Here is a brief list of some of the things that we changed. I’m sure that I’ve forgotten a few things, however the list is pretty big for 3 weeks while working a full time job!

• 3 new exterior doors
• Painted every wall on the main floor, with exception to my home office
• Replaced all baseboards on the main floor
• Full renovation of the main bathroom (kept only the bathtub and tub surround, even removed the sub floor)
• Removed 3 walls from basement
• Replaced 700 square feet of flooring (still another 400 to do)
• Removal of stained false ceiling

During the move and renovations, I did not have access to my computer. It was during this time that I was especially glad that I had a smart phone and was able to access my email and respond to the questions that I had. There were a few things that I couldn’t do on my phone but for the most part I was able to keep everyone happy.

Moving when running a home business can be a challenge. I hope to write a list detailing some of the types of companies that you will need to send a change of address to incase you plan on moving as well.

Software

1. Quickbooks Easystart: Using QuickBooks EasyStart is as its name suggests; easy. It takes just a few minutes to get started and soon you will be creating invoices, tracking payments and managing expenses. There is a free edition if you have less than 20 customers, making it affordable for consultants just starting off.
2. Microsoft Office 2007: A popular office productivity suite among businesses. You can write letters, generate financial spreadsheets and create presentations.
3. Contact Management: In business you will have many contacts and organization will be key. Microsoft Office’s Outlook has contact management that integrates well with Quickbook Easystart. If you are going to be in a fairly heavy sales type role you might want to look into tools with additional features.

Office Equipment

1. All In One Printer: As much as we prefer not to print things, it is still necessary for presentations and providing written documents that need to be shared. There are a variety of good products made by Hewlett-Packard and Brother. Features often include: scanner/photocopier, fax, network connection and automatic document feeder (ADF) for photocopying multi-page documents.
2. Shredder: Documents no longer needed often contain sensitive information and should not be viewed again. A cross cutting shredder is perfect for protecting the privacy of your business and your clients.

Mobility

1. Mobile phone: Every business owner should at least have a mobile phone, but as a business tool I recommend a smart phone. Research in Motion’s BlackBerry is the most popular smart phone in business, though I prefer the Apple iPhone myself. Many smart phones offer the ability to synchronize to Outlook.
2. Laptop: Many professionals work away from the office as much as or more than being in the office. A laptop gives you the freedom to work out of the office and the portability you need when making a presentation to an audience of any size.

Marketing

1. Business Cards: One of the most important tools for word of mouth advertising, business cards allow your clients to recommend you to their friends.
2. Web site: Provides your clients and potential clients with 24/7 access to the information they need about you and your business. Include reference to previous work done, contact information and be sure to tell them how you can help them.
3. Social Media: There are many social media sites out there, but many business people find LinkedIn very important in making contacts. Other social media sites include Facebook and Twitter. YouTube is another popular site where you could demonstrate some of your knowledge for free. You can upload short 1-3 minute videos of yourself providing advice in your area of expertise.

I’ll be looking at reworking the current articles so that they clearly identify actionable items. Most likely you came to this site to find a quick solution to a problem you are experiencing, and with some feedback received and myself taking a step back I can see that my recommendations sometimes aren’t exactly clear.  I hope to have existing articles re-worked, and the site organized in a different way to help you get to the information you seek quicker.

If you have any ideas or suggestions for helping to transform this site, feel free to send me a comment!

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.

Smart phones can function as personal organizers letting you make written and voice notes, keep track of appointments with a calendar, manage contact lists and create automatic reminders wherever you may be. You can synchronize your smart phone with your computer so that information is never lost and stays consistent.

With smart phones you are almost always connected to the internet. You can access maps and directions to destinations, weather and traffic reports, watch videos, view your email including attachments and search or browse the internet.

Smart phones offer built-in digital cameras with immediate snap and send functionality. You can instantly photograph and send images of anything from products, site inspections or damaged machinery and send them as email attachments to anybody.

One challenge in making a decision on acquiring a smart phone is that you need a voice and a data plan. The voice plan covers all the phone calls that you would make and are often measured in day time and evening minutes. Data plans cover all the information that your phone sends and receives, is measured in the number of Mega Bytes that you download, and is not quite as straight forward. A mega byte is the equivalent of approx 500 text only emails, 7 or 8 web pages, or 1 or 2 photos. A video is often a couple mega bytes.  Using these numbers as rough guidelines, you should be able to estimate what you will need in a data plan.

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?

When deciding to bring your presence to the online world there are a few ways that you can do it. Start off by listing in online business directories, building one or more websites, purchasing online advertisements and engaging in social media.

Listing your business with an online business directory is easy, convenient and often free. You can think of these directories as online versions of the Yellow Pages book. Unlike the traditional printed book, changes to phone numbers or other contact information can happen immediately.  There are several online directories and many are industry specific. Searching the Internet can often result in dozens of directories that you can list your business. If you have a hard time finding directories try searching for a competitor’s name and find out where they are listed.

Any business, small or large, can have a website. Websites can be built for prices between $100 to thousands of dollars, though personally I would stay away from inexpensive sites. You want your website to portray the level of professionalism that you provide your clients. If your website looks like a rush job with little attention to detail, visiting potential clients may think the same of your work. There are many benefits to having a website, some of which include:

• Increased Market Size: Any website will broaden the market reach for your business. You can market and sell your products across the country or the world.
• Low Cost for Distributing Information: Your web site’s purpose is usually to either sell your company (or brand) or to sell a product. You can have information about your company and product/services online (catalogues, technical specs, order forms, etc). If something becomes out of date, it can be updated within minutes and everyone accessing the information from then on will have access to the latest info.
• 24/7 Availability: Customers will have immediate access to the information when they want it.
• Multiple Websites: If you offer products / services that are quite different from each other, you can group them and display them on separate sites. There are many tactics in doing this, but consulting with a web professional might be your best approach if you feel this can apply to you.

Online advertisements are a way of increasing awareness of what you offer to your clients and driving traffic to your site. Depending on your market, online advertising can be very tricky and competitive. Companies like Google and Yahoo offer advertising programs that are quite powerful. If you are about to get started in online advertising you may want the help of professionals.

Social media is increasingly popular among the general public. Many people are addicted to popular sites such as twitter and facebook. If having a presence in social media fits with your general online strategy you can setup a profile for your business. If you decide to engage in social media be sure to set a fixed amount of time per day or week that you are willing to spend keeping in touch with people. It is easy to get distracted and waste a large amount of time.

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.

You choose who to lend to – whether a baker in Afghanistan, a goat herder in Uganda, a farmer in Peru, a restaurateur in Cambodia, or a tailor in Iraq – and as they repay their loan, you get your money back.  It’s a powerful and sustainable way to empower someone right now to lift themselves out of poverty.

Here are some quick tips that I follow when deciding on who to lend my money to.

1. Find a sector that you want to focus this particular loan on, such as Health or Food
2. Get information on the Field Partner, I try to stick with Field Partners that have loaned more than a million dollars in total loans and have delinquency and default rates very close to 0%.
3. Read the information about the loan, what it is to be used for.

As the entrepreneurs you have financed a micro-loan pay it back, the funds become available to you again. You can choose to relend it to someone else in need or withdraw it.

Make a Small Loan, Make a Big Difference – Check out Kiva.org to Learn How!

If you use Kiva, how do you like it?