Now more than ever, small businesses need ways to drive and improve business productivity and maximize investments on each small business IT solution in order to deliver excellent customer service and accelerate revenues. The good news is, there are numerous, actionable steps business owners can follow to move beyond survival mode into thrive territory.

When you think about IT, you may immediately see dollar signs, but there are ways to maximize your IT expenditures, which will ultimately help boost revenue. According to market research, small business IT solution spending is on the rise. International Data Corporation (IDC) forecasts that small and medium sized business spending on IT will increase 5.5 percent over the 2010-2014 forecast period. Research also shows that IT decision makers for small and medium sized businesses will be focusing more of their time on IT expenditures, however with a limited budget.

Since small businesses continue to feel the pressures of the economy, they will remain cautious in their IT spending, but these simple tips will help maximize the benefits of your small business IT solution expenditures and help create dramatic increases in your productivity and overall business growth.

Below, I have outlined 10 tips that businesses owners should consider and execute to boost profitability and improve business productivity. If you’re an entrepreneur, consider one or all of the following tips to take your business to the next level.

Boost Profitability with a Cost-Effective, Comprehensive Small Business IT Solution

1. Boost Your Email. In the world of small business today, email is the central form of communication. It enables you to communicate efficiently with your fellow employees and customers. Equipping your business with a reliable and robust email platform is a critical piece to improving business productivity.

2. Build a Web Presence. If your small business does not have a web presence then you are missing a golden opportunity. There are tools available at your fingertips that will help you create a website that is interactive and engaging for your customers and prospects; try adding video or a blog.

3. Work the Web. Does your website still fit the needs of your business? If not, it may be time to upgrade to a small business IT solution, such as an e-commerce system, that enables you to sell your products or services online.

4. Upgrade Your Apps. Move your accounting off the spreadsheet and into a professional accounting software application. Whether free or subscription-based software on demand or a self-hosted solution, this is not a time to short-change your cash management.

5. Back It Up. Can the server in your IT closet withstand a flood, fire, tornado or your building’s sprinkler system? If you’ve answered no or are unsure, consider offsite data backup services as a part of your small business IT solution. Scrimping now may cost you later.

6. The Search Is On. Search engine optimization improves your rank on sites like Google and Yahoo!. A few keywords can improve your business productivity by catapulting your ranking in only a few months and earning you more business.

7. Be Smart and Social. Do some social media due diligence to find out if your industry cares about tweets, friends or followers before you invest valuable resources in social media.

8. More Productivity, Fewer Problems. Focus on services that improve business productivity, like providing your mobile sales force with anywhere access to your office’s network. Even though the economic tide is starting to improve, your customers still expect you to do more with less.

9. Inspect Your IT. Complete a technology audit of each small business IT solution that you pay for and determine its value. For example, what benefit does the company receive from employees having unlimited texting?

10. Consolidation Is King. Move voice, data, web hosting and other IT services to a single provider so you only have to pay one bill or contact one provider if you have a question. A consolidated small business IT solution will save you time by not having to chase down different providers for one problem.

11. Count on the Cloud. Prioritize your technology decisions by how much they will accelerate your company’s ability to grow and thereby improve your business productivity. For example, using cloud-based services gives your business access to productivity-enhancing technology at a fraction of the price.

12. Can the Spam. Spam costs US companies almost 22 billion dollars each year, and has a significant impact on employee productivity and business growth. Proactively protect yourself by self-filtering incoming emails. If you receive an email from someone you don’t know or don’t recognize, simply delete it.

Growth is good. Follow the tips above to improve business productivity, accelerate growth, and prepare for unmatched success with a comprehensive small business IT solution.

Determining what home business product you want to promote can be one of the most difficult tasks to your business. After all, your business should be and will be based off of your product. You will have other sources on your website to help bring in additional income, but a majority of your money should come through your business product. So what kinds of things are should you be considering when picking out the product you may wonder?

A brief overview of what you should look at includes a product that has public appeal, is within your budget, and is relatively fresh and new on the internet. This is not to say that you should select a product that you invented because odds are you will struggle promoting and making money this way. At the same time, you will have trouble making sells if you select a product that has extremely stiff competition.

Another feature to consider is how heavy the home business product is that you wish to sell. By selecting a product that weighs a lot, you have to be prepared to pay extra for shipping. Every little detail can make or break your business when you select your product.

Once you have considered these aspects, think about what type of home business product interests you. Work is a lot more fun when you are working with something that interests you. Not only that, but you will find it easier to force yourself into working those extra hours needed to put yourself ahead of the competition when you enjoy the business.

Next, you want to make a checklist of possible business products that meet all of the criteria listed above. The more products you have on your list, the more options you can look into to help you find the perfect product.

By looking on the major search engines online such as Yahoo, Google and MSN, you will be able to see how often people are searching for your product. Remember, you are looking for a balance between high public appeal but less competition. Also when looking on the search engines you want to look at how much people are paying to advertise the specific keyword you are targeting. This will help you identify how much competition you are going against.

The last thing to consider when selecting a home business product is focusing on a specific niche. For example, try and target just basketball as oppose to all sports equipment. Or even better, try selling just basketball jerseys as oppose to all basketball related items. This will give you less traffic but potentially more sells because everyone coming to your website will be looking for the exact product you offer.

Master these four fundamental steps to network marketing and be all but guaranteed both incredible wealth and great success. Fail to understand the importance of but one, and condemn your business to flounder and ultimately follow the path of so many eager, yet unprepared network marketing hopefuls.

You may be thinking at this point, only four secrets to making millions and millions of dollars? Let’s hear it then. Actually, there is really only one. Time and time again, success story after success story; all have this one truth in common. So, this particular gem I’ll save for last.

If network marketing is all about networking and of course marketing, why do so many network marketers continue to struggle to realize the infinite networking and lead generating potential of the internet? Simply put, it’s being done all wrong. How’s that?

Network marketing (also known as “Multi-Level-Marketing” or MLM) depends most heavily on…

– recruiting / lead generation / relationship-building

– sales conversion

– ongoing consumption

– replicating yourself through down line motivation and training

If your network marketing business fails to recognize the importance and any one of these fundamental elements then quite simply, you won’t have much of a business at all.

Everything starts with recruiting and lead generation. No leads means no sales. No sales means no down line. No down line means… I’m sure you get the idea here. The entire process is built upon the foundation of recruiting and relationship-building with the express intent of maximizing product consumption and the success of your down line. Your bottom line is this. If you can’t replicate your success within your down line you ultimately fail to realize the true income generating potential of network marketing.

That being said, I’ll take this opportunity to summarize my own cautionary tale for those who are new to network marketing or who are just now thinking of taking the plunge. For those who have been around the block a time or two please bear with me. Much of my story may undoubtedly sound very much like your own.

When I first made the decision to start my network marketing business, I believed that with a great product and an effective marketing system, enough hard work would guarantee me success. I had the right attitude, but the wrong impression of what made this business tick. I expected to have a great deal to learn and I was eager to do so. I attended trainings, bought books, studied sales copy, purchased leads, ran ad campaigns, the whole routine.

I managed to generate a fair number of leads, and only a few conversions. For me that was fine. I assumed that if x amount of traffic equaled y amount of conversions, all I needed to do was… You guessed it, drive more traffic. So, here I am grinding like a mad man at driving traffic, and losing all but my shirt in the process. That’s when it dawned on me. Sure things are a bit slow going, but if my real return on my investment comes with creating a successful down line… How many members of my down line can I honestly say would be willing to put in this much time, effort, and yes money, for the same results. Not a single one…

I’ll say this once more just to be absolutely clear. If you can’t easily and effectively replicate a reasonable measure of success in your network marketing down line, then you are in effect spinning your wheels without going much of anywhere. If you assume that replicated content and replicated sites are the same thing as replicated success, you may want to think again.

Think of your business like a car and the content you provide your potential prospects as the wheels. If you expect to move your business you need the content you provide about your business to stand out. You need wheels that give your business traction. That traction comes in the form of having a unique voice and providing your prospects unique content about your business.

Well that about says it… Once you do your pre-selling and your marketing to generate your leads make sure you can provide good quality content to convert those leads into sales. Create an effective method to transfer some form of ownership to your down line so that they can achieve their own unique voice and replicate your success for themselves.

Oh and as for my million dollar secret… So, what is the secret that creates truly successful businesses, not to mention truly wealthy people? Here it is…

Do what you love… If you can find a way to turn your passion, your interest, even your favorite hobby into your business, then you will be in a much better position to achieve true success. Turning an opportunity to make money into something you love is infinitely more difficult that turning something you love into an opportunity to make money.

If this information helps even one person out there find a bit of the success that we all seem to be searching for, then I’d say that this article has served it’s purpose very well. For any questions or further information, feel free to contact me.