You launched your own catering business because you love to cook. You went into the bakery business to sell cookies and cakes. You didn’t open your own landscaping company because you love paperwork. Yet to be a prosperous small business owner, you can’t neglect the financial side of your business, and this means that you must make sure that you accurately invoice your clients. Forgetting to invoice your customers can leave you with a serious cash flow problem, one which, if left unchecked, could put you out of business.
Invoicing help online
Online invoicing services are plentiful nowadays that make the financial side of business far more manageable. Online services make the tedious task of paperwork much quicker. Depending on the service you employ, the communication to the client can also be automatic! Let’s consider some of the most well known online invoicing services available:
A free but powerful invoicing service
Sometimes the word “free” is synonymous with “not very good.” Happily, that isn’t the case with the free system, BillingBoss. Suitable for most small businesses that want to automatically invoice customers monthly and occasional once-off invoicing, BillingBoss packs a big punch at no cost!
A power tool
AcceptPay from American Express is unquestionably for the power user. For only $30 a month, users of AcceptPay can connect with QuickBooks, collect online payments from clients, and set up a wide array of customizable automatic invoices. It seems a fairly small price to pay for such a powerful tool.
Invoicing for the tech-savvy
If you need more control over your online invoicing, you might consider downloading BambooInvoice. This is another free service. What sets it apart, though, is that small business owners host it on their own servers, not in the cloud. Because it is an open source program, tech-savvy entrepreneurs can customize it to fit their business’s specific needs.
These are just a few of the available options online. Most services are free or exceptionally cost-effective. If you want to take the reigns on your invoicing process, think about using an online solution.
If the rumors are true, Microsoft is stepping up considerably to join the fight against cyber crime. Apparently, Microsoft is developing a real-time feed that documents current cyber threats and provides necessary steps to safeguard against them.
Microsoft currently has a process in place to take down harmful botnets. Microsoft “swallows” the botnets and permits them to infect accounts that are highly controlled by Microsoft’s team. Once the botnets infect the accounts, Microsoft learns the way they work and removes them as a threat.
Microsoft is now able to collect threat information and share it with ISPs, government agencies, private organizations, and CERTs. The result of such a move by Microsoft could be significant. Analysts say that while a real-time threat feed won’t lower the number of attacks, it will help information security professionals respond to these threats faster. This could limit the level of damage caused by these attacks.
Microsoft’s live threat feed may have a much more important impact: It could lead the information security industry to share more data. For too long, companies have hesitated to share important security information that they fear could lead to a copycat attack. This is a mistaken belief as cyber criminals are already exchanging information amongst themselves. It makes sense, therefore, for security professionals to also share real-time information.
Microsoft’s real-time feed is a good first step toward a change for the better in IT security. Let’s hope this trend persists and that the IT security world will recognize that secrecy is not more useful than sharing information!
Many small business owners have utilized the cloud during these tough economic times. Business owners can conserve money by using programs within the cloud, from Photoshop alternatives to project-management tools. However, the cloud can be a bit questionable when it comes to security. Documents stored in the cloud can be jeopardized or damaged.
Password issues
One of the biggest security issues when dealing with the cloud is password protection. This is also one of the biggest security issues outside of the cloud.
You must always carefully select passwords to your projects stored in the cloud. The more complex your passwords are the more challenging they are to guess. One way to accomplish this is to use a mixture of numbers and letters in your passwords. Also, you shouldn’t share these passwords with lots of people.
Hacker alert
Hackers, malware, and spyware remain serious issues for cloud environments, just as they are issues that business owners face when logging onto their personal computers everyday. The thing that makes this particularly scary is that individual business owners have little control over how secure cloud services are. The big names — companies like Microsoft and Google — must provide their own security for the data that business owners store in the cloud.
Common sense protection
As with all computing, companies can safeguard themselves from the loss or theft of data with some common-sense practices.
First, owners should think about what kind of information they are storing in the cloud. The most sensitive data, data that could damage a business if it is lost or stolen, might not be suitable for cloud storage. Instead, this data may be better stored on a business owner’s individual computing system and dependably backed up.
Secondly, before giving every employee free access to cloud-stored data, think carefully about which employees actually needs access to that information. People are often careful about protecting their laptops and desktop computers from prying eyes; this attitude should be applied to the cloud as well.
The advantages of storing information in the cloud are numerous. Backing up important data, creating more space on your servers, and having your information easily available to your employees are just a few. If you have been looking into this route, you most likely have many questions about the security of the cloud. If your company handles sensitive information that belongs to your clients you may need to stay compliant with HIPAA, PCI or Sarbanes-Oxley regulations.
It can be hard to tell if your cloud storage solution adheres to these requirements, as many don’t state in their privacy policies. To help you navigate these difficult waters, let’s look at this topic in greater detail below.
Compliance
Security has always been an important issue and as increasingly more companies use the cloud for storage solutions the question arises: How secure is the cloud? Storing information in the cloud can be very economical, yet the cost for poorly handling customer data can be very high. If your organization must comply with regulations like HIPAA, your main dilemma is what regulations do cloud services comply with.
Who is responsible
Who’s shoulders does the responsibility fall on? There is no law requiring that cloud service providers divulge the level of security they maintain. While they probably do have a decent amount of safety protocols in place, the safest option is to take their privacy policy at face value. In this case, if you wish to stay in compliance with HIPAA, PCI or Sarbanes-Oxley, cloud computing may not be for you. Having said that, if your industry doesn’t require tight regulations, then you could take advantage of the benefits cloud-computing offers.
Ultimately, as there is no current law that states that companies must divulge how tight their security is, the responsibility is in your hands. You have to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of cloud storage to decide if it’s right for your business.
Disasters can happen to any organization and they come in many forms and severities. They can be everything from a natural disaster, to a well-meaning employee accidently downloading a destructive virus, to something vital getting mistakenly deleted. These what-ifs can keep you up at night, so for your own peace of mind develop a disaster recovery plan.
Decide What’s Important
First off, consider what data is the most essential to get your company back up and running. What information needs to be backed up and saved and what can you afford to lose? This should help you figure out what you need to back up. Choosing an online provider or storing your data in the cloud can be the best way to ensure you can access your data quickly.
Make a Plan
The second step is deciding the steps that must be taken to get your company back on its feet as quickly as possible. Consider the worst possible scenario and the way to recover from that. Which systems must be recovered first and what technology is going to be required to do this?
Know Your Workflows
I’m sure you have an overall idea of the way your organization is run, but knowing every last process is virtually impossible. That’s why you have employees. Have your employees document their workflows so that any team member can carry out the tasks in case of an emergency.
Decide Who is in Charge
Many people panic when disaster strikes. To make sure the panic doesn’t make things worse, put someone that has helped you develop the plan in charge of carrying out your data recovery plan. This way you are free to reassure everyone and supervise the company and you can be the strong leader your employees need in time of crisis.
When we hear of disaster people often think it can’t happen to them, but we never know what is around the corner. It’s important to be prepared. Having a strong disaster recovery plan will not only make you feel more secure, but will comfort your employees as well.
