Although popular belief may beg to differ, starting a business is not any of the following:   Impossible, “foolish” in this economy, OR “Only a good idea for seasoned business men.” You also don’t have to break the bank or put yourself in debt forever to get started on your journey. Thinking about the possibility starting a small business? After reading these five quick steps, you may be closer to your dream that you think…

1. Decide what type of entrepreneur you are - Do you get a rush from the mere idea of running your own business, or is there a certain type of work that you’re passionate about? For example, do you love taking care of animals or working with your hands, or do you mainly just want to be your own boss and in control of your own days? If you are passionate about dogs and love exercise, a dog walking/sitting company may be a route to look into. If it’s the freedom you’re in this for, but aren’t overly passionate about one certain type of work, do your research. Assess your skills, and see what types of companies are doing well in your area. Do your research. Don’t forget to consider franchise opportunities!

2. Use your connections - Write a list of all the people you know. Start networking and letting the world know about your upcoming business idea. Discounts and introductory offers can apply to almost every single kind of company you can imagine - so be creative. Start thinking NOW about how you are going to get sales in the door later. Getting these juices flowing in your mind early will save you from a slow start ($$)  later. Also, look into approaching investors for your company - even if this only means having a few simple conversations to test the waters for now.  You don’t have to single handed-ly foot all the money for  your start-up costs alone, in fact few business people do.

3. Win the business plan battle - Once you know exactly what type of business you are going to go after, make sure your plan is clear and that you’re prepared to ask for money. If you don’t seem confident that you’ve done your homework and know what you’re getting yourself into, then the lender will know that. Your financial analysis is very important. How much will you need? Where will you spend it? How much profit can you expect to make in the first year? What are your operating expenses? Be prepared to properly answer all of these questions — along with more! If you’re not very confident in your business plan writing skills, seriously consider consulting a specialist to help you.

4. Develop concrete company mission and other plans- You’re almost ready to roll. Make sure you get some fundamentals down in writing on paper for your new company. Decide what you’re going to do about healthcare for your workers, time off, etc. Write a mission statement for your company, and decide what kind of culture you will foster there. The environment of your organization is a crucial element of your success, so make sure you’re ready to start off strong as soon as you hire your first employee.

5. Open your doors - Once you’re ready (and you never may fully feel “ready” - but once your ducks are all lined up,) then open your doors for business. Don’t cut corners on important things like business tools and supplies, in the end it will only end up hurting your efforts. Hire skilled employees who you feel you can trust and get out there!

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It’s no surprise that word-of- of-mouth works. Salespeople and marketers have known this for years. However, now more than ever, there are even more opportunities to maximize word-of-mouth marketing technologies. We live in a society of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. These websites once started off as a buzz among friends but have quickly turned into hot advertising channels and popular social media outlets.

Today I read an interesting 8 page special report on Leveraging Social Media to Boost E-Commerce Holiday sales. If you are planning on selling your products and/or services online this holiday season, I urge you to take take a a look at the following article by TechNewsWorld. You can access it here.

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Refugees in Kenya are now finding Internet-based work that is not only bringing them out of poverty, but tripling what they could ever possibly learn before!  Thanks to a nonprofit known as Samasource, workers stuck in the world’s largest refugee camp are given a chance to make some cash and improve their living conditions.

Samasource has built a unique business model around the idea that there are some necessary computer projects that must be done, yet they’ve been deemed too small for Americans workers to spend their workdays carrying out. However, these jobs are the perfect size to be completed successfully remotely, and that’s where the Third World refugees come in and put their talents to work! While some may suspect this type of work is actually exploitation of the refugees, experts have confirmed that it’s exactly this type of work — work that can pay 3x or more than any other available jobs in these areas — that will begin to turn around the extremely impoverished conditions in some of these desolate countries around the world.

Experts say that Samasource is not displacing work opportunities for Americans, but expanding what American entrepreneurs can do with a limited budget. One example of a typical project that Samasource workers have done for a client who is a solar panels repairman: Workers soured satellite photos of American cities for houses with solar set-ups in order to generate sales leads.

Just to put this into perspective: The best possible work that’s available to most in the refugee camp is pounding rock in a quarry. What does it pay?  A mere 50 cents a day, if that. Not to mention that the camp has over 300 thousand people living on top of each other, and fighting for the little available work against one another. On the other hand, Samasource’s clients pay $2 an hour to these workers. From a quality of life perspective, Samasource has a lot to offer, and is committed to offering even more to these workers in the near future, as their number one goal is increasing wages!

With all the negativity in the news today, it’s nice to stop and appreciate  organizations like this who are looking to better the living conditions for less fortunate people, and also improve the overall state of our current world.  Please visit Samasource’s website for more information on this great nonprofit organization, or to “give work” now to Samasource workers.

Stephanie Spino
Marketing Manager
Everon Technology Services, LLC

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If you’ve used Twitter, I’m sure you’ve wondered if it has any actual value in the world. I wondered the same thing for a while, but I’ve been sold on the potential of using Twitter to generate business.

I just read an interesting article about the selling power of Twitter that seems to confirm this potential.

According to Warrillow & Co, a small business market research firm, Twitter has 7x the selling potential of social networks in the small business market. Here is an excerpt from the article:

Have you considered using Twitter as a sales and marketing tool at your business? If not, you should - particularly if you are in a retail business, where the transactional nature of Twitter lines up nicely with the transactional nature of retail.

Mike Cooch
CEO
Everon

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Microsoft said Thursday, August 13th that it plans to develop a new version of its Outlook email client for Apple computers to replace its Mac-based Entourage product.  This will allow Mac users to fully integrate their Exchange mailboxes, public folders, contacts, and calendars into their OS 10.6 Snow Leopard OS’s when released.

“Outlook will be a Cocoa application,” Wilfrid said, citing the development layer of Mac OS X. “We’re building on the most modern OS X framework to make Outlook beautiful, to make it high performance, and to make it well integrated with the operating system.”

The application will also include information rights management with cross-platform support. The technology will allow users of Outlook on Mac and Windows to share confidential information on either platform. Features such as flagging messages, creating and accessing public folders and managed folders, and category sync will all be cross-platform as well.  Outlook 2010 for Mac will be available sometime this 2009 Holiday Season.

Apple is also releasing its newest Operation System - 10.6 (Snow Leopard) sometime this coming September, which will feature full Active Sync integration with Exchange.  Native apps like Address Book and iCal will now synchronize via LDAP with Exchange 2007 servers’ Global Address Lists and Calendars.

We are beginning to observe Microsoft and Apple converge towards a smooth operating cross-platform meeting environment, empowering consumers to be proactive in choosing an OS without interfering with overall business productivity.

If you are interested in learning more about incorporating Macs into your business environment, please contact Everon at 888-244-1748.

Danny Sears
Everon Network Engineer

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