Apps are fun. Apps are business. Apps are used daily. In a world of consumerism and fast-paced technology there are so many resources now available at the tip of your fingers to make you and your company efficient. So let’s explore how to make your mobile device work for you.

As a business professional it’s imperative to stay on top of the market and trending technologies. But let’s face it, that’s difficult in the realm of mobile technology when smartphone application markets yield numbers such as 400,000 Android apps and well over 500,000 iOS (Apple) apps. So where do we begin?

First let’s delve into what is a smartphone app.

App is a term used to describe compact software programs that perform specific tasks for the mobile user. Mobile users include smartphones and other mobile devices such as tablets or iPads. And to break this down further, there are two types of apps: 1.) The native app, which is installed on the device; they either arrive pre-installed on the phone – these might include address book, calendar, calculator, games, maps, etc. – or they can be downloaded for free or a small fee from an app market such as iTunes. 2.) Server-based apps are apps that require the Internet to perform specific tasks.

That’s important to understand so when you download or purchase an app you understand how and when you can use it.

Now for the fun part--let’s review some business-worthy apps that can save you time and money….

Square: Hands down, this app is amazing. It’s ideal for any person who wants to get paid. With that said, the Square is an app that couples with a credit card reader device so you can accept credit card payments on the go. The small accessory plugs into your phone and connects you to a secure payment server. The app that enables the device is free but you will need to purchase the Square device reader. Square takes a 15-cent transaction fee along with 2.75 percent of the sale and 3.5 percent of the total if you enter the credit card information manually.

K-9 Mail: If your profession requires you to access and use e-mail regularly, then this app is great. It is an advanced e-mail client for Android phones. If you consume large amounts of e-mail a day, K-9 will help you chew through it. K-9 is free and has a 4.4 Star rating on the Android Market.

Evernote: This is an outstanding note-taking app that works as an extension of your brain. Evernote allows you to keep reminders, capture Web pages, snapshots and ideas all in one place. This award-winning app is great for the multitasker or the running list maker. From notes to ideas, it will remember and recall anything that happens for you and it instantly synchronizes from your phone to the Web and to your desktop computer.

Google Docs: This newer app provides easy access to the Google Documents feature.  You can even take a picture of a document and it will convert it to text in a document.  It’s great for students and business individuals alike. Currently, Google has only launched this in the Android Market.

VNC Viewer: For a small fee, this app is great for the traveling businessperson. VNC Viewer lets you control your computer with your iPad, iPhone or Android from anywhere in the world. It will allow you to control a Mac or PC. The app gives you a view of your desktop screen and gives you free dominion to run your desktop’s applications, access pertinent information and even use the keyboard. It’s a great way to really stay connected no matter where you are!

Another free option is LogMeIn for any iOS product.

Adobe Photoshop Express: Besides all the major social media apps, Photoshop Express is a great way to add an extra touch to your photos. You can edit, tweak and add special effects to images on the go. That means you can begin sharing those images immediately. It would be great if you are on site of a project and need to add a photo to Facebook but you want to crop and clean it up first. This App is available for both iOS and Android.

These six options are just a highlight of the potential available when it comes to mobile devices. It has been predicted that by 2014, more people will be accessing the Internet through their mobile devices more often than their desktop computers. So tools like these will become more commonplace and essential to business.

(Online article: http://www.mywomenmagazine.com/sections/mind/120-smartphone-apps-for-the-business-savvy-feb-2012.html )

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http://www.newnorthb2b.com/trip-the-tech-fantastic.html

Pro Web design for less
Story by Robin Bruecker
                                  
Not only is a business website a great communication tool, but it’s also one way to get all of your business information into one line on a business card or in an advertisement.

Paying a firm to design, launch and maintain a business website can be one of those things that gets crossed off or moved farther down the to-do list of a small business that needs to throw cash at other necessities. Yet a cheaper alternative such as the do-it-yourself website services offered online might not provide the customized, professional look or all of the functions a business owner would like. It may be worthwhile to contact local Web design firms and ask if there are special products and services that accommodate the needs and budgets of smaller businesses.

One firm that understands smaller businesses have the same needs as their larger counterparts but don’t have as big of a budget is Stellar Blue Web Design LLC in Menasha. Their brainchild is Web Pro, which packages the know-how of their team of programmers and designers into a software product made easy to use for business owners and removes the need to pay a firm hourly or per project. The Stellar Blue team also provides tech support.

“A new Web site, whether it’s your first or 50th, is a large undertaking,” said Jim Dobinski, managing director at Stellar Blue. “Web Pro is an effective solution for small businesses on a tight budget who still recognize the importance of a Web presence.

“Think of your website as another employee. It’s expected to generate sales, inform and retain clients. It represents your brand, services and quality. We need to hold our websites at a higher standard.”
Clients buy the software, which comes with a comprehensive manual and on-screen help, and pay a small set-up fee and thereafter a monthly administrative fee. After three hours of customized training, clients can get started on their website. The software follows the user-friendly “what you see is what you get” format in setting up photo galleries, feedback forms, blog posts, archive news and more. The monthly administrative fee means small businesses aren’t troubled with maintenance invoices or waiting on turnaround time.

Web Pro can be so easy to use that after the Stellar Blue team provided an initial hour and a half of training to a beta client when the software launched in spring 2010, recalled Stellar Blue Technical Director Dustin White, the once-apprehensive client group forged ahead and set up the pages and content of their new website without requiring additional training.

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It’s easy to be caught up in the world of social media while straddling the line of what is professional and what should be personal. An excellent place to get your bearings is with LinkedIn. Think of LinkedIn as a Business to Business Facebook where your “friends” are business partners, clients, employees, interns, etc.; all of which are called “connections” on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn provides many benefits:

Search Feature – LinkedIn has it’s own internal search feature so you may search for people, jobs and companies. It will also list people that you may know through your other connections. For instance, as soon as you join a company or an association page, LinkedIn automatically suggests people that you might know.

LinkedIn is also used as a follow-up after a networking event. You’ve met some interesting people and do not want to loose that connection. Find them on LinkedIn and stay connected.

Groups and Associations – Getting involved with national organizations and associations is a great way to stay up to date in your field or specialty. LinkedIn opens your network to all sorts of groups whether it deals with social media, engineering, entrepreneurship, nonprofits or even your Alma Mater. Once you select the groups you want to be affiliated with, they appear on your profile page to show your connections what you are involved in. These groups also provide real-time discussions with people that you may or may not know sharing advice, providing examples and truly being a resource to you.

Integrated Applications – LinkedIn allows you to integrate the following within your profile page: calendar, Box.net, Twitter, WordPress blog, SlideShare presentations, polls, Google documents and more. All of these tools are great ways to increase awareness on your company and its services.

Company Profile – Not only can you post a link back to your website, you can create a company profile on LinkedIn. You do this by adding a job position on your personal profile. As you begin typing in a company for the position, if the company doesn’t automatically show that means there is no profile created for it yet. In that case, LinkedIn provides you with a link below the area where you typed in the “new” company to create the profile. You will then be given an email that outlines the quick easy steps to set up the company profile.

And the best part is, is that it’s so easy to start! You can set up your personal profile quickly by simply placing bits and pieces of information found on your resume. Keep in mind that Social Media networks like LinkedIn are so massive in use and growth that the more you and your company are tied to social networks, the stronger your web presence will be.

Get connected and stay connected with LinkedIn.

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Think of Google as a team captain evaluating and choosing the line-up of all the millions of websites. It’s up the individual websites to make themselves standout to Google to get noticed. So how do we accomplish this highly competitive feat? We need to make your website popular.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO), the act of optimizing your website to be found, is a hot topic of discussion for all companies with a web presence. There are multiple components that make up an effective SEO strategy, including the use of links. Search engines, like Google, use the number of links as a primary way to rank websites to determine their search result placement. This is known as your website’s Link Popularity or in Google’s case it’s called PageRank.

The PageRank scale ranges from 0 to 10 with 10 being a highly optimized, well linked website such as CNN.com. Your goal is to raise your PageRank so Google takes notice and finds your website relevant for search results.

The electronic decision makers of Google are known as algorithms. Google’s algorithm ranks websites primarily on three criteria:

1. The total volume of in-coming links to your website.
2. The quality or relevance of the website that links to your website. Meaning, if you own a lawn care service, it makes the most sense that a nursery links to your website versus a dog breeder’s website.
3. The actual text in or around the in-bound link that points to your website. For instance, if a directory has a link to your website, make sure you are able to provide a website description near your link.

Basically, the more links you have pointing to your web site, the higher your Google PageRank score will be. Now that we understand that in-bound linking is a strategy to increase your website’s popularity, how do we acquire such links?
• Place ads and links on portal sites such as social media networks
• Submit your website to the important registries such as http://www.dmoz.org/
• Conduct an Internet public relations (I-PR) campaign and get publicity on the websites that your target market reads such as http://www.publicityadvisor.com/
• Write articles and get them placed on blogs and forums in your industry or topic.
• Conduct a reciprocal linking campaign   
• Get more “Relevant Links” from quality sites than your competition

Another type of linking that Google notices, is the number of links coming from your website to external sources. By creating links on your website to social media networks or to your participating associations, you are creating activity on your website – and Google likes activity. Not only will you be benefiting other associated websites but giving your website the potential extra edge that your competition does not have.

Everyday, search engines and online directories average 300-500 million searches. Adhering to natural linking policies such as getting links on a wide variety of websites, will help boost your PageRank. The more components you understand of SEO, the more successful your website will be. Keep in mind, all SEO strategies take time to be recognized by search engines but the payoff is well worth the wait.

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Benesh, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh with a computer science degree, pursued a software engineering emphasis. Prior to his UWO graduation, Benesh obtained an Associate of Arts and Science degree from UW-Marinette. His wealth of computer programming knowledge led him to Stellar Blue over eight months ago where he worked as an intern. 

"Benesh's talents and mobile development knowledge proved to be an asset to our growing company. He is not afraid to take the initiative and discover the latest technologies to enhance our customer service. We all look forward to what he will continue to bring forward," said Stellar Blue's Technical Director and Co-Founder Dustin White.

Stellar Blue Web Design LLC is a full-service design agency specializing in building creative, affordable websites that utilize advanced database and e-commerce technologies. Stellar Blue provides its clients with comprehensive Internet solutions. More information is available at www.stellarbluewebdesign.com.

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The firm continued adding new clients – at an average rate of two to three a month at that point – and found themselves working nearly around the clock to keep up with client demand.

“We were working 80-hour weeks, and we were wondering ‘Now what’s the next step – we can’t keep working like this,’” said Jim Dobinski, managing partner for Stellar Blue.

At that point, he and partners Dustin White and Cathy Wunrow agreed they would take the next big step in entrepreneurial development – adding their first non-owner employee at the beginning of 2010.

Adding a fulltime marketing specialist this past January, Dobinski’s time was freed to better manage the growth and administration of the company. Tasks like bookkeeping, taking care of insurance, and meeting with financiers had been divvied up among the three partners since before Stellar Blue even got off the ground. Now Dobinski could spend more time keeping the management of the business together. And White could focus more specifically on programming. And Wunrow on design.

“Our roles are defined more than they were before,” Dobinski said. “I think there’s more of a process for everything we do as a business now.”

Then this past February, Dobinski took a call from the owner of Com Resources looking to sell her company. Stellar Blue wasn’t looking to acquire any business at the time, but with a new employee on board, Dobinski and his partners couldn’t resist the opportunity. Admittedly moving forward with less due diligence than they should have conducted, they closed the deal on their first acquisition in March.

“That was one phone call, and six weeks later, we had 70 new clients,” Dobinski said.

With a new fulltime graphic professional on board in late August and two interns who work on programming functions for Stellar Blue’s clients, the company is poised for even further growth. So far in 2010, Stellar Blue’s receipts are up 30 percent over the same period in 2009, Dobinski said, and the firm is looking at a handful of other acquisition possibilities later this coming year. It’s also looking to take a more aggressive approach into the Green Bay market in upcoming months.

“We feel we can take on anything that comes our way now,” Dobinski said.

All of this growth and change has meant the business has had to upgrade its own professional resume as well. This past year has been somewhat of a crash course in human resource management for Dobinski. He’s written the company’s first ever employee handbook, designed an employee benefits package, and learned the delicate art of conducting payroll.

Stellar Blue doesn’t have a common office. Rather, it’s created a workplace culture in which staff work from their individual homes. Staff communicates with one another throughout the day with messaging, email and phone calls, and holds virtual meetings at least twice each week through phone and video conferencing. It’s a culture Dobinski hopes to keep intact as the company grows further.

Dobinski credits business advisor and longtime mentor Gary Vaughan of Guident Business Solutions with the direction and encouragement to work through each stage of the company’s growth. Vaughan has also helped pull in the reins when Dobinski became a bit too eager and aggressive, providing some sobering reflection to help ensure Stellar Blue had all of its ducks in a row.

Now that advice is paying dividends as Stellar Blue looks to capture larger markets.

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"Everybody we've had from the BSC has been very professional, outgoing and dedicated, which is very important," Jim Dobinski, a founding member and marketing director of Stellar Blue, said. "They've been very intelligent and aggressive."

Stellar Blue, a web development and design company that also offers website hosting and search engine optimization services, has a rapidly expanding list of clients as well as employees. Since the company began its partnership with the UW Oshkosh's BSC in summer 2009, Stellar Blue has hired five interns from the BSC's roster. These interns — most of whom are part-time or project-based employees — primarily design and update websites for clients.

"So far, we're five out of five," Dobinski said. "We've never had a problem. The BSC has made it easy for Stellar Blue."

Amanda Betts, a BSC-approved intern who graduated from UW Oshkosh in December 2009, became Stellar Blue's first full-time hire since Dobinski, Dustin White and Cathy Wunrow formed the company in 2004.

Betts juggles a variety of roles, from performing market research and search engine optimization to teaching companies about social media to meeting with new and prospective clients.

"I do everything but the technical parts that Dustin does," Betts said. "I'm basically the 'face' of the company."

Dobinski says Betts has been a godsend.

"She's intelligent, outgoing and friendly," Dobinski said. "We couldn't do without her. She has been an amazing attribute to Stellar Blue."

But Betts wouldn't have gotten the job without BSC Intern and Operations Manager Chad Kopitzke, who advocated on her behalf with Dobinski while urging Betts to consider working with a rising company.

"If Chad hadn't pushed me along, I wouldn't have talked to Jim and showed him that I was a good candidate," Betts said.

And Betts has enjoyed watching her company grow, even during an economic recession; earlier this year, Stellar Blue bought a new company and added 70 clients in one day.

It's a symbiotic relationship, as Stellar Blue's management and employees like Betts learn and grow together.

"I'm running meetings with clients, and they're looking to me," Betts said. "And Jim is by my side helping me grow and deal with these situations."

Stellar Blue continues to expand. On June 15, Dobinski hired a new intern from the BSC's pool of UWO students to work primarily with website design.

"That's the strength of the BSC," Betts said. "They can connect small businesses with qualified people."

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Stellar Blue began the development of the Web Pro during Fall 2009. Technical Director and Co-Founder Dustin White worked extensively on making the Web Pro user-friendly with easy navigation.

"Stellar Web Pro is the next evolution in website content editing. We have created it to allow any user to update their site easily and efficiently. We are excited to begin giving clients the complete freedom that they have been looking for when it comes to web work," White said.

The Stellar Web Pro is a fresh, innovative take on building your own Web site. This highly affordable option provides endless possibilities for companies looking to develop and maintain their own sites. The Web Pro comes installed on Stellar Blue's shared hosting, along with great applications such as a blog, calendar and photo albums at no additional cost.

The site is yours to design, and the Web Pro gives you the freedom you are looking for in creating your own site. Web Pro is compatible with all the major web browsers and operating systems.

Stellar Blue Web Design LLC is a full-service design agency specializing in building creative, affordable websites that utilize advanced database and e-commerce technologies. Stellar Blue provides its clients with comprehensive Internet solutions. More information is available at www.stellarbluewebdesign.com.

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Jim Dobinski, managing director of Stellar Blue Web Design, talked about how he and his friends decided to put their 9 to 5 workdays behind them and start their own company in the Fox Cities area.

Dobinski, technical director Dustin White and multi-media director Cathy Wunrow, all used to work together at J.J. Keller.

“I had a friend who wanted me to do a 75-page Web site for him,” Dobinski said. “I went to Dustin and said, “Do you want to help me? And he said ‘sure.’ Then, I went to Cathy. We realized it really went well, and we had a lot of fun doing it. It was something we all enjoyed.”

From there, they picked up a few more Web sites. “Then we went to the E-seed class over at Fox Technical College and got some direction,” Dobinski said. “We took fifth place in a business-plan context. From there, we just kind of took off and our name got out in the public and we started growing.”

The company officially began operating Jan. 1, 2006. “We all lasted one more year at Keller, and then, in 2007, I took the jump,” Dobinski said. “Cathy took the jump about six months later and Dustin about six months after that. We started slowly. It started as an idea that just kept growing, and people started hearing about it and started calling us to do their Web work, and we realized, ‘We’re onto something here, let’s keep this moving.’ Over the last four years we've just continued to grow.”

Stellar Blue specializes in a number of different areas including custom Web design, animation and flash design, e-commerce, search-engine optimizations, Web statistic marketing, 3-D Web interaction, database design, corporate identity, business-card design and brochure design.

“Internet marketing is our main drive right now, which includes Web-site design, development, programming, and all the social-media pieces,” Dobinski said. “We always say we don’t just build your Web site; we build it and then bring it to market and make sure people find it.”

Recently, Stellar Blue purchased a portion of another business, adding 70 clients to its fold for a total of 163. In addition to the three owners working in the company, they also have a programmer, an assistant marketing director and three designers on staff.

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The small Stellar Blue Web Design has grown by leaps and bounds in its first four years.But the firm, which could reach a volume of $500,00 this year, still doesn't have an actual office.

"It's getting close though," said Jim Dobinski, partner in the company with Dustin White and Cathy Wunrow. "We're hiring. We know the growth is going to force us to be more centralized."

They still work from their own homes, which has not only has helped with overhead, but also has allowed them great flexibility. But they know the handwriting is on the wall that they have to give up this free spirited existence connected by technology, especially since they've hired three people and plan on hiring two more in programming, design and server administration.

"We'll try to resist it as long as we can. It will probably be sometime this year," said White. "We want to keep it fun and interactive and keep the passion we had coming into it."

The company's partners are positive that they've seen the end of the recession.

"With the economy turning around, we're getting four or five leads a week. People calling us needing expansion or needing a project done," said Dobinski. "It kicked in in December and has been gangbusters ever since."

When Inc. Innovator profiled Stellar Blue in April 2007, it was a startup in existence for a little more than a year. It had 30 clients, and a second-year volume of about $75,000. At that time, just Dobinski was full time, and White and Wunrow were holding onto their day jobs. That changed quickly, and the two partners came on board full-time that year.

Though they hit the same recessionary speed bump as others in 2008 and 2009, stalling their volume at about $250,000, this year they're poised to double that.

Since the beginning of the year, Stellar Blue has won a Rising Star award given by the Heart of the Valley Chamber of Commerce and purchased the Web design development portion of Com Resources, another Appleton firm.

Now, Stellar Blue has 164 clients, with about 130 of them needing active Web site maintenance.

Sites include features like shopping capabilities, monetary conversion calculators and all sorts of custom applications.

On Darboy Stone & Brick's site, for example, the company set up an entire design center. "Say you want to purchase a fireplace, you can choose the different options. At the end it shows your fireplace and all the information. You can print it out and come in and say, 'This is exactly what I want,'" said White.

From a client's perspective, Stellar Blue has been attentive and quick.

"They were small enough where I wasn't a little fish," said Gary Vaughan, founding member of Guident Business Solutions, a consulting and management development firm based in Appleton. "I wanted to be a valued client and get a little TLC. The larger companies have these big corporate accounts, and I didn't want to complete with them."

He appreciates that Stellar Blue services were in-house rather than subcontracted out, which he said sped things up.

Another client, Menn Law Firm in Appleton, was looking for a user-friendly site that could function as a resource for local people looking for legal services. It needed a lot of links and an easy path from its e-mailed newsletter back to the company's site.

"Stellar Blue has taken it to the next level," said partner Bob Duimstra. "We've gotten a lot of positive feedback on it."

Stellar Blue also has walked clients through search engine optimization strategies and the value of social media.

The next step in most companies' Web site evolution is being able to manage their own content, said White. He has programs to make that work.

"People want to be in control of their own Web sites. You can create your own blogs, articles, calendars, image galleries and Web pages," he said. "There's no calling your Web company asking for updates. But we're still here to help them out if they need it."

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Stellar Blue is the 6th recipient of the Rising Star, which was created by the Heart of the Valley Chamber to recognize a business that has been in operation less than five years and is a member of the chamber. The chamber's Board of Directors refers to the award as recognition of "Up and Coming."

Stellar Blue Managing Director Jim Dobinski and Assistant Marketing Director Amanda Betts were in attendance at the awards.

"The chamber put on a great event that brought together many local talents and businesses. To hear Stellar Blue being called out for the Rising Star was a great feeling. This recognition for all our hard and continuing work makes what we do even more exciting," Dobinski said.

The Rising Star Award is an acknowledgment to the entrepreneurs who skillfully combine a vision, energy, talent and determination to successfully run a newer business.

Stellar Blue Web Design LLC is a full-service design agency specializing in building creative, affordable websites that utilize advanced database and e-commerce technologies. Stellar Blue provides its clients with comprehensive Internet solutions. More information is available at www.stellarbluewebdesign.com.

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Betts, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh with a journalism degree, pursued emphases in public relations and advertising. Prior to graduation, Betts worked as the public relations intern for the Experimental Aircraft Association and a marketing intern for the Center of Community Partnerships.

Her experience and outgoing personality got her to Stellar Blue where she worked for the agency as an intern until her December 2009 graduation. Betts began as the Social Media Strategist for Stellar Blue and its growing cliental. Before receiving the full-time position, Betts worked closely with the Marketing Director and Co-Founder Jim Dobinski.

"Amanda has done a fabulous job and has proven to be an asset to this company by showing her expertise and working knowledge of the topic," said Dobinski.

Stellar Blue Web Design LLC is a full-service design agency specializing in building creative, affordable websites that utilize advanced database and e-commerce technologies. Stellar Blue provides its clients with comprehensive Internet solutions. More information is available at www.stellarbluewebdesign.com.

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The policy is based off word of mouth in which stellar service will continue to give back. When an opportunity arises Stellar Blue asks that you refer a client, customer or associate back to Stellar Blue for their internet marketing needs from website design to social media packages. There is no limit or range as to when 10 percent would be donated. No matter the work completed on a referred customer, your organization will be allotted a donation.

Stellar Blue Web Design LLC is a full-service design agency specializing in building creative, affordable websites that utilize advanced database and e-commerce technologies. Stellar Blue provides its clients with comprehensive Internet solutions. More information is available at www.stellarbluewebdesign.com.

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