Apparently a lot of small business owners are not familiar with ‘The Cloud’ – at least when it comes to Cloud Computing as a technology solution for their business.  According to a recent survey (May of 2011) done by the Small Business Authority, only 29% of small business owners are familiar with the term Cloud Computing.

Only 29%!  There’s a huge opportunity right now, both for qualified vendors who can supply great cloud based solutions, but more importantly for small business owners who can leverage Cloud based technology to cut costs and do more with less!

What is Cloud Computing?  In a nutshell, it’s the ability to interact with data or applications that are centrally hosted on the internet (or in ‘the cloud’).  The reality is that you’re likely dealing with a lot of cloud based stuff today and you didn’t know it – when you get a movie from Netflix Instant Streaming, you’re pulling down data / content from the cloud.  It’s available in a lot of different ways (your computer, an iPad, your TV etc.) but it’s all tied back to your account.

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photo by kozumel

I’ve said it before, but we live in Interesting Times…sure there’s the downside of the economy and the constant drumbeat of all of the negative news out there, But there’s also an amazing upside – we are seeing things today that would have never been thought possible 50 years (maybe even 10 years ago).  In fact the overall progress that’s been made is nothing short of staggering.

In fact it’s mindblowing!

Want some proof?  Check out these 2 videos a couple of friends recently shared as great examples of amazing things that are going on.

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  photo by exfordy

I like to keep track of stuff – notes I take during a meeting, ideas that come up at odd times and get thrown onto a post-it note, a cool website I run across, powerful images I could use for blog posts, interesting videos or a important emails.  Historically I haven’t had much of a system for being able to track all of that stuff…but I think I may now have an answer that could really work!

I stumbled onto Evernote over a year ago and I was intrigued by the possibilities, but I wasn’t sure how practical or helpful it would be.  At the time I had an older Palm OS phone that didn’t let me do much of anything and I was primarily just using one computer in my office.  Fast forward to now – I’ve got an Android phone, I’m using a laptop and a desktop for different things and I need access to all of my stuff from all of those places.

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I continue to be surprised with some of the cool applications and sites that pop up… a lot of free stuff and generally pretty innovative!  From a business standpoint, free may not be the best way to go, but I think the developers are in a tough situation.  If you want people to find your stuff, try it out and talk about it, your best bet is to make it free and get it out to a lot of people.

So that’s what I’m doing here – talking about 3 interesting, useful and free sites that you should check out today.

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One of the keys to success with small business (and one of the challenges) is that your potential customers need to be able to find you before they can actually spend any money with you.

Of course you also need to have a product or service that solves their problem, presented in such a way that they get what you’re doing and they see the value (and how you’re different than others in your space).  And of course you need to be great at delivering that product or service…all the while developing that difference that makes you Remarkable (just like these 3 Kansas City Businesses have done).

However it all starts with being found – you have to be found first if you want more business.  And the best place to be found is where people are already looking…which is online!

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