Tech Tips For Entrepreneurs

As a business owner, it can sometimes be hard to know the best way to utilize technology in your operation. Technology is always changing which means that it can be hard to keep up to date with the latest trends and often means that the tech that you are relying on could be improved. It will depend on your particular industry, but there are a few tech tips which should help your company to find success and improve your ways of working. Implement these into your operation, and you should soon start to notice the positive effects that technology can have on business.

Use Cloud Computing

Cloud computing has completely changed the way in which businesses operate. When you use cloud computing, it allows your team to share, edit and collaborate on documents no matter where they are, which means that staff are able to work remotely. In addition to this, it also provides you with a secure space for backing up your data.

Invest In Cybersecurity

Leading on from this, every modern day business needs to carefully consider cybersecurity as this is a huge threat to businesses in all industries. It is vital that you have high-quality antivirus software in place and that you have worked closely with an IT specialist to develop a cybersecurity policy for your company.

Embrace Automation

There are many simple business tasks which can now easily be automated with software and technology. Many businesses are hesitant to embrace automation, but it can be incredibly useful and free up time for your staff to focus on other more important areas of the business while reducing errors.

Study Online

As a business owner, you should always be looking for ways to develop your skills. This could include earning a qualification online, such as an MBA in business intelligence - click here to find out more. This will give you the skills and knowledge that are required to excel in the business world. Additionally, due to the fact that you can study online, it means that you have greater flexibility and will be able to balance earning a qualification with running a business.

Immerse Yourself In Tech

As mentioned, technology is constantly changing which means that it can be hard to keep up with the latest news and trends. It is important to stay up to date as this will help you to embrace the right technology for your business and stay ahead of the curve. There are a few ways that you can immerse yourself in this world, including reading blogs, joining online communities, subscribing to magazines/newsletters and following relevant people and organizations on social media.

These tech tips should help any entrepreneur to embrace technology and improve their business operation. Technology has evolved at a rapid rate in recent times and can now be used in many different ways and in all industries. It can also be confusing and hard to stay current, but the above advice can make an immediate positive impact on the business and help you to stay current.

Can an MBA Degree Help Your IT Career?

People generally do not associate an MBA degree with information technology, but within the sector, it is actually quite common to see IT leaders also possessing a business management degree. This leads us to the question: can an MBA degree really help the career of an IT professional in any way? Or is it fruitless labor that has no relevance to the software professional?

The Answer is Yes, Under Most Circumstances

The answer actually depends on your level of experience and the nature of your job more than anything else. The Master’s in Business Administration degree can have many specializations and some of them do introduce business professionals to IT technology as well. However, from the perspective of an IT specialist, such introductory knowledge is irrelevant, and they will not help them to clear technical roadblocks on their career paths.

If you are stuck in your career because of your limitations in knowledge regarding the actual, core-level work, you need to think of a more technical degree, rather than an MBA. Everything we are about to discuss next only applies when you have sufficient knowledge, education, and experience in the field of IT that you are currently working in.

That being said, IT professionals can and often do benefit from completing their MBA degrees, otherwise, the aforementioned IT leaders wouldn’t really be wasting their time on an unnecessary program. Read on as we discuss why and how a business management course can help advance the career of a senior IT professional.

You Will Become Capable of Taking Up Leadership Positions

Let’s first get into the point we have already briefly mentioned, and you can probably guess on your own. The CEOs, CIOs and Head Managers in any company usually complete their MBA before taking up a high-level leadership position. They do so because it imparts onto them what they need to know about managing the business aspect of the organization.

Without a background in management and leadership, even the most experienced IT professional will find it exceptionally hard to deal with the responsibilities that naturally comes with a management position. Just because they are established in their fields, it doesn’t automatically mean they know how to lead a business organization!

If you have a few years of experience as an IT professional already and you are looking forward to taking up an important leadership position sometime in the near future, going through an online accredited MBA program is highly advised. Kettering University offers a wholerange of online accredited MBA programs and IT-focused business degrees that will enable you to open new doors leading to promotions and higher positions up the corporate ladder.

Taking an MBA at Face Value

If we were to take an MBA at face value alone, without even delving into what is actually taught during the course, it has great significance to any professional, including IT experts. The very presence of that accredited MBA degree on your resume means that you will have a higher perceived value as an employee.

After completing the management course, you will most likely be paid better as well, but even if you don’t get a raise in your current company, rest assured that when you make a switch, your new package will be higher than it would have been had you not completed your MBA. It might seem superficial, but it’s not, as we will discuss in the next point.

Business and IT Alignment

The Android and iOS platforms are extremelyprofitable fields for software developers today since smartphones have both increased the demand for software developers in general, as well as raised their professional value in the market. However, in order for a mobile software development company to be successful, they need to have a keen understanding of the business model around which the entire App Store and Play Store ecosystem has developed.

Everything from the concept behind the application to the development of the core mechanics and the monetization elements must be aligned with the business model behind the product or the service. As should be easy to imagine, it would help immensely if such projects were headed by senior IT professionals who knew as much about coding as they did about business, enabling them to align technology and business seamlessly.

When the ability to understand both the complexities of software development and business is present in that one individual, that individual becomes an asset, and later on a leader in the industry. This is just one example, of course, but the general ability to understand both business and IT makes aligning the two so much easier, which in turn, increases an IT professional’s value and salary by manifolds. If you thought that the MBA degree was just for show, now you know why companies actually pay more when you have it.

It Will Teach You How to Start Your Own Business

After everything we just explained regarding the value of an employee who has both business and IT knowledge, the next question to ask is, why not use all that expertise to start your own business? After all, if you already have the technical knowledge and the business experience, what is stopping you from doing so?

It’s perhaps better to gather more business experience first, rather than jumping straight into launching your own startup right after completing the business management course. Experience is extremely important, and while you may know a lot about the work, getting a few years of management experience under your belt is probably an excellent idea before going out on your own. It will also allow you to mature the concept or idea for your future business.

If you think you are ready though, you most certainly can venture into entrepreneurship with a tech startup of your own. As a matter of fact, you would not be the first one to do so either because SiliconValley has quite a history of success when it comes to tech startups.

Clean malware from wordpress website in 2019

These days a lot of WordPress websites are getting infected by malware, adware. What they basically do is that open they redirect the WordPress site to some random third party website which is full of ads or sometimes they spread a virus or other such malicious files to the visitors. This mostly happens because most of the times the creator of WordPress based websites are very beginner and they don't know much about security.

Last month a person reached out to me saying that his WordPress website is infected and asked me to help him out. When I checked the website I got to know that an attacker added few lines of codes on his website which redirects the visitors to some other website. You might be thinking what will the attacker gain by doing this.

Well, the attacker redirects the visitor to his malicious website which is full of ads and think if he redirects about 10,000 visitors per day, he will earn a good amount of money. So when this person gave me access to his website I first searched how the site got infected.

Here is how his website got infected :

He used a very week and known username and password so there is an attacker who runs scripts which automatically scans for WordPress based websites and try random password and if they get the access they automatically insert the code. Same this was happening in this case too. So I quickly removed the malicious codes and changed the password and things got alright.

If sometimes your WordPress website too gets infected by malware, here is how you can clean your website :

Scan your Website

This is a very important step. here you need to first scan your website to see if there is any backdoor, vulnerability that exists in your website. Scan your website to see if it redirects to some other website. Also, check if you are using the latest version of WordPress.

Backup your sites, files, and database

Always try to make a full site backup for at least once a month so that even if it becomes impossible to fix your website you can restore it back using the backup. You can backup your website files with FTP, cloud, etc. There are a lot of free plugins to do so.

Check the backup files

Things might get really tricky if your backup file itself contains the malware so always check if your backup is free from malware

Format WordPress files and folders

Login to your cPanel and go to the location where you have WordPress installed and delete all the WordPress files in your installation location. Mostly the WordPress files will be in the public_html folder.

Reinstall Wordpress

Get one-click Wordpress install option from your provider. Get an overview of installing WordPress in server. Fill the necessary information like admin name, password and click the " Install Wordpress" button

Change your WordPress login password

While installing you will be given an option to give a password. For better security, it is advisable to give a new password that you have not used so far on your website.

Reinstall themes and plugins

Download a fresh copy of the theme from the backup or you can use the default theme of WordPress. Once the theme is installed, you can install all the needed plugin once again.

Restore your WordPress files and database

Backups created by popular backup plugins like BackupBuddy and UpdraftPlus can be restored by using the same plugin. USe the plugin to restore the files and database

Scan Again

After all the above steps are done you will have the site up and running once again. Just to check if everything is alright, do a full site checkup to make sure that the site is completely free from malware The best tools to check for malware in WordPress are: Unmask Parasites, Sucuri Site Check, Norton Safe Web, etc.

Clear Google Warnings

After the above steps are done, your website will completely be free from malware. Now submit the blacklist removal request to Google to review your site. Navigate to the crawl tab in search console, Click the fetch as Google section and submit the website to index button below.

After following these steps your website should be completely free from malware in most of the cases. If it's not then contact your  service provider or get help from some professionals.

4 Software Developments that can Simplify Design

For all types of designer, life has been made much easier by the introduction of technology and useful applications and software that can help to simplify tasks. From PCB to graphic design, all design industries are complemented by the increases in technology, helping designers to digitize their designs and bring them to life quickly. For the most important software developments in terms of design, this article will track some of the most recent and useful that are currently in use.

PCB Design Software

It is not only artists that benefit from online software, and, for engineers and designers of PCB and circuit boards, there is ample software to help them to design simple layouts whenever they need them. PCB design software such as CircuitStudio powered by Altium allows potential designers to base their designs off simple layouts that allow them to create circuit boards without an intricate knowledge of PCB design. This allows designers to create the exact design that they are looking for much quicker than attempting this manually.

Website Design Software

Website design software is all the rage at the moment, and it has become so easy that anyone can now create their own websites. This is excellent news for individuals looking to start up their own blog or retail shop as websites can be easily created in a matter of second through website designers such as WordPress. On designers such as Wordpress, you can choose from a simple selection of layouts. Then you will have the option to quickly personalize these at will to ensure that your website stands out, with the designers giving you all the tools that you need to do so.

Coding Software

If you want to create more complex websites without an understanding or basic knowledge of coding, coding software allows you to create complex HTML coding from the ease of your laptop and the use of online software. These can allow you to create websites and applications quickly without too much knowledge of the coding process, allowing you to simply fill in pre-determined formats based on a set of syntax rules. Then, you can create complex technological applications and websites and edit your website’s coding without extensive knowledge, and yet ensure that this stays looking as professional as possible.

Graphic Design Software

Graphic design software is also of utmost importance to designers as it allows them to create products and images from scratch, turning their designs into digital formats that they can then edit and work on in an online format. Applications such as Photoshop and Indesign allow you to create everything from leaflets to newspapers in a professional design and format, regardless of your prior expertise.

5 Tips for Choosing a Digital Marketing Agency

In this digital world, it is likely that your potential customers are looking for the product you are selling online. As a seller, you need to have your product on those online platforms for your potential customers to find you easily and make a purchase. Competitors also pick on this and place their items out there. You need to also rise above the competition and remain at the top by marketing your products better. Since digital marketing can be a hard-nut-to-crack, you can hire a qualified digital marketer or agency to carry out this task for you. This leaves you enough time to focus on your actual business operations. Below are the tips to help you choose the very best digital marketing agency:

1)    Services

Before settling on a digital marketer, you need to define what services you are looking for and compare them with those offered by each agency. Once you find a digital marketing agency that is offering what you need, proceed to contact them. You can choose one or several agencies to handle all your digital marketing tasks. Their knowledge and expertise in that field can help you achieve your targets. However, it is advisable to work with one agency that offers all the services since this saves on time and costs.

2)    Price

You ought to compare the costs you are likely to incur with several agencies and the amount you are willing to spend. This means that you will not be stretching your budget more than needed. It also protects you from extreme losses in case digital marketing fails to deliver results as expected. You can have several agencies quote their prices for you and choose the most favorable. You can also use different agencies for different services. This will even cut costs even further. You can also negotiate the prices with agencies since some may be open to making cost reductions if the task is easy or long term.

3)    Give a Test

You can assign a small task to several agencies. Assess how they do it, and the time they take to deliver. Choose the most prompt since this will be proof enough that they can deliver on time. It would help if you also considered other factors such as quality, uniqueness, and relatability of the content to your needs. This helps you settle for the very best. The test can be free or paid for to entice participants. You need to specify what you are looking for to reduce vague responses. You can advertise this task on all marketing platforms to ensure it gets to as many agencies as possible.

4)    Recommendations

Recommendations and referrals are a sure way to get a digital agency to work with. A referral or recommendation comes from others who have also worked with the agency and liked their services. You can ask friends or other businesses to make the recommendations for you. You can also search for recommended firms on search engines too to increase your options.

5)    Track Record

Agencies list the companies and brands they have worked with on their sites. You can use this to measure their success metrics. Companies that rank high will prove the implemented marketing tactics worked and that they may work for you too. You can also check the growth rate of the agency by checking their growth records. You can settle for those with a high growth record as this shows that their clientele is increasing due to quality services offered.

4 Ways to invest in cryptocurrency

Digital currency or coins have brought about a new investment hype. There is a lot of money circulating in this industry such that you can easily make massive profits, in a short span or serious losses in the same span. Bitcoin and Ethereum are the most popular cryptocurrency with great potential, but of late, other coins referred to as altcoins have been developed. Having multiple coins give investors a wider pool for investment. It is important to note that cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile, thus, you need to be very cautious when investing.  Here are 4 ways in which you can invest in this industry.

1. Cryptocurrency Mining

Mining is one of the ways in which you can invest in cryptocurrency. It involves solving complex cryptographic problems using specialized mining machines to earn coins. You can then sell these coins on various exchanges for fiat currency or make online payments. You need specialized mining equipment which you can find at crypto drilling to mine profitably. Ensure that you also identify highly liquid coins so that you can sell them easily after you mine them successfully.

2. You Can Buy and Hold

Like stocks and other commodities, you can also speculate on digital currency. About eight years ago, Bitcoin was less than $100. In just a few years, the coin had shot to more than $1000, at one point reaching a high of $20,000. Those who had bought and kept the coin while it was still below the $100 mark made a substantial amount of money. There are many more other coins apart from Bitcoin that have shown potential for growth. The best investment strategy is to buy different coins and diversify your portfolio, thus, spreading your risk. In case some coins lose value, they can be covered by the rest in your portfolio.

3. Buy from an Exchange and not from Brokers

Buying and selling coins will involve paying fees to exchanges and brokers. You can avoid these fees and increase your profit margin. Try and look for exchanges that request for low fees but also check for their reputation. It is very easy to get scammed if you fail to carry out due diligence. Avoid buying these coins from brokers as they charge a substantially high fee. Brokers pose a greater risk of getting scammed as compared to crypto exchanges.

4. Long and Short Selling

If you are looking for immediate returns, you can either go long or short a particular cryptocurrency. Taking long position is betting on the value of a particular digital currency going up, while going short is betting on the value going down. Considering the volatility nature of most cryptocurrencies, there are usually massive fluctuations in prices that can earn you handsome profits if a trade favors your position. There are various trading sites that now list major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether with some enabling leverage trading. Be aware that you can as well make significant losses if the position you place goes against you.