Are you really that important?
April 27, 2006→ 1 Comment
There Is No Indispensable Man
by Saxon N. White Kessinger, Copyright 1959
Sometime when you’re feeling important;
Sometime when your ego’s in bloom
Sometime when you take it for granted
You’re the best qualified in the room,
Sometime when you feel that your going
Would leave an unfillable hole,
Just follow these simple instructions
And see how they humble your soul;
Take a bucket and fill it with water,
Put your hand in it up to the wrist,
Pull it out and the hole that’s remaining
Is a measure of how you will be missed.
You can splash all you wish when you enter,
You may stir up the water galore,
But stop and you’ll find that in no time
It looks quite the same as before.
The moral of this quaint example
Is do just the best that you can,
Be proud of yourself but remember,
There’s no indispensable man.
Wednesday Tech Tip – Where’s That Font?
April 26, 2006→ Add Comments
In the process of backing up (you do back up don’t you?) one of the things that is easy to overlook is all the fonts that you have added to your system. What generally happens is that the data you backed up is restored but any font that is not a standard part of your operating system goes missing.
Just think about all the time it would take to substitute the misplaced fonts?
So next time you are backing up think about backing up your fonts folder. It is easy!
For Mac systems -
You don’t need to back up any of the fonts that are installed with Mac OS X—just copy the fonts that you brought into the system. Be sure to look in both of these Fonts folder locations:
* /Library/Fonts
* ~/Library/Fonts
For PC systems -
You won’t need to back up the font that were installed with your Windows operating system either. Just copy the other fonts onto your backup. The fonts folder on your PC should be located at
C:\Windows\Fonts
Happy backing up!
A Time to remember
April 25, 2006→ Add Comments
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
Calling All Small Business Women
April 19, 2006→ 3 Comments
Today I launched the inaugural survey of Small Business Women & Technology. This survey will be an annual review of the uses and challenges that women have with technology in their business.
I am hoping to get 1,000 responses from small business women around the world and will be looking to my website, blog and my network to raise awareness about the survey.
As an added incentive to completing the survey I am offering up a few prizes that might entice women to part with some of their valuable time.
There are -
Three six-week personalised technology training programs, valued at $480 each
Two one-year Working Solo Help Desk memberships, valued at $600 each
One five-month period with me as your Online Business Manager, valued at $2300
You can take the survey and enter your details to go into the draw by visiting the Working Solo website.
The survey closes on Monday May 15 and the prizes will be drawn on Friday 19th May. A summary of the results will be posted on this blog.
Wednesday Tech Tip – Colour Coding Your Incoming Email
April 19, 2006→ 1 Comment
(click the image for a clearer look)
Do the same steps for each of your clients, or anyone else’s email that you want to highlight with colour.
Time Saving Tips – Outlook Templates will stop double typing
April 13, 2006→ 1 Comment
Stop it right now!
OK so you want to know what you need to stop? (sorry for startling you like that)
Yet again I have been having conversations with people who are complaining about how much time gets sucked down the email hole. These are intelligent independent professionals and business owners who are always looking for ways to improve their business, but still persist in manually typing each and every email they send out, regardless of whether each email is simile (or the SAME) as other emails that leave their fingers. Geez I wonder where the time goes ;o)
One of the quickest ways you can save some vital minutes (which quickly lead to hours) from disappearing into the email black-hole is to create yourself an email message template. The template may contain the whole text of an email or it may just be a partial message which you complete with the relevant details as needed.
The rule of thumb is that if you have to create an email message that contains the same, or similar, information more than once then it is time to create a template.
If you are a MS Outlook user (yes I know …. the darkside) and want to brush up on the template creation and usage stuff then I am happy to share with you a pdf of how-to instructions for Outlook templates. (I could type the instructions here in the post but then I would be double typing what I already had and then y’all could get at me for not walking my talk).
Monday Tools – Are you a piler or a filer?
April 10, 2006→ 2 Comments
I must admit that when it comes to filing I fit more into the category of piler rather than filer. With both paper and electronic documents I have been able to use the piling method and, in the past, still be able to say "I know just where it is". In more recent times that ability to "just put my hand on what I’m looking for" has taken a turn for the worst.
- Quickly file received messages
SpeedFiler’s streamlined File In Folder window is much faster than Outlook’s; as you type the name of a folder, only the matching folders are displayed,
irrespective of where they may be in the tree. This significantly shortens the time taken to file a message, and minimizes the effort involved.
- File outgoing messages as you send them
When you are composing a message, SpeedFiler makes it easy to predetermine the folder in which it will be filed after sending. This ensures that outgoing correspondence related to a particular issue is kept in the same folder as the incoming messages, and not in the catch-all Sent Items folder.
- Easily find and jump to folders
Just type in a few letters of the folder’s name into the appropriatefield on the SpeedFiler toolbar and hit Enter, or open SpeedFiler’sstreamlined Go To Folder window and SpeedFiler will present you with a list of matches as you type. You might even find that you no longer need Outlook’s Shortcut Bar!
)
If email filing is something you need help with (or even if you just want to take less time doing it) then I would strongly recomment SpeedFiler.
Rating – 5 Stars
It’s all about the Plan
April 3, 2006→ Add Comments
OK it is time to get a little more organised and focused with the blogging. Up until now it has been when the mood took me. But inspired by my good friend and blogging diva Yvonne DiVita from Windor Media Enterprises I have set up a writing schedule.
So from next week you will find the blog with a little structure …..
Mondays – will be about sharing information on technology tools that will help you become a more successful small business woman
Wednesdays – will have tips and techniques that will get you maximising your technology
Thursdays – will be spent talking with wise women business owners about what they do and their secrets to success
Fridays – are now known as Geek Free Friday and the blog will be answering your technology questions and challenges whitout all the usual jargon and geek-speak.
The schedule won’t keep me from dropping in little tidbits about other goings on and things of interest to small business women – so you will still get some off the cuff blogging. What it will do is keep me focused and motivated and knowing where my next blog post is coming from.
(BTW – if you are interested to here more about Yvonne’s suggestions you can have a look at the interview that Andy Wibbels, the original blogging evangelist, did with her in January – http://andywibbels.com/post/958/)
Thank you Yvonne for being an inspiration! ) I am looking forward to getting back into a regular writing rhythm.
