Technology Basics for Entrepreneurs

Have you been thinking of starting your own business for years? It’s not all glamour. Actually, it’s more hard work and hurdles than you’ve probably every imagined. If you have developed a product or service that meets a need in the marketplace, you’ve overcome the first hurdle.  The fundamental key to business success is the ability to create a market need and deliver your product or service to clients in a cost effective, profitable and honest way. Follow these recommendations from the professional entrepreneurs to ensure your business is launched for success.

The first step is to write a business plan. Define your steps, process and costs for developing and delivering your product or service. Even if you’re not seeing venture capital or a bank loan, you can’t be expected to succeed if you don’t have a basic plan. Take advantage of the awesome deals offered by Groupon coupons and invest in software for business start-ups from the huge selection available through Newegg. Keeping track of costs, inventory, accounts payable and receivable as well as data on your clients and their orders is crucial for sustainable success. Put this software to use on the first day.

Many small businesses are started at the kitchen table, a garage or even a basement. If you don’t anticipate have any client traffic at your location, this is the easiest place to keep costs low. Remind yourself that you can’t be an expert at everything. If you’re an engineer that’s developed a product, outsource your marketing needs and hire a qualified sales staff. If you’re a marketing wiz, employ an operations flow to fill your orders. Do that which you do well. Recognize what you don’t do well and learn from your mistakes.  Your business plan should include a timeline for profitability as well as an exit plan. Do you intend to grow your business in definitely? Are you positioning your business for growth with the intention of selling it at a certain date?  Keep your eye on your end goal and commit to conducting all facets of your business with honesty and integrity.…

Simple Ways to Improve Efficiency in the Workplace

Efficiency in the workplace is of the utmost importance. Not only does it boost profits, but it can also help enhance customer retention among other things. The following are a few tips that could help budding business owners improve their efficiency in diverse ways.

Reducing Costs

One major reason a company does not run as efficiently as possible is because of unnecessary costs. These issues can be hidden, and it is your job to seek out this unnecessary waste. One easy way to do this is to follow your production or services from beginning to end. See if any steps take longer than they should, and try to revamp that step to improve efficiency.

Use Technology

A benefit of living in this day and age is that technology is becoming increasingly available to all businesses. There used to be a time when only businesses with enough capital could invest in helpful software, but this is no longer the case. You can acquire big data software to help you analyze your employee’s productivity and your product or service productivity. Big data can highlight weaknesses and offer suggestions that could turn the tide.

Improve Personnel

You probably have staff that is committed to your goals, which means that some of these employees are willing to improve for the sake of your business. What you want to do is capitalize on the fact that these employees want to improve their positions at your company. Consider sponsoring or suggesting that your employees increase their knowledge by getting their agile certification from places like scrum-on.com.au. These classes help employees improve their ability to manage and improve productivity, which is ultimately what you want.

Control Inventory

Another area you need to improve is your inventory. You can try to track your inventory by hand, or use big data information to do it for you if you choose to purchase such software. What you want to find out is how you can decrease your inventory by reducing orders for items that do not sell often, and increase orders for items that always sell. This is a good way to decrease your spending, and it also improves your relationship with customers since they will begin to trust that your company will always have items in stock.

Work with Others

Another good idea is to hire additional help that could improve efficiency. Think of hiring HR personnel who could help improve things around your company. One of the most important tasks an HR professional has is the ability to scope out talent. This person will help place each employee in the best position to improve your company. This person will also try to find the right employee by creating a criteria of personality traits that would work well with your company.

These are just some of the steps that you can take to try to improve efficiency in your company. Of course, you can always do more. The point is to start, and take your first step because it is better than sitting idle.…

Embedded Central Processing Units Aren’t Just for Industrial Applications

We read everywhere about the explosion of technology in the world of the Internet-of-Things. This is a world that is driven by consumer demand. From their pet food dispenser to their armband sports radio, people want every kind of device that they use in their daily lives to be connected to the Internet. This is only possible if there is a miniature computer-like device embedded into the object that is able to exchange information with a mobile or Internet server via a Wi-Fi connection.

The Background on CPUS

We decided to dig a little deeper because we want to discover how this became possible. How can manufacturers fit tiny computer-like devices into objects? It goes back to the history of the central processing unit, or the brain of a computer. According to Britannica.com, this is possible when you develop a microprocessor (which is defined as a tiny electronic device that will have the control circuitry and the capability to process arithmetic and logic, much like a regular computer’s CPU). This type of device will have to receive and interpret instructions and accommodate arithmetic operations in order to carry out a computer program. The programs that a simple microprocessor can process is determined by the operating system that the manufacturer has loaded into it.

History Repeats Itself

When you think back to the 1990s, the idea of putting microprocessors into everyday objects like toys is not new. Kids used to play with small handheld devices that resembled computers. Really, when we were that age, we were just typing information onto a screen and then the microprocessor could process that information. It only had a few programs to run. Take the example of the Texas Instruments Speak&Spell. It had a rectangular shape, an easy-to-carry handle, a small screen, and a large, soft push-pad keyboard. Compared to the microprocessors that we use today in every device, like our smartphones, the CPU in that toy was limited. It didn’t take a lot of memory to process the simple programs that were required for a child user to play simple word games like Hangman, word scrambles, and practice spelling tests.

Times Have Changed

It’s easy to jump forward into time and picture a young child trying to use a smartphone. What the child may not realize is that the embedded computing solutions behind the smartphone that power the “apps” are much more complex than the Speak&Spell. To the young child, the experience is similar. You press a button (perhaps on a touch screen) for the application that you want, you interact with what you see on the screen, and then you get a result. What we like about the current stage of IoT devices is that people can do more. They can exchange their information using a handheld device with a built-in microprocessor through a wireless connection and get real-time results back in an instant. Instead of just playing on a GameBoy like we did when we were kids, small children can use a toy with a microprocessor and WiFi connection to video chat with their relatives in South Korea (or whatever they wish to do with that mobile link).

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