I just got an email notifying me that my password will expire in 7 days! Time to reinvent the wheel and come up with another super secure passcode? Why torture yourself with password trauma? Here are my 5 easy tips to a better password!
Instead of banging your head on your table or coming up with a complicated password that will be hard for you to remember, I decided to outline how I like to generate my passwords. Disclaimer: Please don’t use the example passwords for your logins. They aren’t secure! Please do use my tricks to help you generate even better ones!
Tip 1: Turn your password into a sentence. Use at least one proper noun within the sentence to make it a little complicated and end with punctuation. Take the first letters of each word and punctuation for your password. Here’s an example:
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Most people, including me, think of Section 179 as some mysterious or complicated piece of tax code. The bottom line is that it is important that you understand what this specific code means for your business because you may be missing out on big deductions.
In this post, I’ll walk through Section 179 in plain English and explain how your investment in computer equipment might be the perfect way of you to take advantage of this deduction.
First, what the heck is the Section 179 Deduction?
Section 179 of the IRS tax code lets businesses deduct full purchase price of qualifying equipment—which includes computers and software— purchased during the tax year. What this means is when your business buys qualified equipment or software, they can deduct the FULL PURCHASE PRICE from your gross income. The logic behind why Section 179 exists? To encourage businesses to buy equipment and invest in their businesses.
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Have you ever had to collaborate with clients when progress was delayed because someone either didn’t get an email or didn’t get back soon enough? While email, file sharing and conference calls may be very familiar and comfortable, there are actually much more effective ways to engage team collaboration that are safer and more efficient than many conventional methods—email, VPN (Virtual Private Network) or Dropbox (just to name a few).
Indeed, cloud technologies and collaboration are a match made in cyber-heaven. Here, I outline how you could be working with cloud collaboration rather than your normal routine: huddled around a desktop PC in someone’s cubicle, shuffling documents between offices, back and forth phone and emails (choose your own misadventure) that undermine yours and your employees’ productivity.
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For years now, people have been talking about how high-functioning computers would take over the world—a SciFi thriller where tries to fight back against masses of robotic armies, machines trying to eliminate human existence. The notion of a completely automated society and workplace certainly seemed far-fetched 10 or 15 years ago and, in my opinion is still rather off-the-wall. When news anchors and columnists refer to automated computers taking over our jobs, they are sensationalizing the idea that computer automation will devalue human employment. On the contrary, I argue that process automation does quite the opposite—automation eliminates non-value-added work in order to highlight one’s particularly valuable and important human skills. Skills that would be exceedingly hard to replace by machines.
The specific value businesses get out of automated processes is not just in efficiency. It also goes beyond cost-savings. Rather, the tangible value that automation gives to a business is in increasing the perceived value of their workforce. Automation is meant to reduce employees’ time spent on simple tasks while increasing their time engaged in higher order thinking.
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Information Technology (IT) can make or break a business. When done right, thoughtfully laid-out and well-implemented technology solutions result in increased profit, productivity and growth. In a recent article, “Productivity is soaring at Top Firms and Sluggish Everywhere Else”, HBR correspondent Chiara Criscuolo pins the success of growing businesses on innovative IT strategies. Criscuolo identifies the main cause of the increasing productivity gap between successful “Frontier” firms and everyone else as the effective use and implementation of IT solutions.
Productivity is the most important driver of economic growth and long-term sustainability in an increasingly competitive marketplace. An HBR research team found that the most successful businesses—both in manufacturing and service— effectively implement IT strategies: strategies that make successful firms exceedingly more successful. These IT strategies focus on increased productivity in service and production—culminating technological investments with human and organizational improvement. The IT revolution goes beyond simply technological advances—rather it emphasizes the integration of human skill with software and organizational know-how (managerial quality) to create a more satisfied, engaged and productive workforce.
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PayPal chip reader
The transition to the new chip credit card technology may at first glance seem confusing— I’ve heard several business owners ask questions such as “How will this impact my business?”, “Will this cost me a lot of money?” and “What are my options?”. In short, if you currently use a point of sale (POS) system, the new industry standards will affect you. Check out our recent post about this chip credit card transition for details. You will want to invest in a chip-capable card reader by October 1 of this year (the date when major credit card providers will switch over to their new policy). But on the bright side, there are a couple of light-weight options for chip card readers that are relatively inexpensive, easy to use and even compatible with most current iPhones, tablets and Android devices.
Both Square and PayPal have announced chip/swipe readers that should be coming later this year. These mobile credit card readers simply plug into the headphone jack on your phone or tablet— effectively transforming it into a cash register.
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