Archive for the ‘Financial Today’ Category

4% of SLAs Met All Service-Level Targets Over the Past 12 Months

June 28th, 2011 Kevin Martinez

InformationWeek Analytics, the service for peer-based IT research and analysis, announced the release of its latest research report; Promises, Promises: A Not-So-New SLA Model encompasses analysis of our latest SLA survey results and guides readers in determining how to make the most of external service-level agreements as many IT functions move to the cloud. More than 560 IT service consumers and providers responded to this poll. The report author, Frederick Rose, is the service assurance practice director at Fusion PPT.

46% of service consumers agree it’s difficult to monitor SLAs for public cloud.

Research Summary: SLAs have long been tough to negotiate and tougher to enforce, especially for small companies that lack the resources to push for the best terms and monitor for compliance. But as we transfer more critical functions to the cloud, it’s in the best interests of IT service consumers as well as providers to identify service-level goals—typically regarding availability, performance, security, compliance and data retention—and penalties for failure to meet them. This mean Read all post…

Join Me June 13 at 11:00am EST, for #SmallBizRollCall!!

June 27th, 2011 Kevin Martinez

If you missed last weeks #SmallBizRollCall, you can watch it here at my blog.

 

The photo is of me and Lela on #INDIECruise 2011, where we sailed from Miami to Key West, to Isla Cozumel in Mexico. As always, #SmallBizRollCall features an opportunity for you to connect with other like-minded business owners and share encouraging tips. A rising tide lifts all ships, so join us to get your business week off to a fantastic start. Oh! And there will be chances to win prizes too!! In case you dont already know, heres how to join #SmallBizRollCall so you dont miss all the fun!

(Remember that all browsers are different, so it may not look exactly like this for you.) Log into FaceBook ( to Sign Up if you dont yet have an account), and at 11:00am EST, follow these simple instructions to join the LIVE video event!

  1. Go to the INDIE FaceBook Page. Click here to go to the INDIE FaceBook Page. If you are already a LIKEr, you will be taken to the Wall. If you are not a LIKEr, you will see this screen.

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Tags: 1100am Est, Est

Why I Tend to Project a Little High

June 26th, 2011 Kevin Martinez

I have a confession to make: I am a chronic over-projector. This fact has even been reported several times by The New York Times. In May 2008 I was quoted predicting that our revenue would be “an estimated $8.5 million this year.” We actually finished the year at $6.6 million. Even as recently as June 2010, I thought we’d hit sales of “$16 million in 2010.” We finished the year at $13.5 million.

A writer for The New York Times Magazine, Rob Walker, had this to say about TerraCycle in May 2007: “The privately held start-up can get a little carried away with its own hype at times. In 2005, the company projected sales of $3 million; it ended up selling a little less than $500,000. In 2006, the company said it expected annual sales of $2.5 million; the actual figure turned out to be a bit under $1.6 million.” The writer went on to quote our head of public relations, Albe Zakes, as calling me “very optimistic” — but he also reported that “even the actual figures represent a solid growth record.”

We have had strong growth, ranking as the 288th fastest growing private company in America in 2009, according to Inc. magazine, and the 768th

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Tags: Project, Project High

Cloud-based Backup Service Mozy Brings Mobile Access to Businesses

June 24th, 2011 Kevin Martinez

Cloud-based backup service Mozy announced Thursday the availability of its mobile app for MozyPro® customers. The Mozy mobile application allows users to securely access the files they protect with MozyPro from an Android or Apple iOS device. Mozy launched its mobile app in March this year and is now making it available for MozyPro customers. Support has been added for six additional languages, including Dutch, French, German, and Spanish.

Android users can download the app  from the Android Market for devices running Android version 2.0 and later, and iOS device users of version 4.0 and later can download the app from the  iTunes App Store.

Mozy mobile app lets users send files as an email attachment, as well as view files. The app also allows users to quickly view photo thumbnails, and download the full file of those for which they want to see in complete detail.

“With so much positive response to the mobile app from the initial release, we’re very pleased to enable MozyPro administrators to provide access to their end users,” Russ Stockdale, General Manager of Mozy, said in a statement.” Having mobile access to view documents, open them in other applications, and send them by email to colleagues and clients is especially valuable to business users. Along with re

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Tags: Access, Backup Service

How I Learned to Love Bartering

June 24th, 2011 Kevin Martinez

The last couple of years have been tough on those of us who make our living selling small businesses. At my firm, 2008 was great, 2009 was bad and 2010 was abysmal.

While I would love to say that the business-for-sale marketplace is rebounding in 2011, I don’t sense much more than a faint sputter from my vantage point. Valuations are still down considerably compared to prerecession levels, credit markets are still tight, buyers are skittish and sellers are still coming to terms with the “new normal.” While things seem to be loosening up at the high end of the marketplace, the trickle-down effect has yet to hit Main Street (businesses with less than $5 million in annual gross sales).

I don’t remember signing up for this back in 2006. Opening a business brokerage firm seemed like a great profession for me and my husband; we could put our own entrepreneurial experience to use, as well as our business-school educations, and really make a difference in the lives of exiting business owners. And hey, the money didn’t seem too shabby either. What we d

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Tags: Love, Love Bartering

Becoming a Woman of Influence

June 24th, 2011 Kevin Martinez

I devote a substantial amount of time each week to advancing my personal development and leadership skills. I use many resources to do this, including connecting around INDIE Business Book Club, reading leadership focused articles, books and magazines, and inspiring and encouraging my members.

In so doing, I have discovered that while there are plenty of leadership resources for people who lead very large companies, there are surprisingly few resources aimed directly and specifically at micro-business owners who lead companies without any employees besides themselves. Often, these people dont think of themselves as leaders simply because they have no staff members. After all, without a staff, who are you leading? Well, lets see.

You are leading yourself.

Even Tiny Businesses Have Leaders

No matter how small a business is, it has a leader. It may not have a good leader, but it does have a leader.

Just like a home, a class room, a marching band or birds flying in formation, every organization is being led by someone.

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