fan pages can work for your business. Displayed support will attract more people to become curious to what you offer. Fan pages also have the ability to send out updates to all fans, as well as create question and answer sections and contact information. Along with this social networking, it is important to work in several mediums. Videos allow people to gain information quickly and with many ways to grab the attention of the viewer. Information will be absorbed through sound and images. Facebook has a quick and easy way to create videos. Other tools, such as Youtube are ways to spread word of your website. Often videos are spread virally, as users pass them directly to each other, with a high recommendation. StumbleUpon is a toolbar that allows users to recommend websites to other users directly or indirectly. Users click through websites, and yours could be one of them. Through this medium, you will become part of the viral marketing movement that is swiping the internet.

Phone training is crucial to a successful business. Although much business is conducted on the internet, allowing people to be as far away as India and The East Coast of the United States, quick connection through the telephone will allow for a personal touch as well as a way of direct communication. Phone training will allow you to communicate with grace and ease. It will allow you to present yourself to others, as well as making them feel comfortable with the conversation at hand. Although this may seem clear, it is important for small businesses to provide telemarketing sales training to in house phone callers and to consider the level of phone skills that exists when outsourcing telemarketing.  The following skills are basic but can make the difference between successful telemarketing and failure. The first skill is to immediately introduce yourself and state why you are calling. Ambiguous introductions in a call can leave the call’s receiver uneasy and not relaxed. They may question your motives. Clearly establish your purpose. If you are calling for a sales pitch, clarify. If there’s a problem, identify it. This is not to say you must be blatant. You can be selective with your words to give a more positive message. Instead of calling it a sales passage, you can relabel this by using positive language to obtain a positive reaction, or for the receiver to keep listening. Use words that ask for the help of the receiver. Also indicate what they can specifically do. Personalizing to fit the individual will help them feel involved as well as a need to act. Aligned with keeping the conversation personal, ask questions that directly relate to the receiver. Ask about his experience with the product or service. People are interested in talking about themselves, and this is in outlet to do so, that allows for relaxation. As the receiver settles in, you are finding a groove with them, which will allow you in for your ultimate pitch. It is important to address any concerns or questions the receiver may have during the call. If the subject is not within your particular jurisdiction, help the receiver by providing information to who can help them. This will also gain trust, and keep the relationship open. Having this information available to the receiver will also improve his opinion of the company and its efficiency. The pitch is a critical part of the phone call. It will determine how it will ultimately end, and if you achieve your objective. When pitching, pitch to the individual. Before the pitch, cultivate knowledge about them. If they like this feature or are looking for something that will help with some aspect, recycle this bit into the pitch. If they want video editing software, and the new product has better features in this department, point this out! Do not waste their time with information that they do not care about. Tailor the information to the individual at hand. This will improve your chances of success with the call. The pitch must also show why it’s important. Show how it will impact them, AND how it can impact others. When the pivotal point is reached where they must now make a decision, be prepared. They may not agree with you. This does not mean that you should give up. Back up your reasoning. It is important to use already established points here. It is more important to make a solid point of a few ideas than to create a weak argument of several varied points that are not consistent. Repeat the value of the editing software; repeat what can be achieved with the receivers help. Then ask again. Do not ask the same way. Try a new approach. If asking for donations, ask for a smaller amount. If selling an elaborate product, try offering a small package, or a free trial. If the receiver still declines, you have one more try. It is important to try three times, to offer alternative solutions, as well as to make sure their no is definite. Try another approach. The key is to always be polite, compassionate and understanding. In this difficult economic time, many people will not be able to afford your services. When they decline, make sure you tell them that you understand how difficult it is. If you align yourself with them, instead of against them, you are more likely to gain their patronage in the future. Being polite is simple, but important. It leaves the customer with a satisfied reaction, even if he is not aware of why. When finishing the conversation, thank the receiver. Even if he has not given you his patronage, he has given you his time. If he has donated or bought a product of yours, make sure to repeat this to him, and thank him once again. Finally ask him if he has any further questions. Leaving the conversation on this note shows that you are working for him and addressing his concerns. It also will leave him with a positive impression of your company. Phone skills are important to selling the process, as well as creating connections all over the world. Even office personal will benefit from phone training, since they are your interface with your prospects and customers and will cast your public image. With phone training, your staff will soon be personable on the phone as well as on the web.

The reality is that 99% of attempts to succeed online fail. While this is sad, the reality is that this doesn’t have to be the result. Startup businesses that treat their online presence as a serious business endeavor know that there needs to be a business plan and that this doesn’t need to be a thesis. At minimum it needs to address business goals, steps to those goals and what resources exist to get there.

Business goals need to be defined. Startup business plans always need to include what the expected destination will be. Image that you are going on vacation and have no idea where you are going as you get in your car. How do you pack for such a trip? You might end up in Florida with a suitcase full of ski clothing. As obvious as this may seem, many online businesses start out pretty clueless about this.

Step 1 Pick an online business monetization model. The four ways to make money online are:

• Ecommerce model – this applies to any business that has a product or service to sell online.
• Lead generation model – this is the cost per action (CPA) approach where information is sold to other businesses
• Advertising model – this applies to sites that are rich with content and attract lots of information seekers and repeat visitors. The site makes money through pay per click and affiliate products. It relies heavily on high traffic and repeat visitors.
• Support – this applies to businesses that specialize in solving customer problems

Once your business model has been defined (“your travel destination”) you can figure out the steps needed to get you there. In some cases, there will be overlap of models but one will prevail as dominant.

Step 2 Identify the steps you need to accomplish your goals. Here are the minimum requirements for online success:

• Keyword research – This is a crucial first step that is most often skipped or done in a shoddy manner. It accounts for the majority of startup business online failure. It is so critical to be done right, yet most startups fail to take the time to fully research it. They make the mistake of brainstorming keywords that “sound” right. If they do any keyword research they usually stop after identifying keywords that are highly searched. They don’t continue the investigation by finding out how much competition exists for those keywords. They don’t determine whether the people searching on those terms are information seekers (and will never buy anything) or actual buyers. Keyword research needs all three of these components. If one of these is missing, it is extremely likely that the website will not succeed.
• An SEO friendly website – Failure to develop a search engine optimized (SEO) website is another typical and huge mistake that startup businesses make online. Unfortunately, the main focus is on looks (whether that be “pretty”, “trendy”, or professional). Many startups make the mistake of using web designers who know little or anything at all about SEO. They are graphic designers who will make a site look terrific but will be a coding nightmare for search engine spiders. They often include excessive amounts of flash (spiders are just starting to be able to make some sense of it) and dynamic scripts (e.g. spiders cannot read JavaScript). The focus should not be on creating the most beautiful website but rather on the most functional one that has high visitor usability.
• Great content – Sites need to provide the content that is highly relevant to the expected audience and that is also of great quality. It must contain the right keyword weight, frequency and proximity. The content needs to be chunked in a way that makes it easy for visitors to find and consumed. It needs to have correct spelling and grammar.
• An obvious call to action that is easy to execute. Anything that is frustrating to your visitor is likely to send them away (even if they are in the midst of your shopping cart).
• Web analytics – Business owners need to follow the Japanese concept of kaizen. This is looking for ways to make continuous improvement. Web analytics is essential for all web businesses. It can tell you about the way visitors enter and exit your site, how long they stay, what pages lead them on and which ones cause them to leave and so forth. Web analytics will tell you where your site needs to make improvement otherwise you will be completely clueless as to why the traffic your site gets does not convert.
• Marketing strategies – This includes developing organic search engine traffic (developing back links etc.), PPC and Social Media strategies.
• Business processing software – Systems that automate your business will cut down costs, prevent follow up failure and make your business manageable. This is important even no matter what size business you have. If you are a solo entrepreneur, it can be the difference between having free time or not.

Step 3 Evaluation of your resources:

The first thing to realize is that there a lot of technical steps that need to be done. Startup businesses need to determine what in house skill sets exist and what needs to be outsourced. Solo entrepreneurs and small business owners typically have the “must do it yourself” attitude. This can be a formula for online businesses that are unprofessional looking, never get found online, and never get passed the formulation/beginning stage of development. It is not necessary to learn HTML, JavaScript and PHP. It is not necessary to become and SEO or analytics wizard. It is however, essential to know that you need these things. This is why so very many of online businesses fail. They are missing so many crucial elements because of not knowing or by doing things in an incomplete, haphazard and non-professional manner.

Evaluation of resources includes determining what can and should be done by whom. It includes deciding on how to allocate funds so that your business will grow. The reality is that most individuals to not have all the skill sets that are needed to do the required tasks of a successful online business. Getting the help of experts is the most cost effective route. Fortunately, getting expert help for an online business is highly affordable; especially compared to the costs of starting an offline business. Many do-it-yourselfers turn to “magic bullet” solutions. Startup businesses need to evaluate the benefits of the many do it yourself type of products that are available from internet gurus. While many of these products do have value, the cost in terms of time to learn how to effectively use them (and the energy involved) must be considered. How many products will be needed for the do-it-yourself approach? Will the product do what it says? The reality is that the cost of hiring professionals is often the same or less than attending workshops and buying products. After the workshop is over, small business owners still need to attend to execution of the details whereas hiring a professional accomplished this.

There is no doubt that startup businesses who follow this three step blueprint will distinguish themselves from the vast majority of new online businesses that fail.