January
23
2010
Who says you have to spend a small fortune on your marketing and promotional materials? New startups and small businesses in general tend to have a limited budget. Every dollar spent needs to be spent wisely. Below are ideas that might work for your marketing budget.
- Do you have a creative eye? Why not try designing your own logo as who knows the image you want to convey better than you?
- There are several kinds of desktop publishing software for every level of user from PrintShop to PhotoShop.
- There are also websites like VistaPrint, GotPrint, ExpressCopy and others that are both affordable and give you options to design your own, use one of their templates, or modify one to your style.
- If you prefer someone to do it for you
- Hire your creative son or daughter
- Hire a graphic arts student from a local college or university, or
- MJB’s Office Solutions
Email Marketing is another excellent low cost way to keep your business in front of your Customers. My favorite for the new business is Vertical Response because they have great templates, or you can design your own layout, and you pay only for what you need, when you need it.
Do you belong to a Business Networking Group? If not, these are an excellent way to meet other Business Owners, share best practices, and receive personal referrals, the best kind!
January
5
2010
Happy New Year One and All! Aren’t you glad we have a brand new year to really organize our business offices, marketing efforts, and last but not least our finances. No? Does this create angst in your heart and cause you stress? Never fear, MJB’s Office Solutions is here, providing you some ideas for keeping organized through the months of 2010. Let’s get started with paper and electronic files.
Paper Files
1. Use large, clearly labeled and dated 9″ x 12″ manila envelopes to purge your 2009 files of Vendor Orders/Invoices, Client Invoices, Monthly Bills, Bank/Credit statements, Office Purchase receipts for equipment and supplies, Payroll/employee files, Travel/Entertainment, and other tax related backup information you need to hold on to for 10 years.
2. While you have the envelopes handy, you might also consider creating a set for 2010 to leave in the file cabinet ready to go. These envelopes are also great for holding those little purchase receipts for meals, gas, office supplies, or client gifts that just don’t stay put in manila file folders.
3. Banker File Boxes are your friend. Not only do they neatly house all those 2009 labeled envelopes, offices with minimal file cabinet space can get a head start on 2010 file boxes and periodically transfer the oldest Vendor Orders and Client Invoice files, which seem to multiply like rabbits, from file cabinet to file box.
Electronic Files
1. Emails: This is an electronic file cabinet, and not every email has to be saved. Creating subfolders helps save memory in your InBox for receiving emails. Create subfolders folders in your InBox to file away items you want to easily refer to such as client orders, correspondence, pending completion, tools/ideas for business, RSS feeds, tracking epayments, or any topic you feel important to your business. In most cases, there may be a string of emails back and forth on a single subject with the history attached. In this case all you need is the last email of the subject. Be vigilant, however, some folks reply without history, so those emails you should keep. Think about creating yearly folders for the frequent emails like client orders, and e-invoicing. The key is just to make it intuitive to your style of thought.
2. Computer Files: Similar to the email folders, create files and subfiles on your computer to organize clients, samples of work you have created, correspondence, marketing files, QuickBooks files, income tax, website files, marketing, an archive file, or again, anything item important to your specific business. As appropriate, separate the files by year.
Like the Chart of Accounts for your finances, you can create folders and subfolders to organize information as detailed as you choose to do so. Please contact me with any questions you may have, or if I can be of assistance. Stay tuned for Out With 2009, In With 2010, Part 2 and some ideas for affordable marketing.
December
10
2009
These days, it is difficult to find anyone, let alone Businesses, that are not strapped for time as they juggle perhaps their work, family, home commitments, and the unexpected life occurences that also steal time.
Have you ever thought about giving the Gift of Time? Whether for a Spouse, a friend or a Business Owner you know, everyone needs extra time from time to time, and a gift of a few hours could put you on their “favorites” list!
Contact MJB’s Office Solutions for information on purchasing a Gift Certificate for your Home or Business Office, or someone you may know that could use an extra hand with bookkeeping, marketing tasks including logo design and email marketing, office organization and administrative projects including that fun project of getting ready for preparing taxes!
The Gift of 1-3 hours to one recipient is just $23.00, however, if you purchase 4-7 hours for the same recipient the price would be discounted to $21.50 per hour. Now, if someone is really desperate for our services, why not give them an 8-hour day or more @$20.00 per hour (best value)?
Call or email Marla (that’s me) today, to purchase, more information or a special project request.
Sincerely,
Marla J. Blanchard, MJB’s Office Solutions – 805-433-3577
November
21
2009
New to Business? There is no need to be afraid of finances, QuickBooks is user friendly. MJB’s Office Solutions can teach you how install QuickBooks for your business and how to use it. Every Company file has a chart of accounts that may include the following: your bank accounts; credit card accounts; asset accounts like land and building; equity accounts for investors; various income accounts such as sales, interest, reimbursements; and expense accounts for whatever you need to track for your business.
The Item List is your collection of services, product offered, any tracked inventory items, discounts, payments, subtotals, or misc. charges you use to create invoices, receipts, purchase orders etc.
You can set up your regular Customer and Vendor information, create invoices, enter bills, and manage daily transactions easy as a download from your bank. If you have any questions about QuickBooks, please comment or email me at infomjbs@mjbsoffice.net.
November
21
2009
This is a new economy, and the landscape of “traditional” staff resources perhaps is due for a re-analysis as well, especially during the flu season and other staff related absences. Due to the unresponsiveness of the traditional employment resource agencies, I and similar breadwinners, have launched their own home-based businesses…mine is MJB’s Office Solutions with the assistance of SCORE,Ventura Chapter(www.scoreventura.org). The 25 years of office administration has proven to be an asset to small businesses, startups and non-profits who need the office duties covered so that they can build the business.
This is the time to reach out and support the Ventura County economy and its residents by using the talented resources that reside locally. After all, if one is ill, does one really want to work from home, and will they have the strength to do so and meet the Company’s expectations? Furthermore, parents working remotely due to family illness may understandably divert attention to the immediate family need. So, why not investigate other temporary staffing resources within Ventura County?
November
21
2009
MJB’s Office Solutions will help you analyze where to minimize expenses.
http://www.scoreventura.org/askscore_092904.html
October
12
2009
- You have all the Clients you need.
- You like multi-tasking.
- There is no need to grow your business.
- Your account has never been overdrawn
- You keep your budget in your head.
- You don’t have the office space.
- You don’t want to pay employee taxes.
- You pay your CPA to reconcile 12 months of receipts and statements.
- You prefer to spend your effort in non-revenue producing activity.
- The IRS will never audit your Business.
MJB’s Office will assist you and keep your CPA happy. Call Us Today.
October
5
2009
These are some challenging times and individuals and businesses alike should be paying attention to where they allocate their resources.
Are you paying more for bookkeeping, administrative, and marketing assistance than you need to in belt tightening times?
Now is the time to reassess your expenditures, and check out MJB’s Office & Consulting to help you save money.
