Keyboard Karma ~ by Helen Crozier

Amazon Kindle Software for PC - no Kindle required!

Amazon released Kindle Software for the PC today (MAC coming!) and I'm loving it. I've owned my kindle for a couple of weeks and am still getting used to it. I love the size - makes it very easy to thrown into my handbag so I'm sure I've always got something great to read. I'm also loving the bookmark, highlight and notes facility. I find it a little too easy to download books sometimes but so far I only have five which considering the temptation available isn't so bad.

The new software released by Amazon is great. I've downloaded all the books to my laptop.They are in glorious colour and all the hyperlinks to websites work. Links to websites on the kindle do NOT work but you know I don't really mind that. It means that I feel far more like I'm disconnected and reading a 'proper book' when I can't suddenly go off surfing the web at the merest whim. Highlighting and bookmarks/notes made on the kindle synchronise to the pc which is excellent if you are researching/writing.

I think it's a smart thing for Amazon to do this. You can download the software and purchase books without a kindle - gathering up your library and then when you finally do give in and go the way of the kindle your library will be ready and waiting for you!!

As an aside I clicked in the wrong place and downloaded a book that I didn't want yesterday - Amazon issued a credit within 5 hours and removed the book from the kindle. I have had great experiences with Amazon customer service - they lead the way in taking care of their customers. Hooray!! My only wish is for the iphone kindle app - why can't Australia have that??

Tweetup Talk - retro mobiles, shoes, earworms & more! #nscm

This morning I attended my 3rd #nscm (north shore coffee morning) at Mosman's Fourth Village Providore. Each time I have met the most amazing people and talked so much that I've nearly lost my voice! As I've said before, Twitter/Facebook and the like for me seems to be a 'relationship catalyst' - I've been connecting quickly with so many like-minded, interesting and clever people. I was asked 'so what do you talk about at these things? twitter?" Well not really no.... we talk a bit about what our businesses are if it's appropriate and then we talk about other things... lots of other things... and find so many things in common. I eventually ended up sitting next to @robin_dickinson who lives within a stone's throw from my house who is passionate about learning languages (uses earworms system) and loves to garden. How cool is that? I liked him a lot even though he has this incredibly 'retro' mobile phone! Opposite me was Claire, @cancer_research the most exquisitely beautiful woman with sparkling shoes - looking as if she had stepped off a catwalk who works for the australian cancer research foundation. I also met @shoppologist, a consumer psychologist who lived for many years in NZ. Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting the delightful @nancygeorges for the first time and she invited me to join a group of incredible women who meet for lunch once a month in Marrickville. I have known @justbecos for just a month and sometimes feel as if we were twins separated at birth - we are travelling on the same geek/tech/iphone wavelength and it's great to have someone to bounce ideas off. See how rich and wonderful and exciting this all is? If you have a tweet-up happening near you I can't recommend highly enough to attend - if you aren't near one then try starting up your own and be prepared for amazing things to happen!

Other people I enjoyed chatting with today were @iggypintado, @johnw3lls, @gadgetfarmer @sydneygotoman @timontwtr @judithcantor & not forgetting old friends from pre-twitter time @kglendenning and @getorganised
Yet to spend time with @karenmorris & @kategroom
Sorely missed @hollingsworth and many others ....  looking forward to meeting again soon....

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from helencrozier's posterous

Who still uses floppy disks?

The father of my son's girlfriend... that's who! He is delightfully old-school and I love the fact that he is still ABLE to use them. My mind does a flip when I think of the fact that they only hold 2mb of data. That used to be the size of a hotmail account when I first started using it. If you went over 2mb it was blocked until you deleted emails or photos - nightmare! I don't think I have any lying around the house/office anymore - do you? What's on them? I bet a few precious memories if you care to open and see....

photo courtesy freefoto.com

sometimes lowtech is best for taking notes

I had a bit of a crazy day on Friday. I was heading to a networking lunch across the other side of town when a mad tow-truck slammed into the left side of the car. Pieces of automobile were flying through the sky and I was just really grateful that no-one was in the passenger seat and that the truck had not forced me into a head-on collision sort of situation. When I was gathering details from the truck driver I kept wanting to take photos of everything (like the truck, the driver, his licence etc) basically because I didn't have a pen in my bag. Normally I shoot with my iPhone instead of writing stuff now and it works fine. The only problem is that it would NOT work when I had such shaking hands and a brain temporarily mushed by fear. Eventually the dude who had ruined my afternoon plans and trashed my car because he 'didn't see me' wrote his details on a piece of paper for me. Lesson learned? Going back to carrying my little black moleskine notebook and an old-school biro 'just in case'.

Crazy busy? Overstretched, Overbooked, About to Snap?

Almost two years ago I purchased this book - Crazy Busy by Edward M Hallowell from Amazon and got a lot out of it. Who wouldn't be attracted by a tagline Strategies for handling your fast paced life?

I've decided to read it again! I feel as if I'm finding so many 'time poor' people that I need to revisit Edward Hallowell's strategies with a view of helping those who are feeling shattered and scattered.

I have no doubt that developing one's technological capabilities can and does help make things easier. It is unfortunate that people don't treat themselves to the tools and skills that will definitely help without breaking the bank! I so agree with the author when he says "You should make sure that you do not meely make your life faster and more full of data - more difficult to follow and keep rack of -in an effort to make it more fulfilling".  One woman I know has recently just left her web development business to persue a photography career - she's unplugging and I think that's fabulous! Conversely this week I also heard about a woman with 50,000 emails in her inbox!!

What do you think? Is technology providing you with more quality time or is it just filling your life up with more 'things and stuff' of the digital/electronic variety?

Julie/Julia Project: the art of simple blogging

Just returned from seeing the delightful Julie and Julia at the movies. I pounced on this book when it first emerged in 2005 when I wasn't even blogging myself. I loved it though - the story was very sweet and it had 'successful movie' written all over it!  In 2002 Julie Powell began her food blog. She was using such simple vanilla blog software with no social media widgits  - nothing really other than a calendar, a countdown box saying how many days she had to go to finish the project, how many recipes left to cook from Julia Childs' Mastering the Art of French Cooking, a comments area and that was that. Friends at Julie's birthday 'lobster' dinner come up with the idea of putting a paypal button on the blog for donations to fund the ingredients for future meals but that for some reason did not seem to eventuate.

Ahh technology was so different back then. The scene where Julie is having lunch with her girlfriends is a reminder of how far we've travelled. One of them is entering info or checking her diary on a Palm PDA (one of my favourite early tech tools). All the mobile phones are chunky flip numbers. The television in Julie's flat is exactly like the one in my son's room - a real 'box'....

Interestingly enough Julie Powell has kept her current blog almost as simple as the original. It's written on blogger and there are no widgets. It is the ultimate plain unadorned blog containing a profile, a few links and archives to previous posts. Nothing else!! I have to say I find it rather refreshing considering what blogging widgets and gizmos we have available today.

So... if you are inspired to write a blog - don't worry about all the decoration - truly it is more about the message rather than how it looks ... ok?

If your heart says you should be a blogger don't get bogged down in the technology - Julie didn't and still does not!

PS I thoroughly enjoyed the movie - two love stories, two dreams and lots of gorgeous scenes from Paris - what more could you want?

Google delivers bad news

On Friday night I decided to google a client I had not heard from since late last year. This client was an elderly gentleman who happened to answer my first print advertisement looking for people who wanted to 'learn computers and the internet'. We spent many hours together since 2002 and I so much enjoyed seeing the joy he experienced from being able to log into his club and see the weekly menu to researching all the places he and his wife would stop at on their driving holidays. Being a geologist he also loved visiting sites like the Smithsonian Institute and printing out photos of superior gemstones. He advanced from the old round iMac to a flash 20inch white model and was so impressed when I organised to upgrade his broadband to the super fast ADSL2.

I should have been suspicious that he had not called me in for over a year. We last communicated by email and he mentioned health issues. He was so bright so sharp that I thought ge would live to be 100.

I was wrong. My sweet lovely first Mac client passed away on 23 June aged 90.

Google gave me the only result I had hoped not to find - his death notice in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Vale. John - I will remember you fondly always.

Envirosax gets it right with social media

Today I made a conscious purchase decision hurried along ultimately by the product's facebook page. A long time ago (we are talking 2 years at least) I saw a paper advert in the Sydney Morning Herald on a Saturday showing these environmentally but stylish shopping bags. I did really like the design and they looked like they would do the job. Some of the patterns were funky retro. The bag rolled up to next to nothing. There was a lot going for this product!

The paper advert did contain a website link. Eventually I put the URL onto my Someday/Maybe task list and threw out the clipping. Eat your heart out David Allen who first ever introduced me to someday/maybe lists. You could buy the bags online but for some odd reason I chose not to. Was I worried by the cost? I'm not sure but I continued to use those disgusting reusable bags provided by various supermarkets starting to feel more and more like a dowdy housewife. I have a local gift boutique nearby - they sell them but I was being obstinate. The groovy envirosax at $9.95? Outrageous - I could buy 3 of those bright green shockers instead!

I have been a late adopter of Facebook. I have been only recently warming to the possiblities for expanding my personal and business connections. I discovered envirosax on facebook possibly via their blog. It was so long ago that I don't actually recall how I found them. Their posts have been appearing in my stream for quite a few months. I wouldn't read every item there but I started to see from just glancing at some of the entries that envirosax shopping bags (from Australia) were taking the world by storm.

If you look at their facebook page you will see that they have over 2000 fans and have set up photo albums - one contains photos of celebrities using the bags. Another album is for fans to send in their own photos of them using the bags.It is an active and positive community. The envirosax 'brand' is very healthy.

Three or four weeks ago I was down at our local shopping mall and I was actually insulted by one of the staff members in a fashion retail store because I was carrying a purple supermarket reusable bag. She looked down her nose at me and made some really unpleasant comment about how she was always seeing so many of the bags attached to women heading through to the supermarket. She lost all possiblity of a sale with me and I left the store as quickly as I could but at the back of my mind I started to think I should ditch those nasty bags once and for all!

I remembered that not only did my local boutique have the envirosax but a gift store in the mall did too. They were hanging in the window. This week Facebook fed me a summary of a blog post showing Queen Latifah proudly 'wearing' her envirosax. Today it all fell into place. I walked past the shop with the envirosax bags hanging in the window. I did not specifically intend to buy however I saw them. I subconsciously must have remembered the 'pain' of being humilated by the woman in the clothing shop some weeks ago. I recalled the facebook photo of Queen Latifah looking very cool with her own bag. Snap! A purchase decision was made. I bought THREE! (one pictured above). Straight away I went to the Village Grocer to fill them up but avoiding the previously mentioned retail store with the unwise sales assistant.

Facebook is a great choice for getting your product or service out there - and it's FREE!! If you have a great product the fans will keep the page alive with their comments and photos too. Interesting story how a someday/maybe can turn into definitely/now!

Envirosax Website
Envirosax Blog
Envirosax facebook
Envirosax Twitter
Helen The Techno Queen facebook (in case you need help!)

Iggy Pintado's Six Degrees of Connection

On Friday I posted Twitter is a relationship catalyst and at the end of it I said I was excited about what more the world of social connections would bring. I did not have to wait long for the next installment. 

Here's the interesting story. Some months ago I began following Iggy Pintado on twitter. I knew his name was familiar to me and upon checking out LinkedIn realised that he had been at IBM exactly when I was there as a graduate back in the eighties. I liked his tweets and eventually managed to get hold of his brilliant book Connection Generation which describes the different personalities out there in the world, how they react and work to connection technologies and how to further enhance your networks for both personal and business satisfaction. As far as I'm concerned Iggy has nailed it and I told him I will read the book several times - it is my social networking 'bible' that I carry around in case I get a few spare minutes to dive in.

I was overseas for the first Flying Solo Live event however this year I was determined not to miss it. When I booked I was so pleased to see that Iggy was presenting The Connected Business. During the coffee break Iggy found me and introduced himself. We had a great chat working out who we knew in common at IBM - it was strange to think we had been working so closely physically (a floor apart) but did not remember meeting back then.

Iggy's presentation was excellent. He gave us facts and figures to blow us away with what was going on in the world of social networking. Early in the presentation he asked half a dozen people to stand up and my name was called. He introduced us all and said that we had met face to face for the first time today but that he considered us 'twitter buddies' and valued the support we gave him with regard to his book etc. He encouraged everyone to connect with us after the presentation. We also were asked to go and obtain the business card of someone we had not yet met. Because of Iggy's very generous introduction I had several people coming up wanting my card. Iggy then gave us great advice. He suggested that instead of putting the card in a box when we got home that we should connect with the person on the card via LinkedIn. If the person was not on LinkedIn we should invite them to join so they could become part of our network.

This was exactly the encouragement I needed. At that point I had about 70 connections on LinkedIn. After the event I spent a day or two adding people with cards that I met at Flying Solo. I then was motivated to gather cards from more recent networking events and do the same. I also looked at the connections of my new people and invited more if I knew them. I even invited some other presenters to join my network.  I became fearless! I have now doubled the number of connections to 142.

Three days after the conference I received an email from one of the people who had taken my business card at Iggy's presentation. Jed Kram from Got Game was having a problem following me on Twitter and asked if I might be able to help. I went to see his account which was brand new and followed him back. I also decided out of curiosity to visit his website and was very excited by the business he was operating. Jed is an ex Sydney Kings basketball player and is passionate about providing recreational sports programs to children eg after-school, vacation care and holiday camps. I was so excited by this that I spontaneously asked him if he had any need for a 17 year old boy also passionate about basketball who would be looking for work at the end of his HSC. Jed responded by sending application forms back and asked me to get Elliot to contact him. Elliot wrote an application and emailed it Thursday. Last night he received confirmation that he appears to be a good fit. He is attending a coach training day and after the HSC will start at Got Game to see how he goes.

He was really just incredibly excited about the possibility of a job involving basketball. I don't think he could quite believe it! Interestingly enough the fact that Elliot had been coached by another rather well-known Sydney Kings player helped his cause. It was then that I said in my motherly advice tone "See, it's not what you know love, it's who you know!"

I will be looking at Jed's business and seeing how it might benefit from social networking technologies. However I must point out that the biggest reward and satisfaction came from this gift from the sky for my son. That to me is priceless and why I will continue to defend the value of being well connected online as well as in real life for both personal and business reasons.

I cannot highly recommend that you read Connection Generation. It is only after reading this book that I have seen the potential of significant rewards by opening up my online networks. A week ago I created a business Face Book Fan Page and have nearly 50 fans who want to read what I have to say or connect with me because they find value in my information. I have also begun to increase my personal Face Book friend list. Previously I was almost afraid to do this. I believed that Face Book should be for close friends and family only. Having read Iggy's book I see no reason to keep it so restricted. Face Book has privacy settings that can limit what certain groups see. I feel that once I have made a new connection on Twitter and it is a sustained one then I have not problem with developing that relationship to a closer level on Face Book. Twitter is more time sensitive. If you are not online at the same time as your 'twitter buddies' and you have are following a lot of people you might miss out on what is being said by those you care about. Face Book makes it easier to have a conversation and strengthen relationships. I see that all three services Twitter, Face Book and LinkedIn provide different qualities that are all essential if you want to expand your circle. I certainly have a long way to go before I'm anywhere near the 'super connector' that Iggy is but I know that I'm going to have an extraordinary amount of fun as I make the journey.

Thank you Iggy Pintado, Flying Solo Live and Jed Kram. You all have my complete support and gratitude.

Twitter is a relationship catalyst

Today I went to a networking lunch organised by Zoe Freeman of zfWeb. It was just great to connect with some familiar faces from the zfweb b2b lunch group including Kate McCallum from Multiforte and also some others who arrived via her connections and LinkedIn. I was so happy to be sitting next to the lovely Mariette Rups Donnelly. I have met this effervescent lady only once in June at a drinks evening organised by another fantastic woman, Catriona Pollard however recently Mariette started following me on twitter and I her. She was describing to Mark Ostryn, Knowledge 2020 the value of twitter. She mentioned that she enjoyed hearing little snippets of what was going on in people's lives - for example how was my son coping with the HSC? These little 'snippets' I feel all add up to actually something bigger than the whole. Mariette, whom I had only met once really did feel like a lot more than just an acquaintance. I was excited to see her and have the chance to spend an hour with her. She mentioned that on the night we met it was interesting to see me chatting to Valerie Khoo. She said that she thought we were 'good friends' however that night was the first time I had met Valerie face to face. Valerie and I also felt that night that we had known each other a long time. 

Twitter, these are just a handful of the hundreds of wonderful people I have met by using you as a tool for connecting and relating. I can't thank you enough and am honestly quite excited about what you will bring next!

Facing the Facebook

I'm a late developer with Facebook. Over the last year I have realized that there's a lot more value to be had from the site. I started to think that it really was a brilliant way to stay in touch - much more three dimensional than email etc. I was initially worried by the 'noise' on there but guess what if you know your way around you can customise Facebook any which way you like and filter it like crazy so you only see what you are in the mood for.

I feel like a bit of a whizz on Twitter but have been worried about my skills on Facebook especially for the business pages so I've given myself a bit of a crash course and now I'm feeling competent and confident! My blog traffic has defnitely been helped by the Facebook Page for business and tonight I just finished adding a Tungle Me button and linked contact information with a logo. Phew!!

I am now able to add this element to my repertoire which is just great because I'm finally putting together my program of courses!

Don't forget if you have a Facebook business page you are able to claim your vanity URL as soon as you have 25 fans. eg www.facebook.com/helenthetechnoqueen - drop by and become a fan!

Hybratech ORB Bluetooth Headset/Ring - very sci fi!

Look at this amazing gadget. Pictured we have the deluxe 'o.r.b.' - a bluetooth headset that folds down to a ring when you don't want it in your ear. On the ring there is an LCD screen which can read text messages, caller id and calendar reminders. It's totally waterproof and will vibrate if necessary to communicate it's information. Not just a prototype - basic model due for release January 2010 but deluxe one (with the extra messaging features) ready for purchase April 2010 US $175. Who's not going to want one of those? 

http://www.hybratech.com/

Hootsuite is my dream twitter desktop application!

I am besotted with Twitter - not obsessed but it is clearly such a useful and interesting tool that continually evolves and presents wonderful new ways to be mind blowing! According to Iggy Pintado in his connection presentation at Flying Solo Live on Wednesday Australian usage of twitter went up in the 12 months June 2008-June 2009 from 13,000 to 800,000! Isn't that crazy? Of course some jump on the bandwagon, have a poke around don't have as much fun as they thought they might and they leave. Others don't actively participate - they sit there like wallflowers and wait for the party to come to them but wonder why it doesn't! OTHERS however act pretty much the same way as they would if they were interacting with real people in real time - they say hi. They chat. They offer helpful advice. They ask opinions. They connect.

After a while the following/follower issue gets difficult because people can get lost in the rabble. It feels for me sometimes a little like going to a huge outdoor concert and trying to find my good mates who I know are there somewhere. If lucky I'll be online at exactly the same time and bump into them. If not days and sometimes longer will go by without seeing what these great people are doing/tweeting about.

To manage the people I follow I've tried a number of desktop applications that make it easier to create groups and not miss out on important tweets. The program that I've so far had the most success with is Hootsuite. It is web based with no software to download. You sign up for a free account and then you have this huge array of features that take a lot of getting used to. Tabs and columns are wonderful for categorising the tweets you are interested in. You can schedule tweets for later rather than throwing them into your feed all at once. Statistics are available on the links you send (shortened by ow.ly for you). We now have autocomplete and file upload facilities making this an unbelievable all in one package.

Hats off to Hootsuite however because I realise there is so much to learn I'm in the process of developing some training for it! Stay tuned and let me know via the comments if you are interested in learning more!

Warranty Elephant looks a lot like Evernote!

 

"WarrantyElephant.com is a free, user friendly and secure warranty reminder service where you can easily store and access your warranty information at any time from anywhere. You will never have warranty troubles again based on expired time lines and/or lost documentation."

I've signed up and was considering a trial out have now decided against it despite the one great feature they offer over and above my favorite application Evernote. I am very partial to Evernote, a terrific note storage service which a very similar elephant icon. I'm wondering if Evernote know about Warranty Elephant and if they actually 'mind' the use of similar colours and the image. For a brief moment I thought that this was a new 'arm' of the Evernote business which can't be good.The other issues I have (probably more important than the elephant issue) are hidden away in the terms.

"You understand and agree that the Service is provided on an AS IS and AS AVAILABLE basis. Warranty Elephant™ disclaims all responsibility and liability for the availability, timeliness, security or reliability of the Service. Warranty Elephant™ also reserves the right to modify, suspend or discontinue the Service with or without notice at any time and without any liability to you." - standard disclaimer stuff yes but what's the point of putting your faith into a system that could be discontinued at any time. Doesn't this defeat the purpose of having it in the first place?

Another concern is regarding inactivity.

"After a period of inactivity, whereby a user fails to login to an account for a period of nine months, Warranty Elephant™ reserves the right to disable or terminate the account. If an account has been deactivated for inactivity, the username associated with that account may be given to another user without notice to you or such other party"

Up until now I've been using Evernote for precisely this usage however as far as I'm aware Evernote isn't able to send a reminder email at 3 months, 1 month and 1 week before your warranty expires - however I have been using Evernote for several years now and have not had any concerns about losing the data should I not log in for a period of time. Also a comforting thought is that with over 1 million registered users as at May 2009 it would be hard to imagine the service being 'discontinued'.

How comfortable would you be with using Warranty Elephant? What could the site do to increase confidence? I know what my intuition is telling me and I have learned from past experiences. I am sure the intention behind Warranty Elephant is not to 'copy' Evernote however I'd be very nervous about investing too much time and effort into a site that looks so similar and also has very little behind it. Warranty Elephant is completely free - Evernote offers both free and premium accounts. I am reminded of another personal reminder service I Want Sandy - a great system that a lot of people used with much satisfaction - suddenly in December 2008 it shut down.

Take care out there people... great 'tools' abound for sure but life is too short to invest a lot of time with systems that end up being a false economy when they bite the bullet. What happens if you do get organized and enter all your receipts into the site and then the service is discontinued? You will have to re-enter them into another system (if you can find them!). Will Warranty Elephant survive especially when they don't even offer a premium/paid service? Good luck to them but I will stick to what I know and trust - Evernote!

Flying Solo Live - thanks for the connections!

Last year in September I was flitting around Spain being a wedding photographer and climbing all over the grounds of the Alhambra in Granada. While this was happening I of course missed out on the first Flying Solo Live event. I was determined not to miss this year's and am I glad I did not dilly dally with booking a place in what has to be one of the best small business networking and development events I have ever attended.

It was a long day (8.30-5.30) and we were exhausted at the end of it but in a grand way. I am sure I don't only speak for myself because I saw it on twitter today that there was an enormous degree of optimism and excitement from all who attended. The sense of new possibilities that us soloists could fly at last to those places we had only dreamed of in not only our business but also our personal lives.

I loved it all - the keynotes, the breakouts -the only difficulty was that in some cases it was torture to choose which breakout session to attend.

These are the people I learned from, will connect with and follow closely in the future. I strongly suggest you visit their sites and attend their talks or presentations, read their books, buy their products. Each and every one of them are driven by a generous passion to share their knowledge to help us grow as solo business operators or whatever roles we are living right now. Don't delay - as Terry Hawkins says there are only two times in life - NOW & TOO LATE!

Andrew Griffiths - It's time to bullet proof your business (catch him in Sydney on 14th October - more info here)
Terry Hawkins - Get out of the pit, and get it happening
Kate James - More Time Less Stress
Valerie Khoo - How to Use low cost online marketing
Iggy Pintado - The Connected Business (see it in Parramatta Sydney on 23rd September - more info here)
Angela Vithoulkas - Conquer the world one coffee at a time!

These were the presentations that I attended and it was unfortunate that I was unable to attend the others but as technologically skilled as I may be I was unable to clone myself.

Aside from the quality presentations there was a terrific buzz and energy that lasted the entire day. Friendly friendly people making really nice connections. That sort of energy is priceless!

Congratulations to Robert Gerrish, Sam Leader and Peter Crocker - you've set the bar very high for next year but I am looking forward to Flying Solo Live 2010 already!!

www.flyingsololive.com.au

a sad and soggy story of falling behind in data organisation

This morning when I was out I made a mental note to sort out my much beloved crumpler handbag before sundown. It was in complete chaos - too much stuff and a lot of it just needing processing. I was feeling nervous because there were business card contacts in there that had not been scanned and god forbid even a couple of appointments written on scraps of paper when I was feeling under the weather and my iphone had run out of battery! Sacre bleu!

Well I paid the price for this momentary state of disorganisation this afternoon (before sundown).  Racing to see my daughter do her "Bend it like Beckham" impersonation in a school soccer comp I decided to stop at the service station, fill up and buy two of those tasty vitamin waters as a bit of a pick me up. Arriving at the school I took a mouthful then carried the unopened one for Poppy and put mine in the chaotic handbag so we wouldn't get mixed up.

You guessed it. By the time I walked to the soccer match from the car I had a drenched handbag. What's the damage you ask?

Those receipts/cards? Some of them unreadable!
One drowned cheque book.
Wet but hopefully undamaged gadgets - iPhone, Flip Video Camera, iPod and GPS - (how many gadgets does a girl need?)
Sopping halo headphones :-(
Sticky makeup brush, and other girlie bits!

Oh dear.. I have to ring to people to get those appointment times first thing in the morning. I have to dry the business cards by the heater then manually enter the details because I doubt they will scan in their damaged state. Then I just have to hope and pray that my gadgets will work faster having had such a nice drink of vitamin water for happy hour!

Lesson? Don't let the mess gather up either on your desk, in your intray or in your handbag. The chaos that could result is not pleasant!

What time is it there? Time Zone Check has all the answers

It seems that more and more often we have to find out what the time is on the other side of the world - clients, family, consultants - we're such a global community now and that's great.

The tool I was using to check out the time if it was too difficult for my tired brain was www.timeanddate.com and it did a good job particularly if I was trying to choose a range of suitable times to match.

For a quick look up I discovered this great page and I love it because of its simplicity. At a quick glance you can see roughly what the time is across the world but if you want to be more specific you type in your 'city' and it gives you the time in all cities with that name across the globe.

Super! www.timezonecheck.com

When PDF documents won't print.....

 

My oh my I've just spent close on an hour trying to get a pdf document to print for my partner. He was cursing the computer, the printer and everything else - threatening to drive down to the office to do it and I of course said 'don't worry I'll get it happening...'

Well eventually I did but I resorted to my very old trick of basically giving up really and downloading the latest version of Adobe Reader which is now 9.1. We were working with 8.1 on this laptop so I thought a freshen up would not go astray. Sure enough after all the palaver of downloading, updating and restarting the much needed document printed.

It's not something I can explain but I have seen PDF printing issues resolved several times before by the simple task of updating to the latest version of Adobe Reader which is available .

Network, Lunch & Learn with @valeriekhoo on 15 July 2009

I'm really looking forward to attending the next WNA (
Women's Network of Australia) lunch to hear Valerie Khoo speaking on 15th July. I know I will certainly learn a lot and would strongly encourage you to come along as well if you are interested in learning how to work on your onlilne presence. If you are looking to attend - please do let me know so we can say hello.

Valerie Khoo - Journalist, Author, Entrepreneur and Blogger

With people spending an increasing amount of time on the internet, it’s vital for your business to have a strong online presence. This goes way beyond having a website, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. If you really want to build your brand, you need an integrated online marketing strategy.

So what’s the best way to do this? How can you make the most of your online presence and let this work for you 24 hours a day? Where should you get published and, more importantly, what should you be writing/broadcasting about? This is your chance to get clients while you sleep. Valerie Khoo reveals the 'Top 7 Tips on How to Boost Your Business and Build Your Brand Online' and provides real life examples of winning online strategies.

Discover how you can do this with:

• Your blog - position yourself as an expert.

• Getting your articles published online.

• How to write effective newsletters that sell.

• Building an online audience who want to hear from you.

• Publishing on your social networks.

• The power of publishing podcasts and videopodcasts.

Valerie Khoo is a journalist, author, blogger and entrepreneur. She runs two successful businesses - the Sydney Writers' Centre and the Business and Careers Institute. Apart from her regular Enterprise column in smh.com.au and theage.com.au Valerie is also a podcaster and consultant to small businesses who want to leverage their online opportunities. Valerie's entrepreneurial activities have been recognised by multiple business awards. She is passionate about the concept that you can design your business to create the lifestyle you want - using smart systems and making the most of the internet.

At this lunch you’ll learn: 

• The one thing you MUST do to turn your website into a leads-capturing machine.

• How to position yourself as an expert in your target market.

• 5 golden rules for creating a successful e-newsletter that drives sales.

• Simple ways to create an effective podcast to reach your customers.

Tickets

Members $75.00 | Visitors $95.00 

[Book Tickets]

Saasu how did I ever live without you?

Last month Valerie Khoo included some of my preferred web applications in a newspaper (online and hard copy) article. Saasu was up there in the top three. I've got to say that it's given me a large chunk of my life back. I no longer dread doing invoices to take with me to a client. Previously I hated using MYOB so much that I wouldn't raise the bill. Then I might also delay doing it after the client visit. Insanity! Now because of how delightful Saasu is to use I actually look forward to seeing just how quickly I can raise the documentation needed to ensure cash is flowing.  Thank you Saasu. You are a dream. For those not in the know Saasu is online accounting with an almost facebook type interface. It's a Sydney based company and the support is tremendous. I celebrate the day I stumbled upon this service and seriously have done away with any thoughts of ever needing a book-keeper. Zoe Freeman of zfWeb and I were discussing Saasu over lunch recently and we were of the same opinion. It makes doing your books fun!

www.saasu.com

Tungle puts your calendar on steroids to seriously help!

I'm so loving the latest answer to scheduling nightmares - a free website called Tungle. I've not seen such a feature rich service with all the doodahs and gadgets in a long time. Sign up for free at www.tungle.com.

The complete feature list is below:

Calendar & Contact Syncing
Outlook, Google Calendar, Apple iCal and Entourage for Mac (beta).

Calendar Sharing
Share across calendar and company boundaries. Your choice of free/busy or full details.

Create a personal link to your public free/busy calendar where others can schedule meetings with you.

Propose multiple meeting times
The more you propose, the easier it is to get your meeting booked.

Double-booking prevention
Schedule over times proposed in other invitations. Tungle will adjust to prevent conflicts in your calendar.

Invite anyone – No sign up required!
No matter what calendar or platform – all they need is email and a browser.

Quick links (Outlook & Google)
One-click start from your calendar or email inbox.

Time zone auto-adjust
Propose times and relax. Tungle will auto-adjust for invitees in other time zones.

Auto-add to calendar
A meeting gets booked and it’s added to your calendar. Simple as that.

RSS feed
Get your meeting updates in real time

I can't tell you how easy it is to set up and use. There are now widgets that you can add into your blog (as in above) or Facebook - the green 'light' indicates that you are available and Tungle keeps an eye on your calendar in real time turning red when you are busy. You can have your own 'tungle me' link which in my case is www.tungle.me/helencrozier. I chose as well to buy an easy to remember domain so now whenever I say "go to www.bookhelen.com" clients and friends will be taken to my tungle availability page as I've set up a redirect.

Bliss! I'm just waiting and hoping patiently for a working hours box to set up in the options. I don't like the calendar showing me as 'available' when I am actually asleep -people in other time zones might not realise that and could give me a call in the middle of the night!! Tungle promised me it would be possible to specify availability hours in the next major release.

Until then jump on board and enjoy the freedom of not playing telephone/email tag when trying to get someone to commit to an appointment!

Fontifier: Your own handwriting font for $9US

For those of you longing for 'the old days' when letters were handwritten here's just the thing. A font of your own handwriting to install on your computer.

1. Print out the template sheet on the Fontifier website.
2. Fill out each of the characters on the sheet.
3. Scan (or ask someone to scan for you) the document.
4. Send it to Fontifier.
5. Preview the font and if you are happy pay $9US.
6. Download and install your handwriting font.

Simple and how affordable?

Why would you do it?

Here are some of the applications that users have found for Fontifier:

Add a personal touch to journals and scrapbooks.


Create fonts as a record of a child's handwriting through different ages.


Add a personal touch to letters and emails.


Create fonts as a fun and educational activity for children.


Try out unusual alphabet designs and calligraphy.


Create fonts of runes and other secret writing systems.


Create a font of special symbols; eg yachting symbols.

Any other ideas of how to use this ingenious tool?

Meetup: revitalising local community via the web

Last time I wandered through the Meetup site there was not much there - certainly very few Sydney groups. Tonight I was pleasantly surprised.

Sydney has 209 Meetup groups. The Sydney Online Bookclub Group has 280 members who meet in the city monthly but also communicate via the group page. Loads of other interesting groups exist - language, film, writing, business, technology, sport. If there isn't already a group in existence near you then by all means join and start one yourself.

Meetup is the world's largest network of local groups. Meetup makes it easy for anyone to organize a local group or find one of the thousands already meeting up face-to-face. More than 2,000 groups get together in local communities each day, each one with the goal of improving themselves or their communities.

Meetup's mission is to revitalize local community and help people around the world self-organize. Meetup believes that people can change their personal world, or the whole world, by organizing themselves into groups that are powerful enough to make a difference.

I'm so excited that this has taken off and shall be joining a couple that interest me and writing about the journey. I'd love to hear from members of meetup about their experiences in the comments.

Millionairess League E-Book: Be inspired!

Hot off the press from the inimitable Sarah Prout....I am  honoured to be included in the group....
Great reading at only $15! 

The Millionairess League eBook

Need a good dose of business inspiration? Are you curious to see how other women make money online?

This is your chance to get a snapshot into the minds of successful online businesswomen. Discover their favorite websites, invaluable online resources and the exciting projects they are currently working on.

Be inspired by their passion, creativity, success and flair for online adventures.

In The Millionairess League eBook you'll discover:

• How Social Networking can transform your Business.

• Secrets, Hints and Tips to Online Success.

• Definitions of Empowerment, Inspiration and Business Fulfillment.

The 30 businesswomen profiled cover the vibrant spectrum throughout various stages of business development. This ranges from the start-up phase, fuelled by excitement, to booming online empires.

Within the 95 PDF pages is a wealth of information from women that answer a series of questions such as:

What is your business/personal mission?

Who do you admire professionally and why?

 

THE MILLIONAIRESS LEAGUE (30 Online Business Adventures) IS FOR ANYONE THAT ENJOYS READING MOTIVATIONAL PROFILES OF SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSWOMEN.

It showcases women in various fields of interest such as publishing, share trading, property, iPhone app development, Law of Attraction, community building plus many more!

Explore the world of possibility and inspiration from empowered online entrepreneurs.

What is the 'cloud'?

photo: Code Poet

You might be seeing a lot of the term 'cloud computing' in your travels but aren't completely sure what that means. It is purely a rather nice name for any software or service that you use which is online rather than downloaded solely to your computer. For instance if you use Google Mail, Calendar, Documents you are 'in the cloud'. If you use Microsoft Outlook for mail, calendar and Microsoft Office for document work you are not 'in the cloud'.

Why the shift to cloud computing? It's the portability that sells it. It's the notion that you don't need to be chained to the computer at your desk to get work done. If you work in the cloud you can leave that cumbersome laptop behind and roam as free as a bird because you can check in on a computer at your client's office, the local library, or even on your iPhone/Blackberry etc.

There are thousands and thousands of cloud sites clamouring to be your online support system helping you with task/project management, customer relationship management, billing, etc. The choice is daunting but thankfully there are also many helpful sites and people (such as yours truly) that do the legwork for you - testing, reviewing and writing.

Would it make your life easier if you sent your business to the sky?