SMB

Think taking your small business global is mission impossible? Think again. Communications advances are making globalization a reality, and it's the small business owners of the world who are busting borders and realizing greater growth potential. So says Laurel Delaney, CEO of GlobeTrade.com and au...

The Internet is still a very dangerous environment for conducting business. Lurking in the cyberspace shadows are criminal masterminds bent on stealing personal information and credit card numbers to further fund their activities. Almost daily, stories involving new worms, phishing scams or large s...

You know that half the money you are spending on Internet advertising is wasted -- you just aren't sure which half. You've read about Web analytics and have played with the free tools that come from your Web hosting solution, but you realize you need more. The only problem is, there are more than 60...

Microsoft has launched a US$500 million marketing campaign aimed at using its new products, including Windows Vista and Office 2007, to wrest enterprise customers away from rival IBM. Microsoft said Vista and the new version of Office will enable desktop computers to become control stations for hard...

Microsoft rolled out a beta version of Office Live, the first step in what is seen as an important foray for the company into the Web-delivered services and software arena. The beta version of Office Live is aimed at small businesses and includes tools for building and maintaining Web sites, for bac...

Saying even its smaller business customers need more powerful search solutions, Google is broadening its menu of enterprise-search appliances to include two larger versions of the Google Mini. The day before the one-year anniversary of the launch of the Mini, Google's first search appliance designed...

In a bid to provide more services to mid-sized enterprises in the United States, UK-based Sage Group said it will acquire Verus Financial Management for US$325 million in cash. Verus, a Nashville, Tenn.-based division of Financial Technology Ventures, specializes in providing credit-card and check p...

In a move to attract more small business customers, Microsoft is launching a subsidy program to allow this growing business demographic to receive credits toward consulting services when they purchase Microsoft software. Small businesses that purchase a minimum of five copies of Microsoft Office or ...

Microsoft is moving to make its software more attractive to smaller and medium-sized businesses, providing better pricing, easier licensing and resources to help partners focus on the smaller market that currently represents the biggest growth. Analysts indicated that Microsoft, fighting older versi...

Without access to e-mail, many of us would cease to function. If you use e-mail regularly, there is a 100 percent chance that some of the e-mails you send or receive will be blocked. If such e-mails are not important to you, then you might not notice. However, if those e-mails are important, then in...

Yahoo has launched a self-service ad-placement network that is designed to offer small publishers, including bloggers, access to revenue from contextually relevant advertising, a service already offered by rival Google. Yahoo said the beta version of the expanded Yahoo Publisher Network is aimed at ...

My friend Kevin Dart has always had an eye for English antiques. In fact, he regularly makes a pilgrimage to mother England to buy unique or hard-to-find pieces. Aside from working his "day job," his avocation is selling these pieces for a profit back in the U.S. While this task of hauling or shippi...

In a move to enhance its search and advertising businesses, Yahoo announced today it would offer free Web hosting to small businesses. The Internet company said any small business can sign up for a free Web page that will appear in Yahoo's Local directory. Yahoo Local general manager Paul Levine sai...

This is the time of year when the small-business owner has to start thinking of year-end strategies for his/her company. Because tax strategies have a large, yet controllable, influence on your business, they should be your main focus as a business owner. The business owner's tax decisions depend on...

Today is the federally mandated deadline for investment companies and other publicly owned firms to be in compliance with internal auditing controls stipulated by the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act of 2004. However, it appears many companies might miss the deadline. Under terms of the SOX law, otherwise k...