With Labor Day upon us, either most schools are back in session or about to start. That means Moms and Dads Gone Wild. Do NOT let your mind get carried away with you…..I am talking about moms and dads all over the country are changing schedules, transitioning into a new routine, and welcoming the occurrence of Back to School (having definite knowledge that your kids have someplace to be for a number of set hours).
As I said last week, my boys started back to school, and I felt the promise of really forging ahead with my business. The summer was an absolute BLAST, but as the saying goes, “When it’s over, it’s over.” Don’t get me wrong, I worked a lot over the summer, but I also took full advantage of the luxury of being a mompreneur. I took in a bit of Vitamin D every chance that I could with my kids, and maybe just maybe, I was a bit guilty of putting off a few items on my to-do list.
That is all over now….Fall is coming and it is time to settle in to a full agenda of goals, projects, and a just a few time consuming tasks of running a business (as in the awful pile of receipts that were crammed into my file cabinet drawer). I felt that it was only fair that as I sent my boys back to school with the sun staring at them through the windows, I needed to tackle the receipts and a few other items that I was pushing aside.
Last week was not an extremely glamorous week in the life of this mompreneur, rather it was a really productive one. Along with packing lunches, learning school schedules, and helping with homework, I took care of the receipts and another longstanding item – backing up my computer. I found some awesome resources as I crossed these tasks off my list, and of course – I always share!
My Top 3 getting organized for business tools:
Carbonite — Do you backup your computer at all? Maybe you backup here and there to an external hard drive or CD’s? Well, I was only backing up to an external hard drive until my back-up actually FRIED (I hate to even say it – If my computer crashed, I was left with nothing to back it up!). It was time for me to back up in the clouds, and the highly regarded Carbonite was the immediate choice. Once you set Carbonite up, it remotely backs up to their servers right from your computer. Simple as that, and I love easy! Best part was I got an amazing deal with Carbonite through Startupnation — simply check out the cool offer at the bottom of the page.
Shoeboxed — Have a ton of receipts stashed somewhere? How about an email folder full of electronic receipts? Or better yet – Both? Set up an account with Shoeboxed and either email or snail mail your receipts to them! The awesome people of Shoeboxed will scan them in for you, input your data, and then, Voila’, you can create expense reports or export to any number of bookkeeping programs.
Red Laser App — I admit it, I am smitten with QR codes (tech geek). I love the instant access that a QR code gives me to a website, contact information, and of course — retail merchandise. I love the way you can scan a QR code on a periodical and it directs you right to the webpage, so you can tweet, email, facebook, or share any way that you like. The QR code also is a great way to save something to view or share later. The Red Laser app allows you to read QR Codes and Bar Codes. This is an added bonus with the Bar Codes..making comparison shopping easy, which saves us money as small businesses. The app is available for Iphones and Android Phones…just download and scan away!
There you have it, and now I need to move on to my task of this week….improving my home page at http://backngroovemom.com
