The Real Toll Of Office Technology |  |
- The Real Toll Of Office Technology
- Twitter Chat: Get Your Business Prepared for the Holidays
- Skype in the Workspace Offers Communication Hub for Businesses
- The Fantasy Football Approach To Understanding Your Financial Results
- Retailers Fight Amazon with Ferriss Boycott
| The Real Toll Of Office Technology Posted: 08 Nov 2012 01:00 PM PST In many ways, the technological revolution has helped us become more energy efficient. We can hold face-to-face meetings via video conferencing rather than traveling cross country. As devices get tinier, so does their energy consumption. Yet overall, the technological revolution is actually causing a large tick in energy consumption. Business owners just may not see it as readily as before.
Consider the amount of time spent on computers and the energy used to keep servers running. Think about all the tasks we rely on electronic devices for today that used to be done manually. The storage of all the electronic data we produce is also raising our energy use: According to Stanford researcher Jonathan Koomey, data centers accounted for 1.7% to 2.2% of all electricity consumed in the U.S. in 2010. And don't forget the energy used to manufacture all the gadgets we use. Though few businesses want to turn back the clock and start using typewriters again, it's all a good reminder to business owners that you need to pay attention to your office technology energy use – and don't assume it's a zero-sum game. Here are some steps that can help you reduce office technology energy use: Check Sleep Modes On All Equipment Even if you turn off all equipment – computers and copiers – at night, there's still likely excess use during daytime hours. What about when you run out for a meeting or grab lunch? For any idle times, your equipments' "sleep mode" or "power save" mode can reduce energy use by 75% or more when it's not in use. It also saves money: Setting sleep mode can save $10 to $50 a year per computer and much more for equipment such as large copiers. Many new technologies come with sleep mode already enabled, but you may need to check the user manual to find out how to check it and make sure. Buy High-Efficiency Technologies The federal government's Energy Star program makes it easy to find energy efficient equipment by looking for the blue-and-white sticker. Energy Star-qualified equipment use 10% to 50% less energy than regular models, which can add up to a lot in an office with a lot of equipment. Move Applications To The “Cloud” For most small businesses, cloud computing – or running applications off the Internet – will save energy rather than buying software and running it on premise. That's because centralizing data storage often allows for greater efficiency than small data centers. A study by Accenture found that a business with 100 users could cut energy use and carbon emissions by up to 90% by moving applications to the cloud. Given the large energy consumption of today’s technology — and the cost of that energy to your business — it only makes sense to make sure you’re being as efficient as possible. Energy Saving Photo via Shutterstock The post The Real Toll Of Office Technology appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Twitter Chat: Get Your Business Prepared for the Holidays Posted: 08 Nov 2012 11:00 AM PST
We’ll be addressing all the big concerns small businesses have this time of year, such as running holidays promotions and specials, buying employee and client gifts, ideas for greeting cards, store banners for the holidays, and shipping packages during the holiday rush. $25 Gift Card Giveaway In addition to providing great tips on preparing for the holidays in minutes, we’ll also be giving away several $25 gift cards, courtesy of FedEx Office, which certainly can come in handy this time of year. Be sure to join us: TOPIC: Get Your Business Prepared for the Holidays – in Minutes DATE: Wednesday, November 14, 2012 TIME: 8:00 pm ET (New York time) WHERE: Twitter.com, of course! Simply follow the hashtag #SMBHolidayPrep. Be sure to follow me, @smallbiztrends as well and if you're new to Twitter chats, check out Lisa Barone's "How to Participate in a Twitter Chat." Disclosure: FedEx Office compensated me to participate as a small business expert during the FedEx Office Tweet Chat program and write this post. FedEx Office also provided the gift cards. The ideas in this blog post are mine and not ideas or advice from FedEx Office. The post Twitter Chat: Get Your Business Prepared for the Holidays appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Skype in the Workspace Offers Communication Hub for Businesses Posted: 08 Nov 2012 08:00 AM PST Skype has just announced the release of a new business-centric online platform called Skype in the Workspace, aimed at helping businesses not only communicate with clients, prospects, and peers, but also to find new contacts and build a network that can help further your business's interests.
Ural Cebeci, Head of Product Marketing for Skype in the Workspace, said:
Users of the service can sign in and create a profile similar to many other social sites. Then they can "create an opportunity" for other users to connect and discuss a particular topic. For instance, if your company was testing out a new B2B service, you could create a 20-minute Skype presentation and then open it up to any users who might be in the industry where your service is aimed. Users can browse different opportunities like this to find what might be most relevant to them. The screenshot above shows what a user might see if they were interested in speaking with people on the topic of Pinterest. The different opportunities might include question and answer sessions or simple informational meetings. So users can sift through the different opportunities that have been posted and choose what is the most relevant. Then the creator of the opportunity can view those interested and even contact them or add them to their network on Skype. What sets this platform apart from other social sites is the emphasis on communication, said Cebeci. And as far as online communication providers go, Skype currently has more than 280 million monthly active users, so the amount of people a company could potentially reach would be difficult to match with other providers. Launched publicly today, Skype in the Workspace just went through a six-month beta testing period, during which Cebeci said it was simplified quite a bit, with an emphasis on quick and easy ways to get in touch with people:
Skype was founded in 2003 and is a division of Microsoft. In addition to the new workspace features, the company offers voice calling, video chat, instant messaging, and various communication plans for businesses. The post Skype in the Workspace Offers Communication Hub for Businesses appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| The Fantasy Football Approach To Understanding Your Financial Results Posted: 08 Nov 2012 05:00 AM PST Imagine walking into a football stadium just after all the fans have left and the players have gone to the locker room. You see streamers, signs, and various discarded items lying around. You look up at the scoreboard and see that your favorite team lost. The score was 28 – 24. You Are Now a Football Coach!
As you stand there in disappointment, someone with a clipboard walks up:
How would you start working with your team to help them improve their performance? I've asked lots of small business owners this question. They almost always answer the same way. The first thing would be to review game stats and the game tapes to get an idea of how the various parts of the game were played. It is clear that you wouldn’t be able to effectively help your team improve without knowing the details of where they were successful and where they fell short of expectations. No matter what specific approach you might take, it absolutely would NOT be to simply look at the score, and then start making changes. Would it? Obvious, But Not Obvious Trying to improve and making changes by only looking at the scoreboard is exactly how most small business owners approach their business. It is ironic that you clearly wouldn't act that way in our imaginary situation, yet when it comes to your business, where real dollars are made or lost, you most likely do just that very thing. Most small business owners get trapped trying to figure how to improve their financial results by looking at their profit and loss statement. They take a look at revenue and expenses and draw conclusions such as:
How You Measure Isn't How It's Created The problem with that approach is that revenue and expenses are merely mathematical concepts that are measured on your profit and loss statement. The reality is that revenue and expenses don’t tell you ANYTHING about how your financial results are created. Revenue is created by the combination of how many customers buy from you, how much they purchase each time they buy from you, and how often they buy from you. This is dis-aggregation. Drilling into the mathematical creations that you find on your profit and loss statement and breaking them down into the actual components that combine to produce those mathematical creations. The same approach can be taken toward your expenses. As they appear on your profit and loss they are really nothing more than mathematical creations. Your expenses (whether direct or overhead) are created by your customers, your products, or the activities that go on inside your business to connect them. Taking this dis-aggregated view of your business allows you to really understand HOW your business has created the financial results you have been getting from it. By dis-aggregating you get an up close picture of how your current financial results have been created. And once you have that level of clarity you can take the next step toward creating the financial results you want. And that next step will be the topic of my next post. In the meantime, get dis-aggregating! Football Photo via Shutterstock The post The Fantasy Football Approach To Understanding Your Financial Results appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Retailers Fight Amazon with Ferriss Boycott Posted: 08 Nov 2012 02:30 AM PST Some traditional retailers are taking an interesting path to competing with online retailer Amazon. Barnes & Noble and other traditional book retailers have vowed not to carry Amazon’s latest venture into publishing, popular author Timothy Ferriss’s latest book The 4-Hour Chef. Small business owners take many approaches to dealing with competition. In fact, entrepreneurs can probably see this from a couple of points of view: from both the perspective of a new business trying to enter an established market and from the angle of an established business trying to fight off newcomers. Ready to CompeteJust say no. Read this article about the spreading boycott by traditional retailers against online competitor Amazon’s latest title by author Timothy Ferriss. As Amazon begins getting into the publishing business, the question is whether refusing to carry its titles will really help retailers. Our thought: not carrying Amazon titles may also send more customers to Amazon’s site looking for the book when they can’t find it at traditional book stores. What do you think? The Christian Science Monitor Outside looking in. As we mentioned earlier, the battle between Amazon and traditional book retailers can be seen from at least two perspectives. Amazon, which is taking a major bite out of traditional book selling, is having a bit more trouble breaking into publishing since many other retailers are refusing to take its books, decreasing their availability. Breaking into a new market can be tough. Businesses must be persistent. The Wall Street Journal Prepared for ActionTwo heads are better than one. Competition may be coming at Amazon from another direction, too. Two publishing giants, Penguin and Random House, have announced intentions to join forces, with one of their focuses being emerging markets like digital publishing. It’s possible the new approach will create more opportunities for small business content producers, but more importantly, the merger shows how teaming up in business can sometimes be a good way to deal with competition. Small Business Trends Show up the competition. When working to compete against entrenched competitors, one great approach is to tell prospects and customers what you provide that your competitors don’t. Entrepreneur Anthony Karibian started two companies that faced established global competitors but decided to take the approach of explaining to his prospects about the hidden costs his competition was charging them. Explaining how his company was superior was the secret to competing. bOnline Blog Building a StrategySpy on the other guy. This isn’t as bad as it sounds. In fact, researching your market is an important step for all entrepreneurs. There are plenty of easy (and perfectly valid and legal) ways to study your competition to figure out what they are doing right and wrong. Considerable information about your competition is available in traditional media and on the Internet. There are plenty of great ways to figure out what other businesses are doing and how you can do it better. Small Biz Diamonds Celebritize your brand. Publishing may be the latest front in the battle between Amazon and traditional book sellers, but it could also be the best way for your brand to leave the competition behind in the dust. Public relations expert Marsha Friedman calls this the “Celebritize Yourself” method, and says it’s the best way to increase the credibility and visibility of any business. EMSI Fear no more. Perhaps the best way of all to compete in any market, however, is not to compete at all. Management expert Bernd Geropp recommends abandoning the strategy of competing on price, quality, and service. Instead, he suggests, become the expert in solving your customers’ problems and fulfilling their greatest desires. In this way, Geropp explains, you will always be number one in your customers’ eyes and as a result, never need to fear competition again. More Leadership, Less Management The post Retailers Fight Amazon with Ferriss Boycott appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
If you just realized the holidays are around the corner and don’t know where to start in prepping your business, join us for a one-hour Twitter chat on the subject on November 14, 2012 at 8 pm Eastern.
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