Business, Marketing, and New Technology
ladyjana
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Posts by ladyjana
Software for Filling out Insurance Forms
Feb 15th
Ever needed a doctor? Ever wonder why it costs so much? OK, well, I don’t have the answer to that one, but I used to work in a doctor’s office and I know that keeping the office running is a complicated thing. Between appointment assigning, and lab-work taking, and lab-work itself, the doctor’s visits, and transcribing his notes, and getting all the payment from and to the correct place – it is one complicated machine.
One of the most complicated aspects of the office is dealing with insurance. There are hundreds of insurance companies, all with their different rules, not to mention More >
Find Your Strategy
Feb 15th
Recently I ran across this quote, and it seems so powerful, that I’d like to share it with you.
“For any outcome that you want, there is certain way of thinking and acting that will get it for you. You have to find that way of thinking and acting, and adopt it.”
-Bill Harris
Networking is Good For Your Business
Feb 15th
Business networking is a good way to boost your business. I belong to a business networking group that meets once a week. We share our stories, and our challenges, and help each other out with resources. Most of the members are small business owners, trying to wear many different hats. The business owner has to know so much more than the employee, and the small business owner has to know everything himself. It is really a challenging situation and only the most hard-core entrepreneur is suited for it.
So being able to tap into the experience and knowledge of a group is essential for success. We share information on how to write a business plan, how to manage money, how to do market research, how to market via the internet, facebook, linked in, etc. We’ve had meetings on insurance, and principles. One of the members there recently told us about his credit card processing services. Credit card processing is something that we all need, and it can be a bit complicated. We were all interested, as each of us obviously has a product or service to sell, and everyone wants to use credit cards. So, learning more about POS systems (point of sale) was valuable for us.
If you do not belong to a business networking group, I highly recommend it.
Get Your Taxes Done Early
Feb 10th
Although taxes aren’t due just yet, it’s a good time to start thinking of them. I used to delay doing my taxes till nearly the end of the year, and as a result, I had the “tax” weight hanging over my head for most of the year. Now, I’ve switched it up a bit, and for the last 5 years or so, have been getting it done the first of February. What a relief! Yes, it’s a pain in the butt to get all the details together, but having it done is SUCH a different feeling from thinking about it with dismay day after day.
My system for filing receipts and such is not really that good, and although I am familiar with QuickBooks, I don’t use it. I do use TurboTax, which I have found to be really useful and easy to use. If you use TurboTax every year, it will remember what you did last year and automatically import all that information. That alone saves you a lot of time. You can also see what your deductions were for last year, and if there is a huge discrepancy, you might want to take a look and see if you have overlooked something. I like TurboTax, and will use it until my business gets so much bigger that I need a bookkeeper. Then I guess, it’s his problem. 
Streamlining
Feb 4th
Thanks for the guest post by Kennith Kramer
My husband and I have been streamlining our home utilities and the first thing we did was go to Cabletvadvisor.com and up our package. I knew I wanted some extra movie channels and he was dying for the NFL stuff so we did that in lieu of renewing our home security alarm. We live in a really safe area and it just didn’t make sense for us to pay that money. Another thing we did to cut back was get rid of the weekly gardeners. Our yard is small enough that we should be able to do it ourselves without too much work and we’re even thinking of planning a small garden out back to save some money on produce! I can’t believe there are times in our lives where we have to be so careful with money but I guess right before you decide to bring a baby into the world is as good a time as any to really buckle down and try to save. There’s something to be said for being stable!
Digital vs Paper Security
Feb 4th
Do you make copies of your important documents digitally? Or do you print them out, and keep them hard-copy? I find this an interesting study in the confidence we have in our new world of technology. Recently I had the need to make sure one sheet of information was really safe. My solution was to make a copy, and leave that copy with a friend, so that if needed, I could retrieve it. He had other ideas. He insisted that I scan the document, and email him the digital copy, because that was much safer.
Safer? In what way? Computers do crash, although not with the frequency that they used to. I have had my computer totally wiped out by a stupid computer repairman! He was supposed to clear out viruses, and instead, he wiped the hard drive clean! How safe was my digital information then?
Anyway, I tend to print out important stuff. The problem here is that I tend to consider way too much stuff important. This lends itself to using up a lot of paper and ink. Paper is not a problem, getting a ream for $4.00 seems quite affordable. But the cost of ink was driving me crazy! For a while I tried refilling the original ink cartridges
but that was a mess. Then I tried buying refurbished ink cartridges from the local “ink” store, but they lasted about 1/4 as long as the genuine ink cartridges . So now, I just get a good deal online . I have both an ink jet, and a laser printer so I get genuine toner cartridges online too.
Although it doesn’t look like I’ll stop printing out my documents for safely, I am getting to trust the digital format more these days, so I guess I’ll be cutting back a bit. Progress comes slowly.
Quality Travel Tripod
Jan 23rd
Did you get any great presents for Christmas? I did. I got a new camera. Although I’m still getting used to all the new features, already I love it! It is the smallest camera I’ve ever had, even though it does a zillion things my older cameras never could. My kids picked it out very carefully with my needs in mind, which are not overly technical, and lean more towards the it-must-be-easy-to-use category.
It has fun features that let me take pictures that don’t even look like pictures, they look like pencil or pen drawings. One setting is called “punk”- it’s kinda strange, and I probably won’t be using that one very much. But other settings are more than useful. Of course, the camera takes video, and one setting actually stabilizes the picture! So if I’m a little shaky, or perhaps there is a wind, the video still comes out great- or at least better than it would otherwise.
I like to take pictures of landscapes and waterfalls. So, I have to travel around to get shots. Sometimes, I’m hiking a bit to get where I need to go, and I have to take my camera with me. The kind of videos that I need of waterfalls require a bit of time, and there is no way I can hold the camera still for that long, so I also have to take a tripod with me. This is where a good travel tripod comes in handy. I used to think that just anything that would hold the camera up would do, until a friend showed me his Benro. I guess you just don’t know what you’re missing until someone shows you. Anyway, I obviously needed a better tripod, so I spent some time cruising around the net, visiting sites with camera reviews and camera equipment reviews, and finally decided that the one I wanted was, indeed, from Benrousa.com because of the obvious quality.
If you have a need for a travel tripod, I suggest you check them out- you may not even know what you’re missing!
Storing Extra Data Efficiently
Jan 6th
OK, you have a business. You’re using the net. You’re growing fast, and doing your best to keep up with the information flow. Sooner or later you are going to need reliable, fast, efficient, data storage systems. Assureon®, a member of the Flexible Storage Platform™, is an archive storage system that is ideal for storage optimization, regulatory and corporate compliance, and long-term archive.
It will store your data for a day, or for a decade with total integrity, and perfect protection. Your data can be stored on the premise, or in the cloud, or both if you wish.
Of course the storage complies with all governmental regulatory requirements, so you can feel secure offloading your expensive primary storage, and make room for active data that needs to be accessed on a daily basis.
But for me, the very best thing is its ease of use. Individuals will not need to change their working systems, as the archiving is totally transparent, the all files and folders appear to be in the same familiar locations, even though they are offloaded. Once configured, there are shortcut links that access the needed data with a click. Its easy to search the entire archive, and restrictions can be put in place so that only the people who should get access to files are able to do so.
Yep. Sooner or later, you’ll need to deal with data storage issues, so let this be your heads-up!
You Can Learn How to Be Happy
Jan 6th
A long time ago, I heard a quote that has stuck with me. I can’t remember who said it, so there’s no way for me to give credit, but I’ve never forgotten it. It goes like this: “Cheerful is a choice.”
This has meant a lot to me over the years, as I went to work feeling gnarly or grumpy, and just wishing that the world would go away. I would remember that I had a choice in how I greeted the people in my life, and that being cheerful, putting on a smile, and being courteous was a CHOICE. I found that I could do it by choosing to do so, and then, by doing it, somehow, I actually did feel better.
This principle, that we have control over our feelings, our actions, and our internal states, is a crucial one to understand, if we are to have the lives that we desire. No matter what life has thrown at us, we can still choose to respond in this way, or in that way. Which way we choose will have a profound affect on not only our internal state, but on how the rest of our outer world is also.
Unfortunately, we are not taught this in school, or even in our culture. Many of us are floundering around at the mercy of random events, feeling out of control, frustrated, and miserable, because our lives just haven’t turned out as expected. We were never taught to cultivate an anchor of personal happiness that comes from controlling ourselves within. We were never taught How To Be Happy .
Learning how to have internal control is a real skill, and can be learned. It is not the same as taking some pill, or slapping on a temporary bandage, or deadening the pain temporarily with a drug, or even with some activity that acts like the placebo effect . We can, if we decide to learn how, begin to control our lives on the outside, by controlling our lives on the inside.
Dad’s Advice
Jan 2nd
Posted by Heriberto Fuentes
My dad kept warning me and warning me about going to WwW.homesecuritysystem.CoM to get a home alarm but I just didn’t listen. That was until my house got broken into while I was away on vacation. Nothing will wake you up like seeing all your laundry strewn about the foyer so I took his advice and had this place all alarmed up. I guess when I bought a house I didn’t realize there was so much involved in taking care of it. I’d always been living in apartment complexes where security wasn’t an issue but now that I own this place I feel like I have to be a bit more vigilant. I love the responsibility but sometimes it can be kind of overwhelming, to be honest. I’m only 27 years old and sometimes I don’t have to worry about taking care of a big old house but I love living here so I guess that’s part of the trade off. At least I’m building equity rather than just wasting money on rent.