It’s time to put a common misconception to rest: “isn’t WordPress just a blogging platform?” Although this used to be the case, according to an article by Tech Crunch, roughly 22% of newly published websites are built on WordPress. What’s more impressive, one of the most popular publishers is using WordPress as their platform.

Here are 7 things you should know about WordPress:

1. Updating your site content is simpler than ever before using WordPress. Using its dynamic page creation you can update your site effortlessly without using a large amount of storage
2. You can get a free website at WordPress.com with subdomains. This can be a good way to cut costs if you don’t mind .wordpress.org at the end of your domain.
3. The ‘Famous 5 minute install’. If you have already purchased and are hosting your domain someplace else, WordPress can be installed quickly and easily. And have no anxiety – coding is not necessary.
4. Are there minimum requirements? Yes, if you are hosting your own website outside of WordPress, there are a few requirements to take into consideration. To obtain the appropriate support in the future, you will need to ensure that you have the correct MySQL and PHP versions on your server.
5. To help make your site look nice, there is an extensive selection of templates, called “themes”, available on the internet. Some are free of charge, while others are not. Regardless, using these it is possible to easily and quickly tailor your site the way you like.
6. Managing your website, posts, media, and all other materials in WordPress can be achieved easily through their intuitive dashboard. You can also manage several users!
7. WordPress has many plugins developed by users that make e-commerce simple. You can advertise, review, and even sell products by using these with no need to look for additional add-ons.

In recent years iPads, smartphones, and Kindles have been some of the most in demand gadgets on the market. But not all tech is created equal. Companies can’t predict what will become popular, regardless of how much they love it. Here are some that never quite caught on.

Famous tech failures

• Apple TV: Apple TV lets customers buy their entertainment directly from iTunes and stream it on their computers, handheld devices, or TVs. The regrettable part of this, that may be the reason for its less then popular standing, is that it is somewhat restricted to iTunes.

• Sony Mylo: The Mylo came and went very quickly so you may not recall it. It was aimed toward the 18 to 20 something crowd and was a Wi-Fi-enabled mobile device. It allowed people to play games, connect to the Internet, and even had Skype preinstalled on it. Sadly, the presence of the iPhone and its extensive app store overshadowed it.

The Segway peters out

• Segway PT: It was thought that the Segway PT would replace cars in urban areas. It made it easy for people to just zip to the market or make the short commute downtown. But it never quite caught on. Unfortunately for the manufacturers, people believed balancing on two wheels made them look a little silly.

The CueCat doesn’t purr

• CueCat: The CueCat was a handheld barcode reader shaped like a cat. Consumers could use it to scan any barcode and it would navigate them to the company’s website. This didn’t catch on but did it pave the way for QR codes?

We usually tend to take Microsoft Outlook for granted. After all, we’ve been using this program to read email messages and manage our schedules for many years now. Nevertheless, Microsoft Outlook is a remarkably powerful program. If you want to get the most out of it, it’s time to investigate some of its hidden attributes. Here are three key tips that can help you save time and work more proficiently when connected to Microsoft Outlook.

Eliminate the Clutter

You probably have “Conversation View” turned on in Outlook already.  This view helps keep conversations neatly arranged into one thread. You can find the needed email without having to hunt through days of backlogged emails. There is a potential downside to this view however. Newer conversations can become very chaotic with repetitive quoted text. Turning off this quoted text is very simply with Outlook.  Right-click the conversation thread and pick “Clean Up Conversation.” All the superfluous duplicate copies will now be removed from the individual emails in the conversation thread.

Say it in a Picture

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, if you can include screen shots in your email messages. Just think of how many thousands of words you can avoid typing! Because of Outlook, dropping in screenshots of anything on your desktop is effortless. From Outlook, click on the “Insert” tab. Then click the “Screenshot” option. This will bring up little pictures of all the windows open on your desktop. To insert one in your email message, justclick it.

Take Out the Trash

Did you know that all of those old emails in your trash folder are taking up lots of precious space? It can be easy to neglect to empty our email trash. Outlook has made that simple too! Choose the “File” tab and then select “Options.” Go to the “Advanced” section and look for the “Start” and “Exit” options. By checking the box after “Empty Deleted Items” when exiting Outlook, this will enable Outlook to automatically clean out your trash folder each and every time you quit the program.

When it comes to data security, many people think they have an abundance of systems and safeguards in position to keep their data safe. Sure, you will have antivirus software and you may even update it regularly. You may even feel that you’re too small of a company to be a target of a hacking attempt. Only big firms that have tens of thousands of clients need to worry about cyber criminals, right? Wrong. Hackers and cyber criminals have actually escalated their focus on small businesses. We would like to help you understand the dangers your small business may be facing.

Small firms: low-hanging fruit

The facts are, hackers have found that small enterprises are easier targets, and therefore are increasingly preying upon them. They can infiltrate their systems at a much faster rate, and with a better percentage of success as well. This means a cyber criminal can assault multiple targets in the time it would take them to lay siege to a better-guarded system with a higher level of data security. How can it be worth their while to steal from a mom and pop business? In today’s modern world, virtually every business utilizes digital payment processing methods. Whenever your customers pay using a credit card, this data must run through your system to be verified. This represents a goldmine of information for hackers, as they can lift this data without being discovered. With your customers’ credit card numbers, addresses and names, they are able to make counterfeit charges on their accounts.

How hackers gain access to your data

How can they get this sensitive data? Though you may be protected by software built to firewall your systems, hackers still have several points of entry. Email attachments are a major offender, and openingonly one piece of malware can leave you exposed. In fact, in the first quarter of this year alone, industry experts have found over six million distinctive malware programs. Attackers don’t need to be sophisticated to be dangerous: when trying to breach your data security, some hackers have a low-tech strategy instead. They might contact your employees directly, and posing as a network administrator, ask for their password to increase security. This is called “phishing.” While you may believe your workers know better than to fall for such an obvious tact, it takes merely one lapse in judgment to leave your systems open to attack.

The buck stops with you

You may believe that maintaining your data security isn’t that crucial, as the credit card companies are accountable for any bogus charges that occur. While this is true for the consumer, as a business owner you could experience a very different outcome. Often if your systems have been compromised, they will hold you responsible for finding the breach. This may cost thousands of dollars and can ruin your profit margin for the entire year. In fact, some small businesses have been bankrupted by cyber attacks, closing their doors because of only one incident.

An ounce of prevention…

Data security is critical and any additional precautions you can take would be wise. Use strong passwords and update your current security systems often. Educate your employees on safety measures they can take, such as creating strong passwords and never giving out login information. Hiring an outside consultant to help you ensure you and your client’s information is safe is another good idea. Simple measures can give you peace of mind that your systems are safe, and your clients will know you have their best interests at heart.

Earlier this week we explained the reasons why your company’s culture influences your brand. A healthy company culture can have a very positive effect on your daily operations and the way the average person views your company. Gauging the cultural health of your company is one thing, but where do you go from there. Below we’ll look at some ideas to improve or give your business a cultural makeover.

The first step is to figure out how you want your business to “feel.” Below are a few questions to ask yourself:

• What characteristics do you want your company’s environment to convey? Ingenuity, respectfulness, acceptance, fun, etc.
• What are your company’s values and how can the culture echo them?
• Who manages the flow of information? How and what is distributed to the staff?
• How are employees presently recognized? 
• Does everyone in the company feel heard? If not, how can you improve this?

These may lead to more questions. To find answers try brainstorming with your colleagues. Here are some ideas to get the process started:

Suggestion/Thought box – Allowing individuals to anonymously share their feelings or opinions concerning the day to day in the office can lead to a more open feeling in the company. These concerns can be brought up in company meetings if they pertain to everyone.

Empower employees – Give people ownership over their jobs by treating them like peers rather than peons. You can achieve this by being more transparent; don’t just communicate when you have successes, inform them when things aren’t going flawlessly. It will develop a team full of mutual support.

Flexible hours – You hired your staff because you have confidence in them to do their job. Permitting them to have relatively flexible hours shows you trust them to get their work done well and on time. The respect you give them will be reflected in the respect they give you.

Dress code – Have a more casual dress code. It’s remarkable what allowing individuals to express themselves can do for a company’s culture. Consider themed days: silly hat day, Hawaiian shirt day, or anything that gets people thinking creatively and brings smiles to the day.

Celebrate – A business is made up of the people in it, so celebrate together. A monthly movie day, a catered lunch, or lunchtime board game days are just a few ways you can get your employees together to celebrate.

Here are some things companies have done to give their culture a fun edge:

• Spontaneous Nerf gun wars
• Painting inspirational quotes on the walls
• Hitting a loud gong when there is a success to let the whole company know
• Foosball tournaments
• Lunchtime Yoga
• Lunchtime Crafting Club
• Monday Mad Libs, whoever wishes to contribute, does, and then the completed Mad Lib is emailed to the company

Strategy and finances are not the only aspects of a successful company, but they are usually what companies focus on. It might not seem apparent, but company culture plays an essential role too. It can affect your branding, marketing, and day-to-day operations, and how the public views your company. For instance when we think of brands like Apple, Google, and Starbucks, not only do their logos and products come to mind, but a slew of positive attributes: warmth, efficiency, fun, excellence, etc. These characteristics are thanks in part to each company’s positive business culture.

Why Culture is so Important

If people work in a place where they feel ownership, pride, and empowerment they will put their hearts into the work they do. They will take more risks and be more willing to think outside of the box. A healthy culture fosters creativity and innovative thinking. When individuals feel like they’re being stifled by their work or they have no control over their duties, they will do the work assigned to them with no extra effort. This can not only lead to a sad individual but a sad atmosphere where every task put toward your brand is given the minimum level of effort. Instead, you want a vibrant and alive environment so that your brand sticks out from the rest. Nurturing a healthy culture is the responsibility of everyone in the company, from the CEO to HR to the receptionist.

If you are not yet convinced, here are a few of the obvious advantages of promoting a healthy culture.

• Focus – The old adage holds true; two heads are better then one. When all the people in a company are devoted to the same goal, everything runs more efficiently. This kind of focus comes with a healthy culture; your employees will value the collective goal because they feel like they are a part of it. When individuals do not feel like they are part of the team, they don’t value the goal, and this can lead to cynicism.

• Cohesion – Healthy culture can lead to strong communication in good and bad times. In a place where there is unhealthy culture people may frequently resent being told what to do because they don’t feel their thoughts are heard or appreciated. When a problem occurs they may avoid pointing it out because they fear backlash.

• Motivation – It may seem obvious that a motivated workforce gets things done, but firms that are not aware of the health of their culture might be suffering with regards to efficiency.

Measuring the Cultural Health of Your Company

Cultural health ought to be analyzed regularly. So how do you evaluate the cultural health of a company? First, look at how people are supervised, are they just given a job with no input or do they have some control over their jobs? Are repetitive tasks distributed so everyone has the opportunity to be challenged? While some people may never be happy, if you find the overwhelming consensus to be poor it may be time to look at making a few changes in how the business is run to improve the culture and the overall health of the company. Visit again soon to find out some tips on creating a positive work environment.

Chances are you started your company because you love what you do. You opened your doors because you have a strong product that you believe in.  You probably did not start a business because your paperwork abilities were unparalleled.  Paperwork is an important and necessary evil for any business owner and proper invoicing can’t be ignored. We all need cash flow to keep our businesses afloat, so employing a good invoicing system can help us keep cash in the bank and our clients happy!

Invoicing help online

Online invoicing services abound these days that make the financial side of business far more manageable. Online services make the laborious task of paperwork much quicker.  Depending on the service you use, the communication to the client can also be automatic! Let’s check out some of the most reputed online invoicing services available:

A free but powerful invoicing service

BillingBoss has a huge advantage: It’s free. This online tool allows you to set up automatic invoicing of repeat customers and send out once-off invoices to those customers who are not regular. Do not be deceived because this service is free. It should be plenty powerful enough for the vast majority of small business owners.

A power tool

AcceptPay from American Express is without a doubt for the power user. For only $30 a month, users of AcceptPay can connect with QuickBooks, collect online payments from clients, and set up a wide array of customizable automatic invoices. It seems a pretty small price to pay for such a effective tool.

Invoicing for the tech-savvy

If you want more control over your online invoicing, you might think about downloading BambooInvoice. This is another free service. What sets it apart, though, is that small business owners host it on their own servers, not in the cloud. Since it is an open source program, tech-savvy entrepreneurs can customize it to fit their business’s unique needs.

These are just a few of the available options online. Most services are free or incredibly cost-effective. If you want to take the reigns on your invoicing process, think about employing an online solution.

It looks as if Microsoft is ready to do its part to deter cyber crimes. Microsoft intends to offer real-time feeds that partners can use to study possible cyber threats and take the appropriate steps to boost their defenses against these attacks.

Microsoft has already had success in taking down botnets. In doing so, the company collects an abundance of useful data about the threats that these botnets pose. The process works like this: Microsoft essentially swallows the botnets. This, consequently, sends botnet-infected hosts to addresses that are under Microsoft’s control. This captures the contaminated hosts and takes them offline.

Microsoft can now gather threat information and share it with ISPs, government agencies, private organizations, and CERTs. The result of such a move by Microsoft can be dramatic. Analysts point out that while a real-time threat feed won’t lower the number of attacks, it can help information security experts react to these threats faster. This could limit the level of damage caused by these attacks.

Microsoft’s live threat feed could have an even more important impact: It could lead the information security industry to share more data. For too long, companies have hesitated to share important security information that they fear could lead to a copycat attack. This is a mistaken belief as cyber criminals are already trading information among themselves. It’s a good idea, therefore, for security professionals to also share real-time information.

Let’s hope that security professionals soon discover that sharing information is more important than secrecy. And let’s hope that Microsoft’s move is a first step in this change of attitude.

Many small business owners have employed the cloud during these tough economic times. Business owners can save money by using programs within the cloud, from Photoshop alternatives to project-management tools. Nonetheless, the cloud can be a bit iffy with regards to security. Documents stored in the cloud can be jeopardized or damaged.

Password issues

Password protection is an important issue when dealing with the cloud and personal computers as well. Passwords can often be easily guessed or they are shared too freely.

Business owners must be careful to select passwords for their cloud projects that are difficult for others to guess. The best option is for owners to include a blend of letters and numbers in their passwords. Owners also need to be careful about sharing their passwords with too many people. The more individuals who have access to passwords, the more in danger important data and documents are.

Hacker alert

A few serious problems that will not soon disappear for anybody who uses a computer are hackers, malware, and spyware. As business owners have little control over how secure the cloud is this part of security can be very alarming indeed. Companies like Microsoft and Google must create their own security measures to safeguard the data stored in the cloud.

Common sense protection

There are a couple common-sense practices that can help protect small business owners who choose to store information in the cloud.

First, owners should think about what kind of information they’re storing in the cloud. The most sensitive data, data that could damage a business if it is lost or stolen, may not be suitable for cloud storage. Instead, this data might be better preserved on a business owner’s individual computing system and dependably backed up.

Secondly, be careful about who is allowed access to the data stored in the cloud. It seems obvious that business owners protect their laptops and desktops with passwords. The same should be applied to the cloud.

The advantages of storing information in the cloud are extensive. Backing up important data, creating more space on your servers, and having your data easily available to your employees are only a few. If you’ve been looking into this route, you probably have many questions about the security of the cloud. If your company deals with sensitive information that belongs to your clients you may need to stay compliant with HIPAA, PCI or Sarbanes-Oxley regulations.

Do cloud storage solutions follow these regulations? Are they required to? If they haven’t spelled it out in their privacy policies, it is safest to assume they are not compliant. We’ll explore this more below.

Compliance

More and more companies are looking at the cloud for storage. For obvious reasons, it is a very cost effective way to go. Even so, improper handling of your client’s information can harm your reputation and lead to a loss of business for your company. If your company necessitates that client data be handled in a regulated way, you need to first learn how secure the cloud service is and what regulations does the cloud service providers comply with. If a company has not specifically said they comply with certain regulations, it’s safe to assume they do not.

Who is responsible

Whose responsibility is the security of the cloud? It’s not presently required that a service provider be specific about their compliance with these regulations. While the safest choice is to assume that if they haven’t clearly stated that they are in compliance in their privacy policy, they are not. This might mean that cloud computing is not for you. However, if your business does not require tight regulations, then the benefits of cloud computing could be a great solution for you. 

In the end, as cloud computing service providers are not required by law to be transparent regarding their security, the responsibility rests in your hands. If you choose to use the cloud, it’s your responsibility to choose a service provider you trust. Weigh the pros and cons and make the best decision for your business.