We came across this video from Gimmal providing a lengthy but thorough 101 on cloud-based records management.  It clocks in at over at hour, but covers many of the strengths and risks of cloud-based record management and could contain some segments that other businesses might find helpful, particularly when trying to explain the initial concepts in concrete terms.

Over at Veteran Journal, there's an interesting interview with Tom Leney, the Executive Director of Small and Veterans Business Programs with the Department of Veterans Affairs, regarding the upcoming National Veterans Small Business Conference.  We blogged upon the convention in a previous post.  Click through to read the whole interview, and bear this fact in mind when thinking about attending:

We did [a] survey with over 70 respondents from a conference we did in Detroit, and 25 percent of the survey respondents from the 2012 [National Veterans Small Business Conference] said they received a contract award based on someone they met there or information they received there. That’s a pretty significant return on investment.

Wise words from Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams

Kathryn Hawkins at the Intuit Small Business Blog has assembled a handy list of cloud-based programs that can assist with constructing accurate quotes or estimates for prospective clients.  AGi was familiar with Bidsketch, but the other three were new to us:

• Quote Roller ($14.99 per month and up)
• Bidsketch ($19 per month and up)
• Proposable ($19 per month and up)
• Privia ($29 per month per user, with a minimum of five users and a two-year commitment)

Click through the the full post from Hawkins for her comparisons and additional information.

Related articles

• Top 10 Web Tools for Small Business Owners (earningdiary.com)
• 17 Essential Tools To Better Manage Your Freelance Business (hongkiat.com)
• Is a Cloud-based Solution the Same Thing as a Hosted Solution? (shoretelsky.com)

 

Washington Post has reported on a study completed by American Express.  After surveying 684 small business owners, they issued their report findings indicating that it’s getting more expensive to bid on a contract, and that a drop in government contracting dollars has contributed to a decline in the number of bids that small businesses make.

Some other interesting facts:

• "The largest companies in the survey, those with 50 or more employees, spent $257,098 seeking contracting opportunities in 2012, well above the $37,172 that businesses with fewer than 10 employees spent"
• "The number of bids that contractors have submitted has fallen sharply since 2007. The survey found that between 2010 and 2012, companies made an average 5.5 bids on contracts on which they would be the primary contractor, and 3.6 bids where they would be the subcontractor"
• A factual error indicated that "First-time contractors are winning that initial contract faster than their counterparts did in the past. In 2012, it took companies two years and 4.7 unsuccessful bids to score that first contract. Just a year earlier, contractors said it took them 16 months and 4.4 unsuccessful bids."  However, as a savvy commenter noticed, that indicates that first-time contractors actually took longer.