Cloud computing is redefining how businesses run, impacting the operations of large enterprises as well as start-ups. For some, the notion of “cloud computing” is a relatively new concept.Cloud computing provides businesses with access to the valued end result or output of equipment and software, without the ownership or maintenance costs required by purchasing it. Most often, cloud computing is delivered as software as a service (SaaS) where users can access a web based solution via a subscription without the heavy investment in the IT infrastructure to support it. Recent growth in cloud computing is partly driven by the growth in mobile technology platforms that allow users to access information anywhere, anytime.Although large enterprises with multiple geographically dispersed offices have benefitted from cloud computing, it has been an even greater benefit to small businesses. Small businesses now have access to enterprise solutions via cloud computing that would otherwise be unaffordable for them. Even more importantly, these cloud based solutions allow small business to function more like larger business in the information they can access while simultaneously maintaining the flexibility and agility of a small business, allowing them to react and adapt to situations.Some of the benefits cloud computing provides for small businesses, include:No heavy investment or maintenance costs in IT- The software as a service method allows multiple users to subscribe to the solution. The vendor providing the solution- Intaact, NetSuite, etc. absorbs the maintenance costs, and by offering the solution on a subscription basis can pass along cost savings due to economies of scale attributable to user volume.Ease of implementation- Cloud based solutions eliminate the need for small businesses to invest in infrastructure development, training, and support. Businesses subscribe to the service, and training and support are provided by the vendor on an as needed basis. The business owner can subscribe and unsubscribe to the cloud service as they wish.Redeployment of IT- For small business with limited manpower, cloud based services free up time for IT resources to be redeployed on more strategic initiatives or reduce the need for full time IT employees.Security- Business owners should always check this, but reputable cloud based solutions are knowledgeable about the most up-to-date security measures and encryption technology. This becomes one critical task which the business owner does not need to address, as the responsibility is absorbed by the cloud service provider who may have more expertise in this arena.Scalability- Most cloud providers offer packages with different access levels so that small businesses only need to pay for the services they require and use, resulting in overall cost savings for the small business.Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery- As a small business, this is a critical task which can often lack the attention it deserves simply due to manpower and bandwidth. Cloud based services assist with this, as they back-up critical data offsite as part of providing the solution, facilitating access to this data in case of an emergency.Small to mid-sized businesses have the most to gain from leveraging cloud based solutions in their business operations.
Demystifying The Cloud – How Small Businesses Can Leverage Cloud Computing
6 Things To Do Before Starting A Home Based Business
Starting a home based business is exciting and very easy to do. And with the help of the Internet, it is almost too easy to get started. Most folks dive in head first before actually considering a few important points. Let’s talk about six very important things you should do before starting a home based business.
1. Set up your own home office. It’s vitally important that you separate your personal home life from your home business life. Having a home office is a satisfying and gratifying thing when you do it properly. Many people will convert an extra bedroom into an office. If you are working with a small amount of space you can set up a specific area within one room and call it your office. The most important thing to do is to let everybody know that when you are at work in your home office you are not to be bothered. Establishing this on the beginning can be the difference between succeeding or failing.
2. Choose a niche for your business. What exactly do you want your home based business to be about? Some people will join an mlm business. Because there are so many of these available you want to find a product you can get behind and then join the opportunity next. You might want to look at starting an affiliate marketing business. Niche marketing is extremely popular at the moment and an excellent way to get started making money online.
3. Purchase a domain name and web hosting. It doesn’t matter what business you are in you want to purchase a domain name and host your own web site. There are many outstanding places to accomplish this including Go Daddy for domain names, and Blue Host for web site hosting.
4. Start your own website. Most web-hosting companies have the Fantastico Word Press blogging platform. This makes it very simple to build a website using a WordPress theme. There are many, many tutorials available on how to do this, but getting started does not require any technical skills.
5. Outsource whenever it is possible. You do not have to do all the work by yourself. There are a multitude of people available to do the work for you. You can find them at forum discussion sites or outsourcing businesses that provide employees for you.
6. Learn Online Marketing skills. This will definitely be an ongoing process, but it is important to know in the beginning that you cannot be successful making money from home without marketing your products. Most of your time online will be spent on Internet marketing and promotion.
These are six important things to understand before starting a home based business. Follow these and your home based business launch will be more successful and you will realize the fruits if your labor much quicker.
Home Based Business Leads = Critical Steps on How to Generate Them
You need to have a consistent stream of home based business leads, if your going to build a home business on the internet. If not, you will struggle. Fact is, if you don’t have a constant flow whether off or online your business will die. It is important to have quality leads coming in, this means you have people who are interested in your business to talk to about becoming a distributor or a customer daily. I am totally against buying leads, reason being, leads bought from a lead company are not qualified and you will just be wasting time and hard earn money trying to sort though all the tire kickers to get even one that is qualified to become a distributor for your home based business.The best way to go about getting home based business leads is to generate them yourself, and most techniques and strategies out there today are completely free. Paid strategies will get you faster results, this is the direction you want to go if you have the budget and not much time to do free lead generation strategies, which can be very time consuming but well worth it.In order for you to generate home based business leads, you must have the right tools in place to do so, a system with a capture page and opt-in form to collect the visitors to your website contact information, offering them some kind of free valuable information in return for their contact info. Free training, free report anything they would gladly make the exchange for.An auto-responder with a series of follow up messages sending out valuable information to them daily or occasionally so you can keep in contact and build a relationship and trust with them. Having your own database of targeted prospects for your home business is one of the most critical elements, you can grow your list to an unlimited amount of targeted home based business leads. You do this through using various marketing strategies to drive traffic to your capture page with your unique offer.Once a lead has opt in to your form on your capture page, they are placed inside a streamlined sales funnel where your system sorts out the tire kickers from the serious business builders, so you only have to deal with people who are ready to learn and know what it takes to build a thriving home based business.You can generate thousands of home based business leads because the internet provides just that leverage, which may take you years to learn how to do, but I know what these guru’s are doing to get these results. I have a complete attraction marketing system fully loaded with all the step by step training and easy to follow blueprint waiting for you to gain access, so you can stop struggling to generate leads and build a successful business online.