Posted by admin on February 15, 2009
For me, efficient time utilization is top priority while managing my client’s day to day business operations, as well as my own. If there is a tool out there that potentially saves time and energy, I am all for trying it. (So if you come across any good ones, please send them my way!)
Most recently, I took the time to integrate Campfire into some of my client and partner communications. And I honestly can’t say enough good things about it.
Campfire allows me to come together and file-share with a group of people. While together, we can all look at the same documents simultaneously while chatting via IM. It is perfect for group analysis of data, budget planning and pretty much any other function that requires group collaboration. The sessions are perfect for Q&As, as well as ironing out kinks and confusion, which avoids costly mistakes and wasted time.
Campfire offers a variety of plans and pricing options. You can chat up to four times per month, for free without any restrictions on length of time. If you need more “chatters”, the next plan, accommodates up to 12 people and is priced quite low at only $12 per month. That’s only a dollar per chat! And a huge bonus, it is both Mac and PC compatible with great support through Zendesk.
So, if you spend any amount of time on conference calls, I strongly urge you to take a look at this tool. It has made quite a difference in my virtual business operations.
Posted by admin on February 12, 2009
We’ve all gone away on vacation and/or business only to return home with a pile of dirty laundry and a monstrous stack of post office mail awaiting us. Before our keys even hit the counter, we’re feverishly sifting through a stack of junk mail in search of that ever important piece of mail that’s been sandwiched in between credit card offers for weeks. Alas, you stumble upon an invite to attend an all expenses paid International Marketing Conference in Dubai as a Key Note Speaker…….but the RSVP deadline was yesterday. Ok, maybe that’s a stretch. How about a notice that your electricity will be shut off tomorrow while the Electric Company does some grid work outside your house…now that’s actually happened to me.
Wouldn’t it be nice if that invite or shut off notice was delivered to you virtually? Earth Class Mail offers a fantastic service to do just that along with a number of other cool features.
I first came across this service in a newsletter from The Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce. I investigated it further to see if it would relieve one of my always-traveling client’s snail-mail headaches.
Using one of their street addresses, Earth Class Mail receives all of your postal mail, including packages, and scans the exterior of the envelopes and packages into a secure online mailbox for you to view. You can then log in and decide how to handle each piece of mail. You can opt to open and scan to pdf, ship a hard copy to an address of your choice, shred sensitive mail and best of all recycle your junk mail. How cool is that? So happy traveling!!
