Tech Forward:

All entrepreneurs want to make sure their employees aren’t joy riding on the internet while on the company clock. That’s a given–and it’s a perfectly reasonable and understandable expectation.

But, to paraphrase Joe Clark, “When you treat people like criminals, they’ll act like criminals.”

And while micromanaging what your employees do online is great for productivity in the short term, in the long term you sacrifice trust, and the flexibility and leeway smart people need to do their jobs.

Two things to wit:

1. There’s no such thing as an “employee problem.” In any organization, its people are never the problem–the processes are. The question isn’t, “What’s wrong with him?” but rather, “How did we hire him?”
2. Time wasters will be time wasters whether you’re clocking their every move or not. If they’re not wasting time online, they’ll be taking 90 smoke breaks or living in the break room.

So, what do you do? You can use software that monitors instead of blocks or filters.

Or you can trust that you’ve hired the right people and that employees who waste time will always be outed by employees who are doing the right thing.

Or some combination thereof. Just don’t sacrifice your relationship with employees in the name of productivity.

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?

The only way I can describe the new Snap Communicator (watch the quick video on this site), created by the folks at Toucan Global, is to say it’s extraordinary–adorable, even. It truly does take VoIP technology and stands it on its ear. And I’ll say it again: I’m not easily impressed.

The folks at Toucan sent me a pair of Snaps to connect with anyone I choose–eight anyones, to be exact. At first I’ll admit that I didn’t see what the fuss is about. . . . I wasn’t even going to write about the Snap (I don’t care how many samples a company sends me; if I don’t like the product, you’ll never hear a word about it from me). At least, that is, before I became a Snap addict! A Snap-a-holic, even.

I had a chat earlier this week with Toucan’s president, John Willenborg, about the Snap Communicator, what it is exactly and some of its cool features. Listen in and I’ll let him tell you.  . . . (13:25)

I sent the other one to one of our developers who has moved out of the country–and now, time zones aside, it’s much easier to communicate with him. Sorry, folks, the trusty Snap can’t make time zones disappear (that feature is coming in a later version, right John?

There’s nothing worse than having some clueless person clog up your inbox with a multi-MB file attachment.

If you ever need to send a large file to someone and FTP’ing is not an option, burning a CD and sending it overnight just seems like a huge waste of resources, and you don’t want to create an account with some clunky online file sharing website, you might want to do what I do and send the file via YouSendIt.

What I like about YouSendIt is that you don’t even have to create an account to send a file.

1. Just fill in the recipient’s e-mail address.
2. Fill in your e-mail address.
3. Add an optional small note (100 characters or less).
4. Attach the file and hit “send.”

The recipient gets an email from YouSendIt (not from you) that he or she has a file waiting and can click the handly link in the e-mail to download the file. Recipients have seven days to download the file; otherwise it’s toast. It’s virus free and totally secure.

With the free account, you can send files up to 100MB, and if you want to pay YouSendIt has convenient monthly plans that will allow you to increase your file size permissions.

I’ll be the first to admit that e-mail communication doesn’t always do a good job of getting your point across.

E-mail is great for sending files and communicating simple ideas, but e-mail unfortunately doesn’t afford the recipient the benefit of tone and inflection, and sometimes no amount of emoticons will do it.

Here’s when to pick up the phone and speak to a person live:

• You have something of a sensitive nature to discuss with someone. I remember when a guy broke up with Carrie on Sex in the City via a Post-it note. Such poor form that she avoided getting arrested for smoking pot on a public street in NYC. Well, that’s never happened to me, but a client with whom I had not only had a close working relationship but also a close personal relationship ended our working relationship via e-mail. She said she just wanted to let me know as soon as possible, but it said volumes about her inability to have hard conversations.
• You and the recipient have tried to communicate your points via email at least three times, it’s two days later and you’re still not on the same page. Sometimes e-mail can make even the simplest things so complicated. If you’re not getting what the other person is saying–or vice versa–simply pick up the phone. Many times leaving a simple voice mail for the person has worked to clear up confusion. Again, it’s all in the tone of voice.
• You’re thanking them. People don’t say thank you nowadays. Perhaps I’m old fashioned or just haven’t gotten with the times, but a handwritten thank you sent by snail mail is always best. Barring that, a sincere telephone conversation can convey what an e-mail never can. Once, a company wanted me to write about it on this blog. I thought it had a cool concept, but there wasn’t a fit and it didn’t feel authentic, so I didn’t write about it right away. Then one day, there was a fit and I did. I sent the CEO a link to let him know that I finally wrote about his company. No response ever. No comment on the blog post. No quick voice mail. Nada. So very not cool.

So, just pick up the phone, will ya?

That was the subject line of a piece of unwanted e-mail (i.e., spam) that I received recently. Although the subject line was a bit nutty, even I have to admit that it was creative.

And that’s what I’m noticing . . . that spammers and phishers are getting more and more creative in their subject lines and targeting. Thousands of people fall prey to these e-mails every day. They enter their sensitive information on what appears to be a legitimate website–even some confusingly similar to their own banking institutions–and, before you know it, someone either tries to remove money from their bank accounts or, worse yet, assume their identity.

It’s getting bad out there. Really bad.

Here’s how we help stem spam at xynoMedia. I hope it will give you a few ideas:

1. Don’t use filters. Filters give too many false positives. How many times have you sent an e-mail to someone who tells you he or she didn’t receive it, only to have that person find your e-mail crowded among obscene enlargement and international dating offers?

2. Use challenge-response systems instead. You’ve seen this system at work, I’m sure. You send an e-mail to someone and, right away, that person’s system e-mails you back asking you to click a link to confirm that a real person with good intentions sent the e-mail.

The idea is that many of the robots used to send spam out won’t have enough “sense” to open the e-mail and click the link. What’s more, many of the reply e-mail addresses for spam are non-operational anyway, so the challenge e-mail won’t even be received.

Many people think this puts a barrier between you and someone who is trying to communicate with you. Not so. Many people are used to these systems by now, and since you only have to click once, it’s not really a bother. The reality is, people who really want to be in touch with you will take the time to click a link; those who don’t, won’t. Simple.

An example of a good challenge-response e-mail service is Spam Arrest. (BIG Hint: If you’re not a technical person, have someone walk you through the setup. The software is great, but setup is not exactly intuitive and the e-mail support stinks. You can purchase priority support for 10 bucks . . . which puts you at the front of the e-mail queue. Yes, I’m serious.)

3) Use first name-initial, full surname e-mail address conventions. It’s much easier to spot spam that’s addressed to “Dear LWest” than it is to “Dear Lena.” So rather than using lena.west@somecompany.com as your e-mail address convention, use LWest@somecompany.com and whenever you receive e-mail addressed to LWest, you know you can toss it because people who know you–or even people who don’t–would never refer to a real person that way . . . they would use your first name.

4) Never, ever, ever reply to spam. Not even to bail off their list(s). One reason for those seemingly genuine unsubscribe links is to get you to reply or click. The spammers then know that your e-mail address is a “live” e-mail account (meaning actually working, because they really don’t know whether an account is operational when they send the e-mail). They then take your name and e-mail address, move it to a “live” e-mail address list and sell your information to other, more advanced spammers for money. Sick, I know.

And . . .

5) If you’re ever unsure about a link, type it yourself. If you think that your bank has sent you an e-mail, take the time to pick up the phone and call to ask or open a new browser window and type in the website address yourself to log into your account to see if there’s a problem. Never click a link contained in an e-mail you don’t know. Not only can it lead you to a phishing website, but it can also possibly invisibly launch/install viruses and trojans onto your system. Not a good look.

Remember, spam is a business designed to put you out of business. You and your employees are your company’s best defense.

Sometimes you just gotta go with counterculture brands.

And in the game of social media, the counterculture brand du jour would be NOSO. Although not for long. This anti-social social media movement is quietly becoming all the rage.

The intro video, in a Hal-ish voiceover, explains NOSO as a “. . . real-world platform for temporary disengagement from your social networking environment . . .”

And, though I love social media and all that it offers, I must admit that the whole concept is very attractive. No agenda, no texting, no Twit’ing . . . just existing and navel gazing. What’s not to like about that?

However, I’m one of the fortunate ones. Although I write for several blogs and have a monthly column at WomenEntrepreneur.com, blogging and social networking activities have not taken over my life. That is due, in large part, to how I manage my schedule. I really do like writing, so it would be pretty easy for me to get caught up in the rapture of needing to post pithy blog post after pithy blog post. I avoid that by dedicating one day for writing blog content and a portion of two other days to blog management and social media/networking activities (i.e. reviewing friend requests on Facebook, responding to LinkedIn requests, making sure my blog has my most recent speaking schedule, etc.)

I know that not everyone has the same work style or approach that I do. Many people don’t know when enough is enough. They blog and blog and blog until they have nothing left–their content is all spent, then they suffer from burnout and die. Those types need a virtual chill pill. Permission and a means to disconnect momentarily–and NOSO offers that.

NOSO is not right for everyone. Ask your doctor if NOSO is right for you.

People are overloaded and completely innundated with e-mail. I’m one of those people, and I’m getting to the point where I’m seeking out solutions to the madness.

One of the things I’m trying is a new product called Email Center Pro, from the good folks at Palo Alto Software.

They say it’s supposed to be great for companies that have multiple e-mail accounts to check, but I’m finding that it’s great for any super-busy person.

It lets you delegate e-mail, add notes to each e-mail and do other stuff that you’ve always wanted to be able to do with e-mail. The interface is easy to use, so the learning curve is looooow.

If you want to try it with me for 90 days for free, I’ve only got 30 invites. First come, first served. Click here to try it. The form should automatically add “LenaMedia” in the promo code section.

Drop back to comment and let me know what you think…

There are loads of different elements to businesses being successful with e-mail marketing. One of them is list pruning.

One of our clients sent me an e-mail the other day asking if removing nonresponsive people from her e-mail list will give her a more successful list.

Absolutely it will.

Think of it like this . . . when you have a plant with leaves that are half-dead, the plant’s systems have to work that much harder to attempt to send life to leaves and branches that are half-dead.

If you prune that plant and cut the dead leaves, the plant becomes much healthier. It now has free energy to sustain the leaves and branches that really want and need the extra energy, so they can grow.

Same thing with your e-mail list. Let’s face it, there are some people who are tire kickers. These are the people who signup for your lists no matter what you offer and never open the e-mail. They never buy anything. They never call your office for more information. They just sit on your list and suck up energy (all your free information).

So how can you start pruning your list?

1. Start looking at your list’s statistics. Look at the open rates overall and then start looking at the open rates per individual. It might take you some time to do this, but it’s worth it (or have your assistant do this).

2. Then look at your click-through rates (This rate measures how many people click through from your e-zine to your website). Look at the overall number and then look at specifics.

3. You can go all the way up to looking at conversions, but I’ll talk about that later. For right now, start familiarizing yourself with who the openers and the clickers are on your list.

4. Create a separate list for the inactive people on your list–those who don’t open or click. Move them to the separate list and only market to them once in a while.

Make like a healthy plant and devote your marketing energy to the leaves and branches that already show promise of growing.

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?

Over at Utterz, the topic of conversation is “Service Interruptions: How Long is Too Long?”

It’s a good question.  And it piggybacks (is that a word?) on a topic I wrote about a few days ago: the ins and outs of disaster recovery.

Our company provided direct relief efforts for businesses affected by 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, so I know of what I speak.

Of the cases that were assigned to us, we could only help 20 percent get their business’s technology back on track. That means 80 percent of businesses went under.

And, believe you me, it wasn’t for lack of skill, expertise or effort. We tried. They tried. We all tried. But, ultimately there is not much you can do for a company that:

• Doesn’t have an off-site back-up of its critical files;
• Has a backup device that has never been tested and, when push came to shove, the device malfunctioned or couldn’t restore for some other reason;
• Can’t supply a complete contact list of suppliers, clients and alliances for communication and notification;
• Doesn’t have enough money in the budget to replace destroyed equipment;
• Has not identified an off-site location to set up temporary residence; or
• Does not have access to project files, business planning documents or even legal and financial documentation.

Your clients may very well be raving fans. Your suppliers may routinely go the extra mile for you. Your alliances may deliver value-added service for your clients time and time again.

However, at some point, your clients/alliance partners/suppliers will have to get back to business, with or without your company on board.

Business is not personal; business is business. And your colleagues simply will not wait forever for you to get your act together.

How do we get to proactivity? How do you start making time to do the strategic activities to grow your business?

It’s a little thing called a dedicated business development day. Some people call them focus days. Some people call them work days.

Each Friday, I gather together all my business development activities (brainstorming new white papers/articles, outlining a new program, working on our brand overhaul, telecons with potential clients and strategic alliances, etc.) I prioritize the list and mercilessly slice through it.

It gives me a jazzed feeling during the week knowing that I’ll get to my business development tasks relatively soon and the sense of accomplishment at the end of the week always kick-starts my weekend!

But, here’s where my system differs from most. Rather than letting tasks go undone for months at a time, whatever I don’t get done that still really needs to get done (yes, this happens), I schedule work days with my business friends once or twice THAT month to clear out all those undone tasks. These are usually Saturdays (although I try not to work on weekends sometimes it’s inevitable) and we call each other every hour or two to make sure we’re still on-target. Usually, we only need the first two calls and then we’re off to the races.

Whatever works for you - make like Nike and “Just do it.”