If you are like the vast majority of small local businesses, you have a website. Until very recently, desktops and laptops were used exclusively to research local businesses and assist potential customers in making purchasing decisions. However, over the last 3 years there has been a mobile explosion! Therefore, it has quickly become important to have a mobile website. Here are the top five reasons why:

"A chilling list" is what weather.com calls its list of the 5 cities that are most vulnerable to a "Hurricane Sandy-like" disaster.  Guess who is at the top of their list?  You guessed right...Hampton Roads, Virginia.

Bill Read, whose career includes 30 years at the National Weather Service and 4 years as director of the National Hurricane Center, predicts that our area is primed for major and serious coastal storm.  In developing his list he looked at factors such as population, infrastructure and time since a major disaster occurred.  Living in Hampton Roads we all know the congestion challenges of our highways, bridges and tunnels.  And the coastal nature of our community leaves many of us in flood zones which can be overwhelmed with a heavy rain.

In addition to weather forecasting, Mr. Read also is passionate about preparedness.  Short of a hurricane or major, widespread natural disaster, is your business prepared for an IT disaster that could halt your business infrastructure or communications?

While we all try to prepare for major disasters, keep in mind that having your IT infrastructure disabled--even for a short time--can be catastrophic to a business.  This includes both a loss of revenue as well as incurring overhead costs such as payroll expenses while the system is down or off line. 

Be honest now. Many of us say that our organizations have “values,” but how many of us know them by heart? How many of our coworkers and employees know them by heart? And presuming we and they know the “talk,” do we and they “walk the talk?” And what is the effect to our bottom lines? And finally, how can values leadership create business value?

Companies increasingly are expanding their social media presence as a quick and efficient way to reach out to their target audiences. But a flurry of government regulations and guidelines accompanies the growth of social media. The existing and proposed regulatory standards primarily focus on protecting consumers from misleading and abusive practices; however, companies need to understand the regulatory landscape in order to avoid rules, which not only can create legal difficulties but also can end up ruining their hard-won reputations.

As you may know, the health care law - the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) - requires most individuals (including children and other dependents) to carry health insurance, beginning January 1, 2014. The law also requires the establishment of a health insurance exchange in all states by October 1, 2013. The goal is that exchanges, working with private insurers, will act as a marketplace and provide "one-stop shopping" for individuals and families who may need health insurance or who seek less expensive coverage. A companion program - the Small Business Health Options Program or SHOP Exchange - will assist small businesses that want to offer insurance to their employees.

Few things strike fear in a person more than the thought of sitting across the table from someone negotiating. Whether it’s at the car dealership, convincing a toddler to take a nap or navigating through an argument with your spouse; life is all about negotiations. From birth we learn how to go back and forth in an effort to get what we want. In fact, we perfect this skill by early adolescence and use it to manipulate others. I often share with clients how we listen to the same radio station, WIIFM or What’s In It For Me?

Part II of our three-part series "Whether to Play or Pay" focuses on helping employers who are subject to the Affordable Care Act's ("ACA") mandates to identify "full-time" employees (those working 30 or more hours of service per week) for purposes of calculating the play or pay penalties. Recent IRS guidance provides methods by which to define and measure the hours of service for "ongoing," "newly hired," "variable hour" or "seasonal" employees.

As professionally trained salespeople, we enjoy what we do most of the time. But once in a while a prospect or even a client can say or do something that gets under our skin and causes us to feel crossed up. When that happens we can:

At some point every business owner asks themselves and others if they need a website. It’s a question that has been asked since the 1990s. Back then the concern was centered around if there was an audience on this new thing called “the Internet”. Today the question is whether or not a social media page for your company will achieve the same effect as a fully developed website.