Ross & Ross International

Microsoft has significantly changed the Windows 8 and Office user interface. Your employees are going to have to re-learn how to use Office Applications after you upgrade your PCs and Laptops.  Here are a few key tips to help evaluate this upgrade for your Small Business.

Small Business “Windows 8″ Planning Tips:

1. Read the Walt Mossberg article (see link below) on Windows 8 before you spend any money
2. Increase (or establish) a budget for employee Office Software training
3. Line-up extra help for your staff, including: phone and one-to-one coaching
4. Make sure your existing software will work with Windows 8
5. Identify and Implement any business process changes
6. Re-write any office manuals
7. Confirm who in IT Support actually knows anything about Windows 8. It’s new to everyone….
8. Check that all your existing PC & Laptop accessories will work
9. Budget lots of extra money to deal with the unknown
10. You may want to wait for the rest of the industry to come up to speed before you invest in this upgrade.

The bottom-line is that your Small Business Staff & Information Technology Resource “Productivity will likely go down” and your “PC Costs will go up” by implementing Windows 8 this year.

Hope these tips help….

Note: It’s important for a Small Business Owner to read the Mossberg review below before you upgrade or buy a new Windows PC.

“Microsoft is giving Windows its most radical overhaul since 1995 and even its most devoted users won’t recognize the venerable computer operating system in this new incarnation, called Windows 8, when it appears Oct. 26.”  Walt Mossberg

Windows 8 Review by Walt Mossberg – AllThingsD

Note: Business Man in Photo Image courtesy of imagerymajestic / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

About 9 months ago, I needed to replace one of my older laptops.  Instead, I bought an Apple iPad, an iPad case and a Bluetooth Keyboard.  So far, I do NOT miss the laptop…and at this time, do NOT plan on buying another one again!

I’ve researched and tested over 100 iPad Apps so far. The following are my favorite Apps that help me get my job done in 18 key areas of our Small Business.  Please don’t get overwhelmed by all the application (app) options. Start with a few apps that you need every day and then add the others over time.  You’re in for a real treat.  Using an ipad is like no other PC, Mac or Laptop you have ever used. The iPad is much easier to use and a lot more fun.

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Your website is the most important technology needed today to grow your small business.   Yes. It is more important than Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Smartphones, Tablets and everything else you read about.

We recently underwent a big project to move and update several of our company Websites and Blogs.  We learned a lot from these projects and would like to share some of experiences.

The following are the top 10 tips that helped us minimize the time, cost and hassle of this project.

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Cloud based Remote Backup Services for a Small Business or Home Office

Over the last five years,  we moved more and more of our important information from paper storage to our PCs, Smartphones and to Cloud Applications.   When we completed Spring Cleaning this year, we actually eliminated “two 4-draw File Cabinets” with folders  instead of typically adding more of them.

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William Hewlett, Co-Founder of Hewlett-Packard often said: “What gets measured gets done.”

You can increase Sales Productivity if you focus on Tracking, Reporting and Reviewing these Metrics on a regular basis.

Five Key Sales & Marketing Metrics

1. Closed Sales Ratio
2. Qualified Lead Ratio
3. Pre-Qualified Lead Ratio
4. Marketing Response Ratio
5. Sales Cycle Ratio

Here are the Five Key Sales and Marketing Metrics and their descriptions:

1. Close Ratio

Measures the number of Sales Orders Closed divided by the number of Total Sales Deals that were listed in a Sales Forecast.

Example: It takes 5 Qualified Leads to close 1 Sales Order. This would be a 20% Close Ratio.

2. Qualified Lead Ratio

Measures the number of Qualified Leads divided by the number of Pre-Qualified Leads in the Sales Funnel (or Sales Pipeline).

Example: It takes 10 Pre-Qualified Leads to get 4 Qualified Leads. This would be a 40% Qualified Lead Ratio.

3. Pre-Qualified Lead Ratio

Measures the number of Pre-Qualified Leads divided by the Total Suspects that responded to all marketing events.

Example: It takes 100 Suspects to get 30 Pre-Qualified Leads. This would be a 30% Pre-Qualified Lead Ratio.

4. Marketing Response Ratio

Measures the number of Suspects divided by the total number of contacts sent marketing communications documents.

Example: It takes 1000 names on list to get 20 Suspects to respond. This would be a 2% Marketing Response Rate.

5. Sales Cycle Ratio

Measures the Date a Suspect has first Contact with a company minus the Date an Sales Order is Closed/Booked by the company.

Example: It takes an average of 6 months for a new Suspect to become a New Customer (or book its first sales order). This would be a 6-month Sales Cycle.