General | Digital Technology

Creating A Small Business At Home

Creating a small business does not have to be as hard as some people make it out to be and if you do it right, you can be making a lot of extra cash. Everyone has the opportunity to start a small business, but it is up to you to make it successful. Decide whether you want to work part-time or full-time. Before you make a decision to own a small business, you need to do some research and learn how it all works. Here are some ideas for small businesses that will most likely be profitable.

Pet Sitting – A pet sitting or dog walking business can be a very profitable small business. Talk to people in your area who have done some pet sitting and ask questions about the rate of pay, what you are expected to do, etc. You can earn a lot of money by just walking dogs. Say you charge $10 per walk and you are walking 4 dogs that day. You can make $40 that day!

Fitness Coach – A fitness coach is someone who helps people with exercise and health. You may need to get some experience before you become a fitness coach. You will need to be physically fit. When becoming a fitness coach, you want to start with something that you will be most comfortable with and will make the most sense.

There are many other ideas for small businesses that can prove to be very profitable. Investing in UFX markets is a great way to help you budget. The important thing is that you find something you love to do and will have fun with. Many small businesses can be started in your own home.

Filed Under: General, Resources Tagged With: Business, Insurance, Small business

Best WordPress Plugins for Collaboration and Discussion

The Internet brings together people from many different genres, cultures, and interesting places. Online, you can have conversations with people who live and work in different time zones, allowing you to maximize your personal contacts and business dealings.

The WordPress software is a great tool for webmasters, writers, and bloggers to enhance the look and functionality of websites. WordPress offers two plug-ins that are ideal for collaboration and discussion for those who are in different places, tele-work, or have limited access to Internet connectivity at sporadic times. The plug-ins work well for note-taking and keeping all interested parties on a project abreast of developments and changes. They are also compatible with any type of computer applications, from Apple tablets to laptops to HP desktop computers.

- Peter’s Post Notes

Peter’s Post Notes is one of the optimal WordPress plug-ins used for issue collaboration and discussion. The plug-in allows you to add notes, edit them, and edit the pages screen on the sidebar in the tool. This feature is available on versions of WordPress that are 2.8 and up. In this feature, the user also has the capability to send the sidebar notes along with any emails. You can use the settings to send notes that are in the collaboration workflow. You can set the plug-in so the notes system on the dashboard is available for general or private viewing. This security feature works well for large workgroups or for information that is confidential among the group. You can use the plug-in for brainstorming among the group and creative thinking dialogue between members.

In the summary on the dashboard of the WordPress plug-in, it shows a summation of notes and collaborative markings from the participants. You can convert this information into a discussion panel for team building or use it to compile information for another note-taking session.

- Peter’s Collaboration Emails 1.2 and Up

This comprehensive plug-in enables you to send automatic emails to the pertinent users of a project at various post-status transitions. This includes post information like pending posts, posts tagged for approval, or scheduled posts. You can use it when posts are in the pending-, draft-, rejected-, or approved-status.

In using this plug-in, you can email a list of approved statuses to the owner letting him know when a post is ready for review/acceptance once a contributor submits an article or a post for submission. The plug-in provides a link to the post, which allows the owner to edit the post as necessary.

After approval, the post contributor receives an email stating who approved her post and whether the company published the item. If an editor approved the item, there will be a link that will take the poster directly to the page. The plug-in can notify the author with a date and time for publication if the article is not live on the site. When it goes live, the author will get another indicator email with the new link. When you use this plug-in with versions of WordPress 2.7 and higher, users have the option to leave notes that accompany the emails for each step in the project’s workflow.

Filed Under: General Tagged With: Automattic, Plug-ins, WordPress

Who Left the Apple on Teacher’s Desk?

The first Apple computer, built by Apple founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, was sold in 1976. Although it was something of a bomb, it was a remarkable attempt at creating a computer that could be used by ordinary people. In 1977, the new Apple 2 hit the market and took off like a rocket. It was the first computer to produce a color display on a TV screen, and was sold for just under $1,000. It came with a keyboard and some very basic programs – primarily games.

It surprised the entire computer industry when the state of Minnesota bought lots of Apple 2 computers to put in their schools. They had educational programs written for their new computers, which started a frenzy of Apple 2 units being purchased by school systems all over America. Districts knew they could buy the units from the new Apple Computer Company and educational programs from Minnesota. Schools started writing additional programs for the computers, and so software applications for teaching increased exponentially in just a few years.

There were computer applications appropriate for every age learner. Young children learned to identify shapes, colors, letters, and numbers by matching pictures on the screen at their own pace. Elementary students learned sight words and math concepts through simple computer games. Students increased competency and speed by playing against classmates or by trying to better their own scores.

Since the Internet and access to the Internet became readily available, a new dimension has been added to the existing educational applications.

In the 30 years since computers were first introduced into classrooms, they have improved dramatically. It is the norm these days to find several computer units in every classroom – not to mention the one on the teacher’s desk.

Filed Under: General Tagged With: Apple, Minnesota, Steve Jobs

Small Business and Computers

Before user-friendly computers came on the scene, keeping records for a small business involved many hours of tedious pencil and paper work. It would be extremely difficult to reconcile the physical inventory to the recorded list if somebody forgot to write down the sale of a number 13, extra large green widget. Not only would the inventory be off, but it’s also likely the accounts receivable would be off by the cost of the big green widget plus any other items sold but not recorded. Other small businesses like online trading (working as a online trading broker) are also greatly benefited by modern computer and technology.

Thankfully, those days are over. Every salesperson now has an identification number, and every item has a stock number. When orders are received, the items are entered into inventory. When someone rings up a sale, they enter their employee ID, the inventory number assigned to the product(s) being sold, and the quantity of items. The computer already knows the price of the item so, with the small amount of information entered at point of sale, the computer updates the inventory and can yield reports corresponding to:

Number of products sold
Dollar amount of products sold
Collectible amounts, including applicable taxes
Products sold by each salesperson
Dollar sales by salesperson

If the management has sales expectations for each salesperson, they are stored as quotas. The computer can spit out a summary of the percentage of quota achieved on any given dollar amount or specific products at any given time.

With a computer keeping track, products, dollar sales, and quotas are much more likely to balance. Discrepancies, if any, are easier to find. The green widgets should be all present and accounted for.

Filed Under: General Tagged With: Inventory, Sales, Small business

Creating A Small Business At Home

Best WordPress Plugins for Collaboration and Discussion

Who Left the Apple on Teacher’s Desk?

Small Business and Computers

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