Business Partner Magazine

Tips and advice for entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs

How to Create Custom Business Cards Online in Minutes

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When it comes to running a small business successfully, some would say that having a strong online presence is what counts nowadays. However, traditional marketing tools such as business cards are still an important element when it comes to establishing your business brand identity and communicating with public. Business cards make a great first impression, reflect professionalism and build trust between you and your potential associates and customers. Their design, shape, font and paper choice can tell a lot about your products, service and your creativity. Now, imagine that you can choose how your business cards will look like, from the beginning to the end without even leaving your home. If you like this idea, then Labeley online custom business card creator is a right tool for you.

 

Labeley business card creator is a free online tool for creating high-quality business cards for various industries. With Labeley, anyone can create custom business cards completely free and get them professionally printed and delivered to any destination in the world. It might sound intimidating, but rest assured that with this tool you don’t need any design skills to make unique, professional-looking business cards that best reflect your company.

Labeley Business Card Maker Quick Overview

  • Create and download unlimited number of single-sided or double-sided business cards for free and without registration
  • Choose among 200+ industry specific free templates
  • Upload any image and completely personalize your design
  • Order premium quality professional printing at reasonable prices

How to Use It?

The very first step of using Labeley business card creator is choosing whether you want to create single-sided or double-sided business cards under the Shape category. Continue by adding the Background of your choice and finish it with the appropriate Graphics that you want to represent your personal information which you will later fill in under Text section.

Keep in mind that you can also skip these creation steps and go straight to the Templates category, choose single-side or double-side template that best fits your industry and simply add your contact information before clicking on Save. Some of the industries available now are real estate, architecture, law, hospitality, dentistry, catering and many more. This way you can save time on designing your business cards while still making sure they look the way you wanted. All these templates are originally designed and completely free for commercial use.

Once you are all done you have several options to go with:

  1. Save and download your design without any sign-up
  2. Save and keep your designs on cloud for future use; you need to create an account by providing only your email address
  3. Save and order professional business card printing on prime quality paper

Those interested in high-quality printing can order from 50 up to 2000 business cards on six different paper materials and a very good value for money. Either way, with this handy online tool you will get unique business card design in minutes. So, if you haven’t really thought about having custom made business cards before, then this is a good time to consider it.

Article by Labeley.com

Benefits of Using Mobile Devices over Standalone GPS Devices for Tracking

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Undoubtedly, real-time tracking has become an integral part of our personal lives, as well as for companies with a fleet of vehicles. For instance, parents who have tough job keeping their kids safe and protected often rely on tracking devices to locate their child efficiently and accurately. From a business perspective, transportation companies such as school buses leverage real-time tracking to provide their clients with peace of mind and ensure that their children arrive at school and home safely every day.

However, when it comes to choosing the right tracking platform, many people often find themselves confused with the number of options available in the market. However, in fact, the options in the market can be simply divided into two categories:  Tracking software embedded on mobile devices/smartphones; and standalone GPS devices which have “dedicated” GPS chips in them.

While many drivers are still in favor of using standalone GPS devices that they can just leave in their vehicles, many others – including non-drivers – are finding mobile devices as good, if not a better option for tracking.

Read on as we discuss in this infographic the top benefits of using mobile devices over dedicated GPS devices for tracking.

Infographic by myTrackee

11 Cyber Security Risks Every Business Should Prepare For

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Advancement in technology also entails an increase of its security. On a daily basis, hacking happens in different parts of the world.

According to a study by TechCrunch published in ZeroFOX, around 600,000 logins are hacked, and that’s on Facebook alone. These are for personal and individual accounts, so just think about its effect on businesses.

Unfortunately, small businesses are the most vulnerable if they don’t invest in good IT support companies. Since they’re not prioritized accounts, they are vulnerable to attacks.

By 2021, cyberhacking is expected to hit $6 trillion on a yearly basis—which is huge and obviously, not good. In line with that, there’s a significant increase in data breaches since 2013.

If you’re a business owner who wants to avoid this business dilemma, then you should act now. At the very least, establish a cyber incident responses plan. This will lay down the step by step process you should take if ever a cyber incident happens. A cyberattack can spread like wildfire from one compromised device to another until it takes over your system.

After solidifying this for your business, make sure to inform your employees about it. One major reason for cybersecurity risks is the subpar knowledge of employees on how to protect the system such as removable devices and online links.

Infographic by Transcosmos Information Systems Limited

Creating Meaningful Customer Relationships in the Age of Tech – Infographic

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Technology can of course greatly improve the customer experience, but businesses must also thread carefully to ensure they don’t lose touch with their customers either. This infographic from CUBE looks at how to use tech to build technology alongside customer relationships. Businesses need to keep in mind that 91% of consumers value brands for their authenticity so it’s vital not to shove technology down their throats.

Technology should be used to amplify customer relationships and make them stronger and it should not encourage businesses to get lazy in their real-life interactions. For example, big data gives you valuable information but it’s how you use this data to connect with your customers that’s most important.

The key message is that obtaining data and using data are two different things entirely and all technology should be used to support customer experience goals.  You should look at using all technology to create an experience for customers that is truly memorable and authentic.

About the Author
Steve Hashman is Director of CUBEMC. Cube provides a number of marketing solutions for businesses of all types. They specialize in providing sophisticated on hold music marketing solutions.

The Evolution of Cloud Communications in 2018

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For tech-savvy businesses and IT executives, cloud computing is more than just an industry buzzword. More and more companies are turning their attention to how they can leverage technology cloud-computing tech to accomplish their business objectives, including reduction of overheads, cost savings, increased business flexibility, attention to the latest security measures, and more.

2018 is slated to be a big year for cloud communications and, as the numbers show, nearly every business that wants to remain competitive is utilizing cloud computing to expand their business model. Let’s take a look at some of the ways that the cloud is evolving.

More Cloud Storage Capacity

Nearly every industry is shifting its business model to cloud, which, in turn, is increasing the number of companies looking to service this ever-expanding demand. Service providers are bringing more data centers online and increasing their storage equipment. According to a recent Cisco survey, it was estimated that the total amount of data stored worldwide in data centers would be 370 exabytes (EB), while global storage capacity would be 600 EB. For 2018, these numbers are expected to hit 1.1 Zettabytes ZB), more than twice the space available in the previous years.

This exponential growth of available storage hasn’t gone unnoticed by businesses that are looking to embrace the zeitgeist and utilize the new capabilities of cloud computing. As an example, businesses that embrace a Big-Data-based approach can analyze larger-than-before data sets and derive invaluable insights into how their target markets behave, where costs are expected to grow, how to optimize the “human component” of a company’s infrastructure, and strategic financial investments that produce a favorable ROI.

Best of all, small businesses and startups can utilize the same cloud-computing services of the larger companies, leveling the playing field for emerging services, products, and technology. SaaS-based tech, or Software as a Service, via the cloud, has opened a flexible solution that provides cost-effective possibilities to experiment and integrate these new cloud services. Similarly, cloud computing is encompassing infrastructure (IaaS) and platforms (PaaS), which can allow public and private sectors the ability to manage their businesses in a cloud-centric way.

Unprecedented Growth in the Cloud Computing Industry

The aforementioned Cisco survey also had a number of forecasts that are coming true:

  • SaaS will account for 60% of all cloud-based workloads in 2018
  • PaaS solutions will experience a 5% percent growth rate in 2018
  • IaaS solutions are set to grow by 13% in 2018

While these projections were made in 2016, recent data has shown this to be modest, though prescient prediction in the cloud-computing industry, with IaaS actually tripling in Cisco’s study. Therefore, businesses that want to step-up their efforts while simplifying their operations can look to SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS as the new trends to follow.

Enhanced Internet Quality

With the expansion of global storage capacity by service providers set to increase by 2018 (and showing no sign of slowing down), it also follows that the quality of the Internet and emerging tech that can give individuals and businesses the ability to integrate cloud-based services such as virtual phone numbers will increase. After all, consumers want faster connections and better service from their network providers. With companies like Qualcomm Snapdragon leading the way towards this ever-accelerating trend, 2018 should see a number of industry players looking to work on these improvements, especially in regards to the emerging technology of full 5G networks. This enhanced quality of networking will increase the demand for faster load times, highly-responsive services, and never-before-seen apps. Smart organizations have already begun to reevaluate website platforms to be more responsive, but emerging technologies, like the Internet of Things(IoT) and the Internet of Everything (IoE) industries are set to explode in growth due to these faster and more efficient network speeds.

The Cloud and the Internet of Everything (IoE)

For those who were paying attention in 2017, IoT and AI (artificial intelligence) played a pivotal role in the changing forecasts of the tech community. Industry innovators like Elon Musk have made a number of comments on the potential that these technologies can not only benefit businesses but also towards the general quality of life of people globally. Industry experts have been anticipating IoT’s own growth due to the continuous innovations that cloud computing can offer. This has pushed innovation for IoE to take center stage, as cloud computing can facilitate IoE’s efficacy in machine-to-machine communication, data processing, and how humans communicate with nearly everything in their environment. In short, cloud computing aims to simply the world in all interactions, thanks to the cloud.

As end-users, consumers can potentially interact intelligently with every device in a network — and how humans interact. As an example, Google’s Pixel Buds are a wearable headset equipped with the ability to translate around 40 languages in real-time for its user. Similarly, the IoE provides businesses with an increased insight into how consumers interface with their products or services, yielding data that can help simplify customer experiences through automation. Considering that automated procedures, like Japan’s introduction of smart robots into the hospitality industry, can facilitate a positive experience for those staying in hotels, it goes to follow that savvy startups will seek to bring IoE and the cloud to every aspect of our lives in 2018.

Bringing Security Measures with the Cloud

2017 was a challenging year for security breaches and cyber attacks, which have included the likes of WannaCry ransomware, the CIA Vault 7 attack, and the hacking of Big 3 credit bureau Equifax. 2018 is expected to have even more security challenges of this nature as cyber attackers become more sophisticated. Therefore, security analysts in nearly every sector and industry (government, public, and private) will have to modernize their methodology to encompass more and more sophisticated strategies as malicious entities infiltrate their organizations.

Cloud computing services have already begun to play a role in mitigating these attacks through facilitating the use of tools like SEIM services (security information and event management) as necessary defense mechanisms because budget-conscious organizations may not have the resources, manpower, and know-how to prevent such advanced security breaches on their own.

About the Author

Tom Senkus is known as a freelance writer and author of over 9 books which are available now on Amazon.  Some of Tom’s work includes articles in the financial, tech, and telecom sectors.  In his spare time, he likes to play music, stay up to date on some of the latest technology, and read books of Russian literature.