Anita Campbell: The Complete Small Business Blog

On Checking Out the Competition

Times read: 268

04/02/08

By Anita Campbell - Somebody emailed me a blog post with a title I simply couldn't ignore:

(Legal) Espionage: 20 Creative Ways to Research your Industry Competitors

It's actually a pretty decent list of ways to gather market intelligence about your competition. There's nothing illegal or even shady about them. The intelligence gathering methods range from such techniques as "visit your competitors' websites" to "attend trade shows" to "watch your competitors' advertisements."

Some of the methods may seem obvious. Still, most companies don't do a very good job even on the low-hanging fruit of obvious market intelligence gathering. I'd be surprised if most businesses use more than one-third of the methods on the list to monitor their competitors.

(Heck, I know businesses where the execs only visit their own websites once in a blue moon, so why would they do something crazy like visit their competitors' websites?)

But, even with a long list, there is one crucial tool missing that I'd like to add. And that tool is available online, right from the computer on your desk.

It's Google Alerts. Google will email you alerts anytime news items or blog posts appear in the Google search results that mention your company, your executives, your products or your industry --whatever words you choose to monitor.

Think of it as the modern-day version of a clipping service. You'll receive email alerts whenever the words you've chosen to be notified about, get indexed in the search engines.

And not only can you monitor your own business, but you can monitor competitors. Just set up alerts for their company name, key industry terminology, their products -- whatever you wish.

In fact, the Google Alerts website mentions "keeping current on a competitor or industry" as one of the recommended uses.

So check out Google Alerts.

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Check Your Websites and Blogs for Unauthorized Links

Times read: 465

02/07/08

By Anita Campbell - There's a disturbing trend: small business websites and blogs are being hijacked by hackers to insert unauthorized links to ringtone, adult and pharmaceutical sites. This activity is so sneaky, that your site could be compromised and spewing out hundreds of links to bad neighborhood sites, without you even realizing it. The hackers hide the links from public view.

Essentially what happens is that a hacker finds a security hole somehow, gets inside your website code, and loads scripts that auto-generate links and even fake pages that are immediately redirected to other websites. Your site becomes a link-generating drone, controlled by hackers from Russia, China, Korea or who knows where.

And don't assume that just because the site is not an ecommerce site that it's safe. This activity is NOT about trying to get credit card numbers or customer lists.

It's solely designed to game the search engines by creating links to the hackers' adult, ringtone or pharmaceutical sites (and by pharmaceutical, I don't mean Eli Lilly's website, I mean that shady site supposedly selling oxycontin without a prescription).

Here are some articles on this topic:

The Unsuspecting Recruit: Why every SEO MUST learn Internet security

Dozens of sites affected by linking hack, reports Vertical Leap

Hacked: It Could Never Happen to My Site (Famous Last Words) This is my own experience with similar type of hacking.

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Yes, It COULD Happen to You: Keeping Data Secure

Times read: 663

01/08/08

By Anita Campbell - I woke up Christmas morning to find that one of my websites had been hacked! What a present.

In my case the site was purely a content site. The site databases had no customer data, no credit card information, no sensitive company information.

I couldn't help but think how much worse it would have been, had the site contained sensitive information. What if the hackers had managed to reach my most treasured company data? Or my customers' data? What a nightmare THAT would have been.

I was always security conscious. But now I've kicked my security up another notch. (Well, actually, I've gone from "yellow alert" to "paranoid," but that's another story ....)

With that hacking experience fresh under my belt, I thought this would be a good time to share the following 10 tips about data security, online or off. These came into my inbox from a company called Kroll Fraud Solutions. They're a good reminder as we start the new year, to take a look at our processes and procedures. Trust me, if a security breach could happen to me, it could happen to your company.

Top 10 Tips for Businesses: A Guide to Data Breach Prevention and Response

• 1. Look beyond IT security when assessing your company's data breach risks. To eliminate additional threats, a company must evaluate employee exit strategies (HR), remote project protocol, on- and off-site data storage practices and more – then establish and enforce new policies and procedures and physical safeguards appropriate to the findings.

• 2. Establish a comprehensive pre-breach response plan that will enable decisive action and prevent operational paralysis when a data breach occurs. Your efforts will demonstrate to consumers and regulators that your organization has taken anticipatory steps to address data security threats. Disseminate this plan throughout the management structure to ensure everyone knows what to do in the event of a breach. In preparation, consider the following:

  a. Who will have a role in reviewing the policies and procedures on a predictable timetable?

  b. What are the physical security elements? When and how will they be tested?

• 3. Educate employees about appropriate handling and protection of sensitive data. The continuing saga of lost and stolen laptops containing critical information illustrates that corporate policy designed to safeguard portable data only works when employees follow the rules.

• 4. Thieves can't steal what you don't have. Data minimization is a powerful element of preparedness. The rules are disarmingly simple:

  a. Don't collect information that you don't need.

  b. Reduce the number of places where you retain the data.

  c. Grant employees access to sensitive data only on an "as needed" basis, and keep current records of who has access to the data while it is in your company's possession.

  d. Purge the data responsibly once the need for it has expired.

• 5. In the event of a merger, all newly acquired systems should go through a thorough data assessment. As the controlling company, it is in your best interest to take inventory of the new data now in your possession. After all, how can you account for information you didn't know you had? This is an area where both internal audit and specialized external resources may be very useful.

• 6. Beware the Wi-Fi. Use of wireless networks means your data is being transmitted over open airwaves, similar to a radio transmission. If not properly secured, data can easily be picked up by an uninvited party. Many offices, including Kroll's Fraud Solutions headquarters, have disabled Wi-Fi because it cannot be locked down to satisfaction.

• 7. Retain a third party corporate breach and data security expert to analyze the level of risk and exposure. An evaluation performed by an objective, neutral party leads to a clear and credible picture of what's at stake, without pressuring staff who might otherwise worry that their budgets or careers are in jeopardy if a flaw is revealed.

• 8. While it is best to encrypt sensitive data, don't rely on encryption as your only method of defense. When used alone, it gives businesses a false sense of security. Although the majority of state statutes require notification only if a breach compromises unencrypted personal information, professionals can and do break encryption codes.

• 9. Keep current with security software updates (or "patches"). An unpatched system is, by definition, operating with a weak spot just waiting to be exploited by hackers. Admittedly, applying patches takes time and resources, so senior management must provide guidance on allocations and expectations.

• 10. Hold vendors and partners to the same standards.

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Niche Blog or Broad Topics?

Times read: 499

12/20/07

By Anita Campbell - If you've ever thought about writing a blog for your accounting practice or your business, at some point you've thought about what topic(s) you'd want to write about.

One blogger polled more than a dozen other bloggers to get their take on this question:

"If you are drawn to write on a broad variety of topics (3-5) even if there is a remotely common thread, are you better off doing it on a single blog or creating several niche blogs for each one?"

There was an interesting range of opinions. On one level, the opinions seem to break down according to whether the bloggers are writing blogs for business purposes or more for personal motivations.

The business bloggers tended toward writing narrower niche blogs. The personal-interest bloggers tended to favor combining a broader range of topics under one blog. To some of these personal-interest bloggers it wasn't about blogging on a particular subject, so much as it was about sharing their voices or developing a personal connection with readers.

That's not surprising when you think about it.

Consider what the reader expects and wants. On personal interest blogs the reader is more likely reading for a combination of personal reasons, including, in part, entertainment.

For business readers, it's more about searching for specific information or staying up to date on a particular topical area. To attract and retain business readers, they expect some level of consistency of what they'll find on your blog.

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What Internet Entrepreneurs Need from Their Accountants

Times read: 520

12/16/07

By Anita Campbell - As someone who runs Internet businesses for a living, I am reminded as I do some last-minute tax planning for 2007, how very different they are from traditional businesses.

How are they different? Let me count the ways:

Internet businesses often are run "virtually," meaning first of all that they have very few employees -- maybe none, just the owner. Most non-core functions are outsourced to independent contractors or service providers. Today you can find just about anything you need as a service, somewhere, so it's not hard to set up a virtual business.

There's little in the way of facilities, furniture, equipment and other physical accouterments of traditional businesses. Many Internet businesses are run primarily out of the owner's home and the homes of team members.

The business may have next to nothing in the way of tangible goods or property. Most of the assets consist of intellectual property. Even the IP may seem incredibly nebulous. For instance, a business with an advertising revenue model may not even own any software (using off-the-shelf software instead). No, the business may own nothing more than some URLs and some content. Oh, and "little" things like a brand and "pages indexed in Google" and traffic -- of crucial value to the business but hard to put a number on. When all is said and done, it will be a pretty skimpy balance sheet.

Often all payments are handled electronically, through PayPal and credit cards. Invoicing may also be done electronically. So the business's accounting system may be pieced together from a PayPal history download, credit card statements, and possibly a FreshBooks or Blinksale history download.

Despite their small size, these businesses may be surprisingly complex in some ways. For instance, they may actually be global. They could well have customers from around the world. They may also hire service providers and contractors from around the globe, too.

It could be quite the dichotomy: a home-based business pulling in six or low seven figures, with global sourcing networks and global customer sales and distribution.

Well, you get the picture ....

If you are a CPA with clients who fit the above description, you will want to read this post by Matthew Haughey, the founder of Metafilter: How to pick an accountant for your online business.

He talks about the importance to the entrepreneur of finding an accountant who understands Internet businesses.

Do what one CPA did who commented on Matt's article, and pass the article around to others in your firm.


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10 Tips to Take Time Off and Still Stay Connected to the Office

Times read: 464

12/12/07

By Anita Campbell - People sometimes complain about technology encroaching on our personal time. As a business owner, however, I'm ecstatically grateful for technology.

Why? It's liberating. You can leave your office to handle personal matters or take time off, but still be connected and feel in control.

Tom Shaughnessy, director of business marketing for Sprint, has put together 10 tips for keeping abreast of business, but still participating in family get-togethers and festivities -- using your mobile phone.

I get lots of tips across my desk and most never make it out of my email inbox. But these were so good -- I learned a few new things I didn't know you could do with cell phones -- that I thought I'd share them:

1. You don't need to say, "Bah humbug!" to holiday fun in order to keep up with the news.

Friends, colleagues and family may be celebrating, but business continues to move forward whether you are in or out of the office; it's essential to keep up with the latest news and trends in your industry – even around the holidays. Don't miss the evening toast by leaving your friend's holiday bash early to check the news – many new smart phones offer On-Demand web content access with a push of a button allowing you to retrieve customized, up-to-date information such as business news, stock quotes and other headlines to keep you informed even when out of the office. Make sure you find a carrier with an extensive mobile broadband network so that you can have the full range of smart phone features available.

2. Don't wait until January 2nd to track your company expenses during a hectic end-of-the-year spending period.

During the holidays, the cost of fruit cakes and gourmet gift baskets can add up. Stay informed on the state of your company's cash flow to keep your business running smoothly. Need to know if you have enough cash to cover an office tree with all the trimmings or if a client’s payment has cleared? Consider paying bills and monitoring account balances on-the-go via your mobile phone.

3. Spread your holiday cheer from almost anywhere.

If you need to reach a company colleague or a member of the family while watching The Nutcracker, many smart phones now allow you to access Microsoft Outlook or other email programs, which store all of your contacts. Whether you want to send a quick 'thank you' email for a gift from a vendor or colleague to show your immediate gratitude, or follow up on new business leads after a holiday networking event, it's important to have your contacts at your fingertips.

4. Don't end up at the North Pole on your way to a fun holiday gathering.

Business holiday get-togethers are often held off-site in unfamiliar surroundings. When you get lost, it can be stressful and time consuming – and you might miss the office trivia game or delicious appetizers! Prevent losing your way by investing in a GPS-enabled phone, offering you step-by-step directions and even re-routing your way to your destination if you happen to make a wrong turn.

5. Access the office from the ski lodge or your tropical holiday getaway.

Whether you prefer the mountains or the beach for a holiday escape, it can be time-consuming to track down a WiFi hot spot. Stay connected to the office using a mobile broadband card, which allows for Internet access anywhere your wireless carrier has mobile broadband service. Utilizing a mobile broadband network makes it easy to transfer files, access email or stay in touch while on vacation, so you can concentrate on relaxing by the fire or the ocean. Make sure your carrier has an extensive coverage area for a fast and reliable connection.

6. Get organized and save on personalized holiday gifts for customers and colleagues.

They've made their lists and you've checked them twice, but have you made sure you're getting the best price? Business people can plan to take advantage of the shopping deals and save more on gifts for business associates by doing a little advanced planning and researching deals online. Smart phones and numerous wireless devices offer email for sales alerts, access to the Internet to view product pricing information and store hours, and To-Do list software to keep track of gifts and shopping deals all on one convenient device.

7. Never miss an important business call while running holiday errands.

Business activity never ceases, even during the holidays. If you need to be out of the office for an extended period of time to buy gifts or prepare for an extravagant feast, make sure your clients and colleagues can reach you on the go with call forwarding. When you forward office calls and voicemails to your mobile phone, it cuts out the added step of constantly calling in to check messages – saving you time. Many wireless providers offer various types of call forwarding services, ensuring you will always remain accessible.

8. Stay seamlessly informed of top business news during long holiday road trips.

It is difficult to stay connected to top news stations when you are traveling by car outside of your local coverage area. Instead of constantly scanning for top radio news reports on your vehicle's radio dial in each new region you travel through, consider purchasing a handset from a wireless carrier that offers satellite radio, such as Sprint. Sprint offers Sirius Satellite Radio, which gives customers access to news radio stations such as CNN, Bloomberg and CNBC, providing uninterrupted news coverage on the most relevant stories for your business.

9. Keep from being dubbed the office Grinch.

Business doesn't slow down just because it's the holidays but small business owners understand that their employees may need a bit more flexibility during this busy season. Make sure you and your team stay on schedule with important meetings and deadlines using a push-to-talk service. Sprint's Group Connect feature allows for instant connection with a group of up to 20 people anywhere on the Nextel National Network. The service is perfect for ensuring business proceeds as usual and the whole team participates, even if calling in remotely.

10. It's winter and your phone should withstand the elements.

With unpredictable weather during the holiday season, consider a rugged phone – originally designed for the military, but now commercialized – which can handle extreme environmental conditions including dust, shock, vibration, and/or extreme temperatures – and some that can even withstand rain. As you brave the cold outdoors ticking off that holiday shopping list this is a must-have.


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Why Decorating Your Website for the Holidays is Important

Times read: 457

12/10/07

By Anita Campbell - Have you decorated your business website or blog for the holidays? A surprising number of sites do it. Multibillion dollar companies like Google do it. Even here at AccountingWeb.com they've spiffed up the place with some fun decorations (don't miss the dog with the reindeer antler hat!).

Think of it as the online equivalent of decorating your workplace for the holidays.

I recently decorated my website, and I had to stop and ask myself why I did that. Why, with all the many projects on my plate, did I take time to email my webmaster and ask him to put a Santa cap on my logo?

Well, I had a business reason, although I had to tease that reason out of the deepest corners of my brain.

It has to do with clients -- the reason, after all, that we're in business. I wanted to give them a little joy at this time of year.

As Web usability guru Jakob Nielsen so bluntly puts it, we decorate websites for the holidays because we "respect users as human beings, rather than simply as 'eyeballs' or a source of e-commerce transactions. Commemorating special events is a way for websites to connect to users and be seen as welcoming environments, rather than places focused solely on money grubbing."

Yep, I suppose there are more "important" (read: "money grubbing" - heh) projects I could have been working on. But it took me no more than 10 minutes to send off an email and later approve the decorated logo.

For a 10-minute investment of my time, and maybe 30 minutes of my Webmaster's time, it's a bargain if in a small way it conveys respect to clients and readers. In the end, treating my clients like human beings is one of THE most important things I can do at this time of year.

PS, I'm keeping a running list of sites that have decorated for the holidays -- go here and take the virtual holiday decoration tour.

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Does a Weak Dollar Help or Hurt?

Times read: 449

12/03/07

By Anita Campbell - Having just turned on the financial news on TV for a few minutes to check the market, I hear all the talking heads chattering incessantly about fears over the weak U.S. dollar. But what does the "weak dollar" really mean?

Interestingly, for all the talk about currency issues, few commentators take time to explain the implications on anything other than a macro-economic level. What it means to individual businesses on Main Street is rarely discussed.

I find a lot of confusion among small business owners about the "weak dollar." Businesses that import or export, naturally, have a handle on the impact of currency fluctuations -- they have to. But the majority of small businesses do not deal with currency differences directly and so the issue of "weak dollar" or "strong dollar" is one that's outside their experience. Frankly, the whole subject is pretty baffling to most business owners.

So, back to the question: does a weak dollar help or hurt? The answer, if you are a business owner, depends on whether your small business is buying or selling products, materials or inventory, and where it is buying or selling.

Generally, if you are exporting products it is good news. If you are importing materials or goods it is bad news. After that the issue starts getting more complex, because it may also depend on hidden currency costs (for items that have been imported by a vendor you are purchasing from).

I actually wrote about the topic in some depth from the standpoint of a small business. That was almost exactly three years ago, when we also worried over the weak U.S. dollar. The dates are different, the value of the dollar as compared with foreign currencies is even lower now, but the issues are pretty much the same.

And the answer in my article? The answer is: it all depends. Read why: Does the Weak Dollar Help US Small Businesses?

Read also why some think the weak dollar will get weaker.

And read why some feel a weak dollar ultimately hurts all of us.

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Ten Ways to Save Money on Technology

Times read: 447

11/30/07

By Anita Campbell - Does paying your consultant to write reports for your accounting system qualify as a penny-pinching tip?

According to Gene Marks (he of the Penny Pincher lists), yes it does. In Ten Penny Pinching Ideas for 2008 he writes about his mythical friend Norman:

Norman finally woke up. He now understands that reports are difficult to write because not only does he have to understand the reporting software, but he also needs to get his arms around the complexities of his systems' database. He's smart enough to do this, but thankfully not stupid enough to waste the time. So he promises to bite the bullet this upcoming year. He's going to come up with three to five key reports he wants to see every day or week. He's going to hire the overpriced consultant to come in and write up the reports.

Sometimes you gotta spend money to make money.

Gene publishes a newsletter with additional penny pinching tips you should check out.

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Share Spreadsheets But Still Control the Data

Times read: 441

11/27/07

By Anita Campbell - You don't need to be an accountant to share spreadsheets regularly. Nor do you need to be an accountant to worry about what's happening with the information in confidential spreadsheets once you send that email off with the spreadsheets attached.

For instance, in my business, I use spreadsheets to perform competitive analyses using my proprietary checklists. I also use spreadsheets to organize lists of online marketing tools that I have assembled with many hours of work on my part, that I provide to clients to save them having to put in the same number of hours.

Naturally, I don't want my hard-earned intellectual property just floating freely around the Web.

Oh, and of course, I use spreadsheets for my confidential business planning, such as sales projections, new revenue models and customer lists. Ditto on the "floating around" part.

I am often uncomfortable just emailing spreadsheets around, because I never knew what happened with them. Were they being shared with the world, I wondered? Plus, it never misses -- someone always seems to end up using an outdated version of a document, causing confusion.

(Want to be horrified? Just do a Google search for spreadsheet file formats and company names. Be sitting down because you're likely to find all kinds of "confidential" data online.)

Now I share documents with others using eXpresso, an online sharing service. Unlike other online spreadsheets, such as Zoho and Google docs, with eXpresso you can actually share Excel spreadsheets, not some wannabe spreadsheet format.

The best part is, you can control who sees what, who can edit what -- even down to a section within a spreadsheet. You can see who is accessing the spreadsheet, what they may have changed, and when they changed it.

I interviewed the CEO of eXpresso on my radio program not long ago, as he talks about what you can do with this service. You can listen to the interview here:

Stop Spreadsheet Anarchy (mp3)

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Are Taxes and Regulations Making Your State Small-Business UNfriendly?

Times read: 746

11/21/07

By Anita Campbell - How small-business friendly is your state?

The Small Business Survival Index is published each year by the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council. It ranks the 50 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia according to the burden that government places on them.

This year, the most small-business friendly state acording to the Index is South Dakota. Nevada is next.

And which states are the most UNfriendly in terms of government burden on small businesses? New Jersey and the District of Columbia.

Here are the rankings:

Click for larger chart

The Index measures 31 different government costs that affect small businesses and entrepreneurs. The 31 costs include tax rates, capital gains rates, crime rates, and a variety of other factors.

Some people (usually those in favor of raising taxes) criticize the Index. But I find it a useful wake-up call for what all those regulations and taxes and reporting measures do to our businesses. Everything you require a business to do adds cost in some way -- let's never forget it.

For more, download the 2007 Small Business Survival Index report (PDF).

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The Fourth Quarter Games Have Begun!

Times read: 457

11/19/07

By Anita Campbell - It's almost exactly the middle of the 4th quarter of the fiscal year for most American companies. The race for 4th quarter earnings and cash flow numbers is well underway. And you know what that means!

CFO Magazine recently wrote about the fourth quarter dash for cash, noting:

Let the games begin.

The working capital games, that is. Right now, companies all over America, in every industry, are beginning a dash for cash. If past is prologue, many companies will go to great lengths to slash their working capital in the fourth quarter. The goal: to paint a beautiful picture of their cash flows by December 31 -- one suitable for framing in the annual report.

To that end, companies will grant extremely favorable terms to customers, and make liberal use of discounts and rebates. They will step up their collection efforts, even as they hold back on paying their vendors. They will push inventory orders back on suppliers. They will do everything they can, in short, to free up cash from receivables, payables, and inventory, the components of working capital.

So what does this mean to you and your clients? Well, it depends on the size of the company you work for or represent.

If you are on the side of small companies that sell products and services to these big corporations, then you're on the receiving end of these cash machinations.

Notice the part I bolded in the quote above, about holding payables. Yep, it's going to be the small vendors' payables that get held.

There's a good chance that if your small company or client hasn't been paid by now by big customers, they are not going to receive payments until after January 1, 2008. Or at the very least December's payable will be held back.

The thing to tell your clients is, in the words of Michael Corleone, "it's just business." Chances are, the corporate contact who hires the small vendor isn't even aware that Finance is holding payables. You see, that internal corporate contact is not in charge. Finance-with-a-capital-F is running the show until the 4th quarter ends.

When I was young and naive in the corporate world, it wasn't until I got calls from my vendors and service providers asking "what gives" that I learned that Finance was holding payables. Of course, eventually I just came to expect it every 4th quarter. But there usually wasn't much I could do to speed things up. It wasn't my call.

Now that I run my own small business and know that other small businesses and independent contractors rely on me, too, in their food chain, I really feel caught in the middle of the Q4 cash dash. Like many small businesses, I often feel wedged between outstanding invoices owed me and the bills my company owes.

So what's a small vendor to do? Batten down the hatches and watch your own cash like a hawk in Q4. If necessary, make sure lines of credit are flowing to make it through to 2008 when the payables faucet turns on again.

You know the drill ... just make sure your small-business clients do, too.


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