Protecting Your Data
May 9, 2009 by admin
Filed under business-basics
There are a number of topics under this main heading, each of which could be expanded to full articles. We’ll cover the basics here.
UPS – Uninterruptible Power Supply
The UPS is an essential part of any office – and there should be one for each desktop and notebook computer you have. A UPS is basically a big battery – it’s usually 3 or 4 ni-cad batteries housed in a plastic case. You plug the UPS into the wall and plug your computers and monitors, printers into the UPS.
The UPS has a circuit breaker that protects your computer equipment from fluctuations in the line – the quality of the electricity reaching your electronics. IT should cover lightening strikes as well – depending how close it is.
The other thing a UPS does is give you a few minutes of power in the case your office suddenly loses power. You’ll have time to quickly save whatever you need before shutting down the computers.
Data Backups
You probably don’t need a RAID 5 configured computer network in your office if you’re one or two people. If the data you save is priceless – you do. They are expensive and you’ll want an expert to set it up for you – also expensive.
Most companies can do with backing up their essential files to DVD or USB memory sticks. There are 32GB memory sticks now that can save quite a bit of data. I have a number of 8GB USB drives that I back up essential data to every couple days. In fact, I have multiple backups of the same data. There’s something to be said for redundancy!
Something to keep in mind if you do lose a hard drive to breakage… If you send that hard drive to a tech place to get fixed they WILL look at your data out of curiousity and they might grab your passwords out of files you have saved… they might login to any accounts you have auto-login enabled with in your internet browser. For me – that’s an unacceptable risk. I always just destroy the hard drive because I always have the info backed up pretty well. You should too.
AntiVirus Programs
Yes you need one. A good one. A great one even. Norton has a 2009 product out that has a smaller footprint than previous versions of it’s software. That means it consumes less resources on your computer and won’t slow your computer down much – which antivirus programs are notorious for. Get the whole internet protection package that protects you from everything.
There is no point at all just having a virus scanner that doesn’t protect you from getting the viruses proactively to start with.
If your antivirus manufacturer offers a firewall – get that too.
Lead Generation & Lists
May 6, 2009 by admin
Filed under business-basics
If you have any sort of web presence online – a website, a blog, a page. You’re going to want to do this for your business. I know it may sound like something you don’t need to concern yourself with – but, you do.
Every single business with a website really needs to have an email list of subscribers that have opted-in (chosen) to receive your email, offers, and newsletters. If you don’t have this you are missing out on one of the prime benefits of doing business online.
Why do you need an email list?
It’s a license to email those on your list and tell them about what you have and what you’re doing. You can offer many free things before asking for a sale – and this tactic works quite well.
If you don’t, you may never have contact with them again. They came to your site from Google, saw your site – got some information, and left. They don’t return. They got what they wanted – information about some bamboo candles you were selling. They disappeared.
Contrast that with somone that comes to your site for information on bamboo candles and is presented with an offer for a free 10 page ebook about how the bamboo candles are created by locals in Thailand. In order to get this free booklet they must enter their contact information an subscribe to your newsletter and correspondence.
They subscribe, get the ebook (filled with mentions of your site and products), leave… read the ebook later and come back to your site or – don’t. Then they get email from you asking if anyone wants to receive the free meditation cushion in the mail just by paying for shipping and handling – they love it, and go for the deal…
Or, you send them a few emails telling them about products you have and things your company is involved in…and after 3-6 emails you send them an offer to buy something you have at a discount.
Everyone with a business needs an email list. If you don’t have one – you must start one.
How do you start an email list and start your lead generation program?
Go to Aweber.com and sign up for an account. It’s pretty basic setup, but of course they don’t give you the big picture very well. If you have questions about it we have a elearning course for Aweber here on-site and we’ll give you a discount on it if you purchased your company incorporation through us here.
Aweber can be setup to automatically mail out a series of emails one after another after predetermined times (you choose). There is such power in that because each person that signs up to your list will receive the chain of emails, hopefully culminating in a sale… and then another chain and another… etc. Make the person a customer for life, not just someone who found you on Google and disappeared.
Email lists are essential to every business – get yours started now!
www.Aweber.com is the premier service and one that I highly recommend. They’ve been doing list management for over 10 years and are a great bunch of people.
Good luck!
Dean Harrington, Owner
Choosing Your Business Website Hosting
May 5, 2009 by admin
Filed under business-basics
Webhosting for your business website is something that should be given some thought. It’s important to get right because once you have all your content up on the server you don’t want to be pulling it down to transfer it all to another host because the first one wasn’t good enough.
Personally I’ve used one host over the last 10 years. www.GoDaddy.com
Godaddy’s basic shared hosting service – with a coupon you can find by searching coupons – godaddy online, can be had for about $48 per year and give you more bandwidth and server space than you’re likely to even come close to maxing out.
Godaddy is now the most well known domain registrar, and their hosting is slowly coming up to world-class levels. Though honestly, I’ve had few problems in 10 years using them.
Recently www.GoDaddy.com came up with an unlimited plan for their shared hosting in which you can use an unlimited amount of server space and bandwidth. I’ve not tried that one yet as the middle grade – Deluxe Hosting level has always been OK for me.
Another host you can’t go wrong with is BlueHost.com but their interface (dashboard) isn’t as intuitive to use as Godaddy’s is. Their support is more responsive and better the first time than Godaddy’s in our opinion though.
Good luck with your web hosting. If you don’t know how to go about buying your domain name, setting up hosting and your website and other things we have a elearning course that can help you accomplish that – coming to the site soon – we’ll add a link here. You’ll receive a substantial discount off any elearning courses you purchase here if you have also incorporated your business with us here at StartColoradoBusiness.com or one of our other sites.
Best Regards,
Dean Harrington, Owner
