The cost of starting a web-based business has dropped dramatically — to the point where small teams can bootstrap their way to profitability in very little time, but most entrepreneurs will still find a need for investors of some kind.

For starters, not every business can run with zero operating costs. Some types of businesses, particularly those involving transportation, hardware manufacturing, or a retail business, still require an initial capital investment. And even for the purely digital business, costs tend to find a way of rising once users jump on board and server costs grow.

Communication in your business is like the nervous system in your body. It controls the flow of information in and out of the entire organization. It brings in data, orders and news, sends out requests for supplies, marketing messages and information for your staff. A business without communication is not a business — it’s an expensive hobby.

This century has seen changes to the nature of communication few people could have predicted or even imagined. The machines have changed — some to the point they’re hardly recognizable — but the functions remain the same. Companies that can leverage the newest communicate modalities will maintain a powerful advantage over competitors who don’t.

This week’s employee spotlight is on Khoi Nguyen.  Khoi is a senior systems engineer here and works on our network operations teams alongside others like Kevin Walsh, Gabe Ong, and Kevin Cormier.  Khoi works hard to maintain our system’s stability and leads our hardware and software upgrade projects.

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You have a dream. But no matter how brilliant your business idea, there is a dangerous ravine you need to cross in order to turn your vision, talent, and hard work into a solid, sustainable business. It’s that dangerous gap between concept and reliable revenue, and to cross it you need to overcome the Startup Stigma.

There’s the age-old “chicken and egg” problem at play here: It’s difficult to win clients when you don’t yet have satisfied clients to point. It’s hard to attract rock-star employees when you don’t have a proven company culture. It’s tricky to pitch potential partners when you don’t have any successful partnerships to reference.

So as a new small business, how do you convince the rest of the world that you’re competent, trustworthy, and reliable? How do you convince prospects that you’re more than just two friends running a business out of the guest bedroom – even if that’s exactly what you are?

Wondering what we’ve been up to lately? Well, last week we gave our Facebook fans a special sneak peek at something we’ve been working very hard on and that’s our mobile initiative.  Today, we’re excited to officially announce the launch of our newly designed mobile site.

Our mobile site was designed in tandem with the iPhone app we’re currently testing internally. So for those of you reading this, the mobile site and album on Facebook will give you a good idea of what you’re in store for when we officially launch our app.  Once we’re 100% satisfied with the performance of the iPhone app, we’ll be opening it slowly to a group of beta testers. Stay tuned for more on this!

Go ahead, check out the new site on your phone (or head over to our Facebook page for some screenshots) and be sure to tell us what you think!