A business owner’s tips on surviving the recession
I came across this article that I thought I’d share with you. Until such time when the economy starts turning around, businesses, especially small businesses, need to figure out ways on how to survive the recession. Here are some tips from CNNMoney:
- Negotiate with your vendors - they might be more willing than you think to work with you. Opportunities present themselves during recessions.
- Consider new media advertising - this may present a better return than traditional advertising.
- Check your inventory - you may have to sell your products at a discount. One can survive decreased profits if there’s cash flow, but the converse is not true - if cash flow takes a dive, you’re in trouble.
Click here to read article.
Zimbra Desktop: Achieve greater flexibility with your email
Local access to your Prialto/Zimbra email and calendar is moving closer to production release.
Zimbra Desktop is a desktop email client alternative to Outlook. One of the biggest benefits of Zimbra Desktop is that it runs on more than just Windows. Versions for Windows, Mac, and Linux are available, and the application looks exactly the same on all systems. Moreover, if you have been using the Prialto Collaboration Suite (Prialto CS) webmail, you will instantly recognize the layout and design in the Zimbra Desktop as it’s nearly identical, giving you the best of both worlds!
Zimbra Desktop is now out of Beta and will soon be released as General Availability. The latest version, 1.0 RC1, is a feature-complete product and is now available for download at Zimbra.com.
Zimbra Desktop benefits at a glance:
* Offline email access
* Write emails when offline and send as soon as you have an Internet connection
* Same great search capabilities as with the webmail version
* Gather external email accounts, such as Gmail, in the same place, and access them offline too
* Access your documents and briefcase while offline
Prialto’s corporate email solution, Prialto CS, is based on the Zimbra platform, which provides our members with the ability to manage their email and calendar from any computer or mobile device with its online capability. And now with the offline version, users will have the ability to access their email, calendar, contacts, and documents on their computer even when not connected to the Internet (e.g. during a flight) - creating even greater flexibility for our members.
It’s a chicken or an egg thing: How to keep your business going in this economy
In these dire economic times, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to sustain a business without continued injection of capital. Money begets money. But how does a company keep afloat without continued cash investment? With banks continuing their strict policies on lending (see the New York Times article here), businesses are turning to outsourcing as a solution.
Outsourcing can help a company not just stay in business but also help it grow without a large infusion of money. If you’re a small business owner who is unable to afford a full-time employee, and whose only option is to increase your hours to keep your company going, outsourcing is a way to help you manage your business without sacrificing your personal life.
Here are some of the benefits of outsourcing:
- It can save you time - delegate time-consuming administrative tasks to an assistant so you can focus on the critical aspects of your business
- You don’t have to worry about employee sick time or vacation leave - with outsourcing, there is redundancy, so there is always coverage even when your primary assistant is unavailable
- Your clients never have to deal with voice mail - you can have an assistant handle all your calls, take messages, and relay them to you
- You can be more efficient with your time - your assistant can help you manage your calendar so you can stay on top of your schedule
- It can save you money - outsourcing an assistant is less than half the cost of a full-time employee
Companies like Prialto offer business process outsourcing (BPO) services that help businesses create operational efficiencies that keep costs low, boost customer service, and improve customer loyalty. Outsourcing helps companies focus on their core business by freeing up valuable resources to concentrate on expanding their business. All in all, outsourcing is a way for a company to survive these tough economic times, and maybe even grow its business, without draining its bank account.
To read more about the benefits of outsourcing, see article on AllBusiness.com.
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Se habla Español
Mastering another language is a goal that many people have (it usually makes its appearance in quite a few lists of New Year’s resolutions); Unfortunately, only a few even get past the first lesson. The intent is there, but the task can be daunting, and when frustration sets in, the handy instruction manual ends up neglected and ignored.
For some, wanting to learn a new language is more than just a personal goal. There are those who whose aim is to penetrate a market to broaden their reach. One such market is the Hispanic community. They make up a large segment of the population here in California and in other states, and if you’re not targeting this market, you are limiting your client base and potentially losing out on much-needed revenue.
Outsourcing companies like Prialto can offer a solution to help expand your reach to the Hispanic community. We have bilingual remote assistants who are fluent in both English and Spanish. You can utilize our assistants in a number of ways: as front-office assistants answering phones and taking messages, or as translators, helping to communicate to potential clients to better understand their needs.
Even in a sunny economic climate, it is a smart business practice to never limit your options, and this becomes especially true in these rather gloomy days of late.
If you are, however, still intent on learning another language, check out Tim Ferriss’s blog post (author of The 4-Hour Workweek), “How to Learn Any Language in 3 Months.” It might be the key to unlocking your inner polyglot.
When hard work and diligence pays off
From one of our members…
“As a new user of Prialto, my wife and I were eager to put the service to good use. My wife works for an international economic development agency, which promotes poverty reduction through economic growth in third world countries. Accordingly, we put forward a rather unique request for our Prialto agent, Bert: research and compile a set of websites outlining best practices for creating a voucher system for agricultural development programs in Africa. The nature of the request was time sensitive and within a day of the initial request, we received a neatly organized list of websites which succinctly and clearly addressed each of our questions, saving my wife hours of research and enabling her to leverage the results for immediate review and synthesis into a report that was distributed to her organization’s Board the next morning. Kudos to Bert and Prialto for providing such a cost-effective, and incredibly versatile, personal remote assistant solution.”
Rob, Washington D.C.