As a beginning entrepreneur I’ve learned that we startups “need to know our numbers.” For entrepreneurs, numbers are the results of what we measure, and we need to measure the right things.
I had a brief discussion with a “up and coming” entrepreneur in Ohio recently and in our discussion he asked me, “How many employees to you have?”
I said, “Only me.”
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Attention Grad Students, University Students and High School Students!
If you are using a Mac, business classes, entrepreneur courses and business accounting just got easier. Our Back to School Special offers students the opportunity to purchase our Advanced Business Planning system for just $25 when you enter the Student Discount Code.
ION FreshStart’s Advanced Business Planning uses iWork – Pages, Numbers, Keynote. We have a series of business plan templates and workshops that allow you to create your professional and sophisticated business plan.
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The one thing that most Mac users are not aware of about Apple’s MobileMe (formerly .Mac services) is some of the capabilities to connect with others, such as using iChat to do Instant Messaging (IM), and audio and video chatting and recording. The technology was better than all others because it uses Apple’s technology. But as with anything, people are not aware of it’s capability and how it mostly works with Macs.
Apple has announced that it is improving things from MobileMe to iCloud. As Apple transitions from MobileMe to the iCloud you’ll see differences with your various Mac, iPhone, and iPad workflows as they are defined by Apple. There are NO indications about using iChat services in the iCloud, But in the mean time, you still have work to do and you can’t stop because of Apple’s changes, right?
So, what’s a Mac user to do when connecting with Windows users?
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Here’s a quick and dirty list of the online scams outlined by the Better Business Bureau (BBB). If you know about phishing, then this is one list that you definitely want to take advantage of looking at.
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Any startup entrepreneur runs across periods of time where they can get some things done while waiting or they’re on the road. Texting can take a lot of time and sometimes the “fat finger” issue with typing makes matters worse. My wife is a realtor and she’s on the road a lot and “has time” and would like to answer her email on the road, but can’t text or type. Well, here’s a way around that: iPhone Voice Memo.
Wherever you are “on the road” in your car, at your local car mechanic getting your car worked on, or picking up your kids from school or the daycare center, you can use the Voice Memo app to record your thoughts for later retrieval and sharing with your customers, vendors, family members, or other contacts.
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If you have an online business which hosts your eCommerce, or even backs up your data, such as Apple’s iCloud service due out later this fall, you just might get collateral damage if the government comes looking for illegal activity.
The same business disaster can occur if it is an act of God, such as a tornado, hurricane, or a flood. What most people may not realize is that there are two costs to these type of acts:
- The cost of disrupting your business, i.e. the loss of income
- The cost of replacing and restarting your business, i.e. the cost to replace what is lost and to get back up running again.
This comes in two forms of collateral damage.
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Categories: 4 Action Plans, 8 Operations, 9 Finance, Hardware, Life, Mac, Planning, software, Thoughts, Tips Tags: Backup, Collateral damage, Data center, Remote backup service, Servers
As a startup entrepreneur you can sit at home or be a mompreneur or dadpreneur if the case requires it, but how does one get the job done or keep their business running in a secure or private manner.
Conferencing. Webinars.
But it’s just not for home or virtual offices any more, it’s also for coworking (see my previous blog). Conferencing, whether video/audio/web, is becoming big business. Whereas communicating has gone from phones to email, we’ve also added IM (Instant Messaging) and social media and now conferencing to the mix.
Conferencing is just another step into breaking down the barriers to communicate. And for the startup entrepreneur it can have its place in many of the tools to communicate with both your customers, vendors, and colleagues, and on a less extent, families and friends living in other states or abroad.
Why have a online conference and what does it entail, what can you do?
- Time – the time needed to get together all at the same time, especially across time zones.
- Distance – the time it takes to get to the location can be time consuming, and everyone at the same time.
- Recorded/Not Recorded – recording the conference using a video camera and audio recorder takes multiple gadgets and inputs to complete the conference session.
- Audio/Video/White Board – recording the sessions notes is usually handled by a presentation software such as iWork Keynote or MS Office Powerpoint. However, if you write something down, you need to take those notes down for further distribution to attendees.
- Remote sharing or computer access – you can chat and record the conversation, but you can also share files or remotely control another computer.
How is it done?
- Yourself – with a MobileMe, Yahoo, ICQ, ooVoo, or other chat service account.
- Hosted Services by a business or your own company servers – Some of the hosted services below you can use for free, pay a fee for, or your can host your own by using Mac OS X Server Snow Leopard. Here is standard and HD quality for the video conferencing.
- Others – you need an audience of more than yourself.
- Hardware and software to communicate.
Here are a list of some of them. Some offer free services, others cost, do your due diligence to see if one is right for you.
- iChat (free on a Mac) + MobileMe – while MobileMe provides a number of online services, it’s chatting quality is great. But you need both Macs to have an account. Cost is $99 a year for each Mac.
- Skype.com – requires nothing more than loading the software and having an account. If you want to record it, you’ll need additional hardware or software.
- ViVu.tv – host video conferencing and webcasting.
- GoToMeeting.com – meetings, webinars, and training.
- WebEx.com – similar to the above.
- ooVoo.com – chat from mobile to mobile, mobile to computer, and Mac to PC, pay per use or by month, three way chatting is always free.
