Web conferencing is all about making your business and your people more productive, saving time, money and resources so they can generate more sales and profits. In keeping with this spirit, here are some other resources to save your company time. 

Caveat: By mentioning these resources, we are not necessarily endorsing them or assuming any responsibility for how they deliver their services, or how well they work for you. Rather, we hope that these resources will be valuable, and that they will point you in the right direction, and stimulate new thinking. .

Have you visited Office Depot lately? Through a partnership with UPS, you can ship UPS right from the store. It may save you a special trip. Supposedly the rates are the same as UPS store.

Check out www.officedepot.com too. They really are trying to make things easy for business. You can order printing and copying services.  Don’t overlook the wonderful online Business Center resource that provides you with business form templates and advice for starting and running your business. Click on the first 2 sections on this page. http://www.officedepot.com/businesscenter.do  There are forms to protect your physical and employee assets, financial planning and valuation, marketing and business advice, taxes and much more. 

You can simply download the forms, and you’re ready to go. It’s a great starting point, if you want to customize them. The Small Business Handbook is invaluable for any business to have on hand. It covers everything you were afraid to ask, and more. It is a great starting point for raising issues.

How do you find good employees? Always a challenge. Most employers find that employee referrals are often the best source for qualified candidates. Some even offer a small employee incentive for referrals that are hired and stay with the firm for 3 months or more. This is great if you don’t have a full time human resources department or limited management time for interviews, or if you need special skills, really quick.

Here are some other avenues you can try. Your industry trade association may have an online job board or an email newsletter where you can post your job opening, for little or no cost. This ensures that you get the best qualified people, without having to sift through tons of irrelevant resumes. You may even be able to post the job listing anonymously.

Depending on the nature of the job, you may also find Craig’s List (www.craigslist.com) to be a great resource, especially for entry level jobs or to attract a younger workforce, or even for temp positions. Certainly you can also place a help wanted ad in your local newspaper or community weekly, for a small fee, which is usually much less than the major daily papers.

There are many online job boards, like www.monster.com, www.hotjobs.com, www.dice.com (for tech jobs), www.hirestrategy.com,  www.asae.org and www.idealist.com (for association or non-profit jobs). There is usually a nominal fee for posting jobs to these websites. You can also add a careers or jobs section to your website. 

The trick about hiring is starting with the right job description. Be specific about the skills you are looking for. Don’t put all your wish list items in there. If you have budget constraints, put the salary in the ad. It will save a lot of guesswork and allow candidates to self select. You will negotiate salary based on skillsets.  

Chances are you haven’t explored the full breadth of your software capabilities.

Microsoft Word and desktop publishing software like Publisher, InDesign, and Pagemaker all have built-in templates for everything from business cards to brochures.

PowerPoint, a great tool for presentations and teleconferences, also has stored templates, and allows you to import design elements and backgrounds.

Microsoft provides free, fun downloadable templates for parties, dinners, and holiday themes at office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/default.aspx

Here is a Microsoft link for a business plan template:

www.microsoft.com/mac/resources/templates.aspx?pid=templates

Here is a Microsoft link for great resumes:

office.microsoft.com/en-ca/templates/default.aspx

Another resource you can use is on Office Depot’s online Business Center.

http://www.officedepot.com/promo.do?file=/guides/papertemplates/papertemplates_od.jsp

There you will even find templates for balloons, bumper stickers, index dividers, media, post cards, tent cards, binders, greeting cards, tickets, and tri-fold brochures. These are a great place to start, allowing you to customize the design with your stored logo.

Avery labels (www.avery.com) also provides printable templates and downloadable easy-to-use Design Pro software.  You can access all sorts of clipart images. There is also a tool for curved text. There is easy photo editing software. And something that you rarely find without special software, the ability to serial numbering and create bar coding. There is also a feature that makes mail merge easy.

There is no time like the present to get started with these projects. Search online for templates before you begin. It will help guide you, ensure there are no key omissions, save you time, and ensure a professional looking piece.

Going “green” is big business today. Not only is going “green” an environmentally responsible approach for businesses of all sizes to take and one that is the current rage, but going “green” can leverage profit dollars to your bottom-line too.  

First, what exactly do we mean by having your business go “green”? When we talk about “green”, we mean making a concerted effort to save our natural resources concerted action. Actions such as:

• Saving on paper supplies – consider going digital for all of your internal office correspondence thereby saving on office supply costs and saving trees at the same time.
• Lowing office energy consumption – lower your thermostat in the winter and raise it in the summer.  Consider using an electronic programmable thermostat to lower your energy consumption when people are not in your office in the evenings and weekends.
• Recycling drink bottles – get your employees to sort their lunch trash and recycle bottles and cans. Encourage the use of environmentally friendly alternatives to Styrofoam cups.
• Using recycled paper – whenever possible use recycled paper in your print marketing materials saving trees and forests.
• Using biodegradable alternatives – replace plastic packaging and plastic shipping materials with new biodegradable “plastic-like” alternatives. Many of these new alternatives do not cost more and warrant your consideration.
• Driving less – drive less by consolidating the trips that you do need to make in your car saving fuel, mileage expenses, and decreasing air pollution in your city.
• Using mass transit or considering car pooling – save money, conserve our natural resources, and lower air pollution all at the same time.
• Buying Energy Star products – when you need new appliances or heating and cooling systems purchase those with the Energy Star label for increased efficiency and lower energy consumption.  You’ll recover your initial investment and then start saving money in just a few years.
• Stopping the Use Aerosols – use office and beauty products that are aerosol free. Consider letting your cleaning staff know to limit the use of aerosol based cleaning products in your office as well.
• Limiting your travel by teleconferencing – not only will you minimize the pollution you would normally create in traveling but will make a significant savings on travel expenses improving your bottom-line significantly. 

The biggest mistake many business people make is to assume that, because they are the boss or the head of a department, they know what they need to in order to manage people effectively. This is just not true.  And although managers and leaders do require many of the same skill sets, the training required to be proficient at either leadership or management (or both) is quite different.

These basic skill sets are vital to managers:

• Can this individual build rapport?
• Can they set goals?
• Can they give honest constructive feedback?
• Can they make the tough decisions?

And this is just the tip of the iceberg of skills required of good managers. However, adding anything more to the list would be foolish unless it is customized to a particular industry or business.

How to do that? Sit down and brainstorm a list of tasks that are absolutely necessary to manage employees working for your particular company or industry.

After that, the most important step toward becoming a bona fide manager is to change your mindset, because even though you are a leader, this does not mean you are going to manage people well.

Thus ask yourself what management styles you’ve experienced in your work history. Which of those styles have you relied on the most to manage? Is it the best choice? If you want to know the best management style, why not do some research? Why not read some book about being a manager? See how these books mesh with your management style. There are multiple management styles out there, so make sure you take a look around before picking the one that you intend to follow. Some managers focus on an employee’s weakness, sure that their weakest point will be trained to be their strength, and some deal only with an employee’s strengths, sure that the greatest growth will come from there.

It’s a matter of perspective and more than likely, dependent on the industry in which your company does business. Specialized jobs require strong skill sets, which are then utilized most effectively. Less-specialized jobs can take an employee’s weakness and train it into their greatest strength.

At any rate, business owners who neglect quality management training for themselves or those they hire to manage employees do so at their peril. Management is an art, and in the past few decades, has become somewhat of a scientific endeavor. There are many best practice textbooks available and even more different management styles to choose from.

Work can be hard… that’s why they call it "work." Employees are not just drones that live to work, they are people that work to live. People have personal lives and personal problems. People have work problems or personal problems with work. There are many, many things in life that get a person down or raise their anger, but what do you do when they explode in the office?

"Desk rage" is not uncommon and not a new problem. For as long as people have had to work and had problems, there has been desk rage in one form or another. If you ever wondered why people may tend to lose their cool at work, think about how they spend their day. They are in the office for 8 to 10 hours and they spend 1 to 2 in traffic. The remaining 12 to 14 hours is spent at home and over half that time they’re asleep.

When desk rage occurs, it is easy to lose your cool yourself, but if you do it right, you can change a bad situation into a beneficial one; for the employee, the company, and you. From "Ask Annie" at Fortune Magazine, the first step is to blank out your own emotions. Dismiss your fear or anger and realize that it’s about the upset employee, not you. An article at CNN suggests that next you consider what may have caused the outburst.

Ask Annie says next you need to listen to the employee. Don’t argue or pass judgment, just let them talk it out. Often, when the employee says what’s bothering them aloud, they realize that it’s not as bad as they thought – that or something else is actually the problem. Finally, repeat what they said without any comments on your part. Let them know that you have listened to them and understand their frustration.

An outburst from a stressed employee having a bad day is not the end of the world. However, if you often have anger issues coming from this employee, deeper measures should be taken. Talk with them in private and find out why they are so angry. Adjust their workplace environment if that is needed. If anger problems continue to publically exist though, you need provide an ultimatum. If the employee can’t calm down, they can’t work there. Remember, you have to keep the rest of your employees’ sanity in mind too.

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Business is not just about cold hard facts, numbers, or cash. It’s a people industry, both on the seller and buyer side. This means that emotions and the human factor can upset even the most detailed and thorough budget. Like a business plan focusing your business, here are three attitudes the business owner can take to guide their company to success.

Ken Partini is an Authorized Duct Tape Marketing Coach, and on the American Express Open Forum, he lists the three attitudes for business success. The first attitude to survive and thrive is to have clarity about your business. This means you need to be honest and clear who your target market is, what your products are, and how good a match the latter is for the former. You need to have clarity with your goals. Are they actually attainable or pipe-dreams? Honesty helps you to concentrate on what your business can do, not what you want it to do.

Certainty is the next attitude to cultivate. You’ve been clear about your goals, now use that honesty to be certain you can achieve them. Certainty breeds confidence. Confidence is needed when you get rejections from banks, or people saying you will fail. Certainty keeps you on the clear path to business success.

Finally, focus your attention and energy. It won’t do you or your company any good to be distracted, or divert from your clear and certain plan. Follow through on your business path and go after the correct target market with the appropriate products. Don’t suddenly put all your efforts into a side project or deal. You can’t start five new things when you haven’t finished the original one… and still be successful, that is.

Be clear about your goals and use that clarity to create a great business plan. Have confidence in your plan and stay focused on your goals. Use these attitudes to guide you through good times and bad.

The point of a business is to make money. To do that, first you have to spend money. After expenses, it’s all profit, right? No, you have to set some aside to reinvest into your business. It’s payday now? Nope, don’t forget your cash reserves..

Cash reserves are usually called the "rainy day" fund. But it’s doesn’t have to be raining outside… it doesn’t even have to be drizzling. The Belmont University blogs features Jeff Cornwall’s post on the effective and proper use of cash reserves.

There are four main times when you should use your cash reserves, and Cornwall describes them as four separate pools of cash with four distinct purposes. The first is money to be used for irregular expenses such as quarterly taxes, or large marketing campaigns. These are expenses that are off-budget, but crucial.

The second cash pool is to shore up your cash flow. In a perfect world, money would come in and go out in a smooth predictable path. As it is, there are good months and bad months, not to mention seasonal rushes. Use this part of your cash reserves to hit your minimums in the months your flow is low.

The third pool is the emergency fund. This monsoon-day fund is for when you lose a big customer, have a major accident, or some other calamity. The fund should be large enough to cover the day-to-day expenses for a month.

Finally, the last part of your cash reserves is the designated "war chest". This is what you use when you see a great, but time-sensitive real estate opportunity. Or if a competitor is on the ropes, you can swoop in to buy up inventory. Basically, if that once-in-a-blue-moon opportunity comes along, you’ll have the cash on hand to capitalize on it.

Could you ever imagine that either Circuit City or The Sharper Image could go out of business? They had a great business plan, growth, and staying power, and yet they got caught on their back foot when the economic crisis hit. Now banks are cowering and licking their wounds, while huge companies do damage control – if not hitting the mat and being counted out.

As a small business owner, it’s scary. These great companies are reeling all around you, what does that say for the future of your company? Take a look around. People are still going to work. Products and services are still being purchased. Business is still being done. It could be said that the corporations hit hardest by the credit crunch were damaged the most because of their own hubris. But you and your business didn’t have hubris, did it?

What this means is that opportunity – that shy, golden-haired power-broker – is out and about, knocking on doors. To quote Diane Helbig, "Folks, this is really the time for small business to seize the day and shine!" Think about it, people still want to buy the products and services that big companies can’t, or are pulling back from producing. Where are they going to go if they can’t go to Circuit City? Okay, they would go to Best Buy, bad example… maybe. What if you had an electronics store between those two megaliths? Is there any reason why you couldn’t snag some former Circuit City customers?

Now is the time to forge, enhance, and solidify relationships with customers disgruntled with the big boys. Talk with them. Find out their wants and needs, then make them happen. Your customers will appreciate you helping them in these tough times and remember you when things get better.