LinkedIn Will Open Publishing Platform “Soon” to All Members |  |
- LinkedIn Will Open Publishing Platform “Soon” to All Members
- New Chrome Feature Prompts When Malicious Downloads Are Detected
- HP EliteBook 850 Laptop is For Business Power Users
- Why Should You Pay More for a Static IP Address?
- Number of Non-Employers Grows, but Average Sales Shrink
- The Power of Optimism: 91 Percent of Entrepreneurs Confident
| LinkedIn Will Open Publishing Platform “Soon” to All Members Posted: 24 Feb 2014 02:30 PM PST
LinkedIn is opening its publishing platform to all its members. Last week, the platform was opened to about 25,000 users. More will be added gradually until every member has publishing privileges. Multiple languages will also be supported when the service is fully implemented. Until recently, the ability to publish articles was reserved for well-known leaders like Bill Gates, Martha Stewart, and Richard Branson. With publishing privileges being opened to all members soon, LinkedIn can become a place where you build your brand and share your expertise too. In a recent post on the official LinkedIn blog, Ryan Roslansky, director of product management, explained:
Posts you publish will appear as part of your professional profile. From there they can be shared with your immediate network. Your network will be able to comment, like, and share your posts within their networks. Photos, videos, other images, and SlideShare presentations can be shared through Influencer posts too, Roslansky noted. Influencer posts can also reach a much broader audience through the LinkedIn network. Other members not in your immediate network can follow your Influencer posts and like them, sharing them with their networks. LinkedIn introduced Influencers in 2012. At that time, only 150 Influencers were selected to post content. Since then, dozens more Influencers have been added. Recent topics from Influencer posts range from hiring advice to business trends. Last July, LinkedIn added a social feature to Influencer posts that allowed you to comment on, like, and share these posts with your network, a previous post on the official LinkedIn blog explains. Image: LinkedIn The post LinkedIn Will Open Publishing Platform “Soon” to All Members appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| New Chrome Feature Prompts When Malicious Downloads Are Detected Posted: 24 Feb 2014 12:30 PM PST
The Chrome browser has been updated by Google, in an effort to thwart phishers who try to hijack the browser using malware. Even though a reset button was added to Google’s settings last year, the search giant clearly felt that it wasn’t enough. Apparently browser hijackings are on the increase, and something else was needed to reinforce Chrome’s defenses. Now, if the browser detects that your settings have been changed without your knowledge, a box will pop up asking you if you want the browser settings to be reset (image above). Helpful? Well….not quite. Ironically, some users on Arstechnica have pointed out that such a box is the sort of thing they wouldn’t click on, if it suddenly came up on the screen. How do they know it really came from Google? Isn’t this the sort of thing that Google is telling everyone not to do? One commenter explained:
Another commenter on the site added:
The second commenter makes a valid point. What’s to stop a malware maker from making a spoof Chrome warning box, which would install malware? If you do decide to click that box, you will have to remember that all of your extensions, themes, and Chrome apps will be deactivated. They can be manually reactivated one by one, by going into your settings, so don’t worry – nothing will get uninstalled. It was reported last month that malware makers were buying up well known and popular Chrome extensions, and inserting malicious advertising code into them. Not realizing that the extensions were now the property of someone else, users kept on installing them. One high profile person on the Web who was particularly stung was Amit Argawal who runs the highly popular tech blog Digital Inspiration. Image: Arstechnica The post New Chrome Feature Prompts When Malicious Downloads Are Detected appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| HP EliteBook 850 Laptop is For Business Power Users Posted: 24 Feb 2014 10:00 AM PST
There are plenty of small laptops on the market if you want to reduce the weight in your business bag. You could even rig up an Apple iPad or Android tablet with a wireless keyboard to really trim things down. But if you need a serious workhorse machine, that is both light, powerful and secure, this review of the HP EliteBook 850 laptop is for you. As small business owners make decisions on technology, price is often considered the most important option. There are some very good reasons to consider spending a bit more than the lowest priced machine you can find – let me give you three:
A Laptop That is Easy to ConfigureLet me start with my favorite thing about this device (as you can see in the photo below): On the back of the 850 laptop there is a latch which allows you to easily access the components (RAM, hard drive, battery, etc.). For an IT manager, it's an invaluable feature that allows quick upgrades or repairs. This may not seem like a big deal, but anyone who has ever tried to open up a laptop knows that this is terrific. Some manufacturers use special, proprietary screws or latches that make these changes difficult, or downright scary, to say the least. Extra points to HP for making this so easy.
PC SecurityThe 2013 Symantec Internet Security Threat Report (PDF) says that small businesses are "the path of least resistance" for attackers. In 2012, half of all targeted attacks were directed at businesses with less than 2,500 employees. But the largest growth area for targeted attacks is businesses with less than 250 employees – accounting for 31 percent of all attacks. [Note: The above link is to the Symantec PDF report which can take a while to download.] HP's SureStart technology is designed to catch and stop security breaches before they can get to your data. Without going out of my own tech understanding zone, this technology is part of the firmware loaded at the chip level. It will automatically restore your computer's Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) within 30 seconds if it is ever attacked or corrupted. You can even install an optional tracing program that will allow you to find a lost or stolen computer. 3-Year WarrantyI have a 3-year business warranty on my current laptop, but it was an additional cost. [Note: my current work machine is not an HP but the principle applies here.] I have used the on-site service option two or three times so far and this is from a well-known manufacturer. Things go wrong, that's life. However, I want to know that I'm not shelling out more cash for fixing a machine that should work for at least three years. HP has gone above and beyond by making this warranty a standard "feature." Things I Really Like:
Things I'd Like to See:Aside from Sure Start, it has a fingerprint reader so you can lock down the machine to a specific user, which is cool in a lot of ways – no password to remember, for one. But, I would like to see this moved away from where your hand rests because I kept thinking I'd trigger it to lock the machine. To be fair, I didn't have this happen, but I kept thinking about it and this is my personal quirk, to be sure. Thankfully, it is to the far right side. All in all, this is a great machine. If you are in the market for a lightweight laptop, the HP EliteBook 850 is worth a serious look. The post HP EliteBook 850 Laptop is For Business Power Users appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Why Should You Pay More for a Static IP Address? Posted: 24 Feb 2014 07:30 AM PST Sponsored Post
As a business owner you are always faced with financial considerations. That question, “How can I save money?” Or, “Do I really need this?” They are common questions. When it comes to your Internet connection, we have recently described how saving money on your Internet connection is often times, not the best choice. Then there is the matter of the static IP address. Why is this also costing you more money? Those Internet providers are always trying to find a way to take more of my money! Or, are they? What is the Difference Between a Static IP Address and a Dynamic IP Address?In order to understand its importance and the reason for additional costs, we must first understand the difference between a static IP address (always assigned) and a non-static IP address (called dynamic because it changes at timed intervals). IP addresses are 32 bit numbers identifying a computer/networked device on the Internet. They are currently represented in 4 parts with dots between them, such as 10.0.0.1 or 192.168.0.1 as some of you may recognize from setting up a residential router. Those numbers represent the calling card of that computer, similar to that of your cell phone number, a unique address that lets other systems know how to find you. Computers inside your home are most typically using dynamic IPs assigned by your home router, known as private IP addresses, because they are only known to other machines in your own network. Your router also has an dynamic IP address assigned from your Internet provider from its pool of IPs, called public IP addresses, because these addresses can talk to one another all over the world. So your router is connected to your Internet provider which can talk to other public computers/routers. It’s also connected to you personal computer so it can make connections to those public computers. Got it? Why Do We Have Dynamic IP Addresses?The need for dynamic IP addresses is due to the limited number of public IP addresses available in Internet Protocol version 4, also know as IPV4. With dynamic IP addresses, there is a pool of IPs your Internet provider can assign. When you connect to the Internet, your router is leased one IP address from that pool for a timed interval. When the interval is completed, usually at disconnection of the IP address, it is sourced back into the pool of available IPs. This allows Internet providers to have more customers than IPs. With broadband connections, it’s easy to just lease IP addresses when needed. That’s why dynamic IP addressing is widely used today. The downside is, your IP address can change any time you get disconnected. The fact that you get disconnected does not necessarily mean the IP address is going to change, just as the fact that you get the same IP address does not mean it is assigned statically. Losing that IP address may result in other computers/routers inability to locate you. The Need for a Static IP Address!Most businesses use high speed Internet to run private or public servers. These people want their Internet address to stay fixed with the same numbers all the time, so people know how to access their server. People with a static IP address may have a domain name or corresponding email accounts, such as [InsertYourBizNameHere].com, linked to their IP address. So if the IP address changed whenever they had to turn their modem or router off, their server and thus the email could become unreachable. A static IP address can also help when VPNs are being set up for remote access to your business office resources. Without the ability to also know your offices “calling card,” work would be cumbersome. The Additional Cost…So the additional cost of a static IP address is a result of multiple things:
So if you are a business, looking at the costs at the end of the day – know that your static IP address is worth the small price you pay for it for all it gives you in return. Ethernet Photo via Shutterstock The post Why Should You Pay More for a Static IP Address? appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Number of Non-Employers Grows, but Average Sales Shrink Posted: 24 Feb 2014 05:00 AM PST
The number of non-employer businesses – companies that have at least $1,000 in annual sales and pay federal income tax, but have no paid workers – continues to grow, increasing by 1.7 percent in 2011, the Census Bureau's latest estimates show. Despite a small decline during the depth of the Great Recession, the number of non-employer businesses has been on a long-term upward trend, rising almost continuously since the late 1990s. Between 1999 and 2011, the count of non-employer firms increased by 39.2 percent, and now totals 22.5 million companies. The rate of growth of non-employers has far exceeded that of employer businesses (see the Small Business Administration’s picture here). As a result, non-employers now account for four-out-of-every-five U.S. companies, up from three-in-four back in the late 1990s. Before we get too excited about this growth in entrepreneurial activity, we need to consider what non-employers look like. While non-employers do include some corporations and partnerships, the vast majority – 87 percent according to Census estimates – are self-employed people operating unincorporated businesses as sole proprietors. Many of the companies, the Census Bureau believes, are sideline businesses. Despite their large numbers, non-employer businesses have relatively little economic impact. The Census Bureau estimates that, collectively, they account for only 4 percent of business receipts, 7 percent of capital spending, and (by definition) no employment. Their average sales are below $45,000 per year. Americans have been forming non-employer businesses at a rate far greater than these companies have been increasing their revenues, leading the average sales at non-employers to shrink, particularly in inflation-adjusted terms. Receipts at the average non-employer peaked in 1998 and have declined 22.2 percent since then. (A quadratic term fits the pattern in the data pretty well, as the figure above indicates, suggesting initially rising and then falling average revenue.) In recent years, the decline in the average sales at non-employer businesses has moderated. Real average receipts fell by more than predicted by the trend line for 2008 and 2009 – probably because of the Great Recession. However, the rate of decline in average sales was lower than predicted in 2011, the most recent year data are available. When the Census Bureau releases the 2012 non-employer business data in April, it might show that their average sales have finally stopped shrinking. But my bet is that the number of non-employers has continued to grow faster than their (inflation-adjusted) revenues. Image Source: Created from data from the U.S. Census The post Number of Non-Employers Grows, but Average Sales Shrink appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| The Power of Optimism: 91 Percent of Entrepreneurs Confident Posted: 24 Feb 2014 02:30 AM PST
Startup entrepreneurs have to be optimistic in order to overcome the challenges of starting a business. So in a way, it really isn’t a surprise that the majority of entrepreneurs surveyed are optimistic about the year ahead. That confidence seems to come from within entrepreneurs – not necessarily from conditions around them. The survey, released recently, says a whopping 91% of entrepreneurs are confident that their businesses will be more profitable in the next 12 months. Of those, 49% are “very confident.” The survey was conducted on behalf of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation by LegalZoom, based on numbers from the the fourth quarter of 2013. Yet, interestingly, a majority don’t believe the economy will actually improve during the next year. In the survey 47% think the economy will improve. Yet 32% think the economy will remain the same and 21% think it will deteriorate. That right there tells you something about the psyches of entrepreneurs. Many entrepreneurs have an unstinting faith in themselves and their ability to start and grow a business, regardless of the conditions around them. Yes, they may be pragmatic and recognize that the economy and market conditions might not be ideal. But when are conditions ever “ideal?” Some household name businesses were launched and built during slow economic times — Microsoft, Revlon, FedEx just to name a few. Even during slower economic times, customers still buy. The economy goes through cycles. There will always be times of slower growth and times of faster growth. If you are waiting for conditions to be just perfect, you may wait forever. While one entrepreneur is making plans for when things will be “just right,” another is out seizing the day and grabbing that opportunity. The economy isn’t ever going to be just right. Instead of waiting for the economy to “get better,” be a leader and be part of making it better by seizing and building opportunities. Successful commerce drives the economy. And that’s what the entrepreneurs in this survey seem to know instinctively. It’s about the power of optimism and belief in their businesses. A total of 1,375 entrepreneurs responded in the survey, from startup entrepreneurs who formed their business entities in the previous six months. The Kauffman Foundation is known for its support of startups. LegalZoom provides incorporation filing services. The company had been planning to file an IPO, but withdrew that in early 2014 and instead announced plans to sell a large stake to Permira, a European private equity firm. Image: Kauffman LegalZoom Startup Confidence Index The post The Power of Optimism: 91 Percent of Entrepreneurs Confident appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
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