I love to write – creatively as well as for business. So last year I decided to take a course at a nearby college to learn how to hone this skill. I learned a very valuable lesson that really should be the golden rule for your marketing.

It’s always better to SHOW your audience than TELL them.

Speaking is a great way to do this, especially for those of you in service-based businesses. Here are just a few of the key advantages of integrating this into your marketing:

• You have the opportunity to educate your target market in your area of expertise.
• By demonstrating your expertise, you increase trust and credibility with attendees.
• The content you create can be used in multiple other ways – articles, audio CD, teleseminar, webinar, report or book.
• You get to hone your public speaking skills and may find that you can even get paid to speak!
• Most importantly, you have the opportunity to attract more prospects to you and your business.

Okay, so you know that speaking is for you. You do, after all, possess some public speaking ability. Maybe you have even done some talks already. If this is the case and you are finding that you still are not getting the leads you think you should, it could be because one or more of the following areas are not aligned.

• You are not presenting your subject in an appealing way or with a catchy title - Create at least three topics to present. This allows the organizer to choose the one that is most appropriate for them. Research various topics that other speakers in your area of expertise use to give you inspiration in catchy titles and content.
• You are not attracting the RIGHT type of speaking engagements - Look for speaking engagements that have your qualified prospects in the audience. Don’t be afraid to ask about the audience or expected numbers. There is nothing worse than doing hours of preparation only to find a handful of people in the room when you are expecting 50!
• You are giving too little or too much away in your talk - you should be looking to explain why your topic is important to the attendee and what the key areas are they need to address. You are giving away too much if you start explaining HOW they address each area.
• You have no mechanisms in place to capture leads AFTER your talk - This is probably one of the biggest mistakes many speakers make. If you walk away after a talk hoping that people will contact you, you are losing valuable control in your marketing system. Think of ways that you can contact them. Perhaps you can offer to send them the PowerPoint slides for your presentation or a special trial of your product or services. By having a lead capture system in place, you will be able to measure your results and implement a strong follow-up campaign to move prospects closer to a sale.

How do you know you have been successful? That depends on your goals. I am looking to speak at least 20 times per year to an average audience of 50+ solopreneurs and business owners (so let me know if you are aware of such opportunities). At each event, I am looking to capture information on over 80 percent of them, and to close a minimum of $5000 in sales through each one (not on the day, but through my follow up campaign).

What are your goals?

Don’t get so wrapped up in work that you forget to stay up with the current events of the business world! Amid all of the chaos, grab a cup of Joe and take a short reading break.

1. If you haven’t heard about the Amy’s Baking Company fiasco, please look into it. It’s probably the most hilarious and frightening online meltdown in business history. After appearing on an episode of “Kitchen Nightmares,” where they were so awful Gordon Ramsay fired them, The couple received a lot of flak on their Facebook page. Instead of just accepting it and moving on, they lashed out to the online community in an unprecedented manner. Forbes wrote up a few things that we all could learn from their meltdown.

2. Happy news: Bloomberg reports that small-business optimism rose in April to a six-month high. Happy small businesses = a happier USA.

3. Enough happiness: Inc.com put together a list of seven employees you should fire now. I hope I’m not one of those …

4. Think you’re an innovator? Fast Company compiled a list of the 100 most creative people in business in 2013. Are you going to make this list one day?

5. Online hiring tools have completely changed the game. If you’re finding yourself at a loss, read the New York Times’ article on how to make use of all these online services.

Taking the time to design and build a website that reflects your company’s values is vital if you’re looking to bring to market a new product or service; but if people don’t know about your site then that investment is effectively wasted. Here are the steps you need to take to ensure you clock up hits from day one.

Pre-launch planning

This covers pretty much everything from selecting the right domain name, to design and content; it’s one of the most vital parts of the process.

With so many domains already registered, you’re likely to have to compromise when it comes to buying one. Ideally, you want something short, easy to remember and on the .com extension.

If you haven’t settled on a name for your business you have more room to maneuver and you can evaluate a selection of domain names, pick one and then use that as the basis for your brand.

In terms of design, it’s always best to involve a professional. Whether you bring one on board or look for a freelancer is up to you, but unless you’re qualified to tackle web design on your own it’s a big mistake.

That said, you’ll still have plenty of input – it’s your business and you know it best and understand the targets on which it will have to deliver. At this stage you’ll also need to plan out the sort of content you want on the site, from product descriptions to blogs and social media integration.

Although you’ll want your website to look as attractive as possible, you need to ensure it’s easy to update otherwise you’ll have to head back to the designer every time you want to tweak a picture or price point.

It’s also a good idea to have a placeholder website up before you launch. Not only will this give somewhere to seek out basic information about your site, they’ll also be able to link to it, which will benefit the full site when it goes live.

Outreach

While all this is going on, you should already be making contact with people who might be interested in your product. They could be potential buyers or journalists who cover your company’s niche – the most important thing is that they have influence.

Tracking down people who are not only interested in what you do but also have a significant audience, has never been easier. Tools such as Buzzstream can be used to find bloggers you can contact, while Followerwonk (below) can identify people with social media influence.

Once you’ve identified the key influencers operating in your niche, you need to get them interested. The best way to do this is by treating it as any other sales pitch and focus on the benefits you can offer them.

If you’re bringing an innovative product to market which solves a certain problem, find influencers it can help and give them one for free. If you’re developing an online service, invite them to a private beta.

Not only will you get great feedback about what works and what could be improved, you’ll also have some advocates ready to evangelize your site when it launches.

SEO your PR

Outreach is a great way of generating buzz for your company, but old-fashioned press releases are still a crucial part of the mix. However, you need to make sure they’re tweaked for a digital age.

The very least you should be doing is including links back to your site as this means websites who reproduce the release verbatim will end up linking to you.

However, you can take things further and include complimentary information on your site which is referenced in your release. For example, if you’ve conducted a study include the headline stats in your release and then have a visualization on your website. Websites will quote the stats and link to the graphic, boosting your search engine optimization efforts.

It’s also a good idea to set up Google alerts (above) for your brand as that way you can monitor the coverage you generate and contact authors for a link if they haven’t already done so.

Don’t forget – the tactics used to generate buzz around a website pre-launch can be used even after it has launched to attract even more attention and grow your customer base further.

Each and every business must work to improve its energy savings. This will not only have a positive impact on the environment, but also improve companies’ cost savings and energy efficiency. And it is often a simple thing to do, with positive changes in energy usage having the ability to reduce a business’ energy bill by around 20 percent.

However, before your business begins its journey to improved energy consumption, you must appreciate the uniqueness of your business and understand that certain measures are not appropriate; if a change seems impractical it may be the wrong option at this stage of your business’ development.

Today, we are going to look at some simple actionable steps that your business can use to improve its energy efficiency.

Walk around

First things first, walk around the office and take time to identify areas where energy is being wasted. Then put some actionable steps in place. This can be something as simple as making sure the windows are clean and enough natural light is getting into the office, turning down the heating (reducing the temperate by 1 Celsius can cut heating bills by 10%), installing movement detectors to adjust lighting in infrequently used areas such as the kitchen, and ensuring air conditioning and heating are not left on when the office is empty. It is these simple changes that can make a big difference – but perhaps start small by making sure office equipment is switched off at the end of the day.

Monitor

Monitoring how your business uses energy can help in identifying where energy is being wasted and putting a stop to it. Such data can be gathered from smart meters that provide the ability to compare data and put actionable steps in place. This can allow businesses to make changes that have real cost and energy savings.

Speak to colleagues

A business is not based on any one individual as there are often a number of employees involved in the day-to-day running of a company. Make sure to take advantage of this knowledge by speaking to colleagues and learning where they think energy consumption can be improved. Encouraging feedback will lead to changes based on the unique needs of your organisation. Also, to help colleagues or employees improve their energy efficiency, consider putting a switch-off campaign in place or providing actionable steps to help them improve their efficiency while travelling to and from work.

Appoint an energy champion

This is pretty much the next step from speaking to colleagues and will provide your company with a beacon through which to improve cost and energy savings. Give them the job of walking round the business site and identifying changes that need to be made. They should have the authority to identify energy waste and to contribute ideas for changes. They will need to be in a position of responsibility to do this and have the authority to influence colleagues in matters of energy efficiency.

Government incentives

In the UK, the government has set a target of reducing carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. In order to make this possible a range of government incentives have been introduced to help businesses improve energy efficiency. One of the main incentives provided by the government is the Green Deal. This helps companies to make energy saving improvements to their business without having to pay all of the costs upfront. This can include the implementation of cavity wall insulation, draught-proofing and double-glazing. There is even the potential for investment in renewable energy technologies.

Remember to start simple

Your business is unique and the changes it should implement to improve energy efficiency need to start simple. Trying to make major changes without first testing the water is likely to result in failure and see any future changes stumble at the first hurdle. To begin with just walk round the office, monitor business energy usage, speak to colleagues and hear what they have to say; keep it simple.

On February 22 I received an email saying that my startup, AdEspresso, had been invited to participate in TechCrunch Disrupt NY!

Needless to say, my small team and I couldn’t have been more excited. We hastily began checking hotels and flights to figure out how much it would cost to get to NY. The answer was: an arm and a leg.

Did I mention we’re based in Milan, Italy?

AdEspresso is currently bootstrapped and so as a team we thought long and hard about if we should attend TC Disrupt or not. We knew it would open up a world of new possibilities for us – being in front of so many prestigious investors, journalists, bloggers and other people in the startup community. However, we also had to consider our travel budget and the phase we are at as a startup.

In the end we decided to decline our invitation to TC Disrupt. Are we crazy? I hope not.

We decided to forego our TechCrunch Disrupt opportunity to focus on more specialized events like Ad:Tech.

StartUp events are simply great at the beginning …

In the first phase of our startup it would have made a lot of sense to attend a showcase like TC Disrupt. In fact, to date we have participated in many startup showcase type events including:

• Founder Showcase in San Francisco
• Startup Conference in Mountain View
• Startup Under the Sun in Milan
• TechCrunch Italy in Rome
• Dublin Web Summit
• Google Ventures Event in Mountain View
• London Web Summit

All in all, British Airways could reasonably consider investing in AdEspresso given how much we fly!

Attending all of these startup showcase events has been really important for us because we:

• Have had over 1,000 requests for access to our private beta from around the world with virtually no other marketing activities
• Gained valuable feedback on our software
• Were introduced to many Italian and foreign investors
• Had the opportunity to network like never before
• Received great press opportunities
• Reached our target audience at each event through attendees and also the other startups and sponsors since almost everyone uses Facebook ads
• Always had a lot of fun

There is no doubt these type of events have been incredibly beneficial to AdEspresso. However, we now believe it makes more sense to allocate our travel budget to specialized events to support the business in the long run.

But the real business is often elsewhere!

After declining TC Disrupt we decided to travel to the US but instead of NY we flew to San Francisco where we attended the much more expensive and niche Ad:Tech.

We believe the higher investment was worth it and likely brought in a much bigger return for us. Here’s why:

• At startup events you tend to see a lot of the same people. It is great to catch up with them in person but it’s not essential to the business.
• Startup are great early adopters when you need to build a user base for your product but they’re also very easy to reach through other channels like social media and dedicated communities
• Nich events like Ad:Tech are boring and expensive. You go there only if you’re really interested in doing business. That was great for us, every people we talked with was a potential customer and our conversion rate was 3x those of startup events.
• Startups, I know that very well, don’t have much money to spend. On the opposite most of the people we met at Ad:Tech had big pockets.
• We received a new, completely different kind of feedback on AdEspresso. While usually we got precious tips on the UX, the technology etc. at niche events we got a less tech-savvy feedback but they knew exactly what features would make their lives easier if they were using our product.

We love the startup community but at this point we need to talk to potential customers more than anyone.

Before you unleash a three-headed monster on me let me just say that I am not advising you to skip all startup showcase events. By attending many of them in AdEspresso’s earliest days we gained valuable connections and feedback. Such events are perfect for validating your idea with the public and with investors.

But I think at some point in the life of a startup, it is necessary to go further and start participating in targeted events where the core audience is made up of your customers rather than the startup community.

And that is why we declined our invitation to TechCrunch Disrupt.

Are we crazy?

The world is quickly becoming a smaller place and it’s making more sense for companies to uproot and locate elsewhere, reducing staffing and production costs. Relocating your business isn’t a light decision though, no matter how much more cost-effective it may be. If you are considering moving your company to another country, we’ve outlined a list of things for you to consider, ensuring you make the most of the opportunity.

#1 Rules and Regulations

The rules and regulations differ for businesses from country to country. Before you embark on your relocation, you must seek expert advice on any regulations that might affect you. Tax laws vary in different countries and failure to comply with such laws can result in serious fines or even prosecution. It is wise to research the rules and regulations before you move to your desired destination, as you may not be able to set up your company where you wish.

Tip: look into this first, before you take any other steps, there may be restrictions that prevent your company from setting up in certain countries. It would be a waste of time and money looking for locations, translating marketing materials and sourcing staff if there’s no possibility of relocation in the first place.

#2 Language Barrier

If you are relocating your business to a country with an alternative language you have to take in to consideration the impact the language barrier may have on the running of your day-to-day business. If you aren’t fluent in the language, or have to hire an interpreter, this could slow down the running of the business or lead to mistakes due to miscommunication. Productivity in staff can be seriously affected due to a language block.

Tip: prior to relocating your business take language lessons; the locals will appreciate your effort, you’ll be able to understand better what’s going on with your business and learning another language looks impressive on anyones CV.

#3 Culture

The language barrier is one hurdle, but culture is a whole new ball game — and it takes time and understanding to grasp another country’s culture. What might seem like a completely natural gesture within the Western World can cause all sorts of offence in the Eastern Hemisphere. It would be wise to study your desired destination’s culture before you set up camp. Be sure to source an expert, as getting this wrong could have dire consequences.

Tip: Visit your desired destination as many times as possible before you set up your company there. You can do all the research in the world, but nothing will give you a better understanding of the place, people and problems of a country than visiting the place in person. This gives you a chance to chat with the locals and business experts to ensure you’re making the right decision.

#4 Marketing

Just because your marketing strategy is successful within your own country, this doesn’t necessarily mean it will do well in another country. International market research must be carried out within your planned destination to ensure you gain a solid knowledge of your target audience. You must consider slogans and their meanings, especially if translating in to another language, not everything has a literal translation and you wouldn’t want to do irreversible damage to your brand.

Tip: Employ an expert! Don’t try and do this alone. It may raise the initial set up costs when vacating, but it could save you millions in damages and humiliation. You don’t want to have to head back with your tail between your legs because you didn’t bother to translate your marketing message properly.

#5 Cost of Moving

In the long run it might make perfect business sense to up and move your company; however in the short term it could be extremely expensive. You have to factor this cost in to your budget, there’s no point in relocating your company to save money, if the cost to do so is going to bankrupt you. There’s also the currency conversion rate, you will need to pay close attention (or seek financial advice) on the state of the exchange rate, exchanging your money at the wrong time could lose your business thousands.

Tip: Stay abreast of foreign financial affairs. You will have to employ a financial expert to guide you, but it’s no use if you don’t know what they’re talking about. Read the Financial Times, watch world news channels and read up online to ensure you gain a proper understanding of the market.

#6 Factory Removal

Depending on what type of business you run you will need to take in to consideration the cost of sourcing a new factory or whether a factory relocation will be more cost-effective. A lot of plant equipment is very specialized and can therefore be costly to replace. Having a specialist company manage your factory relocation can save you thousands.

Tip: Gain three separate quotations for both options, relocation or removal, and see which is the most cost-effective for your company.

2008 may not even seem that long ago to some of you. But so much has changed in marketing since then that quite frankly a website even developed in 2010 can seem – well – “old school.”

According to Pew Internet & American Life Project back around 2008, only about ½ the North American population even used online devices and a mere 8% were deep users of the web. Today North American internet users have climbed to 79% (US Census Bureau) with a whopping  90% of these users claiming they use the web to help them make purchasing decisions (Fleishman Hillard 2012 Digital Influence Index).

So it’s no wonder that a website that acts like a static brochure of your company is now a dinosaur in the digital world. Here are some criteria to help see if you’re website is hip and happening or pathetic and passé.

Do you have user-friendly navigation and quality content?

There is so much that can be said here and they say a picture can say a thousand words. This wonderful infographic is a must when deciding on effective web design.

Are you coming up on Google (at the very least locally) for key search terms?

To have a site that no one can find is devastating. While it’s great to have a nice looking site, if it’s not being found it’s useless from a marketing perspective. You need to focus on your Title Tags and Headers Tags and ensure they have the right keyword search terms (keyword research here is a MUST). You need these keywords in your content, you need new and fresh content with your keywords in them, you need links to your site from other credible sites, you need to make sure your pictures use the keywords in their alt tags, you need to be registered on Google Places, you need a sitemap, and this is just the beginning! If you want to see how you are doing, try many of the free website grading tools available online, then start making the necessary changes.

Do you have Google Analytics installed and do you monitor your traffic at least once a week?

To have a website and not know how it’s performing is like investing a ton of money into an ad campaign and not caring if it provides you with results.

The good news is that Google Analytics are still free and luckily most web developers can easily add the proper code to the pages on your site and even set up a report to arrive in your inbox once a week. I like to look at the following at least weekly and then deep dive twice a month in to other areas:

How many unique visitors am I getting?  How long are they staying on the site?  What is my bounce rate?  Where is the traffic coming from, including referring sites, what are the most common search terms, and what pages are the most popular?

Do you have multiple forms of media (video, photos, audio)?

To assume that everybody is going to read the content on your site is a bit naïve in today’s market. I recall a leader in web trends saying that before long websites will become mostly video in format instead of text. Why not start preparing, by climbing on the YouTube express and even creating a few Infographics of your own. Not only do multiple mediums appeal to different tastes, but they can then be strategically used on other online sites like YouTube, Pinterest, Slideshare and more. This again gives you more online exposure as well as valuable links back to your site.

Do you treat your website as just the hub to your entire online presence?

John Jantsch the fearless leader of the Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network of which I’m a part  introduced me to this great concept of the hub and spoke model of your online presence. It’s important you claim your online real estate and then post various forms of content to these other sites, encouraging them to visit your website. According to Universal McCann’s Wave 6 study, company websites are losing ground to social media sites in terms of credibility and popularity. These other sites, are places people will be seeking valuable information and engaging with your brand (see below) coming then to your website to show them how you can help them solve a problem or achieve a desired result. Implementing the hub and spoke model  increases you online presence tenfold if not substantially more!

Are you allowing prospects/customers to ENGAGE with you? 

Websites used to be a one way street. You shared information with readers and that was it. Not in today’s world. Now people want the ability to communicate back. Your website should encourage conversations by including a place for people to comment, share ideas and become part of a community. You should promote downloads of quality information via eBooks, Subscriptions to your newsletter, Surveys or Forms that help visitors find answers to their problems. Finally you website should definitely include some calls to action.

Can you easily change the content on your site and are you? 

Needless to say, if Google relies on content to help with their search engine results, you better be adding to and updating it on a weekly  or (at a bare minimum) monthly basis. This means you need to be able to change your own content and not rely on an outside source.

Did you know that according to HubSpot, sites that blog at least 20 times per month generate 5 times more traffic than those that blog only a few times per month?

Content is king in today’s online marketing world – it’s time to claim your throne if you aren’t already.

Is your site mobile and tablet friendly? 

Just like landlines are giving way to mobile phones, so are PC’s losing ground to tablets and smart phones.  In fact Fleishman-Hillard found in their  global 2012 Digital Influence Index that 2 of the 3 consumers they surveyed, use a mobile/smartphone to gain information on a brand, product or destination at least 3 – 4 days a week.

That makes it a no brainer that your site better pull up quickly and be easy to navigate on these devices.

To be clear, this doesn’t just mean your site comes up on a mobile device. It means that instead of a tiny, tiny, miniscule version of your site, there are nice big buttons that allow me to get what I need easily and even call you in one easy click of a button.

If you want to see an example of what your site should look like – go to Dudamobile.com and type in your URL.

That’s why today’s websites are now built with what is called a responsive theme that automatically adjusts the site to different sized devices.

If you want to get a quick idea how your site is fairing on some of the above elements, check out HubSpot’s free Marketing Grader.  It’s a great quick snapshot of your current website’s performance.

So how do you feel you did?

• Hip and Happening
• Better than I thought
• Retro and proud of it
• Definitely time for a new site

Yesterday’s Willamette Angel Conference (WAC) 2013 event invested more than $465,000 in four Oregon startups, highlighted by more than $250,000 in Portland-based Sonivate, which has developed a fingertip-mounted ultrasound probe that enables imaging while leaving both hands free to do work with simultaneous tactile feedback.

Three other startups got WAC investment at the event: Amorphyx, a Corvallis company with innovative technology that reduces manufacturing costs and increasing the brightness, speed and efficiency of LCD and flexible displays; DesignMedix, a Portland company addressing the rapid rise in drug resistance in multiple diseases; and Green Zebra Grocery, an innovative chain of small healthy-food grocery and convenience stores, based in Portland.

The event concludes three months of study (called “due diligence”) by the group of more than 30 angel investors, about half and half from the Oregon university towns Corvallis and Eugene. This year’s event was held on campus at Oregon State University. The event alternates between Corvallis and Eugene. I’ve been a member since it started in 2009.

Earlier in the day, keynote speaker Diane Fraiman of Voyager Capital noted that Oregon companies have received more than $600 million in venture capital funding, and challenged us, the WAC members, to continue investing in our area. That might have influenced us — our deliberations are strictly confidential, so I’m not saying — that afternoon as we added more than $200,000 to the investment amount originally planned that morning. That also doubled our previous year’s investment, and — we think — made this WAC event the largest investment of any of the Oregon angel investment groups.

Hallspot, a Eugene company that started on campus at the University of Oregon, was awarded a $2,500 Palo Alto Software prize for the best concept-stage company.

Microsoft Excel is one of the most commonly used applications in the world of computing, but as you might already know, it isn’t free. Excel is part of the Microsoft Office bundle of programs which while it isn’t that expensive to purchase, it’s still an unnecessary cost for many of today’s fledgling businesses.

When it boils down to it, Microsoft Excel is simply a spreadsheet program, of which there are many other alternatives, and many of these alternatives are free!

But just how good are these alternatives to Excel? And which ones are the best? Here’s a roundup of what we consider to be the four absolute best free alternatives to Microsoft Excel.

Related: Looking for the best alternatives to PowerPoint? Our recent article gives a breakdown

#1 – Google Docs Spreadsheet

Chances are you already use a lot of Google products on a daily basis (e.g. Gmail, Google+ etc) and therefore, you likely already have a Google account. If this is the case, you’ll have access to the Google Docs Spreadsheet application without any extra effort at all.

Essentially, Google Docs Spreadsheet is Google’s own version of an Excel-like spreadsheet application; the only difference is that it’s available for free, and it’s also available without having to download anything to your desktop.

Google Docs Spreadsheet looks pretty similar to Excel but as you’ll notice, it actually operates inside your web browser. It has much of the same functionality as Excel including a range of charts and the ability to create formulas, so it’s a pretty good alternative if you’re looking to save that bit of extra money on previous Microsoft Excel expenses.

What’s more, you can actually use Google Docs anywhere you are, so long as you have an internet connection. This makes working remotely on your spreadsheets easier than ever, as you can be sure that your files are backed up online automatically too.

#2 – OpenOffice

OpenOffice is a solution that is being utilized by more and more businesses these days. It’s yet another extremely feature-rich and completely free alternative to Microsoft Excel.

Unlike Google Docs Spreadsheet, OpenOffice is a downloadable program and operates locally (much like Excel). It works on Windows, Mac OSX and Linux, so it doesn’t matter what operating system you’re using, OpenOffice is pretty much guaranteed to work perfectly.

In terms of functionality, OpenOffice is very similar to Microsoft Excel. It looks very similar and has charts, macros and most of the other features you might be familiar with if you’ve previously used Microsoft Excel.

One of the benefits of OpenOffice over Google Docs Spreadsheet is that once downloaded, you won’t need access to the internet in order to use the program. It should also be noted that OpenOffice allows you to open, edit and create Excel worksheets, so it’s perfectly easy to make the switch from Excel to OpenOffice without much hassle.

#3 – Excel Web Application

Strangely, one of the best free alternatives to Microsoft Excel is actually Excel itself – let me explain.

Basically, in order to compete with Google’s free online services in the form of their Google Docs Apps, Microsoft launched a web version of their most popular Office applications including Excel. Much like Google Docs Spreadsheet, Excel is available free of charge in the form of the web app, you just need a Microsoft account to actually use it.

It should be noted that this isn’t the full version of Excel and therefore, there are some features that aren’t available. For example, you won’t be able to edit sparklines and VBA code also isn’t available. However, the Excel web app does offer most of the functionality that most small business owners will need from a Spreadsheet application, including macros and so forth.

The Excel Web App allows you to open standard .xlsx and .xlsm file types so once again, making the switch is simple and straightforward. Like Google Docs, you will need access to the internet in order to use the application though.

#4 – Zoho Sheet

Lastly, we have Zoho Sheet. This is another cloud based application (much like Google Docs and the Excel Web App) so once again, you need to keep in mind that you’ll need an internet connection in order to use it.

Zoho offers a lot of cloud-based web apps, many of which aren’t free but luckily for us, Zoho Sheet is. All you need to do is create a free account with Zoho and then sign in. At this stage, simply head to “Productivity” on the menu and select the “Sheet” app from the list.

Zoho Sheet looks very similar to Microsoft Excel and it allows you to work with local files on your computer or Google Docs files if you prefer. You can of course create files from scratch in the Zoho Sheet app.

For most small business owners, this is yet another great alternative as it offers most of the functionality that you’ll be familiar with from Excel.

Conclusion

A few years ago, there were virtually no good alternatives to Microsoft Excel but these days, things are entirely different. All of the alternatives mentioned in this list offer just about all the functionality that SME’s (subject matter experts) are likely to need from their spreadsheet application.

Sure, they might not offer absolutely everything that Excel offers, but they come pretty damn close and to be honest, the difference isn’t worth paying for unless you use Excel’s more in-depth functions on a regular basis.

If you’re taking advantage of the spring to sort out your office, clean up your paperwork, and get your admin in order, don’t neglect your IT systems.

It’s a good idea to review some key areas of your computer systems once every 12 months or so. Revisiting these five crucial aspects shouldn’t take long, but will give you confidence that you’re up-to-date and not spending more on IT than you need to.

1. Examine your IT inventory

Having an up-to-date record of all the IT equipment and resources in your business is useful for all sorts of reasons. Vitally, it helps you keep track of some of your company’s most valuable assets. For instance, are you paying for any hardware or software but not using it? Could you redistribute these resources more usefully?

These days, there are plenty of useful tools to help you create an IT inventory. Check out Spiceworks, which offers a free app that scans your network to identify all your hardware and software.

2. Reassess your IT support

It’s common for smaller companies to have a close working relationship with a local IT support firm, rather than relying solely on IT expertise within their business. If your IT supplier knows your business then terminating the contract to make a small saving is almost certainly a false economy.

However, it’s still a really good idea to reassess your IT support requirements once a year. For example, have you invested in any new equipment or software that isn’t covered by your current support contract? When you run into a problem, does your support provider respond in good time?

3. Revisit your internet service provider

These days, you probably rely on your internet connection almost as much as your electricity supply or the telephone. But unlike the electricity we take for granted, when it comes to business broadband there can be big differences between packages.

If your company has expanded in the last year or started using more online services – like cloud backup or hosted CRM – you could work more efficiently by moving to a faster connection. In any case, as providers often offer deals for new customers it can be worth switching – or at least threatening to – if you’re out of your contract.

4. Evaluate your web hosting

The world of web hosting has changed considerably over the last few years. Prices have dropped and packages have become more powerful, with lots of new apps and capabilities available. This alone makes it well worth re-evaluating your hosting service if you haven’t considered it in a while.

You should also think about how your hosting has performed over the past 12 months. Have you been happy with the service? Are you running close to the storage or data limits? If you start to push these, it’s best to upgrade early rather than waiting till you do finally max out the service.

5. See what your employees think

To really establish how to improve your computer systems, you need to ask the people who use them day-in, day-out. Even if things are running smoothly overall, there are probably ways to make things easier for your team.

Your staff might raise the issue of bring your own device (BYOD), which sees them using their own IT equipment at work. Or it might just be a small thing, like changing your password policy or improving Wi-Fi coverage in the office. These little improvements can make a big difference to productivity.