No More Junk Faxes, Please
December 19, 2008
Last week, faxed advertisements from Texas company Envarion were sent to 57 different counties in Indiana and garnered 1,842 complaints, which is the largest number of recorded infractions since the state’s Do Not Fax law was enacted in last year (source: InsideIndianaBusiness.com).
Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter is quoted as saying, “These fax offers are frustrating for business owners who bear the brunt of the costs of unsolicited junk faxes. We don’t want Indiana citizens wasting their time sorting through unwanted piles of paper each day. Home-based businesses also have the added frustration of interrupted privacy during the owners’ time spent with family.”
Realistically speaking, laws can only do so much. Despite the fact that we have laws that are supposed to deter people from despicable actions, there is a small minority who will break the rules for their own gain. That said, when a threat to our privacy and freedom exists, good sense dictates that we ought to take every measure available to prevent something bad from happening.
In other words, be proactive.
I strongly advocate using internet fax services. One of the biggest advantages of using an internet fax service is that your service provides you with an online interface that allows you to see where an incoming fax is coming from and who’s sending it. Your received faxes are stored on hosted web space that you can access through a login. This feature allows you to choose the faxes you wish to print and to delete the faxes that you suspect are junk. If you wish to tie your fax account to an email address, you can view the received fax in your inbox and easily delete junk faxes.
With an internet fax service, you are also able to alert your provider to junk faxers and easily block them, or simply choose not to print them. The service can potentially save you from a lot of grief and is as low as $10 a month, which is cheaper than the cost of a dedicated phone line.
For more information about online fax services, please visit FaxCompare.com.
Jennifer Silva
Zilker Ventures, LLC
New Web Conferencing tool is not only free, but also green
December 12, 2008
Add to your list of cost-effective web solutions OpenaCircle.com, the first site to offer completely free web conferencing service.
Advantages of the service include the ability to share desktops with co-workers, colleagues and partners and the option to utilize blogs, wikis, texting and other social networking tools simultaneously with video and audio to share information.
The majority of web conferencing service providers have thus far tended to offer free service for a trial period, after which the user is prompted to select from a tier of service plans. OpenaCircle.com, however, offers full access from the get-go to web-based “meeting and information-sharing spaces,” which are private and fully equipped with convenient work tools for presentations, A/V conferencing, storing/sharing files and planning and scheduling meetings.
Here are some of the best features:
- Secure, private rooms
- Permanently open 24 hours a day
- Create a new circle for every customer, project or team
- Live presentations and desktop sharing
- Advance schedule meetings, presentations and events
What I love is that the bigwigs at OpenaCircle.com explain on their blog the positive implications of utilizing web applications not only on pocketbooks, but also on the green initiative. Here are a couple of quotes from the blog:
What will drive business travelers to go GREEN isn’t a sense of creating a smaller carbon footprint or being a responsible corporate citizen (though 40% of frequent business travelers say they are concerned). No, it is the simple fact that it doesn’t make financial sense anymore to travel to “get the sale.”
To learn more about other low cost web services like online fax services, please visit FaxCompare.com.
Jennifer Silva
Zilker Ventures, LLC
Are Email Marketing Providers Finally Working Out the Kinks?
December 10, 2008
Receiving a bunch of unwanted email messages from a company always results in negative consequences. In light of the reports about spam, it’s understandable that small businesses have under-utilized or ignored email marketing tools.
But the fact is that successful companies, who often see an increase in revenue of 50% or more, continue to use email marketing tools to reach customers effectively and instantaneously. That’s why people like me keep writing about it. If utilized correctly, email is a powerful, valuable means of marketing online.
Jeremy Saibil, director of deliverability at Campaigner, says that email marketers should empathize with email recipients to fully test the deliverability and effectiveness of emails before sending them. He advises:
Have your IT folks set up a pristine, never-before-used e-mail box. Take this new address and subscribe to all of your own marketing programs. Now take a step back and put yourself in the shoes of your users and ask yourself how many e-mails you send a week as a company (The e-mail deliverability blame game: Marketers need to look in the mirror, DMNews.com).
–Sage advice from a representative of Campaigner, a leading email marketing software provider who has just announced plans to focus on three key areas of improvement for their service in 2009:
1. 1. Targeting (through highly customizable, segmented lists)
2. 2. Personalization (through use of stored personal attributes features for message tailoring)
3. 3. Deliverability (through third-party deliverability firms like Return Path)
It may be a while before small business email marketing providers catch up with bigger companies in terms of performance, but at least these service providers now recognize the need to improve based on the best practices of email marketing. It would be nice to have lower-cost software alternatives that can perform and be as functional as higher-end options.
For a comparison of the top email marketing options on the market, please visit Email-Marketing-Options.com.
Jennifer Silva
Zilker Ventures, LLC
Tax write-offs for Small Businesses
December 5, 2008
Nothing says Thanksgiving like a Christmas tree lighting at mall with a past American Idol winner. Right? This past weekend, for some yet unknown reason, I arrived reluctantly at the Macy’s Christmas tree lighting and jingle at the Domain (Simon Malls) in north Austin, waiting for Jordin Sparks to perform. I never got to see her perform, or rather, didn’t stay that long. After the Austin Girls’ Choir performed in their 1800s wassailing outfits and prior to some guy with an acoustic guitar and a fog machine (or something equally ridiculous), the crowd was forced to watch a bunch of hokey commercials for brands that I assume can be found in Macy’s department stores, ready and waiting to be purchased on Black Friday.
The whole event put a damper on my entire weekend. Children lollygagged around, bored and listless, with not much to stimulate their minds—no activities, no play areas set up. The guy standing in front of me was heard to utter “This sucks” under his breath several times. The event, though described as a family affair, was clearly more targeted to adults—those humans with wallets and credit cards and the power to buy lingering inventory. It was no surprise that the new store Vivo Chocolato! was brimming with parents and kids alike. Chocolate, in my mind, is very much the G-rated version of an alcoholic beverage. Thinking about the economy makes me want to get choco-faced.
Thanksgiving isn’t even here, and it seems that people have been talking about Black Friday since before Halloween. Following the recession this year, the post-holiday shopping sale event has a special significance. It could actually make or break many businesses. That reality has caused many retailers to slash prices to such an extent that has never before been seen.
“In response [to the recession], retailers have been rolling out non-stop bargains. Wal-Mart offered 10 popular toys for $10 in October, Toys “R” Us has touted its “lowest prices of the season” and Gap Inc offered 30 percent off last weekend — all well before Thanksgiving,” writes Nicole Maestri (Reuters).
As I wrote in my previous Black Friday post, there are quite a few deals out there, and there is also plenty of time to buy. Many retailers are opening their stores as early as midnight and extending the sales through the entire weekend. Online retailers are planning to promote sales until Monday, which is aptly being called Cyber Monday.
As a small business owner, you’re trying to save money and trim spending during this time. But it may be wise to purchase while the deals are good and the equipment is low-cost. Thanks to a change in the 2008 Federal Tax Code, tax write-offs for property that directly relates to business activities (such as printers, scanners, projection screens, etc.) are at an all-time high (MarketWatch)…..(Read more of this article at ChooseWhat.com/blog)
For resources that can help save your business time and money spent researching products and services, such as internet fax services and hosted pbx services, please visit ChooseWhat.com
For more information on taxes and tax software, please visit Tax-Compare.com.
Jennifer Silva
Zilker Ventures, LLC
