Boost, Virgin Mobile Knock $100 Off Newest iPhones

Boost, Virgin Mobile Knock $100 Off Newest iPhones
What is Bootstrapping?
Essential Third-Party Plugins for Your WordPress Site
“The Subtle Shark” May Redefine Your Career Achievements
Buffer Hack Spams Social Media Followers

Posted: 10 Nov 2013 03:00 PM PST

100 off iphone 5

There may be lots of bargains out there for your next business smartphone purchase. For example, two prepaid Sprint subsidiaries are offering $100 discounts on the new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c.

Boost Mobile announced the price break most recently in a release about the two new phones. Boost will be selling the iPhone 5c:

with 16 GB for $449, down from the $549 price tag listed on the Apple website, and
with 32 GB for $549, down from the $649 price offered by Apple.

The prepaid provider will also be selling the iPhone 5s

with 16 GB for $549.99, also down $100 from the price listed by Apple,
the 32 GB model of the phone for $649.99, and
the 64 GB model for $749.99.

Virgin Mobile made a similar offer to customers earlier this month on both phones, 9to5 Mac reported.

Prepaid Offers Benefit Businesses

Prepaid phones offer benefits to both small businesses and other consumers. You’ll need to buy these phones at full price, of course — minus the discounts.

But benefits include no long-term contracts, generally lower monthly costs and the ability to move over to another carrier, if you wish.

Of course, both of these phones are available with contract and subsidies for considerably lower costs if that’s what you need to fit your business budget.

The iPhone 5s, Apple’s flagship phone, introduced back in September, starts at just $199 for 16 GB with a contract from various providers. Meanwhile, it’s budget conscious little brother, the iPhone 5c, starts at just $99 for 16GB with a contract and subsidies.

Discount Photo via Shutterstock

The post Boost, Virgin Mobile Knock $100 Off Newest iPhones appeared first on Small Business Trends.

What is Bootstrapping?

Posted: 10 Nov 2013 12:30 PM PST

What is bootstrapping?

What is bootstrapping? In the context of business, bootstrapping is the act of starting a business with no money — or, at least, very little money. It certainly means starting a business without the help of venture capital firms or even significant angel investment. It means plowing back into the business the money earned from customers.

While there are lots of old sayings about “pulling up by your bootstraps” — the general idea is that in the context of startups bootstrapping means to do something hard, on your own.

And what do Braintree, TechSmith, Envato, AnswerLab, Litmus, iData, BigCommerce, and Campaign Monitor have in common?

All are companies that, in one way or another, bootstrapped their startup. As many businesses are discovering today, outside investor funding is not a realistic option for most startups.

The way a bootstrapped company grows typically goes through stages:

Stage 1: seed money. This stage starts with some personal savings, or perhaps “friends and family” funding to get going. Or it may start as a side business, where the founder continues to work a day job to keep body and soul together. But somehow, the founder manages to scrape up enough resources to get the business off the ground.
Stage 2: customer-funded money. The second stage is about getting in money from customers. That customer funding is pumped back into the business. It is what keeps the business operating and, eventually, funds growth. Growth is often slow, because the business first has to meet its operating expenses to stay in business.
A word about credit. Bootstrapping does not mean going out to get a big loan to start a business. Yes, along the way, some startups may take on loans or lines of credit. Others lean heavily on credit cards. A few may even get small grants. But those are typically short term fixes to fund specific growth activities, such as buying equipment or hiring more staff, or to even out cash flow dips. It’s not so much about using credit as the main source to start the business, but rather as a secondary source to keep it operating and grow it. The founder still has to pay the monthly payments or debt service, out of funds earned in the business.

Starting a business this way is a litmus test for entrepreneurs and a challenge for everyone involved in running the business.

So what does it really take to start a business this way?

Bootstrapping is Minimalism Applied to Business

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines minimalism as follows:

" …a style or technique (as in music, literature, or design) that is characterized by extreme spareness and simplicity."

When companies use this approach for their business culture, they are practicing bootstrapping. Bootstrapped businesses avoid traditional business logic. They avoid investing except where absolutely necessary and work within their means, finding ingenious ways to get by with less.

bootstrapped businesses grow organically

Bootstrapped Companies Grow Organically

Bill Hamilton, founder of TechSmith, which makes popular software such as Jing, Camtasia, Morae, and Camtasia Studio, reports that his company grew from revenues of about $1.8 million in 1999 to earnings of about $34 million in 2009.

Even in terms of staff and hiring, the company grew from just 19 to 210 employees. Paul Farnell, founder of Litmus, is another bootstrapping entrepreneur who grew his company from self-funding to $1 million in revenue, growing at the rate of 10% each month.

You can find a list of such companies that bootstrapped, grew organically and are now posting $1 million plus in revenues in 37Signals' Bootstrapped, Profitable and Proud series.

Bootstrapped Businesses Never Seem to Have Enough

Enough people, resources and cash, that is….

Cisco, eBay, Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, Business Objects and many other companies started from humble beginnings and used bootstrapping to grow. For those companies it paid off.

Starting a business with nothing may sound a bit romantic and cool. But behind the cool “look at what I’m accomplishing” factor there are the realities of limited human resources, tight budgets, little or no growth capital.

Bootstrapping is not necessarily an easy route to grow your company. When you bootstrap you’re going to have to face down huge challenges.

According to Kennet.com, bootstrapping has some downsides. Bootstrapped companies face huge barriers for growth. They tend to be strapped for cash — especially in the early days. Bootstrapped companies may become risk-averse and as a result miss growth opportunities. They may not be able to hire the innovative talent they need in order to grow.

Yet, bootstrapped companies surface all the time. There are enough success stories to make it a very viable option for starting your next business.

First Law of Bootstrapping: Focus on Profits

Bootstrapping requires a very different mindset from the management mindset in a venture-funded or angel funded company. Bootstrapped companies must focus on profits to keep on going. They have no investment dollars to spend — no ready pile of money they can tap into. Bootstrapped companies can’t afford to waste money. They must make money, if they are to survive. The profits they make are what fund the business.

When you have outside funding, the mindset and behavior of those running the company will be very different. Outside investors are looking for high growth and an exit strategy. They want to make a return on their money as fast as they can. They will push growth at a loss in the early years, marching toward that payoff when they can cash out.

A bootstrapped entrepreneur, on the other hand, is typically in it for the long haul. Yes, a bootstrapped business may be acquired by another business. But usually bootstrapped businesses expect to be around for a long time, slowing and quietly growing as they go about their business.

And for that, a bootstrapper needs to develop paying customers. He or she has to be able to make payroll, pay the bills, and still fund the company’s growth — all from the money the company earns.

what is the definition of bootstrapper success?

Bootstrapping Requires Guts, Passion and Skill

Bootstrapping requires skill. Founders who bootstrap must amass a wide variety of skills, defy tradition, network like crazy, innovate on a regular basis and find answers to problems daily.

Bootstrapping also requires fortitude, guts and passion. Founders who bootstrap put sweat equity into their businesses, risk everything they've got and learn to barter when they don't have cash. They learn the art of hiring or outsourcing without much to give, and stretch what resources they have to get what they need. They hustle. They create. They make things happen.

Even so, they have only about a 50-50 chance of making it five years, as startup failure statistics show.

Startups that bootstrap learn to grow on their own. They can’t afford elaborate resources and don’t wait to get started.

Bootstrapping Brings Out the Best in Entrepreneurs

Bootstrapping is a tried-and-tested way to become a better business person, says serial entrepreneur, speaker, author and fitness enthusiast, Matt Clark.

Bootstrapped companies are resourceful, accountable and careful. Successful ones usually find at least one high-margin product or service to start out with. They build loyal customers, partnerships, and recurring streams into their business model. They gradually grow their marketing and sales, as they scale up when they have the funds.

Their founders learn lessons the hard way. As a result they often become better business people. Many bootstrappers become walking examples of the old adage, “That which does not kill me makes me stronger.”

Bootstrapping brings out the best in entrepreneurs and the best in those they work for too. They are enthusiastic, passionate and relentless. They don't give up on their dreams and they never stop learning. They also end up learning a lot more about themselves along the way and end up accomplishing a lot more than they might have originally thought possible.

Bootstrappers wake up earlier, spend longer days at work, know how to keep their wits about them even under pressure, know how to eliminate unnecessary distractions and are often very productive, reports Fox News. Bootstrappers are also natural savers, can go hungry until they become profitable and are naturally minimalistic in their outlook on life. They are also committed to the long-term.

That's why teams that collaborate while bootstrapping stick together longer and the companies that bootstrap become inspirations for others.

Photos via Shutterstock: Question, Seedling, Mountain top.

The post What is Bootstrapping? appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Essential Third-Party Plugins for Your WordPress Site

Posted: 10 Nov 2013 09:00 AM PST

essential wordpress plugins

WordPress is a powerful platform with thousands of themes that are strong choices for your small business website, straight out of the box. However, one of the biggest advantages WordPress has is the ability to customize, with a vast array of plugins for third-party services that can enhance the functionality, effectiveness and performance of your site.

With so many plugins available, it can be hard to decide which ones to use. These 10 are what I consider to be essential WordPress plugins – brought to you in no particular order of importance. They will add to the performance of any website built on a WordPress platform.

Online Backup for WordPress

There's no getting around it, you need a data backup plan for your website. This free, easy-to-use plugin comes with everything you need. Online Backup for WordPress lets you schedule automated daily or weekly backups, perform manual backups, and will even encrypt stored files for additional security.

Both your database and file system are backed up, so you won't lose a thing if disaster strikes.

Akismet

Comments are always welcome, but spam stinks. The Akismet plugin saves you time and keeps the reputation of your small business site intact by weeding out spam comments before they get posted. This way, you don't have to delete them yourself and your visitors don't have to worry about wading through badly written spam comments to get into the discussion.

Some third-party commenting systems, including Disqus and IntenseDebate, also support the Akismet plugin.

WordPress SEO by Yoast

This is one of the highest rated in the WordPress library, and easy to use for beginners and advanced website owners alike.

This plugin comes with all the features you need to improve your site's search engine optimization, including a snippet preview, page analysis, technical SEO tools, meta and link elements, XML sitemaps, RSS optimization, and much more.

Visual Form Builder

Integrated contact forms add a professional touch to your small business website. It's easy to do this with the Visual Form Builder plugin which lets you create all kinds of forms for your site with no coding required.

A simple drag-and-drop interface means you can have fully functional forms up and running in no time.

Google Analytics for WordPress

Sure, WordPress gives you a way to insert a tracking code from Google Analytics directly into your theme, so why add yet another plugin to your site?

Because with the Google Analytics for WordPress plugin, you get extra features: Automatic tracking for site speed, outbound links, downloads, custom variable support, link tagging, debug mode, login and registration form tracking and more.

W3 Total Cache

Did you know that site speed is now factored into Google's ranking algorithm?

The W3 Total Cache plugin improves your site's performance and makes it run faster by showing users a pre-created version of your pages, instead of executing the PHP scripts every time a page loads.

Both search engines and site visitors prefer faster-loading sites.

Relevanssi

The default search feature for WordPress is unfortunately not the best around. Results are ranked according to publication date, rather than relevance to the search term. If you have a lot of content, your visitors can get frustrated trying to find what they're looking for.

Relevanssi uses a relevance-sorting search similar to Google (the one most people are familiar with) for your site. This plugin automatically replaces the native search when it's installed, so you don't have to tweak your theme or go through the settings manually.

It's ready to go, right out of the box.

After the Deadline

Get a personal proofreader for your content that catches more errors than the native WordPress spell check. This plugin comes with basic spelling and grammar, and includes contextual spell checking, advanced style checking and intelligent grammar checking to virtually wipe out mistakes in your posts.

Social media sharing is vital for your small business. The ShareThis plugin supports your social marketing by automatically adding social share buttons at the end of your pages and posts. Other features of this plugin include social analytics, Open Graph sharing, CopyNShare and an optional Hovering Bar that keeps sharing buttons always present on your sidebar.

SEO Smart Links

Improve your on-page SEO automatically with this easy-to-use plugin. SEO Smart Links scans your content and blog posts and inserts relevant internal links to other posts and pages based on keywords. Features include nofollow links, open links in new tabs, custom keyword links and more.

Need more?

No problem. If you’re in need of more plugins, check out these WordPress content management plugins, WordPress plugins that protect your site and plugins to create an article quality checklist.

Digital Photo via Shutterstock

The post Essential Third-Party Plugins for Your WordPress Site appeared first on Small Business Trends.

“The Subtle Shark” May Redefine Your Career Achievements

Posted: 10 Nov 2013 06:00 AM PST

the subtle shark

"I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter, dancing through the fire, cause I am a champion and you're gonna hear me roar." ~ Roar, Katy Perry

Katy Perry’s new song conveys a popular sentiment that resonates with people – the image of a spirit rising to meet challenges. That sentiment can, of course, be found in many people striving to build careers. One journal that can outline what to expect is The Subtle Shark: Redefining Career Achievement by Ayesha Patterson (@AyeeshaAdvising). A first book, Patterson wrote this to help others understand what really goes into ambitious career plans.

My review copy arrived by mail. After reading it, I felt Patterson developed a solid short guide that small businesses can provide employees to inspire good professional practices. It is also helpful for those aspiring to do more in the businesses they contribute to.

Patterson has a background that reflects a growth within retail and customer service. She is a Purdue graduate and Gary, Indiana native. She covers her rise to general manager of several Midwest customer service centers for Best Buy, overseeing over 150 employees and supervisors.

Being Ambitious Requires Shark-Like Instincts

Patterson uses the image of a shark because of its image in business – a cut-throat, backstabbing person. She notes on the book's back cover that being ambitious does require shark-like instincts, but are not automatically a license for misleading behavior.

One example is learning to leverage what you know about a business for a new team, which she describes in her first foray as a customer service rep:

"I learned that while the retail holiday season is between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the repair holiday was New Year's until almost St . Patrick's Day…The technicians were about 3 – 4 weeks backlogged with repairs, which led to angry customers. I worked overtime to find out as much as I could and helped in other departments. That sped up my learning curve and earned me a lot of respect from my co-workers."

She shares instances where conflict arises, naturally with coworkers or higher ups (names changed to protect the innocents). Nothing comes across as salacious, or earth shattering. But Patterson ultimately shares ideas where lessons can be best drawn over battling with other professionals. Take this instance on being a team player. I liked how she referenced the difference:

"I specified true because there are times when people use the phrase "team player" when trying to convince you to do something ethically questionable…What I mean is at least pull your own weight and be willing to do more than you share to achieve the goal."

Navigate Career Transitions as The Subtle Shark

The book's tone is personal, like another Indiana native I reviewed, Carolyn Mosby, author of Unflappable. Patterson differs with more focus on career transitions and less about Indiana institutions (understandable given Mosby's history (read my review to learn more). Patterson wrote Subtle Shark in a journal format, including some of her diary entries that help frame her early years up to her retail positions.

In fact, the tone Patterson imparts is a personal description of career management decisions. There are tips, but the how-to’s take the form of a journal describing the anxieties and confidence that can come with job advancement.

At 86 pages, with a few more from an appendix, the book is meant for those who do not have a consistent guidepost to know what feelings are natural to expect. As a result you get quick reminders, though mainly from Ayeesha's perspective.

Gaining Insights

To gain insights from other industries or research from other perspectives, you should consider other texts that can enhance the points raise or cover complimentary topics. Beyond the aforementioned Unflappable, there are a few good suggestions from what we've reviewed on Small Business Trends, including:

Selling In A Skirt for sales professionals.
Playbook for Success for insights on leadership.
Your Career Game, which offers game theory concepts to career decision making.
Or read Subtle Shark as an inspirational prelude to Robin Bond's book on job negotiations, How To Negotiate A Killer Job Offer.

No matter your choice, give Subtle Shark a read. A better idea is to share it with the young up-and-coming professional you know. In either instance, the book will light the way for any professional caught in rough career waters.

It will also teach professionals to give their mightiest roar of personal growth against career challenges.

The post “The Subtle Shark” May Redefine Your Career Achievements appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Buffer Hack Spams Social Media Followers

Posted: 10 Nov 2013 04:00 AM PST

buffer hacked

Often the greatest concern for small businesses when it comes to online security is the safety of pass codes and other sensitive account and business information. There is also the security of your customers’ and clients’ information to consider.

However, in a recent attack on social media manager Buffer, something even more important may have been taken — many small business’ reputations with their communities.

Buffer is a service that allows you to schedule social media posts across a variety of platforms including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and get access to analytics that help you find the best times for those posts.

So far so good. But recently, hackers apparently managed to gain access to more than 30,000 Buffer members’ accounts. Once in, they substituted a link to a weight loss site for the posts many Buffer users had already created and scheduled for their followers.

The result was that many users ended up inadvertently spamming their own fans. That’s right – it looked to fans and followers as if these individual users had simply sent out spam posts to their communities.

Founder and Chief Executive Officer Joel Gascoigne was quick to apologize and commiserate with members. On the official Buffer blog, Gascoigne wrote:

I wanted to post a quick update and apologize for the awful experience we've caused many of you on your weekend. Buffer was hacked around 2 hours ago, and many of you may have experienced spam posts sent to you via Buffer. I can only understand how angry and disappointed you must be right now.

Before long, Gascoigne was able to report that the access used by hackers to penetrate Buffer’s security had been found and the glitch had been eliminated.

The company does not believe any user data was compromised.

It’s great Buffer’s team was able to resolve the problem quickly. But it’s hard to imagine anything worse than inadvertently spamming your own community, eroding the trust it has taken you so long to build.

Spam Photo via Shutterstock

The post Buffer Hack Spams Social Media Followers appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Small Business Trends

Monday, November 11, 2013