We are very excited to announce the near completion of our new data center in Latham, New York! The new building is undergoing a few finishing touches as we get ready to move on in. We’ve got our new 16,000 lb generator and we’re just waiting on our racks and the decorators!

What does this mean for you? Well, it means we will be able expand in New York’s Tech Valley as demand continues to grow for affordable, web-enabled applications and IT services. It means we will be a stronger, larger company, expanding our capacity by 12,000 servers. It means we will be able to continue to deliver green-friendly service with multiple high-speed fiber optic connections all protected by state-of-the-art video surveillance systems and biometric security protocols. In short: it means we will be able to serve you better, and to bring you new technologies alongside the service and reliability you’ve come to expect.

The new data center is housed in a former federal government building which will protect our infrastructure behind 1-foot-thick concrete walls, built to federal government specifications. We will make the most of this secure space by offering fully-managed colocation suites for businesses looking for secure, reliable connectivity for their own servers and equipment.

We will also be bringing additional staff to the new building, helping bring jobs to the region. The tier-1 data center will be consistent with our industry-leading standards for power availability, environmental control, high-performance web application hosting and 100% network uptime.

Watch this space for updates! More coming soon.

Charisma is a characteristic that people assume is in-born. In other words, it’s the kind of thing you either have or you don’t. That couldn’t be further from the truth, especially in the business world. In business, expectations are firmly established. People expect you to introduce yourself a certain way. They expect you to define yourself by your job, or the products you are offering. Subverting that expectation with a memorable introduction piques curiosity. It makes you stand out from the crowd. It opens the door for sales.

Beyond the Suit and Tie

While many business professionals will tell you appearances are everything, the impression you make goes way beyond your suit and tie. Imagine you are at a convention in a room full of people. Everyone there is dressed up for the occasion. They’ve all got sleek hair, sterling silver business card cozies and shiny shoes. They all look very appropriately businessy. Now imagine walking out of that room and trying to remember a single person, a single face in the crowd. So often I find myself struggling to remember the names of the people I just met, and that’s on a normal day! In a convention center, the challenge is 100-fold. One simple way to stand out is to shake up everyone’s expectations. Wear a velvet leisure suit. Wear a giant sombrero. If you’re really feeling daring, dress up in an 18^th century powdered wig like the businessmen of old. In short, wear something that makes you the center of attention. In a convention environment, you won’t lose any points for being outrageous. You’ll gain admiration while being the most memorable person in the room. You better believe everyone will leave that building thinking about the original, zany crusader who stole the show. When you follow up on those leads you collected, people will make time to talk to you.

The Activities Make the Man

While costumed stunts work fabulously well at a convention or conference, they’re not practical for day-to-day meetings with potential clients. If you want to make yourself more charismatic and interesting on a normal day at the office, you’ll need some stories with a real “wow” factor. This might mean taking a trip to an exotic country in search of buried treasure or hiking the Oregon Trail with only a backpack and a lute.  While you might not feel like you have the time for a character-building vacation, you’d be well advised to make that time. If you have a compelling, strange story, you become a memorable person. It’s a simple fact. Think about what truly interests you and get creative about how to explore that interest more fully. If you’ve always wanted to scuba dive, take a class in scuba and go on a trip. Print out your underwater photographs for your office wall and learn about the species you photographed. The more interesting your life activities, the more charismatic you become. If you actually become more interesting to yourself in the process, all the better.

The Opt-In Moment

If you start out every meeting with an unexpected and interesting anecdote, you start out every meeting with curiosity and interest. Interest is the key to the “opt-in,” the moment when the person you’re talking to asks YOU a question. In sales, getting a lead interested in you personally is the golden goal. Once a lead asks you a question, you have your foot in the door. So much of business is building relationships. That is the same today as it has always been. Despite the virtual world we all live in, we are still people sitting behind the screens. Appeal to the curiosity of your audience and you appeal to the person, not just the consumer. Not only is this good for business, it makes life more fun and it makes your potential clients feel like people instead of numbers. That’s good for everyone.

If you are in the market for business web hosting, you probably already know how many options are out there. While large, established businesses may need a dedicated server to meet their needs, most small to medium-sized businesses find that a VPS or virtual private server is the best match. A VPS is a sub-section of a dedicated server. It’s a guaranteed amount of space that is completely isolated from the rest of the server. This means you get a private, guaranteed portion of a server without the risks of shared hosting (in which potentially hundreds of people are using the same machine) and without the expense of a dedicated server. At the risk of sounding slightly self-serving, TurnKey Internet’s new VPS platform is the best deal you’re going to find with some of the coolest new technology available! (including an iPhone app for mobile access!) But let’s put that aside for a minute and discuss the various reasons why VPS technology is a good choice for your business.

Potential for Growth

When you’re shopping for a hosting solution for your business, it is essential that you consider your business’ potential for growth. You don’t want to buy server space, get your website up and running and start selling only to exceed your server’s capacity. If that happens your site goes down. If your site goes down, you lose money! A VPS offers a large amount of space and allocated resources so your business can grow unfettered.

Support

Good VPS hosting comes with robust support. This means you always have a resource if you run into problems. If your site goes down, you have a real person to call. Make sure your VPS host has online chat support, a phone number and a ticketing system (TurnKey has all three). There are many hosts out there that do not offer 24x7x365 support. Often these hosts don’t own their hardware and are not reliable (if they can’t pay their bills, your business suffers). Do some research before choosing a host to make sure you will get the kind of customer service your business deserves.

Security

VPS hosting offers unique IP addresses alongside password protection, firewalls and security software managed by your hosting company (if you choose the right host). This means your data is secure, regularly backed-up and protected from potential attacks. A VPS is an excellent choice if you are concerned about data security.

Low Cost

If you are concerned about controlling business expenses (and who isn’t!?) a VPS is an extremely economical choice. You get nearly all of the benefits of a dedicated machine without the large monthly bill. Of course, if your business grows quickly and you find you need more resources, you can easily upgrade from a VPS at that time.

Cool Features!

If we’re talking about a TurnKey VPS, we’re talking about awesome features! One of the ways we set ourselves apart from our competition (alongside owning our own hardware, our track record of excellent service and heroic customer support) is that we bundle so many extras with our hosting plans. With our new Xen HVM technology, our VPS “paravirtualization” offers unprecedented performance (we also offer you the ability to compile and load your own kernel modules, for those of you who are interested.) We offer great control panels and support for many types of operating systems. Perhaps the coolest feature of all though is our new iPhone app for managing your VPS from your mobile phone! You can reboot your server, monitor usage, bandwidth, RAM and much more, from wherever you are! Come check out our VPS offerings and feel free to jump on Live Chat to speak to a representative if you have any questions.

http://turnkeyinternet.net/webhosting/turnkey_virtual_private_server.php

It’s no secret that creativity is a valuable asset. This country was built on the creativity and innovation of countless artists, politicians, scientists and entrepreneurs. Yet, still, many business people are unwilling to invest in the creative professionals that could bring their business to center-stage. Why is this? Well, the short answer is, it’s complicated.

Creatives Can Be Difficult

Creative people often get a bad rep, and this isn’t always unfair. Many creative people are inherently less stable or reliable than their non-creative counterparts. Often they are perpetually unsatisfied and while this quality makes them perpetually innovative and fuels their creativity, it can also make them difficult employees. That lightning-in-a-bottle sometimes gets out of the bottle. Then you’ve got lightning in the office and you have to wear rubber shoes. The thing is, you can’t put a dollar value on creativity. It’s this magical combination of knowledge and novelty that makes businesses stand out.

Foster a Conducive Environment

There are many ways to handle creative employees that will make them feel comfortable, productive and respected and that won’t make a dent in your profits. You’ll need to get to know your employees before you can meet their creative needs. Some creative types need to listen to music while they work while others need complete silence. Try to accommodate the needs of your creatives as best you can without infringing on the needs of everyone else. Showing your employees that you genuinely care about their job satisfaction will foster an attitude of mutual appreciation and trust, vital for any successful employer/employee relationship.

Go Over the Rules

When you’re interviewing potential creatives, be clear about what you expect of them. In many cases, creative people are excellent workers who respect the business environment and who will do their best to be model employees. If the individual is not one of these exemplary creatives, being clear and straightforward about your expectations will let him know you’re not going to put up with errant behavior. Make a clear policy regarding days off and productivity and put it in writing. That way, if it doesn’t work out, you’ll be protected.

Be Flexible

For some creative people, the traditional 9-5 work day is not the best arrangement. Maybe they do their best work at night, or simply can’t think straight at 2 PM. Whatever the reason, if you trust the person to get work done (or base your evaluations on results) you can afford to be flexible about hours. If you have an office that’s open at non-traditional hours, offer the employee the freedom to choose when she works. If not, consider allowing her to work from home some of the time. In the end, the most important thing is that you get the creative output you pay for.

Focus on Results

In the end, the more creative a business is, the more people will take notice. Consider hiring creatives in several different capacities—from graphic design to marketing. Thinking outside the box means you get to do things first. You set the bar for your competition and you get ahead, every time. The more creativity you have on your team, the faster you will be able to adapt to new marketplace variables and the better equipped you will be to ride the wave of public opinion.