I’ll start out by saying that I love the Dolphin browser on my Samsung S3 (courtesy of the fine folks at the no-contract cell phone team at Ting for Business who provided me with a long term loaner phone). I tried Chrome and other default browsers, but they were marginal at best. As a completely free browser, Dolphin delivers for Android, iPhone and iPad. You can even download extensions for Chrome, Firefox and Safari which will allow you to sync stuff with your mobile device.

It is hard to take a photo of your phone when that’s your only camera. So I’m using a press kit photo from the company’s website.

What I Really Like:

• Has gesture and voice control. For gesture, you click in the lower corner of the screen. You create your own custom scribbles or sketches or shapes to serve as shortcuts to specific websites. You click and draw that gesture to get to the site. For voice, called Sonar, you shake the handset and up pops a microphone icon. Start speaking and it takes you there. Sort of like Apple’s Siri or Google Now.
• Evernote add-on that lets me clip pages to my Evernote account.
• They have a battery saver app to help you conserve battery usage on your smartphone. I guess it is in their best interest to ensure you have plenty of battery for surfing the Web.

What I Would Like to See:

• Something that lets me know there is a history list to the left and an apps list to the right of the main browser window. Essentially, you have to grab the far side of your window and slide left or right to find these admin type areas. Useful to know, but I happened upon it.
• I honestly don’t have anything else. I think it is one of the best browsers on the market.

If you are on a mobile phone and find yourself waiting for websites to load, test out a different browser like Dolphin. Again, it is a free browser and you can get it for your Android-powered phone, the iPhone and iPad.

The post Speed Up Your Mobile Browsing with Dolphin appeared first on Small Business Trends.

For the business owner who needs to get inventory organized and barcoded, this list of barcode generators is for you. Below are eleven free and low-cost tools to create either barcodes or QR codes.

QR codes are more of a marketing tactic. You have probably seen these codes in direct mail packages, in emails or on storefront windows and doors.  A QR code can suffice for certain types of inventory control, but most companies prefer barcodes for inventory management.

All of these barcode generators are free unless otherwise noted. Plus there is a useful book listed at the end of the article.

11 Barcode Generators

Barcode Generator

One of the easiest online barcode creators that I found. As you can see above, you just select the style you need or want and the software creates it.

OnlineLabels.com

OnlineLabels has both a barcode and a QR code creator. They also have a nifty Nutrition Label creator. I’m thinking of making my own low-fat potato chip label so I won’t feel guilty anymore…

Monrovia

They have a simple online tool, but also sell the fonts in their downloadable software package.

Barcodes Inc

They sell a range of barcoding equipment and label makers, but also offer barcode and QR code generators online.

TEC-IT

TEC-IT lets you download its online tool code snippet to place on your own website. They also sell a full barcode software suite for Windows, Mac, and SAP.

Wasp Barcode Generator

Wasp Barcode (above) offers a free online barcode generator, in addition to a full arsenal of  barcode technology, to help you create codes. They even email them to you after you fill out the form.

Zint Barcode Generator

The generator is hosted at SourceForge and is highly rated and only available as downloaded software. No online tool.

Barcode Generator and Overprinter

Well-rated on CNET as a top download. They have a 15-day free trial, but it is $60 to purchase a one-time license.

Smartphone Ready QR Codes for Marketing

For those who want to create smartphone-ready QR codes for marketing and sales purposes, the three online generators below are solid.

Kaywa

Kaywa is a free online QR code generator. However, they also have a robust paid plan because it has deeper analytics that it can perform.

QR Code Generator from the ZXing Project

ZXing Project is one of my favorites because they let you put all sorts of custom data into the QR code.

QR Stuff

QR Stuff is a rich site with all sorts of options to make customizing your QR code painless. As you can see above, lots of options.

Bonus: A Book on Barcodes

Matt Kostanecki, marketing guy at inFlow Inventory software, wrote an excellent, detailed book on the topic of barcodes. If you need to create a barcode system, you’ll want to check out this affordable barcode book for small businesses.  For Amazon Prime members, it’s currently free on Amazon.

With all of these free and low-cost barcode generators, there is no reason to keep doing it manually. Even if you don’t use them at the point of sale, it will help you during annual and quarterly inventory counts.

If you are considering a barcode solution, are you planning to use a smartphone as the scanner or will you purchase a stand-alone scanner?

The post 11 Barcode Generators for Managing Inventory – And for Marketing appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Little Bird is the best tool I have found for finding experts on a particular topic. Sure, I can do a Twitter search, but that’s pretty limited and just brings up people who put the term in their bio or a recent tweet. But what if you want to find people with real expertise, with real influence? You could look at their Klout score, but that’s still slightly suspect, frankly. The only way I have found is Little Bird. You start by running reports on particular topics, as you see in the screenshot below, then you can drill down further.

This blog post by one of the Founders, Marshall Kirkpatrick, is an excellent overview of why you’d want to try it out: I Found the Leaders in My Field, Now What?

In a nutshell, Little Bird can help you:

• Find new leaders to follow.
• Create an influencer engagement game plan.
• Discover your freshest connections.
• Find top people to reach out to by Twitter Direct Message.
• Research someone else’s connections.

You can see below some of the topic experts Little Bird found for me on Customer Satisfaction. These are a few of the people who are Most Followed:

 What I Really Like:

• You can discover influencer connections on multiple social networks (Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook and more.)
• Cool visualizations to explore topical communities (I couldn’t do this on my own, with my trial plan, but Marshall walked me through a detailed demo).
• See how you compare with a topic of interest. For example, I wanted to see how well I am engaging in the customer satisfaction space for my new site: Satisfaction Scale. I found that I still have a long way to go as you can see below.

Then I asked Little Bird to compare me to this topic of Customer Satisfaction with its 72 experts. It found that I was not following as many as I would have hoped. But, the great thing is — it helps me to engage with those people. Not in this case, but some of them might be prospects or good people to blog about or whatever reason you have for finding experts.

What I Would Like to See:

• When you do the compare function and it brings up the experts you are following and not following, it would be great to hover over the profile photo and simply add the person to your Twitter following. As it works right now, nothing happens on hover, but it does take you to the Twitter site which is a slow way to follow new people. You can see the people in other function areas by hovering, but still it takes you offsite.

Overall, if you are in the marketing, sales or communication space, Little Bird is an invaluable tool. There’s a 7-day free trial, after you get into the private beta, then it is $50/month for an individual plan and $250/month for a small business plan.

The post Did a “Little Bird” Talk to You About Social Selling? appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Forty five percent of American adults are smartphone owners. My guess is that a good portion of those must be business owners. Smartphones supercharge your productivity. But they also supercharge your cell phone bill. If you have been searching for options, this review is for you. StraightTalk, a provider of prepaid wireless service, provided a short term loaner iPhone 5 for this review.

My purpose in this review is not to extol the virtues of the iPhone 5 — the awesomeness of Apple’s latest phone is not to be under-rated, though. It is a sweet and powerful device and you don’t need my recommendation if you are already an Apple fan. However, if you are not, StraightTalk has a variety of phones on their prepaid plans.

The purpose of this review is to highlight that there are other options to have an affordable cell phone plan without a long-term contract and the subsidized phone you usually get along with a long-term contract.

Here’s a quick look below at my “cell phone minutes” dashboard. If I had the $30 plan, I’m sure it would show more detail. You can also top up your prepaid balance here, of course.

The benefits of prepaid:

• No long term contracts. You go month-to-month.
• Generally, lower monthly cost.
• You can buy an unlocked phone and move from one provider to another. It does take some patience and tech chops, however. For example, the elegant Nexus 4 phone from Google is reportedly possible to put on the StraightTalk service. I’ve read mixed results, though.
• Smaller carriers score better in the customer satisfaction arena, as reported by the American Customer Satisfaction Index that rates the wireless phone industry (among others).
• You can walk into a Walmart and many other retailers, and buy a phone and a plan.

The downside of prepaid:

• You have to buy a phone at full price. There is no major carrier subsidizing your phone for you with free or low prices to entice you. The loaner iPhone 5 retails for about $650. However, to be fair, if you crunch out major carrier plans that are usually more per month, you will likely find that you are paying more over that two-year contract.  
• Month-to-month prepaid plans can be a bit confusing. Your minutes run out in 30 days usually.
• In this case, there was no report on calls made or received. I would like to see a way to pull that kind of report. It would help with some tax requirements, I’m sure.

StraightTalk (owned by TracFone) offers two plans:

1. The “ALL YOU NEED” plan for $30 a month to receive 1000 minutes, 1000 text or multimedia messages, 30 MB of data transfer for data phones and 411 calls at no additional charge. $30 per month.
2. The unlimited plan for $45 a month to receive unlimited talk, text and data nationwide anytime with calls to 411 at no additional charge.  There is an international version of this for $60/month.

Overall, I find the no-contract, prepaid type phone carriers to be one of the best ways to save money in my small business. Although StraightTalk provided a loaner phone, I did not receive any special customer treatment. I found the signup process to be painless and had good customer support throughout my review period.

StraightTalk offers a range of smartphones (and not so smart ones, too — feature phones) starting from free. There were a few nice LG Optimus phones for $149, a Blackberry Curve for $129, and a Samsung Galaxy Precedent for $79.

And for those of you that fall into the category of describing your cell phone as something you “can’t imagine living without” as I’d mentioned previously, here are 4 ways to tell if you are addicted to your iPhone 5.

Just in case you’ve been sleeping with your phone and are beginning to wonder if that is a problem….

The post StraightTalk: Are Prepaid Cell Phone Plans Good For Small Business? appeared first on Small Business Trends.

And today with the growth of smartphones and tablets, more of us are networking socially and consuming content via mobile devices.  Using some of the following Pinterest apps will only make your experience that much more profitable, and they all work on the go with mobile devices.

12 Pinterest Apps for Mobile

If you want to post to Pinterest from your smartphone or tablet, you first need to download an app to your mobile device.

iPhone and iPad - The granddaddy Pinterest mobile app of them all is the Pinterest iPhone app.  There used to be a separate iPad app, but now it has been combined into a single iOS app that can also be used on the iPhone, iPad and the iPod Touch.

Android – If you have a device on an Android platform, you will need to download an Android app in order for Pinterest to work.  Although you will not have the same functionality with the Pinterest Android app as you do with the iOS app, each allows  you to pin your pictures, which is the important part.

Pinterest Pin It Button makes pinning easier and greatly improves the functionality of iPhone and Android apps. Just go to the goodies page and drag it to your toolbar. (There are several apps for Pinterest all with this same or a similar name and different functionality, so follow the link to get this one.)

Just today Pinterest announced that it had made its Pin It button available in a number of website-specific mobile apps.    Those apps include:  Behance, Brit+Co, Etsy, Fotopedia, Jetsetter, Modcloth, Snapguide, TED, The North Face, and Zulily.  You have to have switched to the “new” Pinterest look with it’s larger pins, to be able to see these pins.

Windows phones – There’s no official Pinterest app for Windows phones, but one third-party Pinterest app, Scrapbook for Pinterest, is available. It seems to function well, but has the disadvantage of carrying ads or requiring subscription fees. However, if you have a Windows Phone, this may be the only way to be mobile with your Pinterest page currently.  Scrapbook works with Windows Phone 8 and Windows Phone 7.5.

PinHog for Pinterest lets you be mobile, but allows you to minimize extra data charges while you are browsing the Web for pins. Check it out in the Google Play store.  This unique Pinterest app allows you not only to browse while offline, but it also lets you schedule when you would like to pin items to your board.

PinReach is designed to let you know how well you are influencing others. It provides you with a “Klout” score to inform you about trends and let you know when your influence is waning, you know, before it is gone.

PinPuff lets you track trends and analyze how your Pinterest account is doing. PinPuff also calculates the monetary value of your Pins and what kind of traffic they are generating for you.

Snapito is for you if you prefer surfing the Web and taking screenshots for your Pinterest page. this app gives you a variety of easy ways to pin screenshots to your page, including a Pinterest Bookmarklet that lets you do this from your iPhone.

Wallo Pinterest allows you to use your mobile wallpaper to discover new images and travel destinations.  You can pin things from your Android Live wallpaper, on Android devices.

Reachli (formerly Pinerly) has a user-friendly dashboard interface. It keeps you updated on your pin schedule, helps you locate like-minded users, and unfollow groups.

Wisestamp, while not a Pinterest-specific app, lets you add a follow button for your Pinterest account to the bottom of your emails. It features your latest pins.

Pin4Ever lets you create a backup of your pins on your Android or any storage device by using the Pinterest backup app. They have a simple signup process shown in the screenshot above.

Finally, be sure to check out our Pinterest Start Guide for Small Businesses.  And if you already know how to use Pinterest, you might be interested in Pinterest analytics tools to tell how much traffic is going to your site.

The post 12+ Pinterest Apps and Tools for Pinning While Mobile appeared first on Small Business Trends.

MailChimp is a Web-based email marketing service that comes with a great suite of tools.  One of the most important things to know is the service is completely free if you are mailing less than 12,000 emails per month to less than 2000 email accounts. This “forever free” option does not give you access to all of the features and it does leave a MailChimp icon embedded in your newsletters. That seems a small “price” to pay for free, in my opinion.

Full disclosure: The TechBizTalk newsletter, about cool new gadgets and software, runs on the MailChimp platform, still at the free level and I’m a big fan of the service. This screenshot below shows my recent efforts to build a few newsletters.

Email Marketing with MailChimp

What I Really Like:

• Their sense of humor. They like to keep things cheery. However, if you are the type who does not like to mix business and pleasure, the optional fun posts can be blocked.

• MailChimp wants you to succeed and provides many free resources on how to get started with email campaigns. Lots of tutorials and support posts.

• MailChimp allows you to create your own newsletter or use one of many elegant templates.

• You can segment your mailing list to target different audiences. The RSS-to-email option that will automatically send out your newsletter when you update your blog.

• Ever wonder how well your advertising is doing? Let the program take care of that by sending you a report that tells you who is opening your newsletters and who is sharing them on social networks.

• Apps that allow you to work from both Android and iPhone operating systems.

What I Would Like to See:

• My only item or issue is that even though I know some of the terms, even I get lost a bit in figuring out which to do first – start a campaign or start a list. As it turns out, if you don’t have a “list” then you can’t start a campaign. They make this clear when you first signup and start, but it is easy to forget. When I came in the next time, I found myself wondering what to do first. Some help boxes over the items would be useful. But, to be fair, this is mostly “operator error,” meaning me. There’s obviously more to like than “like to see.” The screenshot above shows both options, but the service does make it hard to start (naturally because you need a list structure, even if it is empty). You can choose “Create Campaign” but it reminds you that you need a list.

If you find that you exceed the forever free level, which means your business is growing, paid plans start at $10/month. They also have a pay-as-you-go option that is like buying stamps and very affordable, too.

Take a look at MailChimp and keep the conversation going with your customers.

The post Email Marketing with MailChimp appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Enter the latest light version called Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 – a raster image editor that lets you paint and edit pictures interactively on the computer screen and save them in formats such as JPEG, PNG, GIF and TIFF. It helps the user create, edit, organize and share images from one place. It has most of the features of Adobe Photoshop CS (the full premium level version) but at a lower cost.

Aimed at hobbyists and consumers, even non-expert individuals can use it with relative ease and this makes it ideal for the small business owner. The straightforward color management system and effortless removal of the red eye effect, the no-fuss ability to change skin tone along with the other plugins are available in a simpler, trouble-free format. Advanced edits are also possible.

You can see on the screenshot below that I have also opened the Advanced Editor tool which gives you even more options than what you see on the right side of the screen here.

It is easy to see that a small business owner, such as a retailer, blogger, service provider, freelancer, or affiliate marketer, can make use of the basic editing and advanced editing features – different photographic effects, adding drama, creating monochrome, or illustration effects. Video playing and tagging are also available. Business owners who want to explain or demonstrate a concept, service or new product will find this feature essential.

What I Really Like:

• Great screenshot tool. Super useful for when you are surfing the Web and want to capture the screen you are looking at — and want to edit later.
• Geo tagging is now a way of life for hobbyists and business owners and is supported in this version of Photoshop elements. The program helps you access GPS data embedded in photos or lets you tag spots on a map.
• Cost factor. The program costs about one sixth of what Adobe Photoshop CS costs. For small business owners who want to grow their venture on a smaller budget, this is a key factor. There is a trial version also to allow you to try before you buy.
• Ease of Use. Unlike its bigger cousin Adobe Photoshop CS, this program is easy to use even for the amateur. It is more intuitive and has a cleaner interface; you will not have to take classes to learn how to use it. Business owners without a tech background or a lot of time will appreciate this.
• The editor has three sections: Quick, Guided and Expert to cater to different levels of users. They can be used independently of each other, or you can alternate between them.

What I Would Like to See:

Although the Import Media is pretty self-explanatory, if you have information divided into specific folders on your computer, you have to select each of those, one at a time. I’d like to see some sort of tool that lets me pick more than one folder at a time. When I go into the library, I don’t see all of my photos and wonder why.

Adobe is world-renowned for creating elegant and powerful tools to help the artist, photographer and other creative types. They are just as useful for the business owner – think about the last time you opened a PDF file.

The tools are often expensive.  However, to their credit, they have listened to the market and created lighter versions that not only cost less, but work in a way that helps the business owner who doesn’t have time for a steep learning curve.

If you are in the market for a robust, affordable photo editing tool, take a look at Adobe Photoshop Elements. You can find it online at Amazon and often in stock in Costco for prices ranging from $69 to $99. The Adobe site sells it for $99.95. I was provided with a media copy to evaluate it for this review.

The post Edit Images Interactively With Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 appeared first on Small Business Trends.

“Can you hear me now?”

You may remember that line from a wireless-phone company commercial.  The reason that line is so successful is that we all say it. I’m willing to bet that many of you say that or some version of that question pretty often. We want to make sure we are heard.

This review of the Plantronics Voyager Legend headset is for the entrepreneur on the go, or the small business owner, manager or professional who needs a solid hands-free device with excellent reception and sound clarity.  And one also looking for time savings and convenience.

Last year, I was part of a Plantronics contest and received a Voyager Legend headset. At the time, I rarely used my mobile phone for important business calls because I could not depend on the other mobile headsets I had tried in the past. That meant I coordinated most of my meetings when I was absolutely certain I would be in a quiet place with the strongest wireless signal.

Since then, little by little, I started to use the headset. I’m pleased to report that I use a Voyager Legend headset nearly every day now.  I live on an island and when I go out for the day for business meetings, I have to take a ferry and am often gone for the day.  So I end up taking a lot of calls when mobile.  And I worry less about where I’m going to be when it’s time to take an important call.

The Voyager Legend (pictured below) comes in several flavors – regular and what is known as “UC” which stands for Unified Communications .

UC is the platform on a user’s computer that allows them to integrate IM, phone calls, video conferencing and more. The Voyager Legend UC headset plugs into your computer with the included USB dongle, letting you take voice and video calls from your computer. The Voyager Legend UC also comes in two variants; one regular and one optimized for Microsoft. The UC version, either one, is $199. The regular Legend (non-UC version) is priced at $99 and this is the one I have.

Both versions of this headset are multi-point, allowing you to have two different mobile phones configured to connect to your headset.  That means you don’t have to switch headsets to use a different device.

For team members who use multiple devices during the workday, you begin to see the advantages.

What I really like:

• The Mute button. On the headset, there is a simple button, but cooler is that the headset announces to you only that the “mute is on.” Of course, it tells you it is off, too, when you press it again. You can press the mute button on your actual phone, but I like the headset one.
• The sensor technology (I don’t know exactly how it works, but it is cool): If I put it on my ear as the phone is ringing it will still answer the call. No fumbling about to make the switch.  If it’s already in my ear, I can use voice commands to answer it or ignore it.
• On the UC front, not having to manually connect each device you want to switch to, is a time-saving option.

What I would like to see:

• A universal charger – the headset has its own proprietary connection. This is the only downside, in my view. To be fair, it is probably pretty hard to fit a micro-USB connection into that tiny space. The good news is that the other end is a standard USB connection so most chargers will accept the USB end, or your laptop can charge it for you.

Although this review is focused on the Voyager Legend, I have to throw in a few good words about another option – the Calisto speakerphone, also by Plantronics. The Calisto is a portable speaker approximately four inches square by 1.5 inches tall. It can connect to your laptop with a small USB keyfob or via Bluetooth.  It is powered by a rechargeable lithium battery (connect it to a USB charger).

I am using the 620 model, optimized for Microsoft Lync and it is wonderful. Seriously. I have used it as a speaker in hotel rooms to play music on my Samsung S3. And I have used it as a speakerphone in my car when I’m not using a headset. It connects very quickly and for those who find that their cell phone speakers are just not enough, this little device is a lifesaver. It comes in its own little neoprene case for $149.95. It is also UC-capable.

Overall, if you find that you want a robust, sophisticated hands-free device, the Voyager Legend headset (UC or regular) is a serious contender.

If you just can’t put something in your ear, or need a speakerphone, look to the elegant little Calisto speakerphone.

Image credit: Plantronics

The post Review of Plantronics Voyager Legend UC Headset appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Many business owners are concerned about information overload, and rightly so. But times are moving fast and there’s a new challenge in town:  mobile device overload.

We’re not talking about the concern about being addicted to your mobile phone or constantly connected. We’re not even talking about a pure technology problem. We are talking about the sheer number of devices that we have to manage now. A study by Juniper Networks says that:

• The average mobile business person owns at least three Internet connected devices.
• The average person owns about five devices between work and home.

So, if you thought that information overload and surfing the Web for the latest Grumpy Cat photos was making it tough on your productivity, just wait until you add another tablet.

In a conversation held recently with Judi Hembrough, Small Business Marketing Director of Plantronics, she shared some ideas on how to keep your mobile devices from getting out of hand (my pun, utterly intended).

Avoid Mobile Device Overload

1. Get Exponential “Gadget Growth” Under Control

Do you really need all those devices? Sure, it’s exciting to unbox and try out a new gadget – I know that feeling well!  Part of my job is to try out new devices and stay on top of the latest technology for small business owners.

If you’re like me, you have at least one laptop, a tablet computer, and a mobile phone, along with a hands-free Bluetooth headset. Then on top of these, we may have a portable desk phone at the office or at home. We might have an iPod or other MP3 player that we keep with us.  Add to those the chargers to go with each device, cords, carrying cases, portable keyboards — and you have a big pile of gadgets and gadget-related items.

But with each device comes a time commitment.

First, there’s the need to learn how to use it.  Most of us use only a small fraction of the features in each device.

Second there’s the challenge of simply managing all the hardware and accessories.  One of the challenges I face most often is, which one of those chargers or cords goes with my phone, or camera, or headset, or tablet.  It sounds easy when everything first comes out of the box.  But what about later?  It’s often not easy to remember which goes with which, and sometimes the chargers and cords aren’t well marked.

• Tip:  remember the old adage – “a place for everything and everything in its place.”  Have a place such as a drawer or basket to store chargers, cords and accessories so you don’t have to scramble around looking for them when you’re late and trying desperately to get out the door.
• Another tip: try applying a small adhesive tag or piece of masking tape wrapped around the cord, to identify which cord/plug goes with which device.  Want something more upscale?  Try Dotz color-coded cordstraps.
• Yet another tip: keep each cord wrapped loosely and secured with a twist tie or Velcro closure.  A little more stylish are these Blue Lounge CableClips.  Whatever you choose, avoid a tangled jumble of cords you have  to waste time sorting out.

2. Choose Devices That Converge

The idea here is having headsets and other auxiliary devices that work with multiple primary devices.  For instance, I use my Voyager Legend with an iPad2, a Nexus 10 and two different smartphones. (Note, I was a big fan of the Voyager Legend long before being asked to write this article for Small Business Trends. )

Not only do you cut down on the expense and clutter with multiple devices, but you can save time switching back and both.  More on the benefits here.

3. Don’t Just “Grab and Go” When Traveling

Experiment to see what you REALLY need to take with you.  The tablet can, in many instances, replace a laptop when going out for the day or even on a short business trip or weekend getaway.  I have heard from many readers that they have survived, and even thrived, living with just their iPhone 5 or Samsung S3. I paired mine with a great keyboard from Kensington and it works wonders for quick, travel-light type trips.

A checklist helps, too.  Judi Hembrough of Plantronics says, “When you’re going on a trip, have a checklist just to be sure you don’t leave a critical device charger or other vital piece of technology behind.” I agree.  I mean airline pilots have checklists, some surgeons use them (to keep track of those sponges), and you may survive leaving home without your American Express, but not your smartphone charger.

Finally, make sure to fire up your device a day or a few hours before you leave the office or home, especially if you haven’t used it in a while.  Give it a chance to fully charge.   Also, this gives it a chance to update with the latest operating software, security patches or apps.  Many mobile phones and tablets update automatically.  But if you haven’t used a device in a while, sometimes it will force an update at an inopportune time — such as those precious minutes between  flights.

4. Keep Your Data in the Cloud (or Your Company’s Private Cloud)

Recently I read somewhere that most small business owners and personnel don’t know what the term “the cloud” means.  So let me give you a practical example of what the cloud means to your work productivity.  If you keep your data online (i.e., in the cloud) in various applications and online software services, then it makes it much easier to switch between devices.  You don’t have to worry about syncing up your contacts or email, for example, because you always have access to the most up to date information.  It’s hardware independent.

It is one of the reasons why apps and tools like Evernote, Dropbox, GMail, Google Apps for Business, and Google Drive have exploded in popularity. You can access your information from any device. It’s automatically synchronized without you having to do anything.  You’ll be working with the most up-to-date information no matter which device you happen to have in your hands.

Cell Phone Overload Photo via Shutterstock

The post How to Avoid Mobile Device Overload appeared first on Small Business Trends.

When you say conference call, most people believe you will be in an office to take the call. However, chances are these days you may be in an airport, a hotel room or in your car sitting in a parking lot between appointments. Today’s small business owner is often on the road, in the field or juggling tasks from a warehouse floor. Since it isn’t always possible to be in the perfect indoor location, below are some mobile conference tools and recommendations to keep the communication flowing, clear and safe.

We checked in with Judi Hembrough, Small Business Marketing Director of Plantronics, for some additional insights into  mobile warrior practices:

Mobile Conference Tips

1. Make Sure Your Web Conferencing Platform Works With Your Device(s)

If you’re going to be doing a Web demonstration, webinar or screensharing, you’ll most likely be using a Web confereing solution.  The big and little guys that offer Web conferencing solutions are quickly embracing mobile. You’ll see Cisco’s WebEx and Citrix’s GoToMeeting, as well as smaller companies such as AnyMeeting and MeetingBurner, offering an iPad app.

When doing a  Web demonstration or interactive screen sharing, most of the time you’ll be using a tablet.  You could do it on a mobile phone, too, I suppose, although that seems pretty risky to me. It would be a lot of scrolling around using a tiny smartphone screen!  Plus, incoming calls could be disruptive.

It’s imperative that a Web conferencing solution be compatible with whatever devices you are using.  Test them in advance.  The last thing you need is to have an appointment with a prospective client to do a sales presentation in 2 minutes, only to discover that you are having trouble downloading the Web conferencing software or that it won’t recognize your headset, or some other issue.  It will fluster you, at a time when you most want to feel centered, calm and in control.

2. Use Hands-Free Devices

Sure, you can hold that phone or tablet to your ear, or you can use a built-in microphone/speakers in the device, but it makes sense today to have a hands-free device.  There are several advantages to using a hands-free headset, as Judi Hembrough notes:

• Untethered operation:  With a hands-free headset, you of course can be more productive with both hands free to manipulate a mouse to move around the screen, take notes, or whatever else you need two hands for.  Beyond that, however, being hands-free allows you to physically move around if you need to access information from a file folder or simply to stretch your legs.
• Optimized sound quality:  Hembrough notes, “I find that I can hear a lot better and have a much more effective conversation from a transmit perspective, having a headset that’s fairly close to your mouth.”
• Safety: ”Safety could be an issue as well. If you’re in the car, you want to be careful to make sure that you’re being safe. Be … hands-free,” says Hembrough. Here’s a study showing increased driver safety when using headsets.  And of course, if you are driving you would be on an audio-only conference, right?  (Certainly you would!)  Note that 10 states have outlawed handheld phone usage while driving.  So it is against the law to hold a phone in one hand while trying to drive with the other in those states, in any event.

Make sure you have the right hands-free tools at your disposal.  As I mentioned, there are products in the portable speaker phone arena that can turn a hotel room or corner of a quiet coffee shop into your own little conference room. Most of these work with a laptop or a mobile phone via Bluetooth. If your laptop does not have Bluetooth, many of the speakers offer a USB dongle-type device that you simply plug in and synchronize with the portable speaker.

I use a Plantronics Voyager Legend, but I also have one of their speakerphones, the Calisto 620, which doubles as a mini speaker for your own private hotel music system. These two items allow me to have crisp, clear calls with ease on the road. (Note: I had these two items even before being commissioned to write this article by Small Business Trends.)

3. Get a Special App, Visit the App Stores

I have to say that this one special app is part of what sold me on the hands-free Legend - Plantronics has a free conference call app called InstantMeeting for mobile devices for iOS, Android and BlackBerry, which automatically identifies conference calls in your Outlook Calendar and uploads the date, time, phone number and password attached to each conference call. I’d love to see some hooks to the Google Calendar interface at some point.

How it works: You receive an alert on your app when it’s time for the conference call, and with the touch of a button, the app dials in and enters your password, automatically putting you right into the call. This is a big “painkiller,” in my book, because half the challenge of a conference call is finding all that information to log on successfully.

With today’s powerful mobile devices, you don’t have to stay tethered to an office or one location to have a successful Web conference or conference call. With a few apps or additions to your mobile phone, iPad or Android-based tablet, you can find that you are just as productive in your prospect’s office or at home in your office.

Let us know in the comments what gadgets or apps make your conference calls or Web demonstrations more successful.

Headset Travel Photo via Shutterstock

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