Technology advice for small and medium sized businesses

While many tax incentives for small business have been shot down in recent years, Section 179 of the IRS tax code remains one legal “loophole” worth looking into.

This year (unless Congress changes it at the last minute, which they have done in the past several years) Section 179 allows you to purchase up to $200,000 of qualified equipment and software. With that purchase, you can write off up to $25,000 as a Section 179 deduction.

That’s less than in previous years, but the good news is, you can still triple your savings. Here’s how:

1. Save on taxes. If your business could use new software, equipment or services, but the expense is just a little beyond your reach, the tax savings you’ll gain from a Section 179 deduction might just tip the balance in your favor.
2. Take advantage of year-end price reductions. Manufacturers and service providers need to look good to their investors at year’s end. It’s a great time of year to bargain for the best deal.

3. Leverage your savings with smart financing. Taking advantage of an equipment lease or equipment finance agreement could turn out to be the most profitable business decision you’ll make this year. How? By combining a properly structured equipment lease or equipment financing agreement with a full Section 179 deduction, your cash outlay for the year will very likely be less than your deduction.

Plus, your business can start profiting immediately from the new equipment, software or services you invest in.

AND, in the spirit of saving you money, we’ll GIVE YOU XX FREE MONTHS of our [MANAGED SERVICE PLAN] when you upgrade your network with us.

Disclaimer: Everyone’s tax situation is different. Consult with your own tax professionals for specific advice.

If you like hot cars and green tech, you may have started hankering for a Testa as far back as 2008 …

Yet, aside from cool looks and speed, did you know the simple design edge that’s putting Testa in the spotlight?

Other car builders, like Nissan, GM and even Mercedes, have electric cars on the road. But they all use costly, high-tech lithium ion batteries.

Tesla, on the other hand, simply uses the type of batteries you have in your laptop – thousands of them …

With over a billion of these cells made every year, their design and pricing is driven by the same fierce competition that drives the consumer market.

And if Ts Motors can put a car on the road with enough battery life, they may just revolutionize the way we drive – like Henry Ford’s Model T did over a century ago.

Is Google Plus a bust? Or is it still a channel to be reckoned with if you don’t want to lose touch with your customers?

Google Plus – aka “Google, – is a sociol network built by Google. Its been connected to other Google products. It was the birthplace of Hangouts, for instance, now a standalone product.

But things ore changing. Google is dismantling Google+ for parts. Whot will remain may be just a stream, yet it will likely endure due to its die-hard fan base.

So how relevant is Google+ to your business?

The answer is, it depends on your customer base. Are your ideal customers using it? If not, perhops you .n safely ignore it.

However, if you already hove a following on Google+, or if you are targeting new custorners who use it, here are three ways you can leverage it for your business:

Get Found Fast

Its no surprise that Google Search favors Google+ posts. With a little reader engagement, your post con show up on page one in just a few days.

Give to Gain

Content that helps you target prospects with a simple “thank you” to folks who engage can work wonders.

Build Mk.o-Lists with Circles

Here’s a little-known secret: For circles upt 100, Google+ allows yout Also send e-mail.” This can be a great way to build tightly segmented lists.

Depending on your audience, Google+ may still be the best way to connect with your customers.

It’s not Rosie the Robot, but your first voice request to Amazon’s new Echo moves you one step closer to living like the Jetsons… Think of it as a plugged-in version of Apple’s Siri or Microsoft’s Cortana.

This “smart” speaker in a 91⁄4 x 31⁄4-inch cylinder can order products, turn off lights, set a timer, look up and give you sports scores, read you a book from Audi- ble and more.

You might even get it to tell you terrible jokes…

It won’t replace a high-end stereo, but its sound quality compares with any Blue- tooth speaker, and it can fill a good-sized room in your home.

Bottom line: Echo offers hands-free, at-home audio access to just about any- thing on the web, with better sound than a smartphone or tablet.

All in all, it can make your life easier. And maybe just a little more fun.

A few months ago I had the pleasure of working with Germania Insurance at their annual sales conference. The night before, at dinner, I was fortunate to sit at the table with Matt Sodolak. I use the word “fortunate” because I was about to witness what I would best describe as TRUE PASSION for your profession.

I asked a question of Matt that I have asked countless times, “How do you like being in the insurance business?” His response surprised me. Without any hesitation he said, “I love it. It’s my job for life.”

In all my years of interviewing people, I have never had anyone say, “This is my job for life.” The passion, sincerity and conviction in his voice just knocked me over. He sat forward in his chair and followed his statement with, “I love helping people, and I get to do it every day.”

There was NO DOUBT in my mind the passion Matt felt for his job, career and the company he worked for. I felt that anyone who had Matt as their agent was so fortunate. He never mentioned commissions … he talked the whole time about protecting his clients and how people counted on him to make sure they had the proper coverage in case something disastrous happened.

Unfortunately, something disastrous did happen; Texas has been slammed this year with enormous floods destroying millions of dollars in property and causing havoc to people’s lives. I heard from Matt last week and he shared a quick story about one of the people who works in their claims department. She said,

“Being in the insurance business, all of our customers’ problems become our problems and we have to be here to help them through it… that’s why they do business with us and that’s what keeps our lights on; you gotta love it or you are at the wrong place!”

It doesn’t surprise me that anyone who works with Matt would also have a passion for their job; he would attract other people who would want to do, help and care for others. Let me share a few anonymous quotes with you about the Power of Passion:

Maybe the one thing that is keeping your career from taking off … is that you aren’t looking at it as a career; it is simply a job to you; and your customers, associates, managers and boss can sense that.

There is always going to be frustration, toil, hassles, problems, glitches, hitches and difficulties in any job (that is why they call it work). But, if you look at it from a different perspective … that what you are doing is helping people in some way … then it all becomes worthwhile.

Galileo, the great Italian astronomer, physicist, engineer, philosopher and mathematician, once said: “Passion is the genesis of genius.” So, let your passion become the start of something great for your career.

Here’s Why You’re Likely To Be Wasting Time And Money On False Marketing Metrics

John Wanamaker is famous for saying, “Half of the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half!” With an ever-growing number of sophisticated online tracking tools, you’d think that wasting advertising dollars would be a thing of the past. But, in fact, companies are wasting just as much (if not more!) on online media and advertising due to a number of factors, but mostly because they’re confusing activity with results.

In business, the only thing we can take to the bank is money – checks, credit card payments, cash and any other forms of monetary deposits. Leading indicators to revenue, as we all know, are paying clients (orders, contracts, sales) and actual leads from qualified, genuinely interested prospects. However, much of the social media marketing I see is a heck of a lot of activity metrics (clicks, followers, open rates of e-mail, visitors to a site, etc.) that cannot be directly tied to generating a qualified lead, much less cash in the bank; so, unless someone can directly show me how an increase in Twitter followers turns into more profit for a company, I’m not impressed. In fact, I believe management of all the social media sites ends up taking an enormous amount of time away from more productive lead generation and marketing activities and opens the door for customer service and PR failures.

For example, if you have a Facebook fan page, you now need to monitor it daily – even hourly – for negative client comments, which are now public for the world to see, unfiltered and out of context, instead of a client simply e- mailing you their complaint, where it can be addressed privately. Further, clients will assume they can message and/or post their requests to your Facebook page instead of going through the proper channels; if you fail to address their request in a timely manner because it didn’t go through your normal process of handling such requests, you’ve just created a customer service failure that is open for the public to see.

To be clear, I’m not suggesting that you should shut down all social media sites and marketing; there are situations where it’s a very smart and strategic part of a business strategy. But, as my mother would say, “Don’t jump off a cliff just because everyone else is.” Be sure that whatever you’re doing online in social media can be measured and quantified to tie in to key sales, service and growth goals you have for your organization, and do not accept “getting our name out there” as a sufficient result for your marketing efforts.

Considering a VoIP system for your business?

Beware: The truth you need to make a good decision can be hard to come by. Here are a few “gotchas” to watch for when talking to VoIP system sales reps:

Big Lie #1 – “You’ll need to replace your firewall (or router).”
Chances are, the rep telling you this needs to get around some limitation of his or her system. VoIP phone lines were never designed to go through your firewall. Being forced through a firewall can have a severe impact on the sound quality of your phone system.

Not only that, but going inside your network means competing with the data traffic of your existing PCs, laptops and other devices. Plus, it would cause you to open up a hole in your firewall… Don’t go for it!

Big Lie #2 – “Our network uptime is the best in the industry!”
Ask for exact stats – and proof. If it’s anything less than [XX%] guaranteed, don’t buy it!

And don’t let anyone tell you [XX%] uptime can’t be done. As of this report, our carrier was up [XX%] of the last [XX] months.

Big Lie #3 – “Your new system will have all the same features as your current one.”
Do NOT assume this to be true. You’d be amazed by how many VoIP systems fail to provide even the most basic features. Be sure to get a hands-on demonstration to see for yourself how it will work. This will help you avoid any unpleasant surprises once your new system is installed.

Remember, it’s “buyer beware” when shopping for a new VoIP system. This one decision could have a drastic impact on your company’s ability to communicate with customers, suppliers and employees. Your bottom line is at stake, so take the time to shop carefully.

For our complete guide to how to get a VoIP system that will keep you and your staff “smilin’ and dialin’” – without getting fleeced.

Technology has forever changed our lives and our world more than you know. Here are some numbers to put that fact into perspective:

1. About 4 billion people worldwide own a mobile phone, but only 3.5 billion people own a toothbrush.
2. Computers and other electronics account for 220,000 tons of annual trash in the U.S. alone.
3. About 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.
4. Around 100 billion e-mails traverse the Internet every day, and about 95% of those messages go straight to spam folders.
5. The annual amount of electricity it takes for Google to handle a billion search queries every day is around 15 billion kWh, which is more than most countries consume.
6. About 500 new mobile games appear on the Apple App Store each day.
7. The “father of information theory,” Claude Shannon, invented the digital circuit at age 21 while he was in college.
8. Regular computer users blink only half as often as non-users.
9. Over 1 million children can say their parents met on Match.com

You regularly back up your computers (or at least you should), but do you do the same with your smartphone? Given the massive amounts of contact information, photos, videos and other data we all carry around on smartphones, it’s critical to back them up or risk losing all that data forever. There are two basic ways to back up your phone: automatically to the cloud or manually to your computer.

To The Cloud. Cloud backups are secured with your password-protected account. They can easily be configured to run automatically so you can “set it and forget it.” Apple users can use iCloud to back up photos, contacts, calendars and other data. Turn on and configure iCloud Backup by going to Settings > iCloud. Android users can back up to Google servers in much the same way, using a Google account. Configure your preferences by going to Settings > Backup.

To Your Computer. Both Apple and Android users also can back up data directly to a computer manually. Generally, connecting the phone to the computer by cable is the quickest way to do this. Apple users can also use iTunes Wi-Fi Sync to wirelessly back up phone data to a computer. Remember, though, when backing up your smartphone to a computer, your data is only as safe as that computer. Be sure to back up the computer regularly as well.

You know the standard approach – first, identify your company’s weakness and then do everything you can to fix it. Practice at it relentlessly, feed your team (and yourself) with constant affirmations, do anything you can to dive deep into your weakness and fix it once and for all. If you can’t fix it, then go to Plan B by burying the weakness in hopes that none of your prospects or competitors find out.

Well, here’s the dealio: the business down the street that is naturally strong at the same thing your company is weak at is working just as relentlessly to improve their strength. While you are fixing something that’s broke, they are getting better at something that already works. While you may improve your weakness, their strength gets better too. At the end of the day they are still ahead of you. You lose. That is, unless you know the power of spin.

Instead of trying to fix weaknesses, smart leaders will turn the tables and make their weakness or even an industry weakness a competitive advantage. A wonderful example in the restaurant industry is Dick’s Last Resort. Like all restaurants that struggle with the occasional rude waiter, Dick’s could have tried to fix this industry- wide weakness. Instead they turned the weakness into their greatest strength. Known to have the “most obnoxious waitstaff in the world,” Dick’s built a whole system around exploiting an industry weakness. They hire and train people to be obnoxious (while the competition tries to fix it), and Dick’s has grown explosively.

I have found that exploiting a weakness can draw droves of prospects. So, let’s do it with your weakness. Here are the three simple steps you need to take:

Step 1
Know what your (or your industry’s) weakness is. The process is simple: ask your customer and prospects what they don’t like about your industry. Ask more customers the same question. Very soon you will know exactly what weakness they see.

Step 2
Instead of brainstorming ways to fix it, brainstorm ways to make the weakness absurdly weak. Can you make fun of it? Can you make it the core experience for your customers (think Dick’s Last Resort)? How can you make the weakness a good thing?

Step 3
Now that you have a new and improved weakness, let the world know all about it. Market it to your prospects, inform your customers and even leverage all that work your fiercest competitor put into highlighting your weakness in the past.

The process of spinning a weakness takes courage, and that is exactly why it works. It is likely you have been afraid of doing this in the past, and it is highly likely your competitors are just as afraid too. If you have the courage to spin your weakness into an über-weakness (a.k.a. a big-time strength), you might just blow your competition out of the water once and for all.