The Ekaru Gazette Vol 3-6 October 2003
Welcome to this month's issue! Our mission is to provide technology information you can use!
Sales and Contact Management - Make it work for you!
Whether you're using ACT, Excel, Outlook, SalesNet, or any of the many other solutions available, you've taken the first important step of organizing your contact information - you can find information when you need it, and it saves you a lot of time. Now, what about getting more? It's the end of the month, and a good time to plan your next month. What new accounts do you expect to win? What's in your sales pipeline? What new prospects will you target? Which customers will you call this month to check in with? What networking events will you attend? What educational seminars will you attend? Make an appointment with yourself each month to plan all of this, and make it stick by entering it all into your tracking system. Making the commitment will keep you focused and help you reach your goals.
Out of office reply:
Have you ever sent someone an email and then quickly received an email back saying something like: "I'm out of the office the week of November 4…" It's helpful to know they're away, so you don't otherwise wonder why they're not responsive. Some people think this feature is just for people who work at big companies and run email on big internal servers. Not so! You can do this too! It is possible to do this within Microsoft Outlook by applying "rules", but this is problematic because you actually have to receive the incoming message first. This means you would either have to leave your system running, or bring your laptop with you and periodically connect to the Internet to receive mail, which probably wouldn't be convenient. There's a real easy solution. Using web mail you can set up an "out of office reply" from your personal control panel. Check to see if your email hosting company allows you to access email over the web (in addition to your normal Outlook POP mail). Ekaru's hosting partner, Interland, has this feature. So does Yahoo. When you return to your office, shut off the automatic message and receive your mail as usual.
A note on security...Don't forget your home office!
Most business owners now know that their office systems need proper anti-virus and firewall protection. What many people don't realize, is that they need protection at home, too. This is especially important if you occasionally work from home with any client confidential information, but you really don't want any of your personal information at risk, either. Make sure anti-virus software is installed and up-to-date on all of your systems, both at home and at the office. We get lots of distress calls from people who unknowingly infected their office network with a virus from either a laptop or a disk brought in from home. Also, be sure that you have a firewall protecting your home system(s). Many people don't know that their systems can be "wide open" at home, and hackers run automated searches to find exposed systems. It's not very expensive to protect your system and valuable information. If you have employees, make sure everyone in the company follows safe practices, and establish a clear policy regarding data protection, downloading, and file transfer. Don't procrastinate about this. Mistakes can be costly!
Technology Tip - Use clipart to liven up a Word or PowerPoint document.
Did you know that Microsoft has an extensive on-line clip-art gallery that's easy to use and free? If you're working in Word, go to insert/picture/clipart, and then select the "Clips on Line" button at the top of the box. You'll be directed to the following web site: www.office.microsoft.com/clipart. (You need to be connected to the Internet to do this) The Clip Art Gallery is easy to use - select a category, browse through the selections and check off the ones you like, placing them into the selection basket. When you've found what you like, press the download button, and then follow the screens to get the selections into your clip-art organizer, and then simply copy and paste into your document. You'll be amazed at the great selection!.
Upcoming Workshop: Computer and Network Security - What Business Owners need to know!
Mark your calendar! The breakfast seminar is tentatively scheduled for November 25. Check our website next week for details. If you'd like to be notified by email, send us an email at info@ekaru.com.
Sincerely,
Happy Halloween!
Team Ekaru
©2003 Ekaru, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
