Much has been made in the last decade of how businesses will eventually run their operations “in the cloud.” The strongest case for business cloud computing is arguably the cost. Many cloud computing providers bill like a utility does – that is, you pay for what you used, not a flat fee (which is often more expensive than what you used.)
However, for all the hype about cloud computing, few possess an actual game plan for positioning their business to tangibly benefit from it. Below, Grasshopper provides ten specific services you can use to put business functions like bandwidth, e-mail, document creation and budgeting in the cloud immediately – and begin saving money every single day.
Servers and Bandwidth
One of the most substantial costs an Internet business (and many non-Internet businesses) contends with are those involving servers and bandwidth. Innumerable businesses require raw computing power to display web pages, send e-mails, stream audio or video and more. Following are several services that allow you to pay on demand for bandwidth from the cloud.
Amazon S3
Amazon S3 allows anyone to purchase as much storage space as they require
Posted in Small Business, Startup | Tagged Startup, technology | 2 Comments
We’ll admit it – the typical Twitter page is more likely to hinder startup success than it is to help. A Google search for “Twitter distraction” generates over 1.8 million results, including in-depth blog posts on how to prevent Twitter from breaking your focus. So we’ll understand if Twitter isn’t currently a big part of your work day. However, it would be unwise for startup founders to unplug completely from Twitter.
In fact, the Twitter accounts of other startups and founders are often treasure troves of relevant, applicable insight. After all, these are folks who have overcome the obstacles you are facing and achieved the goals you are striving for. Who better to learn from? The key to using Twitter productively, of course, is avoiding idle banter and following only those offering concrete, actionable advice. To that end, Grasshopper scoured Twitter for fourteen accounts that any startup founder would be well-served to follow.
Startup Digest
Startup Digest is an awesome service for getting plugged in with your local startup community. They also have a great Twitter list setup for you to follow to filter out some of the noise in your Twitter stream once in awhile and focus on valuable insights from leading tech blogs and entrepreneurs.
Posted in Entrepreneurship, Small Business, Startup | Tagged Entrepreneurship, Small Business, social media, Startup, tips, tricks | 20 CommentsWho you follow on Twitter has a tremendous impact on what you get out of Twitter. There are people tweeting great information on every topic available and there are also people out there using it just for fun. If you are follow the right people (see our previous post on the top entrepreneurs to follow), you increase your chances of finding solid tips and advice.
We’ve gathered 14 tweets from smart people around the web, offering some simple words of wisdom on startups:
Tech startups – be careful about “geeking out” on sales calls. You’re selling solutions to problems not technology. @byosko
Just finished a call with a CEO who is delaying fundraising till he gets more traction. Very smart. You can’t raise $ without validation @startupcfo
Avoid analysis paralysis…been noticing we talk a lot about the interpretation of data, not whether to act…this is the way to do it. @MikeMcDerment
