Daily Biz Solutions

Even as a small business, there are many expenses that need to be considered when creating a budget. By looking at the way your business uses paper, you cut unnecessary spending, save money, and help the environment as well. Although going “green seems like it would cost more for your business, the long-term savings will out way the initial cost. Starting small can make the transition for your business easier. Going paperless is one of the first cost-effective options toward going green.

Going paperless can give a company more control over their files. Companies loss twenty-five percent of all documentation, which can be costly over time. This can effect the wasted funds from your budget especially when you consider potentially a quarter of all your revenue goes toward replacing documentation.

Saving square footage is a valuable necessity when building costs are high and space is limited. Paper takes up office space, and space equals money. There are systems for storing files, such as hard drives and online file storage that can be a lost-cost way to deal with paperwork. Online file sharing storage system are also useful for sending large files, and most services are free online.

Using various software for documents that are still in negotiation, such as contracts, can help your business run more efficiently. For example, using contract software can help your control the entire process of single or multiple contracts.

Businesses are now embracing new eco-friendly ideas once they realized the benefits. Once you go paperless, you’ll find at least you have taken a step to being environmentally friendly.

Having trouble increasing site traffic?  Wishing your business would experience higher online success?  Consider using stronger online marketing strategies.  Many businesses believe that a professionally designed website is enough to gain a larger client base, but even more in depth marketing strategies are needed to gain higher visibility and increase business.

Here are easy and effective internet marketing strategies that every business should use including:

Create Web Content

Writing articles is more than just creating content centered around keywords.  When writing content for your business’ web site, it needs to be quality content that will both engage and inform your readers.  In addition, articles should also incorporate links to older articles as well as to other pages within your web site.

Blogging

Having a company blog is a great way to increase your customer base as well as your search engine rating.  Writing on it daily and providing a link to your blog through your business’ web site will increase your traffic, which will in turn increase business.  Blogs can easily be set up on Blogger or WordPress, and provide easy to use templates that even the novice blogger can use.

Social Networking

Every business that wishes to gain greater visibility needs to have accounts on Facebook, , YouTube, and other social networking sites.  These sites provide great opportunities for free advertising, and allow your supporters to feel as though they are a part of your organization.  Providing links on these social networking sites to your web site is a great way to market your business.

There are numerous internet marketing techniques employed by businesses to maintain higher search engine rankings and increase business, however, many underestimate how the use of proper article creation, blogging, and social networking can greatly increase the visibility of a business.  Hiring an internet marketing company can help a company increase their online visibility, and can do so while saving a business owner time and money.

No matter what type of business you are in, making the right decision about your merchant account provider can have a significant impact on your bottom line. Modern consumers expect to be able to process payments for goods and services quickly and efficiently with the debit or credit card of their choice. Many people do not even carry cash or checkbooks anymore and some companies have gone toward requiring employees to use purchasing cards for day to day purchases and rely on ACH merchant account capabilities for bill payments. Without access to merchant processing, you’d likely find that your business will suffer.

It’s up to you to ensure that your company provides payment options that are convenient for customers while also meeting the needs of the business. It’s essential select a secure merchant account electronic payment processing system that provides a safe way for customers to make payments. The system must be reliable, as being unable to process payments when customers are ready to purchase could result in lost sales and damage relationships with customers. Cost, however, is also an important consideration. Credit card processing is not free, and charges may vary significantly from one merchant account provider to another. Shop around before making a final decision about how to handle merchant account payments for your company to ensure that you get the best possible solution.

Technology professionals endured a second straight year of nearly flat salaries, according to the 2011-2010 Annual Salary Survey from Dice, the leading career site for technology and engineering professionals. Tech workers, on average, garnered salary increases of about one percent (0.7%) to $79,384 from $78,845 in 2009, after receiving a similar increase the previous year.

Despite the marginal increase, there are glimmers of the business recovery within the study. Nearly half of those surveyed (49%) received a salary increase in 2010 compared to just 36 percent who saw raises in the previous year. And more technology professionals received bonuses: 29 percent compared with 24 percent of respondents in 2009.

Tech professionals expressed slightly more satisfaction over pay than last year, with 50 percent “somewhat” or “very satisfied,” an increase from 46 percent of respondents who felt that way last year. Still, nearly four out of ten technology professionals anticipate they could make more money if they change employers in 2011. Those professionals (24%) who felt switching employers would not increase their pay earned, on average, nearly $13,000 more than those who anticipate finding higher salaries elsewhere.

“Companies can no longer get away with paltry salary increases for their technology staffs based on the demand we are seeing for talent,” said Tom Silver, SVP, North America at Dice. “The moderate increases in satisfaction levels indicate that tech professionals’ concerns are being heard by some companies, but certainly not all. Retention is the key to driving additional contributions to the business from technology staffs. Employers that are reluctant to increase compensation or step-up retention efforts will likely pay for their unsatisfactory ways.”

Notwithstanding the hopeful signs in the study, it appears wages have been reset lower for technology professionals who are entering the field. For the second straight year, the average salaries of technology professionals with less than two years experience have declined, and are six percent below their peak average wages in 2008.

There are two clear cut paths for technology professionals to earn more money: working for a larger company and/or continuing to add expertise and skills. First, technology professionals on average earned $88,075 working for companies in excess of 5,000 employees, while the smallest companies (50 or fewer employees) paid on average $69,658 to their technology workers. As for skills, those with annual wages of $100,000 or more were technology professionals with experience in Advanced Business Application Programming ($105,887), Informatica ($101,898), Extract Transform and Load ($100,983) and Service Oriented Architecture ($101,827).

Most Popular Skills and Average Wages

By analyzing the frequency skills appear in job postings on Dice, a core set of skills emerges for technology professionals.

Currently, Oracle experience is requested in more than 15,000 job postings on any given day or nearly a quarter of all job postings on Dice. Demand for that top requested skill is up 57 percent year/year. The national average salary for technology professionals with experience in Oracle Database is $90,914 and for Oracle Application Server is $88,063.

Following Oracle, J2EE/Java (14,663 job postings, up 50% yr/yr) and C, C++, C# (14,123 job postings, up 46% yr/yr) are the most frequently requested skills. Technology professionals proficient in J2EE/Java earn on average $91,060, while programmers specializing in the C languages earn between $85,500 and $90,350 on average.

The average salary for Project Managers is $100,143, but companies request project management experience in wide variety of job postings (12,513, up 50% yr/yr) making solid project management skills a must.

Rounding out the top five is SQL (11,875, up 47% yr/yr), the programming language, with an average salary of $84,375.

Raises Return to Silicon Valley

After a slip in average salaries last year, paychecks for technology talent in Silicon Valley increased three percent to an average salary of $99,028. In addition, 35 percent of Valley respondents received a bonus in 2010, as compared to just 26 percent in 2009.

The steps employers are taking on compensation are sparking higher levels of satisfaction. More than half (52%) of Silicon Valley tech pros reported they are satisfied with their salaries, as compared to 46 percent who were satisfied last year. That gain comes directly from previously dissatisfied technology professionals which fell from 37 percent in 2009 to 31 percent currently.

“The revival of employment demand for technology professionals started about this time last year in Silicon Valley. Very quickly, companies are facing higher compensation costs, retention troubles, and shortages in certain skill-sets,” said Alice Hill, Managing Director of Dice.com. “This experience provides a roadmap for employers outside of Silicon Valley, because demand is strengthening across the country for tech talent.”

Average salaries in New York ($87,298) and the Washington D.C./Baltimore corridor ($89,149) inched higher year/year, while average salaries in Atlanta ($82,944) and Philadelphia ($81,986) jumped five percent year/year – the strongest performance in any of the top 10 metropolitan markets. Two markets showed declines in average technology salaries, Los Angeles dropped four percent to $84,551 and in Chicago average technology salaries declined one percent to $79,933.

Dice Salary Survey Methodology

The Dice Salary Survey was administered online with 19,798 employed technology professionals from the Dice community responding between August 31 and November 15, 2010. Respondents were invited to participate in the survey through a notification on the Dice home page, and registered technology professionals were sent an email invitation. A cookie methodology was used to ensure that there was no duplication of responses between or within the various sample groups, and duplicate responses from a single email address were removed.

About Dice

Dice, a Dice Holdings, Inc. service, is the leading career site for technology and engineering professionals. With a 20-year track record of meeting the ever-changing needs of technology professionals, companies and recruiters, our specialty focus and exposure to highly skilled professional communities enable employers to reach hard-to-find, experienced and qualified technology and engineering candidates.

Calculating Total Cost of Ownership when Choosing a Solution

Curt Finch, CEO, Journyx, Inc.

Total cost of ownership (TCO) is a financial estimate that helps consumers and enterprise managers determine direct and indirect costs of a product or system. TCO goes beyond the initial purchase price or implementation cost to consider the full cost of an asset over its useful life. A TCO analysis often shows there can be a large difference between the price of something and its long term cost.

For example, let’s say you buy a car that’s inexpensive but it breaks down constantly. When you take it to get fixed, you find that the repair shop is far away and the parts are costly. It also loses value faster than other cars that cost more when it comes to resale. Your time is also valuable and all of the trips to the repair shop should be taken into consideration, too.

So, let’s do the math.

• Car A

o    Initial cost: $10,000

o    5 years of repairs, plus normal maintenance: $7,500

o    Value after 5 years when you sell it: $1,000

• Car B

o    Initial cost: $20,000

o    5 years of repairs, plus normal maintenance: $2,000

o    Value after 5 years when you sell it: $10,000

The 5 year TCO of Car A is $16,500, whereas the 5 year TCO of Car B is $12,000. Even though Car B was more expensive up front, it costs less in the long run.

How TCO is Calculated and Used to Make Decisions
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