Small Business Tips - Increase Revenue Through Technology

Most small businesses are going through some tough times right now, so some business owners think, if I lower my prices, maybe I will get more business. Although this is great in theory, this doesn't always work. As Grant Cardone explains, there can only be one business with the lowest price, are you really going to try to be that company? There must have been a reason you had higher prices before the recession, right? Get back in the mindset where you charge more because you provide a solution for someone in need. Be an expert in your industry and become an industry leader. Learn even more great tips from the video below:

Due to increasing demands on your current technology, it's time to make sure you're not straining your network, but instead minimizing the amount of downtime that occurs. This article came from Cisco's Small Business Blog.

The right service plan can maximize network uptime and minimize lost revenues

New products and technologies, increasing mobility among employees, the need for round-the-clock access to company data and resources—these are just some of the factors driving small businesses’s growing dependence on their networks. This makes network downtime costly for any small business. According to Infonetics Research, unplanned network downtime costs companies an average of 3.6 percent revenue per year. And that doesn’t include the incalculable cost of damage to your business’s reputation caused by the downtime.

To minimize network downtime and ensure your network is available for employees to connect, collaborate, and communicate with customers and partners as well as each other, you may want to consider a support contract. A service plan will not only help protect your company’s technology investment, but it can also help save lost revenue and customers.

Thanks to American Express Open Forum, I have one of the best videos for you about going mobile. It's five minutes that you NEED to see about turning your website into a mobile friendly experience. From Google's Jason Spero himself, learn the important components of creating your mobile site. As the internet largest search engine, doing something Google wants you to do can only benefit your organic search. Check out the video below:

As a small business, you rely heavily on referrals and your local community to stay in business. It's great that now people are able to find out all about your company through the web, but that also comes at a price. People don't care so much about how great your company is, they search for areas in which past customers have had issues using your services. Customers will use review websites, such as Yelp, to help find out the experiences others have had with you. The problem with this logic is that you are only getting the extreme ends of the spectrum. The majority of people will only leave customer feedback if they are unhappy with the services and take their frusteration out in a review that makes your company completely inept, which of course just isn't true! For us small business, there are a few things we can do to try to handle these types of situations. Below, find 6 ways to handle negative online reviews, posted originally by Marica Turner at American Express Open Forum. Because this is a long post, I have tried to cut down some of the content so if you want to read the original article posting, click here.

1. Contact the review site

As soon as you discover the bad reviews, reach out to the review site, such as Yelp, to see if they will consider removing the post. If you can prove that it's a fake review, you will have more success than if it's just a bad review you received from a real person. (Yelp generally prohibits business owners from writing negative reviews of their competitors' businesses.)

This week has been dedicated to mobile marketing, so naturally I was able to find a great video to show you the possibilities out there in running mobile marketing campaigns. With AT&T mobile marketing solutions, you can take your business to the next level by connecting with customers on the go! Not only that, but you can get view the statistics of your marketing efforts and find out how effective it really is. Check out the video below for more details.

This article was gathered from AT&T's Networking Exchange blog, a place for business professionals to learn, share and engage with networking experts on advancing business goals through technology innovation. The article was written by Mario Armstrong, Digital Lifestyle Expert, is Emmy Award winning, tech commentator for the TODAY show and CNN, and the host of a tech talk radio show on SiriusXM.

AT&T recently shared with me the results of their latest small business tech poll, and it confirms a lot of what I’ve been saying for years on my blog, Small Biz Go Mobile. The small business world is especially keen on implementing any new tech that saves time and money, and increasingly that tech is smartphones and tablet computers that offer always-on connections to the Internet that work over 3G and 4G networks.

While I wasn’t surprised to hear some facts, like the one that 85% of small businesses are using smartphones (like the iPhone and Android phones) in their operations, key findings did surprise me and re-affirm some of what I’ve been saying. For instance, over half of the small businesses surveyed say they could not survive, or it would be a challenge to survive, without the mobile apps they’ve come to depend on. In one of my first articles for this blog, back in November, titled 3 Android Apps to Organize Your Digital Life, I laid out three simple-to-use but completely dependable apps that help you manage your ideas, files and travel plans.

With the gaining popularity of smartphones, the importance of unified messaging has only increased. Customers expect to be able to get a hold of you at all times. Whether your in the car, in a meeting, or in another country, it's time that you have access to all your voicemails, faxes, and email in one central place. Fortunately, with the help of AT&T, we can help you implement this new streamlined process into your business. Check out the video below for some more great examples.

I have been scouring the internet for the last couple of days looking for content that is different from what I normally post. I certainly found something to share with everyone. One of the hardest things to do in this time is keep up to date with new trends and find affordable ways to market your small business within the trends. Smartphones and tablets are a huge deal right now and consumers are looking for ways to connect with business through this medium. With the help of AT&T, I would like to share with you a great experience to learn more about mobile marketing. Check out more information about this webinar below:

Another video from the American Express Open Forum offering 3 great tips on how to bring more customers into your retail store. These tips really can be applied to non-retail industries, you just need be creative on how to implement them.

Sorry for the break in posts last week, but I was out with the flu and just couldn't garnish the strength to find a good article to share with everyone. But don't worry, I found the strength to make sure you have an article this morning. This article is from one of my favorite news websites, Mashable.com. I like to visit Mashable.com every day mostly because of their technology news, but sometimes they have some great guest bloggers or posts for small businesses. If you aren't able to read the article in full, at least get #1, as I feel it's the most important step left out of most people's elevator speech.

Just about everyone has heard of the elevator pitch – that succinct summation of what you do that piques the interest of a potential customer or investor. Of course, in the Internet age, the elevator pitch has been shortened to the escalator pitch, then the Twitter pitch. As a result, a person has to adapt to the situation they’re in.

So, what do you do when you’re hit with the inevitable question “what do you do?” Do you captivate strangers right off the bat? Do you get people asking questions, or following up with you later?

One of the most important things a businessperson can do is learn how to speak about what they do. Here are five tips to help anyone perfect their pitch and network like the pros.