We All Like to Save Money

Here's what we do for ourselves and our clients to help save money while getting top-notch products and services.

Every year (or every six months if we're feeling ambitious) we review all the recurring fees for products and services we use (both for business and personal), there are often quite a few. We ask if it's still needed, and if so, we look to see if how we use the service may have changed. Sometimes we can downgrade a plan because we don't need all the bells and whistles any more. Sometimes there are new ways to get the same service for free. Many companies add new, and cheaper, plans too.

Services to look at include software subscriptions, email broadcasting, video storage, backup systems, website hosting fees, phones, fax routing, magazine/newsletter subscriptions, cable/satellite TV, internet, and computer/equipment maintenance plans. The last time we did this we saved over $800 for the upcoming year.

I suggest adding a reminder to your calendar and then go for it. You'll be surprised!

-Robin

The Best Thing I Ever Learned (about computing)

Keeping your computer skills sharp is important and a smart thing to do. Surprisingly, most people don't improve their computing skills over time, believing that they can "get by" with what they already know. The problem is, they pay dearly for it in lost time, money, and productivity. 

Even if you have staff to take care of your computing needs, YOU still need to have good skills so you don't end up spending three days trying to print out address labels like a client of ours did. True story. Why on earth she didn't ask me to do it I'll never know. Three days of her time gone! It would have taken me about 30 minutes. Go figure.

So when you do it yourself, at least have the skills to do it in a reasonable amount of time.

No, you don't have to know everything but you should have a solid grasp of the basics. Take a computer class at a local college or learning center (or at the Apple store if you have a Mac), use the tutorials that come with your computer and software, or learn everything from basics to advanced by using the lynda.com video tutorials.  Why? They're the best. They do a fantastic job, it's deductible (!), and it's really fun too.

I'm just sayin.  ;-D

You May Already Have What You Think You Need

Recently Harry and I were shopping in the art supply store. I was drooling over paints, brushes, and everything else. I told myself that the brushes and paint were somehow different than what I already had. For Harry, it's those sets of screwdrivers and rachety thingys from the home improvement store (that look suspiciously like the four sets we already own).

Thankfully, we do (usually) realize that while we may want it, we don't need it, or it's a duplicate of something we already have. 

While we were shopping I had a realization: Many of our clients do the same thing with software. They believe that they need to buy more software to do certain things when they probably already have what they need. They just don't realize it.

A quick Google can yield an answer.  "What software will (do the thing you want to do)?"

Try it. You'll be surprised.