Popset: Upload Albums Directly to Facebook Pages, Collaborate With Fans

Popset: Upload Albums Directly to Facebook Pages, Collaborate With Fans
Protect Investors with Executive Liability
George Page of Sea Breeze Farm: Embracing the iPad
We Have A Mission Statement, Credo and Mantra!
Best Buy Founder Tries to Turn Company Around

Posted: 24 Aug 2012 01:00 PM PDT

There's no shortage of photo apps that give users the ability to work with social media sites, but not many are designed specifically with brands in mind.

Popset

Now, photo editing app Popset has updated its features to include the ability to post albums directly to Facebook fan pages, along with other social outlets.

CEO Jan Senderek says:

"Photos are an instantaneous and powerful way for brands to tell their story, which is why they're looking for ways to take full advantage of Facebook's emphasis on photos. Popset makes the process of telling that story through photo albums easier, by allowing brands to create and edit new albums, and then upload them to Facebook with one click."

In addition to the ability to post photos and albums directly to brand pages, Popset also gives users the ability to synch brand and fan photos, which can encourage collaboration and interaction with customers. To do this, brands can invite fans to upload their own photos to the company's Popset album. Senderek says:

"Collaborative photo albums mean that now your brand's fans can become advocates who help tell your brand's story through their photos."

Senderek said that there are many ways brands can use this collaborative feature to interact with fans, and tell their stories from multiple points of view:

"A few high-profile figures have already found awesome ways to use Popset to connect with fans. During his recent world tour to support Men In Black 3, Will Smith used Popset to create a group album for the New York premier so that he and his fans could put all of their photos together."

Popset is a free app available in the App Store. In addition to sharing photos, users can also edit photos with filters, add captions and more.

Captions can even be preserved when the album is uploaded to Facebook and photos and albums are backed up and stored on multiple devices.

From Small Business Trends

Popset: Upload Albums Directly to Facebook Pages, Collaborate With Fans

Protect Investors with Executive Liability

Posted: 24 Aug 2012 11:00 AM PDT

When most people think about executive liability they think board members.

“My organization doesn’t need director’s and officer’s insurance because we don’t have a board.”

Wrong!

business protection

D and O (directors and officers Insurance) also protects company executives. Whether you are a for-profit or not-for-profit organization, an executive liability package should be considered just as important as general liability.

What Does Executive Liability Cover?

Executive liability is a name commonly used in reference to a package of coverages including (but not limited to) director’s and officer’s (D and O), employment practices, and fiduciary liability.

Monica M. Minkel wrote a fantastic piece on Executive Liability for American Agent & Broker Magazine. Ms. Minkel does a wonderful job outlining the risks that are included in each piece of the executive liability basket and how those risks pertain to specific coverage. I encourage you to take a minute and read her article.

The essence of the piece is that executive liability covers a heck of a lot more than just not-for-profit organizations and their directors and officers. Small, private business should be considering this coverage like they do general liability and professional liability.

Why Is Executive Liability Important?

The quality of your board members and executive leadership is just as (and in many cases more) important than the quality of your staff, in the case of not-for-profit organizations, volunteers.

Did you know that board members and executives can be held personally liable for the decisions they make when directing an organization? I’m fairly certain that the cream of crop board members and executives you want to recruit for your organization are aware of this risk.

In order to recruit and retain the best and brightest you need to be able to protect leadership in the event of lawsuit.

Disclaimer: I am not saying that purchasing executive liability is a lawsuit chastity belt. However, decisions are often made with the best of intentions and the worst of unexpected consequences. Doing your best to protect against these consequences is prudent.

Investors Want to Be Protected

Companies in the start-up and early growth phases are always looking for new funding to help expand operations. Venture capitalism and angel investment seem to be the new philanthropy these days.

Be aware that sound investors who intend to take equity in your business in exchange for funding are going to want to be protected against the decisions you make.

The basket of coverages included in executive liability provides the coverage they demand.

The Rub

The rub is this: there are too many organizations exposed to this type of risk. Don’t fall prey to the, “We’re too small to worry about that,” excuse. No business is too small to be sued because it’s mismanaging invested dollars.

Call an experienced insurance professional today and find out where you are exposed to executive liability risk and what options you have to guard against a claim.

Protection Photo via Shutterstock

From Small Business Trends

Protect Investors with Executive Liability

George Page of Sea Breeze Farm: Embracing the iPad

Posted: 24 Aug 2012 08:00 AM PDT

Technology has certainly changed the way we do business and it’s impacted one particular family run business in a very special way. George Page, Founder of Sea Breeze Farm, an organic restaurant on Vashon Island off the coast of Seattle, joins Brent Leary to discuss how he developed business apps that run on the iPad to help his employees become more productive and efficient.

* * * * *

George Page Founder of Sea Breeze Farm Small Business Trends: Can you talk a little bit about Sea Breeze Farm, what do you guys do?

George Page: Well, we started out just a small hobby family farm that grew rapidly into a suite of small integrated micro businesses as I like to call them.

In addition to the farm, which consists of primarily livestock, we have a small dairy, we milk a dozen cows, we raise pigs and chickens for meat, and chickens for eggs and we raise ducks. On top of that, we have added a small scale winery and a cheese making operation.

In addition, we have a small scale butcher shop where we make bacon, ham, pates and cured meats. We also have a small farm-to-table organic restaurant attached to that.

We operate at the local Seattle area farmers market, selling our product on a weekly basis year round.

Small Business Trends: How are you able to manage all of that?

George Page: My method for tracking business information and processing all of the different regulatory paperwork and issues has really evolved organically. Just like the business. So it has been a process of discovery.

From my perspective, running into a problem, I have to track this information. How do I do it? Well, let me get a piece of paper and make a list. Okay, that is kind of clunky. How about Excel? I remember that tool can do some cool stuff. So we started usng Excel and spreadsheets and that started to get clunky. It just seemed like there was something missing. Something that could really make integrated information more dynamic and more relational.

It was at that point that I discovered FileMaker. It is a simple to use a point and click, drag and drop interface and design your own database tool. That was revolutionary. That has taken me in a whole new direction.

Small Business Trends: So you went from using the spreadsheets to creating a new database? How has that impacted the way you do business?

George Page: It has provided a scenario where we can interrelate a lot of business information. The whole point of the database really is to eliminate data redundancy, and data entry redundancy.

If you put something into your system you don't want to have to do it again, whether it is an employees' name or contact information, or maybe information on the wine that you made this year like the varietal one, the vineyard, all of that sort of the stuff.

In addition, it provides a repository to keep all of your information in one interrelated location so you can find stuff. I would say that is probably the biggest part of it. Just having all of your information accessible at your fingertips.

I guess I would say the other piece is that it is able to import that to a really dynamic, slick, user interface environment like the iPad. That really is sexy and appealing to employees and customers alike.

Small Business Trends: Talk a little bit about the iPad. How are you using it from a retailing perspective?

George Page: It has been driven by the restaurant environment where it started out by just creating a simple invoicing system for the iPad. There are a lot of simple startup solutions FileMaker provides for you when you get up and running within a few hours and have your invoicing system in place.

My natural inclination was wanting to take that to another level and apply it to our restaurant, which is an environment where a typical invoicing system is a little clunky and awkward. Because you are running tickets for a line. You need a touch screen so you can find stuff really quick and you have dynamic menu items that are changing on a daily basis for a farm-to-table seasonal restaurant.

I took it to the next level and took an invoicing backend solution from FileMaker and tweaked it into a touch screen interface that you can use on an iPad. My employees can take orders on the iPad with a touch screen system.

In addition, my chef can update dynamically all of the menu items and it is reflected instantly in the point of sale system. So price changes and item descriptions are instantly available to my service staff.

Small Business Trends: As the employees do their jobs, it updates the information and you can see it on your device?

George Page: Absolutely. A really cool feature of that is that I can be sitting here in my office on the farm, having FileMaker open, and watch sales tick away at the restaurant.

Small Business Trends: You believe handing over an iPad might be an incentive for employees?

George Page: Yes, I think the employees love it. They love the sleek sexiness of the interface.

My chef is classic. He doesn't want to spend time on the computer. He wants to go and cook. He gets frustrated in trying to format the menu in Adobe Illustrator, trying to cut and paste fonts and items. It just drives him crazy.

Whereas, with this nice slick user interface, you have really cool things like a historic record of all of the menus. So he can easily do a quick find and say, “Where is my menu from August 15 of last year?” Because he had a recipe on the menu that year that he wants to replicate this year with fresh tomatoes.

Again, I had to just take away a lot of the clumsiness that technology sometimes puts in the way.

Small Business Trends: Where can people learn more about your business and how to get a meal?

George Page: Go to Sea Breeze Farm. There is a tab to make reservations right online. We are a very charming little 15 minute ferry ride from Seattle, floating across the gorgeous Puget Sound. It is a pretty special little place.

This interview is part of our One on One series of conversations with some of the most thought-provoking entrepreneurs, authors and experts in business today. This interview has been edited for publication. To hear audio of the full interview, click the right arrow on the gray player below. You can also see more interviews in our interview series.

Whether you’re growing your business or starting a new venture, BlackBerry solutions provide you with the freedom you want and the control you need. [Series sponsor]

From Small Business Trends

George Page of Sea Breeze Farm: Embracing the iPad

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We Have A Mission Statement, Credo and Mantra!

Posted: 24 Aug 2012 05:00 AM PDT

sales business cartoon
I worked at a company for a while whose mission statement was apparently “We strive to find a decent mission statement.”

It was decided that we needed one for our upcoming QS-9000 audit thingy, and for a good 3 months we received a new mission almost weekly. All of the other paperwork and documentation went fairly smoothly, but this little detail really had them stymied.

If we’d been honest it would’ve read “Our mission is to get upper management that jet they’ve been wanting for a while now. And some new carpeting would be nice.” But instead we got a parade of seemingly impressive but empty statements that became a running joke with the employees.

When you think about it, why you do what you do is a serious and thought-provoking question. But if it turns out to be a real stumper, maybe you’ve got other questions to be asking.

From Small Business Trends

We Have A Mission Statement, Credo and Mantra!

Best Buy Founder Tries to Turn Company Around

Posted: 24 Aug 2012 02:30 AM PDT

It’s no fun to confront problems that are preventing your company from being successful, but sometimes this is the challenge facing all entrepreneurs. If your company is having problems due to changes in your market or in the economy as a whole, it might be necessary to go back to the drawing board and re-imagine your business in a new way. Sometimes, simple changes will help, while other times more radical moves are necessary. Our roundup looks at challenges facing businesses large and small and how those problems can be turned around.

Best Buy Breakdown

Desperate times. The struggling electronics retailer Best Buy has resumed talks with founder Richard M. Schulze about his offer to buy the chain. Schultz says he plans to take the company private and make some major changes to help it weather the radically changing market. Bloomberg

Desperate measures. The company may have difficulty fending off Schulze’s acquisition attempt. The retailer reported a 91 percent drop in second quarter profits, and sales in the United States and Europe are down. Others familiar with the situation express skepticism that Schultz can assemble the resources necessary to acquire the company in which he owns a 20 percent stake. DealBook

Creative Counterpoint

Making connections. One of the things entrepreneurs instinctively do when facing challenges, either when launching their companies or when hard times befall them, is to network. Sir Richard Branson tells of how he used networking as an integral part of his strategy before social media even existed. Entrepreneur

Mashing mythology. When trying to find workable solutions for your company, you will be confronted with silly myths about business that must be ignored. Never buy into any paradigm you believe to be untrue. Instead, focus on getting positive results, not on platitudes that center on the negative. Buzz Small Business Magazine