SMB

Have you ever considered whether you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur? You might think that there aren't many objective ways by which you can assess your entrepreneurial ability. Actually, there are. One of the quickest ways by which you can get some idea of your innate talents for entrepren...

Incorporating social media strategies into your marketing plan is no cut-and-paste job. You've got to know your clientele and what appeals to them, and you have to engage them in a conversation rather than simply spew offers at them. In fact, if you don't have the desire to commit yourself to social...

Social networking platforms can be powerful tools. Twitter strikes fear into the hearts of repressive regimes, and Facebook was nearly single-handedly responsible for the revival of Betty White's career. So how can something with that much influence be easy and unintimidating for a small-business ow...

Empty office space litters skylines, freeways and office parks. Once-busy hives of cubicles have become empty steel and concrete caverns. Their previous occupants met with a variety of fates: Some were victims of a deep recession; others were washed away by tsunamis of cheap labor in foreign lands; ...

Fast and cost-friendly video conferencing could son become as commonplace as cellphones at home and at work, and the firm Vidyo hopes to cash in on the trend with a new, specially designed architecture. The New Jersey-based startup recently took the wraps off an HD-quality personal telepresence it d...

As business offerings go, Go800's plan is simple: It gives mobile consumers a quick keyword connection to a call-back from vendors. The vendor's ad lists an easy-to-remember keyword, a ready-to-buy viewer texts that keyword to Go800, and a moment later the viewer's phone rings with a call from the v...

Angel investing groups are still going strong despite the economic downturn. Although private equity financing dates back to the Sumerians, the current incarnation really began after World War II. The trend has accelerated since the first whirlwind of dot-com businesses in the 1990s sought private f...

A year ago, I suggested that the Software as a Service and cloud computing industry was entering a new stage in which vendors would begin putting greater emphasis on expanding their sales channels to broaden the addressable market for their solutions. Anyone following the SaaS/cloud computing indu...

The discussion so far about the iPad -- a discussion that has officially engulfed the mainstream media and leaped the shark tank to include appearances on David Letterman and Jimmy Fallon's late-night shows -- has focused on the potential for joining media-hungry consumers as a third screen on their...

The "trickling down" of enterprise computing features to smaller businesses has long been a part of life in an IT universe governed by Moore's Law. In many cases, this is largely seen in the data center, where SMBs have access to server and storage performance once exclusively reserved for enterpris...

Given the growing popularity of mobile devices and the great many applications to go with them, you would think that this new niche had plenty of room for newcomers. Many of those newcomers, though, will find it difficult to capture a great deal of consumer attention. Places like the Android Market ...

In this business climate, the road to striking a venture capital deal is difficult for both funder and fundee. Small startups with big ideas obviously have a harder time finding VC firms willing to take a chance on them, but those VC firms themselves are under added pressure to make the correct deci...

A startup developer of technology that helps publishers better connect sales with affiliate marketers has closed on seed funding from First Round Capital, Google Ventures, and such individual investors as LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman. The financing for the company, VigLink, will be used to take the...

The majority of global markets are growing significantly faster than the United States. Bill Gates has even stated that in the 21st century, a business must use e-commerce to survive. In this economy, thinking outside the proverbial box and expanding a company without taking on significant overhea...

So you've sought intellectual property protection for your patentable invention, or you've trademarked your logo. Do you think your startup is now protected? This alone may not be enough. Technology entrepreneurs may understand the importance of protecting their intellectual property, such as tradem...