6 Questions To Ask Before You Move To VoIP

Thanks to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and ever-improving cloud technologies, phone-service options available to you as a small business are plentiful, with more features at a lower cost than were ever available before.

However, with all the options and vendors, separating the good from the bad and navigating the hype can be difficult.  Not only are some VoIP systems a complete waste of money, but fees can be “hidden,” so what appears to be a big cost-saving decision can end up costing you more in the long run once you’ve calculated in ALL costs over a three- to five-year period.

Shiny New Gadget Of The Month:
Resist The Dark Side: Custom Lightsaber

The Sith Lord is about to strike – this is no time for an ordinary lightsaber. Time to pull out your own hand-made custom lightsaber…

You’d be hard-pressed to find an imaginary weapon as iconic as the Star Wars lightsaber. Haven’t you (or someone you know) ever secretly yearned to wield one against an evil warlord? Well, in case you didn’t know – you can. And, with your own custom-made lightsaber, you’ll be well-armed.

Accomplish More By Doing Less

As I’ve considered what some of today’s greatest achievers – Richard Branson, Maria Shriver, Arnold Palmer, Tony Hawk, John Wooden and Colin Powell, among many others – have accomplished in their lifetimes, I’ve thought about why many of the rest of us work harder and put in longer hours without achieving the same big results.  What makes the difference?

Being “smart” isn’t just for phones and TVs anymore

Soon, Microsoft’s Cortana will be able to see inside your fridge. With cutting-edge, fridge-safe technologies, Cortana can identify the foods you place there.  After spending some time with your fridge’s contents, Cortana learns your food preferences.  It can even offer up recipes or shopping lists to make your life easier.

Ditch the meeting, get more done

The average manager spends 30%-50% of their time in meetings.  And most feel 67% of meetings are an utter waste.  So what can we do to stop killing time?  Quit having meetings.  Here are three ways to tell if a meeting is worthwhile.

Free Report Download: The Business Owner’s Guide To IT Support Services And Fees

You will learn:

• The 3 most common ways IT services companies charge for their services, and the pros and cons of each approach.
• A common billing model that puts ALL THE RISK on you, the customer, when buying IT services; you’ll learn what it is and why you need to avoid agreeing to it.
• Exclusions, hidden fees and other “gotcha” clauses IT companies put in their contracts that you DON’T want to agree to.
• How to make sure you know exactly what you’re getting to avoid disappointment, frustration and added costs later on that you didn’t anticipate.

Want earbuds that last – and sound great?

Bragi’s new earbuds, named simply The Headphone now have “bragging rights” on both battery life and sound quality.  At six hours of battery life, these buds shred all competition.  That includes Erato’s Apollo 7 and the Earin buds – both of which wimp out at three hours.

Google’s Chromebook Pixel may have faded into a high-resolution sunset…

But the good news is, some great new challengers will soon take its place.  The Dell Chromebook 13, for instance, sports a 1080p touch-screen display, aluminum chassis, glass trackpad and a (very fast) Intel Core i3 processor.