I am in Starbucks as I write this.
I had client meetings with others in Pasadena, Philly, Seattle, West LA, and Florida this week. All without driving anywhere past my nearest Starbucks or Public Library.
You are feeling the pain of this economy and so am I. Even $50 a month saved can make a significant difference if used effectively.
I am in the business of helping make others successful so here is what I do to remain competitive as a small business owner and entrepreneur. I coach, train, and support others as they walk down this journey toward competitive advantage with technology.
Working In The Cloud
The Internet is quickly becoming the new railway of business. Many business activities rely heavily on it and this is just reality. Resisting it is like resisting the use of credit cards. You can do it but it will cost you much more than its worth. For example, I won’t even shop in a store that doesn’t accept Visa or Mastercard.In the same way, there are tons of Internet tools available to you that will translate into hundreds and even thousands of dollars saved or used for innovation and marketing. These are just a few I have found to be stellar. I may go into them more specifically in later posts.
- Skype w/ Skype-In & Call Recorder enables me to pay a flat monthly fee for unlimited calls in North America and deep discounts elsewhere. I use the SkypeToGo feature to call Israel on my iPhone for what many businesses pay to call across the street. With decent Internet access (read: Public Library), audio quality is better than my iPhone with a Shure headset and can be recorded as a .wav file with a single click. I love the human element and prefer tech that helps me maintain it which Skype does. A single click starts a video call which can also be recorded and looks like it does on CNN & FoxNews. Very cool!I also have rent a phone number for Skype so I have CallerID and my in-bound calls are not rejected as “call center” calls. This also enables me to answer your call via Skype when I am connected.
- RingCentral enables me to have a “big company” phone system for a few dollars a month. Professional answering messages can be recorded and all messages are delivered to me as .wav files. A big win with iPhone 2.0 which can now play them from my email messages and I can forward the original message when delegating tasks. RingCentral also eliminates the need for a fax machine or services like WinFax and eFax as it provides a simple program to send outbound faxes with email confirmation. I could use this as a phone on my mac but I prefer Skype for the video and it is cheaper if you make many calls.
- AdobeConnect Free is a fairly recent service that uses flash in a very user friendly way. I am a big fan of GoToMeeting but most of my meetings were 3 people or less which is free with AdobeConnect. It is much simpler to have others share their desktop with you as well and offers a great human element feature of sharing my webcam with the other attendees in the interface. It is still in beta but they are also charging people already so who knows how long it will remain free.
- Vyew is a service similar to AdobeConnect and GoToMeeting. It is not as user friendly but offers many more features. I use this one when I need more than 3 people on the call and the attendees are tech veterans.
- FreeConference offers a simple but effective free conference call service. They offer more that I don’t use. They give you a dedicated number and pin that you can use for every call. No more scheduling and notifying ongoing clients. Same number and pin every time – nice and easy. I use this with Skype to enable easy re-connect in case someone gets dropped which lets the conversation continue.
- Google Apps provides lots of services but gives the basics of Excel/Numbers, Word/Pages, & Keynote/Powerpoint in a browser. Great for collaborating on a doc with others and offers the safety of versioning so you can rollback changes you didn’t like with ease. This is great in a pinch when you need to put something together fast and your PC is down and out due to spyware. I wish that were a joke.
- Salesforce.com has a free trial and starts at $99 a year for a single user. Your client list is the most valuable asset you have and many don’t even back it up. This tool has transformed my business life since 2004 and continues to break ground for business.
There are many others but what you need most is a commitment to overcome the common fears related to using these services. Just because you can can touch and feel the computer holding some software does not make it better, more safe, or more reliable. In fact, I would argue that storing just your client list on Salesforce and neglecting the other 99% makes it preferable to ACT!, Outlook w/ BCM, Excel, or the numerous other ways people mishandle their goldmine – pun intended.
Most tools or apps in the cloud, often called “web 2.0″, are very focused on solving a specific problem like making faxes digital or providing online collaboration so you can take your first jump on something that will save you lots of time and give a big reward.
I will talk about shifting your email tech, mobile devices, and finding free wifi in future parts so stay tuned.
Your comments are always welcome below and please let us know if you have found a tip that worked for you.
To your success,
p.s.
That $50 could get you 60 mins of coaching to give you the confidence and skills to not just survive but thrive.
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