Keeping costs under control is a challenge that most companies face, but for small businesses operating on tight budgets it is essential if they are to survive. So, any new technology, such as free calls via the internet that can help reduce costs is welcome news to the large army of small businessmen and businesswomen throughout the UK.

For those who regularly deal with international clients and suppliers it can be quite damaging to cash flow to frequently travel abroad in order to attend meetings. Previously, however, the only realistic alternatives to face-to-face meetings were phone conferences which tended to be difficult to arrange, usually expensive, and often led to confusion and misunderstandings between the parties involved.

However, the combination of internet and broadband has made life a lot easier for small and medium-sized businesses, especially those that have clients or customers in foreign countries. Although larger companies can usually afford to regularly send staff abroad, for many small businesses such an expense cannot be justified. So, those that have customers abroad must find alternative methods of conducting their business, and using internet phone and video calls can be the perfect solution.

David Wilson, Managing Director of Pipped Online Ltd, a specialist marketing agency based in the South West of England, has suppliers and customers throughout the UK, Scotland, Germany, and Canada. Constant travels to their premises took him and his small number of staff out of the office for days at a time, leading to a loss of productivity and an increase in company expenditure. But recently, he has been able to cut down international travel and reduce his telephony bills after selecting to use internet phone and video calling for his business.

For firms operating on incredibly tight budgets like PippedOnline the ability to conduct high quality video conferences via PC is literally a Godsend. Not only can Wilson get the vital human interaction necessary to develop meaningful business relationships, but he can also do it without leaving the comfort of his own office. In addition, it also addresses the productivity issue as key employees are not out of the office travelling to meetings.

He said: “We win in three ways with video conferencing. Not only can we spend more time in the office being productive, we keep costs down by not travelling and it also makes PippedOnline more eco-friendly by cutting down our travelling carbon emissions.”

But, Wilson concedes it is the economic benefits that appeal to him most. In line with the figures produced by OFCOM detailing the impact on SME costs, he has seen his broadband bills drop by 20% since 2004, and his telephone costs reduced by 8% over the same period.

Now, he is also seeing the benefit of reducing international travel costs, as he regularly makes free video conference calls to his clients in Canada and Germany, via the internet. Using video conferencing is particularly pertinent for Wilson as he is able to include several staff and suppliers at any one time, although he has never got anywhere near the maximum 24 people that he could include.

He is in no doubt though that all small businesses should take up the internet phone and video calls options, although rather mischievously he hopes his competitors don’t, making their cost base significantly higher than his own!



Show My Shots

Many small as well as medium sized companies are in need of IT support that includes everything from firewall to VPN installation as well as upgrades and also migration to other computer systems. Some small businesses also require complete network audits and for this a small business IT support provider should have the experience as well as expertise to provide necessary solutions.

A small business needs a range of computer support services and will thus look for unlimited onsite support services from a safe and reliable IT support company. With qualified engineers on hand, small business IT support providers would be able to provide the necessary level of experience in installing firewalls such as Checkpoint, Watchguard as well as Cisco that are ideally suited to small businesses. There may also be entry level firewalls that will ensure that the small business keeps its data safe and along with complete security audits, antivirus & anti spam services, should take care of all of the security requirements of the small business enterprise.

You should also look for disaster recovery of your data when a server fails as well as want upgrades and possibilities to migrate to other improved systems. In addition, small business IT support also means providing resilient backup services (even remotely) and with the help of existing broadband lines and automated services, there should be no need for any tapes being sent back and forth between the client and IT support companies.

There are many IT support service companies that are capable of providing a support service to small businesses and which has a high quality of service and engineers, to ensure that they can provide support to small business networks, complete with a fast response time. You should look for companies that provide a personal touch for your network support needs, and who are proactive and also have a complete range of support packages and systems and you also need a company who can work with existing suppliers to streamline your business.

You need to look at the number of years of experience that the small business IT support company has, particularly in areas such as IT networks, the Internet as well as Network Security and who will provide professional as well as efficient service. Often, small businesses are confronted with a certain amount of difficulty in sourcing a good IT support service provider that will justify not hiring a full-time internal IT support team. This means that in case of a requirement for occasional expert support services during upgrades of networks and installing major IT systems, or even in the case of needing desktop support, you will need to have on hand an IT support service provider that can tailor a service to match your requirements and also help you stay within your budget.

Thus, you should look for a service provider that provides email support, Microsoft Networks, Network Security, network infrastructure and a team of dedicated IT professionals with experience of multiple systems and technologies.



Giga Flux

“Small businesses” is an economically term which generally related to the business scope and extent. The taxing authorities categorize “small business” according to their finance turnover in a defined time duration, in most cases: a year. Another aspect of specifying a business as a “small” one is its field of activity: a single barber shop, or a single “Pizza” parlor, or a single stand in a marketplace, are “small businesses”. When one of those becomes “a chain of…” it’s another story.

 

The behavioral sciences, especially Sociology, regard “small business” as a small organization. From the sociology point of view a business is a type of social organization. The sociology discipline classifies organizations by their internal human relations and interaction. No matter how many people are involved, what’s count is the quality of the inter-relationships among them. If everybody knows everybody, face to face, by each name, and the instrumental communication is informal as the social communication, then it’s a “small organization”. 

Such informal relationships can function when we are talking about 2 to 100 workers, managers and subordinates all together. Probably when it’s a 100 people organization we’ll find formal division of labor, duties definitions and documented regulations. On the other hand – a 4 personnel store: the informality is extreme and there is no room for documentation and definitions, everyone is doing everything and if the boss, the store owner, will keep distance – he’ll lose the great advantage of potential warm instrumental relationships with his three salespersons.

Between the 4 and 100 personnel the most common are the 30-40 personnel small businesses. Even if the business owner will try to establish formal regulations he wouldn’t succeed. In such a small organization people will behave according to the informal habits which dominate the everyday activities. There is no way that a new employee will sit down and read a documented guidance book. What will probably happen is that he’ll be told orally what to do by a senior foreman and will complete his integration by imitating others in his close working environment. If he’ll insist to read written instructions he wouldn’t find it because it doesn’t exist  in such small businesses and if he will – it wouldn’t be updated. This is the great fault of small organizations and yet their great advantage: it makes them much more flexible and adaptable to market real time changes.

The sociologist Max Weber claimed that the ideal desirable theoretical model of the most efficient organization is the ‘bureaucratic” model. Weber argued that this type of model will be the only social organization that will overcome human faults and weaknesses. His organization will leave much longer than the individuals who are working for it. People will have to adapt themselves to the organizational needs and demands and not the other way round. He wanted to fulfill the old cliché saying “The graveyards are packed with people who thought they were irreplaceable”.

Just for the sake of argumentation, I’ll point only two of the criticism on Weber’s model:

One – Bureaucratic organizations suffer of stagnation. When a “big business” wants to react to changes in its businesslike environment its got to be someone whose job is to detect such changes and to call a meeting of the right forum which is nominated in advance to take care of such cases and according to the firm regulations to make decisions which will be accomplished by those who will be appointed to the task. Such a procedure is taking a lot of time while small business are reacting immediately and move forward leaving the big businesses behind.

Two -  The biggest enemy of the bureaucratic organization is the informal organization within the formal one. A lot of money, time and energy are wasted trying to overcome the influence of the informal organization. In small businesses, which are informal by nature, there is no such problem.

 

As a metaphor we can compare big and small businesses to a steam ship and a sailing boat. In the big steam liner, even if the crew members know each other personally, they operate a daily routine under strict regulations carried out by formally ranked officers and other commissioned lower ranked staff. If the weather will change and threat the ship safety, no one will react without a strict command issued by the captain. In the small numbered crew of a 40 feet sailboat there are no ranks or strictly defined jobs. Everybody is doing everything which is needed when it is needed to be done. There is a Skipper but in case of a sudden hazard you can carry on each sailor that he’ll do what’s necessary without waiting to be told what to do. In small teams, who are operating in a stressed environment, a small boat in the big blue sea or a small business in the jungle of the wild markets, crew members know that if they wouldn’t operate shoulder to shoulder they will be hanged neck to neck. The friendly commitment to each other is working for the benefit of the organization.

 

A online print shop is a classic example of a small business. It is organized by the following departments:

Management and administration (3)

Sales and marketing (3)

Accountants (2)

Customer service (3)

Graphic artists studio (5)

Printing machines operators (3)

Production and finish (7)

Shipping (2)

Business development and Internet support (2)

 

Those 30 workers are crowded in 100 square meters shop including machines and furniture.

The print shop is operating on line and off line.

On line, through the Internet, they offer the classical advertising and promoting printed materials like: Business cards, magnets, fliers, stamps, account books, envelopes, letterheads, invitations, stickers, bookmarks, and so on.

Off line, when the customer arrives in person and orders his request face to face. This is when the products are “heavy” like: books, catalogs, folders, small paper made packing materials, and such.

 

The small number of employees, operating under the right managers leadership, creates consolidation, unification, integration, and forging “team spirit” based on interpersonal relationship which creates an identification, involvement and empathy with the business goals. The lack of distance between managers, foremen and other employees do not harm discipline and high standards of working moral and ethics. Discussions, which are taking place from time to time, in open forums, enable all workers criticize constructively or suggesting improvements. Workers can express themselves freely in periodical interviews and all channels of communication, including internal E-mailing, are open unlimited. The closeness relationships enable flexible positioning workers in different stations according to various burdens. The outcomes of 30 workers is synergistic by nature and much more than just aggregative.

              



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Often large corporations set aside huge budgets for their Website development & designing. It is so true that the big boys can actually afford to allocate a huge pie of the total investment to achieve the kind of Web presence, they prefer and choose. Also, they can decide about the ultimate look for their website to gain importance in the business world. However, small businesses often do not have a large chuck of money to spend on website designing and construction, although their presence on the Web is, in many ways, even more important.

Therefore, designing & developing for a small business website can be infinitely more complex. Money is limited in this case, but results need to be crucial if growth or even survival is to be achieved. It is also important as a lot is depended upon getting a Website right first time so it begins to show results early on in the game.

Small Business Web Site Design Strategies

Despite the limited budgets and resources, it is a worth to hire a professional for small business web site design. As it is already cleared that results are important here and who better to give you success than a professional? Hiring the professional service for website designing and development helps a company can easily able to reflect its organizational goals and aspirations. No matter how tight your budget is, it is always convenient to choose the best service available in the market. It is advised not to try to do it yourself unless you have a fair amount of experience with Website development.

However, there are other issues to be handled carefully besides the website designing. It may take a long time to understand the concepts and usability of search engine optimization issues, if you decide to do it yourself. Allocating the best resources will help you o take an added advantage of making a website with search engine sensibility and pass on the saving onto you.



Giga Flux

Just because you own or run a small business doesn’t mean that everything has to be a compromise compared to products used by big companies.  There are some areas where it makes sense to save money by using shrink wrapped solutions instead of investing in enterprise-level versions, but your telephone system probably isn’t one of those.

Think about it.  If your company is growing to the point that the single telephone line and  fax machine simply aren’t going to cut it any longer, do you want to invest in a Small Business Phone System that you may outgrow in a few years?  I’m not suggesting that you invest in a massive, enterprise-level system.  While there’s no argument that those systems are incredibly capable, they’re also overkill for most small and medium sized companies.  The initial purchase price is high, setup and configuration can take days, monthly costs can be very expensive and the systems are complex enough that you would likely have to hire a consultant to assist with the initial configuration as well as ongoing maintenance of the system.

Off the shelf solutions aren’t always the best answer either.  While relatively inexpensive and less complicated to install, most of these products offer a limited feature set and don’t scale very well.  Which means that you run the risk of outgrowing the system and ending up frustrated by a lack of flexibility or dealing with customers who hang up when a phone system overwhelmed by volume ends up dropping their call.  Then you have to start all over again with new equipment, another installation round and all the disruption that entails.

What many people don’t realize is that there’s a third option.  I’ve been following a company offering an innovative solution that offers the best of both worlds.  With an in house development team and significant product investment, this PBX system offers the feature set and scalability of enterprise level systems.  However, the simplicity of configuration, low monthly cost and lack of long-term contract requirement more closely resembles the off the shelf solutions.  This option gives you features and room for growth without complexity and cost.



Giga Flux

Professional website designers pride themselves on creating a visually attractive piece of work. It is actually a very unique skill set brought on by the internet where a website designer needs to not only know about what looks good and works smooth, but also the variety of programming languages behind designing a website. A website these days can be powered by not only HTML, but XHTML, CSS, Perl, ASP, VBScript, Java, Javascript, SQL and of course FLASH.

Flash programming, now more than 10 years old was first developed by an ingenious company called Macromedia which is now owned by once rival, Adobe. The value of FLASH is its ability to deliver multimedia motion graphics for animation and interaction on the web but using the least amount of memory possible, thus making its programmers highly sought-after for upper-end website construction.

So as a small business owner you may have run into a “FLASHY” website in your surfing travels and been in awe (ok, jealous) of how great they look. Well the thing is really, I have seen thousands of small business websites with expensive Flash programming and immediately thought to myself, “What a complete waste of money!”

Creating and designing your small business website using all the latest software, enhanced graphics and in depth programming will almost certainly lead you to eventually lose interest in your own website, commit you to future invoice headaches for every little update you need to make, and cluster your website with a slew of others in your market that are equally as glamorous as they are ineffective.

You do not need a glamorous, gadget-filled website to get a customer to sign up for your email newsletter. You need an incentive. Surfers (potential customers) might be impressed with your website, but you will never impress them more than the next business which has one-upped you, yet again in the Flash department. It’s just a silly waste of time and money. Surely as a small business owner you can see through that.

Give your prospective customer a reason to be interested. In exchange for their email address you can send them a dinner-for-two coupon if you are a restaurant. You can offer them a 15 point safety check on their next oil change. You can catch their interest with a set of free labels for their wine making project. You can offer a free wash and dry with next hair cut. The bottom line is you have to put a financial incentive out there for them because once you have their contact information the likelihood of that web-surfer becoming your customer one day soon is radically multiplied.

Therein lies your distinct advantage over your competition. Their website may be full of bells and whistles, but yours is full of profit.



Giga Flux

Small businesses thinking of making the move to accept payments from customers via the internet need to seek advice before doing so, according to Tony Neate, managing director of Get Safe Online.

Research taken by the organisation reveals that 44 per cent of small businesses in the UK have been a victim of cybercrime, including internet scams, identity fraud, phishing and data theft. Of those businesses affected, more than a third (36 per cent) had suffered a computer virus and almost one in five (18 per cent) had been a victim of internet scams such as phishing, spyware or hacking in the last two years.

In such an environment, Mr Neate said that as soon as your company is responsible for handling other people’s confidential information, then new rules and regulations come in to play.

He reveals that there are now regulations that have been brought in by the credit card companies, and small business outfits probably need to have a look at those because they will likely be imposed on them as a result of taking credit card details.

The message is that if you are not an expert in relation to computers and computer security and you have your own e-commerce site or server, then you need to get advice. Furthermore, if you are taking people’s credit card details and transacting online, make sure you have listened to the correct advice.

However, Get Safe Online reveals only five per cent of small businesses have access to dedicated IT support, either internally or via an outsourced provider. Instead, many business owners have to take it upon themselves to keep up with the latest online security issues. Of those who had experienced online crime or other IT-related problems, almost a fifth (19 per cent) said they lost revenue as a result of downtime – the average figure cited as £1,540 – or an estimated £750 million in losses across the UK small business population as a whole.

Furthermore 60 per cent of small businesses said they would grind to a halt altogether if their PCs were taken down by cybercrime or IT related issues.

While businesses must look at access control, data encryption and secure password practices, as well as looking at other measures such as staff training, it’s also important to remember that by taking a few simple precautions should mean that online risks needn’t overshadow the huge benefits that the internet brings to UK businesses.

Disclaimer:

This article has been written for information and interest purposes only. The information contained within this article is the opinion of the author only, and should not be construed as advice or used to make financial decisions. Expert financial advice should always be sought and any links contained within this article are included for information purposes only.



Wallpaper Union

The answer is YES, if you are a small business owner, you have employees, you have payments to make, taxes to deduct from the salaries and send the deducted money to the IRS.

1. Payroll Software Is Worth

As small business owner, you need to take care of the payroll all by yourself. Calculating the income tax and national insurance contributions in producing the weekly payroll can easily take an hour or more each week. An hour that could be better spent earning profits or at the very least having an extra hour of free time each week. Free time that small business owner’s value at a premium since the majority of small business owners either work or think about work from dawn to dusk 7 days a week. A payroll software package to satisfy the payroll requirements can be just one part of making that small business more efficient.

2. Payroll Software Can User Friendly

You do not need to be a computer whizze or financial guru to use payroll software. Dr Ge, the designer of ezPaycheck, believed “Good small business payroll software was designed and engineered for ease-of-use by those who have only basic computer skills and little accounting know-how. It should be simple – stupid simple – so that small business owners can focus their time and energy on running their businesses, not trying to figure out how to run payroll software.”

So ezPaycheck payroll software from halfpricesoft.com always comes with sample database. Dr Ge said most of their users can print their first check in minutes.

3. Payroll Software Is Affordable

Most small business owners do not need complex accounting suite, which comes with lots features that you might not need to touch at all. You can easily find stand-alone small business payroll software on market that cost you less than $100 per tax year. Some companies even offer discount price for updating package when renew it next year.

4. Start Your Test Drive

If you are still not confident enough, you can go ahead and download such software from internet. Most companies allow user to user try such software free for 15 to 30 days.

Tips:

Followings are some suggestion in choosing payroll software:

1 Test drive trial version of your payroll software efficiently. Firstly, you should be very comfortable with the GUI and should be able to handle it on your own even before you make a purchase. Ask for trial version of the desired software. Many payroll software companies provides free download version from their web site. Make sure you test the trial version enough before making a serious purchase.

2. Of course good payroll software must calculate taxes accurately. But as payroll software for small business owners, it must be simple, straight-forward and user friendly as well. It cannot expect the small business owner to be an expert at computers and finance. If you start a payroll application and cannot figure out how to use the buttons after 10 minutes, it may a good decision to forget this payroll software.

3. Be sure to check for any hidden charges while making the purchase. You may need to pay annual charges for updates.

With less than $100 priced easy-to-use payroll software like ezPaycheck (from halfpricesoft.com), you can handle the payroll job easily yourself. Why you need to pay accountant $200 per month?



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1) Not Seeing the Future

Small business software can be tricky when it comes to buying different licenses. As your company grows, your software needs to be able to grow right along with it. Take a customer database for example. At first you have just a few clients, easily manageable with a small, free piece of software or even a spreadsheet. Suddenly, you have hundreds of clients with vital data to store regarding each one. Your software is overloaded and your spreadsheet looks like a bowl of Japanese alphabet soup. When you are choosing the software for your company, choose a software that is designed not just for small businesses, but mid sized businesses as well. Make sure that if it designed to hold employee data, that it can hold an unlimited number of employees without having to buy extra licenses. Also, if there are different levels of licenses available, don’t restrict yourself with a lower license just to save a few bucks, buy a license that will give you room to expand a little without breaking your budget.

2) No Support or Expensive Support

The software you will be using to run your small business will hold very important, time-sensitive information. Be it an invoice or payroll, the slightest computer glitch can cause your employees to be upset, customers to request refunds, and most importantly, money to be lost. When a server goes down the last thing you want to hear is your 20 year old tech guy say, “Sorry dude, looks like your data is pretty much toast.” Choose software that has a solid phone support system. Email support is affordable, but it usually takes 24 hours to get a reply. If your business is worth $200 an hour, how much is that really costing you? On the flip side, don’t pay an arm and a leg for phone support. Annual fees of $100-$200 are about average with per incident fees running about $50-$80 a pop. If someone wants to charge $200+ per incident or per hour for phone calls, be very weary. Their software better be perfection on a screen if it’s going to be worth it.

3) Not Trying it Before You Buy

What is the safest way to make sure you get the software you need with all the features your business demands? Download a demo BEFORE you buy! Nearly all software can be tried before you make a decision to purchase. If you don’t see a clear way to download a demo from their website, give them a call and request one. If they don’t offer one, ask them why and, unless they have a really good excuse, pick up the search again for your software. Demos are great for a lot of reasons. First, you can make sure that the data is compatible with your other programs (i.e. payroll with time tracking). Second, this gives you a chance to test it on your network and operating system to ensure full capability. Third, you can test their support when you encounter issues. If they are unwilling to help you get the demo running, this may be a sign of “monetary myopia” where they only help you once you have given them money. Not only does this show a sign a poor customer service but it shows a lack of confidence in their product.



Wallpaper Union

There’s a lot of doom and gloom out there. Economists from around the country seem to agree that the US economy is in a downturn. How deep or how long it will last is anyone’s best guess. Even the ever optimistic Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffet, said recently, “My general feeling is that the recession will be longer and deeper than most people think. This will not be short and shallow.”

While recent research from National Small Business Association (NSBA) survey of Small and Mid-Sized Businesses and American Express OPEN seems to back up those assessments, many small business owners remain optimistic about their ability to have a successful year. Among the highlights:

* Increased energy costs have led 37% of businesses to increase their prices, yet 18% have invested in energy efficient equipment or upgrades

* 70% of small business owners remain confident in the outlook of their own business

* 70% of businesses have been able to secure adequate financing, up from 67% in 2007

* 71% of business owners plan to grow their business over the next 6 months

* Almost 40% of small business’ plan to hire in the next six months

* 86% of entrepreneurs describe themselves as “glass half-full” people

As Eric so eloquently spoke of in his recent post(on PaySimple’s blog), and Sarah discussed last Monday, small businesses provide the fuel that powers the US economic engine. On the heels of small business week, and in the midst of what most experts believe to be a recession, we at PaySimple wish you all the best in 2008. We know things are tough yet we remain confident in your ability to remain strong in the face of adversity. We are 110% behind all of you who strive for better lives and a piece of the American Dream.



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