Jennifer Schiff

According to Intuit, a leading provider of business and financial management software for small business (and the maker of QuickBooks, Quicken and TurboTax), approximately 50 percent of SMBs do not have a website. That’s nearly 15 million businesses in the United States that are missing out on one of the most effective and inexpensive ways […]

Until recently, server virtualization was thought of as something that only larger companies — with dozens or hundreds of physical servers — needed and could afford. But times, technology and the cost of virtual servers have changed, and today mid-sized and even small businesses with just a few servers stand to benefit from going virtual. […]

Can adding a video to your e-commerce site really boost traffic and sales? Absolutely — as long as your video is relevant, entertaining and/or informative and optimized for search engines. According to studies conducted by Forrester Research, having a search-engine optimized video on your e-commerce site increases your odds of showing up on the first […]

To be successful at attracting new customers, today’s small business owners need a multi-faceted, multi-channel customer acquisition strategy that targets prospective customers where they surf, exchange information and shop. While there are many ways to do this, the following five strategies are highly effective, inexpensive (or free) and any size business can employ and benefit […]

Like many small business owners, Brett Rosenthal, the founder and president of ThatsMyShirt.com (and several other t-shirt sites), gets a lot of help from friends and family, including his brother, Reid, who model many of the company’s cool t-shirts. However, when Reid appeared on season five of the popular ABC reality show The Bachelorette earlier […]

Like most small business owners, Barbara Thomas, who runs Ruby Jane’s Retro Fabric, wants her customers to be happy and to recommend Ruby Jane’s to friends and family. That’s why Thomas makes it a point to monitor what people say about her business online, on sites like Facebook and Twitter, as well as on forums […]

In mid-June, when computer maker Dell announced it had earned $3 million in revenue from using Twitter, a popular micro-blogging site, the Internet and blogosphere were all atwitter about the news. Finally, proof that social media had the potential to not only increase traffic but also sales. Though as Dell was quick to mention, it […]

Free (or inexpensive) Web-based office suites from Google, OpenOffice and Zoho are giving Microsoft Office a run for its licensing dollars and small business customers. Should you consider making the switch? Three small business owners discuss the pros and cons of cloud computing. MessagingLab Down on Word, Up with Docs MessagingLab founder Karl Schmieder had […]

According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, there were 656 known data breaches that exposed nearly 35.7 million records last year. These breaches occurred at businesses, financial institutions, medical facilities, educational institutions and government agencies. The main cause of the breaches? According to ITRC, only 2.4 percent of the organizations that experienced a breach had […]

According to statistics, spam represents anywhere between 90 and 98 percent of the approximately 100 billion e-mails sent each day. At its most benign, spam is unsolicited or junk e-mail, typically advertisements for things you don’t want or don’t need — from curing erectile dysfunction to home mortgages to stock tips. At its worst, though, […]

Hiring an attorney can be expensive, with hourly rates typically starting around $250. But until recently, if you needed legal assistance, you didn’t have much of a choice. Now, however, thanks to the Internet, there are several good sites dedicated to helping small business owners tackle seemingly thorny issues such as business formation, employment agreements and contracts, […]

Wendy Y. Bailey, the founder and president of Brilliance In Action Coaching and Consulting, is a typical sole proprietor, used to doing everything on her own. But when her business started to boom, “it became very clear that I couldn’t do it all myself,” she says. “But I wasn’t in a position to hire a […]