Building a business from scratch can be exhilarating, but it’s not without risk and hassle – so is the better route to buy an existing business?
Many people elect to buy a small business rather than plough their cash into an untried and untested startup or small business, and for some people it’s a better option.
Are you the type of person who would benefit from buying an existing small business instead of creating a new one?
Here are five reasons why you might consider it. Read more here.
Many entrepreneurs start out as a one-man (or woman) show. While this can be challenging, exhausting and incredibly rewarding, ultimate success may not be determined by your business idea, but by how organised you are.
Experienced freelancers and small businesses that are single person operations need to be ultra-organised. Whether you are flying solo for the first time or well established, technology can improve your efficiency and performance. Here are some pointers based on my own experience running a one-man show.
See full article here: The Pulse
In my illustrious career, I’ve worked with many tax officials: from city, county, state, to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the US and also with the Australian Tax Office (ATO) down under.
It started as people dealing with people, discussing paperwork, then people talking with machines and now your relationship with your tax authorities can be machine to machine. With no human interaction, your home computer can upload your tax return to tax office, their computer receives that data and then hopefully there is an electronic bank transfer for a refund coming your way!
I currently reside in Australia, but still do my own tax return for the US (IRS) and Australian authorities (ATO). Just the other day, I was thinking about the best ways to communicate with a large bureaucracy such as the ATO when my phone started vibrating. I reached into my pocket and was surprised to see it was the ATO texting.
Biometrics
This year, my relationship with the ATO went deeper: first texting, then it turned to biometrics. The text arrived conveniently during my lunch hour. It was a nice, helpful text message telling me that new pre-fill information was available for my e-tax. To end our texting relationship, I simply needed to reply STOP. To report SMS scams I should contact 13 28 61.
Read the full story here
It is National Reconciliation Week 2014! What does your business do to encourage, celebrate or contribute to diversity?
Optimize Business will at be the Melbourne Shire of Remembrance on Saturday 31 May 2014 for the Victorian Indigenous Remembrance Service from 11am. Optimize Business Director, Andrew McIntosh CPA, is an Honourary Committee member that helps organise the Service.
Come and learn more about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ service in Australia, from the Boer War to present day 10:30 for an 11am start.
Google is moving into a lot of places…. keep your eyes on them!
Re-marketing: There is a point where the marketing technology becomes a little creepy and it is a fine line. As I sat down at a restaurant last week my phone pinged and Foursquare welcomed me to the restaurant and recommended my dishes…. big data and ethical usage are yet to be settle on what is right, but in the meantime it can be a bit creepy knowing that the “system” knows so much about you.
“You’ve seen them. The shoes you browsed an hour ago on Missguided are now staring at you while you watch a video on Youtube. They pop up again when you log into Facebook and now on a celebrity site like SkinnyvsCurvy.”
Source: http://www.youtube.com
Source: http://www.skinnyvscurvy.com
Remarketing is a feature that lets you reach people who have previously visited your site, and show them relevant ads across the web or when they search on Google. When people leave your site without buying anything, for example, remarketing helps you connect with these potential customers again. You can even show them a tailored message or offer that will encourage them to return to your site and complete a purchase.
Whether you’re looking to drive sales activity on your site, increase registrations, or promote awareness of your brand, remarketing can be a strategic component of every campaign. It can drive return on…
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The Israeli software firm CallingID is best known for its LinkAdvisor safe browsing tool, which has been integrated into antivirus products such as Avira, but as of late 2013 it’s also offered a tool with the rather unwieldy name of My Face Privacy.
My Face Privacy manages the privacy settings of social networks on behalf of the user. It works with Facebook(s fb), Twitter(s twtr) and LinkedIn(s lnkd), and on Wednesday CallingID revealed Google+(s goog) integration as well. Instagram is next on the agenda, CallingID executive vice president Yair Nissan told me.
“Social networks are trying to make as much of your information visible to as many groups as they can,” Nissan said. “They have set a default set of privacy policies which is not restrictive at all. They’ve complicated the way that you can change and manage your privacy settings – you have to go through many screens…
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Good luck to the home of Sprint in Overland Park, Kansas! While we battle extreme heat here is Australia, school are closing in the US due to snow storms (again).
Amazon is expanding, but watch out for the interview!
So many legal, social and moral issues opened up by evolving technologies…. here is just one being tested in US courts:
Car-sharing services, which let users summon a ride with a smartphone app, are soaring in popularity and recently received a green light to operate in California. Those rides could get more expensive, however, as a result of a shell firm that claims it owns patents for tracking cars.
In a series of lawsuits filed in Los Angeles, Eclipse IP LLC demands money and injunctions to shut down the car services Uber, Lyft, Sidecar and Ridecharge.
The lawsuits claim that the car companies’ apps, which let users summon drivers and see where they are, violate four patents dating from 2003. They include US Patent 7482952, whose claims include descriptions like:
“method for a computer-based notification system, comprising the steps of: scheduling an arrival or departure time for a mobile thing (MT) in relation to a stop location; scheduling a notification communication to a personal communications device (PCD)”
The patents were transferred…
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