Welcome to the CX Blog

Guest blog by Ruth Barton
Online Marketing Assistant for Fountain Partnership

The world is a tough place for new businesses — finding a niche, writing a business plan, securing financing, and getting set-up are only the first steps towards assembling a successful business. You then need to get your new venture out there and find and manipulate the edge you have on your competitors. Whether your business is in its first few days or years, the following tips will help you make the best of your company. (more…)

By Joe Hicks
Managing Partner at Cypress Financial Partners

It amazes me how many entrepreneurs start a business without thinking and planning for the bigger picture. The bigger picture is having a national, or even a global, presence, versus a small community or regional presence. Many small business owners/founders believe they do not have the resources, experience or, most of all, the capital to think and plan big.

The business world has changed in the last 5, 10, 15 years and continues to change very rapidly. A business owner can now have all the resources, get the experience, and raise the needed capital all with a click of a mouse. The Internet has allowed businesses to expand outside of their traditional boundaries and in a very expedient and efficient fashion. (more…)

Guest Post by Kriti Vichare
Founder of IdeaKube and the web comic #entrepreneurfail

Whenever I speak to entrepreneurs who have left the corporate rat race to pursue their own ventures, their experiences always echo my own. Sure, new small business owners expect additional flexibility, less bureaucracy and longer hours. However, as someone who left the corporate world in search of greener pastures as a startup founder, I found the biggest surprises involve job satisfaction, the first month of work and organizational structures. Here’s what you can expect if you make the move from the corporate world to the startup world.

Job satisfaction. At the beginning of a corporate job or a role with any large organization, there is a sense of pride that comes with the brand, the paycheck and the responsibility. With time (and, of course, there are exceptions), the satisfaction decreases and plateaus out. From what I’ve observed, the probability of this happening is consistently high.

Cartoon by Kriti Vichare, founder of #entrepreneurfail

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Welcome to Up on the CX Cloud, a weekly feature where we spotlight one of our CX users. Want to participate? If we feature you, you’ll score CX Rewind for half-off for a year. Go to our Facebook page here for all the details.

Maya Penn of Maya’s Ideas

Maya Penn

CX User Name: mayasideas

CX Profile Link

Website: mayasideas.com

Hometown, State, Country: Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America

Current Town, State, Country: Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America

How long have you been a CX member? 1 month.

Why did you join CX? We heard a lot about cloud storage, and we wanted to give it a try for my business.

What do you use the CX cloud the most for? Business. (more…)

Guest blog by Roy Rasmussen
Co-author of Cloud Computing Simplified for Small Businesses for DMS & Associates

In an age of accelerating mobility, more and more executives and small business owners are finding a need to run their businesses remotely while traveling. Remote business management presents some unique challenges, requiring an adaptation of administrative skills to a mobile environment. Here are some tips for successfully keeping some key areas of your business rolling while you’re on the road.

Starting from a Mobile Headquarters

The first key to running a business from the road is making a shift in mentality from local to mobile. A traditional business is based in a local office, and business processes are built around an office environment. In a mobile environment, your business base shifts to your virtual office, which is spread out on the cloudover the Internet and mobile phone networks. Thinking of your smartphone or iPad as your office headquarters will help you start structuring your operations for success in a mobile environment. (more…)