Jan2015News

Here’s a loaded question: If you were renting a piece of equipment for
your business that stopped working anywhere from 30 minutes to four hours
every day, how many times would you tolerate that performance before you
demanded a replacement?
For most, once would be more than enough to warrant action; yet study
after study is showing an alarming trend among employees: they’re admitting
to wasting that much time at work on texting, social media or simply trolling
the Internet on non-productive, non-work-related activities. Worse yet? Many
employers KNOW it’s happening, but overlook it because they’re either too
busy themselves to babysit or believe that “it’s not that bad.”
But here’s the reality: Distracted employees are crushing your profits. Study
after study has proven that even a simple three-second distraction can double
the chances of that employee making a mistake—so even if a cell phone rings
and it goes unanswered, the distraction has occurred. But that’s the least of
your worries; people are CREATING their own distractions. An Internet trend
report published by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers found the average user
stops what they are doing to check their smartphone approximately 150 times
per day. The average person spends over seven hours a month on Facebook
alone, and that doesn’t account for Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr and the millions of
news, sports, gambling, porn and gaming sites. To think some, if not all, of your
employees are wasting your time and your money during work hours on non-
work-related digital media is ignorance; but to ignore it is sheer stupidity.
Although it may be politically incorrect to state it this way, an employee
is a “rented” asset. You are paying an agreed-upon price for a set number
of hours worked to produce a specified result, whether that be sales, happy
customers or work product created. You are “renting” their time and behavior.
If an employee is NOT actually working during the time you are paying them
to work, they are essentially stealing from you, just the same as you would be
stealing from them if you asked them to work overtime but then refused to pay.
Never forget, it’s called a “workplace” for a reason.
So how can you ensure your employees aren’t tempted to goof off or be
distracted while at work? First and foremost, make sure they understand your
expectations regarding cell phone and Internet usage while at work. If you’ve
never told them you expect them to work during work hours and NOT check
personal e-mails, Facebook, text their friends, etc., don’t be mad at them. Give
them sufficient breaks during the day to take care of personal matters or to troll
the Internet—just be clear you don’t want them doing it on YOUR paid time.
Second, set boundaries. You can implement content filtering on work PCs and
devices that prevent employees from going to certain web sites during work
hours. Of course, if you need help in developing a productivity plan for your
workplace, give us a call! We can assist you with everything from acceptable-
use policies to content filtering.
The Biggest Profit Vampire
Sucking Your Business Dry
The Biggest Profit Vampire
...Page 1
The 4 BEST Apps Every Business
Owner Should Have On Their
Smartphone...Page 2
FREE REPORT: The Business
Owners’ Guide To IT Support
Services And Fees...Page 2
Inside This Issue...
January 2015
3 Easy Steps To Make Your
Company Meeting More
Productive...Page 3
“As a business owner, you
don’t have time to waste
on technical and
operational issues. That’s
where we shine! Call us
and put an end to your IT
problems!”
Earl Foote,
Nexus IT Consultants
Get More Free Tips, Tools and Services At Our Web Site: http://www.nexusitc.net
Security Watch: Should You
Trust The Cloud...Page 4

The 4 BEST Apps Every Business Owner Should Have
So many apps, so little time! As a busy entrepreneur,
you have to maximize your time—so here are four
apps that should reside on every business owner’s
smartphone:
Microsoft Office Mobile: Create documents, look over
spreadsheets or edit presentations on the go. Office
Mobile brings Word, Excel and PowerPoint into one
convenient place. Each program features many of the
functions of its full-sized counterpart, but does tend to
lack in a few areas. You won’t be able to make certain
changes to Word documents (such as changing typeface
or text alignment) and you can’t create new PowerPoint
presentations (but you can edit existing ones). These
limitations aren’t crippling, and what is available is
exceptionally robust for a mobile app. Get it for your
Android, iOS or Windows Phone devices for free.
Hootsuite: Managing several social media accounts
across many services can be overwhelming. Hootsuite
brings them all to one place. Access Facebook,
LinkedIn, Twitter and several others with intuitive
ease. It makes managing your company’s social media
accounts a cinch and you won’t miss anything. Stay in
touch with followers, customers and collaborators. It’s
free and on Android and iOS.
Expensify: This app lets you capture receipts and track
mileage, business travel and time, while making the
creation of expense reports absolutely painless. It all
Ever wonder what you SHOULD be paying for IT support? Curious to know what
type of support plan is the most cost-effective? This new report will answer those
questions and reveal:
• The three 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.
begins when you take a picture of your receipt through
the app and your device’s camera. The app scans the
receipt and creates or adds the pertinent information
to an expense report. It doesn’t get any easier than
that! The app is free and you can download it to your
Android or iOS devices.
Google Drive: When collaboration and sharing
documents is a priority, Google Drive gets the job done.
With Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides integrated into
the app, it’s slightly more accessible than Mobile Office
and it’s easier to share documents with others versus
Dropbox. Create, edit and share documents online or
work off-line. Drive isn’t as fully featured as Mobile
Office, but collaboration with others in real time across
multiple platforms—mobile, desktop and everything
in between—may make up for that for many users. It’s
available on Android and iOS and it’s free.
FREE Report:
The Business Owners’ Guide To IT Support Services And Fees
January 2015The IT Insider
Download Your FREE Copy Instantly At:
http://www.nexusitc.net/ITbuyersguide

3 Easy Steps To Make Your Company Meetings
More Productive And Efﬁcient For All
One of the challenges that all business owners face is how to share information and
ideas ef iciently among your staff, and also get them engaged. Here are three steps I’ve
discovered that will revitalize your meetings:
1. Develop meeting objectives as a group. Start with your premise and ask every
participant to contribute. Write each objective—along with the name of the person
who contributed it—on a board at the front of the room. If people feel responsible
for the content of the meeting, they’re far more likely to participate. Participation is
important. Make sure that every person voices their objective in their own words,
even if you have repeats.
2. Consolidate the list. Combine and condense your group’s objectives to a manageable
number—three to ive is achievable in a brief meeting. Then move on—share the
information you need to and work through solutions to problems you’ve identi ied.
3. Finally, con irm that each objective was achieved. When you model this ef icient
approach, your team members will see the bene its of your goal-oriented approach,
and they’ll not just pay attention, but they’ll participate. You’re demonstrating
measurable progress—and achieving their objectives.
Another tactic for keeping your team engaged: discard hour-long sit-down meetings
for tightly focused, 15-minute stand-up meetings or huddles. You’re a team, and it’s
essential that you all be focused on the same end result. Providing a regular huddle
for each member of the team to share progress, request help or resources and ask for
feedback lets you quickly check in with your players and send ‘em right back to the
ield to score. You’ll need to prepare for these huddles a little differently, so here are a
few micro-tips for great micro-meetings:
If you’re running the meeting, you’ll need to be extra-prepared. The idea here is to
have only 15 minutes, every one of which is productive. You must have a clear idea of
what will be accomplished, and you must get to the point.
If your meeting is a team check-in, establish a protocol. Let each participant share
successes or challenges, and you’re getting information to team members who can
share skills to solve problems. Make the structure clear so you don’t get bogged down
in anything off-topic or irrelevant.
Have a stand-up meeting area with no chairs and with raised tables suitable for taking
notes. The idea is to get in, work hard and get out.
Appoint a timekeeper to keep the meeting on track. The focus on time helps you
prioritize. If you can accomplish only a few things in each meeting, you’re going to
work on the most important.
If you’re clear about the purpose for a meeting, and if you directly engage every
member of the team, you’ll be astonished at how productive your meetings will
become. It doesn’t matter if it’s a monthly upper-management event or a sales team
huddle, you can build a better, more productive meeting.
MIKE MICHALOWICZ (pronounced mi-KAL-o-wits) started his first
business at the age of 24, moving his young family to the only safe place
he could afford–a retirement building. With no experience, no contacts
and no savings, he systematically bootstrapped a multimillion-dollar
business. Then he did it again. And again. Now he is doing it for other
entrepreneurs. Mike is the CEO of Provendus Group, a consulting firm
that ignites explosive growth in companies that have plateaued; a former
small-business columnist for The Wall Street Journal; MSNBC’s business
makeover expert; a keynote speaker on entrepreneurship; and the author
of the cult classic book The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur. His newest book,
The Pumpkin Plan, has already been called “the next E-Myth!” For more
information, visit http://www.mikemichalowicz.com/
Lexmark Office
Machines
Don’t let technology downtime be your downfall.
Nexus IT offers the perfect solution when you need a
reliable, cost-effective print source that can service
your entire floor or office. Let us know the size of your
team and your monthly paper output, and we can
devise a personalized printing solution from our wide
range of Lexmark office machines.
Personalized Printing Solutions
From high-volume printer needs common in a modern
office setting to a more streamlined way to connect an
entire office to a single copy machine, the printer
solutions offered from Nexus IT just make sense. We
know that no two offices run exactly the same way.
We also know that choosing a multifunction office
machine from among the hundreds currently on the
market can be overwhelming. That’s why our
approach is tailored to your unique needs and
situation.
When devising a networked printing solution, we look
at things like:
Business output
Goals and growth expectations
Daily usage patterns
Print/copy volume
Current technology platform
Management style
Monthly budget
By considering all the angles in this way, we can ensure
that you have a printer (or suite of printers) capable of
handling your workload. At the same time, we are
always on the lookout for ways to improve your
bottom line, which means we include efficiency and
cost-effectiveness in our approach.
Lexmark Office Machines Set Up and Installed
Lexmark is known throughout the technology industry
as a robust and reliable source of printers, fax
machines, copiers, scanners, and replacement
cartridges. The company’s goal has always been to
save their consumers both time and money, and with
that in mind, they’ve developed a number of office
machine innovations that cut back on space, waste,
and noise.
At Nexus IT, we’re also in the business of saving you
time and money, which is why we offer a range of
printer services. In addition to connecting you to the
right equipment for your needs, we are happy to
provide:
Printer setup and installation
Network configuration
Troubleshooting and ongoing support
Cartridges and supplies
Workflow management
Your computer network might be the backbone of your
office, but your printer and copy center is where the
hard work gets done. Don’t lose out on daily output by
relying on a substandard office machine. With Nexus
IT, we make it easy for you to access the equipment
you rely on every day – and to keep it running
smoothly throughout.

it difﬁcult to avoid the cloud, putting emphasis on it
with the popular Google Drive and Gmail.
But with seemingly constant security breaches, is it
worth the risk? There are several questions that need
to be asked, centered squarely on security. Is anything
you put in the cloud truly secure? Or what happens if
the cloud-hosting company goes under?
In reality, what you have in the cloud is just about as
secure as anything on your computer’s hard drive at
home--if not more so—as long as you choose a reputa-
ble provider to store your data. As cloud services be-
come more prevalent, companies are putting increased
emphasis on security. Their clients are demanding it,
and when your clients are multibillion-dollar compa-
nies, you listen. As for the likelihood of a company
going under, this again decreases to negligible rates
when you choose larger and more widely known com-
panies. While it might be tempting to go with a small
start-up whose offering or price differs from their
big competitors, it can be risky. So this risk must be
weighed against the beneﬁts of the provider to deter-
mine if it is worth it for you and your company.
The bottom line is the cloud isn’t something to fear
or avoid. From a small business perspective, it comes
down to what you feel comfortable storing “out
there.” If you have concerns about your cloud usage
or are thinking about expanding your cloud services
and are looking for advice or suggestions, we would
be happy to help.
It seems like everything is stored on the cloud these
days. Photos, documents, applications and much more.
In early November, an Amazon Web Services executive,
Adam Jassy, stated, “The cloud is the new normal.” He
said this after discussing the move many major compa-
nies are making into the cloud computing realm.
This brings in the renewed question of reliability--and
trust. If major companies put trust into cloud systems,
and some even move a bulk of their web services and
applications to the cloud, what does this indicate for
smaller businesses?
Many cloud services, such as those offered by Google,
Microsoft and Oracle, have proven cost-effective for
these and many other companies, big and small. Not
only that, businesses say it makes them more “agile”
and they can connect with customers much quicker. Of
course, some companies, such as Google, are making
Should You Trust The Cloud?
6420 North Business Park
Loop Road
Suite B
Park City, UT 84098
877-660-0089

6420 North Business Park Loop Road
Suite B
Park City, UT 84098
http://www.nexusitc.net
- The Biggest Profit Vampire
- The 5 BEST Apps Every
Business Owner Should Have
On Their Smartphone
- Security Watch: Should You
Trust The Cloud

Jan2015News

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