1. Two ways to access your work and personal GMail accounts from the same computer:

Say you have your business email, j.doe@acmewidgets.com, running in Google Apps and you have a personal GMail account, johndoe@gmail.com. Logging in an out of these accounts throughout the day can be tiresome. Here are two solutions that can make it less painful.

1. Method 1: Use the “Switch Account” Feature
• Log into the your Google Apps account and click your email address in the top left corner (in this case, j.doe@acmewidgets.com). Select Account Settings. Underneath your email address and aliases you’ll see an option called Multiple Sign-In. Click Edit. Select “On” and check the boxes that verify you understand how it works (actually read these). The biggest drawback with this method, in my opinion, is that you cannot access your Google Apps email or calendar offline. Another issue is that if you use a browser with tab pinning like me, and you always have you calendar and docs open, you have to relog into those as well every time you Switch Accounts.
• Method 2: Use Icognito Window in Google Chrome or RockMelt (a Chrome-based browser). 
• Run Google Apps (and Calendar, Docs, and whatever else) in a standard browser tab. For your personal GMail, launch an Incognito browser window from within Chrome (click the wrench icon) or RockMelt (click “RockMelt” in the upper left corner). This will allow you be logged into both your Google Apps account and your personal GMail account at the same time, which I much prefer. Thanks to Erica Strickland of Right Hand Maam for this tip. 

2. Schedule Emails in Google Apps with Boomerang

One of the features I instantly missed when Carceron transitioned from Microsoft Exchange / Outlook to Google Apps was the ability schedule emails. I often used this feature to send out timely reminders for any number of things, such as to my staff about things they needed to be prepared for at our next meeting, or to remind people of a far off event but with an email that would arrive closer to the actual date (without me having to remember to do it on that closer date). That problem is now solved by Boomerang, an plugin for Google Apps. (Thanks to Marcus Bearden at my company, Carceron, for this tip).

3. Hit the Mute Button to Remove Yourself from Email Conversations You Don’t Want to Be a Part Of.

If you have any kind of management role in your company, odds are you’re CCed or BCCed on a lot of emails, to say nothing of email jokes that get commented on for days. A very simple way to rid yourself of this problem is to use the built-in Mute feature. Open a message/conversation that you would like to ignore, click on More button then click on Mute. This is a Lab that you will need to activate from your options (gear icon on the top right, then click mail settings, then click Labs). You can also search Muted threads and even unmute conversations. Very handy for managers with email overload. (More information)

Looking for an easy way to post your status updates to the Linkedin Groups that you belong to?

1. Go to this url in your web browser: http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=   (bookmark this link)

2. After the = at the end of the link above, add the url of the site that you want to point people to (I usually use it to point people back to my blog articles).

Example: http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=http://www.carceron.net

From there you can create a status update that will hit your profile page, Twitter (if you have that option available) and Linked Groups. To send the post into Groups, simply start typing the name of the group. Or, you can start typing letters A-Z, and select which groups you want from each letter of the alphabet (this is what I do).

Great for creating some interaction or promoting events.

I can’t stress enough how powerful of a change this can be for your productivity. Once you get two displays running off of one computer, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it. The ways in which this can be used are limitless:

• Comparing documents on two different screens
• A dedicated program for each screen (for example: email always on one screen, internet browser on another, and a third “working” screen for productivity apps such as Microsoft Office or Google Apps – maybe a fourth for instant messenger chats or to watch stocks)

To take advantage of this, you’ll need a computer with 2 or more video output ports. Most mid-range to high-range desktop systems sold today already have 2 video ports (usually a VGA and an HDMI port), as do some laptops. If your desktop does not, you can purchase such a video card from your local electronics store (I recommend getting it profesionally installed unless you’re comfortable with the inner workings of a PC). If you’re laptop does not have a second video port, you can buy a USB video adapter as your secondary video output. CAUTION:  USB video adapters do not have video processors or RAM built-in, which means that they will use your laptop’s built-in processor and RAM which can effect system performance – make sure that you have plenty of RAM in your laptop and that you’re running at least a dual core system. Consequently, you may also be limited to a lower effective screen resolution for the monitor that is attached to the USB video adaptor as well. It also goes without saying that run more than 1 USB video adapter is not advised because of the drain on system resources. Another option for laptops with a single port is to use the built-in screen as 1 of the monitors. However, this can be a bit awkward in terms of monitor placement.

Assuming that you have the necessary ports and monitors, you’ll need to configure your Windows display settings for “Extended” like the picture below. Once you have configured this correctly, you should be able to drag and drop windows from one screen to another. You can also fine tune how the monitors are aligned by dragging the monitors into position in display settings. To do this, first click the identify button to make sure you know which monitor is which, then put your mouse of the monitor that you want to adjust, push and hold the left mouse key.

In the picture below, I have connected monitors 2 & 3 to my laptop, which has two built in ports. Note that monitor 1 is the actual laptop screen, which has been disabled as indicated by being greyed out (some dual port laptops will let you use the integrated screen as a third monitor, mine won’t). This means that I can drag and drop windows from display 2 to display 3 (left to right) and vice versa as needed. If I had 4 screens (like the graphic above), I could drag and drop left-right and/or up-down (in display settings, you would see two more monitors stacked on top of the 2 & 3 that you see below).

What’s in store for SMBs in 2011? How will The Cloud, Mobile Computing & Regulatory Compliance shape the business landscape in the years ahead?

Watch my presentation below and find out. This presentation was given to the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and Synergy. A condensed version of the presentation will be given on International Networking Day on March 24th at the Gwinnett Center.

PDF Version with Speaker Notes: Business Technology Predictions for 2011

You can continue to pay your coach/expert to revise your USP, or, after some marginal success, you can get back to what’s really important: your personal and company brand. No I am not talking about your logo, or blog, but what you and/or your company come to symbolize. Branding strategies used to be very expensive to execute… not anymore.

What is a brand? MBA textbooks aside, your brand is the sensory and mental image that you and/or company portay. Two 2 core components of your brand are reputation and credibility.

Reputation

When your name is mentioned to people that know of you or your company, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? a tight-laced professional or fat, lazy, casually dressed slob? In other words, does your visual appearance (the parts that you can control: clothing and grooming – and to some extent physical appearence, as would be the case for a personal trainer) meet society’s standards of your profession (name the last lawyer or financial planner you saw out of a suit and tie).

Do they know what you do? Why you do what you do? or How you do it? If not, then you have an education problem. Spend more time with people 1:1 and in groups. Take people that you are trying to establish a better reputation with on a meeting with a client or vendor or some other appt.

Credibility

When you’re in an intimate relationship, you’re constantly having to prove your love through acts of kindess, etc. Your reputation must also be proven on an ongoing basis. Put differently, your reputation is reinforced by your credibility - and can even grow by it. After you’ve executed your USP plan and have gotten some customers, I encourage you to spend massive amounts of time with your new customers finding out how else you can help them… and do just that.

Connect them with people/resources that they need, and/or, start evolving your business model to fill their needs. Get testimonials and endorsements from them everywhere and everywhere that is within the public eye:  notable mentions at Networking events, recommendations on Linkedin.com, wall posts on our company’s FaceBook Fan page, video testimonials in YouTube. Apply for every award you can personally, and for the business. Make sure to brag about the awards that you do win. Case in point, my company, Carceron, is the most recommended IT firm on Linkedin.com. I can claim this because my Linkedin profile has the most recommendation of any IT consultant in Metro Atlanta on Linkedin. See below:

In summary, reputation and credibility directly impact your networking efforts, and, by extension, the quantity and quality of referrals that you get. When you say that you “have the best customer service”, “are the most reliable”, etc. It’s a worthless platitude. When your customers and colleagues says those things, it’s GOLD.

Section 179: The Hummer Deduction

Often called the “SUV Exemption” or “Hummer deduction”, this little chuck of tax code allows business owners to write off 100% of most equipment expenses in the first year it is purchased. While you can buy a new gass-guzzling vehicle with it, there are obviously more practical uses like new office furniture or upgrading computer systems.

Visit http://www.section179.org/ to learn more and also seek the advice of your accountant

As an employer, you would think I would be in favor of this Amendment – and I am to some extent – but I can honestly say that after 9 years in business, I have never once had to enforce any my non-compete agreements. I feel strongly that it is my job as a CEO to create a company culture where people don’t want to jump ship.

That said, I actually voted against the passage of the Amendment because I was thinking about what was in the best interests of the general public in Georgia versus just me and my small business. Frankly I am shocked that Georgians voted against themselves on this one. How odd.

I received a Labor & Employment Advisory from Alston + Bird which sums up the results of the amendment quite nicely.

I have asked the chamber for a response to Byron’s issues and will post that as soon as I receive it.

If any other lawyers have advice on the other amendments I’d love to hear from you.

———————————————————-

Dear Investors:

The Executive Committee of the Metro Atlanta Chamber encourages our members to VOTE YES on November 2 for the six ballot measures below. All of the measures are business-friendly and will stimulate job creation, and one of the measures also addresses trauma funding, which is very important to Grady Hospital.

Click here for a summary of each issue and more details. Again, we encourage you to VOTE YES on each of these and to share this with your employees and staff.

• Amendment 1: Allows contracts with non-compete clauses to be enforced in Georgia courts.
• Amendment 2: Adds $10 tag fee on private passenger vehicles to fund statewide trauma-care expansion.
• Amendment 3: Allows the state to execute multiyear contracts for long-term transportation projects.
• Amendment 4: Allows the state to execute multiyear contracts for projects to improve energy efficiency and conservation.
• Amendment 5: Allows owners of industrial-zoned property to choose to remove the industrial designation from their property.
• Statewide Referendum: Provides for inventory of businesses to be exempt from state property tax.

Sincerely,

Sam A. Williams
President
Metro Atlanta Chamber
235 Andrew Young International Blvd., NW • Atlanta, GA 30303
Bringing the best together to help Atlanta thrive.

————————————————————-

Byron Sanford’s response to me regarding Amendment #1

————————————————————-

FYI, the first amendment, regarding Non-Compete agreements is EXTREMELY misleading and is BAD for many small and medium size business (but great for business litigators like me), as it is almost certain to push more cases regarding non-competes and non-solicitation agreements into court. These agreements are already enforceable in Georgia, if drawn up properly. The new law give JUDGES the power to re-write otherwise unenforceable provision (rather than throwing out over-reaching agreements, as they are now required to do). This means more cases will actually go to trial and the results will be less predictable as the judge gets to decide how the final restrictive provision will read.

This will encourage people to more over-reaching in how these types of provisions are drafted and will result in less certainty over how they will actually be enforces. This kind of uncertainty is bad for small and medium-sized business. The biggest beneficiaries are large businesses (who can easily outspend employees in litigation) and business litigators.

I would strongly encourage small and medium size businesses to get better informed on this issue. The Chamber’s position on this is not necessarily good for all of its membership!

-Byron

————————————————————–

Response from Janice Rys of the Metro Atlanta Chamber

————————————————————–

Chad–Thank you for contacting us and sharing your concerns on Amendment #1.  Our public policy team carefully and thoughtfully prepared all the amendment recommendations for our Board–and this was certainly a complicated one.

As background, earlier this year, the Georgia Legislature overwhelmingly passed HB 173 to put this measure on the ballot as an effort to put Georgia on equal footing with surrounding states when trying to attract jobs to the state.  Specifically, the primary purpose of the amendment is to allow judges to clarify current law and enforce the intent of both employers and employees who enter into employment agreements.  Currently, if there are any imperfections in the document, the judge is prevented from making any modifications (called “blue penciling”) to correct the deficiencies and the whole agreement must be thrown out.   This creates uncertainty for businesses who invest significant time, energy and resources training key personnel.  Georgia is at a competitive disadvantage to other states because of the current unenforceability of its law.

At the same time, the amendment also provides clarity and certainty to employees.  For the first time in Georgia, most employees would be legally ineligible to enter into such agreements should this amendment pass.  The new law would apply only to employees that have proprietary information about their company that could be shared with a competitor.  Additionally, for the first time, it would clearly define any employee agreement so employees know exactly what the law does and does not allow.  It also gives a judge the ability to void the agreement if the employee has experienced a financial hardship – something not in place today.

This current situation deters businesses from investing in and locating high-paying jobs here in Georgia, but Amendment #1 is the remedy.

As a chamber of commerce, we believe in full and fair competition.  We also believe in the value of fair contractual relationships so that both parties can have security in the terms and conditions under which they do conduct business.  We believe in Amendment #1.

Hope this is helpful to you.  As further information, attached are some documents that you may want to peruse on this issue.  Most notable is the letter from a small business owner, Ray DeMott with Southern Equipment, which provides a good look at how the current law is tough on businesses in Georgia, regardless of size.

Renay Blumenthal, SVP of Public Policy will be happy to answer any questions you might have…

Thanks for your support of us!

Janice

Janice Rys

Senior Vice President, Membership Development & Services Metro Atlanta Chamber

235 Andrew Young International Blvd.,NW * Atlanta, GA 30303

404.586.8473 * FAX 404.586.8416

———————————————————–

Additional Opinions

Kills Georgia’s Amendment #1, The Death of the Tech Startup

T Minus 22 Days

So Long Professional Services

How Natural Selection Should Punish Crappy Employers

How to Guarantee Another Startup Cluster Never Happens

Are you in the crosshairs?

Employees Chained & Restrained: Why We the People Must Defend Georgia’s Constitution Against HB173

(This article appeared in the special edition of the Atlanta Business Chronicle that was distributed at the 2010 Annual Atlanta Small Business Growth Expo)

Whether you believe we’re headed into the second dip of a so-called “double-dip recession” or you think that the worst is behind us, one thing is clear: We have all learned how to do more with less.  And if we are headed into a second “dip”, I predict that there will be far less casualties than the first one, having learned our lessons the first time around… I hope.

More Cloud Adoption

Among those lessons learned was to preserve cash at all costs. This has certainly increased the adoption of Cloud-based solutions for everything from email (Hosted Exchange & Google Apps), to online file sharing and storage, as well as a large range of line of business applications (accounting software, customer relationship management software, etc.).

Adoption of the Cloud as a business’s core IT infrastructure will continue to gain momentum in 2011 for many reasons. As I have already stated, the Cloud lets you hang on to your cash by converting large upfront capital expense’s to much more affordable operating expenses, generally on a monthly basis. This is important for new businesses because it dramatically lowers startup costs and alleviates concerns about scalability. Existing businesses can benefit in a similar way. They can now upgrade their aging infrastructure at a much more manageable cost.

The Cloud is also a much more efficient way to enjoy consistent system and feature updates on a regular basis. Our helpdesk system is cloud-based and we enjoy feature updates once a quarter, versus the once per year that you often get with on-premise software solutions where you’re waiting for the next version to come out.

More Regulatory Compliance

Also in 2011, look for more fines from the Federal Government over violations of regulatory compliance. Despite its passage being 14 years ago, the Feds have started issuing the first fines for violation of HIPAA this year. The recent passage of the American Recovery and Reimbursement Act of 2009 (commonly referred to as “The Stimulus”) included another act called HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic & Clinical Health Act) which reinforces HIPAA by specifically addressing the privacy and security concerns associated with the electronic transmission of health information.

The medical businesses aren’t the only ones that have to worry. All manner of financial intuitions have a wide range of regulations on them now: Sarbanes-Oxley (commonly called SOX), Graham-Leach-Bliley Act (GLB), PCI DDS (for credit cards), etc.

There are several technologies that companies worried about regulatory compliance will need to invest in:

• Email Encryption: Secures email communication so that only the intended recipient can view the message
• Email Archival: A record of all incoming and outgoing email communication. Most regulations require 7 or more years of retention
• Disk Encryption: secures the content of hard drives on computers. This is especially important for laptop users. There have been many stories in the media lately stolen laptops that contain sensitive data. The Veteran’s Administration is a recent one that comes to mind.
• 2-Factor Authentication: A 2-phase process of authenticating to a network or computer system. Examples are: a password and a thumbprint scan or a password and a token ID gotten from a special application on your mobile phone.

How to Grow Business in 2011

So after you’ve saved money by adopting the Cloud and made the appropriate investments to get the regulators off your back, how do you continue to grow your business in 2011? Ask this question to 10 people and you’ll get 10 different answers.  Some will say “more traditional marketing”, others will say “ implementing social media”,  and another might say “networking”. They’re all correct. You can’t just rely on one medium to market your business. My advice would be to get the online marketing (web site, Google ads, social media, etc.) as automated as possible (hire a firm to handle this for you if you can) and focus on your networking. Expand your personal network with the right people and develop strategic partnerships that are highly synergistic. Make sure that you are also connecting people together. It will pay off, I promise.

Here is a high level view of some of the government regulations that might affect your small business and some suggestions on how to achieve information technology compliance (I specify information technology compliance because you may have to do other things from a human resources or business process perspective that this article does not address.)

Disclaimer: I’m not lawyer and am providing you this information to the best of my knowledge. If you have concerns, seek out an attorney, compliance consultant relative to the the regulation(s) you are concerned with, an IT consultant or any combination of the above.

You can find more information about these regulations and others at http://www.compliancehome.com/

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS or commonly called just “PCI”)

PCI is a set of comprehensive requirements for enhancing payment account data security and was developed by the founding payment brands of the PCI Security Standards Council, including American Express, Discover Financial Services, JCB, MasterCard Worldwide and Visa International. Credit card companies and acquirer banks can levy stiff fines and remove the merchant’s ability to process credit card transactions until the merchant is PCI compliant.

Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA)

HIPPA requires that to ensure privacy and confidentiality, all patient healthcare information be protected when electronically stored, maintained, or transmitted. It also mandates that each user be uniquely identified before being granted access to confidential information. It specifies that access to personal health information (PHI) be restricted to only those individuals who need access as part of their role.

Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA)

GLBA mandates privacy and the protection of customer records maintained by financial institutions. These security requirements include access controls on customer information systems, encryption of electronic customer information, procedures to ensure that system modifications do not affect security, and monitoring systems to detect actual attacks or intrusions.

Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002

This Act came about as a result of the large corporate financial scandals involving Enron, WorldCom, Global Crossing and Arthur Anderson. Effective as of 2006, this Act only affects publicly traded companies. However, being “SOX-like” is a good idea if your goal is to be acquired by a large publicly traded company.

Technology Required for Compliance:

In the case of PCI, HIPAA and GLBA “encryption” and “archival” are the two words you will run into the most and likely to cost you the most money because it will require additional purchases in technology solutions.

Encryption

Encryption simply means “To conceal information by means of a code or cipher” so that only authorized people can access and use the information. In the case of PCI, HIPAA and GLBA, and, as it relates to information technology, files (information) and email (communication) must be encrypted.

To encrypt disks and files you can use Windows Server 2008 using the built in Encrypting File System feature or, for R2 users of Windows 2008 server, Bitlocker is available. which is what you would use on Windows 7 Enterprise or Ultimate desktops and laptops as well.

Email encryption would need to be done through a third party provider such as Carceron.

Email Archival

HIPAA and GLBA also require email archival. Even though recent versions of Microsoft Exchange come with some limited archiving ability, it’s not sufficient from a compliance perspective. You will need a third party company that can capture all ingoing and outgoing correspondence in an off-site archive where messages cannot be deleted. This is especially important for any financial businesses regulated by SEC through GLBA.

Access Control & Auditing

All of the above regulations have requirements regarding access control to files, email etc. as well as auditing requirements. Auditing in this case translates to “logs of who access what and when”. All of the current Windows systems (both server and desktop based) have these features built in – they simply need to be configured by an IT consultant. Another means of preventing access to sensitive information is 2-factor authentication.