by Gina Blitstein

Having a web presence for your company is nothing less than an imperative today. Your web site serves as business card, receptionist, sales flyer, sales representative and a customer's first impression of your company all rolled into one. The look, feel and usability of your company's web site can make or break a customer's decision to do business with you. It reflects your degree or dedication, attention to detail and respect for your customers. So it should look sharp - and more importantly - perform well. A site that performs slowly or doesn't work right will leave a bad taste in your customer's mouth before you can do anything about it.

The performance of your web site is largely dependent upon your web host - the company you choose to put your web site on the Internet. Among the myriad of web hosts are companies such as HostGator, A Small Orange and midPhase. When you take your registered domain in search of bandwidth, you'd be wise to look carefully at a variety of companies who host web sites and choose one that best suits your particular needs.

What exactly makes a web site work well - for you and your customers? The answer depends on several factors, including the purpose of your site and what you need it to do for your business. Is your web site merely a static page offering an overview of your business and contact information? Is your business an online store which depends on the site for its very lifeblood? Perhaps it is something in between these two extremes. More isn't always better if it is unreasonably expensive in relation to your actual needs. Rest assured, there is a web host to perfectly fit your needs and budget. It will just take some knowledge and research to find your best choice. Choose a host who can provide what you need for today and into the foreseeable future because your decision isn't carved in stone. Although switching hosts in the future is sometimes a complicated undertaking, it can be done with relatively no interruption to your web site's performance.

Jason Shindler, CEO, of Curvine Web Solutions provides the following tips for choosing a good web host:

• Pick the right type of Web hosting plan. Web hosting can cost anything from $3 to $30,000 a month, it all depends on the type of service involved. The way to tell what you need is simple -- imagine the Web site stops working for 5 minutes. What will your reaction be? If the answer is "The world will come to an end!" then you need "dedicating hosting" which is a more expensive service where the Web hosting company dedicates an entire server just for you. This approach is reliable and comes with service level guarantees. On the other hand, if your reaction to the Web site being down for five minutes is "no big deal," a shared Web hosting plan is just right for you. Some companies provide both types of service, some only provide one.
  
  
•  Try calling Technical Support. Be sure the tech support team is good at what they do. Before you start paying for their service, try calling tech support with a question. How quickly do they answer? Do they seem friendly and easy to understand?
  
  
• Determine the company size. If the same person does support, billing and sales, that could be a problem. A Web hosting company run by one person probably doesn't have enterprise level reliability, security and procedures. On the other hand, a company of a more significant size is less likely to be missing these important features.

Shared hosting is an affordable option for sites that are static, are updated infrequently and receive a relatively small amount of traffic. The dedicated hosting Jason mentions can seem expensive by comparison but is absolutely necessary when your site simply cannot be slow or down - ever. A dedicated server is also a good idea if your site features video, forums or a large database.

By all accounts, technical support is the factor that varies most widely from host to host. Make certain that yours is responsive - instantaniously is not asking too much! After all, it's the image of your business that you've put in their hands - it is reasonable that they provide you the level of service you expect.

Web hosting doesn't need to be a costly part of your web site marketing. Matching the provider's offerings with the necessary functionality of your site is the most important rule of thumb.

Is your web host providing the service you need at a reasonable price?

By Maia Nolan

Health insurance continues to be a hot-button political issue on the national scene, but for entrepreneurs and their employees, it’s not just about policy. How do you balance your employees’ health and your bottom line?

“For small business owners, the challenge of providing a benefits package without breaking the bank can be difficult,” said Matthew McDermott, an employee benefits consultant with Landmark Group of Brighton, Inc. “You want to be able to attract and retain quality workers to your business.”

McDermott offered a few suggestions for small business owners looking at health insurance options:

• “See what other employers are doing in your industry and local labor market. Generally speaking you want to be competitive with other options an employee might have, but not overpay where you don’t need to.”
• “Check out options available from your local chamber of commerce or professional associations. They sometimes have pooled benefit options available that keep costs lower for everyone.”
• “Take a look at non-traditional options like High Deductible Health Plans coupled with a Health Savings Account. There’s insurance in place to cover both wellness services and more importantly, catastrophic care. Expenses for non-catastrophic and routine services are paid for out of the Health Savings Account (which the employer might help fund at some level).”
  
• “Use a benefits broker to help assess your options. Brokers are independent and working with your interest in mind, not agents of an insurance company trying to push a particular product.”

It is possible to find a health care plan that takes care of your employees’ needs and doesn’t leave you bankrupt, although you may need to think outside the box. Last year, Seattle entrepreneur Andrea Goodmansen, owner of McLeod Construction, did three things to reduce the cost of insuring her 25 employees:

1. She changed insurance trusts.

“We had been with our local builders association insurance trust for the past four years,” Goodmansen said. When the company started looking into cutting insurance costs, they worked with a local insurance broker who shopped the company around to different trusts.

“We ended up switching from a builders group to a Washington State employers group and were able to get better benefits (lower deductible, copay, and coinsurance maximum) for less money,” Goodmansen said.

2. She decided to self-insure for dental and vision.

“We were spending $13,000 a year for dental alone through the builders trust, whether our employees used the insurance or not,” Goodmansen said. Now, McLeod Construction works with a direct reimbursement (DR) plan advocated by the Washington State Dental Association. The company funds the plan each pay period and reimburses at a predetermined rate, up to $1500 per employee.

“The best part about DR is that we are earning interest on the ‘premiums’ not being applied to the reimbursement,” Goodmansen said.

3. She changed the company’s premium policy.

“We were covering employee premiums 100% until last year,” Goodmansen said. Now the company’s employees pay 20% of their deductible (about $9 per week), which resulted in savings of about $3,500 per year.

The three measures have racked up a total annual savings of about $8,000 for the company, and employees and management alike have been pleased with the outcome.

What will your business do?

by Gina Blitstein

Today there are just as many virtual teams working on projects and jobs from various locations around the globe as there are face-to-face working in the same building at the same time. Keeping every member of your team on the same page and up to date is at best a challenge and at worst a nightmare. Areas which present challenges to getting everyone on a team in sync include communication, scheduling and information sharing. What solutions are available for aiding communication and collaboration for groups and teams who need to stay connected wherever they may be?

Fortunately there are many choices available to assist in online team collaboration. These sites serve as communication and collaboration "meeting places" where groups of all sorts can interact as a virtual team. Basecamp, Staction, 5pm, SmartSheet and Member Hub are but a few of the choices available which provide team members the ability to come together as a unified entity. MemberHub co-founder, Matt Harrell says, "Effective communication is essential to any organization!"

Matt gives his top five benefits to using project collaboration / communication applications:

1. It keeps everyone informed and ensures that vision and goals are shared
2. Communication channels are clear and everyone knows how to reach the group and each other
3. Members feel more connected and have a greater sense of community
4. It encourages participation and sharing of ideas, which leads to refinement of objectives
5. Instant communication to users cell phones with text messaging can save much time

Features offered by these communication and collaboration applications include Group Discussion Areas, Access to Member Contact Information, Ability to Make Announcements and Provide Progress Updates, Schedule Events and Reminders and Share Files and Photos. Each service presents the information in a unique manner and the degree of detail varies from application to application. Matt suggests that his users appreciate a clean and easy to use interface - why visually complicate while trying to simplify a process?

According to Matt, "MemberHub provides a single place for member-driven organizations, like churches and nonprofits, to connect with their members in secure online hubs." While organizations will certainly benefit from Memberhub, those features that make it ideal for them are the very features that can assist your team tackle its collaboration challenges. Each member of a team can be in and remain in the loop as updates are available for all who need to see. Whenever a meeting is scheduled, new ideas are offered or any other pertinent information becomes available, members can have access to it.

Rather than suffering from miscommunication, missed deadlines or missed opportunities, get your team working like a well-oiled machine with a project collaboration application. The better informed each individual member is, the more your team can move forward with the job at hand without the excuse of, "But I didn't know..."

What hinders your team's communication and collaboration efforts?