cloud drive Newsletter Marketing There is so much to talk about in your new business it's unbelievable. It doesn't matter what business you are in there is always new developments going on. Why not write about it and keep people up to date with a newsletter? Am I ready to drive an American made automobile, chase strippers at nightclubs and go to sales seminars where I can learn how to be a "top producer."? unlimited storage Google drive Am I happy to become an insurance guy? But not for these reasons. It's your lunch hour at the office and wanted to work on your grocery list? Plus, it will be on your phone when you're at the store. Pull out your iPhone or Android phone (with the Dropbox app installed) and pull up those adorable pictures stored in the cloud. One neat thing about having this cloud storage connected to your computer is after you have files stored in the cloud, you have access to them anywhere you go, as long as you have an Internet connection. Save it to your Dropbox account, it'll be on your PC when you get home. Do you want to show pictures of your kids or your grandkids to a friend at a party? How convenient is that? The best thing about this particular system, which makes it superior to competitors such as Dropbox, because only you have access to it and all your files are securely encrypted prior to uploading them to the cloud. Starting with Wuala - This is the highlight software with the drive, LaCie's Wuala is LaCie's cloud storage system. This hard drive comes with 10GB of LaCie's Wuala cloud storage for absolutely free. Unless you keep hard copies of the entire business, which nobody does, you'll never get it back. A cloud backup system is the most secure and safest being that your data is transferred and stored to off-line servers where hackers have no chance of breaking into your files. I'm not seeing any broadband issues either. Sure, this software is moving a LOT of data over the pipes to servers. But we've got a fast cable connection at our company and most of our clients have even faster T1-based networks, so moving the data isn't much of a problem. If this were being done over a phone line or even DSL, I may have concerns. I don't have this now. And like other companies that get sold based on revenue streams there's a formula for calculating a sales price which is usually based on a multiple of revenues. A potential buyer can offer me a price for that revenue stream. But by selling cloud services I could. And at that point I should actually have something valuable to sell: a revenue stream. I can keep collecting those checks or... cloud drive Overall, the Google calendar system has been a major improvement for our small business, and solved most of the problems we had with both the Microsoft exchange server and Blackberry services. The best part is since we have less than 5 people that need to share each other calendar in a group, it is all for free. If you don't need calendar sharing with more than your partner, assistant and home, this is a no brain-er. I think the limit is 50 per office. There are the first few big name scripts such as ModernBill, WHMAutoPilot, ClientExec, and Lpanel. Choosing a billing system : There are many different billing systems available, and searching for one that's fits can also be a wearing task. Most of these options allow for automated account creation, meaning when a customer signs up and pays, it automatically creates their account and emails the customer their login information. cloud backup If you need more space, Droplr can accommodate you with its premium service Droplr Pro. This is hard to beat but Google Drive comes closest by offering the same capacity for two bucks more at $4.99 per month. Another perk of Droplr Pro is the ability to upload files of 1 GB in size, which is a huge upgrade over the 25 MB the free service limits you to. Dropbox is the least cost effective as its premium service will cost you $19.99 for 100 GB in storage space. The company recently announced that it is offering its Pro service with a whopping 100 GB of storage for just $ 3 per month. LayerOnline Am I happy to become an insurance guy? But not for these reasons. Am I ready to drive an American made automobile, chase strippers at nightclubs and go to sales seminars where I can learn how to be a "top producer."? If they are something precious to you like family photos or archived records sometimes they can't ever be replaced and you are totally screwed. cloud backup Often we can't get those files back. Seriously, can you afford not to use cloud storage? Do you ever work on something from your job at home like a presentation that is due Monday and you are putting the finishing touches on it? Or perhaps your senior thesis is due and someone pops into your dorm and steals your laptop. But I'm not sold on this kind of service for my business. Not as surprised as that client of mine back in 1986 when he got a huge tax bill because I forgot to include a few deductions he had. And you'd think by reading to this point I'd be a convert. cloud drive So is hosting the way to go for small companies? For many, like Augustine, it's a great idea and one that will grow even more over the coming years.