Tag Archives: business

25 Tech Terms Every Entrepreneur Should Know

From acronyms ranging from ERP to POS, the verbiage of business can be hard to decipher. Here are 25 terms every small business owner needs to know:

Server hosting

Servers are devices that support a company’s computer and Internet networks. Servers are typically owned by Internet service providers (ISPs), who lease out server space in addition to providing customers with Internet connectivity.

ISPs “host” a company’s information — its website, email, data, etc. — on their servers. Some servers are located in ISP data centers, while others are leased directly to businesses.

Businesses that don’t have the in-house technical support necessary to maintain a server typically rent space on a remote server or use a managed hosting service. Managed hosting services provide businesses with their own servers and also provide full-time technical support.

Other businesses also lease their servers from ISPs, but without the extra help. Having a dedicated server, as this is known, is cheaper than managed hosting services, but it’s only feasible for companies that possess technical expertise.

Data center

A data center is a facility that houses computer and data storage systems, including servers. Many data centers are owned by ISPs or large companies, like Google or Amazon.

Cloud hosting

Companies that don’t lease servers may instead pay for their data to be stored on virtual servers. These servers are said to be based in the cloud if they can be accessed with only an Internet connection.

Businesses typically access cloud-based servers through a software interface specific to their cloud hosting service provider.

Web hosting

Web hosting, or website hosting, is a specific kind of server hosting service. Single-page websites typically don’t need to use a Web hosting service, but more complex sites require such services to be able to edit content, enable forums or provide a secure e-commerce platform.

CMS

Content management systems (CMSs) are used to manage the content of a website. They usually include a Web-based publishing feature, which allows for editing and formatting of content without the use of Web coding language, like HTML. Many CMSs also feature one-to-one marketing tools that enable targeted advertising.

E-commerce

E-commerce is short for electronic commerce, or business that is conducted by transferring data electronically over the Internet. E-commerce is popular in part because of the widespread use of PCs and mobile devices.

Linux hosting

Linux is an open-source operating system that can be installed on Web hosting servers. Many servers run Microsoft operating systems, but some businesses believe that Linux is a more secure and reliable option and prefer to choose a Web hosting service that runs Linux.

Virtual merchant

A virtual merchant is a merchant that uses a website as a platform for selling goods and services. Virtual merchants engage in e-commerce, accepting electronic payments from customers online. Some virtual merchants also maintain brick-and-mortar retail stores.

Cloud backup

Data backed up in the cloud is transferred from a business to the data storage provider’s servers over the Internet. Cloud backup, also called online backup, can be set up to occur automatically, making it a convenient data storage option.

It’s also an affordable service because it does not require the use of any additional hardware on the part of the business.

Email marketing

Email marketing is the promotion of products and services via email. Businesses can get creative with their emails by including images, videos and other exciting content that customers will be more likely to read.

POS

A point of sale (POS), or checkout, is the place in a retail establishment or virtual store where transactions are completed. Customers can usually pay at a POS with cash, credit or debit cards and increasingly, their smartphones. Most POS systems also include tools for tracking inventory and sales volume.

Merchant account

Merchant accounts are agreements with banking institutions necessary for businesses accepting credit and debit card transactions. In exchange for converting credit card payments into cash, banks charge merchants interchange fee as well as other fees.

Mobile application development

Mobile applications are popular with both businesses and consumers. The process of creating apps that can be used on mobile devices, such as smartphones or tablets, is known as mobile application development.

Businesses in need of a mobile app can have one developed for them by a professional app developer or use app-building tools to develop their own mobile apps.

Custom software development

Some businesses require custom, or tailor-made, software for their daily operations. Instead of using mass-produced software packages, such businesses use programs created by software development companies or in-house software development groups.

ERP software

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software allows a company to manage various aspects of a business — such as accounting, inventory and human relations — in one place. Companies purchase the enterprise software modules that are relevant to their business and use the ERP software to view all the data collected by these modules in a uniform manner.

Project management software

Project management software lets companies plan how to best complete a project in an organized, efficient way. This allows them to come up with accurate estimates and bids before beginning a project. Most project management software includes modules for scheduling, estimating, budgeting and resource allocation.

SaaS

Software as a Service (SaaS), or “software on demand,” is a term associated with cloud computing. SaaS is a way of delivering business software via the Internet. SaaS usually can be paid for on a monthly basis, making it more affordable than other software options.

Many business management software packages, such as project management software, are now also available in SaaS form.

Business intelligence software

Business intelligence (BI) is the information a business collects about itself and can include a very broad swath of information, which is why businesses often need business intelligence software.

Business intelligence software lets companies keep all their BI data in one place so that it is easier to access and analyze.

Contract management software

Many businesses operate on the basis of contracts made with customers, vendors and employees. Contract management software helps businesses keep track of all aspects of their contracts, from initial negotiations to monthly billings.

Performance management software

Human resources professionals often rely on performance management software to keep track of employee performance. Large amounts of data can be organized and analyzed more efficiently with the use of this software.

Practice management software

Practice management software is used in medical offices and is designed to process day-to-day operations, such as billing data and insurance payer information, appointment scheduling and, in some cases, electronic medical records.

Customer management software

Customer management is the term used for the way a business collects and manages data about its clients. Companies use customer management software to keep track of all the information they collect on clients, such as service calls made or previous products purchased. This helps them close future deals and grow relationships with customers.

Learning management system

Learning management systems are used by businesses training employees. Such systems help human resource departments plan, implement and assess the training process.

Video conferencing, discussion forums and other interactive features are usually included within a learning management system’s software.

Document management

Document management refers to the system of creating, sharing, organizing and storing documents within an organization. Document management software can be used to help facilitate the document management process.

Managed services

Many day-to-day business activities can be outsourced as a means of cutting costs and increasing overall efficiency within a company.

Such a practice is known as managed services. Human relations activities and information technology activities are two common areas of expertise often subjected to this practice.

How to respond to nasty emails

We’ve all been on the receiving end of a nasty email, as well as its secretive, vaguely insulting cousins. You know the messages I’m referring to. They don’t need exclamation points or all caps to be full with anger and dripping with sarcasm.

Dressing someone down via email is tempting because it’s easy, you have plenty of time to vision up daggers that strike straight to the heart, and you lack the inhibition that’s present when the recipient is staring you in the face. This type of email is known in cyberspace as “flaming,” and all such messages have a single thing in common, a complete and utter lack of emotional intelligence.

A recent survey (sponsored by communications device manufacturer Plantronics) found that 83% of today’s workforce considers email to be more critical to their success than any other form of communication.

Email has been around in the world long enough that you’d think that we’d all be pros at using it to communicate effectively. But we are all human and if you think about it we haven’t mastered face-to-face communication either.

The bottom line is that we can all use a little help. The five strategies that follow are some methods for keeping your emotions within reason, so that you don’t hit send while your emails, tweets, comments, and virtual chime-ins are still flaming.

1. Follow Honest Abe’s First Rule of Netiquette

Lincoln in his younger years, had a bad habit of applying his legendary wit when writing insulting letters to, and about, his political rivals. But after one predominantly contemptuous letter led a rival to challenge Lincoln to a duel, Lincoln learned a valuable lesson, words impact the receiver in ways that the sender can’t completely comprehend.

By the time he died, Lincoln had amassed stacks of flaming letters that verbally shredded his rivals and subordinates for their bone-headed mistakes. However, Lincoln never sent them. He vented his frustration on paper, and then stuffed that sheet away in a drawer. The following day, the full intensity of his emotions having subsided, Lincoln wrote and sent a much more pleasant and appeasing letter.

We can all benefit from learning to do the same with email. Your emotions are a valid representation of how you feel no matter how intense but that does not mean that acting on them in the moment serves you well. Go ahead and vent—tap out your anger and frustration on the keyboard. Save the draft and come back to it later when you’ve cooled down. By then you’ll be rational enough to edit the message and pare down the parts that burn, or even better rewrite the kind of message that you want to be remembered by. Just remember leave the “To” part blank.

2. Know the Limits of Virtual Humor

Some people show their disapproval with words typed in ALL CAPS and a barrage of exclamation points. Others, though, express dissatisfaction more subtly with sarcasm and satire. The latter is no less of a breakdown in the core emotional intelligence skill of self-management, and it can be even more dangerous because it’s harder to detect when you’re doing it. The sender can always convince him or herself that the spite was just a little joke.

3. Remember That People Online Are Still People

While captivated by the warm glow of a computer monitor, it’s sometimes difficult to remember that there is a living, breathing human who will end up reading your message. Studies have shown that people who are communicating online experience a “disinhibition effect.” Without the real time feedback between sender and receiver that takes place in normal face-to-face and telecommunication, we simply just don’t worry as much about offending people online.

We don’t have to experience the discomfort of watching someone else grow confused, unhappy, or angry because of something that we said. When these natural consequences are delayed, we tend to spill onto the screen whatever happens to be on our mind.

4. Know How The Internet Feels 😉 🙁 😮

Emoticons have a mixed reputation in the business world. Some people and even organizations believe that smiley faces, winks and other symbols of digital emotion are unprofessional, undignified, and have no place outside of a high school hallway.

When used properly, however, a Dutch research team has shown that emoticons can effectively enhance the desired tone of a message. The team led by Daantje Derks at the Open University of the Netherlands concluded that “to a large extent, emoticons serve the same functions as actual nonverbal behavior.” Seeing that nonverbal behavior accounts for between 70 and 90% of a message when communicating face to face, it might be time to ditch the stigma attached to emoticons in the business setting.

For those leery of dropping a smiley face into your next email, I’m not suggesting that you smile, wink, and frown your way through every email you write. Just don’t be afraid to peck out a quick 🙂 the next time you want to be assured that the recipient is aware of your tongue in cheek.

5. Know When Online Chats Need To Become Offline Discussions

Managing online relationships will always be a somewhat difficult task for people built to communicate in person. However, managing critical email conversations is even more difficult for those programmed to communicate via email. Significant, prolonged, and heated email exchanges are almost always better taken offline and finished in person.

With so much communication taking place via email these days, it can be hard to initiate a face-to-face conversation when you feel that an online interaction is becoming too heated or simply too difficult to continue online. Online technologies have become extremely useful for increasing the speed and efficiency of communication, but they have a long way to go before they become the primary source for creating and maintaining quality human relationships.

Three things most successful companies do correct

What do most successful businesses have in common? Using available resources to effectively execute business strategies, maintaining a strong focus on the customer and structuring the organization in order to support company objectives are the three basic building blocks that high-performing organizations, regardless of industry or geography, have in common. That finding comes from new research by The Conference Board, an independent business membership and research association.

To better understand what traits link the best businesses, researchers identified 56 companies that rank highly in leadership, financial performance and people management. Those companies include FedEx, Coca-Cola, Target and American Express. The study’s authors then surveyed 76 executives at 27 of those companies to learn how their businesses are run.

Amy Lui Abel, managing director of human capital research at The Conference Board and a co-author of the study, said that when looking from the outside, it may seem as if these companies don’t share much in common. “However, our survey of executives at those four high-performing organizations, and 23 others, revealed a layer of meaningful commonality underlying their success,” Abel said in a statement. “While the DNA of every high-performance culture is unique, they rest on a common catalog of ‘genetic’ elements that proactive leaders will identify, adapt and incorporate into their own company’s identity.”

Based on their surveys, researchers uncovered three common “DNA elements” and the strategies involved in each:

Use resources effectively and efficiently to execute business strategies

Create a culture of rigor and standards for financial stability
Require process around fiscal management, oversight and decision making
Execute strategies in an operationally efficient manner
Align organizational structure to support business strategy
Create and maintain a culture of accountability

Strong customer focus

Delivery high-quality products and services
Create a strong customer-centric culture
Focus the organization’s process and products on customer needs

Organizational capability to support critical business objectives

Attract and retain talent through strong brand reputation
Provide learning and development opportunities to all employees
Require supervisors to set clear goals and manage performance
Raise employee engagement to drive productivity
Develop a global mindset among leaders
Align rewards and recognition to support business strategy
Help managers create effective teams

“In today’s globalized, competitive environment, a huge array of measures — from market capitalization to employee-engagement scores — is available to evaluate a company’s success,” said Rebecca Ray, executive vice president of knowledge organization for The Conference Board and a co-author of the report. “But such numbers alone reveal little about how an organization succeeds, or fails, in adapting to change, developing new capabilities and executing its long-term strategy.”

Maximize interactions between social media & content marketing

Social media market and content marketing have been two different entities but is it possible that they may be a perfect pair? Unfortunately, many companies approach both as if one has nothing to do with the other. The simple truth is that social media marketing cannot function without the others content. If you have no content, you have nothing to share, tweet or post. Without valuable content, you cannot drive engagement on social media. It would be reasonable to say that content serves as the core of any successful social media marketing campaign. In this article I am going to discuss some tips on how to maximize the interaction between social media and content marketing.

Unlike traditional content marketing, content within the scope of social media marketing must serve specific purposes. In order for it to be effective, content for social media marketing must be designed to fit the constraints of specific platforms and, also, must be set up to either generate discussions or provide an open dialogue for current customers. The tips below will help you through the process of bringing your social media and content marketing together.

Test your content for effectiveness with your target audience. Simply publishing content on social media and hoping it works is not an effective plan. Testing a variety of content and messages across different networks can help you to determine which type of content resonates best with your audience. If you only publish one piece of content and you do not receive the response you expected, you may never know exactly what was wrong with it. A randomized experiment with two variants (A/B testing) can give you the insight you need to determine how to best connect with specific audiences. Using programs like GetResponse can help businesses test what works when contacting customers through email. Optimizely can aid companies with A/B testing of its website pages.

Customize your content for specific social media networks. Your audience should be able to choose from a range of different social media networks. Whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest, each social media network has its unique audience and features. Ignoring these distinctive differences is the equivalent of a disaster in terms of social media marketing. Taking the time to ensure that the content you publish on each platform and is optimized for that specific channel will give you a far greater chance to connect with your audience. They are also more likely to frequent that platform. For instance, while Twitter has a strict 140-character limit and requires brief but powerful content, content on Facebook is far more flexible. You wouldn’t want to promote a law firm on Instagram or Pinterest. These sites typically requires the inclusion of a photo or video in order to gain traction with audiences.

Ask your audience for what they want. Take the time to ask your followers and fans for recommendations regarding the types of content that interests them. There are also tools you can use to influence and determine the types of content most likely to gain traction in your social media marketing, such as Hootsuite, which can generate a digital map of the types of topics that your followers and fans are discussing.

Don’t rely on standard strategies. In a perfect world basic search engine optimization efforts would be enough for all of your marketing needs and best of all it’s free. Unfortunately these systems aren’t perfect and sometimes you have to pay for an increase in site traffic. This could be the social media fix for some users.

Social media provides a place for giving your content its own voice. With careful planning, you can merge content marketing and social media together to create a highly effective social media marketing campaign.