Vector Tech August 2018

August 2018

TECHNOLOGY TIMES Insider Tips To Make Your Business Run Faster, Easier And More Profitably 4Ways To Keep Employees From Leaking Confidential Information

“As a business owner, you don’t have time to waste on technical and operational issues. That’s where we come in! Call us and put an end to your IT problems finally and forever!”

Founder & CEO Vector Choice

Hacking a business today is easier than it has ever been. With nearly every company in America now intimately intertwined with technology, you might think cyber security would be a priority. But the truth is, our protective measures have grown lax, as organizations fall behind the times in their trust of flimsy barriers, trusting in blind faith that they won’t be targeted. Right alongside the rise of software that makes our life and work easier than ever, the tools cybercriminals use have advanced as well, enabling hackers to penetrate precious networks of data with minimal effort. What used to take thousands of lines of code now takes a couple of clicks. And actually, according to IBM’s 2016 Cyber Security Intelligence Index, 60% of the time it’s not some fancy tool that allows criminals to circumvent your defenses – it’s your employees letting them in.

be rendered useless if a hapless member of your team clicks the wrong file and opens the floodgates. When it comes to cyber security, your biggest vulnerability isn’t your antivirus – it’s your poorly trained employees. Here are four ways to prevent them from slipping up and opening your business up to attack. 1. STRONGER PASSWORDS This may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s probably anything but to many members of your team. According to a 2015 survey conducted by TeleSign, close to 75% of consumers use duplicate passwords in their online activity. Twenty-one percent of them use passwords more than a decade old, 47% have been using the same password for five years and a whopping 54% use the same five passwords across an entire lifetime online.

inside this issue

Employees Keeping Your Data Safe? Don’t Count On It PAGE 1

Vector Choice News PAGE 2

An Indoor, No-Hassle Cookout PAGE 3

Does Your Business Make You Money While You Sleep? PAGE 3

Business Trends Worth Checking Out PAGE 4

As a business owner, these numbers shouldn’t just make you chuckle – they

No matter how impenetrable you may imagine your security measures are, they’ll

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''60%of the time, it’ s not some fancy tool that allows criminals to circumvent your defenses — it’ s your employees letting them in.''

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should make you mad. It may be that the entirety of your company’s data, everything you’ve worked so hard to build over years of blood, sweat and tears, could be guarded behind a password as simple as “123456.” Make sure you train your employees on safe password practices. That means mandatory password changes to key business accounts every few months, each of them containing letters, numbers and symbols, preferably without any real words at all. It’s a small change, but it can drastically increase your odds against data breaches. 2. MAKE CYBER SECURITY PART OF YOUR COMPANY POLICY If your business is going to survive a digital onslaught, safe online practices for your employees need to be more than a recommendation. They need to be mandatory company policies. Every new and existing employee needs to know what’s expected of them and what the consequences will be if they deviate from guidelines. For example, when an update comes through for a key piece of software, it needs to be installed

importantly, you need to analyze the habits of your personnel and whether or not they’re complying with your high standards of cyber security. 4. TRAIN YOUR PEOPLE As they say, forewarned is forearmed. This is never truer than when defending your business from data breaches. With comprehensive cyber security awareness training, outlining everything from the biggest digital threats to post-breach best practices, you can turn your biggest security liability into your greatest defense. If employees know the ins and outs of hackers’ tricks, it becomes exponentially more difficult for hackers to trick them and find a way into your network. With all four of these steps, it can be difficult to determine just how to implement these policies within your organization – much less what should be included – but luckily, we can help. Contact us to find out how we can help you put a strong data security employee training program in place and patch any holes in your barriers before they become an issue.

immediately. Have a set procedure in place for them to follow if they encounter a suspicious e-mail or potentially malicious link. These and other practices, when set in stone, ensure that employees remain personally invested in protecting your company. 3. CONDUCT A SECURITY AUDIT The best way to suss out any employee vulnerabilities, though, will always be to do a thorough security audit of all your systems. This means investigating the hardware and software you’re using on a daily basis, sure, but most

Vector News

TRIVIA

Who wants to win a $25 gift card?

You can be the Grand Prize Winner of this month’s Trivia Challenge Quiz! Just be the first person to correctly answer this month’s trivia question and receive a $25 gift card to Amazon!

The term ‘GUI’ stands for?

1. Graphing

3. Gorgeous

Ultimate Interface

Unidentified Idiot

2. Graphics

4. Graphical

Top: Will Nobles with Caitlin Jenner Bottom: Will Nobles with George Ross

Unused Input

User Interface

Will Nobles speaking at the Harvard Club

Ready? Call us right now with your answer! (877) 468-1230

Will Nobles spoke at the Harvard Club of Boston in July this year. He also got to interview Caitlyn Jenner and George Ross. What an honor!

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Shiny New Gadget of The M< onth: The Kenyon City Grill

As we draw close to the end of summer, many of us are stowing our grills in preparation for the cooler months. Others never had a grill in the first place, banned by their lease from ever

Think about the way your business runs. You attract prospective clients, convert them to customers, collect the money, cultivate repeat business and encourage customers to refer other prospective clients. While each of these steps entails specific challenges, one of your main goals as an entrepreneur should be to automate as many of these steps as possible. This way, you can generate income while you sleep.

doing any sort of grilling. Regardless of the reason, pretty much everyone bemoans a grill-free existence, even if it’s only for a few months. Enter the Kenyon City Grill, a handy grill for those of us who need to stay inside to cook up a hot dog or hamburger. With some complicated engineering tricks, the grill can cook anything you throw at it with virtually no smoke, far exceeding

Here are a few key ways to implement systems that perpetuate your business without your involvement.

the requirements of city fire codes and preventing you from getting smoked out of your kitchen. Its $475 price tag may seem a little steep, but consider the convenience of grilling right from your kitchen, all year long – even

4. SELL YOUR SYSTEM CHEAP AND MAKE MONEY ON THE REFILLS. We’re talking primarily about businesses that produce tangible goods here. Think Keurig coffee makers and HP printers. In these cases, once consumers own your brand of device, you’re guaranteed their continued business. 5. BECOME THE MIDDLEMAN. Find a way to broker business and let other folks do the work for you. Becoming an Amazon affiliate is a great example. You link to their site, they sell, and you make money. 6. BECOME A TEACHER. Look at your business and find ways to teach other entrepreneurs how to acquire the skills necessary for opening their own business modeled on yours. It’s another way to position yourself as an authority, enhancing the credibility of your brand, and it can be a great way to cash in on the educational aspects of your expertise. 7. BECOME AN INVESTOR. Money makes money, but it’s important that you’re careful about how you invest as an entrepreneur. Look at your clients and assess their needs. Find a company (in addition to yours) that addresses those needs and invest there. This way, you forge a bond between your company and another, but you cement your position as the business that caters to your clients’ desires.

1. MAKE YOURSELF INTO A PRODUCT. Once you’ve found success, you should look for opportunities to promote yourself as a brand. Position yourself as the authority in your niche and develop products like videos or books that share your secrets to success. 2. DO FEWER THINGS. It’s impossible to automate aspects of your business if you insist on doing everything yourself. You need to train your staff to handle certain aspects of your business. The best way to do this is to simplify your output. Look at McDonald’s. They do basically five things: burgers, fries, chicken, salad, and soda. They package these things differently and sell them in different combinations, but the simplicity is what allows them to reproduce the menu in locations all over the world. Identify your strengths, streamline your offerings, and focus on the items you can train your staff to replicate. 3. CREATE CONTINUITY. Billing for each service or product you supply is volatile, because both your revenue and your client’s expenses vary wildly. Instead, consider selling a subscription at a flat rate – with maximum quality and minimal hassle, it’s the ultimate win-win for both you and your clients.

if you’re in an apartment! – and you can quickly see the benefits.

Vector Choice would like to recognize another one of our long-standing customers, Menders Inc., for the month of August. Menders became the first home care agency to be licensed by the state of Georgia to provide care and assistance to seniors in their private homes, retirement communities, and other long-term care and assisted living residences.

They have been part of the Vector Choice family since 2012.

MIKE MICHALOWICZ started his first business at the age of 24. With no experience, no contacts and no savings, he systematically bootstrapped a multimillion-dollar business. Mike is the CEO of Provendus Group. He is alsoMSNBC’s business makeover expert; a keynote speaker on entrepreneurship; and the author of the cult classic book The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur . For more information, visit www.mikemichalowicz.com.

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2180 Satellite Blvd Suite 400 Duluth, GA 30097

Office: 877.468.1230

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5 Daily Habits That Are Killing Your Work-Life Balance And How To Fix Them

the ball. But it’s vital that you commit to living in the moment as much as possible. And whatever you do, don’t forget that your mental health is just as important as that pile of work you have waiting on your desk. Inc.com, 5/16/2018 The Top 5 Business Apps To Improve Your Productivity In the light-speed world of modern business, workers need every bit of help they can get. Luckily, new apps are developed every day that make our lives easier. Here are five of the best: Documents To Go allows users to open and edit Microsoft Office 2007 files from any smart device. While that may seem a simple task, if your company frequently uses the Office Suite, Documents To Go can make a big difference.

Being passionate and dedicated to the work you do is a surefire path to success. But in the lives of many driven people, there comes a time when work begins to overtake other aspects of your life that are vital to living a full, happy, healthy existence. Here are five habits you’re probably practicing that are preventing you from achieving that fabled work-life balance.

1. SUPERHERO SYNDROME

Just because you’re a top performer doesn’t mean you should act the hero. Ruthlessly prune extra work to all but the most critical of projects. As they say, there will always be more work – don’t let it take over every moment of your day.

2. ARTIFICIAL URGENCY

Evernote has been making waves for a few years now with its seamless approach to note-taking and file-keeping.

Create very specific ways to determine the actual priority of each project, markers that indicate whether taking a few extra days on something will actually affect your business.

It enables users to upload virtually everything they need to the cloud and is especially useful for those quick thoughts you jot down during key work meetings. If it’s strictly file syncing you need, check out SugarSync . A free account gets you 2GB of shared storage between two computers and your phone, accessible from anywhere.

3. UNDEFINED BOUNDARIES

When we take work home, we may feel like we’re staying on top of everything, but in fact, without strict compartmentalization between work and life, neither is able to reach the heights that true focus will deliver. Draw a line in the sand and stick to it.

Remember the Milk is one of the premiere apps for to-do listers everywhere, syncing complex lists across multiple platforms with little effort. And you can’t forget Skype , perhaps the best tool for cutting down long-distance charges and communicating via chat, video and audio with far-flung colleagues. LifeWire.com, 5/17/2018

4. NO BUFFER

In order to even out your workload, you need to leave some space in your schedule for unanticipated events. One way to fix this is to create a 50% extra window of time for everything you need to accomplish.

5. CHASING TIME

It’s easy to constantly focus on what’s next, feeling as if you’re always behind

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