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Have you ever wondered that the app you have been using for so long is as safe as you think? With such a fast pace of digitalization, our smartphones have become multifunctional devices with the help of innumerable apps on mobile phones. These apps are what make your smartphones so distinctive. The Apps ask for your personal data and permissions to access different data sources on your mobile phones ranging from your browsing history to your location or contacts. But have you ever pondered upon how these apps are using this data? Using big data and analytics to study user’s online browsing patterns, individual preferences, etc., for showing commercial campaigns have become the new norm.

According to a study conducted by Verizon, 2020 Mobile Security Index, in 2019, 43% of organizations faced mobile security breaches. It also predicts that those who already experienced a mobile security lapse are twice as likely to face a mobile security relapse.

Another study, the 2020 McAfee Mobile Threat Report states that hidden mobile applications downloaded from mostly illegitimate sites were responsible for 50% of user’s mobile threats in 2019. Also, the numbers of malicious apps increased by 30% from the year 2018 to 2019.

You must have come across many news pieces of even most reputed apps that see attacks from hackers and data breaches have left users’ data exposed. On the pretext of data collection, some of these apps ask for permissions much more than what is required by them for normal operations. What if the data that you have trusted with these apps is breached?

Although, you can have some control over the access granted to these apps through phone settings, and you can see and delete what data Google has collected about you and choose privacy settings to stop these apps from tracking. But still, there is no way to find out whether these apps are not tracking you even if you have asked them not to. So, is there nothing that we can do about it? The good news is, yes, there are a few good security practices that can harden your smartphone security and safeguard your data privacy. Then, how to keep security for apps? Here are some very useful hacks that will surely help you improvise your data privacy status while working with these apps.

1: Secure Yourself by Downloading Apps Only from Google and App Stores

Please stay safe and make it a regular practice to download apps only from the official store or Google and App stores. These stores have a reputation of first putting the apps on their stores, only after putting them through a rigorous verification procedure, having them meet a high quality of user data protection. However, not all the apps on these stores are reliable. Still, these apps have to abide by strictly presenting a specific privacy policy for their users, elaborating on the procedures to protect users’ data.

Downloading apps from unofficial sites puts you at high risk of getting infected with viruses, malware, etc., exposing you to many complex cyber threats like DDOS attacks, which can cause heavy losses to organizations. There are a few more considerations that one must keep in mind while deciding on the apps to be downloaded to your system. Always check the publisher’s credibility, don’t go for the ones that have only one app to their portfolio. Check for the reviews of the apps and the period for how long it has been there on the store so that you can get to know any real issues with it.

You should also be aware of some apps using fraudulent reviews to impress users. Learn to see the difference between genuine and fake reviews put out there. Fake reviews are usually recognizable with many high ratings with no explanations, no descriptions, etc. However, the best reviews to be considered would be through your peers.

2: Using Code Signing to Secure Mobile Apps

It is not wrong to say that using Code Signing to secure mobile apps will occupy the top position in the list of suggestions of App Security Guide of the greatest number of Data Privacy experts. But, what is code signing? Code Signing is a process that essentially involves attaching a digital signature by the developers to their software, codes, or apps. This guarantees that the downloaded app has not been altered after the digital signing was done. It also gives authentication to the publisher of the app.

If any modifications are done to the app by a third party, then when the app is downloaded by the user and the system checks the signature, a warning is immediately flashed to the user for the app being unsafe. This saves the user from any potential malware infections. So, here comes the role of the Code Signing Certificate. It offers an effective solution to protect the integrity and authenticity of the mobile apps that are downloaded and installed. Code signing certificates can be purchased from many reputed Certificate authorities (CA), depending on your budgets and security requirements. Moreover, it helps build trust with the users that your app is safe for downloading.

3: Pay Full Attention to Credibility Research of the App or the Publishing Company

Although the credibility of any app or a company is difficult to know at the face of it, there are a few very useful tips that can help you know a good deal about the past performance records or give a glimpse into any history of data breaches. First, check if any online frauds or scams have been associated with the company in any way. Next, look for how the company responded to, in such situations, whether data leaks are common occurrences with the app.

 This little information collected from Google can give you a fair idea of the reputation of the app and its publisher and help you in deciding whether to download the app or not. As a thumb rule, you must not go for the app if it is the sole production of the developer or if the publisher in any way was associated with controversial apps.

4: Be Watchful of The Permissions You Grant to The Apps

It is always advisable to think twice before allowing certain permissions to apps. Think whether the permissions being asked for are required for carrying out the functions of the app. If not, there is every reason for you to believe otherwise and doubt the app’s intent. A very good pointer to some shady intent is to note how fast your battery is getting discharged after downloading a certain app. This could well be pointing towards some malicious program continuously running in the background. Stay away from such harmful apps.

5: Protect Yourself on Public Wi-Fi by Always Using a VPN

Working on a public network on your mobile phone has always been full of risks, with your crucial data getting into the wrong hands. Therefore, using a Virtual Private Network(VPN) is always advisable when on a public network. A VPN encrypts all your communication with the internet and hides your IP address when you use the internet, making you invisible to everyone else on the network, thus protecting you from cyber-attacks and data breaches. In addition, it safeguards you from other users who might try to gain access to your phone, working on the same free public network.

A VPN also helps you access wider content as it gives you full access to it without applying any filtration on the internet. There are many VPN apps available in Google and App stores. Settle for the one with a clean track record and go through the terms and agreements section carefully so that you are fully aware of what data will be collected and where it will be stocked.

6: Limit Information Shared on social media

Too much private information shared on social media can be a real cause of concern in any unfortunate incident of a data breach. So shell out the only minimum required information about yourself which is an absolute must and not more. Companies these days are involved in collecting all this information and profiling your likes, dislikes, location, family size, etc. So you would never like to share on public platforms lest it gets into the hands of the wrong players and is misused.

7: Take Regular Software Updates

Be very consistent with taking any operating system updates for your mobile phones. It protects you from any vulnerabilities in the previous version and updating, only helps you to eradicate any potential future cyberattacks. The new updates also make your phones work with better speed and increased efficiency.

8: Having a Password Manager Is a Must

Protecting and managing different accounts on the internet is not so easy, especially when you have put in some effort in using strong password protection for each one of them. Protecting your account with a strong password which is a long one with a good mix of upper- and lower-case characters, numbers, and special characters, is good to protect your account from brute force attacks by hackers. But remembering them and then safeguarding them can be a real task. Here the Password Manager comes into the picture, which safely stores all your account details and passwords in a safe digital vault and assists you in generating strong passwords, making your life very simple.

In conclusion, it can be said that with so much personal data shared by the users with the various apps on your smartphones in this era of the digital economy, it is only befitting for the users to have control and demand autonomy over their crucial information. Therefore, it is only in your interest to give due importance to the privacy settings on your mobile phones and be watchful of the permissions you give to the various apps before downloading them and weigh your data privacy against the services offered by the individual apps and then only take a decision for downloading them onto your smartphones. By incorporating some good security practices discussed above into your daily online behavior can take you far with safeguarding your precious mobile phone data and at the same time improving your data privacy health. 

Are you thinking of ways to attract more people passing by to your business place? 

Whether big or small, every business needs to grow, and this growth only happens when many people recognize the business. 

In this era of technology, most people believe more in doing business online as it is believed that online marketing attracts more people to your business. But, what happens to those businesses that have a walk-in store or office? How can you get the attention of those people passing by?

You may feel you have a set of loyal customers that keep coming back, but what makes your business stand out from its competitors is when you attract and maintain new customers. This is because those old and loyal customers will not come around every day. They can decide to move to another seller or even decide to cut down on their spending. When any of these happens, how will your business survive? 

Getting few, consistent customers doesn’t mean you should stop advertising your business. You need to ensure your business is always attractive and relevant to people passing by who may become long-term customers. When you keep having different customers, your business keeps waxing stronger and more revenue keeps coming in. This simply means the business is growing. 

Do you feel your business revenue is stagnant, or is the business getting too slow? Do your loyal customers have cold feet? Then it’s time to re-strategize and make your business stand out for people passing by. 

Below are a few great ways you can make your business stand out;

Let’s start with Neon Signs

Most people have indeed given up on their walk-in stores and business places. They concentrate more on beautifying their website and making it attractive for online users. However, the few businesses still keeping their offices updated and making it more attractive keep looking for more ways to make it inviting. One of those ways is using Neon signs. The fact is, most businesses already know about the neon sign, and it has been used on several occasions to attract people that are passing by. The neon sign is very effective because of its light and the relevant information about a particular business. There’s no way one can pass through a neon sign without looking at it twice. You can buy wholesale neon sign products online and try this tip. Investing in neon signs is good for every business. However, for it to be attractive, one needs to ensure it is visible and quite easy to understand, and the information it carries should be relatable. 

Give out discounts and promotions

This is a common technique that almost every business uses because today’s customers love to get free items or even get an item for half of the price. How do you get people to know your products are going for a discounted price? You can do a temporary banner that will be outside your business place for the sales period. It could be during a festive period, or you can decide to do it on your birthday or the anniversary of your business. When people who are passing by see that the product they want is going for half the price, they will walk in and purchase, and in the process, they could even get more items. Discounts and promos are great ways to attract people to your business.

Your business place should be neat at all times

Nothing beats a neat business premise, and it is an amazing way to attract more people to your business. Investing in your business environment is a huge investment. People like to walk into a neat place to either buy products or do business. Nobody likes a filthy environment. Hence if you want to attract people passing by, ensure your environment is very neat, and you will just watch people trooping in. 

Look for ways to announce your business

In the environment your business is located, you need to look for ways to make your business known. You can decide to use a billboard with your business name and services boldly written. If you run a bar, you can always play some nice music to attract passersby. If you run a food business, then let the aroma of your food attract people who are passing by. If you run a fashion house, most people passing by will get attracted to the kind of clothes you showcase in front of your business place, and they will be forced to stop by. Whatever business you do, ensure something is there to attract those who are passing by. 

Ask your customers for referrals

Another exciting way you can attract more people to your business is through referrals. Once you can get the loyalty of a few customers, you can always ask them for referrals. They only comply with referrals when you treat them nicely. For instance, if a customer is satisfied with your services, their instinct forces them to refer to neighbors, family, and friends. You can always ask them politely to refer people to your business place. Furthermore, the satisfaction of one customer has every tendency to attract more than five people who are passing by to your business place. 

Get involved in community events

According to research, when you get involved in some community events, you are already advertising your business with minimal effort. When you look around the environment your business is located in, you can help other small businesses. You can organize free training sessions or even get involved in some charity events for the kids in the same vicinity where your business is located. This way, more people will know about your business, and your customer base will automatically increase. Anyone who passes by and realizes you are the good man or woman that impacted people’s lives won’t hesitate to stop by. 

Sometimes getting people to walk into your store can be hard especially when you are located in a business hub area. It is therefore important that you stand out and you can do this with any or all of the effective tips discussed above. Try them and see your store traffic and revenue increase consistently.

For any business, managing customer data is a very important aspect that should be taken seriously. When that data of a customer includes their payment data, you need to be even more careful due to its sensitive nature. You have to understand that data back up and recovery are invaluable resources; a database can be the equivalent of a gold mine in this era. If you can safely store and manage this payment data, you can go on to utilize it for your business’s advantage. However, if you fail to keep that data secure, it might lead to a huge problem for your business and it could even cause a significant loss of customer trust in your company. 

There are a few key tips that you should always keep in mind to ensure that this data is stored conveniently both for you and your customers. This article explores the key ways that you could utilize to manage this data without risking any breach, and we’ll be discussing them to make sure that you have a proper understanding of all the processes involved. So let’s get to it and find out how to manage the invaluable payment card data for your business.

1. Be Selective

If you’re gathering data from your customers, you have to be selective about the data that you choose to store. If you hold too much payment data, it can lead to data saturation where you won’t be able to ensure maximum security and efficiency. Having too much data on hand will hinder your decision-making abilities and you’ll be unnecessarily slowed down by it. If you can ensure that you hold onto the most important data only, you’ll have much fewer points of a data breach and this will help you maintain your security better. While collecting and saving data, try to think about whether or not it’ll be actually useful for you or your customers if you hold on to that data. If you feel like some of it isn’t very important, then it might be best that you let it go in order to avoid any unnecessary data saturation issues.

2. Security is Paramount

We’ve been witnessing a slew of ransomware and hackers holding the personal data of people hostage for many years now. Everyone is aware of how valuable their data is, and people want to ensure that their data doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. You’ll be gathering a lot of sensitive data about your customers like their credit card numbers, addresses, phone numbers, names, and much more. If this critical data gets leaked, your company’s name will be tarnished and future customers will be wary of trusting you again. You should implement any number of security measures needed to prevent this from happening since it’s a question of your business’s reputation. Try to get PCI compliance for your company, it’ll help show that you comply with PCI standards, which means that your company processes, stores, and transmits data in a safe and secure manner. You can also try to implement some sort of secure data management system, take backups at a secured remote location, or even try to educate your employees about the best practices they should follow to avoid any unauthorized access.

3. Create Backups

If you lose your data, it can spell disaster for your company. It’s been found that most small businesses shut down soon after they lose their data and you don’t want to risk this catastrophic failure. If you can create backups of your data, it will be safe no matter what, you’re essentially minimizing any risks due to data loss in the future. Even though data is such an important aspect for any business, the smaller companies often neglect payment data storage and end up losing it. To protect your customers and your business from any risks, you can try to create multiple backups, but that entirely depends on your budget. There are also a few other considerations that you should keep in mind while choosing a backup option like the plan, cloud, backup location, recovery plan (if any), and some other factors.

4. Proper Authorization

If you provide your employees with too many privileges and multiple accesses that they don’t even need, there are bound to be some undesired consequences. You should strictly regulate all the information that your employees can access and distribute the privileges only according to what they need. Even though you trust your staff, you can’t always be 100% sure that there won’t be any misuse of power. Some business owners distribute the various authorizations regardless of how much an employee needs them and this is a practice that leads to irrevocable damage to your company. Another thing that you must remember is to revoke the access you gave to an ex-employee of your company. Ex-employees don’t care much about their previous employers and might even do something negative if they’re disgruntled or hold any sort of grudges against your business.

These are some of the tips that you can implement in your business to manage the payment data better. Remember, this data isn’t only critical for your business, it’s also highly sensitive, which is why you can’t allow any leaks or loss of data. Your failure to ensure privacy and security might even lead to long-term consequences for your customers, and if your customers are affected negatively, you can guarantee that your business will take a nosedive. The costs of keeping this data stored safely and establishing a proper access mechanism are usually significant investments. It can be even more significant in your case if you’re a small business owner. However, the costs of not ensuring safety and letting your data be unorganized are even greater which is why you want to invest at least the bare minimum. If you can’t invest in top-notch data manipulation and security tools, you can at least try to invest in some basic security features that can prevent any undesired breaches or access issues in the future.

Interactions in business take numerous forms and take place across multiple channels, and you must be prepared to meet your customers on their terms. This is where a CRM comes into play. Nearly 75% of sales managers agree that a CRM helps them increase sales and strengthen customer relationships. A CRM can benefit all aspects of your business and sales in only one of them.

However, you can’t simply jump on the bandwagon and invest in a CRM to increase your business profit overnight. Make sure you consider the sales team’s suggestion when investing in CRM technology to make sure that management and the staff are on the same page.

What Is A CRM?

A CRM is an approach for managing all your company’s relationships and interactions with customers and potential customers in one place. The right customer relationship management (CRM) software can help you stay in touch with your customers while also keeping your team productive.

We tried and tested over a dozen CRMs to assist you in your hunt for CRM software right for your company. And based on the research, we have prepared a list of ten best CRMs for coaches and consultants.

Profi

Profi CRM offers everything you need to organize and expand your business. From receiving payments to connecting with clients over a call, the CRM offers an engaging experience to users. The best thing? Profi offers customized plans for coaches, trainers, consultants, and therapists.

Trusted by 1000+ service providers and organizations, Profi is an all-in-one CRM solution to simplify your business activities and stay at the top. In addition, the CRM offers an online coaching platform to prepare professional-looking courses and landing pages, add interactive video sessions, chats, community discussions, and more to drive more engagement and revenue.

Zoho CRM

Zoho is a cloud-based CRM solution designed to help you acquire, keep, and please customers to grow your business. It works whether you are a new entrepreneur or the owner of a medium or large business. Zoho CRM automates daily business tasks, tracks sales, and engages customers across several platforms.

Furthermore, the solution’s mobile platform allows you to carry it with you to obtain quick and real-time updates. You can expand the CRM system by linking it with popular apps like MailChimp, QuickBooks, Microsoft Outlook, ConstantConnect, and Google Apps, as well as cloud-based connectors like OneSaas and CloudWork.

Salesforce Sales Cloud

Salesforce Sales Cloud is a CRM solution built by Salesforce that centralizes all customer information and interactions on a single platform. It enables users to identify consumers, grow accounts, and close sales more quickly and easily. 

The CRM software maintains current information in one place, making it easy to prioritize and make decisions.

Bitrix24

Bitrix24 is a collaboration program meant to automate communication and management procedures in small and large enterprises and startups. This application provides a single and comprehensive set of managing contacts, messages, emails, files, tasks, and projects. Your team may operate productively under one roof while keeping track of all tasks using the Activity Stream.

Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a simple yet powerful CRM and sales pipeline management program used by thousands of small and medium-sized businesses worldwide. The system was created by skilled web app developers and sales professionals, and you can use it to arrange your company leads to gain a clear picture of your sales and focus on priority deals. 

Pipedrive is simple to use, and your sales team may utilize it on their PC or mobile device. It simply interacts with Google programs like Google Contacts and Google Calendar. Pipedrive has a strong direct sales basis. This solution can help you manage your company’s sales pipeline more effectively.

Nimble

Agile is a straightforward and intelligent CRM system designed to assist organizations and professionals in building stronger customer interactions across many channels. It can track, engage, and nurture contracts smartly and quickly to present users with the necessary conversational contexts.

The software can combine your calendar, collaborations, messages, and contacts into a single solution, obtaining data from well-known social media networks (Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn) and automatically linking this functionality to your connections. You don’t have to use different applications to identify people and businesses relevant to your business when you use Nimble. It simply provides you with smarter and faster interaction.

Nutshell

Nutshell CRM is a CRM program that assists organizations in attracting and retaining customers. The system is intended to meet the demands of enterprises of various sizes and industries. Nutshell has a broad feature set that we may compare to major CRM software. There are no reporting limits, storage limits, or user limits.

Apptivo

Apptivo is a cloud CRM solution that caters to a small business’s or freelancer’s expanding sales and marketing needs. The Contacts and Opportunities capabilities in the software allow you to create and manage client accounts with crucial and relevant data associated with each item. You can also communicate with clients directly within the app for greater convenience and easier access to their data. 

Close

Close is a tool created by salespeople for salespeople to boost calls and close transactions efficiently. It also aspires to achieve the target goals on or before the deadlines. The software is designed to help users spend more time communicating with current and future customers and less time entering data.

Users can also receive and make calls and take business notes without leaving the app or dialing a phone number.

NetHunt

NetHunt is a CRM software solution designed to function in tandem with your Gmail account and Google services. It allows you to turn your G Suite into a single CRM center, allowing you and your team to handle sales, marketing, and customer service activities without relying on a separate business system.

Apart from merging your CRM efforts, NetHunt CRM saves you time and money on training because you’ll be using the same familiar G Suite interface–the only difference is that it now contains powerful CRM capabilities. Furthermore, the platform includes API capabilities, allowing you to enhance the functionality of your existing apps.

Conclusion

CRM technology offers countless benefits to coaches and consultants when implemented correctly; it can improve your sales process and accelerate your business development efforts. From the initial contact to the follow-up, your sales agents and account managers will not have to consider when (or how) to contact prospects again if you choose the right CRM.