Technology | Technical Business

Telecommuting Project Solutions

Telecommuting is a huge trend in companies today, allowing employees the freedom to work from a place of their choosing as well as saving valuable time, money and resources for the company. Internet companies are marketing tools to help facilitate easy teamwork when dealing with telecommuting employees.

Google Shared Spaces

This application from Google allows users to collaborate with others from a distance. There are widgets to brainstorm with the team, show maps or drawings, and post surveys to take votes or gauge interest. There are also applications to collaborate on graphs and charts. These tools are useful when team planning with people who might not be in the same room, or even on the same continent.

Dropbox

Dropbox is an internet application designed to back up essential files which can then be shared with other Dropbox users designated by you. This application is very useful for sharing necessary files as well as creating a safe, internet-based archive in case memory loss occurs on your computer. Internet backups are a great new way to protect your valuable files and create worldwide access.

Skype

Skype has gained popularity as a free or low cost way to call other computers or phones all over the world. Utilizing the video feature, team members can chat with each other as well as share visuals with anyone, anywhere. If both users are calling from computers the service is completely free, no matter the distance. Skype has recently added a video conferencing feature which will allow multiple users to chat at the same time.

Utlizing these time and money-saving tools is a great way for your business to expand into the world of telecommuting while staying connected. These applications can be used with any computer and up-to-date operating system. Video functions obviously require a camera, which comes built into many computers today or can be acquired as an add-on device inexpensively. Taking advantage of new technologies can keep your business on the forefront of the market and competitive worldwide.

Filed Under: Business, Technology Tagged With: Dropbox, Employment, Google, Syncplicity, Telecommuting

Telecommuting: What are the benefits?

Telecommuting is a growing trend among businesses today. New technology allows for businesses to utilize the internet, video conferences, email and im chats to conduct business. There are lot of benefits to allowing workers to “telecommute”, or work from home.

Employee Satisfaction

Employee satisfaction is a major plus of the telecommuting trend. Employees can work according to their schedules and tend to their home needs better with telecommuting. Additionally, families with two working parents have more time to devote to their families with no commute time. Employees will also be happy to be able to live where they like and have less worry about relocating for family or their spouses’ job.

Diverse Employment Field

Businesses that take advantage of telecommuting can cast a wider net when looking for talented employees. With location-independent employees companies can also enjoy a more diverse and knowledgable staff. Employees from various parts of the country, or even the world, can offer an interesting and helpful perspective to the company.

Lower Costs

Another benefit to telecommuting for businesses is the lower costs of maintaining offices. Working from home means less office space and lower electrical costs to the company. Telecommuting has also been shown to increase employee productivity, which means less wasted time and money for the company.

Growth potential

With all the money saved from lowered costs businesses have the potential to grow larger when taking advantage of telecommuting. Companies can add staff and new departments without worrying about office space or budgeting for increased office costs.

Employee Retention

As well as other benefits, technology friendly companies will have the benefit of retaining employees that might have been lost due to relocation. Employees with the freedom to live anywhere are more likely to stick with their jobs. The company can enjoy the benefits of retining these skilled employees and save on new employee searches as well as training.

The benefits to telecommuting are vast and growing all the time. Technology-savvy companies can take advantage of these benefits and others to create a working environment that is beneficial to both employee and company, while cutting costs.

Filed Under: Marketing, Technology Tagged With: Business, Employees, Telecommuting

Using Internet Radio to Reach Out to Your Customers

: Image via Wikipedia

There are plenty of ways in which you can draw customers to your site. What you really want, though, is for customers to seek you out, instead of you needing to go after them. That’s a mark of business success, and it can seriously improve your bottom line, as well. Don’t assume that you can’t find a way to get customers even more interested in you than they might already be. There are always options for getting them to come to you. Social media works well, but there’s also Internet radio. If you haven’t tried it yet, it could be the logical next step for any business that wants to get its name out there and start becoming more relevant in the lives of a lot of people. It can really put your business on the map and help you out a lot, whether you’re just starting out or interested in growing.

Places like DrJays use Internet radio to bring more people to their sites. The hip hop apparel that DrJays offers is popular already, but business has increased ever since Internet radio has started to be used. That’s good news for the company, but it’s also good news for other companies. The reason behind that is based on the fact that, if it works for one company, it will work for other companies. That’s something you’ll want to consider if you’re still toying with the idea of Internet radio, and whether it’s the right choice for you.

It ultimately doesn’t matter that much what your company is selling. What matters is how you market what you’re selling. It’s important to have a great product, but even mediocre products have sold well if they’ve had great marketing behind them. Your business, with its already great products, could do much better than it is if you’d get involved with Internet radio to truly connect with your customers and their needs.

Filed Under: Business, Technology Tagged With: Business, Internet radio, Radio, Streaming

Building Your Business through the Internet

: Image via CrunchBase

The most common method of expanding business in the past often had a personal factor that involved face-to-face interaction. Now though, with the world wide economy emerging through the Internet, it’s becoming increasingly popular and necessary to use the internet as a catalyst to boost your business.

As a business owner, it is to your greatest advantage to exploit the tools of the Internet to help increase your customer numbers, keep your current customers happy, and to simply advertise and inform the public. Learning and developing an expert computer-sense is definitely worth your while. If you want to stay in line with your competitors or, better yet, stay a step ahead, you must take advantage of the many marketing methods the internet offers.

For example, have you spent sleepless nights wondering why certain products aren’t selling? Wonder no longer. Through a survey, you can receive feedback to your burning business questions within minutes. Customer satisfaction survey is simple and to the point. Customers are more likely to answer one or two questions quickly rather than a lengthy list that takes up their precious time, so design the survey to be short and last only a few minutes. Then in no time, you can discover why or why not a particular product is selling at its current rate. You can learn what makes your customers happy. It is that simple.

Another means of quickly acquiring customer feedback is through social networking. Create a profile on Facebook or use Twitter to inform the public about your business or merely keep your customers posted on updates. Research validates the fact that a friendly, informative approach as used in social networking, gains more clients then an overzealous one.

As you learn to use internet tools such as surveys and social networking, you will be truly taking advantage of the endless opportunities out there.

Filed Under: Business, Technology Tagged With: Business, Internet marketing, Online Communities, Social media, Social network service

Ways to Help People Remember Your Business

Word of mouth is one of the best advertising tools you can ask for. But before you can put word of mouth to work you’ve got to make sure people — both potential clients and returning customers — remember who you are. And then, of course, you’ve got to make sure their memories are positive.

Here are a few simple ways to help draw clients minds back to you at the most opportune moments:

Hand out free stuff they can actually use. Water bottles with your logo on them, or attractive well-fitted T-shirts and other apparel are good. Everybody needs socks at some point, and since they usually stay at least partially hidden from other people, people probably wouldn’t mind wearing your logo on a nice pair of socks — but they’ll think of you every time they put them on.

Send out holiday cards. Christmas cards are the obvious choice, but if your business revolves around a specific holiday or holidays — say, Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day if you’re a florist — consider sending out a little “thank you for your business” card before these holidays. It’ll bring you to mind in time for your clients to place another order.

Form a mailing list. Trust is crucial here; make sure your clients know you won’t share their contact information with anyone else, then follow up on your promise. You can use the list — either email or old-fashioned mail — to distribute order reminders, information about new products or services, other company news or newsletters.

Offer discounts. Hand out coupons at fairs, or tuck them into the holiday cards or integrate them into your newsletters.

Solicit feedback, then act on it. Nothing inspires a client to come back than seeing that their feedback is actively solicited and acted upon; this proves how much you value the client, more than mere words even could.

Filed Under: Expenses, Technology

Online Presence for Your Small Business

If you have recently started a small business, or even if you have been running one for years, this is a great time to think about your online presence. This means more than just a website; it can also incorporate a blog, a Facebook page and a Twitter account. How do you know where to start, and what to do with it?
Begin with your website. You can purchase a domain name for less than $10 in most cases, and if you’re comfortable with the computer, you can even design the site yourself using a free editing tool. For most people, however, its best to find a reputable web designer with reasonable fees who will create your site for you. You will want to make sure that your website accurately describes your business and provides customers with a way to find you. Include an email address from an account that you monitor religiously, and supply the storefront address and phone number for people to find you in person.

You can also incorporate a blog into your website, where you post news related to your business. This can be used for sales, incentives, advertising or whatever else you like. Another great way of drumming up traffic to your website is to create a Facebook page for it. Linking to your Facebook page and encouraging your employees and favorite customers to “Like” it or become fans will help to spread the word through the online community.

Twitter is another great tool for getting the name of your business out. Posting on your Twitter account is fast and easy; since you can only post 140 characters per post, you won’t have to spend a great deal of time thinking about what to say. Again, ask your employees and loyal clients to follow you, and you will gain traffic.

Filed Under: Small Business, Technology

Utilizing Social Media Tools to Promote Your Business

Technology and the way we use it changes constantly. Businesses are discovering the importance of social media sites. This is one of the fastest growing business tools available. Social media tools are used by online marketers to promote products and services. Online marketers have experienced phenomenal success utilizing these tools.
In the past, an online presence was the goal of many businesses. Now, simply having a website is not enough.

Every business can use the numerous social media sites to promote the business and the services it offers. This is a fantastic tool to reach millions of potential customers. You can post special offers, information about the business and advertising. This information will reach your fan base within minutes.

The social media sites also allow text messages to be sent to its customers that sign up for mobile phone access. This allows for additional communication to potential customers. Social media is a growing marketing tool that is simple to use.

Establishing a business page on each site and maintaining it will create a constant source of potential customers. Many companies hire an in-house social media expert or contract with an independent contractor to maintain the company’s sites.

In addition, a business can submit advertising blocks to all the social media sites. The fees vary depending on the social media network. A business can establish links to all of the social media sites on the business’s web page. This allows customers to add the business to their social media account with a click of the button.

Social media sites are a new and developing marketing tool that any business can use. It is a great way to reach millions of potential customers. The key is to create active social media sites that are updated frequently. This is a fun tool to use to engage potential customers.

Filed Under: Technology

Better Service Means Automation

You see it everywhere you go these days. The big mega stores have automated check out lines with no attendant. Bank branches long ago added automated tellers and now, many people go to the bank to open an account and never step foot inside again. These days, with online money accounts like PayPal, people don’t even need to use a traditional bank to complete transactions. It is up to you to keep up with the times and your companies success is based on learning to be more automated and be accessible to customers where they are at now.

The future of business is here now and it includes banking that is done completely electronically. Many people these days do not even have checks for their checking account. If your company is to keep up you need a variety of ways of receiving payment including being able to transfer money direct from a bank electronically.

If your company provides a service that requires regular payments such as monthly or yearly, you need to allow for direct automatic payments directly from the customers banks. Banks and credit unions these day are getting set up to pay bills directly from the customers online bank account. One credit union allows you to receive your bills, actually see the bill from the company on the banks website, and pay it immediately with a few clicks. If you can not provide this simple service to your customers you are going to lose them to the competition.

In order to provide such a service your company will have to not only be caught up on using computers to do business, but you will need to be online and provide an online billing service. Without these opportunities your customers will go elsewhere. Technology will continue to advance, the advice, keep up.

Filed Under: Business, Technology

Marketing With Social Media

Social media is quickly becoming an invaluable tool in business marketing. Social media allows a company to directly communicate with and receive feedback from their customers. It allows the business to target specific markets, increase brand awareness, keep an eye on the competition, and manage their online reputation. Facebook and Twitter have made it easy for customers to share information about a company and endorse its products with a click of the mouse. With the ease of “share” or “Like”, the company’s email or web address goes out from one customer to their whole social network of friends. This can create a snowball effect way beyond the scope of anything a company could do on its own. They must of course offer engaging and valuable information that is worth being passed on since bad news travels just as fast as good. Research has found that customers are more likely to share information about a company, when a soft marketing approach is used rather than a hard sell. They are looking for valuable information or the answer to a question or problem.
The instant communication offered by social media sites, allows a company to make changes and adjustments quickly in response to customer feedback. The willingness to make changes improves customer satisfaction. Customers who know their concerns are being address, are going to come back themselves and spread the word to their friends. This immediate response is not possible with traditional marketing plans.
Social media sites and webpage blogs can create an ongoing exchange of customer generated reviews and testimonies. Praise from a list of happy customers is more likely to sell a new customer on a product than the company promoting itself. Happy customers are valuable assets to the reputation of the company. This again can have a harmful effect if the reviews are negative.
Social media marketing can connect a company with the consumer in a way that traditional marketing campaigns never could.

Filed Under: Marketing, Technology

Teleworking: How it Benefits the Employer, Employee, and Economy

Tired of the long commute back and forth to work every day? What if there was a way to work conveniently from your own home while benefiting you, your employer, and the environment. Defined as a work arrangement to allow employees the freedom to work outside of the office, teleworking is the business trend of the future.

Employer Benefits
- The biggest benefits to the employer are cost savings to the company.
- Premises costs diminish
- Relocation costs are eliminated
- Office overheads dwindle
- The employer is able to gain a 10 – 40 percent increase in productivity as the employee experiences less interruptions during the day and is never late to work.
- When an employee needs to relocate, the job remains filled. No longer does the employer need to spend money on hiring and training a replacement.
- Telework provides flexibility allowing employers to hire staff in different time zones for 24/7 customer service and production.
- If nature disasters or emergencies cause the main facility to close down for a day or two, production does not completely halt as teleworkers remain working.

Employee Benefits
- Telework cuts down on travel time and costs allowing the employee to concentrate on higher productivity.
- The employee has the flexibility to manage appointments and maintain a household without interfering with job performance and tasks.
- The ability to work from home produces job satisfaction and reduces the need for employees to seek other employment.
- Telework cuts down on employees taking sick and personal days giving the employer a producing staff member 40 hours a week.

Economic and Social Benefits
- Telework decreases the amount of cars of the road, reduces traffic congestion, and diminishes emissions released to the air.
- In high areas of unemployment, telework can enable workers opportunities that arise anywhere in the country.
- Telework jobs can increase work access to those with special needs or disabilities.

If executed properly, telework could be a beneficial option for both businesses and their employees.