For the small business, Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices are a great option for centralizing business files. A NAS device is essentially a self-contained computer connected to a network with the sole purpose of supplying storage to other computers on that same network. They generally do not have a keyboard or display and are controlled and configured over the network. NAS devices are available at your local big-box electronics store for prices as low as a couple hundred dollars.

NAS devices are great, but businesses that have more than a handful of users and need extensive use of centralized storage will require a more robust solution. File servers offer the same types of services that NAS can and more. As the needs for centralized storage increase, additional file servers can be added to increase capacity. Businesses working with a lot of multimedia or very large files fit this scenario quite well. There are many different solutions available, the most important is that you get started.

How Can Centralized Storage Help You?

There are a few benefits to having your business files all in one place and each one is a strong enough reason on its own for you to get started even if you have only 2 computers.

Increased productivity

If person working on computer A needs a file that a person working on computer B created, many will simply email a duplicate to the co-worker. Changes are made and then emailed to someone working on yet a different computer. After a while there are many copies and it’shard to know which is current. By having them in one place you can feel confident that people are always working with the correct file.

Increased reliability

Many of the problems that affect computers are storage related, and these problems often happen at the worst possible time. One or more of your computers having difficulties is not a problem when your files are centralized. You can always access your files from any other working computer giving you the ability of printing that client proposal and winning a contract.

One location to backup

In an earlier article, I talk about how important it is to backup your files. My free step by step tutorial guiding you on creating your first backup shows you how to get started with a single computer. Backing up multiple computers can become a burden. If all your computers were looking in one place for your files, you only have one place to backup.

Files accessible to every authorized user

Each centralized solution can provide the ability of limiting access to certain files to authorized users only. You might only want your senior staff make changes to the financial planning documents, and have everyone be able to view the equipment manuals.

Delete That Email

This tip has the biggest impact on the amount of emails you need to sort through in the future, but it is the hardest to do. When you read an email think to yourself, is there any realistic expectation that I will have to read this email again next year? There are definately some emails you will need to keep, such as emails authorizing you to do work, emails the tax agency may need to see in the next seven years, written agreements between two parties and any other items that prove important in any kind of audit. Office jokes, meeting reminders and short questions between peers are prime candidates for deletion.

Seperate Business From Pleasure

Just as people have a work phone number seperate from a home phone number, you should have a work email address and a home email address. Give your work email address to your professional contacts and your home email address to your family and friends. Keeping your important emails seperate from the jokes you may receive from friends improves your ability to stay organized.

Use Folders to Group Emails

Sorting your emails into different folders helps to group certain emails. Before you go making a bunch of folders, you will need to think of what you are most likely to remember when looking for an email in the future. If your company deals with many clients you may want to have folders for each client. If you work on projects with many people involved you may want to have folder for each project. There is no single structure of folders that will work for everybody, but be careful when creating them. Folders can be great at organizing but having too many folders can be difficult to manage going forward.

Don’t Forget Sent Items

By default most email programs save a copy of each email you send, so you will want to organize these as well. You can add them to the folders that you already have created or you can create a new folder structure for emails that you have sent.

Split your Archived Email

Many email programs allow you to archive your email, and prompt you to do so every couple weeks. While archiving your email is a good thing, a little more thought needs to go into it. Should you just have one archive file for all emails you have ever received? Splitting your archive helps keep each archive file smaller and easier to manage. Again you need to think of what will you remember most when digging into those archived email. Breaking your emails into a couple smaller archived files can improve the performance of your email program. I split my archived email files into years, so every New Year I change my email program to save my archived email into a new file. I find myself rarely going back further than a year when looking for older emails.

Use a Rules Engine

If you find yourself moving similar emails to the same folder repetitively, you can set up a rule that will automatically move emails for you. The first couple rules you setup will feel clumsy, but the few seconds you save with each email processed by a rule will add up quickly! With many email programs you can usually right click on an email and you will be presented with an option of creating a rule based on that email.

Use Search

Organizing your emails into folders is a good start in being able to find a particular email. But even smaller folders can contain up to hundreds or even thousands of emails. Use your email program’s built in search to look for a particular email, it will be able to find it far faster than you browsing through emails individually.

Do you like to organize you email differently? What tips do you think you can offer that will help others?

The first tip is just to make sure the printer gets used. If you aren’t printing something at least monthly the inkjet nozzles (for an inkjet printer) can dry up and stop working. Dust can collect inside the printer and cause jams. By printing at least one page a month, you can prevent dry nozzles and remove some of the dust from the inside. Fill out the form below to receive a free monthly email reminding you to print something.

The second tip is to give it a gentle cleaning. Every couple of months spend a couple of minutes wiping down the outside of the printer. Just use a soft cloth slightly damp with water, stay away from cleaners as they can often damage the covers. Once done cleaning the outside, take a vacuum and remove any dust from the inside. You don’t want to use compressed air as it can blow the dust onto the ink nozzles.

The last tip is to cover it up when not in use. This tip is especially important if your printer is in a dusty environment. They are available at computer supply stores, and will help keep your printer safe and clean.

These simple tips can often be forgotten in the daily tasks of running a business. Fill out the form below to receive a free monthly email reminding you to perform the various tasks in this article to help keep your printer in good working condition.

This weekend I noticed that QuickBooks 2010 is now available (in Canada) and I went through the process of upgrading my 2009 copy to 2010. If you are currently using QuickBooks (any version) or if you are not using any business financial software, here are a few reasons that you should consider getting QuickBooks 2010.

• Company Home Page- It’s easy to find the tasks you need the most from the QuickBooks Home Page. This page is arranged the same way that money flows within your company, and there are even arrows that illustrate the flow. Starting at the left, you can create Estimates for your clients. From there you can create invoices, record payments received, create sales receipts and record deposits. If you keep track of inventory you can create purchase orders (that transfer information from estimates), record the inventory received, and enter the bills for the inventory received. There are other sections such as company management tasks (accounts, items & services) and banking (writing cheques, reconciling accounts, entering credit card charges).
• Company Snapshot – The Company Snapshot helps you save time and manage cash flow so you can make better business decisions. In a single screen it shows information like: income and expense trend, which customers owe you money, what bills need to be paid, and select account balances.
• Quickly Find Anything – With the customer centre QuickBooks collects all transaction types (Estimates, Invoices, Sales Receipts, Payments, etc) and displays them in one area. You can use the new search functionality to quickly find the invoice you did for “that one customer in St. Adolphe” and when it was paid.
• Sales Tax Made Easy – You can setup different types of items in QuickBooks for the services and products you offer. Some services and products have different tax settings and QuickBooks has the ability to handle any tax combination your product/service may have. QuickBooks will also help you prepare accurate returns by calculating the tax as you work, and it will show you reports that look just like your sales tax returns – with all the right amounts already filled in. New with 2010, you can click a single button and the tax return is sent with eFile!
• Multicurrency Functionality – The multi currency feature lets you transact seamlessly in any number of currencies from around the world – without worrying about looking up exchange rates or getting your calculator out to convert currencies.
• Compatability with Windows 7 – Microsoft has been working hard on the replacement to Windows Vista, and Windows 7 will be pre-installed on all new computers starting in late October. Previous versions of QuickBooks aren’t compatible, and Intuit does not offer support for Windows 7 with prior versions. QuickBooks 2010 is being supported and after my installation I found it works quite well.

1. Don’t publish personal email addresses on your website. Similar to search engines, a spammer can crawl web sites on the Internet. The difference is that spammers are looking for email addresses to add to their lists instead of content that people want to find. By never publishing your personal email address spammers won’t find it on your site.
2. Block pictures in HTML messages from people you don’t know. Some emails can contain images which validate to spammers that your email address exists. Many email programs prevent images from downloading by default and you should only download images from people you trust.
3. Setup a generic email for public use (forums, registration pages and contests). There are often times when you need to get something that requires you to sign up. Make a special email address that you use in these circumstances, let that email address collect the spam, and when it gets overwhelming you can delete it and create a new one.
4. When filling out forms online watch out for check-boxes that are automatically checked. Often when creating a user ID for a website, a default check-box is selected that indicates you want to receive updates and promotional material from a company. Be sure to read what you are agreeing to before submitting your request.
5. Don’t use easy to guess addresses (bob@yourcompany.com, admin@yourcompany.com). When a spammer comes across your domain they will automatically try a bunch of email addresses. If you use easy to guess addresses most likely the spammer will find your address and you will get their messages.
6. Don’t send bulk emails using TO or CC fields. When using these fields, recipients will be able to easily view each other’s email addresses. The email is likely to be forwarded many more times and it will carry an expanding list of email addresses along with it, including those of your friends and family. Ultimately this list of email addresses may find its way into the hands of spammers who will send you and other people on the list irritating and intrusive junk email.
7. Don’t forward chain e-mail addresses since they are usually hoaxes.  There are thousands of email hoaxes moving around the Internet at any given time. Some may be the latest email hoaxes around, others may be mutated versions of hoax messages that have travelled the Internet for years. These email hoaxes cover a range of subject matter, including: supposedly free giveaways in exchange for forwarding emails, bogus virus alerts, false appeals to help sick children, pointless petitions that lead nowhere and accomplish nothing, dire and completely fictional, warnings about products, companies, government policies or coming events. Find out how to spot an email hoax.
8. Turn off automatic processing of delivery & read receipts. When someone sends you an email they can optionally request a receipt that ensures their email was delivered and read. When it arrives you are sometimes asked if you want to send the receipt. You never want receipts to be automatically sent as it is a way for spammers to validate that your email address exists.
9. Never reply to spam or click the link that says “remove me from your list”. By replying to spam email or clicking on removal or unsubscribe links you are confirming to the spammer that your email address is valid.
10. Keep your computer up to date. Computers not kept up to date are more susceptible to joining the large networks that are responsible for sending spam. Downloading the latest updates for your computer (including Windows Updates, Antivirus Updates and more) you can keep your computer secure.

If you currently receive a large amount of spam you might want to create a new email address and follow the steps outlined above. With your new email address, send an email to your contacts informing them of the change and that you don’t want to receive the chain emails they will most likely send.

What other tips have worked for you?

First, you need to do some planning. Think of how many computers and devices you have. Do they need to be attached to each other? Can they all be connected to the Internet without any business repercussions? Computers containing highly sensitive material might have no place being connected to the Internet.

Next you need to get connected. Small offices often have a handful of computers, and can benefit from using a residential router. You can find these routers at your local big-box electronics stores. I use the DLink DIR-615 myself and have recommended it for a few other businesses. A router will be responsible for connecting to your ISP (Internet Service Provider) and for sharing that connection with everything that you connect it to. It will have a cable going from the router’s WAN (Wide Area Network) port to the modem that your ISP gave you. It will also have either a wired or a wireless connection to each of your computers and other network enabled devices. Once the connection is established these computers will have full access to the internet and limited access to each other.

With your office network coming together, you can start thinking where to place printers and other devices you might want to share. If your device is network enabled you might want to place it in an area accessible by everyone who would need it. If your device is not network enabled you can connect it to a computer that has network connectivity and set it up in such a way that the computer is responsible for sharing it with all other computers. When a computer is sharing a device, such as a printer, it needs to be turned on in order for other computers to use it. You can attach multiple printers to the same computer if the setup fits your needs.

Many printers have the ability to be attached directly to the network either by wire or wireless. Network printers are great as they don’t need an unused computer to be powered in order for you to print to it. When planning where you place your printers consider having one print area for your office as it can reduce space needed and removing the convenience of printing at every one’s desk can also reduce the amount that is printed.

Although Internet access and printers are the easiest and most commonly shared, you can definitely experience cost savings by sharing many other devices. Whenever making a large purchase find out how it can be shared among your entire office. If you have a large number of computers and devices you want to share it would probably be a good idea to consult with an IT professional to help you set everything up.

The video takes you step by step, from launching your browser, downloading the software to setting it up and running your first backup. It features full audio and text overlays for the hearing impaired.

Subscribe now to get access to the video tutorial, and learn how to keep your data backed up and safe.

Depending on your neighborhood, power interruptions or loss can happen regularly. Even a power interruption a second long can cause many problems with your computer including just turning it off suddenly. Thinking back it is easy to say “I would have spent $80 to save myself 4 hours of grief”. It’s best that you act on that thought now by going to your local electronics store and making a wise purchase. You don’t need an expensive one as the purpose of these units isn’t to continue working during a power loss or interruption. You want it only to allow you to save your work and shut down your computer safely.

Power failure is responsible for over a quarter of all system breakdowns. There are many consequences of computer breakdowns, such as:

• Backlog of work/loss of production
• Loss of data
• Deterioration of customer service, espeically if used when interacting with the customer directly
• Loss of physical equipment

APC is a company that produces UPS models that are commonly available and definitely serve their purpose. They advertise approximately one half hour and more of backup time. These times are under ‘ideal’ conditions with more realistic times hitting 5-10 minutes. You only want to plug in your computer tower, monitor and maybe a printer to the battery backup & surge protection outlets with other items such as speakers and other devices into the surge protection outlets.  You don’t need your speakers to quickly save your work during an outage and adding unnecessary items to the battery backup outlets will reduce the effectiveness of the UPS.

Every 6 months, check the status of the UPS to make sure it is still protecting you. Most models will have indicator lights with their status but read the owner’s manual just in case.

Various research suggests that only 25% of small and medium businesses actually backup their information although 80% conceded that they would not be able to carry on without it. As a computer ages it is more likely that the information stored on it could be in jeopardy. It can be financially tough to start a business so many are started on older computers because they are easily available.

Setting up an automated backup process for a small business computer can take as little as 15 minutes and there are various software packages out there that can be used to make the process much easier, Allway Sync Backup Solution is highly recommended. When setting up your backup software to run there are a few things you need to consider.

Subscribe to our updates and be the first to receive the video tutorial I am in the middle of creating to walk you through the process of setting up a simple backup.

How often do you need to backup your information?

If you were to lose all your information 10 minutes before your next backup, how far back would you be willing to go to rework it? This answer will be different for each scenario, but be honest with yourself. Backups can take between 10 minutes and 1 hour so having a backup done every 5 minutes is unrealistic. For many small businesses a backup at the end of the day is beneficial  so that if any information is lost it would only have to be reworked from what was done since the beginning of the day.

What are you going to backup your information to?

Depending on the amount and types of information you may chose to backup to a DVD, USB drive, external hard drive, online storage or any combination of the latter. DVDs are nice if you have a small amount of information so you have a separate DVD for each backup. However needing to be organized as they accumulate can be time consuming. USB drives are nice for a small amount of information and portability and price are a benefit. External hard drives can store a tremendous amount of information. Although their cost continues to drop, they are not as portable as other options.

What information needs to be saved?

You don’t need to save your programs, because they are stored on the disk that you installed them from. If the software was acquired digitally find out if it can be downloaded at a later date for free and if not you should make a copy onto a disk for that purpose. Data files created by these programs need to be saved. A good practice is to save everything that you create in your Documents folder (or pictures / videos depending on what you need). By having everything in a smaller amount of folders it will be easier to backup.

Where should I keep my backups?

Keeping your backups on a shelf above the computer is very handy if the computer stops working but not so helpfull in case of fire. Hopefully fire isn’t as likely to happen so a balance of off-site (away from the building your business is in) and on-site backups are the way to go. If your business is in the home ask a relative or good friend if you can drop off a backup every once in a while. It would be a good opportunity to keep in touch!

Test your backups

Many people go years in creating backups and when the backup is needed they find out that they have been backing up a blank disk. Every once in a while take your backup to a different computer and test your backup by trying to recover something you have recently been working on.

Now what if your computer goes down and were told that you had just lost all electronic information about your business?  No sweat, you have a backup solution that works!

Subscribe to our updates and be the first to receive the video tutorial I am in the middle of creating to walk you through the process of setting up a simple backup.

Whether you are starting a new business or have been established for a while, everyone knows the importance of having a computer. However the trick isn’t just to have computers, the trick is to have reliable computers with the right software to help you get the job done right the first time.

Today you might think you will only need a computer to write a couple documents and email some clients ,but as technology advances at the rapid rate that is has been you will quickly find yourself using your computer more and more. Businesses around the world use computers as part of their daily operations. For some the computer is just a tool for writing documents, others use it to manage every aspect of their operations.

Whether you are starting a new business or have been established for a while, everyone knows the importance of having a computer. However the trick isn’t just to have computers, the trick is to have reliable computers with the right software to help you get the job done right the first time.

Today you might think you will only need a computer to write a couple documents and email some clients, but as technology advances at the rapid rate that is has been you will quickly find yourself using your computer more and more.

Choosing a Computer

If you are looking to upgrade the computers at your office, consider purchasing and setting up all the computers at once. By having all computers the same, it will make it easier on your staff help easier to help each other out as they will be very familiar with the setup and can focus on the task at hand.

To start you can visit your local computer store, asking for advice in store. You want to focus on business models as they are usually made of higher quality parts (and because of that a bit more expensive, but worth it). Explain to whoever is helping you what your business currently does with a computer, and let them know that it’s importance in your company will continually grow. Get a list of 2 or 3 models that interest you in-store, but DO NOT BUY YET.

When you get back to the office, do some quick research. Go to your favorite search engine and search for reviews of each of the models you had selected earlier. Read these reviews and let them help you make your decision, then go back to the store and make your purchase.

Setting up Your Computer

Now that you have your computer(s), they need to have the useless factory software removed and have your needed programs installed. I would recommend finding a computer technician or someone very familiar with software installations to help you with this task. Removing the factory software can make a big difference in the performance of your computer.

If you want to try this yourself, here are the top 3 items you can remove to increase the performance.

• Games
• Any trial software (as you would be installing purchased full versions)
• Adobe PDF Reader (which will be replaced with a smaller light weight PDF Reader)

Once you have a clean slate to work with, now is the time to install the programs that you want. Below is a basic list of software that almost any business computer should not go without.

• Antivirus (recommended Norton Antivirus)
• Microsoft Office Basic (includes Word for document editing, Excel for spreadsheets and Outlook for email and organization)
• Foxit PDF Reader (free light weight alternative to Adobe PDF Reader, found here)

Visit us soon for tips on having multiple computers work seamlessly in your office.