February 1, 2010
Tip #5 - SaaS-ify your business
9:16 AM | 
Posted by
Alex Conner
Buying Servers and the software, CALs, etc plus the cost of maintaing and supporting them isn't always the most cost effective way of doing business. Many of the tools you need to run your business can be had for a low monthly subscription which covers the cost of the infrastructure to run the software, the appropriate licensing for the software, and the peace of mind knowing that your software is being run and maintained by a team of subject matter experts. For example, instead of going out and buying your first server for $5,000 or so, check out Microsoft's BPOS - a suite of hosted Microsoft applications designed to take care of your business' collaboration needs - for just $10 per user per month! Need to track your customers and your relationship with them? Check out SugarCRM and Salesforce.com.
Got it? SaaSify your busines to save money, time and frustration.
Got it? SaaSify your busines to save money, time and frustration.
January 25, 2010
Tip #4 - Learn Effective Inbox Managment
E-mail is a fantastic communciation tool, but all too often (myself included) we find ourselves "living" out of our email client. We read email as it comes in, and use our Inboxes for to-do lists. There are a ton of ways to manage your inbox - and they start with turning off email notifications. I personally have taken this a step further and am limiting incoming mail flow such that I only recieve new email every 2 hours, because 500 emails a day is hard enough to handle in chunks, but to be interrupted 500 times a day is completely unacceptable. Here's a great blog post that covers the basics of other Inbox Managment rules that I use myself and highly recommend.David Allen is the King of GTD, so obviously I'm going to recommend his book too... Go fourth and be productive!
January 18, 2010
Tip #3 - Do Something with Social Media
Are you on Twitter? Facebook? Anything? If not, why not? If you can possibly swing it, start engaging with people on Twitter! If there's one thing I've learned about marketing, it's just a bunch of guessing and trying things. Get an account established for your brand (preferably your domain name, minus the .com, .net or whatever), and start engaging!Remember, be yourself. These people on Twitter don't want to interface with your "brand" - they want to get to know you. It's back to the olden days of one-to-one marketing, but in a method that's vastly more efficient and public.
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About Me
- Alex Conner
- I handle IT for small and medium businesses in a variety of capacities, from being their complete IT Department to just augmenting what they have temporarily or permanently. Don't worry, good consultants (like me) are very cost effective!