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If you’re a small business owner and want to do something to make your business stand out you can get started by checking the following list of sites. Not everything will suit your style, your message, or your market…but there is something for almost any business.

When you set up a profile on any of these sites and directories, when someone searches for your name or your business name there will be more listings that appear- this is called “Search Results”. The more they see, the more chances they might track you down. In an effort to be practical, this list does not include every single site and directory for setting up a business listing.

Start by Googling your own name or business and see where you show up. Or you can Google a competitor’s name, or someone you know who uses these web tools to promote themselves. See what they do, and mirror what suits your business.

Tips before you start:

1- Prepare a short and long description of your business to have on hand, that way you just copy/paste whatever the site allows (from a few sentences to a paragraph).

2- Have a small jpg picture of yourself to upload, or your business logo, and web URLs to include in your profile.

Getting Started:

You already have a business web site name
Some people may want to consider purchasing their own name as a URL. The URL registration is less than $10.00 per year. Putting up a simple Wordpress (blog) site is an affordable marketing tool. Big Dog IT can set up a site for you complete with content or just get you going so you can create the site and content on your own. It all depends on someone’s technical ability, your time line, and your budget. You can have more than one web name (URL) pointing at the same website. You can also have a URL pointing at your LinkedIn profile.

GoDaddy

Purchase YourName.com or if your name is taken try adding a short word to the URL you want to buy:  BobInSeattle.com, AskBob.com, etc. Do a search for the name you want and see what else comes up that is similar.

LinkedIn This is professional business networking online. You can edit your profile URL to include your name (Linkedin.com/in/BobJones). After you set up your profile you can start searching for people you know …see articles on BizNikfor more details. Search for Groups and join a few in your profession, or other interests. Check the LinkedIn blog to get the most out of LinkedIn.

Facebook

1- Set up a new profile or expand the profile you already have. Try adding an article or details about your work on the “Notes” Tab.

2- Create a Business page – Log in with your personal profile and then you can create a business page. (also called a fan page)

To create a business page on FB check this link (after you create your personal profile).

Twitter – For now this is an easy thing to attach your name to:You will add your name or biz name after  twitter.com/….Even if you only add one comment per day, or a few per week this will show up when people search your name or business. Link it to your site, your blog, Facebook, etc. To check if your twitter URL is available just enter  Twitter.com followed by your identifier (www.twitter.com/Askbob)

Meetup -Join a group- they have in-person and online groups. Answer or post questions also.

Contribution Networking Party – (CNP) directory with events in different areas.

Free directories – business and personal profiles

Plaxo

Manta

Zoom

Spoke

Xing

Google Profile -sign in with gmail or create a new account to set up your profile.

You’ll also want to go to the Google Local Business Center, and make sure you add a business listing.

Google Maps – get or post a customer review. In the search field you start by entering the business/person’s name with city, state. Then you should see the business show up on the left. See reviews or Write a review.

Yelp – Ask some of your customers to submit customer or product reviews. You can also post reviews for others. Set up profile and geographic info.

Yahoo Local – request and post a review

Bing - This is MSN’s search site – Sign In is at the top right.

You Tube – create your own account and upload videos. Link back to your site, create a library of videos.

Ping.FM is a free service that makes updating your “social network” easier. This is where you can enter several sites – then post a comment or link at Ping and they send that message to anything you select such as your blog, twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Ning, etc.

Animoto -At this site you can create FREE 30 second videos with images. Nice for those of us without video equipment or time. Look at their sample videos (link is on their site at the bottom left).

Check the Pricing details- if you want to open a paid account you can enter our Referral Code: yhbpzkqj

Tip: look at the FAQ about image size – before you start to upload take the time to crop & size your images. A FREE 30 second video uses about 15-20 images. My saved notes suggest img size: 1024×768 @ 100kb.

Longer videos are very reasonable – $3.00 with an addition fee and you can save it to your computer. If you take it even further you can upload your video to YouTube.

I hope you found a bit of useful information here. What other sites would you include?

1. Add up the cost of recovering computer data or other electronic information if your company relies heavily on such data storage. Many policies do not explicitly cover data recovery, and you may want to ask specifically for insurance against data loss (a rider).

2. Consider coverage for the replacement cost of your equipment rather than the actual cash value (ACV).

3. Determine which equipment you should insure and the total sum to replace it if it is damaged or destroyed. This may include computers, printers, and cell phones.
   

2- Have Good Backup: Make sure your critical files are backed up properly. A business is more likely to have hard drive failure than fire, or theft. How long would it take you to recreate files with customer information, accounting records, or jobs in progress?

1. Offsite, remote, automatic backup is affordable for small businesses

2. Select files for backup, it’s usually done during the night

3. If you ever need to recover data there are steps that you can implement on your own to restore files. Make sure when you choose offsite backup that there is an option for support.

4. If you lose data, this is the best way to avoid downtime, hassles, and expensive recovery.
   

3- Network/Server Options: How to have a good network for a small office? A Small Business Server might be too much if you only have a few computers. You may be a fit for Bridge Technology.
There are a few options:

1. Linux server: an affordable server to network your computers and printer. This can be your mail server, print server, and a central file manager. A Server is the main connector for your equipment.

2. File Server: Microsoft 2008/R2. (revision 2). This is the next level to maximize file sharing efficiency. Choosing a server depends on the type of business you operate, how much space you need now, and the growth you expect.

3. Storage Drive: Some businesses can manage a small network with a central secure storage drive. It’s an option that can work for the right situation.

She told her boss.  The laptop is only about 1 year old, still under warranty. They ran a virus scan and didn’t see anything, the laptop has McAfee*. She got a quote from the manufacturer who would take care of it remotely. The issue was not equipment, the quote was $129.

They determined that the laptop needed to be reloaded and devices re-installed. The boss wanted to take it on. During the course of the day the boss gave it a shot, but then got busy. Linda asked if she could get in touch with a local computer technician for a quote. Linda called Big Dog IT and we gave her an estimate of $125 and asked her to drop off the machine so we can look it over. Linda said we would be her backup in case of emergency.

When I saw Linda the next day she told me the rest of the story.

By 4:00pm her boss gave up and said call the manufacturer repair guy. Linda got in touch with someone in the Philippines. He was very nice and easy to work with on the phone. Linda spent the day without her laptop…By 7:00pm Linda wanted to go home. Her guy in the Philippines said that was fine, he could still work on it remotely, just don’t turn it off.

So Linda drove home from the Eastside office to her home in Seattle. Right as she was nearing her house, the guy in the Philippines called and said he lost the connection. So Linda had to turn around and go back to the office.  Instead of staying all night at the office, Linda took the laptop home and he worked on it (remotely) until 2 in the morning.

Linda said she can get online now and she has her email. But on Friday when she started working again her email still has an issue, something weird with her attachments.  It sounds like her tech didn’t fix the real problem. From the other details it sounds like a virus.

Lesson for the day – find a computer support tech who understands your business.  It saves time and money.

*McAfee is not one of the better choices when it comes to antivirus software

For about $1.60 per day, most businesses can have reliable backup. It all depends on the size of your backup. File recovery is never guaranteed, it can be expensive, and you’ll have downtime while you wait to see which files can be recovered.

So why should businesses have backup, how they should do it, and what they should backup?

- Backup the files that you use daily for your business: accounting, customers, forms, employee records, images, etc. It’s different for every business.

- Backup the files that would cost you money (and time) to recreate:  how long would it take you to re-enter all of your customer data if that was lost? What about accounting data for the year, how much time would it take to re-build the data? Would you do it or call your bookkeeper?

- Backup email records if you are required to save those for your business.

If you want to protect the valuable computer files of your business, your best options – in fact, the only guaranteed options you have – are HIPAA compliant automatic files backup and secure offsite data files storage.

For ordinary home files, you might have contented yourself in the past with a manual files backup system. A lot of people actually still do this.

- CD backup
- Flash drives
- External hard drive
- Tape backup

They save copies of their files in a with one of these methods and stash it awa. This is in turn kept in a drawer, on a shelf, or in your car. Those who feel extra cautious would print out their files and keep these in folders. A few more people would take the added precaution of copying their files on to another computer, maybe a laptop or notebook to carry with them conveniently.

People then feel that they have protected themselves adequately against viruses or the crashing of their hard drive. As mentioned earlier, however, this process is manual and, therefore, tedious. You have to do your manual files backup for each of your files and you have to remember to repeat the process each time you edit or update a file. If you have a lot of files, this can be very time consuming and tiring. There is also always a possibility that you may forget to do your manual files backup. If misfortune strikes just after you have forgotten your task, all is lost.

Assuming you are very obsessive about doing your manual files backup and you never forget to do it, this still does not guarantee the safety of your files. Your manual backups and folders of printouts are not protected from fire, water damage or damage from natural disasters such as earthquakes. The other computers in which you have stored copies of your file could also be damaged or could be stolen. Laptops and notebooks are particularly attractive to thieves.

In lieu of manual files backup, your business deserves the protection of automatic backup software. This software may be installed in your laptops, your personal computers, your company work stations and even your company servers. Every user identifies which of his files are to be included in the automatic backup. The user also determines the automatic backup schedule and frequency. The recommended frequency is once daily and the recommended schedule is at the end of every work period so that all work done that day is safely backed up. Once set, the process is completely error-free.

Where does the automatic backup software store your backup files? It does so in secure offsite data files storage. The automatic backup software and the secure offsite data files storage often come bundled together. The automatic backup software sends your data online to a secure remote data center through secure 128-bit encryption file transfer. The remote data center has state of the art protection against all kinds of natural and man made disasters, uses uninterrupted heavy duty generator power, is equipped with biometric locks and has twenty four hour defence from professional security personnel. All the security features are HIPAA compliant and are, therefore, of the highest standards.

Your business can always access your stored automatic backup files any time and from any location as long as you have an internet connection and you have your secure password. The storage limits prescribed in each of the packages offered are flexible and your business will always have the option to upgrade for more storage space as your company expands.

The valuable computer files of your business should be protected by no less than HIPAA compliant automatic files backup and secure offsite data files storage. Only then will you really rest easy that you have done your best in protecting your company.

Offsite data files storage comes at a price, though, and that usually depends on file size. This is where selective file backups should come in handy. You should prioritize your most important files for backup in order to conserve offsite data files storage space. In case you really come to need more space, though, you can make arrangements with your service provider for additional costs.

Now you know why you not only need automatic files backup and secure offsite data files storage, but you also need to ensure that they are HIPAA compliant for total privacy and protection.

Rates vary, as well as service and support. Just like having a good web and email host you want to make sure your backup service offers support. Check if there is a phone number, email, live chat, and find out their location.

Hmm…. some people don’t say much. Some businesses don’t have any support, some say they have random success. Others aren’t sure who does their support.

I was part of a conversation this week between a pair of co-workers. One guy has an issue with his laptop at home and thinks it’s something related to his wireless. He’s been searching for solutions in forums but is still at a dead end.

His co-worker said she used an independent guy to troubleshoot her old laptop. For her new laptop she used the in-house service (geeky) at one of the big stores. I asked how that went. She said there was a big difference using the independent computer guy. The laptop repair went better, she was more satisfied, and felt he did a better job. The geeky guys fixed the problem, but she was more confident with the independent computer guy.

Some businesses use an inside employee to do their computer troubleshooting on the side. I’ve met a few people who use a large local company with all services bundled.

It’s hard to find the right computer help for a business or even with your computers at home. There are new players in the computer support business who buy into a franchise which provides a customer support desk. The support desk may be in the United States, but might be offshore. A computer support franchise also provides their tech tools, marketing materials, and a knowledge base for the technicians.

One of the benefits in using a local, independent consultant is having a personal connection (like Big Dog IT). Even though we talk terms of business to business, B to B, B2B, it’s about working with people. People in a business need to have someone they can trust, ask questions, rely on in emergencies, get good feedback, and most of all help with planning and using their technology.

The old break-fix model doesn’t help with a business’s long term growth. Fixed-costs for computer support saves a lot of money over the old way – both in terms of dollars spent and by reducing related computer downtime.

For a business computers are tools, sure they are entertaining, they offer a cool way to stay in touch, but they can only be useful at work when people understand they are tools. The right computer tech can help a business create usage policies, manage the equipment investment, and train users. A business can’t get that when their computer support is random.

- Make sure your anti-virus software is updated.
We like Trend Micro, call or email and we can come out and install or send it to you.
Yes, we all need it.

- Backup your files; there are good ways and other ways. How much is your data worth to you, how long will it take you (or someone) to rebuild a database, accounting info, or all your marketing materials?
The good way to do it is automated, safe, secure, and offsite.
Yes, we all need it.

- Patch Management; keeping your software and apps updated can help you avoid all sorts of issues.
This can be done remotely, without interruptions, or you can call an IT guy to make a site visit to get it done. It’s just part of doing business, create a budget for these things and you can avoid unnecessary expenses.
Yes, we all need it.

This is a good column and I love the way they start this article!

1. The lowly extension cord. People get cold feet. They get a space heater. They plug it into a two-pronged extension cord. They forget to unplug it when they leave work. That night, while you are sleeping, your entire business burns down. Your brilliant marketing plan, your three-year projections, all of your records, your new product samples …You get the idea. This is not something that most business owners think about, but insurance companies know that extension cords and space heaters are major fire hazards. It is good practice not to allow any extension cords in your business that aren’t three-pronged. read the whole article here

Overall, it’s a good reminder article about the basics. Which reminds me, it is so important to control costs. Businesses can save money with basic computer support and the right tech people on your side. Planning your IT budget will help save you from emergencies, employee downtime, data loss, server failure.

In the long run, it makes sense to manage your network for a monthly fee factored into your budget. Or you can run into a minor server issue, troubleshooting, repairs, and a site visit for about $1,000 plus employee downtime, all because no one was watching.

It’s a useful article, not too long of a read. Check the pages of comments and notice the repetition about extension cords, and backing up your data! Also reminders about Anti-Virus software and updates.

Plan to succeed.

Hi David, Why do people (including yourself) use URL shorteners in anything other than Twitter? I think it’s an unnecessary and unpleasant layer of opacity between you and your readers. I don’t know where the link goes to and I don’t like getting in the habit of clicking these things. Why not just do it the regular way of a link with text? I can see at the bottom of my browser window where it really goes.

There are usually some useful comments at Pogue’s column.