I have been using Google+ hangouts ever since it came out and in the past couple of months, I have used it to effectively run online panel discussions on various topics of interest. In fact, I see Google+ Hangouts and Youtube broadcasting as a killer of Podcasts (if it is not dead already). It can be effectively leveraged by analysts like me to run online panels and vendors for their marketing purposes including webinars. I have learned a few valuable lessons from running these panels and thought I will share them here.
If you really want to understand how the video will end up when you do all the above said mistakes, watch this recent hangout. In spite of all the above said gaffes, this is a pretty good discussion on various topics including CloudFoundry, OpenStack and APIs. We spoke with Jeff Hobbs, CTO and VP of engineering, ActiveState and Yoram Heller, VP of Corporate Development, MorphLabs.
If Google can clearly market Google Hangouts, it will be a great success over many of the other video communication and webinar tools in the market. Many people record their webinars and host it on Youtube while Google Hangouts on Air does the same automatically. I have great confidence in the potential of this product but I am not sure how far Google will go in pushing this hard. I will be very upset if this goes in the Google Wave way.
The national minimum wage rose yesterday, following on from a Fair Work decision last month to boost the pay packets of the country's lowest paid workers.
The 2.9 percent rise is due to impact the lives of 1.3 million Australians, with wages to rise $17 a week, to just above $606 per week.
This equates to almost $900 a year extra for a full-time employed minimum wage worker.
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry had been calling for a $9.40 per week rise, and the ACTU a $26 rise.
The wage rise will affect businesses in all industries, after the Minimum Wage Panel rejected deferral and exemption requests from some sectors.
"In this review we have decided that the relevant statutory considerations favour a moderate increase, which will improve the real value of award wages and assist the living standards of the low paid," Fair Work president Justice Iain Ross said.
ACTU secretary Dave Oliver is warning all employees to check they're being paid according to the minimum wage.
"Now that the minimum wage has gone up, all workplace agreements and contracts need to be checked to make sure that the rates of pay stay above the legal minimum," Oliver said.
"Workers should check their wages against the legal minimum rates to ensure they are not being underpaid thanks to the increase in the minimum wages."
For more information on what you should now be paying your employees, click here.
Many people believe that we've run out of ideas and that the future will be one of bleak shortages of food, energy, and water. Billionaire Peter Thiel, for example, argues that, despite spectacular advances in computer-related fields, technological progress has actually stalled because the internal combustion engine still rules our highways, the cancer death rate has barely changed since 1971, and the top speed at which people can travel has ceased to improve.
Thiel is right about engines, speed, and cancer death rates. But he and the pessimists are completely wrong about what lies ahead. I don't believe that the future holds shortages and stagnation; it is more likely to be one in which we debate how we can distribute the abundance and prosperity that we've created.
Why am I so optimistic? Because of the wide assortment of technologies that are advancing at exponential rates and converging. They are enabling small teams to do what was once only possible for governments and large corporations. These exponential technologies will help us solve many of humanity's grand challenges, including energy, education, water, food, and health.
Let me give you a taste of what lies ahead.
Most people in the world have been affected by the advances in computing and mobile technologies. In a short 15 years, the Internet has changed the way we work, shop, communicate, and think. Knowledge that used to be available only to the elite classes through books such as the Encyclopedia Britannica is today abundant and free. All of this happened because computing power is growing exponentially. The technology industry knows this growth as Moore's Law.
The advances are happening not only in computing but also in fields such as genetics, AI, robotics, and medicine. For example, in 2000, scientists at a private company called Celera announced that it had raced ahead of the U.S. government–led international effort decoding the DNA of a human being. Using the latest sequencing technology as well as the data available from the Human Genome Project, Celera scientists had created a working draft of the genome. It took decades and cost billions to reach this milestone.
The price of genome sequencing is dropping at double the rate of Moore's Law. Today, it is possible to decode your DNA for a few thousand dollars. With the price falling at this rate, a full genome sequence will cost less than $100 within five years. Genome data will readily be available for millions, perhaps billions, of people. We will be able to discover the correlations between disease and DNA and to prescribe personalized medications tailored to an individual's DNA. This will create a revolution in medicine.
We can now "write" DNA. Advances in "synthetic biology" are allowing researchers, and even high-school students, to create new organisms and synthetic life forms. Entrepreneurs have developed software tools to "design" and "compile" DNA. There are startups that offer DNA synthesis and assembly as a service. DNA "printing" is priced by the number of base pairs to be assembled (the chemical "bits" that make up a gene). Today's cost is about 30 cents per base pair, and prices are falling exponentially. Within a few years, it could cost a hundredth of this amount. Eventually, like laser printers, DNA printers will be inexpensive home devices.
It isn't just DNA that we can print. In an emerging field called digital manufacturing, 3D printers enable the production of physical mechanical devices, medical implants, jewelry, and even clothing. These printers use something like a toothpaste tube of plastic or other material held vertically in an X-Y plotter that squirts out thin layers of tiny dots of material that build up, layer by layer, to produce a 3D replica of the computer-generated design. The cheapest 3D printers, which print rudimentary objects, currently sell for between $500 and $1,000. Soon, we will have printers for this price that can print toys and household goods. Within this decade, we will see 3D printers doing the small-scale production of previously labor-intensive crafts and goods. In the next decade, we can expect local manufacture of the majority of goods; 3D printing of buildings and electronics; and the rise of a creative class empowered by digital making.
Nanotechnology is also rapidly advancing. Engineers and scientists are developing many new types of materials such as carbon nanotubes, ceramic-matrix nanocomposites (and their metal-matrix and polymer-matrix equivalents), and new carbon fibers. These new materials enable designers to create products that are stronger, lighter, more energy efficient, and more durable than anything that exists today.
And major advances are happening in Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (or MEMS), which make it possible to build inexpensive gyros; accelerometers; and temperature, current/magnetic fields, pressure, chemical, and DNA sensors. Imagine iPhone cases that act like medical assistants and detect disease; smart pills that we swallow and that monitor our internals; and tattooed body sensors that monitor heart, brain, and body activity.
Hired the wrong employee or just can't seem to get on top of your cashflow? You're not alone. Here's a look at the five most common areas SMB owners get it wrong, and some advice for fixing these issues.
The five most common mistakes small businesses make are:
There is always something to learn and improve on when you run a business, no matter how far along your business journey you are. Running a business is often trial and error, particularly at the beginning and we all make mistakes while we are finding our way. Take the time to evaluate the state of your business, your employees and your goals and you could find it pays off in terms of profit and future success.
Accounting is just one of the software programs you can take into the cloud, and a major one for small businesses. Here's how some SMBs are using it.
Over the last couple of years, cloud computing has become a hotly discussed topic. A countless number of applications and software programs that can operate online, on any device, have become available and more are being offered all the time.
Small businesses are certainly primed to benefit from cloud technology. It offers more agility, greater flexibility and improves how information is shared with stakeholders. One of the most vital tools for any SMB is accounting software, and many businesses throughout Australia have benefited enormously from moving their accounting software into the cloud.
Comtek NQ is a regional electronics installation business in North Queensland that services an area than spans 350km. The owner, Jim Lennox, says he could travel up to three-and-a-half hours in a day. Last year, he took an interest in online accounting because he wanted an easier way of working with files when he was in and out of the office.
Easier out on the road
"There has been once or twice in the past when I brought home the company file, worked on it offline and then took the wrong file back to the office. Being 64kms from home, you can probably imagine how frustrating this was," said Lennox, who recently moved over to QuickBooks Hosted accounting software for online access. Now he can simply log into his accounting program via a web browser, so he is always using the same file.
He can now generate invoices out of the office, he can complete a job hours away from the office and still invoice his client on the spot. More importantly for Lennox, he now gives his accountant access to log in to his data so he doesn't need to physically deliver the data file and his data is automatically backed up.
Mobility is an obvious reason why cloud accounting software is attractive to many small business owners, but there are far more benefits than being able to access your finances from anywhere. Norstate Marketing, a diverse business selling both promotional merchandise and automotive parts, took on online accounting to save time processing orders and improve accuracy by having all staff accessing the one data file online. The business has sales representatives on the road who sell products to mechanics at their workshop and process orders at the time of sale.
Logging in simultaneously
"Now we find a lot less errors because everybody is using the same data file, there is no requirement for data to be re-entered in the company main file and most importantly there's no longer a delay in completing orders and invoicing. Reps now have no need to call the office and check if a product is in stock," said Lauren Gross, manager of Norstate Marketing.
Before moving to online accounting, the Norstate Marketing on-the-road sales representatives would keep a copy of the companies data file with them for a week. Whilst this method allowed staff to complete on the spot invoicing, they couldn't be sure that all products were in stock so they would constantly be calling back in to the office staff so they could check the 'live' data file in the office.
A key benefit of using a program in the cloud is being able to have many users log in to the same file simultaneously. Carra Property Group operates from multiple locations in Australia, and owner Tom Carra says moving to online accounting has eliminated confusion caused when multiple files were emailed between him and his colleagues.
"In the past we had difficult moments when updating files. It was very easy to get the wrong file and it would cause a mess," he says. However, moving online for him has meant more than just having simultaneous access to the finances. "Before moving to QuickBooks Hosted we mostly saw accounting software as a way of keeping track of finances for tax purposes. Now we want to be using 'live' data to get a better understanding of cashflow."
Instant business decisions
Having instant access to business reporting via an online accounting system will help ensure business decisions are validated and risks minimised. Cashflow, profit and loss, balance sheet and bank reconciliation reports are extremely important and will help you remain fully aware of how the business is fairing at any point in time. Many successful operators review their critical business reports daily and by utilising an online accounting system you can have access to these reports from anywhere, at anytime.
While lots of businesses are benefitting from going online, those that are fairing the best are doing their homework first. As mentioned earlier, there are a lot of companies offering cloud applications and software for small businesses, so before making a decision on an online accounting program it's worth considering the costs involved, how easy the program will be for you to use and where your data will be held. When using an online accounting program your data is stored remotely, not on your premises or within your IT environment. You should also check which country your data is being held in, in particular it's important your data is stored in Australia according to Australian privacy laws.
While Gross's business has experienced lots of benefits by moving into the cloud, she puts security at the top of her list. "While there have been several benefits to moving online for our business, for me personally I am now a lot more confident about the security of my data than I was before. It is a huge weight off my mind knowing that all of our company information is not just sitting in the office overnight or relying on a back-up process."
