Pedro Hernandez

Think you’re priced out of AI-enabled business applications? Think again. Although it may seem that software products with advanced artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities are out of the reach of small businesses with limited IT budgets, the truth is that AI is trickling into a growing number of affordable solutions. A compelling reason for adopting AI […]

Looking back, 2017 was a challenging year for security-conscious small and midsized businesses (SMBs). From massive breaches to disruptive ransomware outbreaks fueled by vulnerabilities that leaked out the U.S. National Security Agency, the cybersecurity landscape this year was notable in the uncertainty it created for small business owners. What about 2018? Here are five trends […]

Spiceworks’ 2018 IT Career Outlook report has arrived, and small business owners that are concerned about retaining their tech talent will want to have a look. The good news is that IT professionals are largely satisfied with their jobs (70 percent). The bad news is that many aren’t thrilled with the size of their paychecks. […]

Ransomware was a persistent threat throughout all of 2017, and things may be getting worse going into 2018, cautions Bogdan “Bob” Botezatu, senior e-threat analyst at cybersecurity firm Bitdefender. According to his company’s recent Global Threat Landscape Report for 2017 (PDF), 2017 saw the emergence of over 160 ransomware families, each of which spawned dozens, […]

For small businesses, the holidays are a great time to bring cheer to their communities and attract more spending to local economies. Unfortunately, for most small companies it’s business as usual. According to the latest Capital One Spark Business Growth Index (SBGI), a whopping 90 percent of small business owners had no plans for running […]

There’s no good time to get by scammers, but the holidays are possibly the worst. According to the latest SMB & Money Survey from online payments provider WePay, conducted by Survata, 20 percent of a small business’s annual revenue is earned between Thanksgiving and December 31. For businesses that sell goods, as opposed to services, […]

Facebook’s is getting more ambitious with its small business outreach efforts. The social media juggernaut launched a new program this month called Facebook Community Boost, which will hit 30 cities in the U.S. during 2018, offering entrepreneurs, small business owners and job seekers new ways of succeeding in the mobile era and lifting their local […]

Microsoft Store, the Redmond, Wash. software giant’s retail arm, recently took the pulse of the small business community, using SurveyMonkey to poll 1,300 business owners in the U.S. The results paint a positive picture of the year to come, but also reveal some of the technology challenges that entrepreneurs are still grappling with. Perhaps the […]

What, me worry? That’s the stance a shocking number of small business owners in the U.S. have taken toward cybersecurity, according to a new study from Paychex. In a survey of 341 business leaders conducted by Bredin, most of the small business owners polled by the research firm, 68 percent in fact, were not concerned […]

Still keeping track of customer data on spreadsheets? Salesforce’s latest Small & Medium Business Trends Report makes a good case for upgrading to a customer relationship management (CRM) solution. A survey of 490 small and midsized business (SMB) owners and leaders in the U.S., conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of Salesforce, revealed that growing […]

Judging by the countless number of discussions that are taking place in the Spiceworks community at any given time, there’s no shortage of new things that IT professionals can learn. Tapping into the wisdom of the tech-savvy crowd that gathers there, the company today officially launched Spiceworks Learn, a new crowdsourced learning environment, at its […]

Money management is hard, but many small businesses are making it unduly tough on themselves by foregoing an essential tool: the business savings account. Brian Smith, vice president of Small Business Lending at Capital One, and his team are continually taking the pulse of the small business community, noting the challenges they face trying to […]