Tech Forward:

Let’s face it, handling the “business” end of small business . . . well . . . stinks.

And, if you’re like me, payroll–along with taxes–is one of the worst “offenders.”

The numbers tell the whole story:

• When it comes to running payroll, making a mistake can be super costly. In fact, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce indicates that one out of three businesses will pay a payroll tax penalty each year (that’s each year, not once).
• The IRS reports that 40 percent of all small businesses pay an average of $845 per year for late or incorrect payroll report filings. Ye-ouch!

So I just heard about this online payroll service that Intuit is offering, and I wasn’t convinced. Don’t get me wrong; the folks at Intuit are a smart group of people–hence the company name–but I didn’t think they’d be able to put a dent in the painful process that masquerades as payroll.

That is, until I looked at Intuit’s online video. Guess I was wrong. (Hey, I can admit it!) So now I’m sharing it with you.

Note: Close the little pop-up window and click the big blue “See How It Works” button (they should re-label that button “Video Guide” or something). Warning . . . there might be another annoying pop-up later. You’d think the Intuit folks would know pop-ups ruin the experience, especially when watching online video. But hey, they can’t be experts in everything, right?

I’m not sure what’s going on in your company, but we’re growing every day.

When I founded xynoMedia, my intention was to build a completely virtual company with low overhead and enough flexiblity so that our team can enjoy their lives and get work done. I wanted our company to benefit from the input of global citizens, which is why we have teams working all over the world.

We have administrative assistance in Australia, development teams in the States and in South America, and writers in Canada.

If you want to build this kind of an orgnization, you need some sort of secure online collaboration tool. Something like CatalystWeb’s product CatalystOffice.

At the Small Business Technology Summit, I asked Bob Mathew every single hard question I could come up with based on how my team uses our online collaboration tool, and I was mucho impressed (it’s not that easy to impress a New Yorker).

Listen for yourself…

Right now, CatalystWeb only works with Firefox…but, you’re using that as your default browser anyway, right?

We’ve all learned numerous lessons from 9/11, and for each business the lessons have been different. But two of the more valuable lessons were:

• Have an up-to-date, viable, disaster recovery plan in place, and

• Use off-site data backups.

Data backups are a necessary evil, in that the need for data space always eclipses capacity–or, more aptly put–a capacity that’s affordable. And data backups are tricky: How do you know what you need? Do you know what you would do if you lost your office tomorrow? What would you do if you lost access to all your data? Your answer should be: Go to an alternate location and pull out a loose-leaf binder that contains a step-by-step recovery plan. If that’s not possible, then start with the steps below:

1. Keep a list of the software and hardware you have in your office. Keep these lists updated and off-site. It won’t help if you have all this wonderful information saved to the hard drive that has just crashed.

2. Back up all critical data daily. Make a list of all the data that is mission critical to your operations. Make sure that data, in particular, is backed up every day off-site.

3. Choose a backup system that will be there when you need it. There are all sorts of solutions: CD-RW, DAT (tape), NAS, Ultrium, etc. But, when you’re dealing with magnetic media, you’re bound to have a snafu somewhere. For smaller businesses, we recommend using a secure internet-based solution for backing up files. For larger businesses, redundant, off-site, outsourced solutions are preferable.

4. Make sure the backup is easy to do. The more complicated a process is, the more likely it will be done either incorrectly or not at all.

5. Ensure that the backup process is being done. Periodically, check the backed-up data to make sure that recent data is present.

It may take some time to implement these procedures. After all, change can be difficult. However, being able to sleep soundly at night knowing that your critical business data is safe, secure, accessible and intact makes it all worth it. You can’t control events that happen during the course of day-to-day business, but you can control your level of preparedness and your reaction to those events.

I get asked this question a lot: we’re a growing company, how do when know when it’s time for us to buy a server?

Many people will tell you that the time is when you have more than one computer that you want to connect. Wrong! That’s what peer-to-peer networking is for.

Others will say the minute you need to be able to access company files from home. Wrong again. GoToMyPC has solved that little dilemma.

And, a small batch will say it’s when you need to do group schedules. Buzz! Ever heard of Basecamp or Unfuddled anyone?

OK, so when is it time?

When you’re tired of:

• E-mailing co-workers files–or putting them into a CD–just so they can access your files on their machine
• Needing a printer for each machine (or you’re sick of switching out the printer cable)
• Wondering how you’re going to continue updating software and virus definition files for all the computers in your company

Chances are, if you’ve ever run into these kinds of challenges, you need a server.

Bottomline: So what are you waiting for?