March 24, 2008

$100,000 Technology Makeover and Other Things You Are Missing Out On

What kills me about small business owners is that while some small businesses are using technology as a tool to grow their business - either by hiring someone or by doing it themselves, their are SO MANY who are not leveraging technology.

One of the easiest ways to get money for technology is to APPLY for tech contests! If you can spend $50 a year on the lottery why not spend a few hours per year applying to win technology prizes for your business. Why not take advantage of free books, offers and services from a variety of tech companies who offer these things to generate leads.

For example, As Microsoft gears up for the Microsoft Small Business Summit, March 24-27, there are three finalists for the Small Business Total Technology Makeover. The three finalists - GymStars Gymnastics, Inc. of California, MouCo Cheese Company of Colorado and Sid’s Bikes of New York - have each recorded a short video blurb on why they are deserving of the $100,000 technology makeover from Microsoft and Dell.

Here's an overview of the finalists, maybe next year you'll be a finalist:

GymStars Gymnastics, Inc., located in Stockton, CA, teaches children gymnastics, cheer, karate, dance and more. However, with their 10-year-old computer system, which is composed of a number of failing machines, they waste a lot of time dealing with backups instead of teaching backflips.

MouCo Cheese Company, Inc., out of Fort Collins, CO, is an artisan cheese company that has a strong environmental vision. They seek to have a more eco-friendly and efficient system to help them continue to set new standards for environmental stewardship in the food industry.

Sid’s Bikes NYC keeps cyclists rolling and NYC “green.” Antiquated software design and decentralized databases have the business running on “man-powered” computing. New technology would vastly improve business and customer cycle times.

tags: contest , microsoft , technology | 0 comments