Week In Review: Small Business Saturday, Twitter Experiments and More

Week In Review: Small Business Saturday, Twitter Experiments and More
Acer Introduces Two Ultrabooks Aimed At Business Users
How Well Do You Know Your Online Shoppers?
Former Paypal Managers Servicing Mid-Size Business Data Management Needs
Want to Win at Sales? Just Be a Gopher!

Posted: 29 Nov 2013 04:00 PM PST

reading business news

It’s time again for our week in review. Here are the top stories important to your small business this week from the Small Business Trends editorial team.

Holidays

Small suppliers benefit from turkey shortage. Butterball, one of the nation’s largest producers, was short of big fresh birds this year. Not to worry though. Small farmers came to the rescue…and are smiling ear to ear.

Parking free in 42 communities on Small Business Saturday. Free parking is intended to further encourage customers to shop at local small businesses. Check out the post for a full list of participating communities.

Social Media

Twitter experimented briefly with new messaging program. For about a month, Twitter gave users the option of letting followers direct message them — even if they weren’t following them back at the time. It doesn’t seem the feature has made the cut.

LinkedIn rolls out Showcase Pages. They could be helpful if you happen to have a few niche products or services and need to target slightly different audiences with each. Here’s a basic overview.

Business Basics

Square eliminates flat rates. It’s a big blow to small businesses that use the pocket-sized credit card reader to avoid fees on a major credit card merchant account. The flat fee has been a major incentive for many small businesses to try the service.

Italy’s oldest family business seeks foreign customers. For centuries, the Pontifical Marinelli Foundry has served mainly one large local client, the Vatican. But tough economic times have forced this local bell maker to look at increasing exports.

Tech

Acer introduces two ultrabooks. These devices are new to the U.S. market and are aimed directly at business users. They have plenty of featured but don’t expect a bargain price.

Policy

Raising the minimum wage. The Affordable Care Act raised many concerns — now seemingly confirmed — in the small business community. But another policy on the horizon may be easily as dangerous. And that danger may not be only to the businesses themselves. Scott Shane has more.

Another Obamacare website delay. Yes, there’s another delay related to the Obamacare website. And this one affects small business with 50 employees or less. Small Business Trends CEO Anita Campbell has more.

Reading Photo via Shutterstock

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Acer Introduces Two Ultrabooks Aimed At Business Users

Posted: 29 Nov 2013 01:30 PM PST

Acer TravelMate X313

Acer has introduced two ultrabooks for the first time in the U.S. market aimed specifically for business users on the go. But, don’t expect to get either of these devices at a bargain price.

First, the Acer TravelMate P645 features:

A 14-inch display with HD resolution.
A lightweight thin design just 3.31 pounds and .81 inches thick.
Longer battery life for up to 8 hours of enhanced productivity.
Enhanced capabilities that let you review documents, compare spreadsheets and create multimedia with greater responsiveness and speed.
Premium security features including Acer Recovery Management and ProShield Manager which let you protect your data.

In a prepared announcement on the device’s release in the North American market, Michael O'Beirne, senior director of commercial product marketing at Acer America explained:

“Business never ends for our customers, many of whom have global teams that run 24×7, so they need a notebook PC that will keep them at their most effective whether in the office or on the road.”

A second device, the Acer TravelMate X313 (pictured above), can function either as an ultrabook or tablet, the company says. Here is a brief overview from Notebook Italia:

This machine is designed to be even more lightweight and mobile, says Acer. The device’s specs say it is 1.74 pounds and .39 inches thick.

Other features include:

Cradle expansion enabling it to function as a desktop PC.
An 11.6-inch display with touchscreen capability allowing it to function in tablet mode.
A 6-hour battery life allowing it to be used by members of a mobile workforce.
Versions of Acer’s Recovery Management and ProShield manager for data security, like on the TravelMate P645.

A recent company announcement on this device says the company expects it to be used for Web browsing, checking email, scheduling appointments and more, all in a commercial business setting.

Unlike, other low cost consumer devices which might also work for business applications, Acer is clearly targeting these two devices for business use.

But since both start at a premium $949, they won’t likely appeal to all small business users.

Image: Acer

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How Well Do You Know Your Online Shoppers?

Posted: 29 Nov 2013 11:00 AM PST

know online shoppers

If you ask eCommerce merchants how much they know about their customers, how well they know online shoppers, you may get a general reply. Many may only be able to describe their customers based on demographics of gender, age and level of income.

So do they really understand why, when, where and how their customers make their purchases?

The buying process is getting more complicated. People have hundreds of online places to purchase products that meet their needs. They may shop online, from home, from the grocery store or their Android phones, iPhone or Smartphones.

So how can a consumer be best understood?

Besides knowing their demographics, you can also benefit from other personal data such as:

Interests/hobbies
Daily activities
Political affiliation

All of this information can be inferred through personal interaction. Acquiring this data is harder to achieve but there are databases that will allow you to target individuals based on the above mentioned criteria. These details aid in promoting the products that interest them easily.

What Do Customers Need to Know?

It is important that your customer know the ins and outs of a product:

What do the products look like?
How do they function?
What sizes and colors are available?
How much does it cost?
Does it carry a discount?
Is there a warranty?
What is the procedure to purchase the product?

Online shoppers are gradually demanding more from retailers. They want more information at the start of the online experience, more options during checkout and delivery and more channels for interrelating with their favorite retailers. Free shipping, social and mobile access and simple return processes are evaluated among the most imperative needs for today's online shoppers.

Customers look into different sources such as blogs, articles and websites to check for product details. So make sure that you understand how to answer these questions in an effective manner to meet your customer's queries.

Use the three C’s:

Choice
Channels
Convenience

Retailers can actually win shoppers over by providing a positive and consistent Omni channel experience. From social media platforms to mobile apps , today's consumer expect and value services that work together across the whole shopping continuum from pre-purchase to post-purchase.

How Do Customers Learn About Products?

Today, product research is done in living rooms, offices, hospitals, coffee shops – anywhere and everywhere. Most importantly, products are compared among different websites and product reviews from other consumers.

Retailers need to understand the customer's research strategies. Multiple factors can influence their research process:

Research can be conducted by looking at the product's picture or reading the description.
Checking other brands and alternative products.
An event can trigger interest in the product.
Product reviews given by others.
Discounts and sales.
Instinctive buying.

Remember, the most crucial psychology behind their product research is that customers often make a purchase decision only after evaluating the products' real value. They narrow their selection and then shop for price.

Where Do Customers Inquire About Products?

It has been found that approximately 86% of consumers go online to research products. However, the majority of consumers are becoming increasingly sophisticated at multi-channel shopping. Therefore, retailers need to better align their business operating models with consumer expectations and sophistication.

Globally, research shows that 20% make their purchase direct online, 3% make their purchases via social networks and the remaining balance from other sources such as television shopping networks, mobile, Web , laptop, smartphones, Xboxes and physical stores. They also read trade publications, Facebook posts, check comparison shopping engines and their network of friends on Twitter.

Is it possible for every eCommerce merchant to be in all of these places? In many cases, it may not be practical. So the best thing to do is to identify where your customers are going to seek information while they move through their purchasing cycle. And then ensure that you are seen and present in those places and that your messages and content are mobile-friendly.

Shopping Photo via Shutterstock

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Former Paypal Managers Servicing Mid-Size Business Data Management Needs

Posted: 29 Nov 2013 08:00 AM PST

mid-size business data management

The advent of cloud computing has enabled many small businesses to take off. However, as small businesses grow, their data management needs multiply. While there are many open-source DevOps tools that small businesses could use for data management, such tools are often found inefficient while handling larger datasets.

This gap in the existing DevOps tools is what led former DevOps Manager at Paypal, Kenneth Jiang, and former Product Manager at Paypal, Gülin Yilmaz, to set up OpsViz.

Kenneth, who has more than 17 years experience in back-end systems engineering is the venture's CTO. While Gülin, an MS in engineering from Stanford Univesity and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business, is the CEO. Gulin has diverse experience – in product management at Paypal and through her successful entrepreneurial ventures, CoachMe and Awardly.

Gülin firmly believes that for a product to be successful, it should be validated by the end users. It was but natural that she discussed OpsViz's initial product idea with hundreds of potential customers before launching it. These discussions led to the discovery of a larger need for automation in data infrastructure management.

Mid-size companies were saddled with not just the problem of inefficient opensource DevOps tools but also inefficient processes to monitor data management operations. On the other hand, traditional comprehensive enterprise solutions were quite expensive and disruptive to the client environment.

The Solution

OpsViz therefore focused on developing affordable solutions for these challenges. With its flexible back-end and connectors to commonly used open-source tools, OpsViz 'snaps in' the architecture of its customers to 'collect and clean' the infrastructure data and analyze it.

By providing SaaS information management, OpsViz serves as a Single Source of Truth (SSOT) for customer systems. By enabling automation of cumbersome and routine tasks, OpsViz can eliminate unnecessary time and energy spent by IT operations teams of mid-sized businesses. It also helps IT teams analyze historical data and determine patterns to eliminate outages.

OpsViz also provides a robust and usable mobile platform that enables system admin and operations managers to have an accurate picture of the data infrastructure systems at any time and from any place.

The initial focus for OpsViz is the underserved mid-market companies that typically have 100-5,000 physical servers. As a result of the validation of the product and business by the end user segment, OpsViz can draw upon a confident customer base. Since their launch in early 2013, OpsViz has one paying customer, Wikia. Ten other companies have expressed interest in becoming beta customers. It is also in early negotiations with a Fortune 100 company.

OpsViz's next plans to scale up by integrating with successful open-source tools such as Puppet and Chef and differentiate with its superior user experience. It positions itself against monitoring tools like Nagios by providing complete and accurate information.

OpsViz is set to bootstrap till it reaches the $1 million revenue mark. It currently reaches out to potential customers through direct sales using tools like Alexa rankings, LinkedIn, and data.com. The company has recently hired an engineer and also works with some part-time UX experts.

OpsViz plans to enter the enterprise market once it has gained a strong foothold in the mid-market. It intends to differentiate itself by providing an affordable and extensible platform for smart data center operations. Its long-term vision is to provide collective intelligence and best practices on infrastructure management by applying data analytics to infrastructure operations.

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Want to Win at Sales? Just Be a Gopher!

Posted: 29 Nov 2013 05:00 AM PST

win at sales cartoon

One of the things that drives me nuts most in the business world is this glut of acronyms. Okay, some make sense. But there’s an awful lot of blatantly manufactured acronyms out there (I’m looking at you, self-help business books) that just make me insane.

I see a lot of stuff like, ”To win at sales you need to be a G.O.P.H.E.R.!”