Survey Says: What Impression Your Cell Phone Gives, The Down and Dirty on Data Loss and Getting Bank Loans Might Get Easier
Survey Says: What Impression Your Cell Phone Gives, The Down and Dirty on Data Loss and Getting Bank Loans Might Get Easier
What does your cell phone say about you?
Do you sometimes feel people in a business meeting are judging you based on the type of mobile phone you use? Well, they are. According to a poll by uSell.com, more than half of Americans judge others based on the model and condition of their mobile phones. Women are more likely to be judgmental about phones (60 percent of females vs. 50 percent of males admit they do this).
Most people (55 percent) instantly get a negative impression of those using damaged or old cell phones. What does an old phone say about you? You’re “frugal,” “not tech savvy” or “old” (ouch), say 80 percent of those surveyed.
The takeaway: If your business relies on making a good impression (and really, whose doesn’t?), upgrade your phone regularly or risk being labeled old and cheap. That’s not the impression Smart Hustlers want to leave.
Are you at risk of data loss?
Even small business IT managers who have suffered through a data loss still fall short when it comes to protecting business data,reports Carbonite’s 2014 Report on the State of Data Backup for SMBs. Nearly two-thirds (62 percent) of IT professionals in the poll had suffered data loss and 65 percent experienced a financial loss as a result.
In addition, a whopping 96 percent say data loss negatively impacted their employees, including hurting office morale, affecting work/life balance, micromanaging of the IT department and firing or laying off employees. Despite this reality, 78 percent continue to believe an outside threat to their data is “somewhat or very unlikely.”
The takeaway: Smart Hustlers don’t assume their IT security is handled—they make sure by instituting regular backups to an offsite location (ideally, store data in the cloud).
Money might get easier to get!
Does your business need a loan? Good news: In a survey by Sageworks, 67 percent of banks and credit unions say they will be making more commercial loans this year. Just 3 percent will make fewer loans and 20 percent plan to make the same number of commercial loans as in 2013.
Banks and credit unions were more optimistic about their own lending outlook than they were about the financial industry as a whole, which likely means they think other banks are tightening up on credit at the same time they’re easing up.
[Tweet “Now might be the time to apply for a small #business loan!”]The takeaway: If you’ve been thinking about applying for a small business loan but assumed you couldn’t get one, 2014 could be your year. But be smart about it—and make sure you’re credit worthy.
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