1. Spend time on the product and marketing. Bigger entities have more room to create divisions for advertising, public relations, and advanced research and development, but dividing a small amount of resources among all of them will stretch a small business too thin. Instead, focusing on researching the needs and wants in your target market and better tweaking your product to match it.
2. Don’t advertise like a big business. Larger companies can afford to spend tens of thousands of dollars creating name recognition in attempts to bring in future business, but spending all your money trying to get your name out there would pull it away from where it counts – developing a good product that meets the needs and desires of your target market.
3. Develop different tiers of your product instead of just main format. Some people will be willing to pay more for an enhanced version, while others will just want the bare minimum. By offering various models, you’ll be able to increase your audience width and make more sales. Keep in mind that each of your products should have its own niche or audience – don’t create a plethora of subprojects without a target market!
4. Keep an eye on your competitors and monitor what they do. Differentiating yourself from them is crucial – you don’t want a business that looks just like all the rest. Observe what methods of getting the word out they are using, and try something else. Find a way to distinguish yourself from the crowd.
5. Remember the 80/20 rule – eighty percent of your business comes from 20 percent of your customers. Once you start to develop a customer base, keep them updated on your developments without bombarding them. They’ll be your key to continuing on.

Keeping a tight reign on your budget is key when growing your small business. Costly side projects can quickly burn through a small business’ budget and force it into extinction.  Keeping your resources in the marketing and product development branches is the best way to go while you’re getting on your feet. Keep an eye out for the next blog on this topic!

According to a new report by Experian, 91% of online adults now regularly use social media in some form or another. Understanding the benefits and ethics of social media has never been more important to businesses. While all part of the same family, each social media outlet has its own characteristics, ethics, and policies users need to follow to bring about success. Let’s take a deeper look into them:

Facebook: Facebook is the college-aged member of the family. Tech savvy and social, he’s everyone’s friend. And while not very strict, he had a few rules to follow.

• Keep all posts no more than a couple paragraphs in length. If you post an essay, readers will quickly become bored with the content.
• Properly tag others! By tagging other organizations, your information will appear on their wall and reach a broader audience. Remember to do so responsibly.
• Remember your graces – if another organization is hosting a fundraiser or introducing a new product, wish them luck or congratulate them on their successes. Not only is it polite, but you will effectively be reaching out to their user base by doing so.
• Remember to post content that is likely to be shared, keeping it relevant to your organization. Posting interesting articles is one of the top ways to get the word out. If another user finds your post interesting, they can click the “share” button and your organization will be highlighted as the original poster.

Twitter: Twitter is the young child of the family with a short attention span and a lot to say. Twitter can be exceptionally useful to organizations when used correctly.

• Keep updates as short as possible. Twitter has a 140 character limit, so you won’t be able to go too crazy with it.
• The hashtag [“#”] is your friend. Create keywords and tag organizations in your post by utilizing the hashtag. For example, #Longbeach, #Technology, or #baseball. By tagging areas of interest, you will allow other users to look up what you’ve shared.
• Remember the hashtag is a powerful two way street – don’t just use it in your own posts, but use it to keep an eye on your friends and competitors. Want to know what’s going on in Los Angeles? Hashtag. Want to find out what deals your local hardware store is spouting? Hashtag. Want to use a simple symbol as an advanced search engine? You know what to do.
• Mentions are a great way to recognize others.  If you’ve got a favorite pet store mention them(@petsmart) and they might mention you.  This shows you support others and spreads good will. When you mention an organization, they will be notified of your tweet and are likely to do the same for you.

LinkedIn: LinkedIn is the parent with a PHD. Highly educated, LinkedIn thrives on intelligent conversations and gives near-automatic dismissals to boasting and self-promotion. LinkedIn is the strictest member of the family, and has high standards if you want to get along.

• Don’t even bother with self-promotions – they’ll just get you labeled as a spammer. LinkedIn is about networking with other people and showing them why you’d make a strong partner/supplier.
• On other platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, the public is hearing from your company. On LinkedIn, they hear directly from you and selling yourself is frowned upon. Show people why they should want to get to know you.
• LinkedIn has regular discussions that occur in groups, where members can post their questions and seek answers. One of the best ways to make connections is by posting information on them. Only well thought out and respectable answers, however, will be received. If you aren’t familiar with the topic, don’t take a jab at it just to get your name out there.

YouTube: YouTube is the famed uncle that always has a story to tell. Whether it be the time he traveled to the Rocky Mountains or when an imposter posed as David Blain and stole his undergarments, his stories always make him the life of the party. If done correctly, a bond with YouTube can be more valuable than all of the others combined. Here are some ways to try and forge it:

• Distinguish yourself as an expert in your field and educate others on how to better themselves in it. It’s more important to target the people who might be interested in your product or service rather than trying to make a funny viral video that may never take off.
• If you’re making a video about your work, introduce yourself and your staff. What today’s marketing often lacks is the personal connection, but social media can help bridge that gap – especially with an up-close video of yourself.
• Give free information seminars aimed at assisting others in the industry. This can help you distinguish yourself and your company from the rest.

Utilizing social media is one of the best ways to get your business known, but it must be done appropriately. News – both good and bad – spreads quickly over the internet, and being labeled as spam can be detrimental. Over all rules, content is king.

How big is this stride in technology? Today’s current technology requires one million atoms to store just one bit of information. Imagine taking the information stored on one million CDS and condensing it all onto eight – this is the equivalent of IBM’s breakthrough.

The ability to mass-produce this technology, however, currently doesn’t exist. Scientists aren’t sure how to produce these results outside of a lab, where the magnetic atoms were at a temperature of one degree Kelvin (that’s -458 degrees Fahrenheit). It is theorized that one bit of data can be stored on 150 magnetized atoms at room temperature, but humanity will still have to wait on the ability to produce the necessary materials both accurately and cheaply.

Overcoming Challenges

Before today, physicists have been struggling with the question of how small they could make their data storage before the laws of quantum mechanics took over and caused unreliability. Quantum mechanics overtakes classical mechanics on very small scales – in a nutshell, it’s an entirely different realm of physics that subatomic molecules follow. For example, in the normal world, people stop at red lights and proceed on green signals. In the quantum mechanical realm, however, the colors are completely different and some cars can exist in different places at the same time. There are entirely different principles governing nature.

Also, today’s hard-drive storage methods utilize a ferromagnetic structure. Basically, they clump groups of atoms together, all pointing in the same magnetic direction (like a compass). The magnetic spins of each atom in this structure pull on each other, causing them to spin as one; it becomes impossible to manipulate the atoms individually. Imagine a pair of swing dancers tearing up the floor – it would be impossible to manipulate one without invoking a reaction from the other.

Andreas Heinrich, the IBM scientist behind the discovery, overcame this problem by utilizing a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) to individually manipulate each atom. He was able to place the atoms in an anti-ferromagnetic structure, where the magnetic atoms’ poles face opposite of each other, eliminating the spin. This would be like manipulating line dancers – there would be no interaction between them, and thus one could be moved without interfering with the other.

Conclusion

While twelve-atom storage devices won’t be available on Amazon anytime soon, Heinrich’s efforts have blown Moore’s Law out of the water. Normally, the number of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit doubles every two years, thus doubling the previous storage abilities and processing speeds. Heinrich, however, broke through our limitations at mock speed, paving the way for a new future of nanotechnology.

If you’d like to read more on the topic or see a short video, visit

http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/01/ibm-scientists/

By: Jeff Laban
Posted: April 20th, 2012

Gap, for example, gives employees a few paid days off every month to spend working at a nonprofit of their choice. Google allows, and even encourages, their employees to work on personal projects during company time. It increases employee moral while bringing in new business.

One unique way to encourage good citizenship is to have your employees come up with the ideas themselves. Set aside a philanthropic budget and some guidelines and allow your employees to craft the ideas. If you want your company to get out and do instead of sending money gifts, make sure to mark it in the guidelines.

Companies that give back are not only held in higher regards by their employees but by potential clients as well. While creating a better public image shouldn’t be the main reason for giving back, it can certainly be a good side effect.

Let us know your ideas, thoughts or suggestions as we begin to establish our corporate philanthropy guidelines.
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By: Jeff Laban
Posted: Jan 27th, 2012

Two major concerns are currently chaining the Cloud to the ground; the first is security. While the Cloud would allow parties to access invisible hard drives over a secured connection, it would also make that information more susceptible to hacking. Some security issues that still plague the Cloud are sensitive data access, data segregation, bug exploitation, malicious insiders, management console security, and account control.

Privacy, going hand-in-hand with security, is the Cloud’s second chain. Whereas normally an individual would be saving their information to a local hard drive, the Cloud would allow them to save to a shared network accessible by the service provider, who could theoretically copy or alter information at any time.

The Cloud still has roads to pave and intersections to govern before it becomes mainstream. Efforts to develop the technology and licensing necessary to make it float are currently underway, and in a few years we may all be surrounded by an inviting fog.

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By: Jeff Laban
Posted: Jan 20th, 2012

1.     Utilize new technology to keep an eye on both your consumers and your competitors. Use social media engines such as Facebook and Twitter to keep up with the latest trends while creating Google Alerts for the companies that sell the same products and services as you. The technological age offers the perfect avenues to gather information.

2.     Create an environment where potential clients can freely try out your product before making a dedication. Don’t overload the free offer with alarms and whistles in a hope to cage them in. Just the opposite – make it easy on your customers to let go if the offer doesn’t suit them. Creating a trusting bond between you, your customer, and your product is of key importance. You want to create a city, not Alcatraz.

3.     Offer your clients tools and resources beyond your product that complement the service it gives them. Are you an education-based company? Offer free tutoring that utilizes your products. Do you manage a restaurant? Send out free recipe cards for a few of your dishes coupled with the ingredients to make them. Create an enveloping experience for your clients that involves more than what they are purchasing – give them a reason to come back for more.

4.     Approach potential clients with free information or assistance without giving them a sales pitch. Create brand awareness by packaging your name into the offer, but turn your generosity into a commercial. Work on forging a trusting bond with them.

Social Media has changed marketing in a variety of ways in the 21^st century. Utilizing new avenues is essential to keep new business afloat and teaming for success.  If you have any questions on this topic, feel free to contact us at (562) 283-5400 option 2.

By: Jeff Laban
Posted: Jan 11th, 2012

Noteworthy Information Technology is dedicated to helping businesses solve their technology problems. We want to take care of your time-consuming tasks so you can focus on what’s really important: your business, clients, and employees. We’re happy to offer your data safe backup and recovery while tackling any technological hurdles that stand between you and success.

Our new address is 3580 E Pacific Coast Hwy, Ste 2, Long Beach, CA 90804.

By: Jeff Laban
Published: Jan 3rd, 2012.

One of our current projects is to install a large Microsoft Windows 2008 Enterprise network for a local company in Long Beach, CA. This network consists of two (2) Windows 2008 Domain Controllers, a Windows 2008 Enterprise Virtual Machine Host, four (4) Windows 2008 Enterprise Virtual Servers, a Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Standard, a Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 , a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Enterprise, and a Microsoft Web Server 2008. The network also has three (3) additional Linux web servers, several firewalls, routers, switches, and wireless access points.

This network is used for creating, sharing, and storing millions of documents, files, and emails. It also hosts this company’s line of business application. They rely heavily on this application to be accessible in order that they may carry out their business operations. Also, this company hosts numerous websites with Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) and Linux Apache web server.

If you would like help with your network, contact us via email or give us a call at (562) 283-5400.

By: Allen Highnote
Published: August 18, 2011

- Bruce J. Tackowiak
Politis, Nangano, and Politis
downtown Los Angeles

NoteworthyIT‘s work consisted of:
wiring, router installation, server setup, workstation setup, and workstation additions

Project

The client was running on an enormous, proprietary computer system (super-mini-computer) with an antiquated database that required a massive amount of electricity and air-conditioning.  To make matters more difficult the company that sold them the hardware and software had gone out of business many years previous.  Our client needed a faster computer system with more disk space for larger amounts of data. Additionally, they needed software and hardware that was capable of doing business over the internet.

Solution

The client replaced their existing hardware and database with a new, efficient Dell PowerEdge server running jBASE on top of the Linux OS. The PowerEdge requires about 1/10^th the power that their old super-mini-computer consumed.  Additionally, it provides the speed and inexpensive disk space required for future growth of their business. The upgrade path for the PowerEdge was significantly cheaper than their previous hardware.  Red Hat Linux was chosen for its performance, stability, and security.  Moving to Linux meant that they would not be tied to their old, costly, proprietary hardware.  jBASE was chosen to run their business applications because of its superior performance and ease of conversion. Our job was to re-host the business application source code by converting portions of the code to run efficiently on jBASE. The re-hosting project included “cleaning up” the source code files and implementing stronger source code control. We analyzed over 6000 programs, removed duplicates and consolidated them into just over 2000 unique programs.

Results

Once the port was complete and the new system was up and running, the client was able to better maintain their business application and begin their eBusiness projects. Eliminating the unused programs from the port project not only saves disk space, it gives the programming staff an uncluttered development environment for better source code control.  The IT staff saves time and the client saves money. Now each developer has his or her own development space.  When a developer completes a programming project, the software is moved to another location for quality control testing and approval. When the software is approved by the user and management team, the programs are moved into production. This method of keeping the development, testing, and production spaces separate, keeps the business application development environment manageable.

PDF version of this case study

For almost 30 years NoteworthyIT has been providing businesses with hardware and software solutions that solve critical business problems. Each business has its own unique dilemma and NoteworthyIT is able to create customize services and solutions that bring our clients desired results. For more information, visit our website at http://www.NoteworthyIT.com or call 562-421-6121. We recognize all third party copyrights contained within. Images are for illustrative purposes only.