Productivity Planner

As a business owner or solo entrepreneur, you most likely wear many hats to maintain the success of your business. Effectively managing your stress and taking time for yourself is important to avoid burn out and ultimately avoid the failure of your business. Overworking, isolation and poor time management all contribute to high levels of stress.

Especially in today’s economy, many business owners are choosing to do all of the work themselves rather than opting to hire onsite staff. An alternative to hiring additional staff is to outsource the extra work to a Virtual Assistant (VA). Hiring a VA can be one of the best decisions you could make to maintain the success of your business. A VA is an independent contractor who is dedicated to helping businesses succeed by providing the same service required from onsite support staff - except a he/she works from a remote office and uses his or own equipment and software.

Virtual Assistants are experienced administrative professionals who have decided to work for themselves. Often times, they have worked not only in administrative roles but in marketing, Information Technology (IT), and Real Estate, depending on their credentials and past experience. Using communication technology such as the internet, phone and fax machine to remain in contact, a VA essentially works as a business partner who can be available as often or as little as required, saving you money and valuable time.

Deciding to hire a Virtual Assistant can save you not only money but resources often associated with hiring onsite staff including: taxes, holiday pay, benefits, equipment and office space. If you are contemplating the decision, the benefits are endless. Below are seven main advantages:

Make Time for Yourself

When you hire a VA, you create more time to focus on establishing yourself as a business owner and [Read more →]

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Let’s face it.� The recent technological revolution has made the concept of “best practices” a moving target.� As companies attempt to keep pace with the competition, sometimes the most difficult decisions involve adopting new tools just to keep up.� Take a walk down the cereal aisle at your local mega-grocery store and you have a close metaphor for the issues facing the business world.� You have to eat something so you can keep moving, but with so many choices how do you make the best purchases to maximize your money, time and effort.� Here is a quick list of the top 5 business tools to help outmaneuver your competition and avoid a headache in the process.

Accounting, Billing, Invoicing & Estimating

Simply Invoices - Let me throw this out there…I love 37 Signals; they make effective software.� Simply Invoices is a web-based application integrated with 37 Signals’ Basecamp API.� The program, built by Roobasoft, is designed to bring a Zen level of simplicity to the invoicing process.� With additional integration into the Tick time tracking application, Simply Invoices offers a plug and play solution that can services a wide range of companies.� Simply Invoices is one of those tools that will give you the incentive to make the jump away from the bulky invoicing system that you are currently using.

Collaboration Tools

Basecamp - This elegant collaboration suite is one of the most respected project management tools among small businesses, entrepreneurs and freelancers.� Ask someone who is familiar with Basecamp and you are likely to get a positive review.� If you are looking for a product to help assign tasks, meet deadlines, centralize feedback, and make your clients happy, then you should check out Basecamp.� With a full API available, Basecamp has a variety [Read more →]

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In the printing world there is a technology called CTP, which stands for computer to plate. It is part of the prepress process and involves the prepress equipment called an imagesetter. The older technology was called CTF, or computer to film. In the computer to film process, the image goes from the file in the computer onto photographic film. The image then goes from the film to the photographic plate so that the images can be printed. The computer to plate process eliminates the middle step and transfers the image created in the desktop publishing program directly to the printing plate. It is easy to see that, when an entire step is eliminated, efficiency goes up and costs go down.

But what does it take to convert from CTF to CTP? It takes an upgraded infrastructure and a redesigned workflow. In designing this new work flow, the main concentration needs to be on preventing bottlenecks in the process and keep the process moving smoothly. But the infrastructure is equally important. Remembering back to when you first bought your computer system, you may expect that purchasing a new system will break your bank. However, this may not be true. These days, the costs of new desktop computers have dropped significantly, making this purchase more in line with what you can afford. In addition, the greater speed of new computers will raise the efficiency of your shop noticeably. In time, the new computers will seem to pay for themselves as you are able to increase throughput. In retrospect, you will see your old system for what it was: an albatross around your company’s neck, weighing it down.

But let’s go back to the work flow issue. How can CTP technology improve your workflow? Here are some areas:

The first area is job acceptance and preflighting. This step involves checking the files that the customer has sent you to make sure that the f [Read more →]

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