Data That Exists In One Place Is Only In Grave Danger Of Not Existing At All.

Hard drives fail. It’s not a matter of IF your computer’s hard drive will fail, the question is WHEN it will fail. That’s what backups are for. Also, keep in mind that RAID systems can protect you from a disk failure, but they do NOTHING to protect you from human error (”Ooops! Didn’t mean to delete that!”). Backup systems and strategies may at first glance appear to be expensive and unnecessary, and many companies opt to not have a backup strategy (or it simply doesn’t occur to them). Your company is your people and the data your people produce and manipulate. If there was a disaster (fire, earthquake, etc..) and you lost ALL of your company data overnight, it would be a huge financial disaster, possibly a fatal blow to your company.

Backup systems and strategies are inexpensive when you look at what happens when your data is GONE. Some software packages offer inexpensive online backup service, where every day the software will transfer critical files to a remote location operated by the software vendor. This is a standard feature of many business accounting packages. In some cases it’s free, in others there is some nominal charge for it. In ALL cases, it’ cheap compared to losing your accounting data. There are commercial online backup services that are separate from the software package based ones you can sign up for too. Searching the web for “online backup” will bring you many alternatives.

Online backup solutions require no additional equipment, and are easy to set up. Once set up, the process is automatic so you won’t forget. You don’t have to remember to change tapes or hire a technician to manage your backups. Compared with the alternatives, online backup solutions are a bargain!

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Are social networking tools like Twitter the answer to oppressive governments trying to suppress free speech? It’s starting to look like this is true. Years ago, Internet pioneer John Gilmore said “The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it”. While that is true, some governments such as China and Iran have made repeated attempts to restrict Internet access by parties who report unfavorably about the people in power. They disconnect and block routers, remove rooftop dish antennas used for satellite access, and they do manage to disrupt much normal web traffic. Twitter is different though, and allows the person on the street to report to the world with an immediacy never seen in the mainstream press, and the “tweets” (short Twitter messages) are much harder to block since they don’t really need a local website to host them. Protests in Iran over the recent elections are largely being driven by urban, tech-savvy younger people shooting tweets around the world, and Iran’s efforts to block them have largely been futile.

I am not much of a user of the social networking tools, but Twitter is playing such an important role in the Iran protests that I am starting to see real value in the technology. The U.S. State Department considers it so important that they have asked Twitter to delay some planned upgrades so as to keep the service up and running in these tumultuous times.

Bravo, Twitter!

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We’ve watched giants fall over the last year. Major retailers like Mervyns rolling up their carpets and even auto makers on capital hill begging for government hand-outs. It’s been a roller coaster to say the least. While economist predict a foreseeable end to this haunted house of bad economics, it important to remember that we all are trying our best to ride out the storm.

If your a small business you’ve undoubtedly faced many obstacles over the past year. You’ve been tossed, turned and slammed up against everything from money flow, tax and possibly even legal issues, and all along you’ve been just trying to hold on. We’ve all seen a lot of money leave our pockets, without seeing a lot for it, but now is not the time to throw in the towel. If you have a product or a service that you believe in, if it really is as great as you tell your customers it is, then dig your heels in and grab on to what ever you can in order to keep it going. We all sat back and watched as the big boys took a hit and decided that they had enough. We watched as our friends and maybe even our family members were unceremoniously shown the door, without so much as a thank-you for their years of hard work.

As a small business you can look around your office and see the faces that make up your company. They are your family. These are the people that will work for you through the tough times and celebrate your victories. Don’t expect them to work for free, but don’t take lightly their dependence on your ability to keep things going. Times are tough and as a nation, as a state, as a company you need to stick together. Open up to your employees, tell them if your having trouble. People have ideas, ways that maybe you haven’t thought of that can help your business. Even though it may seem like there is no hope, there is, it is in the people who are around you. A company is more then phones, computers, contacts and Internet access, it is made up of the minds, hearts and expertise of the people who operate that business.

If you believe in your product and you believe in your employees bite the proverbial bullet and hang in there. Don’t look back on your business and wonder what could have been if you had just held on, look back on this time of economic down turn and be thankful you held on because now you’re going strong.

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Everyone has that co-worker that you think is dying one day. Then you ask them what’s wrong, and they respond with, “My allergies are killing me right now.” Allergy season is upon us and is making many people feel miserable. In the workspace there are many actions employers can take to help alleviate the offices’ allergy symptoms. First off, have hand sanitizer at every employees workstation as it kills 99.99% of common germs that may make people sick. Also have loads of tissue boxes easily available to everyone. Make sure there is back up supply because when allergy season kicks in, that stuff will go through like water. In addition to simple office items, there are many allergy relief products available for offices. Air purifiers are great bedrooms, offices, or the entire house. Most air purifiers control: mold spore, pet dander, pollen, house dust mite allergen, and general indoor air pollution. The price ranges from small portable ones around $50 to whole house air purifiers that can be a couple thousand dollars. You can also purchase dehumidifiers, humidifiers, water filters, and HEPA (high efficiency particulate air) vacuums to name a few.

Aside from what your employer can provide, you can take action yourself by allergy medications. There are several types of medications, both over-the-counter and prescription. The two main allergy drugs are antihistamines and decongestants. Antihistamines are used to treat allergy symptoms and example include Claritin, Zyrtec, and Benadryl. Decongestants are used to relieve congestion and are often taken with Antihistamines for allergies. Try a variety of medicines to find the right one for you. I use to take Claritin with no success and switched to Zyrtec and could actually breathe. I know someone who is the exact opposite of me, as Claritin works for them over Zyrtec. Allergy season is never fun, but taking precautions measurements will ease you through that rough time of the year.

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Say goodbye to the days of passive recycling, especially in San Francisco, Ca where city officials have adopted a new take on how to drum up support for city wide recycling. Nope their not releasing a new PR campaign with catchy theme song or a kiddie cartoon, like the FastPass , instead if you don’t recycle you’ll be fined. Nothing inspires building mangers, residents and office owners, like the possibility to having to pay money.

While this is a great step in the Green direction City Officials failed to budget any money in order to enforce the new stipulation. So that means that Garbage guys you find your trash unsorted will put a sticker on it and leave it there. The fact that they won’t collect it, is probably worse then the likely hood that someone with the power, and/ or the  inclination to ticket you, will be more of a hassle. You can easily cut down on some of your paper waste by investing in paperless services like Internet faxing, which means you’ll have less to deal with and sort through at the end of the week.

It’s not surprising that as a country, or even as a city we seem to be unable to commit to something as simple as recycling. Perhaps this new fine will serve as a “kick in the pants” toward being environmentally conscience, that we so desperately need. PR campaigns have failed to inspire people to see being green as not just a fad but as a necessity. San Francisco, Ca officials are right in assuming that everyone these days is interested in keeping their money in their pockets. The question still remains however, if a fine, that isn’t enforced will really result in a overhaul of people’s understanding of how important it is to recycle. Yes, recycling is a dirty job, and while San Fransisco has to do it, everyone should do it too.

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In today’s economy many people are looking to save money but not affect the quality of their work. I recently have been using OpenOffice.org 3.1 which is substitute to Microsoft Office (actually using OpenOffice.org Writer to write this blog). OpenOffice.org is manufactured by Sun Microsystems and is free to use. The suit is available as a free download for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and Solaris. OpenOffice.org 3.1 applications includes: Writer (word processor), Calc (spreadsheets), Impress (presentations), Draw (flow charts and logos), Math (equations), and Base (database manager). It basically cover most of Microsoft Office applications except there is not Outlook substitute available.

Using the programs, they are very similar to how Microsoft Office runs. Writer is quite similar to Microsoft Word and even looks similar. Calc is much like Excel and the formula functions are basically the same. After using and reading many reviews about OpenOffice.org 3.1, it a great replacement for Microsoft Office. Impress is not as good as PowerPoint, but who likes sitting through PowerPoint presentations anyway? Bottom line is it does the job and gets your point across for any presentation. If you are looking to save money and use a reliable substitute to the expensive and ever changing Microsoft Office, OpenOffice.org 3.1 by Sun Microsystems is a great start.

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Most of us have at the very least heard of the Flip. The Flip is a hand held video recorder that has taken generation Y by storm. YouTube fans now have an easy and cool way to film each others follies, cute pets, and humorous happenings and then drop them on the web for all their friends and family to admire. What I found to be most attractive about the flip was its thoughtful design. The Flip itself is lightweight, easy to hold and very easy to operate. So easy in fact, that my mother, who can barely turn on a digital camera was film movie clips in just seconds of having it put into her hand.

I’ll admit I’ve never been the one to post things on YouTube or share videos with friends and family that I shot on my cell phone or camera. However, the flip is a fun, cool tool thatinspires even me to want to get my video viewpoint seen. I love that the USB connector just drops down from the side, so you don’t need to worry about losing some random cable. The cost of a Flip is also great. For less then $100 you can get a Flip that records for an hour, for half that you can get one that records for 30 mins. Because of the ease of downloading from the flip their really is not need to go beyond that for time, unless you really want to use it a lot and for long periods of time. I don’t know that I would personally flip for the Flip, but I wouldn’t mind filming someone else.

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Nobody likes being told how to dress. Some of us had to go to schools that required uniforms, and now that we’re adults you should be able to wear what you want, right?

Wrong.

A dress code can save both the employer and the employee a lot of stress and embarrassment. For example, when I was a retail store manager I had a customer complain that one of my associates was displaying their thong in a way that was not appropriate. The customer was embarrassed, I was embarrassed and apologetic. I then had to report to the scene of the supposed thong reveal and I personally witnessed my associate doing her job, which required bending over and it was at that point that she flashed myself, her co-workers and other customers with her undergarment. This particular associate was new and perhaps she was wearing pants that were too big, but for what ever reason I then had to pull her aside tell her that a customer had complained and I had to remind her that displaying undergarments, whether it be boxers, bra straps, or thongs was not allowed.

My store had a dress code. Most people understood the rationality for the dress code and respected it. Sure I wanted to wear jeans, but the dress code stipulated no denim and I followed the rules because I was setting an example. If you implement a dress code in the office, you should be prepared to follow the rules just like everyone else. If anything you, as the owner or manger, should be even more dressed up, because you are representing the highest authority in the workplace when you’re there. Dress code can also be used to reward your team. We would have denim days to celebrate events etc. Casual Fridays, or Hawaiian t-shirt days are also fun. In order to present yourself and your business in a professional way a dress code is a must. You should explain to your employees with as much possible detail what is and what isn’t appropriate; by doing so you save everyone a lot of future embarrassment.

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If you are currently advertising online or you are considering advertising online. You should become familiar with the terms that publishers (site operators) use to tell how they charge for their advertising space. Most sites, if their big enough, will have a rate card or advertising page on their site. This is important because you need to make sure you’re getting what you paid for. If a site has 90% female visitors and your demographic is single men, then it’s unlikely that this site will produce qualified traffic to your site.

Most rate cards will have CPM on them and a price. But what does CPM mean? CPM, is cost per 1,000 impressions. Impressions are views of the page that the advertisement is posted on. That means that if your advertisement is on the home page or a website, an impression is every time a person views the homepage. You’re charged whether the person clicks on your ad or not. In addition if you as is “below the fold,” meaning that a person has to scroll down in order to see it, the impression is still counted if they visit the page where the ad is posted. Pages can be very long, most people will scroll down and see your ad. Impressions are counted via the publishers tracking system or a 3rd party network. Large traffic sites can burn though 1,000 impressions in just minutes or it might take days if you ad is on a selective page or the site is not very busy.

CPM campaigns are usually on 3 month contacts, depending on the sites current advertising offer. In my opinion and my experience as an affiliate manger,CPM campaigns DO NOT work. CPM benefits the publisher and rarely if ever converts, unless the publisher is willing to generate interest in the advertisement by adding content to/ about the ad. Big publishers think it’s okay to push the little guys around. As far as I’m concerned anyone who wants aCPM isn’t interested in their advertisers, so don’t work with them. If you really think you ad will do well on their site, ask for a test on aCPC (cost per click) or CPS (cost per sale). That way if the site does do really well you can run a CPM campaign and know that it will be worth it. Any publisher who isn’t willing to let you test drive their site, is not worth working with. Would you buy a car you couldn’t have checked out by a mechanic or at the very least drive around the block? Don’t letCPM turn you off Internet advertising, try to negotiate a different payment model or find a publisher who wants to actually make a deal.

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Do you own or operate a small business online? Do you know what an Affiliate Program is? If you answered “yes” to the first question but “no” to the second, you need to spend sometime finding out about affiliate marketing. I am not talking about those sites that claim you can make $1,000 daily with only a little effort. Nope, affiliate marketing is a lot harder then that. It involves design, tracking, equations, fraud control and most of all an attractive offer or service.

If you sell your products or service online you should consider using affiliates, website that post your ads on their site, to help generate traffic to your site and purchase your products or service. Affiliates are website publishers who are willing to work on a commission in sales, or leads to sell your products or service. For example is you have a online store that sells t-shirts, your affiliate program might offer affiliates %15 of every sale made by customers who found your site by clicking on an advertisement from their site (this is easily tracked by networks). Perhaps you offer a service like a yearly subscription to spy-ware, you might pay the affiliate a flat rate of $15 for every sign up you get, or sale you make. The best was to form you payout structure is to look at what your competitors are paying out and their structure. Affiliates can make business owners a lot of money. You may think that you shouldn’t have to pay to have people sign up for your service or buy your products, your the one doing all the hard part right? Wrong! Affiliates can deliver people who might have never looked for your site, had they not seen your advertisement on theirs, don’t close your doors to customers just because you think they should know better.

The best advise anyone can give a person who doesn’t know what affiliate marketing is, is to study it. Read about it, search for it, ask questions on forums, find out who the great minds are in the industry and only work with people who you have contacts with. Know you legal rights and obligations and make sure your partners do too. Protect yourself by learning. Affiliate marketing might seem overwhelming but your future customers will thank you.

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