tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-218731792011-12-21T13:14:32.639-05:00Cornell Green is Your Open Source CIO.<p> My mission statement:<p> "To help you use the computers and technology <br>you already own to Grow Your Small Business!"</p></p>communITnoreply@blogger.comBlogger301100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21873179.post-69242374226406319182011-11-15T09:58:00.001-05:002011-11-15T09:58:01.446-05:00

Nov 14-20 is Global Entrepreneurship week: 123 countries, 40,000 events to stimulate global the economy. Check it out at http://ht.ly/7u4SE

communITnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21873179.post-67435248518341073872011-03-30T11:42:00.005-04:002011-04-04T10:23:00.201-04:00

 PC Security If you're like most people, keeping your computer secure is a task similar to dieting - it's something you've heard a lot about, everyone you know has an opinion, yet no matter where you are with it, you suspect that you're still not doing the best you can. We can lock our computers down so tight that nothing gets done without a half dozen pop-up windows asking "Are you sure?"

communITnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21873179.post-33920104039974752542011-03-29T06:05:00.004-04:002011-04-04T10:21:54.872-04:00

Email INBOX. Reply All. Attach file. Blind CC. When most of us think of email, what comes to mind is how it works. "Is my INBOX full?"  "I can't open that attachment"  "I hope I did(n't) hit 'reply all'...!" Rarely do we consider email, a tool as commonplace now as the telephone and postal mail, to be much of a business asset. Everyone has it now, so it's no longer a big deal, and it's pretty

communITnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21873179.post-59526562508665867282011-03-15T12:27:00.002-04:002011-03-15T12:31:52.616-04:00

Document Management Other than email and surfing the web, most of us use our computers to create electronic documents. Letters, proposals, contracts and invoices, a lot of time is spent creating documents that will be printed or attached to emails. Most of us are familiar with word processor basics: bold, italics, changing fonts and text color. To the typical Small Business owner, operator or

communITnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21873179.post-3009759597982693962011-03-04T17:08:00.184-05:002011-03-09T20:12:10.899-05:00

Task Management Business is about relationships - how you relate to your clients, vendors, co-workers and partners. This has been the recurring theme of the series published so far this year. One relationship has been somewhat overlooked so far - how you relate to the effort required to do the actual work that is Your Small Business. Whether you produce a product for sale, sell products

communITnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21873179.post-89086255286382816612011-03-03T14:04:00.013-05:002011-03-09T20:16:16.200-05:00

CRM As is the recurring theme of these series, business is about relationships. Some time ago major corporations and the software companies that serve them realized it was time to bundle that concept into application form. So, just as Outlook bundled email, contact management, scheduling and task management (even though few of us use it to its full potential), the many aspects of managing the

communITnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21873179.post-83517108308589163422011-03-02T11:59:00.004-05:002011-03-02T22:48:35.364-05:00

Email Campaigning I remember attending a meeting when I was IT manager for a New York architectural design firm, and learning that the most important application was not the one that did the drafting, drawing and 3D design... but was Microsoft Outlook - their email program...! Not surprising, once you consider it. Unless we can communicate with our clients, colleagues, co-workers, vendors and

communITnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21873179.post-90362174823478486032011-03-01T13:04:00.000-05:002011-03-01T13:04:34.621-05:00

Groupware A key advantage of technology is that it allows us to do things faster and more efficiently - like typing a business letter. Remember "White-Out"? Or carbon paper? Many Small Businesses are "solopreneurships"  -- one person operations -- but 75% of all businesses have up to 20 people working for them. Yet the tendency exists to conduct business as if the two, or five, or more people

communITnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21873179.post-70025469460999513942011-02-28T13:00:00.003-05:002011-02-28T13:14:34.142-05:00

Instant Messaging If you're like most Small Business owners or operators "of a certain age", your view of Instant Messaging, if you have one, may be similar to one of the following statements: Instant Messaging is for kids I have an email account - what do I need messaging for? It's too complicated I don't have time for that nonsense What good could this messaging stuff do for my Small Business

communITnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21873179.post-79513389663874900472011-02-18T08:44:00.001-05:002011-02-18T08:48:14.217-05:00

Planning We find ourselves ending at the start: the Plan. While many are aware of the need for a well-crafted business plan, few businesses of any size actually have completed one. There are several valid reasons: a thorough business plan is a complex document, requiring much more than expertise in tradecraft and knowledge of the potential market segment. One- and five-year financial

communITnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21873179.post-86084787757315178082011-02-17T07:13:00.002-05:002011-03-03T14:06:30.890-05:00

Closed Mind It takes a lot of hard work, focus and persistence to launch a Small Business. Starting with an idea, and (perhaps) some skills, a plan is prepared, financing secured, details dealt with... and a business is born. The problem is, in the time required to travel from concept to reality, too often Small Business enterpreneurs get stuck in the attitudes and assumptions adopted at the

communITnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21873179.post-81823000903619346562011-02-16T16:06:00.005-05:002011-03-03T00:05:00.660-05:00

Cash flow It's odd: the purpose of starting, running or working for a Small Business is making money. Yet managing money is almost universally the one thing most neglected, ignored or feared by Small Business owners, operators or employees . Quite often, you'll hear some variation of the phrase "I'm not really in it for the money" - as if a focus on the financials is dishonorable or morally

communITnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21873179.post-5990659689273071872011-02-15T12:51:00.003-05:002011-07-21T03:24:34.738-04:00

Location You may be familiar with the age-old expression that the three keys to success in Real Estate are "Location, location and location". Clearly building family housing in the middle of an industrial zone is not likely to attract buyers. Similarly, Your Small Business must be located, well... as close as possible to prospective customers. A tattoo parlor in a retirement village might

communITnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21873179.post-21624231528423719762011-02-14T08:20:00.030-05:002011-02-14T08:20:00.953-05:00

Versatility Though many Small Businesses are one-person operations, in today's economy, none can afford to be "one-trick ponies". Even if you can't diversify your staff (especially if you work alone), you'd do well to diversify your skills. Every solopreneur has a specialty, but don't focus exclusively on the thing you do best. What happens if the market shifts, or your existing clients have

communITnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21873179.post-56743883084154664352011-02-11T17:59:00.006-05:002011-02-14T06:38:11.887-05:00

Employees Many Small Businesses are "solopreneurs", so this post won't apply to them... now. Hopefully, many of these one-person enterprises will expand, and gain staff members or working partners. But there are those Small Business which have employees: managing them well can determine the difference between success and failure. Your employees are the face of your business - usually the first

communITnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21873179.post-20588716103150773712011-02-10T07:57:00.028-05:002011-02-10T07:57:00.605-05:00

Clients Every Small Business owner, operator or employee should be aware that it costs much more to acquire a new client than retain existing ones.  But old or new, client management is essential to your Small Business economic health. A key reason Small Businesses fail is that they fail to appreciate the distinction between clients and customers, or they take their clients for granted, chasing

communITnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21873179.post-57840823303903541982011-02-09T08:07:00.002-05:002011-02-14T06:31:39.790-05:00

Marketing A handful of business cards and a no-frills website are no longer a sufficient Small Business marketing strategy. The word "marketing" typically brings to mind expensive media campaigns, billboards and the services of highly-paid advertising firms. Clearly many Small Businesses have neither the time nor the resources (money, personnel, expertise) to take this approach to marketing,

communITnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21873179.post-4767974014896419732011-02-08T08:53:00.025-05:002011-02-14T06:32:39.018-05:00

Competition Are you the best at what you do? Among the best? Anywhere close to the best? Wherever you rank in comparison to your competition, are your existing or potential customers or clients aware of how you compare? As importantly, how accurate an assessment do you have of where you rank amongst your competitors? Remember: our ideas are like our children - we love them because they are our

communITnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21873179.post-73777827347037987962011-02-07T10:26:00.006-05:002011-02-14T06:33:39.722-05:00

Procrastination You're only as good as your word. Missing deadlines, arriving late for meetings, forgetting to follow up or follow through - these are all symptoms of procrastination, and key factors of Small Business failure. As a Small Business owner, operator or employee, you cannot afford to slide down procrastination's slippery slope. Since word of mouth is the most effective low cost

communITnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21873179.post-87621255674178813972011-02-03T11:52:00.000-05:002011-02-03T11:52:55.140-05:00

In a down economy, Small Businesses need to exploit every possible advantage available to them. An often overlook and underutilized Small Business asset is the good ol' company website. Websites are nothing new, and nearly everyone has one by now (there are by far more registered websites than human beings on the planet). Most Small Businesses easily have multiple ways to launch a website for

communITnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21873179.post-5367684108242304552010-08-23T08:07:00.122-04:002010-08-28T07:03:34.684-04:00

14 September looms imminent, but I feel confident that we will meet, if not exceed, our expectations. My client and I have established an extremely effective workflow with our screen sharing/conference call method. Image via WikipediaThe first time I was involved in such a meeting, it was in a corporate conference room with a projector, a dedicated data line and a bunch of folks on each end of

communITnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21873179.post-8144937905578855032010-08-18T21:32:00.057-04:002010-08-27T22:58:04.607-04:00

Another conference call in our quest to a 14 Sep website launch. We've really established a successful workflow, which will server me well as a model for future client relations. One of the first things we established was the need for more meetings before actual launch day:  Look & feel, navigation, initial site layout - 22 Aug   Roles & workflow; preparation for transfer to live site - 26 Aug

communITnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21873179.post-24019989369105654782010-08-17T17:04:00.002-04:002010-08-17T17:10:32.792-04:00

Many businesses pay a lot of money for someone to make a website for them. Yet from the huge number of poorly designed websites out there, it doesn't look like a good return on investment for the most part. Not counting incompetence and outright fraud, there are still too many bad websites out there which were supposedly designed by professionals. In this age of free technology and even freer

communITnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21873179.post-49350225092310231452010-08-15T16:15:00.010-04:002010-08-17T17:49:58.969-04:00

14 September. It helps to have a deadline. An internal sense arises that helps steer me away from false starts and time-wasting fascination with useless details. As a techie, it's easy to waste hours with the "gee whiz" aspect of things that won't actually be used in this phase of the project. A deadline helps set a time limit on mental wandering. I just recently completed the second

communITnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21873179.post-11284907684878980492010-08-08T15:59:00.001-04:002010-08-15T16:17:30.677-04:00

Image by philcampbell via FlickrImage by Régis Gaidot via FlickrImage via WikipediaImage via WikipediaI have always attended business networking events as an essential part of my Small Business growth strategy. They are a marvelous source of innovation, inspiration and comraderie. There are also, of course, the occasional cash-paying business prospect. But much of the value is, well... free, but

communITnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21873179.post-90811267349777916342009-09-23T10:08:00.017-04:002010-08-17T17:56:51.866-04:00

In my previous post on data protection, we discussed the three types of Small Business data: Dynamic data Active data Archive data There are different methods required to best protect the different types of data your Small Business depends on. Note that I said "protect", and not "backup" you data. Backing up your data is the most important part of protecting it. But steps must be taken before and

communITnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21873179.post-17247490873759578652009-09-19T16:23:00.012-04:002010-08-17T18:04:06.598-04:00

Last week, I paid my friend Billy in Weehawken, NJ a visit, to help him with his computer troubles. Since he installed iTunes last year, his Windows Vista laptop could not access his CD/DVD drive. Now, it often failed to power up, igniting the sytem lights and spinning the fan before abruptly powering down. It took the "three finger salute": Ctrl-Alt-Del, to break this vicious loop and finally

communITnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21873179.post-10033498922936006832009-09-07T23:35:00.014-04:002010-08-17T17:48:41.078-04:00

Even if your firm or organization doesn't "do computers" by trade, computers are probably more important than you realize to your Small Business. A lot of key information that was once kept in metal filing cabinets and on cardboard Rolodex cards is now more easily and accurately stored on computers.  Large amounts of information - data, in geek-speak - are stored primarily - if not exclusively -

communITnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21873179.post-84557523316742052602009-08-27T17:54:00.070-04:002010-08-17T18:10:07.760-04:00

I have several Small Business clients who "back up" their data by attaching large USB hard drives to their computers, and copying key files and folders to them. While this is an excellent way to archive or synchronize data, they are surprised when I tell them this is not really a data backup. Of course, they then ask me to explain the difference? Archiving - is when you make a complete copy of a

communITnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21873179.post-79245092338280845402009-08-22T21:51:00.018-04:002010-08-17T18:28:07.107-04:00

It's the single biggest technology mistake Small Businesses make. They use email. They surf the web. Computers are cheaper than ever, so everyone in the office has a pretty decent one. And more (though still not *most*) Small Business computers have an anti-virus program running, and some sort of firewall, on the computer itself, or at the Internet connection guarding the entire office. So

communITnoreply@blogger.com0