A new Blog for small business

Hello! Well... hot to say it. I don't know if it is actually a good new for you but I wanted to let you know that I have another Blog! yes but that one is not about good news is about small business!

For me it is a good new :) because I will be trying to invite many interesting people from many countries in the world. I will try to get their contribution there with the goal to share some of our knowledge, experiences, mistakes and good moments!

I hope to have many members from the Small Business Specialists Community, som Partner Area Leads more known as PALS and more specialists interested into share information.
If you feel like visiting it please click here and you will be able to read for free the very first 2 posts!!! :)

Good news for small business and Microsoft small business specialists

Some days ago I have posted a message regarding the Microsoft PAL denomination. Since then many things are going on and the PAL community. I must say that I am one of the PALS and that is why I feel the need to share more information about it with you.

If you are the owner of a small business

1. There is a group of qualified companies, all of them are Microsoft partners, ready to help you finding solutions to your business challenges regarding information technologies.
2. The group of small business specialists (SBS) are not necessary small businesses. There is a great range of SBS and most of them with very interesting expertise.
3. You can find solutions and partners visiting the Microsoft Solution Finder. Click here. First you will see a page like the first image, after selecting the country and typing in the search space "small business specialist" you will be able to select partners or solutions. In the section of partners you will see the complete list.
   

Above: Picture 1

Above: Picture 2

If you are a Microsoft Small Business Specialist

The PALS are actually for helping you. They are very active community leaders and actually they have the responsibility of taking your feedback to Microsoft.
Actually Microsoft is very concerned about improving the capacity of SBS for making better business and attending each time better the requirements of their customers. If you have suggestions you just need to contact the PAL in charge of your area or region and that's it! Find your local PAL here.
You can also listen to a really good interview from Vlad... it is actually a "Vladcast". There you will listen 2 Microsoft Partner Area Leads Vijay Riyait and Dean Calvert talking about the PAL program goals and objectives.

Gooood news for entrepreneurs

Some years ago was just impossible to get easy and free access to a huge number of professionals from all around the world. In our days technology breaks that barrier and lets the "business networking" to be a simple and easy job.
I'm talking about portals on the Internet that makes business networking possible. I know 2 of them and I really recommend them:

1. Xing

1. Linkedin

In both cases the membership is free.
The principle of the sites is to be able to see profiles of persons and their interests. If some of them looks interesting for you then you can invite them to join your network. Of course you can invite also to all your existing base of customers, providers and friends.
The effect is really interesting because each of your contacts will have also their own contacts and they will be able to see your profile and eventually invite you to be a direct contact with them as well. That means that as more contacts you have better possibilities of knowing more people.
Both services are very well designed and they avoid spam. I never received a message that wasn't interesting for me.

In the case of Linkedin there is a new service called "Answers", it is something similar than the Yahoo Answers service but the benefit is that you get answers from adults and in most of the cases especilists in different topics, very cool!

Xing is also interesting because it lets you participate and create "groups". There you can create forums and also communicate with the members of it using newsletters. You can use the group's home page from your web site or link it from your email signature, that can be very useful if you need to communicate with partners or providers with a reliable service and great security functionality.

NOTE: It is important in both cases to be an active member and to keep your profile with current information. There are millions of persons participating so it is not so easy to be contacted "just like that". My advise: invite all your contact list! that will also help you to keep your contacts online... so if your computer crashes... you have them also online :)