Obviously one must feel fortunate for being able to work for
any company at this point in time, no matter what the size. I am still amazed that God has blessed me with a job at a company that, beyond all reason, has more than doubled its size in the downfall of the economy!
For all the small school's out there, let me tell you a piece of my story. I went to work for a man who gave me an opportunity to prove myself when all I knew was to talk out of one end and listen out of the other. Saying that, I was the seventh person hired (5th counting the 2 owners). Yes, Unified360 is a smaller business, but we are growing in numbers every month. I believe in my company so much that I have encouraged my wife to work here. I love my wife and would never willingly put her in harm's way. Therefore I would never have suggested she take the job if I didn't believe in what my company was doing.
For anyone that reads this, I want them to understand the passion I have for this company is like no other. Of course we have challenges like every other business, but we work hard to overcome them and not let them defeat us. That is why we are still standing, and growing¸ in an economy where so many others have failed. I know that God works in strange ways and I love Him for that. In 2009, we were one of those small schools. In 2010, we might not be the heavyweight champion, but I can tell you that WE WILL BE IN THE GAME... WE WON'T LOSE! It's not an option. If you would give this attachment a minute:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3E3bEH1Ov8&NR=1
1st Samuel 17:49,
Brad Jones, Sr. Business Development Specialist
Unified360
Over the last six months, we have seen social media and networking become more widely accepted in the business community. Prior to six months ago, there was a lot of debate on whether social networking was hurting employee productivity while employees visited their Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other sites during the day. Although it could cause challenges, we (Unified360) and many of our clients and business partners have seen it become a great marketing tool.
Less than 90 days ago, we had less than 10 fans on our Facebook page and didn't even have a LinkedIn profile. Now we have almost 300 Facebook fans and LinkedIn has become one of our top 10 referral sources to our website. Both of these sources and others have helped us provide information to our clients, prospective clients, and business partners that not only helps grow our business, but also provides our clients informative tools to help with the Unified Communications solution we provided them.
The impact of social media and networking on business communication is starting to really take off now. In fact, our technical team has developed an application that allows the traditional "screen pop" of call data (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_pop) to not only "pop" a database, but now it can actually do a Google search and "pop" a Google Map or even a Facebook or LinkedIn page based upon an immediate query. This is a really great tool for a sales and marketing team like ours. For instance, if our sales team were to get a call from John Smith at ABC Company from 972-505-5050, at the same time the call rings the salesperson(s) phone(s), their computer would pop up 1) Microsoft CRM if John has an existing record along with ABC Company's website OR if no current record 2) ABC Company's website and John Smith's LinkedIn page with a query preprogrammed to search the first name, last name, and company name. This significantly helps our sales and marketing team know who they are speaking with and how better to handle the call.
As the first wave of social media and networking hit the business community with question marks, we believe the second wave will be with more open arms as business begin understanding the power of social media and networking. Unified360's specialty is integrating business communications and we will continue to develop applications in this space. Watch for more from Unified360 on integrating business communications with social networking and media sites.
We sat down with Anthony Danon, COO of SOI, one of the nation´s oldest and largest PEOs and an expert in connecting small and medium-sized businesses with financing sources, to discuss how emerging businesses can leverage PEOs to be more attractive to investors.
"A successful business starts with an inspiration," says Danon. "The founder has a great idea and the passion to make it happen. In the beginning it´s just the founder and maybe a couple of other people, and they´re able to make sure everything´s right because they´re doing it themselves. But as the business grows and becomes viable, it inevitably adds more personnel, and with them come all the challenges of having employees, such as providing workers´ compensation, health insurance, 401(k) and other employee benefits, writing employee handbooks, dealing with employee complaints, employment law compliance, unemployment compensation claims, maintaining HRIS systems, and even mundane tasks like getting the payroll out and the payroll taxes and reports filed. This is not what entrepreneurs get into business to do, it´s not what they´re good at, and it detracts not only from the time they spend on growing the business, but from the satisfaction of running their own companies."
For the entire article please visit http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/108466.