Just what is freemium, and why use it?

The word “freemium” is a portmanteau of “free” and “premium.” In the strictest sense, this means offering a potential customer a set of free tools to get them hooked on the product, at which point you can then encourage them to upgrade to a more feature-rich, paid version. A good example is the social media management platform, HootSuite, which is a social media management tool that allows free users to schedule future posts for multiple profiles at once, so they can process their social media activity in one place and time rather than piecemeal. However, the companies with the highest social media activities are happy to pay the reasonable $9.99 rate for the premium version, which allows users to schedule in bulk and take advantage of powerful analytics that help them evaluate the effectiveness of their efforts.

But freemium doesn’t have to mean relying solely on the upgrade model, which does come with the risk that your users will stay stuck in the free mode. In fact, many businesses get even more creative by offering useful tools that are related to, but ultimately separate from, their core services in order to establish their usefulness and expertise before the customer has even signed on. Let’s take a look at a few traditional and tool-based examples of freemium business models that have done very well in attracting customers.

1. Shutterstock Color Spectrum

Shutterstock is a stock photo company with a rich library of photos to offer business, owners, bloggers and individuals alike. Though they do offer a tiered pricing structure, their freemium efforts come in the form of their color spectrum tool, which pairs the normal text-based image search with a color-based search. If, for instance, you sought an image that would blend in nicely with your green header, you could choose a green from the color spectrum and then further refine your results by adding a word like “forest.” Just like that, you’d have a full range of photos that fit the bill, which, naturally, you now would have to add to your shopping cart and pay for. In this way, the company manages to demonstrate use and show off their stunning library of photos to both the casual browser and loyal consumer alike, while also hooking users on their products and ushering them into a paid model.

Lesson Learned: Don’t let a paywall block potential customers from trying out your products. Build tools they already need with features that bring them right into your paid services.

2. Pandora’s Reverse Freemium Model

In its earliest days, the music streaming site, Pandora, had a classic freemium model. Users received ten free hours, and then had to pay $36 per year after that. This attracted a good 100,000 listeners in the first few weeks of business alone, but very few sign-ups past those first ten hours.

To address this problem, before the company even had advertisers, the company coded a new ad-supported option, changing the model so that free users had to sit through ads while premium users could go ad-free. Not only did the premium sign-ups almost instantly quadruple, but advertisers started calling almost as quickly as well. Though only 1.6 to 1.7 percent of users paid for premium services in 2010, that was a whopping 300,000 people, bringing in 15% of total company revenue in that year alone.

Lesson Learned: You might not pick the right freemium model right off of the bat. Both of the models Pandora adopted hinge on an idea that can draw a big user base with only a small percentage paying for the services. This might not be possible for a more service-based company. Know what kind you’ve got before choosing a freemium model.

3. Meta CDN Site Speed Test

The company Meta CDN is in the business of speeding up content delivery, video encoding, and streaming – a crucial service as websites and business owners embrace the concept of “content is king.” What better way to show off what the company can do than by providing a free tool to help business owners test the speed of their sites? This tool page is actually a great example of an optimized landing page, filled with easy to parse explanatory text and multiple calls to action that do an admirable job of making an otherwise highly technical product understandable and compelling. Interested parties can even compare the speed of their site to that of a competitor to see how they’re measuring up. With such relevant data in hand, potential customers will be highly motivated to sign up for the company’s service.

Lesson Learned: Every product or service solves a problem, but the nature of that problem isn’t always inherently obvious to the customer. Provide a free tool to illustrate that problem so that customers will pay to fix it.

4. Simply Business Knowledge Center

What does business and landlord insurance have to do with small business advice? A lot, if your desired customers are small business owners. That’s something the company Simply Business, which provides insurance to a wide range of small businesses, knows well and puts on display in their Knowledge Center. Here, businesses can find a number of rich, expert resources on a number of small business issues. The content is of course provided for free, with the hope that some percentage of visitors will convert into paying insurance customers, having been convinced of the company’s expertise in small business matters. The resource center goes a long way towards establishing both expertise and reputation, which will increase the likelihood that visitors will share their resources and draw further visitors to the site.

Lesson Learned: Free resources don’t have to be a direct outgrowth of your services. Look at your customers’ from a more holistic level to determine their most pressing concerns. Then, if you’ve got expert knowledge, share it.

Take-Away

The freemium model is a powerful way to attract and retain loyal customers. Choose your approach for providing free value, think carefully about the number of customers you need to convert in order to make your freemium efforts profitable, and watch your product take off from there.

Take a look inside the offices of the world’s biggest corporations, and you’ll likely see a distinctive theme: a lack of workers. Or at least, that’s how it might first appear, as more companies than ever are taking advantage of remote workers, who could be telecommuting from their home office around the corner or an internet cafe halfway around the world.

The benefits of using remote workers are myriad, both for companies and workers themselves, and it should come as no surprise that as many 10% of all US companies were using remote workers back in 2009. Remote workers tend to be self-starters, leveraging their flexible work style to get more done. Along the way, they reduce the cost of overhead, allowing companies to grow without having to invest in more space.

However, working remotely does have risks both for the employer and employee. Many remote workers, for instance, report feelings of isolation — a disconnect that often manifests itself in being passed over for promotions, and can, in the long-term harm motivation and performance at work. In order to grow a truly thriving remote workplace, company managers will need to think strategically about ways to support remote employees and include them in the corporate culture. Here are a few ways to do just that.

1. Invest in the Cloud for Seamless Collaboration

Whether it’s remote workers or that lone office worker finishing up a presentation on a tablet on her train ride home, today’s workforce operates in an increasingly decentralized fashion. This is all the more so as the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) phenomenon spreads in popularity, and more workers are operating not just from physically disparate locales but also on platforms that may not be compatible with one another.

By far, the simplest solution for bridging hardware, software and geographic gaps is the cloud. For the uninitiated, who might find a good guide to cloud computing by Xero Accounting useful, the cloud in its simplest form is the idea of storing data on remote rather than company servers, and accessing that data through the internet. It is this access point — cloud software — that can help companies control how users work and where their data goes, allowing for tighter control over data and seamless collaboration among employees.

A few essential cloud collaboration tools include:

• Basecamp for Project Management: With Basecamp, project managers can create project boards and easily assign tasks to teammates with clear due dates and reminders. This will create high visibility so that everyone on a remote team stay on top of their teammates’ tasks as well as their own.

• Google Drive for Storage and Collaboration: When a worker is located halfway across the world, it’s hard to feel like you’re working on something together in real time. Except if you’re using any one of the Google Drive products, including Google Docs, Spreadsheets or Projects. With these tools, just add a collaborator via email to the file, and they’ll be able to make edits at the same time, as well as adding comments in a smooth conversational chain. Remote workers will feel like they’re right there.

• Dropbox for Storage: Remote team members often operate in a variety of time zones. This can be a real problem for productivity if, say, a team member in China needs a document from someone in San Francisco to proceed with a task. The online storage service, Dropbox, helps reduce this wait time by encouraging all team members to store files in their cloud. Just grant all team members access to the relevant folder, and they’ll always have what they need.

Thanks to the popularity of cloud computing and remote working, there are many more cloud-based solutions than just this. We recommend taking a good look through this collaboration guide for more tips.

2. Use Video Streaming to Hold Inclusive Meetings

Just because your remote team isn’t in a room together, doesn’t mean they can’t be in a room together. In fact, the effective manager of remote workers will hold more meetings than their in-person counterpart, as a means of keeping their remote team constantly in the loop. It would be best, for instance, to have regular status update meetings once a week, if not more. Some teams will actually benefit from quick virtual stand-up meetings once a day.

While conference calls can be somewhat effective, remote workers often find themselves ignored on the line, or drifting off, which can be a factor in creating feelings of isolation. Video technology is particularly effective at eliminating this feeling. While there are good paid options like Gotomeeting, a Skype call can be just as effective (and free) for one-on-one meetings, and Google Hangout is great for group meetings, as it toggles between speakers.

No matter what, it’s important that the remote worker also have an in-office mentor or liaison — that one person they can reach out to should the going get tough. Even a ten minute weekly mentor meeting should be an effective way to keep the remote worker feeling cared for and in the loop.

3. Set Clear Standards

One risk inherent with remote workers is adopting an “out of sight, out of mind” mentality, in which the manager either loses track of their remote employees or fails to see the harm in making last minute requests to this unseen, highly productive entity. That’s why it’s important to set ground rules and standards from day one. These might include rules about just what a remote worker’s role is and who they are and are not allowed to contact, regular performance assessments, a discussion of team standards, and training on all relevant technology. You may also want to establish a probationary period to see how things go. Many of these standards are similar to what you would apply to an in-office worker, but they become all the more important in the remote setting, where you can’t just pop into someone’s office to see what’s been getting done.

4. Hangout on Social Media

Every company lives and dies by its corporate culture. But it can be difficult to have those team-building, water cooler exchanges when, well, there’s no water cooler. There is, however, social media. Savvy companies will benefit from embracing tools like Google+, which has easy to limit sharing circles, to foster informal conversations. This could range from social status updates about what an employee did last weekend, to the announcement of a new client win or even an intellectual discussion about industry-specific innovations. Closed Facebook or LinkedIn discussion boards or groups are also great for this, as are inside joke email chains that include remote workers on the recipient list. Company blogs are also an effective way to both establish expertise publicly and foster camaraderie in comment chains.

5. Hangout in Person

All of that said, sometimes, there’s just no beating a little in-person interaction. Whether it’s a yearly company retreat somewhere fun or you pay for your remote workers to attend a conference together, it’s important to get everyone together once in a while for those impromptu exchanges. Nothing glues a team into one solid whole like being able to reminisce about hilarious/cheesy/miserable/ridiculous/you-name-it moments together.

Take-Away

Today’s workplace is becoming increasingly remote, and it seems primed to become all the more so in coming years. This is an overwhelmingly good development, as remote workers increase flexibility both for companies and workers as a whole. However, to make the most of a remote workforce, it’s important that companies think out their management strategies strategically and take full advantage of cloud technology.

Work from home photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

Google Fiber is a fiber-optic network with a connection speed that is 100 times faster than America’s average (1000 Mb per second). It’s Google’s foray into the world of Internet Service Providers (ISP), and should have a dramatic impact on
our activities online.

At the moment, Fiber is being introduced (albeit slowly) in Kansas City, where a couple of neighborhoods have transformed into ‘fiber-hoods’, with Google picking up the pace and getting more neighborhoods connected throughout this year. Installation is a long, complicated process (check out their official video); whereby you’re expected to pre-register, then hang around until enough people in your area fancy trying it out, too.

As well as this, Google is “100% focused on Kansas City right now,” so if you’re hoping to get Fiber where you are, you’ll have a long wait. Your best bet for faster internet is checking out this networking guide to improve your connection speed.

What’s it got to do with TV?

Google’s plans to transform the web also extend to your TV consumption. Along with their gigabit internet connection, they’ve introduced Google Fiber TV, which allows users to easily watch video from lots of different sources (such as hundreds of channels of programming, video on demand, online streaming and DVR and personal recordings), and this, they’re saying, is going to drastically change the way in which we watch our favorite shows.

Is it any good?

Google thinks that by offering advanced DVR functionality (allowing users to record up to eight TV programs at once) and enhanced interactive search capabilities (so that you can stream content from third party services like Netflix), all in the extremely high quality HD allowed by the speed of their connection, we’ll all come flocking from our current TV providers.

But will we? Google has yet to sign up all of the big names in cable programming, and are missing HBO, AMC and Fox News. Their ‘Holy Grail’ of TV navigational systems allows you to search what you want to watch, so they can show you every place it’s playing, making your program accessible through one, easy to use interface.

What about the future?

DVR has already revolutionized the way we watch TV, kinds of programs we get, the networks that carry them, the ads that pay for it all. Even old fashioned Electronic Program Guides had network execs panicking, as we no longer had to endure anything we didn’t want to. Fox, CBS and NBC all sued Dish Network over their AutoHop ad-skipping service.

So surely, Google Fiber TV is bound to go even further towards ‘empowering the couch potato.’ Throw mobile devices into the mix and we’re entering a whole new world of viewer controlled programming, watching whatever, whenever and wherever you want.

So what does it all mean? Less direct advertising? Shows being sponsored? More product placement? The TV and advertising industries have proven themselves time and time again to be innovative when confronted with a challenge. I for one can’t wait to see what they come up with this time.

Here’s a trivia question for you. Which is better: B2B or B2C? The answer, of course, depends on the product you’re selling and just how you like conducting business. If you’ve chosen the B2C path, you’ve likely already encountered a number of advantages, whether you’ve found yourself innovating to meet the needs of a large and diverse customer base or leaping over those low barriers of entry into new, untapped areas of the market. However, B2C also comes with a myriad of disadvantages that can throw any business off track. Just what are these disadvantages and how have other successful B2C companies overcome them? Here, we take a look.

1. Higher Cost of Doing Business

From direct sellers to businesses that generate revenue through advertising, going B2C usually means a higher cost of doing business. While the individual pieces of inventory for B2B tend on a whole to be more expensive, B2B customers tend to be better funded, more consistent and more stable than B2C customers, somewhat mitigating the risk of purchasing large-scale business machinery and raw materials or commodities.

This makes B2B inventory purchasing decisions a relatively simple affair, while B2C is much more unpredictable, changing with customer whims and requiring much more in-depth market analysis. B2C companies risk either streamlining their stock to the point of being irrelevant, or over-diversifying their stock and then not being able to unload inventory.

There are also high administrative costs in processing such a diversity of orders. B2C companies often require a greater number of employees with broader expertise (especially in the marketing department), and often run the risk of developing a costly and bloated workforce.

Case Study Solution: Keep It Simple Like Craigslist
Take a look at the most innovative tech companies out there, and you’ll notice a pattern: efficiency. The chart at the beginning of this post, for instance, makes the argument that the most effective companies are those that generate the most revenue per employee. And the king of doing just that is Craigslist, which generates approximately $3,330,000 per each one of its scant 30 employees.

How does the company do it? By keeping its mission close to its roots, and not making profit its central goal, a fact CEO Jim Buckmister has emphasized in interviews. While the company may extend its revenue generating strategies to advertising, that’s about as far as they plan on going. Instead, they’re sticking to their relatively inexpensive and easy to understand product, as well as the business model that got them where they are today.

Lesson learned: Do what you do best with the least people possible.

2. Middlemen

From lead generators to countless processing stops along the supply chain, middlemen are both common in B2C businesses and expensive. Often times, the cost of middlemen is either passed on to the customers, or, if there’s a price level cap, eaten by the business itself, thereby limiting its budget and preventing the company from taking important risks or making innovative change in the long term.

Case Study Solution: Go Direct Like Flower Muse
Just because bigger players in the market have established a long, complicated supply chain as the norm, doesn’t mean smaller (or any other) players have to follow suit. Just take a look at Flower Muse: when they ship mini calla lilies, for example, they don’t ship them to a warehouse where the flowers then sit for days until enough orders have been added to the shipment (as is standard in the flower industry). Nor are they made to sit at an importer’s. Instead, the lilies are shipped right to the customer from the farms where they grow, arriving in much better shape and lasting for much longer in the vase. This makes customers feel like they’ve purchased a better product — one that is more of an investment than those bouquets that need to be tossed out in three days — and are therefore more loyal.

Lesson learned: Cut the middlemen out and emphasize the quality of the product over reduced
costs on the backend.

3. Customer Support

For companies big and small, developing the infrastructure needed to adequately deal with customer inquiries can be a cumbersome burden. Emails go unanswered, or are responded to long after the customer has given up. In times of crisis, there aren’t enough people to answer the phones; and, when they do, they may not have the training they need to fully empathize with the customer experience. Calls may also be routed to another country where the accents are thick, which can frustrate customers even further. All of this can lead to lost revenue, or at the very least, a lack of passion about the brand.

Case Study Solution: Make Everyone Happy Like Zappos

It’s hard to find a company that does customer service quite as well as Zappos. In fact, in an interview with Business Insider, senior brand manager Michelle Thomas is quoted as saying, “The one constant is that we are a service company that happens to sell__________ (fill in the blank).”

In other words: customer service is so baked into the company’s DNA, they consider it to be their primary product. This value is passed on to the company’s famously happy customer service staff in four weeks of initial training. The lessons learned here are numerous, so we’re going to list them out:

1. Respond quickly. Use an email auto-responder if you have to, but make sure a customer receives some kind of response as quickly as possible, and the follow-up is just as rapid.
2. The customer is always right. If the customer wants to make a return, let them make a return. Zappos is so into this idea, they actually encourage customers to try multiple shoes and return the ones they don’t like. You may lose money in the short term, but you’ll gain it right back in developing a long-term relationship with your customers.
3. Treat customers like unique individuals and reward your most loyal fans. Zappos customer service representatives don’t read from scripts. They relate to customers as people, and they reward their loyal customers with discount deals.
4. Go the extra mile. Or several miles, as when Zappos sent a representative in person to buy a discontinued shoe from a competitor store and delivered it in-person to a customer who had forgotten her pair on her Vegas vacation. If that doesn’t breed brand loyalty and evangelism, I don’t know what will.

4. Large and Segmented Consumer Base

One of the biggest disadvantages of B2C commerce is that the consumer base is large and segmented. And you know what happens when you get too many cooks in a kitchen: everyone wants to add a dash of their own spice. B2C businesses often find themselves receiving input and feedback that’s all over the map, which can cause them to spread themselves far too thin. This is actually a pretty common phenomenon among entrepreneurs, who constantly hear the feedback, “This is cool! I wish it also had…” But a jack of all trades is a master of none, and B2C businesses that overextend themselves will find themselves trying to compete in too many markets at once.

Case Study Solution: Find Your Niche Like Lehman’s

No matter what the business or industry, determining who needs your product or service and getting the attention of the consumer group most likely to be a prospective customer is absolutely crucial. Just think about it. Would you be more likely to buy a car from a dealer who sells a little bit of this and a little bit of that, or would you buy from the dealer that not only has the exact car you’re looking for but who also understands why you want that car and just what you’re looking for throughout the buying process?

Yes, you may lose some customers in the process, but you’ll gain a lot more, as you’ll be able to market yourself much more effectively. Several strategies include marketing yourself as an expert resource, developing much more targeted elevator speeches, and finding much more accurate analytics as you track your customers’ interests online.

Need proof? Just look at Lehman’s, a company that began by selling products to help the Amish continue living the way they so chose.

While the company now has a diverse customer base, the common thread is still there: Lehman’s sells products to people looking to preserve or recreate a certain way of life. And we know it because the company can sum up their entire business model in one sentence, “Lehman’s ships old-fashioned, non-electric merchandise all over the world through our catalogs and website.”

Lesson Learned: Don’t be afraid to narrow your customer base, just like a B2B business. Become a leader of something small rather than getting lost in something big.

Take-Away

While the B2C business model does have several disadvantages, there are many ways to overcome them. Overall, the key is focus, focus, focus. Streamline that business model, narrow that customer base, target that market, and care about your customers, and your business is sure to excel.

Business strategy image provided my Shutter Stock.

It’s crucial to your small business’ success that you have a clear online presence. Most consumers get their product and service information on the internet, and if your business is not on the internet, you’re missing a huge customer base.
Previously, maintaining a website was expensive, as you had to hire a developer, and could not make changes on your own without your developer. But with the emergence of WordPress, and sites like it, you can now build and maintain your website, all DIY. Even though using WordPress is fairly easy, it can be difficult to know where to start. Here, we outline three simple starting points.

1. Choose Your Domain Name

Your domain name is the name of your site (i.e. mybusiness.com), which instantly tells viewers what your business is about. Choosing a domain name is fairly straight forward, but there are several tips you should keep in mind:

• Make it unique – Your domain name should be unique to your business. Do a quick Google search of potential domain names that you’re thinking of using, to see if any of them exist. Do not use a domain name that already exists, or has a close relative. If you use a domain name that is very similar to another domain name, that could cause a lot of confusion for your customers.
• Think about keywords – Brainstorm a list of keywords that people might use when searching for your business (i.e. best car wash), and use those keywords in your domain name. By using keywords in your domain name, you have already set yourself on the path to ranking well in search results for those keywords.
• Keep it simple, short, and easy to remember – Nobody is going to remember the name of your site and refer their friends to it, if they can’t remember your domain name. Your domain name needs to be short (easy to type), and easy to remember in order to be successful by word of mouth.

2. Design

The design of your website is very important to how your audience views your business. If you have a traditional business, don’t use a super trendy, nontraditional web design. Make sure your site matches the goals of your business and culture.

Choosing a design for your WordPress site can be a bit overwhelming, because there are over 1,500 free WordPress themes to choose from. While it might feel adventurous and exciting to pick an outlandish theme, keep in mind that you are promoting your business, and there are more business appropriate themes to choose from.

Choosing plugins is also something you need to consider when designing your site. Plugins are features that can extend the usability of your site (i.e. Google maps, search bar, calculator, calendar), and can be great tools for you and your customers. There are several lists of business specific plugins that can help you grow your site. There are literally thousands of WordPress plugins, but don’t overdo it. Carefully choose which plugins will be most beneficial to you.

3. Hosting

Hosting is a more technical aspect of having a website, but, with the right knowledge, it’s very approachable. Hosting, or a web hosting service, allows your website to be accessible on the internet. WordPress recommends three hosting services:

• Bluehost offers WordPress auto-install, which provides updates within 24-hours, unlimited disk storage, unlimited monthly data transfer, unlimited domains on one account, and one free domain name.
• Dreamhost offers one-click install, auto-updates, unlimited hosted domains, a free domain name, unlimited disk space, bandwidth, and email addresses.
• Laughing Squid is independently owned and operated service, which caters to artists, individuals, bloggers, non-profits, and small businesses.
• Many services offer one-click installation, like Dreamhost, which makes it easier and faster to install WordPress.

What’s Next?

If you’re interested in using WordPress to get your business online, but need an in-depth guide to getting started, refer to the infographic guide below, created by Simply Business.

Click image to open interactive version (via Simply Business).

There are two parts of a web store that can truly make or break your online sales business: the design of the site itself and the merchandising. We’ll talk about both in detail and give some examples of what works best.

1. Overall Design

The best analogue to having clean, stocked aisles, short checkout lines, and well-paved parking in the online world is having an intuitive user experience. Because your goal as a seller is to allow buyers a short, easy path from the top of the purchasing funnel to the bottom, your website needs to make sense to as many web users as possible. Here are the basics we’ll need to incorporate into your website:

Load Time. Fast load time is absolutely crucial. Kissmetrics identifies a dramatic uptick in page abandonment (bounce) rates after a four-second load time, with roughly a third of visitors leaving after ten seconds of waiting.
Product Selection. In general, having a greater product selection is usually better, but you need to be careful not to overwhelm your customers. If you have too many products available your customers might experience decision paralysis, and actually choose not to buy anything because they can’t decide.
Navigation. Your site should always adhere to the best practices of web design when it comes to user experience in navigation. Some ecommerce sites seem to operate under the assumption that shoppers do not want to browse, but this is simply not true.
Clean Checkout. Any ecommerce platform should have two goals in creating their checkout and payment systems—make it easy to pay, and reassure the customer that the transaction is safe. Of course, this means that the transaction actually should be safe.
Beautiful Look and Feel. While the web savvy will be able to instantly spot quality in any site that follows the above tips, the general populace will want a visual cue to the quality of the site. A good-looking home page can go a long way, like this example from Me and Mommy-to-be
Mobile Friendly. Keep in mind, we live in a mobile revolution. Everything from mobile websites, mobile software, mobile find my phone services, etc. Your customers will now be come from a variety of devices. Optimizing for these visitors will lead to a far better experience with your brand.

There are more great ideas on visual branding here.

2. Merchandising

Merchandising online is essential—the one great disadvantage of the web over brick-and-mortar is the fact that customers cannot pick up your product, try it on, or interact with it physically. In order to overcome this disadvantage, web retailers need to engage customers, using these three broad goals, as identified by the Online Merchandising Index:

Encourage Discovery. In order to get your customers to the products they are looking for, the site should provide a robust search feature, where results are sortable by a variety of different attributes, and can be refined after the fact. Consider adding functionality that allows for searching by feature values, as Alternative Apparel has done here:

Provide Visualization. It is imperative that high quality, high resolution images accompany every product you sell. The images will generally not be particularly large on a product page, so you should provide color swatches for all available colors and patterns and a mouse-over zoom that allows the product image to be seen at the original image size and quality.

It is generally also considered best practice to provide a “quick view” feature, in which a window with product details pops up over the existing page, allowing a user to see more information without loading an entire new page.

Maintain Engagement. Though visual cues are very important in generating sales, a human interaction is also essential. Online businesses should have social media profiles, and web stores should have social media widgets, and recommend products based on a user’s previous purchases.

Of course, the best advice for any online seller is this: build a community. When you have people who love your products and service, you can’t help but succeed.

Just the word “travel” sounds adventurous. Unless, of course, you travel for work, in which case it’s more likely to tie your stomach into knots than to pique your imagination. In fact, when you’re traveling several times a month or even more, you’ve got to get strategic to make your trips bearable. Here are a few ways to do just that.

Plan Ahead

Sure, sometimes you can get away with a last minute dash to the airport and a hastily packed bag, but for regular travelers, planning ahead will allow you to maintain a little bit of normality on the road.

• Pack lightly but strategically. Don’t even think about checking that bag. Pack only the clothing you know you’ll wear, making sure to follow TSA guidelines carefully when it comes to toiletries and other limited items. Make sure to wrap any liquids, too, so you don’t find a mess on the other side. Bring a good pair of headphones to keep you entertained on the road, and consider buying a tablet or an ultrabook rather than lugging a large laptop. You’ll want to pack cash, too, as there’s a lot of tipping involved in travel, and you may even want to consider keeping a bag constantly packed with a duplicate set of clothes, so you don’t have to re-pack every time you head out the door again.

• Research your destination. If you’re planning on squeezing in some sightseeing, do a little research on top sites ahead of time, as well as any restaurants or cafes where you can work during your off time. Business travel can also be a great opportunity to reach out to old contacts or people you know from social media to do a little networking while you’re in town, either directly for your company or to extend your own professional reach.

Develop a Routine

All of that said, for the frequent business traveler, extras like sightseeing and networking can be exhausting. If you’re finding yourself too worn down when it’s time to do the job you’ve actually been sent to do, it’s time to develop a travel routine that’s as normal to everyday life as possible — no guilt needed.

• Stay on your own time zone. There’s no use getting adjusted to a new time zone if you’re only going to be in it for a couple of days. Keep your sleeping and rising habits as regular as possible.

• Find the time for exercise. Whether it’s seeking out an in-airport gym (they exist!) or heading down to that single elliptical in the hotel basement, maintaining your exercise routine will keep you feeling normal and ready to tackle the day. You may want to consider joining a national gym chain, so you can workout in franchises across the country.

• Eat right. Rich, fancy dinners are tempting to indulge in when the company is paying. But you’ll feel better if you stick to whole grains, lean meats, vegetables, or whatever you count as your normal diet. This can be difficult to accomplish on the road, but even a McDonald’s salad is better than the fries. Keep your own stash of healthy snacks like almonds or whole grain crackers or cereal around for those panicked moments when the meeting runs over and hunger hits.

• Say no. Just because an old acquaintance from college notes via Facebook that you’re headed her way, doesn’t mean you have to meet up. Prioritize your sanity and relaxation first.

Book Intelligently

All booking methods aren’t born equal, nor are all flights. Take the time to do it right.

• Use better booking tools. Business trips are usually a whirlwind, and timing is key. Use a tool like Hipmunk, which visualizes available flights on a timeline, rather than just by price. This makes it easier to see where various flights will fit into your schedule, and it’s also simple to email fellow traveling colleagues through the system to see what works for them. And, of course, if someone else is booking your tickets, make sure to double check the spelling of your name, so there are no misunderstandings at the airport.

• Avoid red eye flights. You may feel like they allow you more time in your destination city, but fatigue is sure to take a bite out of your energy levels. Stick to reasonable hours.

• Book your transport for there and back. Don’t forget to account for travel time to and from the airport in your schedule, and to make appropriate travel arrangements ahead of time, whether it’s a shuttle, a private car, or the train.

Buy Trip Insurance

If you don’t think trip insurance is necessary, you’re flying in the face of 124 million American who bought insurance in 2010. The fact is, if you travel frequently, you have a 100% chance of running into trouble, whether it’s canceled flights, delays, lost luggage, injury or illness while you’re away.

In fact, every 1 in 6 people who buys travel insurance will at some point make a claim. While credit cards and travel companies do offer some form of insurance, they often come at a high cost and don’t cover nearly as much as a travel insurance company would. All of these things make travel insurance a savvy investment. For the best rates and coverage, take advantage of all that a travel insurance comparison site has to offer.

Dress Well

It’s important to look presentable when flying, especially in business class, as you never what connections you might make. However, don’t overdo it with an uncomfortable heel or overly stiff suits. Make sure your clothing is something you could wear for a long time if you get stranded somewhere, and that your shoes will enable you to rush through the airport and stand on jerky shuttles between terminals. Or, at the very least, pack comfortable options in your carry-on.

With a little forethought and the right tools at your disposal, business travel doesn’t have to be a pain. Just do you research ahead of time, find the routine that works for you, and make the most of your time away on the company dime!

Business travel photo courtesy of Shutterstock

Whether you’re paying for that latte with Google Wallet or simply checking your balances, mobile banking is the wave of the future. And with an estimated 30 million people using some form of mobile banking, it’s very much the present, too. With advantages like being able to check balances, depositing checks via text message, monitoring investments, paying for goods and much more — all whenever you like, wherever you are and on a diversity of platforms — this shouldn’t really come as a surprise.

There’s just one thing holding the tide back: mobile banking security, about which there’s a surplus of misleading or inaccurate information. So just how secure is it? Let’s take a look at a few security threats, and see just what you can do about them.

The Problem: Forgetful Users

The great thing about mobile devices is their convenience. Just slip them into your purse or pocket, and you’re good to go. But what makes mobile devices convenient is also what makes them easy to lose. It’s one thing to abandon your device on a restaurant table, another thing entirely when that device functions as your wallet.

The Solution:

If you’re a forgetful person, don’t leave your device out when you’re not using it. Other than that, your risk really isn’t that much higher than losing your credit card. You might consider locking your device with a pin, making banking passwords complex and not saving them to your device, just in case you do lose it. You can also rest assured that, thanks to the GPS capabilities on your mobile devices, your bank will notice something suspicious when they see you banking from some place unusual and will contact you or freeze your account, just like they would with suspicious activity on a credit card.

The Problem: Phishing Schemes and Malware

You’ll probably recognize these security risks from your interactions with email and the web. Phishing, at its core, is anything that tricks users into revealing private information, like passwords, social security numbers, birth dates — you name it. Malware, on the other hand, is a piece of accidentally downloaded software that likewise accesses a user’s information or tries to capture keystrokes.

The Solution:

As it stands right now, mobile devices aren’t targeted nearly as frequently as PCs, though that’s likely to change as mobile banking grows in popularity. Use the same common sense as you would on your PC, like not clicking on links sent to you by a suspicious email address pretending to be your bank, which will send you to a “spoofed” site. You’ll also want to avoid offering your password or account information via text message, as well as downloading any applications you haven’t thoroughly checked out. Lastly, stick to official apps created by your bank, as the security standards tend to be high.

The Problem: Public WiFi Networks and Websites That Aren’t Secure

No matter how you slice it, public networks just aren’t that secure. In fact, it’s pretty easy even for an amateur to lift private data off of your smartphone or tablet with free software. And, just like when you’re browsing the web on your computer, it’s easy to stumble upon websites that are lax about security.

The Solution:

Avoid the temptation to check your balances over public WiFi, particularly when they don’t require a password. Yes, this cuts into your ability to “bank wherever you are,” but it’s better to stick with something you know is secure. When loading websites, look for the “s” at the end of “https” (signifies the network is secure) and the secure lock symbol in the address bar.

The Problem: Apps That Share Too Much Data

Even when your data is secure, it’s important to ensure it’s not being sold to third parties you don’t approve of.

The Solution:

Read the fine print on those privacy policies, and take the time to really research what they mean.

The Problem: The User

Yes, one of the biggest risks to the security of your mobile banking data is you. Will you be wary of unsolicited downloads? Will you follow crucial app update prompts? Will you keep your devices by your side? It all comes down to you.

Mobile banking does have its fair share of security risks, but no more so than doing regular online banking or even interacting with an ATM, onto which it’s easy to install a fraudulent card reader. In fact, mobile banking may be more secure, particularly as biometric security measures advance. One thing is clear: as long you remain vigilant, the convenience of mobile banking mostly outweigh the costs. So get swiping, and enjoy that latte.

Businessman using a credit card photo credit: Shutterstock photos

Maybe traveling somewhere specifically to see where a few movies were shot is a bit much for you. If that’s the case you should check out this map, created by the fine folks at Travelex Currency Exchange.

It allows you to see all the filming locations of IMDB’s top 250 movies, which is perfect if you’re traveling somewhere and you just want to pop by the filming location of one of your all time favorites. Big cities, especially LA, NYC, and London are movie hot spots, so if you’re heading to a metropolitan scene, you might get to see where several movies were filmed.   This interactive map lets you sort by your favorite movies, or you can simply click around the map to see what movies were filmed where.

(via Travelex Currency Exchange).

Chances are your business already has a blog, but if you’re just starting one here are some tips for blogging success.

Tips for Blogging Success:

• Establish some goals and metrics to measure your success – Do you want increased traffic? Do want to rank for keywords? Are having a lot of subscribers important to you?
• Make a schedule or blog calendar – Always stay on top with regular contributions to your blog. This becomes a lot easier if you have a team, but even if you’re a one man (or woman) show having a schedule and sticking to it will keep you on top.
• Stand out from the crowd – become an expert at something. Turn your blog into the place online where people go for expert opinions and advice or to learn the latest trend

Looking for more tips? The guide to business blogging from Simply Business is a life saver. It is a road map to blogging success.  Click the image to launch the interactive, the graphic links to articles and tools to better your blog

Click image to open interactive version (via Simply Business).

Common bogging pitfalls:

• Your business blog is too self-promotional. Yes, you probably make an excellent product, but your readership does not need to read about it in every post.  TIP: Become an expert in your niche and create useful information to inform, educate, and entertain your readers.
• If you’re a small business or an individual it is easy to lose the motivation to write resulting in fewer and fewer post. Many small blogs fall victim to this, I know I do. TIP: This is why a blog schedule is so important.  If you can work as a team or use guest bloggers.
• Don’t take yourself too serious. TIP: Blogging is FUN so have fun be!

If you enjoyed this Blogging Guide maybe you’ll enjoy Guide to Google Ad Words, the Productivity Guide, and/or the Step-by-Step Guide to Social Media Success

Cash flow is of vital importance to any business and even more so for small businesses and the self-employed. Although staying on top of your accounts may not be the most exciting part of your day-to-day routine there are a variety of simple organizational measures you can put in place to help clients pay more promptly for your services.

1. Have confidence in your terms of business

It is important to establish a written agreement between yourself and your client. Contracts help set out the all-important payment terms of your services early on and can help you and your clients avoid any misunderstandings further into your relationship. Consider offering multiple payment options to make it easier for your clients to pay promptly. Contracts are also an opportunity to outline late payment policies, which should discourage your clients from being lax with payments.

2. Locate the individual responsible for your payments

The person who processes your payment is likely to differ dependent on the size of your clients company. If your client is a small business it is likely that the business owner will be responsible for processing your payment. Larger companies will operate their payments through their accounting department. Log the name, telephone number and email address of the individual processing your invoices which will save you a great deal of time if you need to chase up outstanding payments.

3. Be prompt with your invoicing

The quicker you invoice your client, the more time they will have to send the payment. Most companies require an email or paper invoice before they can issue your payment and so delaying sending the invoice will only delay your payment. If your services require smaller sums of payment, such as freelance writing, make sure you log each service as a separate invoice and send them off together on a monthly basis.

This invoicing guide from the folks at Xero Accounting Software offers a great breakdown of the basics of setting up an efficient billing process if you need help getting the ball rolling.

4. Make your invoices clear and detailed

If your client is unsure what work or which service he or she is being asked to pay for they will be far less likely to complete the payment on time if at all. Itemize your invoices and provide a detailed description of the work. This will also help impress upon your client the amount of work you have put into the job, the time it has taken and the value of your work to their business.

5. Reminders

It is an unfortunate reality that on occasion you may experience a late payment. Do not fret – send a polite email reminder and if this goes unanswered do not shy away from making a phone call to the client. If you do choose to call, try and avoid the end of the working day when your client has less time to process your payment. Of course you do not wish to pester your client, which may damage your future relationship, but a brief reminder on the due date of your payment and once per week following this is reasonable.

Accounting photos courtesy of Shutterstock

This past May I participated in Seattle’s Cascade bicycle club’s commuter challenge. I recently switched jobs and my commute went from 25 miles by car to 5 miles by bike. That May was my first month riding and while it can get really rainy in Seattle I still managed to ride 70% of my work days for a total of 150 miles that May.

I told myself if the chance of rain was less that 40% I would ride. That May I burned an estimated 7,443 calories riding to work. It’s now nearly the end of September and I love riding to work. I realize that not everyone has a situation where it makes sense to ride a bike to work, but if you’re considering it maybe this infographic from BikeGuard will help you decide.

There are nearly 731,268 people who commute by bicycle, the following interactive graphic lets you switch between each state to see how each ranks. The District of Columbia has the largest percentage of bike commuters, followed by Oregon, and Alaska.

Click image to open interactive version (via BikeGuard).

Benefits of riding to work:

• The average person will burn 53-63 calories per mile
• Riding a bike will wake you up and put you in a better mood
• Save money on gas and maintenance for your car
• Mother nature will thank you
• Not having to deal with traffic jams

Tips of riding your bike to work for beginners:

• Wear a helmet – I don’t care if messes up your hair, wear one
• Obey traffic laws – many states require automobiles and bicycles to share the road. Learn hand signals and be courteous of motor vehicles, they will return the favor
• Bring a change of clothes – you are going to get sweaty
• Using a backpack is great but can make you more sweaty, consider using a bike rack with panniers
• Wearing sunglasses or glasses with clear, yellow, or amber lenses will keep road grime out of your eyes

According to the infographic more and more people are riding bikes to work each day. The green benefits and health benefits are proven. 731,268 people can’t be wrong about cycling to work. If you have any questions about riding to work, or if you have advice for a new commuter share them in the comments below.

Stock Image via BigStock Photo

Why You Should Use Video

Video has several clear advantages over text, namely personable branding and SEO benefits.

Personable Branding
Video allows for a simulated face-to-face experience, which is great for branding. By using video, companies can present a personable and sincere side to their business, which creates trust and loyalty in viewers.

SEO Benefits
There are two main SEO benefits that using video can provide: link building and conversion improvement.

• Links are still the way in which search engines determine the authority, or popularity, of a site. A link is counted as a “vote,” and the more votes a site has, the more the search engines consider it authoritative. People link more to pages with video, and embed video on their pages more.

• Through increasing engagement and trust, video content can be a great way of driving greater conversions, particularly on commercial pages.

With this information in mind, you can understand why using marketing video is incredibly beneficial. Distilled feels strongly that everyone should be able to tap into high quality video marketing, which is why Distilled is offering a sneak peek of our video marketing guide to B2C readers. We created our guide to be a downloadable PDF, so it’s easily accessed and easily saved for future reference.

Click here to go to the downloadable PDF, and check out Distilled’s website for more resources and information.

No one ever said running a business was easy.

In fact, someone once said “If you’re not having sleepless nights – you’re not doing it right.”

Of course, now everything is different. Not only are business owners getting their 8 hours sleep a night (those lucky things) but they can organize their offices remotely – and even from their smart phone or tablet if they needed to. The internet has literally changed the way businesses operate – and if you’re not taking advantage of the great tools and apps out there – then you’re seriously missing a trick.

If you’re reading this thinking it perhaps sounds too good to be true – while your chaotic office buzzes around you – then keep reading and have a browse through these incredible business apps that will change the way you work forever.

DropBox

Long gone are the days where we would stick a spread sheet on a floppy disk and pass it round the office in turn – letting everyone download it. In fact – even the more modern USB may soon be rendered useless.

DropBox lets you sync and save files from many computers remotely – meaning you can access them from all over the world from any computer – just so long as they have DropBox installed. It is genuinely revolutionary to businesses who file share regularly and it’ll become you knew favourite thing with minutes of signing up. How will it cut out the hassle though? Well instead of hassling your employees to email you documents, etc. – you can just all save automatically into a shared folder. Simple.

VehiCal

If your employees have company cars – and a lot of your time is often eaten up by calculating expenses, then VehiCal will be welcomed with open arms into your routine. Instead of sitting and manually tracking things like fuel, miles, highway tolls, gas prices, congestion charge this app simply does it all for you. It also keeps your road tax to a minimum too – by calculating the best routes and the best rates for you.

Hipmunk Business Class app

Another major expense of modern offices is travel prices. But it’s not just an expense of cash – it eats into your time too. Let’s face it – for a medium to large company who are frequently travelling, it can be pretty easy to lose track of who is where, when they’re going, and how much it’s all costing you. This app just simplifies everything – meaning you can organise multiple trips for multiple people all in the same place – whilst also finding the best flight-times and prices too.

1Password app

In my office, the question that gets asked the most is “What’s the password to that again?”… It is something that has often driven many members of staff to the point of madness. If your business is using multiple software, and has multiple bank accounts, has a number of social media accounts, etc. – it can be easy to start losing track of which password correlates with which account.

The amount of times I’ve blocked myself from various accounts because I was blindingly entering in the password for something completely different is countless…. So let’s not discuss it further. When I found 1Password it pretty much changed everything – I wasn’t scrambling around in draws trying to find the piece of paper I’d scribbled the passcode on, and the shouting in the office stopped. Everyone only needed to know one password – and then they had access to all of them. Simple premise really – but so effective.

Evernote app

Evernote is like the modern version of the to-do list. You can clip webpages, articles, links and images into categories and projects – that then reminds you to re-check them at a later date and refer back to them. But the great thing is you can sync it across all your devices – so you access your to-do list via your computer, your tablet, your phone – everything. Get all your staff signed up and you’ll begin noticing an overall feeling of calm – because when you have all these things stored and listed somewhere safe you lose the panic that comes with forgetting.

Ah, the mythical engagement ring. You’ve heard all about it in movies and fairy tales, but, now that you’ve found your special someone, it’s something you’ll have to contend with in a very real way. Where to start? What to look out for?

DIY or bring her along?

As gender roles equalize, more and more couples are taking the trip to the jeweler together. After all, why beat around the bush if she already knows what she wants? This works well for those willing to shirk tradition a bit, but it can be quite the knock for a romantic at heart. Try to get a good read on how she believes proposals should go before loading her into the car, taking her to a jewelry store and giving her free reign.

If she’s the type of girl who wants to be surprised, enlist her family and friends in some spy work. Ask one of her girlfriends to pretend she’s looking for some jewelry herself and casually move the conversation into a discussion of her fantasy ring, or bring her to the jewelry store yourself to look for a watch, taking special note of where her eyes linger. Sometimes, just asking around is you need to do, as many women start dropping hints long before they’ve even met you.

How much should it cost?

Think you need to spend the traditional three months worth of salary on an engagement ring? That, along with a number of other engagement myths, is just a marketing ploy DeBeers dreamed up decades ago to sell more diamonds. While every woman wants to feel like a queen, just what that means varies widely based on her personality and style. And, as a rule of thumb, most will want their new husband to begin the marriage financially solvent.

In general, four to six weeks’ salary will do you just fine. Just like you would when making any big purchase, like buying a house or a car, have your budget in mind ahead of time so you don’t show your cards too quickly. Don’t believe the price hype; any good jeweler can make most anything you choose look great.

Finding the right size

To keep the romance in your proposal high, you’re going to want that ring to fit onto her finger without any problems. Your best strategy for doing this, quite simply, is to sneak one of her rings that she wears on her ring finger away. Borrow one of her lesser worn rings when she’s not around and bring it in to the jeweler, or take photos on your cell phone. While ring size is easily adjusted, that will cost you money and time, so it’s best to get it right the first time.

What’s her style?

Is your honey an understated gal, the very height of elegance, or all about the bling? Pay attention to the type of jewelry and clothing she wears to get a good sense of her taste. Here are a few key style decisions you’ll encounter:

• Stone – While traditional, colorless diamonds are the go-to for engagement rings. Colored engagement rings are also surging in popularity. This includes emeralds, sapphires, and both black and yellow diamonds, either as the center stone or as accents around the edges.

• The four Cs – If you’re set on finding the best diamond, check for cut, color, clarity, and carat. Cut refers to the stone’s angles and proportions, which directly determine how much that diamond will sparkle. Too deep or too shallow, and it will look dull. Color is self-explanatory, though you might be surprised that even “clear” looking diamonds are ranked on a scale from D to Z, with D being totally clear and Z being light yellow. Clarity refers to a diamond’s imperfections, including fractures or other unwanted minerals. Look for one with a SI1 or SI2 ranking. Carat weight is how much a diamond weighs. The higher the carat, the heftier the diamond.

• Shape – Yep, gems come in all shapes and sizes. Round, princess, pear, oval, and heart are some of the most popular shapes, though you can always get creative if you go to a custom jewelry maker.

• Band type – From the traditional yellow gold band to platinum, silver, rose gold or a mixture, there are almost as many band types as there are types of gems. It’s important to consider how wide and thick you’d like it to be, as well as whether or not your potential fiancée will want you to wear a matching band, in which case, choose carefully.

Get an independent rating and insurance – To ensure you’re really buying what you’ve been promised, have the gem evaluated with an independent source, like the American Gem Society (AGS) or the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). Several large jewelers sell only diamonds and stones that are evaluated by the AGS and the GIA. Most reputable jewelry stores have rings appraised and certified by GIA. And of course, get your ring insured either directly or under your homeowners’ or renters’ insurance.

There’s a lot to think about when you’re hunting for an engagement ring, but it’s well within your reach. Good luck, and happy hunting!

Click image to open interactive version (via Simply Business).

Things to Consider Before Posting a Job Ad

Before you start writing a job ad, it’s important to consider the specific function you want your new employee to serve. When writing the job description to be included with the job ad, make sure to be specific about what duties your employee will be responsible for immediately and farther down the road. Be very straight forward and thorough in your job description; you don’t want to write a job description that implies the employee will focus solely on advertising, and then expect the employee to making copies and balance the books the majority of the time.
Another key issue to consider before posting a job ad is how much you are comfortable paying your new employee. It’s important to consider the typical salary for the type of employee you are trying to hire. Check out Glass Door’s salary estimator tool, which allows you to search for salary ranges for specific job titles and geographical locations. Keep in mind the extraneous costs of employing someone outside of salary, such as tax burdens and possible retirement provisions.

Interviewing to Find the Right Fit

It’s vital to prepare thoroughly for an interview. This will make you and the interviewee much more comfortable and at ease. Think critically about the questions you choose to ask, because they can either get to the heart of what you’re interested in, or provide you with little useful information. Instead of asking the standard question “tell me about your weaknesses,” consider asking a question that reveals more about an interviewee’s character, such as “tell me about a time when you experienced failure and how you dealt with it.” This question can reveal what the candidate considers a failure and how they overcame that particular experience. Don’t ask interview questions just for the sake of asking, but rather make sure that they strategically reveal information that you’re interested in.

Paperwork to Complete After Hiring

Once you select your final candidate, you can use the tools that The Start Up Donut provide, including templates for job offer letters. Also, consider items you would like to include in an employee contract, as well as a company statement of purpose.

Detailed Instructions

If you need more detailed information about the hiring process, check out the above info graphic that Simply Business created. There are links under each category to further resources.

Two huge advantages to Google AdWords are there is no minimum spend and you can target geographically. This enables businesses to make best use of their tight budget and tailor campaigns for local markets.

A lot of Business2Community readers are familiar with paid search, but some don’t really understand it. The process can be intimidating and overwhelming.

Paid Search Pros with Google AdWords:

• No minimum spend – No monthly requirements, ability to pause campaigns

• Can target geographically – set targeting down to the zip code

Paid Search Cons with Google AdWords:

• Intimidating – the process and interface can be a large roadblock for some

• Can be expensive – if done through an agency

There are a lot of amazing agencies out there that can help you with paid advertising – PS I work at one – but they can often be expensive for small budget companies.  For many those agencies are out of reach. For small businesses who want to tackle paid search or those who want to take PPC into their own hands, we worked with the professionals at Simply Business to create this step-by-step guide for Google AdWords.

The interactive graphic goes through the entire PPC process from start to finish. Each step contains links to articles and tools that will take you from Paid Search beginner to PPC Guru.

(Click to launch)

Click image to open interactive version (via Simply Business).

How to narrow down those choices. First and foremost, your chosen charity should share the same values as your company; even better if they share a mission. Why? Because consumers can see right through any token charity efforts. If, for instance, everyone knows your company dumps chemicals into rivers, it will look downright cynical if you support an environmental group. In contrast, an educational software company will be able to produce much more compelling and innovative events when they pair with an educational non-profit that has some overlapping goals. Together, they’ll be able to motivate their shared audience with campaigns that are relevant, engaging, and all the more powerful when drawn from pooled resources. That said, you don’t have to stick within your niche to make real change. Poll your customers and employees beforehand to learn about the issues they’re passionate about, or even put a few charities on the ballot. Even the decision process can be a tool to promote customer engagement if you make it into a competition. As for employees, you’ll want them to be fully on board since they’re going to be working hand in hand with the charity.

Next, think about the capabilities your business has to offer. Will this be purely a financial contribution, or can the unique platforms, PR avenues, and human capital you have on offer make the kind of difference no other business can? As for the charity itself, it’s best to think through a few criteria ahead of time. Are you looking for something big or small? Local or national? Something that helps social causes or environmental? Think it out before you reach out. Last but not least, take a close look at the charity’s backend before you make a commitment. Make sure they’re registered with the IRS, that they seem transparent and accountable, and that you feel at ease when working with them. If possible, agree to a trial run before making a final commitment.

What to do once it’s launched. Okay, so you’ve picked your charity and you’re ready to start work. What to do? First, make sure the whole team is on board, especially if this is going to be a labor intensive partnership for your employees. Try team building activities to start, and then make sure everyone’s voice is heard. Likewise, encourage customer participation through games, events, and discounts for contributions. The more you can make the experience fun and engaging, the more everyone will buy in. And of course, keep in frequent touch with the charity. You’ll want to know just how well the campaigns are going, as well as where the money is going. It may feel good to give, but you should still hold to the same principles you’d bring to any business partnership.

Head out on your own. For small businesses, joining forces with or sponsoring a charity is more than their small staff or budget can do. In those cases, it can be better to head out on your own. This could mean everything from starting a nonprofit branch of your business to providing free resources online until it becomes something bigger, much in the manner of Salman Khan and the Khan Academy. For other interesting fundraising ideas, try browsing Razoo, Kiva, or Kickstarter and voting as a company for a project to support. This way you’ll be able to help people and causes without overreaching on your limited budget. You’ll find a wide range of creative ideas, too, ones you probably wouldn’t have thought of otherwise.

Need an example? Just look to Nordstrom and their partnership with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). What began as a small event called the Beat the Bridge to Beat Diabetes run has raised more than $10 million since 1983 and grown into one of Seattle’s biggest events. This engages not just the local population but Nordstrom employees, too, with over 1,000 employees donating 5,000 hours to the cause in 2011. By choosing a charity whose values matched their own, Nordstrom ensured they’d get the best out of their employees and that their event would be both engaging and of the highest quality. Working with a charity is a must for any successful business. Do your research and find the best fit for you. According to Razoo their top fundraising categories are animal fundraising, art fundraising, and autism fundraising – to find one that fits your small business check out their fundraising ideas page. Nothing feels better than giving back to the community that made you as successful as you are.

Back in the olden days of home computers, I’m talking the dial-up modem days, I tried out voice recognition software. I didn’t need it for any particular reason since I’m a fast and accurate typist, but the idea of a computer responding to spoken commands seemed very futuristic and appealed to my inner-nerd. I was very disappointed with it. I spent hours reading endless lists of words into the microphone, I believe they called it “training” the software, and dealing with the clunky user interface was needlessly frustrating. Eventually, I just lost interest in it all together and considered it money wasted. Needless to say, when I was asked to review Dragon Naturally Speaking Version 11.5, I didn’t have very high hopes for it at all. I figured it was a necessary evil for folks who might have problems typing, like sufferers of carpal tunnel syndrome, but an annoyance for anyone else. I was wrong. People, the future is finally here.

First of all, gone are the days of training the software to understand your voice. Right out of the box, Dragon Naturally Speaking understood most of what I said. The company claims that it’s 90% accurate from the onset, but I think it performed even better than that for me. The software also “learns” from its user, so I expect that that percentage will be rising steadily as I use it more. For me, this aspect of the software really shone because I was actually being a bit tricky when I tested it. I intentionally spoke as fast as I could and even used words that I’ve noticed other voice recognition software has had problems discerning between. It passed the test.

I was also pleased with the user interface. It didn’t resemble the clunky version that I owned years ago at all. Instead, the software opens a dialog box next to the document or program that you are using. It seems to anticipate questions that the user might have and is ready with tips and suggestions. This had the added benefit of allowing me to learn on the go without having to read through the manual. For example, if I asked the software to do something and it didn’t understand what I was asking, the dialog box would quickly assess what I was trying to do and teach me the correct way.

Furthermore, as I was just hitting on, the functionality in this version of Dragon Naturally Speaking is a big win. The program functions intuitively. I’ve often seen it billed as a great program for children and older people who might just be learning the ropes of computing, and I can see why. The designers seem to really have had a keen understanding of how people want this kind of software to function and it make it easy to use. But I think its applications are broad. Writers, bloggers, and people who write a lot of emails could really save a lot of time by utilizing Dragon Naturally Speaking. I could also see it being great in an office setting because it works with so many different kinds of business software. Also the mobility that it affords its users is perfect for anyone who really needs to multitask or just doesn’t like being tied down in an office chair.

Perhaps the only element of the software that let me down a little bit was when I was trying to edit or correct errors. The process can take what feels like a long time. Instead, I just resorted to retyping words that were misspelled or commas that didn’t go in the right place. I didn’t mind it too much, since it gave me a chance to proofread what I’d just written, but there’s definitely some room for improvement there.

Overall, Dragon Naturally Speaking Version 11.5 is a product that I’d recommend for anyone looking to save time when working on the computer.

Stock images courtesy of Bigstock

From small business owners to CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, smart phones are a requirement in today’s business environment. Whether they’re taking payments or helping make business cards a thing of the past, there’s an app out there ready to help increase your productivity and cut down on nitty gritty administrative work.

But with hundreds of thousands of apps from which to choose, how do you find the best ones? Until there’s an app for that, use our top 5 list of business mobile apps to guide you.

5. Box

www.box.com

You work on the go, so why not work on the go? Through their secure cloud, Box allows you to access all of your documents, wherever you are. Available on the iPod, iPad and Android platforms, Box enables easy edits without having to reboot a laptop. Annotate files and projects with voice and written notes, so you can easily add new thoughts and ideas.

Working on the cloud makes for instant collaboration with colleagues, whether you’re posting a general comment, discussing a specific presentation, or editing a shared document. In essence, Box streamlines the work flow, whether you’re syncing all of your personal mobile devices or working with colleagues.

Much better than scribbling notes on the back of a receipt and losing it to the washer, no?

4. Tripit

www.tripit.com

More often than not, business trips are a whirl of logistics. Flight times, car rentals, hotel reservations, meeting times, unfamiliar addresses, presentation and contact details – you name it. Tripit tracks and organizes all of this data for you into a master itinerary easily shared with colleagues, family and social networking contacts so that you can coordinate schedules and focus on what really matters. And, in case you’re wondering, they also include helpful extras,like local weather, restaurants and things to do. Available for iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry and Windows7.

3. Expensify

www.expensify.com

It’s hard enough to keep track of receipts and business cards. All the more so when you’re on the road. Expensify helps you cut down on the paper mess through simple scanning. Once you take a photo of receipts or business cards, the app extracts data from the photo and enters it into an expense report or contact file, both of which are easily exported and sent to your company or other devices. This makes Expensify a great solution for tracking expenses, contacts information and mileage. And it can work offline, too, so you can work even when the network is inaccessible. Better yet, it works on all devices.

2. Mobile Sales

www.outsystems.com

There are few departments with as much real time data to track as the sales department. Mobile Sales, an app from OutSystems, allows you to track everything from customer info to follow-up tasks in a way that suits you best. Yes, OutSystems is a web application development tool for enterprises – meaning its core competency isn’t free apps for businesses. However, the free apps it has available allow you to do some cool things. For instance, Mobile Sales lets you to instantly register new details as you cold call and track how close you are to closing a deal. With Mobile Sales, you’ll always know how far along you are and what you need to do to get a step closer. The cool thing about this app is that it’s open source, which means you can completely customize it to suit your specific needs using the OutSystems development platform.

Available for iPhone, Android, Windows Phone 7 and Blackberry.

1. WebEx

www.webex.com

By far one of the most popular business mobile apps out there, WebEx is well worth the price tag. This app is the gold standard in online conferencing, allowing you to share documents and presentations during the call. WebEx also enables two-way video streaming and easy midcall transfer from phone to computer. Meetings are simple to arrange both through links embedded in emails and by “dropping” contacts into meetings. This app is ready to use for iPhones, iPads, Androids and BlackBerry devices.

From organizing documents to taking down those brilliant ideas, arranging contacts, tracking logistics and collaborating with colleagues, business mobile apps help the busy professional manage the small tasks before they become too big. There’s no better way to stay organized and be ready to go. All at the touch of a finger.

The currency exchange professionals at Travelex put together the following infographic on how the world vacations. The graphic highlights the number of vacation trips, where specific countries spent their vacation, how they travel, and how long they stay.

The data is interesting. Most Americans choose to travel to Mexico and Canada for their vacations. Not surprising as they are both close and with Mexico’s beaches and Canada’s ski slopes they have something for every traveler. What surprised me was average length of each country’s vacation.  The US is right in the middle with ten days spent, but Australia is a whooping 17!  Lucky. Emerging countries like China are not so lucky, they only spend an average of six days on vacation. Another interesting fact about China is they have the largest percentage of travelers by sea at 34%.

Where are you planning on spending your vacation time this summer? Share your destination in the comments.

Travelex Currency Exchange

Are you satisfied with your productivity level? If not, how can you increase productivity? It’s not a simple task. Email, blog posts, Twitter, meetings, reports, and coworkers are all pulling you in different directions. Take meetings for example, often people walk away from meetings scratching their head wondering what was just accomplished. Meetings can be too long, sometimes the ideas just don’t flow, and every now and then meetings can be a complete waste of time – but how can we increase productivity?

As a follow up to their Guide to your Social Media Success, Simply Business wanted to help you with productivity. They’ve focused on 5 categories that everyone could benefit from making better use of their precious time:

• Collaboration
• Travel
• Email
• Meetings
• Workload

Each category tackles common issues and links to outside tools, videos, and articles on how to solve those issues and increase productivity. Just click on the image to get started. If you have any productivity tips and/or tools that you use, please share them in comments below.

How to use the guides: For each category there is an interactive infographic that links to outside articles and tools to help you with that category. After you’re done with the Collaboration graphic, click on PREVIOUS or NEXT to move on to the next category.

Click image to open interactive version (via Simply Business).

Show Employees You Care From the Get Go: When an employee gets injured on the job, report the compensation claim immediately. This will show your employee that you care about their well-being, which should reduce the threat of acrimony. This will also help the claims adjuster move the claim forward, which will enable the employee to get treatment, speed their recovery and get them back into the office. Similarly, it’s important to follow up when an employee makes a complaint. Ask about the state of their injury, and fill in any details the adjuster may have left out when explaining compensation benefits. A little empathy from the boss about an employee’s understandable fear of job or income loss, of future medical costs and of pain will go a long way towards helping an employee focus on healing. And, of course, going out of your way for employees will not only improve company morale but it will also keep you out of legal trouble from workers compensation lawyers.

Document, Document, Document: Getting all of the details of an accident or injury is an important part of this process. Don’t let a lot of time elapse before you interview either the employee or witnesses. Why? The most recent studies on eye witness testimony indicate that the more times a witness pulls the memory from storage, the more that memory is altered to match whatever the witness is feeling at the current time of recall. That means: the longer an eye witness has to think about the details, the more those details will change according to whatever is going on in that person’s brain during the time of recall. So, interview well; interview soon.

Stay in Contact with the Relevant Medical Care Professional: Get regular updates from your employee’s doctor about the employee’s condition and ability to return to work. While employees won’t necessarily know every new role they can fill, you will. This will help you get the employee back to work sooner as you can easily move them into a less demanding position, if need be.

Have a Return to Work Program: Create a clear procedure for returning to work, and make sure it’s widely known among your employees. This will help allay fears that injuries will mean the end of their careers. The more specific you can get the better.

Have a Safety Policy and Use It: If you don’t have a safety policy, make it a priority to draft one right now. This will greatly reduce your accident and compensation risk. Have an industry expert examine your operation thoroughly for any places where safety could be improved, and issue guidelines for every role. Once established arrange for regular safety inspections and re-train employees who show unsafe habits. Better yet, reward those with good safety habits. What little you spend on monetary compensation, a day off, or whatever you settle on as a reward will be nothing compared to the cost of workers compensation and increased premiums.

Purchase Workers Compensation insurance: You’re legally obligated to do so in most states anyway, and it’s just a good idea if you want to avoid crippling lawsuits. Workers compensation insurance doesn’t have to break the bank, especially if you’re a savvy consumer. If you notice your rates suddenly rise, check with the company to see if the underwriter misclassified your company. For individual claims, you can also have an independent claims file auditor check the claim’s paperwork to make sure it was handled properly. This should be done every few years, as should an experience modification. If your business has experienced fewer injuries than expected during that time period, you may receive a lower rate on your premium. The opposite is true if you’ve had more, so choose wisely. Knowing how to handle workers compensation is an important part of any business. With these tips, you’re sure to keep employees happy and safe, and your workers compensation premiums low. So get planning!

Stock Photos courtesy of Shutterstock

Repair Services: No matter how deep into the toilet the economy is, consumers will always need someone to, well, fix their toilets. And if you can fix that flickering light while you’re at it, you’ll be all set. Repair services can range from a single household handyman to a full service auto repair garage. To expand your service area, consider learning how to retrofit older homes to be more energy efficient. Consumers looking to save money on their bills will be willing to invest more on upfront installation costs.

Tutoring: As parents become increasingly frustrated with their local school system, they are turning increasingly to one-on-one academic coaching. Tutors can work in specific subject areas like English or math, help students develop study skills or teach students with learning disabilities successful learning strategies. The worst the economy gets, the more urgently parents feel the need to get their child the best education so they can compete in an increasingly competitive collegiate and jobs market. With the cost cutting at public schools and the high cost of private schools, even lower-middle class families will stretch their dollar to make it happen.

Discount Stores: Penny pinching customers flock to discount stores for the best deals during recessions. While you’ll never be able to compete with the likes of Wal-Mart, you can find a niche in an item with mass appeal, like used clothes, antique furniture, baby equipment, or musical instruments. Start by seeking out a manufacturer or wholesaler that sells at a very low price and build your business around that product.

Luxury Services:Even when their portfolios stagnate, the wealthy always crave pampering. And they have strange and varied tastes, so you can specialize in just about anything, as long as it’s the best of the best. High quality sound systems are always in demand, as are spas, auto detailing and luxury boutique goods. Do you research and make an exclusive name for yourself. Shoes and accessories never lose demand and often those are luxury items people can treat themselves to.

Cake & Cupcake Bakery: Everyone can afford small indulgences now and then. Little luxurious items like cupcakes tend to do better in recessions. Researchers think it’s because they allow us just a little bit of luxury and escape without feeling overly indulgent or wasteful. Need proof? Just look at the number of successful cupcake shops that were opened during the heart of the recession in highly competitive cities like Chicago and New York. Everyone likes their bite of the good life. Don’t like baking? Homemade craft ice cream shops are proving to be just as successful.

IT Services: With most businesses operating or relying heavily on internet technology these days, having a good IT professional on speed dial is just a cost of doing business. From companies that need to store large amounts of data to those that need a high speed network for employee communication, a good IT firm is essential to have on hand. What’s more, as the baby boomer IT workers retire, your IT consulting business will be well-poised to fill the gap.

Whether you want to work from home or you feel you’ve hit a dead end with your job and you’re ready to pursue your dreams, there are plenty of small businesses that are built to thrive in this economy and all others. So do your research, write that business plan and start mixing up that cupcake batter.

Cake Images courtesy of Shutterstock

First and foremost, we spend an inordinate amount of time in the office sitting stationary in front of our computers. Owning a dog forces us to take breaks from the computer and get outside for nice, lengthy walks. If you’re lucky enough to be in a dog-friendly workplace, it makes for a great mid-day time out. And how many times have you found yourself working on a problem that has you stumped, only to quickly come upon the solution after a change of scenery? Your dog’s walks can be the 20-minute brainstorming session you need to solve that sticky problem you’ve been tasked with. Both you and your business benefit! And this isn’t just a mental break, the CDC reports that pet owners have healthier hearts and that they recover more quickly from traumas like a heart attack.

But hold on, let’s not sell the mental benefits of dog ownership short. We work hard and stress ourselves silly. When you have a dog, you always know that when you leave work you’re going home to someone who loves you whether or not you closed the big deal. In your dog’s eyes, you’re always a winner. Even 30 minutes of dog interaction a day has proven to provide real stress relief and emotional benefit. Study after study has shown that people who have dogs are happier than those that don’t. It’s no wonder that dogs are used for therapeutic purposes in hospitals, prisons, nursing homes and schools. And there’s real science to back up these claims, too; the simple act of petting a dog has been shown to boost dopamine and serotonin levels, two important brain chemicals that are essential for keeping stress levels under control. Of course, it’s not just stress we’re staving off. Dog ownership is a wonderful way to fight chronic depression and keep loneliness at bay.

Let’s also not forget the social benefits that come with being a dog owner. It’s nearly impossible to walk down the street with your dog and not have at least one quick chat with a passerby. It can be a great way to potentially make real friendships, as well. If you’re living the single life, forget the bars and expensive nightlife! Just head to your local dog park and strike up some conversation with your fellow dog owners. With all the mental and physical benefits a dog brings, if your dog also helps you find love you might need to erect a shrine for that pup!

What’s that you say? You’re too busy with work to care for a dog? Not so fast. Dog breeds differ in the amount of exercise they require in order to stay healthy. The urban, apartment-dwelling 9 to 5′er might not have the time to care for a high-energy breed like a greyhound, but there are plenty of lower-energy breeds that may work just fine.  Like Pugs, Corgis, Poodles, Boxers,  Terriers, Bulldogs, chihuahuas, and Pomeranians just to name a few. Many breeds can cope all right with a walk directly before and after work if the hours are reasonable. Otherwise, a friend or dog walking service could take care of the pup while you’re away at work.

Obviously, the decision to take on the responsibility of caring for a dog is not one to be taken lightly. You have to consider cost of pup before you fall for a furry friend. The obvious costs are food and shelter, but also vet bills and pet insurance. Every relationship has its share of missteps and the relationship with your dog is no different. However, your local shelter can help match you up with a dog whose personality works well with your own. An added benefit of a shelter dog is that oftentimes they already come housebroken and ready to love. If you’ve been considering taking in a doggie companion for a while, now might be just the time to finally follow through.

Stock Images provided by Shutterstock.com and dog breed information is provided by Embrace the Dog Insurance experts. There is 99% chance I wrote this article just to post puppy pictures online :)