If you are considering working from home or allowing your employees to telecommute, these tips will help you get started:

Set up your rules. How often, under what circumstances and for which functions is telecommuting acceptable? Establish guidelines up front.

You need face time. Regular face time helps you know whether employees are doing their work, holds them accountable and keeps co-workers connected. Even if you do not have employees, face time with clients and customers can be more frequent and less expensive if you don’t have to travel. Check in with Verizon’s Net Conferencing, try Adobe Connect or get the free app from GoToMeeting for your smartphone or tablet.

It’s not for everyone. Not everyone is an independent, organized self-starter, and not all jobs are appropriate for working away from the team. Have a plan in place for evaluating performance and what you will do if telecommuting doesn’t work.

Someone needs to answer the phone. With VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol), the office telephone can be answered wherever it is plugged into an Internet connection. Whether working from home or traveling, clients and customers use the same number to reach you, and employees can easily access one another. Verizon Virtual Communications Express offers this service and has a smartphone app you can use.

Beth Corrigan, a financial planner who left her Washington, D.C., area office to telecommute from her dream house on the beach in South Carolina, says, “our VoIP system is the single most important tool that allows me to be as accessible and productive in my flip flops as I am in the office.”

Internet connections must be reliable and fast enough for data to be transmitted properly. Set minimum bandwidth requirements for all working locations.

Is easy access to your office computer important? GoToMyPC gives you or your employees a secure remote access to the office computer from home or on the go.

Consider cloud storage for shared files such as sales presentations and large files. You may also need to access these files by mobile device. Microsoft® Office 365 is an easy-to use option.

Rules about document storage and keeping sensitive items safe need to be regularly reviewed and enforced.

Weigh the benefits and costs. Consider a trial period for telecommuting—or a limited number of days per month—until you are sure it works for you and your business. If you run your business from home and occasionally need to conduct a meeting elsewhere, or want a temporary office environment, consider hourly or daily space rentals through LiquidSpace.

Whatever you decide to do, make sure you evaluate your options and optimize your productivity with the many technological tools available to you for your own home office or to increase the flexibility of your workforce.

This requires the ability to make big data results available on mobile devices. And to do this, several key elements must be in place.

Making big data mobile-friendly

First, the mining and analysis applications must be mobile-friendly. Fortunately, this is becoming much more common. For example, over the past few years, the major business intelligence and analytics (BIA) software vendors such as SAP, SAS and IBM have enhanced their offerings to provide additional support for both big data and mobile workers.

Additionally, many BIA and other big-data applications are leveraging the cloud to help make information more available to mobile devices. This is done in two ways.

Many applications, such as sales force automation, enterprise resource management and customer relationship management programs used to collect and analyze decision-making data are now accessible through public cloud services. In particular, the major vendors of these applications have developed Software-as-a-Service versions of their programs that let mobile office workers access information on the go.

Furthermore, cloud infrastructure services and open-source software (Hadoop, for example) are enabling companies of any size to more easily realize the benefits of big-data analytics. Rather than acquiring and maintaining servers, storage devices and network elements, pay-as-you-go high-performance cloud services can be used for big-data projects. And because these operations are cloud-based, businesses can provide mobile workers using smartphones or tablets access to the information.

Getting the most from big data

From a user’s perspective, what’s needed are mobile devices and data services that let executives and decision-makers take advantage of these applications and big-data services.

The mobile device’s display should be large enough and have a high enough resolution to allow the user to see BIA charts, tables and graphs. The device also should support higher-speed data services, such as Verizon’s 4G LTE network, since the output of many big-data analytics programs is graphical in nature. And the data service should have wide geographic availability so the user can work from numerous locations.

When considering big data and mobile devices, what gets less attention are the practices that can contribute to and improve the data used for decision-making. After all, big-data analytics are supposed to lead to smarter decisions based on more data.

Mobile device users can help in two ways. They can make information available in real time to improve the quality of the data’s analysis. For example, although having sales reps update their orders once a week when they are in the office might have been all right before, most companies would get more realistic inventory and sales forecasts if the information were added while the sale is being closed.

Similarly, the value of data analyzed for decision-making can be greatly improved in some cases by adding location-based information. For example, a company that sends service technicians to customer locations could more optimally dispatch crews to their next job if they receive location information when each crew closes a trouble ticket. Smartphones and tablets with GPS can supply such location information.

The bottom line is that businesses need suitable mobile devices and data services for today’s mobile workforce to realize the full benefits of big data.

Illustration / Tommy Alderson

Mobile Metronome
Keep the beat with fine-tempo tuning that ranges from two to 20 beats per measure and from 10 to 230 beats per minute. Mobile Metronome lets you load and save presets and adjust the signature for simple, compound and complex meters.

Smart Voice Recorder
Designed for high-quality, extended sound recording, this app’s features include a live audio-spectrum analyzer. Your recordings can be saved and shared through email or Dropbox; you can also turn a recording into a ringtone or notification on your mobile device.

DaTuner
For easy tuning of your guitar, violin, bass, mandolin, piano or most anything else, just play a note and DaTuner will display the nearest note and octave, along with the frequency in hertz plus error in cents. Or select the note that you want to tune to and let the filter lock block out anything outside the range of the note, allowing you to tune your instrument accurately in any noisy situation.

Ensemble Composer
This sheet-music notation-editing app lets you compose music no matter where you are. Your scores, which can support up to 15 instruments simultaneously and include notes from whole to 32nd in every kind of signature, can be saved and shared by email.

Jorte Calendar
Keep your gigs or upcoming lessons organized with this calendar and organizer app. It’s customizable, with a cloud feature to simplify multi-device use and backup. View your schedule by month or week; see completed appointments at a glance.

Music Teacher Accountant
Created by a music teacher for music teachers, this app compiles your students’ data (along with your notes), lets you send invoices with a click and receipts automatically once payment is entered.

Perfect Ear
Trying to develop perfect pitch? This app is a training tool featuring seven different types of exercises to help anyone, student or pro, improve their musical ear.

The first step to a smart decision is making sure you’re getting the most out of your existing technology: Know what you’ve got.

“People often don’t take the time to educate themselves about the equipment they have,” says Ramon Ray, editor and technology evangelist for Smallbiztechnology.com. “With a phone, for example, people want to talk and take photos, but there are so many apps, tools, settings and little things that can raise the bar.” His suggestions: To maximize performance, read the manual or take a class. “I know, for example, that Verizon Wireless offers free classes in its stores.”

When to upgrade

Ray recommends that when the vendor of your hardware or software offers something new, think about upgrading then. Don’t necessarily do it then, but think about it.

To help you think about it, educate yourself about what the upgrade offers and consider what it could do for you. “If you get an alert from Verizon Wireless that you need to upgrade to get a patch for a detected virus, get it,” Ray says. “If it’s an upgrade that’s a new alarm clock sound, think about if that’s important to you before you do it.”

Another thing to think about is what Ray calls “following the overall evolutionary progress of technology.” Sometimes what’s new can really make running your business a little easier. “If you’re doing a lot of videoconferencing on the road, maybe 3G has been working fine, but 4G LTE may allow you to do that better and faster,” he says.

Early adoption risks and rewards

If the technology in question is something brand new, there’s always a risk/reward balance to consider. On the risk side, early adopters may find that all the bugs have not been worked out. “You don’t have to upgrade to version 1.0 of a technology; wait for technology reviewers to try it out first,” Ray suggests.

Early adopters always pay the premium price, and there’s the chance that the first thing out of the gate may not ultimately come out on top. Ray points to an old, but still relevant, example: the 1980s battle between competing videotape formats, Betamax and VHS.

The rewards for early adopters include the chance to put themselves ahead of their competition. “If you’ve made the right bet, you’ll be way ahead when they jump in a year later,” Ray says. “You’ve already had a year of development.”

When you do upgrade, in the case of hardware, you can feel even better about your decision and support a good cause by donating your old phone to Verizon’s HopeLine, supporting battered women, or donating your old electronic equipment to Soldiers’ Angels, which benefits military families.

Third-party appeal

Worldwide, individuals and businesses of all sizes are flocking to third-party marketplaces to sell their goods. Some of the largest of these are Amazon and Etsy. Customers like the wide selection and variety offered by third-party sellers, along with accountability and the chance to support small businesses. For sellers, third-party marketplaces provide ease, convenience and a receptive, global customer base. Virtually any product can be sold via third-party market, including such diverse offerings as craft and sewing items, kayaks, barbecues, guitar picks and baby furnishings.

Bittner launched her business, Hankie Chic, this year. “I immediately knew Etsy was the place for me,” she says. “I tried out a small, local craft show last fall, but manning a booth takes away from the time I can use to sew. So I really like the convenience of an online shop.”

Words to the wise

But before diving in to a market as a third-party seller, keep these tips in mind:

• Do your homework. Spend time browsing marketplace sites, as a customer might do, to see how your product will fit into the mix of offerings.
• Each marketplace is unique in the services it offers to sellers. All have varying fee arrangements, processes and limitations that sellers must follow. Understand the rules and regulations before you set up shop.
• Stick to one or two marketplaces. It takes time to learn the ins and outs of a marketplace—and how to leverage it to your best advantage. Try not to spread yourself too thin.
• Thoroughly review the marketplace’s service offerings for third-party sellers. Ask: How are transactions handled? Who’s responsible for shipping and returns? What is the fee structure? Understand rules and restrictions before you sign up.
• Invest in the tools you need to create good product photography. This is a good idea for all sellers, but it’s especially important when selling your product on any third-party marketplace. Quality images help tempt buyers and build the confidence they need to put your product in their sales cart.

1. Password protect your device immediately. Prevent another person from using it or accessing your business contacts, personal information, texts, emails and more. It’s a good first line of defense, and best of all it’s fast and easy. In addition, not setting sensitive websites to automatically remember your passwords is good added security.

2. Beware of free apps. According to the mobile security company Lookout, 5 percent of free Android mobile apps have one or more “aggressive ad networks,” which can access your personal information. Malware for toll fraud also comes from malicious apps. Get your apps from a trusted source such as Google Play.

3. Physical security. Selecting one spot to keep your device at home, and plugging it into the charger before you go to bed can help you avoid losing your device. If it’s missing and you suspect theft, Lookout Plan B is an Android phone–finding app you can download after the loss. Ghost Anti-Theft app has a loud alarm that cannot be turned off or quieted and will deter a thief while you track your property with a finder.

4. Consider mobile security apps available for your device that address your needs. Powered by McAfee, Verizon Mobile Security Basic protects against malware and digital threats such as viruses and worms. Verizon Mobile Security Premium also includes an alarm, finder, remote lock and more. Webroot offers mobile and tablet security for up to five devices. Norton Snap QR code reader scans for fake, malicious bar codes and blocks websites from downloading. Safe in Cloud makes it easier to manage complicated passwords; use it to create more secure passwords and store them.

Take a few minutes to be proactive about security when you get a new device, and you’ll make taking security seriously a habit right from the start. Now you’re ready for business.

One difference may be price, but although business-grade tech will likely cost more up front, it’s also likely to save money—not to mention time and aggravation—in the long run. “Small-business owners have enough on their plates just running their business, so anywhere they can save time, money and stress is huge,” says Alex Lesberg, vice president and senior consultant for Jackrabbit Microware. “Buying business-grade technology is one of those places.”

The advantages of business-grade hardware and software can be divided into several categories.

Durability
Because they are built to higher standards, with higher-quality parts, business-grade products often last longer, even as they’re used hard every day. “Business-grade products are designed to work in environmentally challenging situations,” Lesberg says. “You get systems that are made with higher-quality materials, that often include redundant components, and that are designed to withstand constant use, so companies can be confident that their tech will last longer and suffer fewer breakdowns.”

Business-grade laptops, for example, might boast magnesium alloy and aluminum cases, metal hinges, spill-resistant keyboards, and scratch-resistant finishes, Lesberg says. Consumer-grade equivalents of such upgrades don’t exist.

Features
With business-grade technology, you can choose from an array of features that consumers don’t have. For example, business telephone systems are almost limitlessly customizable, Lesberg says, with features such as automated attendants to route calls to your employees wherever they are and the option to send voice mails as email to individuals or to whole departments. And a business-grade router can give your employees the ability to use a virtual private network (VPN) to securely access data in your office.

“On the software side, business-grade products offer things like granular customization and centralized management tools that you just won’t find in consumer products,” Lesberg says.

Security
Security is a concern for most small-business owners, but it reaches another level when you’re dealing with customers’ credit card information. Business-grade tech offers many stronger security features, such as fingerprint readers on laptops, built-in encryption tools and remote administration abilities.

Support
Anyone who’s tried to get support for their home computer and spent long, frustrating hours on the phone knows there’s room for improvement. Vendors of business-grade products provide a better level of support because they understand that business owners cannot afford downtime. Computer vendors may offer next-day, on-site support for business-grade products, Lesberg says, sending a technician right to your office to fix the problem.

Warranties
“Business-grade tech almost always has superior warranty options, along with support coverage that extends years beyond the date of purchase,” Lesberg says. Many items come with a three-year warranty at a minimum (instead of the six months or one year a consumer product offers).

But it is increasingly common to see the same websites present a different, more readable view on the mobile device. The smartphone and desktop layouts still share similar content, but the smartphone version is less cluttered, with content presented more appropriately given the smartphone’s smaller screen and touch interface.

That’s because many websites now use an approach called Responsive Web Design, or RWD, a term coined by web designer and developer Ethan Marcotte.

“RWD is an approach that optimizes your website based on the device and environment the user is coming from,” says Dan Pickett, Principal at LaunchWare, a web and software development agency for both desktop and mobile platforms. “You can also identify details like display size and whether it uses keyboard and mouse or touchscreen for input, and respond with an appropriate view of the content. ”

A website that adapts to the device
Even before mobile devices entered the scene, developers learned they had to create websites that would accommodate a range of operating systems and browser versions as well as window sizes and screen resolutions.

In an RWD website, for example, if the browser window is less than a certain width—either because of the device’s display size or because the user has adjusted the window—the layout will shrink from three columns to two, and then one. Similarly, if you want to include Flash-based enhancements, you can use responsive design to add those in only when viewed by Flash-supported browsers.

“We recommend designing your website using the RWD approach if your site is content-rich or content-oriented,” says Pickett. “For example, an electrician or auto shop may provide practical advice, and a restaurant is likely to post online menus.” Otherwise, Pickett suggests creating a distinctly different site optimized for the mobile web.

Getting to a responsive web presence
Developing an Internet presence that reaches both desktop and mobile users can be more expensive, Pickett cautions. Creating a responsive-design website, including comprehensive testing, can cost from $10,000 to $20,000—or even more, depending on the complexity of the site and the amount of content.

“It’s a business decision in terms of the ROI or other value to your company,” says Pickett. “We generally advise looking for a two-to-three-year ROI.”

Another route is to use FaceBook, WordPress, Tumblr or another social networking service that has its own mobile apps and can present your business’ information in a mobile-appropriate way.

“You may not be able to do everything you want to do through these services,” Pickett cautions. “But it’s a good way to test the waters. It might even be sufficient for your business’s mobile goals.”

Facebook
Facebook is the obvious place to start, Winans says. “They boast the most users and are the most likely place to find your competition.” Be sure your Facebook updates are interesting and/or beneficial to people who come to your page. “Facebook isn’t a dumping ground for your press releases,” Winans says. “Create content around the experience customers have with your product or service; go broader than just the products themselves. Encourage conversation by asking questions or using the poll feature. Add images to your posts when you can.”

Twitter
Twitter might be the easiest place to interact with both consumers and other businesses. Again, focus your tweets on interesting content related to your business; retweet and reply to tweets liberally. “Sharing [via retweets or mentions] is the lifeblood of Twitter, so give credit for content to other users whenever possible. Use the appropriate hashtags for your business to expand your reach,” Winans says. Search relevant categories in Twitter directories like Twellow.com or WeFollow.com for those appropriate hashtags as well as people to follow—but start slowly. “If you’re following hundreds of people and few are following you, you will look like a spammer.”

Pinterest
“The social network that drives the most website traffic is Pinterest. It will help drive users back to your website, expanding the reach of your business,” Winans says.

Some businesses are an easy fit for this highly visual outlet; others might require some extra thought. “If you own a massage therapy salon, you can’t pin pictures of massages. But you could create boards with tips on relaxation, oils you recommend and best spas for travel,” Winans says. “Just don’t forget to include a board that illustrates in visuals what your business is about, including photos of your staff and physical location, if you have one.”

Google+
Google+ is an excellent choice for new businesses and those that don’t rank high in Google search results, Winans says. “Posting regularly on this platform, and verifying your website in Google, will increase your search engine optimization [SEO] position, making it easier for people to find you.”

LinkedIn
Offering many opportunities to network with potential customers, LinkedIn is a platform small-business owners should consider. Winans’ advice? “Fill out your personal profile completely, using keywords in your headline, summary and skills. Create a company page for your business, and add each product or service you offer. Join LinkedIn groups where potential clients may be active, and join the conversation regularly, commenting on discussions and creating your own. Sync [this page] with your Facebook and Twitter pages.”

No matter which social-media outlet you focus on, be prepared to devote the time necessary to make it work for you. Don’t try to do everything. “The key is to succeed with the platforms you choose,” Winans says, “not to be present on all platforms.”