Communications While Traveling; You Don't Have To Do It All

As a busy global professional, you need to stay on the go so that you can meet with clients and make money for your business.  However, your busy schedule does not exempt you from fulfilling important obligations like corresponding by U.S. mail, sending out products, or notarizing documents needed for legal or business purposes.

Renting services for mail delivery, package forwarding, and notary NYC paperwork can help busy professionals like you continue your travels and stay on task.

Privacy and Convenience

Many of your business endeavors may require the utmost of privacy and security.  You do not want unauthorized parties to know what you are doing or with whom you are corresponding. 

Rather than rent an unattended mailbox or use the mailing address of a relative, friend, or business partner, you can keep your activities discreet and well-guarded by renting the services of a professional mailbox facility.  The staff on duty there are held to the tightest of privacy standards so that you can be assured that your correspondence and packages are handled confidentially and without the interference of parties who are not authorized to know your business.

Likewise, you can get these services on your terms so that you know when and how often the letters and packages will be handled and sent out on your behalf.  For example, if you run a business that specializes in seasonal goods like Christmas candy or Halloween costumes, you do not want your packages to be sent out to clients in March or April well before these holidays occur. 

Instead, you can secure the services to receive and send out the packages according to a timeline that fits your business's needs.  Your products can be forwarded in September or October, for example, so that clients get them early enough yet still close to the holidays for which the goods are intended.

Notarizing Documents

Depending on the nature of your business, you may need paperwork notarized before it can be filed or used for legal purposes.  Finding a notary public when you are away from home and in a place with which you are not familiar can be challenging.

The service has a notary public on duty who can notarize your papers before they are sent to you.  You can get the papers submitted and available for your use quickly.

Global travelers like you do not have time to worry about mail pickup or package forwarding.  You can get all of these services as well as notary help and more by renting from a mailbox facility today.

Boost Your Frozen Yogurt Business

We all love frozen yogurt, right? Perhaps you've even thought of starting your own frozen yogurt business. It sounds like nothing but fun and all the delicious frozen yogurt you can eat, but there is also a lot of responsibility. For instance, offering kosher frozen yogurt helps ensure that your customers get the best for their money. Would you have thought of that? I know I wouldn't have, so it helps to always do a lot of research before diving into any new business - even one as tasty as frozen yogurt.

Here are some great tips to help you have the best frozen yogurt business possible:

• Provide Different Types of Yogurt: There is more to selling frozen yogurt than just offering tasty flavors and toppings. Your customers are going to want a treat that fits their lifestyle. A customer who is looking for an alternative to ice cream may enjoy non fat, low fat or no sugar added options. Be sure to always taste test your products to ensure your customers are not sacrificing great taste for a low fat or no sugar added option. (Yes, it's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it!)
• Offer a Variety of Flavors: A menu full of delicious flavors is sure to appeal to your customers. Start by offering traditional flavors such as Vanilla, Chocolate, Strawberry and Butter Pecan. These are perfect for customers who just want something simple but sweet. For the more adventurous customers, you'll want to offer a range of fun flavors, such as S'Mores, Red Velvet Cupcake, Cappuccino and Hazelnut Irish Cream. This appeals to customers who enjoy trying new flavors. You can even offer holiday flavors such as Pumpkin Royale, Apple Pie and Candy Cane. You don't have to offer all of the flavors all of the time. Rotate them in, and your customers will come back in more often to find out what's available now.
• Be Mindful of Health and Diet Restrictions: Your customers are going to have different health and diet restrictions, such as a food allergy or weight-loss diet. This is why it is important to offer options that appeal to everyone. Steer away from flavors that are made with high fructose corn syrup or growth hormones. Use flavors that contain real milk, vitamin A and vitamin D3.

• Invest In Flavor Cups: There are several benefits of investing in flavor cups for your business. Flavor cups come in a wide variety of flavors, and you can even mix the flavors to create an exclusive dish for your customers. The pre-portioned cups make it easy to mix the right amount of frozen yogurt. You can also save space in your freezer because the cups are small.

No, you can't make all the people happy all the time, but it looks like the key to a successful business is, yes - delicious frozen yogurt in lots of fun and creative flavors, but also thinking about the needs of your individual customers and making sure there are some options for everyone. A wide variety of flavors and healthy choices will have your customers coming back again and again.

Fast and Thorough Tenant Verification

If you're a landlord, you should definitely check out Tenantify.  It's a site that helps prevent fraud risk, and makes renting worry-free for landlords.  While I have never personally been a landlord, I've heard some horror interesting stories from some of my friends.  It's not always easy finding the right renters, and it doesn't sound easy to get rid of the bad ones once you've got them in your place.

Tenantify gives landlords tenant screening powered by employment and income verification, allowing landlords the ability to assess a potential renter's ability to pay rent each month.

It's a fast and thorough tool that makes it easier for landlords to verify income and employment of a potential renter conveniently, securely and without fraud risk.  Even better, it's a free service for landlords.  The potential renters pay all fees once verification is complete. Fees are very reasonable and can enhance the chances of application success for a qualified renter.

Tenantify empowers landlords to make informed decisions and helps to reduce friction in the housing market and build trust between landlord and tenant.  If you're a landlord looking for a better way to screen potential renters, be sure and check it out.

Are Your Computers Protected?

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Norton Small Business by Symantec for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

If you've ever had a computer crash because of a virus, you know how important anti-virus software is.  And if you haven't - consider yourself very, very lucky, and get some anti-virus software on your computer immediately!  Or sooner.  We've had to start over several times because a stupid computer virus wiped out everything.  Why do these people do this, anyway?

As annoying as it can be for an individual like me, imagine how devastating a computer virus could be for a small business.  We lost personal files and some pictures. Most businesses nowadays rely heavily on technology to keep track of everything, from employee hours to customer orders.  A computer virus could wipe all that out, resulting in unhappy employees, unhappy customers, and many frustrated hours trying to recover everything.  That's why it's a really good idea for small businesses to get Norton Small Business by Symantec to protect themselves from the latest online threats.  There are several different products to choose from to get the right protection for the right cost.

We've used several different Norton products on our personal computers and always been very happy with them.  I think the viruses got us when we were running something else - all anti-virus programs are not created equal.   There are a couple new Norton options - Norton 360 and Norton Internet Security 2012 that just launched this past September.  It's definitely worth checking out to see which products will best keep you safe on the Internet.

You can also get 30% off Norton Small Business Products now so it's a really good time to buy and get all the office computers protected.  Or all your home computers, I suppose.  The small business products are for 5-10 computers, and we have about that many computers in our house!  How about you?  How could Norton products help you?  Which product do you think would be best for your needs?  I like the Norton 360 because it does everything - anti-virus, automatic back-up and access to your backups from any computer,  keeps your computer running at top speed, and lets you do your banking and online business worry-free.  Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

Let VenalTech.com Handle the Details

Have you ever wanted to start your own business? Had a great idea for something you would love to do, especially if you could earn a living while doing it? But where do you go from there? You need a business plan, marketing, and definitely an Internet presence. If you're like most people, you get that far and stop. You just don't know how to go about putting it all together.

That's where VenalTech.com comes in. The team of experts at VenalTech have a lot of experience and knowledge about online business, and have participated in the development of hundreds of successful online businesses. They work with each client to come up with a custom business plan that addresses the needs, goals, current situation and budget of each client. They build a website for your online business with all the features you need, so you don't have to be a web design guru.

They know about marketing and promotion, too and can get your web page to show up on the first page of search results, so customers can find you. They also have a social network division that can build your brand on all the social networks, like Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace.

All this means that you can focus on running your business while VenalTech takes care of the details. If you have an idea you'd like turned into reality, check out the VenalTech. com website to see what they can do for you. Their team of skilled web developers & programmers can build your online business from scratch.

brought to you by VenalTech.com

of Fireworks and Floats

Image by wesbolton via Flickr

We had a pretty busy weekend. It was the weekend for the annual Kettle Moraine Days festival held in our town. The carnival comes to town, there's plenty of food, live entertainment, and of course drinking. This is Wisconsin - there's no such thing as a festival without beer. Jeffrey and I went to the park Saturday night so he could get some pie. The Methodist Church always has a pie booth, and Jeffrey always wants pie. He got peach, which wasn't really that great - store bought pie crust and canned peach filling. I expect better than that - if you're going to sell homemade pies, then actually make the pies. But, he had his pie. Then we were going to wait around for the fireworks, but it was raining a little, and then Cory called and needed a ride to a graduation party he was invited to. So, we walked home, and Jeffrey took Cory to the party. The fireworks started while he was gone, so I went out on the driveway and watched them, and then Jeffrey came home and watched the rest of them. We're only a couple blocks from the park, so we had a great view - no need to actually be at the park! For a small town, it was a really good show, too.

Sunday morning I had to be at the library at 10am so we could get the library float ready to go. I think the term float is used loosely because it was just a truck pulling a snowmobile trailer. We decorated it with signs, streamers, flowers, and copies of book covers. Then we went and lined up for the parade, which started at noon. There was a lot of standing around and waiting, but the parade eventually got going. Some people rode on the trailer and waved, and some of us walked along the sides of the street and handed out candy to the kids. It was fun!

Once the parade was over and we had removed all the decorations and carried everything into the library, I came home - just in time to go to Home Depot with Jeffrey, but I think I'll save that for the next post...

Clicksmart - Connecting Consumers and Professionals

There is so much information available on the Internet, but it's not always good information. It's hard to tell the difference between good and bad sometimes. Clicksmart is an online directory of certified, pre-screened experts. Clicksmart takes the guesswork out of choosing the right real estate agent, insurance broker, landscaper, or other professional. If a business or professional is listed with Clicksmart, that means they have met certain requirements in order to be certified. If they don't meet the requirements, Clicksmart doesn't list them.

If you need a raleigh landscaper, you enter your zip code or city and state, and you get a whole list of Clicksmart certified landscapers. You can even search within those results. If you don't need a landscaper in Raleigh, you can search other cities and even find attorneys, realtors, contractors, massage therapists, and other types of professionals.

Come to think of it, we could use a landscaper for that patio project, just not one in Raleigh. I'll have to enter my own zip code.

No More Waiting in Line at the Post Office

I'm on our local library board, and one of the things we do every month is go through the expenses, approve the financial report, and accept the checks. There for a while it seemed that every month several small checks for postage came through. It's not that we don't know or agree that the library always has something that needs mailed, but it seemed like a waste of our Library Director's valuable time to have to run to the Post Office just to purchase the stamps needed for that day.

Now I think she buys a good supply of stamps at once and keeps them on hand for when they are needed. If the library got a Dymo LabelWriter 400 Turbo, she could save even more time. It comes with the DYMO Stamps^® software, which makes it simple to print the new "shape-based" USPS®-approved postage in about a second – for envelopes, small packages, Flat-Rate Priority Mail^®, Express Mail^® and International Mail. There's no monthly fee, just the cost of the postage used.

Not only can the Dymo LabelWriter 400 Turbo print the online stamps, or postage labels, it can also print the mailing labels, so no one will ever have to hand address an envelope. I, for one, end up throwing away too many envelopes because I mess up when I'm addressing them. (I think they have to be perfect, of course) Maybe the people who work at the library have better handwriting than I do, but still, simply printing a label to stick on the envelope could save envelopes and time. The labels can also be ordered pre-printed with a logo, so it could be great advertising every time anything is mailed.

By itself or in conjunction with the Dymo postage scale, this label writer would be ideal for not just our library, but any small business. If you send mail through the USPS, visit Dymo's site to see what they can offer you.

Selling Insurance Just Got Easier

My dad tried selling insurance once. He didn't do very well at it, and that job didn't last long. I'm not sure what the reason was. Maybe it was just the difficulty of finding customers. Back then most Insurance Leads probably came from going door to door or calling people from the phone book. Nowadays there are a whole lot more tools salesmen can use to make their business successful.

ZipSearch is one of those. It's a professional lead generation service that helps to bring together actively interested customers with the businesses who want to serve them. In other words, they can put that insurance salesman in contact with people who want insurance. They promise the highest quality leads at the most affordable prices.

Marketing 2.0

I bet I'm not the only one who gets a lot of email trying to sell me stuff. Some of it is pretty questionable. You know, the ones who try to sell me something to enlarge certain body parts that I, well, don't have. Wouldn't these people be more likely to sell their stuff to someone who actually has that body part?

I'm sure this is true across the board. When trying to sell something, you will have much better luck if you actually target a customer who might actually use and benefit from your product. JuiceMetrIQs helps businesses do just that - effectively trigger emails, customize those emails to customer preferences, and ensure a consistent customer experience. The application allows companies to store customer interaction data, such as sales transactions, demographics, website data, and email addresses and segment that information to build relevant target marketing lists. I think the keyword here is relevant! The more relevant, the more successful, I would think.

brought to you by JuiceMetrIQs

Earn Money Online

The question is: How would you like to earn an extra $100, $500, or even $1000 every single day by working 15-30 minutes a day? Well, honestly, who wouldn't?

DataEntryCompany.com claims that, by following the easy directions you too will make money from the comfort of your own home, using your computer and Internet connection. It sounds easy enough. Once registered, you can select companies to work for, and then you type ads for them in online forms. Each form takes about 10 minutes to complete, and you can do as many or as few of them as you want. According to the imformation on the page, Vipul Gupta, who came up with this system, made over $50,000 in one month. I have no idea how many forms he was filling out.

There are claims that you can set your business up and make money on autopilot - even while you sleep. I'm not sure how that works, and of course they won't be sharing that until you sign up. Now, it's not free to sign up for this, but they do offer a money back guarantee. If you don't make money, they will refund your money. It's supposed to be really easy to understand, and you get all the support you need to make it work for you. The member testimonials all make it sound really good.

I am going to admit that having to pay to sign up for something like this kind of bothers me. Right now though, the lifetime membership fee is $47, which is $50 off. There are no recurring monthly fees, just the one. The idea of a full-time income with only part-time work is intriguing. I especially like the idea of not having to leave the comfort of my own home, unless I absolutely want to.

brought to you by DataEntryCompany.com
- this is a limited opportunity

Page Rank and SEO

After much waiting and uncertainty, Google finally updated Page Rank. Several months ago, this blog came up with a Page Rank of 3. Since then I have been joining sites like BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog, participating in some weekly memes, and generally going around the blogosphere, reading and commenting more. I watched my Alexa score drop, and my Technorati authority rise, and figured my Page Rank must go up, too - or at least stay the same. I figured wrong. It dropped to a 2. My other blogs, the ones with higher Alexa and lower Technorati authority? Those went up. Now all my blogs are PR2.

Obviously I'm missing something. I don't understand how all this Page Rank and SEO stuff really works, and my strategy isn't working. Business Opportunity Carolinas offers a way to help increase SEO benefits. Maybe that's something I should look into?

Stay Home and Make Money, Too

Since I've had my kids, I've been a stay at home mom. We figured up the costs of daycare and transportation, subtracted that from the money I was making at my job, and figured we were better off if I stayed home. Since then I've done some occasional web site work, but it hasn't been anything serious. Jeffrey keeps telling me that I should actually start my own business, advertise my services, and do this on a regular basis. My problem is that I really don't know where to start. I even have a hard time figuring out how much to charge when I'm doing someone's web site, and I especially have a hard time keeping track of the time I spend working on it.

Of course, I do like the idea of having my own business and being able to work from home much better than the idea of going to work somewhere else. When the kids leave home, I'll probably have to do something. So I might as well do something for myself, right? At least I can try and see where it goes. I could sign up at DirectMatches and, it says, get paid to advertise my business. It also looks like a good place to network with other business people and access several FREE tools to build a business - free business profile, free classifieds, free advertsing. Also, DirectMatches itself seems to be a direct sales business opportunity that works by building networks and getting people to sign up. It kind of makes me think of MySpace with pay. It's free to sign up and try it, so it's worth a look.