America’s SBDC Blog

A “Forbes 100 Best Websites for Entrepreneurs”

Shaping the Future of Credit Cards Four Important Trends

April 25, 2013

As a merchant it is important to keep abreast and know where the future of credit cards is heading. It is with this in mind that we review four important trends of innovation and technological advancement in the credit card space.

Multi-function Cards

A common challenge faced by the global credit card industry is combating attrition and diminishing wallet share, particularly as the use of debit over credit continues to increase. Historically, rewards programs were used to encourage consumers to choose a particular card over another. As these programs decrease in perceived value, issuers are searching for another tactic to encourage customer loyalty. One way is with a single, multi-function card.

Multi-function cards have the capability of giving the holder access to multiple accounts on a single plastic. The most common multi-function card structure gives consumers the ability to access both a debit and credit account on the same card. While multi-function capability has generally been used to enable consumers to choose between credit and debit accounts, the functionality can also allow different categories of accounts or different modes of credit to be accessed. (more…)

Reducing Fraud and Increasing Data Security Top 10 Tips to Help Keep Your Data Safe

April 23, 2013

Your customers expect you to keep their personal cardholder data safe – not an unreasonable expectation and merchants must take it seriously. Such protection requires merchants to make an ongoing commitment to human and monetary resources, including new technologies, stronger policies and continuous diligence.

*NOTE: The following list is a selection of suggestions only and not intended to be an exhaustive or comprehensive list of data security tips.

Ensure your business is PCI DSS compliant

The Payment Card Industry (PCI) establishes and enforces security requirements for it constituents.
Ongoing compliance with the PCI DSS (Data Security Standard) is the critical first step towards a successful data security program.

Review how data is used in your payments system

Before you can protect it, you must understand the ins and outs of the confidential data in your system: (more…)

4 Essential IT Tips for an Office Move

March 20, 2013

When planning a relocation, many business owners underestimate the time and cost required to successfully transfer IT. In fact, they should be a primary consideration. If an employee or two is missing a desk because of furniture holdups, you can likely make do, but delays in getting your staff connected to phone and internet service are not so easily resolved. Fortunately, with a bit of background knowledge and preparation—and these four tips—you can sidestep the most common IT problems related to moving an office.

1. Consider Your Bandwidth Budget

Before submitting an offer for that new space, call around to several internet and phone service providers and find out if they service the location you’re considering; whether they can deliver the bandwidth and quality of service you require; and what the associated costs are. Then you can make an informed decision about the true expense of the space you’re considering.

Internet and phone service options vary greatly by location, so your monthly charges for these can change significantly when you move. For example, if you’re currently paying $150 per month for a high-bandwidth, fiber-optic connection, only to find that fiber service is unavailable in your new building, you might end up paying $1,000 or more per month for the same amount of bandwidth over a copper line. (more…)

When To Transition To AdWords Enhanced Campaigns

March 13, 2013

In early February, Google announced a major change to how AdWords works with the the introduction of Enhanced Campaigns. I have gotten many questions about this so I’ll share my take on the change.

If you’re just starting with your own search ads in AdWords, you’ll now create just a single campaign and it will show your ads to users regardless of whether they’re using a tablet, mobile phone, or desktop computer. In Enhanced Campaigns you can make a few simple tweaks to ensure your ads are successful on all these devices:

  • You can specify a bid multiplier so that bids for ads shown on mobile devices can be changed automatically across an entire campaign.
  • You can specify that some of your ads are intended for mobile devices, for example ads that have a mobile landing page URL.

(more…)

A New Year and New Approach to Evaluating Your Tech

February 13, 2013

We’re only a month into 2013 and if you’ve yet to make a resolution for your small business, consider assessing your technology. Evaluating how technology investments are serving your business requires a fair amount of thought and energy, but the pay-off is worth it since the process sheds light on exactly which changes must be made to increase business success.

When assessing your technology to determine how well it supports your business objectives, try structuring the process by analyzing the following three technology priorities:

Productivity and collaboration – Technology should help employees get things done, share information and work well as a team. Ask employees if they notice any patterns of inefficiency in workflow and their daily work tasks. Doing a thorough audit, will help you identify duplicate processes or tasks. Consider whether the programs they use integrate well with respect to internal and external communications. Also, observe how employees communicate with one another, which tools they use most frequently and if they spend unnecessary time determining if their colleagues are available. You may come to find that enhanced productivity solutions that work across various devices like tablets, PCs and smartphones will help your employees work better and smarter. (more…)