Viber, a Budding Skype Rival, Now Lets You Make Video Calls |  |
- Viber, a Budding Skype Rival, Now Lets You Make Video Calls
- 3 Contract Agreements Every Small Business Should Have
- Internet Sales Tax Bill May Stall in House of Representatives
- 3 Ways to Perform SEO on a Shoestring Budget
- Go Daddy Executive Named COO, Transformation Continues
- The Rise of Telecommuting And What It Means For Your Business
| Viber, a Budding Skype Rival, Now Lets You Make Video Calls Posted: 10 May 2013 02:00 AM PDT
This week Viber launched a desktop app to allow users to make video calls. The budding rival to Microsoft’s Skype calling service also announced it has reached 200 million users worldwide. Viber is akin to Skype in some ways but differs in others.
The new desktop app released this week for Windows and Mac contains a convenient feature that allows users to transfer a call between their desktop computer and a mobile phone, by clicking/touching a transfer icon. This feature could benefit small business owners who are with a client at their desktop computer but need to get away yet maintain the call uninterrupted. The call can be transferred from your computer to your mobile phone – and vice versa. Prior to the release of the desktop app recently, Viber had been exclusively for voice calls and text messaging. Currently, video calls can only be made “desktop to desktop.” In other words, you cannot do a Viber video call with one person on a mobile phone and the other on a desktop, or in mobile to mobile mode, currently. Group videoconferencing is not yet supported, either. To use Viber with your mobile device, you have to download a mobile app. The mobile apps cover a variety of mobile operating systems and devices, including various versions of iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry and Nokia. Viber is a startup based in Cyprus. In an interview with Gigaom, Viber’s CEO Talmon Marco noted that, “Viber for desktop lets you do pretty much everything that Viber lets you do on your mobile phone, with minor exceptions such as stickers. What puts it apart from Skype is how tightly integrated it is with the mobile experience. Skype went from the desktop to the phone. Viber went from mobile to desktop — the implication for the user is amazing." While services like Viber and Skype may never replace traditional phone service entirely, they do offer small business owners a way of keeping costs low. For that reason, such applications are important to small businesses. Viber Desktop Photo via Viber The post Viber, a Budding Skype Rival, Now Lets You Make Video Calls appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| 3 Contract Agreements Every Small Business Should Have Posted: 09 May 2013 04:00 PM PDT
It might be tempting to seal a deal with a handshake. After all, formalities just slow things down and, as a small business owner, you’ve got countless other things to do with your time. However, when you make a contract, proper documentation will give you and your business solid legal protection should the need arise. While specific business needs vary, below are three common legal contracts you should draw up for your business. Make a Contract: 3 Contract Agreements You Should Have1. Partnership AgreementIf you're starting or running a business with someone else, you need some kind of agreement in writing. Even if your business partner is your spouse, best friend or sibling, having some kind of partnership agreement in place from the start can be a helpful to figure out the inevitable issues that come up during the course of running a business. The partnership agreement should contain the following:
An Internet search for "partner agreement template" will turn up numerous partnership contracts you can use. Remember that while you may think you're on the exact same page as your partner(s) today, situations can easily change over the course of a few years. A few conversations and a little administrative work to make a contract at the start can save you major headaches and potential legal battles down the road. 2. Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)/Confidentiality AgreementWhenever you'll be sharing your company's proprietary information with somebody, you should ask them to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). Your company's proprietary info can be anything from the code written for a mobile app product, your business plan, marketing plan, forecasts or financial numbers, as well as your client and customer list. For example, if you partner with a vendor or freelancer for a marketing project, you should draw up an NDA to make sure your customer list is protected. You can find a sample NDA template from SCORE. As with any template you download from the Internet, you should have it reviewed by your attorney prior to use. 3. Independent Contractor AgreementsFor many small businesses, outsourcing to independent contractors is a great way to get some added help, fill a specific need or bring in specific expertise. It's a flexible arrangement, and you don't have to pay workers' compensation, payroll taxes or employee benefits for contractors and freelancers. However, be aware that the IRS is now on the lookout for employers who misclassify their workers as independent contractors to avoid paying payroll taxes, etc. For this reason, it's smart to make a contract. Create an independent contractor agreement that explicitly defines the relationship between you and the worker. Make it clear that you intend the worker to be an independent contractor who is responsible for his or her own taxes. In addition, the agreement should not exert much control over how work will get done. Don't set specific hours for when they need to work, or where. While having this agreement isn’t going to protect you 100 percent from an IRS audit or misclassification ruling, it does provide evidence that you intended to hire an independent contractor. For these three contracts, as with any legal formality, it's always best to invest a little time. Make a contract and get it squared away upfront, rather than waiting until you actually need the contract. By then, it's typically too late. Talk to an attorney if you have any questions at all or just want a professional set of eyes to review a contract. Your business is worth it. Contract Photo via Shutterstock The post 3 Contract Agreements Every Small Business Should Have appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Internet Sales Tax Bill May Stall in House of Representatives Posted: 09 May 2013 01:30 PM PDT
Small business owners: if you are opposed to the Internet Sales Tax bill, you may be able to breathe a sign of relief – for a while anyway. If you are in favor of the Internet Sales Tax bill, be prepared to have your patience tested. Earlier this week, the U.S. Senate passed the Internet Sales Tax bill. But the House of Representatives, which would also have to pass the bill before it could become law, may just throw a monkey wrench into the legislation. Reuters is reporting that Speaker of the House John Boehner (R- OH) will send the Senate version of the legislation to the House Judiciary Committee, likely stalling the bill. Boehner, who opposes the bill like many other Republicans in the House, may wish to delay any vote on the measure. There is no timetable for a potential vote in the House of Representatives. The Internet Sales Tax bill would allow individual states to require e-commerce merchants to collect and pay state sales taxes even if merchants don’t possess a physical presence in the state. Current legal doctrine mostly requires a physical presence. The proposed bill exempts small businesses with less than $1 million in sales in states that collect sales tax. One Man’s Fairness is Another Man’s UnfairnessThe official title of the bill is the Marketplace Fairness Act. But fairness is in the eye of the beholder. Those in favor include Amazon.com. The eCommerce giant initially fought the concept of an Internet sales tax, but more recently came out in favor of the measure. Some speculate the reason is that Amazon is planning to build warehouses in every state in order to enable same day delivery and thus would have to collect sales taxes anyway. The bill would give Amazon a competitive edge, due to its huge resources and technology, over smaller retailers not as easily able to handle the burdens. Retailing giants WalMart and Best Buy are also in favor of the measure becuase they already collect sales taxes due to stores in every states. It’s said that brick and mortar small businesses also favor the bill. However, since there is no single voice for small retailers it’s hard to say how strongly or the extent to which they support it. The affiliate marketing industry also supports the bill, because 76,000 affiliate sellers have been cut off from advertising revenue due to states that already have attempted to pass laws imposing sales taxes. Rather than pay sales taxes, large merchants simply discontinue their affiliate programs with small web publishers in the affected states that individually passed laws. Those opposing the Internet sales tax bill include online sellers, and sites like eBay,where millions go to sell merchandise today and mostly do it free of sales tax. They would have the burden of having to figure thousands of tax options (for 9600 state and local taxing jurisdictions), remitting taxes, and being subject to audit, paperwork and regulatory enforcement by them. They see it as a tax grab by state governments looking for more tax revenue. Former Vice President candidate Sarah Palin sounded off against the Internet Sales Tax on her Facebook page this week, where her post already has generated over 1,400 comment. She said, “This new internet tax is not only another barrier to entry for smaller online start-ups, it's a disincentive to grow a company. This will hit these smaller companies right where their margin of profit is, which means that this will cost jobs because when businesses lose profitability, they lay off workers or shut down.” But the impact is not nearly as cut and dried for small businesses, even for brick and mortar retailers. I would add, as a former co-owner of a retail shop in a small town: while 80% of our sales were local, 20% were online. And that was a decade ago — it likely would be a much higher percentage of sales online today. So it’s not just about online entrepreneurs. And while the $1 million sales exemption may sound high, remember, this is retail. That might translate into $150,000 net to a retailer – maybe less. The retailer may employ only a handful of employees. That’s hardly a huge business. Shipping Photo via Shutterstock The post Internet Sales Tax Bill May Stall in House of Representatives appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| 3 Ways to Perform SEO on a Shoestring Budget Posted: 09 May 2013 11:00 AM PDT
As the SEO landscape continues to change in 2013, many tactics that had previously been low cost, easy to implement and effective are becoming less and less effective. For this reason, a lot of small businesses are struggling to choose the right areas of focus to get quality results from SEO on a limited budget. The truth is that things like comprehensive content marketing plans can be very expensive to execute, and for many small businesses a hefty monthly retainer to “do SEO right” might not be a legitimate possibility. So what can a small business that’s on a budget do to improve their search rankings without exposing themselves to a high level of short term risk? SEO Help for Those on a Shoestring Budget1) Leverage External Expertise StrategicallyOne way to leverage external expertise on a limited budget is to contract with an agency in a specific, strategic way. Rather than engaging in a full-on retainer-based relationship, you might consider:
In either of these scenarios, you’ll have to be able to actually execute on the advice generated in the audit/consultation. But you’ll put yourself in a position to get a premium quality SEO plan on a restricted budget. 2) Generate Blog Posts by Curating and Aggregating ContentYour blog is one of the most effective SEO tools you have in your arsenal. At least it can be, if you use it right. But one of the most common stumbling blocks encountered by bloggers and business owners is a lack of content. Fortunately, there are tons of resources you can use to generate content ideas. (Think AllTop, Twitter, Google News and many of the sites you're already using on a daily basis.) The key to coming up with great content ideas is to shift your thinking from that of a content consumer to that of a content curator. What topics are trending? What are your readers and customers asking you about most frequently? What posts have been re-Tweeted hundreds of times on Twitter? Armed with this data, put a new spin on it – and you've got yourself a blog post. Another useful way to generate share-worthy blog content is to collect quotes from internal subject matter experts and create a blog post surrounding this information. If there's a hot-button topic in your industry, consult your leaders and ask for their insights. What are their perspectives on the changing trends, up-and-coming events, or recent happenings? If your internal experts have recognizable names, you've already got one factor in your corner contributing to the share-worthiness of your content. A good way to do this can be to simply create an email distribution list for the right folks within the company, brief them on what you’ll be doing, then when news breaks send a simple question to everyone on the list and ask for a few sentences / paragraphs on the topic. You simply need to format the responses and you have what’s likely to be a highly useful and interesting piece of content. 3) Identify and Contribute to Authoritative Blogs in Your NicheAnother way to develop quality inbound links to your site is to create guest blog content. This is a great low budget tactic if you’re aiming your efforts at quality blogs and avoiding typical guest posting mistakes, because you’re able to develop thought leadership, get referral traffic to your site, and build authoritative links in exchange for your own expertise and effort. The main takeaway here isn’t necessarily that you should choose these three specific tactics, but rather that in looking for low-cost SEO options you want to consider:
Combining these two (selective involvement from an SEO and a lot of effort from your own team) can net you some great results. SEO Concept Photo via Shutterstock The post 3 Ways to Perform SEO on a Shoestring Budget appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Go Daddy Executive Named COO, Transformation Continues Posted: 09 May 2013 08:58 AM PDT
Scott Wagner, formerly of private investment firm, KKR Capstone, will stay on as a Go Daddy executive indefinitely. And that suggests that KKR Capstone, which bought 65% of Go Daddy in 2011 along with Silver Lake Partners and Technology Crossover Ventures, will be continuing the transformation of Go Daddy. The company released an announcement formally confirming Wagner as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer on Wednesday. Wagner first began working at Go Daddy temporarily after KKR Capstone led the leveraged buyout of GoDaddy for a rumored $2.3 billion. Wagner stepped in last summer to fill in as interim Chief Executive Officer after former CEO Warren Adelman stepped down. “It’s not often you see an operator of Scott’s caliber and experience elect to join the portfolio company he was ‘dropped in’ to assist,” said new CEO Blake Irving in a released statement. ”Scott … shares our passion to change the world for small business,” Irving added. Transformation Into “Small Business Platform” Still EvolvingGo Daddy had been run for 15 years by its founder Bob Parsons, a colorful and sometimes-controversial figure who took heat for shooting elephants. Parsons still owns a large chunk of the company. Following the private equity investment, members of KKR stepped in to run the company and begin its transformation. In January of this year they brought in Irving, a former Yahoo and Microsoft executive, to be CEO. Since Irving’s arrival the company has added executive talent and opened new offices in Sunnyvale, California and near Seattle, Washington. Just last week the company announced groundbreaking for a technology center in Tempe, Arizona. Prior to 2012 Go Daddy focused on domain name registration, hosting and related website services. In a bid to expand the breadth of its products, last summer it acquired Outright, a bookkeeping software for solo small business owners and entrepreneurs. Today when you go to the home page of Go Daddy, it’s far different than it was one year ago. Back then, the cluttered home page could be overwhelming unless you were a technologist. It tended to focus on buying domain names and aggressive upsells. The page had considerable technical terminology that could be baffling to non-technologists. The home page is much cleaner and simpler these days. It places more emphasis on building a website. It feels much less intimidating to a small business owner or manager. Gone also is the emphasis on good-looking women such as Nascar driver and spokesperson Danika Patrick. That emphasis, along with racy Super Bowl commercials, earned Go Daddy a perceived reputation for being sexist. While the emphasis gave Go Daddy a memorable brand, it was offputting to some women business owners. Last week CEO Irving said, ”GoDaddy is well on its way to being the largest platform for small businesses around the world.” That transformation still seems to be a work in progress, however, and the company has a long way to go before it’s truly a platform for small businesses. Go Daddy does not appear to have done much yet with the Outright product it acquired. Go Daddy will need to provide small businesses with tools for many more business functions than their online presence and bookkeeping, to be a true platform. Go Daddy has grown since its beginnings as a scrappy startup back in 1997. Go Daddy’s revenue hit $1.3 billion last year. The company says it serves 11 million customers worldwide with Web hosting and domain registration services and bills itself as the largest provider of these services worldwide. The company has 3,400 employees worldwide. The post Go Daddy Executive Named COO, Transformation Continues appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| The Rise of Telecommuting And What It Means For Your Business Posted: 09 May 2013 05:00 AM PDT
Telecommuting is increasingly becoming a way of business life. According to the United States Census Bureau, an estimated 20 to 30 million people work at home at least one day a week. Worldwide, the numbers are even more impressive. The Citrix Workplace of the Future survey found that 24 percent of global companies allow their employees to work at times and locations of their choosing. What are the benefits of this approach? For employees, telecommuting eliminates travel costs and provides a better work/life balance. For companies, it lowers employee-related and real estate costs, which can be a major boon to small businesses that may lack the capital and infrastructure to maintain a traditional office environment. Additionally, telecommuting allows businesses to hire from a wider pool of applicants, including disabled and geographically removed workers. However, working from home also presents a number of unique challenges for both employees and employers. Recently, Yahoo CEO, Marissa Mayer, revoked her company's longstanding at-home work option, citing her company's need to improve employee collaboration and communication. In a Forrester survey, Virtual Work Environmens in the Post-Recession Era (PDF), other employers shared Mayer's concerns, with 49% worried about effective communication with remote employees and 43% concerned about managing projects and deadlines successfully. What Can Employers Do To Minimize Potential Disadvantages From Telecommuting?It's all about the right employees, the right security and the right project tracking business tools. The Right EmployeesNot every employee is cut out to be an at-home worker. Most employees have been conditioned to work in a micromanaged office environment and some may flounder when working independently. Julia Drake, Founder and Director of Julia Drake Public Relations, solved this problem by instating a trial period for all possible hires. "I spent about six months to a year with them to make sure they possessed the right work ethic and the ability to work independently without a boss breathing down their neck," Drake said. "It takes ambition, discipline and a passion for what you do. It takes a certain type of person." Companies can also have potential employees take personality and behavior tests as part of the application process, such as the one at Affintus. These can help determine if an employee would work better in an office or at-home environment. The Right SecurityThe aforementioned Citrix study also found that 83 percent of businesses allow remote employees to use their own devices to access company networks. Additionally, 59 percent of remote workers do not back up company data. This can create a lot of hassle and potential security risks, especially for small businesses that might have fewer security protections in place. To maintain the security of sensitive and critical data, businesses should develop and enforce security best practices and keep employees informed of possible security threats. Additionally, they should keep track of what devices employees are using and what they are using them for. The Right Project Tracking Business ToolsEmployees often flourish when they are given freedom and flexibility in how and where they work. However, that doesn’t mean that businesses should give up their ability to monitor employee progress. Employers can easily stay in touch with remote employees through email and instant messaging. Company meetings can be conducted through video conferencing. Employers would also be well advised to implement software to track employee time for individual projects. This software should be fully integrated across remote and in-house workers, so that employers can view their entire workforce at a glance. This will allow managers to effectively manage deadlines and costs for all company projects. Telecommuting seems to be the way of the future, and it offers many benefits for both employers and employees. But businesses can only enjoy these benefits if they implement certain guidelines and securities. If they fail to do so, businesses risk ending up like Yahoo, having to revoke the telecommuting option years down the line. Work at Home Photo via Shutterstock The post The Rise of Telecommuting And What It Means For Your Business appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
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