from the PaySimple Small Business Tips archive

Table of Contents

Introduction ...... 3 Accounting and Finance ...... 4 Web-Based Accounting ...... 5 Credit Guide for Small Business Owners ...... 6 Tool for Testing Pricing Scenarios ...... 7 How Much Should You Pay Employees? ...... 8 Business Templates ...... 9 Creating a Privacy Policy ...... 10 How to Make a Small Business Employee Handbook ...... 11 Business Continuity Planning ...... 12 Small Business Template Collections ...... 13 Computers and Software ...... 14 Free Expert Tech Support ...... 15 Put Your Private Files in a Lock Box ...... 16 Back-up Social Media Data ...... 17 Windows Cleaner and Optimizer Utility ...... 18 Must Have Add-On ...... 19 Graphics and Design ...... 20 Stock Photography and Graphics Collections ...... 21 Image Viewing, Editing, and Conversion Tools ...... 22 Staying Above the Fold ...... 23 Cross-browser Compatibility Test Utility ...... 24 Create a in Minutes ...... 25 Marketing & Public Relations ...... 26 Must Read Internet Marketing Newsletter ...... 27 Press Release Distribution ...... 28 Email Marketing Service ...... 29 Get the Demographic Skinny on Your Customer Base ...... 30 Productivity ...... 31 PDF Creation Software ...... 32 File Conversion Tool ...... 33 Quickly and Easily Clean Your Bookmarks File ...... 34 Send Online Messages That Self-Destruct ...... 35 An Easy Way to Find Free Software that Meets Your Exact Needs ...... 36 Index of Links...... 37

2

Introduction

The PaySimple Small Business Tip of the Week is designed to point small business owners and their employees to the tools, resources, and news that can help improve business operations and make their lives easier. We’ve been posting tips for over two years and cover everything from how-to articles, upcoming small business events, changes in small business tax laws, buying guides, business courses, small business communities, online marketing, social media and HR best practices to small business humor and horror stories. But, by far the most popular tips are those pointing to resources such as software downloads, calculators, and business templates that can increase productivity and optimize operations at the most reasonable of prices—FREE.

This e-book pulls from well over 100 tips to provide you with the very best of the free resources in six key small business categories: Accounting and Finance, Business Templates, Computers and Software, Graphics and Design, Marketing and Public Relations, and Productivity. While they all may not apply to your business needs, you’re sure to find at least a couple of must-haves that will truly make your life easier.

The tips don’t stop with this e-book. Be sure to stay current with the latest PaySimple Small Business Tip of the Week by checking the Tip of the Week section of our blog every Monday morning.

If you have an iGoogle page, you can add the PaySimple Tip of the Week to one of your tabs.

3

Accounting and Finance

4

Web-Based Accounting Software

The publishers of waveAccounting have a simple premise—we know accounting is one of the least enjoyable parts of running your business, so we’ll provide basic accounting software that simplifies the entire process to you for free. And they do mean completely free—they call it “un-pricing.” The catch, though they don’t like to call it a catch, is that you’ll see ads while using the software. If you buy, they get paid. If you don’t, you still get to use the software for free.

The key of course, isn’t whether waveAccounting is worth the price, but whether it’s worth your time. If your needs are simple, then the answer is likely yes. The web-based application lets you import transactions directly from your bank accounts and credit cards and then categorize them manually or using automated programming. You can also manually input deposits and outgoing payments. You can run reports, send one-time invoices, calculate taxes, generate bill payment reminders, record payments, and generate basic ledgers. You can even create read-only access for your accountant or bookkeeper. The site provides several videos demonstrating how to do things as well as a help center for subscribers. waveAccounting won’t replace your accountant, and it won’t replace robust invoicing, bookkeeping, or payment processing solutions. But, if you run a simple small business, it may be just what you need—at the right “un-price.”

Check out waveAccounting here.

5

Credit Guide for Small Business Owners

So, you need a loan. What’s next? If you’re a small business, you have several options for obtaining one, but you need to know how to prepare your request and where to go to ask for the loan.

The financial experts at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York have created a very informative and very detailed free booklet on exactly what you need to do. Called The Credit Process: A Guide For Small Business Owners, it begins at the beginning, and walks you through options and the materials you will need to prepare.

The guide starts by talking about funding sources and types, as well as covering good reasons to borrow, and the types of loan you should be looking for based on the stage of your business.

The next section covers the preparation of your loan request and business plan. First, you are given an outline of a basic business plan. Then in the “What the Lender Will Review” section it breaks down each component—such as balance sheet, profit and loss statement, and financial projections—tells you what a lender is looking for, and provides a sample for you to work from.

The following section provides resources you can contact for help. Also, the final section discusses your recourse if you are not approved for the loan. There is also a useful glossary that helps with any unfamiliar terms.

If you’re considering applying for a loan, be sure to check out this very useful guide. Download The Credit Process: A Guide for Small Business Owners here.

6

Tool for Testing Pricing Scenarios

Use the free Mark-up vs. Margin calculator to quickly test a range of pricing scenarios.

Mark-up percentage is the percentage above the cost of the item for which it is sold. For example, if an item costs $10, and you sell it for $15, your mark-up percentage is 50%. Your actual profit in dollars is $5 per item.

Profit margin is the percentage of the total selling price that is profit. Thus in the above example, your profit margin is 33.33% ($5 actual profit/$15 selling price = 1/3 = 33.33%)

The easy to use Mark-up vs. Margin calculator, provided by Australian company The Business Solution Shop, enables you to enter a unit price (your cost) for an item, and then creates a table that contains selling price, profit margin, and actual profit for a range of mark-up percentages. You can set the tool to start calculating at between 5 and 25% mark-up, and then increment in 1,2,3,4 or 5 percentage points. The results table provides 27 different pricing scenarios based on the range you entered.

Of course there is much more to pricing decisions and profitability calculations than the simple mark-up vs. margin comparison. But, this simple tool can get you started thinking about different options.

Give it a try.

7

How Much Should You Pay Employees?

Whether you are hiring a new team member or just concerned about employee retention, it is important to know whether you are offering competitive salaries for your industry and your business size. With the recession and the increased applicant pool, the answer may not be what you expect. Entrepeneur.com provides a handy HR Salary Wizard tool that can help.

Enter your zip code and business size, and then select the job title you want to investigate. You can search for titles (each one contains a brief job description) using keywords or browse by category. Then submit your request.

You are presented with a bell-curve graph showing the salary range for the position. You can look at just base salary, base + bonus, or base + bonus + cost of benefits. More in-depth information is available for a fee, but the free search is a great starting point.

Give the HR Salary Wizard a try.

8

Business Templates

9

Creating a Privacy Policy

Online privacy is currently a hot topic—especially with social media sites like collecting large amounts of data about members, and far-reaching web companies like Google bridging the gap between personal services (like Gmail) and advertising (like AdSense).

While your small business website may not pose the same level of risk, it is still important to have a privacy policy if you sell online or even if you just collect customer information online such as via an inquiry form or a newsletter sign-up. In fact, studies have shown that having a prominent privacy policy link can increase form submissions for just about any online offering. And, some states like California actually require it.

If you don’t have a privacy policy already, creating one is easy. Use the policy generator link below, then paste the output into a webpage (use the word “privacy” as part of the file name), and link to it from your site header or footer, and place a link to it next to any form “submit” button.

Free Privacy Policy.com This generator is geared towards a United States audience. It includes all privacy policy components required by California law. You can use it to create one free policy per email address, and you’re required to provide your email address in order to download your policy. Note that once you complete the questionnaire you’ll be asked to donate money and to buy additional services. Just keep clicking “no thanks” to get your free customized policy download.

10

How to Make a Small Business Employee Handbook

When you first started your business you were likely the only employee, and were focused on doing the work necessary to get and keep satisfied customers and to grow your business. As your business did start to grow, you probably needed help and hired people to fill your gaps on a full or part time basis. With only a couple of employees, it was easy to keep things such as sick time, vacations, and workplace conduct informally regulated. However, there comes a point where even in the most friendly, family-oriented work environment, things need to be put in writing—even if only to be sure that everyone is on the same page regarding expectations and consequences.

The best way to do this is with an Employee Handbook. It can be as simple as a one-sheet set of rules that outline what you expect of your employees in terms of their work practices, office behavior, and treatment of customers, and the consequences for non-adherence. The Business Owners Tool Kit provides a sample work rules sheet that you can download here. (You’ll need to provide an email address to register and download the form.) For an overview of what to consider when creating these rules, read their General Work Rules overview.

When your company is large enough—a good number is 10 employees—it is probably time to create an official Employee Handbook that covers all aspects of the employment relationship. It should state your expectations for your employees, and outline what they can expect from your company. It should also describe your legal obligations as an employer, and your employees' rights. However, to protect your rights you should make sure that it clearly states that the Handbook IS NOT intended to be an employment contract. You should also be sure to have it reviewed by your lawyer.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) provides a comprehensive overview of what to include in an Employee Handbook, as well as a handbook template that you can download for free. For even more detail on each section of an Employee Handbook, read The Small Business Toolkit Employee Handbook guide. It provides detailed descriptions of each handbook component and sample templates, as well as call out boxes for potential problem areas and how you can avoid them.

11

Business Continuity Planning

It’s never fun to contemplate disaster, but it is a business necessity. Being unprepared for a worst-case scenario—such as an office fire or complete IT systems meltdown—can turn a major catastrophe into a catastrophic business- ending event.

That’s why business impact analysis and disaster recovery planning need to be a part of every small business operations management plan. Overcoming the overwhelming is part of the process. You may even find that once you’ve categorized potential disasters into buckets—such as remote possibility, very unlikely, reasonable risk—and created a plan for the most likely, that your confidence in your ability to overcome the unexpected has greatly increased.

The SearchDisasterRecovery.com site contains a wealth of information that can help you assess your business and put together your plan. From the homepage you can access free templates, tutorials, FAQs, and videos.

The site contains so much information that getting around is difficult. Here are some direct links to useful resources:

Business Impact Analysis Template

Guide to Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment Template

IT Disaster Recovery Plan Template

Disaster Recovery Budget Template

Business Continuity Testing Template

Staffing Disaster Recovery Plan Template (designed for Pandemics, but useful for any disaster affecting staff.)

12

Small Business Template Collections

SCORE Small Business Template Collection SCORE, the non-profit organization that provides counseling to America’s small business, has put together a free set of financial, marketing, sales, and planning templates specifically designed for small business.

Whether you need a business plan, a cash flow statement, loan amortization schedules, or a competitive analysis, you’ll find the template here. And, if you need help, an expert SCORE mentor is only a phone call or email away.

Access the SCORE Small Business Templates Collection here,

Small Business Tools from Inc.com Inc.com provides a free small business toolbox that contains many useful tools that can help with all aspects of running your small business. You’ll need to register to access the tools, but registration is free.

Categories include:

Doing Business Online

Money & Finance

Hiring and Recruiting

Managing Technology

Sales & Marketing

Leadership & Managing

There are a number of resources in each category including sample policies, contracts, worksheets, checklists, and other templates.

Access the Inc.com Small Business Toolbox here.

13

Computers and Software

14

Free Expert Tech Support

It seems we’re even more reliant on technology in all aspects of our business and in our personal lives. As this technology becomes more complex, more things can go wrong, and when they do they are even more difficult to troubleshoot and fix.

Some people are lucky enough to have a friend or relative who is a technology expert willing to help out. If you don’t have a resident “geek” in your circle, you can get free access to one at Tech Support Guy—a website offering free technical support for all types of problems from volunteer experts.

You can join and participate in the forum for free. Simply search for your problem and read the posted solutions. Or post your problem in the appropriate forum, and get quick effective help from an expert. Problems solved on the forum range from how to rid your system of viruses and Trojans, to help with Excel formulas, to how to set-up your iPod.

With getting through to manufacturer technical support increasingly difficult and sometimes frustrating, this great free forum is a perfect first stop when you’re experiencing technical difficulties.

Go to the Tech Support Guy website now.

15

Put Your Private Files in a Lock Box

Don’t just encrypt and put a password on files you want to keep secure—hide them from prying eyes completely. Using the free version of My Lockbox for Windows lets you protect any one folder on your computer—but you can have as many sub-folders in it as you require. If you want to protect additional folders, you’ll need to upgrade to the Pro version.

The software is a quick install and uninstall if you decide not to keep it. During installation you are asked to select the folder you want to protect and provide a password and password hint for it. (You may not want to use the hint, because it is shown every time the system requests the password and may unintentionally give it away to an unwanted snooper.)

Once the folder is locked it’s completely invisible to anyone browsing via Windows Explorer, using the My Computer window etc. But, you can get to the contents, add to them or delete from them, any time you need to via the Lockbox icon placed on your desktop.

Each time you unlock the folder you’ll be asked for your password. You can also change the protected folder directly from the Windows Explorer file manager. Configuration is simple and accessed via the desktop icon, or start menu. You can change your password, manage the locked folder, and get updates. You’re asked for your password each time you make a change. If you try to uninstall the program, you’ll need to supply the password too.

So, don’t just password-protect sensitive data—hide it completely!

Download My Lockbox Free from the trusted CNet site or from the manufacturer’s website.

16

Back-up Social Media Data

If you've ever lost work due to a computer crash, then you know how important it is to save everything and save often. You probably back up important files to external media, and you probably archive Outlook email (if you use it). But, have you thought about what happens to all of the data you keep online-- like Facebook friends and albums, Flickr photos, or Tweets? If you've suddenly realized how vulnerable you are to losing valuable data—don't worry! The following services enable you to back up data from social media sites. They all offer a free version which provides limited services, as well as paid versions that offer incrementally more features and storage.

Backupify The free account lets you back-up and store up to 2 GB of data online which you can access from any Internet connected computer. You can choose up to 5 accounts to back-up from , Facebook, Blogger, Flickr, Zoho, LinkedIn, and Google Gmail, Picasa, Docs, Calendar, Sites and Contacts. In addition, it offers a restore feature that will come in very handy should any of your data get lost, corrupted, or accidentally deleted.

Picasa Backup The free account lets you download your Picasa albums and store them on your computer or on an external drive. You can then email anyone a link to the archive so they can download it too. You can also download anyone's public albums by simply supplying their email address.

Social Safe Download this program to back up your social media accounts to your computer hard drive. The free version backs up Facebook albums, friends, profiles, status updates and more. (The paid upgrade backs up your Twitter account as well.) The company website claims additional back-up interfaces are coming soon.

BackupmyTweets Back-up your entire Tweet history in exchange for making a single tweet about the service provider (they'll even do it for you from the sign-up page.) You can then access, and search, your Tweet history online at any time.

17

Windows Cleaner and Optimizer Utility

Windows provides a bunch of utilities that you can use to manage your programs and your disks, but often there are better choices. The free Revo Uninstaller is one of them. This utility performs several basic Windows clean-up tasks very well.

Completely Uninstall Software: Revo truly uninstalls software completely-- something the Windows Add/Remove software tool can’t seem to master. Choose the “Medium” option to uninstall your software, and Revo first does a basic uninstall. It then searches for registry keys that appear extraneous, and gives you the option to delete them or just leave them as is. (This isn’t for the novice or faint of heart-- but it you know a little something about Windows it’s immensely helpful!) It then identifies files and folders left behind by the uninstall and lets you delete them. If you have a stubborn program that just won’t go away, use the “Advanced” function for a deep search to identify pesky persistent files.

Get Rid of Junk Files: From the Tools menu, select the Junk Files Cleaner module. Revo searches your computer for unnecessary temp files, thumbnails, and other garbage stored on your system that you don’t need. It shows you a list, and you can delete selectively or completely.

Manage Start-Menu Programs: Ever wonder which programs run on your computer automatically? Select the Autorun Manager from the Tools menu and Revo will show you. This is useful in several ways. You can set an item not to auto-start with a single click, another click resumes auto- start. If your computer is misbehaving, you can easily activate and deactivate a process to see if it helps. (If you’ve ever tried doing this with the Windows System Manager, you’ll really appreciate Revo.) If you don’t know what something is, simply right-click it and select the ‘Search at Google for” option. This will open your browser to search results for the item—and typically they will tell you exactly what it is and what you should do about it.

Download Revo Uninstaller from the trusted CNet site or download it from the Revo Uninstaller Product Website.

18

Must Have Internet Explorer Add-On

Open Last Closed Tab does exactly what it says. It tracks the tabs you’ve opened in Internet Explorer, and clicking Alt + X opens the last tab you viewed even if you shut down your browser. You can program it to store between 5 and 200 tabs. Multiple Alt + X clicks open your historical tab views one-by- one. Clicking Alt + Q opens a snapshot screen from which you can select the page you want to view, or search for it.

Open Last Closed Tab is quick and easy to use and install. (You may need to configure IE to display its launch icon. Just check the manual for easy instructions.) It is much simpler and more useful than the built-in IE history function.

Download and install Open Last Closed Tab today from the trusted CNet download site or from the Product Website. The first time you close something by mistake and can recover it with a quick keystroke—you’ll wonder how you lived without it.

19

Graphics and Design

20

Stock Photography and Graphics Collections

Royalty free stock photography, textures, drawings, and design templates can be just the thing when you are trying to spruce up your website, add some pizzazz to a power-point presentation or marketing piece, or create a dazzling advertisement.

The following are the best of the bunch for different types of graphics needs:

Photos: Photo Rack This site contains truly free stock photos—27,871 of them at the time this was written. Unlike many other “free photo” sites, these can be used without attribution for personal or business purposes. Unfortunately, the site lacks a comprehensive search—but you can easily browse by topic. Simply click on a thumbnail you like, and then click a download link and the image is yours.

FreeDigitalPhotos.net This is a large catalog of completely free small images suitable for use in , PowerPoint presentations, and other screen resolution applications. Free images come in sizes up to 430 pixels x 640 pixels—that’s equivalent to about half of a standard computer screen, a 3” x 4” low- resolution printed image or a 1.5” x 2” high-resolution printed image. You don’t have to register and you can search freely through their large catalog which includes categories such as food, technology, money, transportation, people, pets and more. The images are yours to use for any purpose—including published materials and paid advertisements.

TurboPhoto For larger photos, try this smaller collection of free images. The catalog on the landing page provides access to 2000 images you can use for any purpose at a large enough size for most printed projects such as brochures and small posters—typically around 1920 pixels x 2650 pixels, which is equivalent to a 6.5” x 8.5” high resolution printed picture.

Templates: Templatemo.com This site provides free templates for websites. Choose from .css/html templates or Flash templates. All are WC3 standards compliant and can be edited or customized however you wish.

Textures: High Resolution Textures If you’re looking for an interesting background for a web page, or a cool texture for an image, this is the place. You can download free texture packs, tiles, and even Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator brushes.

Vector Graphics: Vector Portal This collection of free vector images can be used for any purpose. Most images are available in .ai (Adobe Illustrator) or .eps format. Browse categories such as symbols, icons, optical elements and banners or search the site for a specific image.

21

Image Viewing, Editing, and Conversion Tools

Software programs for working with digital graphics are fast becoming an essential part of the basic small business tool box. While you can’t expect to get the power of Photoshop for free, you probably don’t need all its functionality to create and edit basic graphics.

Here are two free programs to try:

FastStone Image Viewer is great for basic photo and graphics editing needs. With it you can perform simple tasks such as color correcting photos, editing and cropping images, compressing file sizes, and converting between different graphics formats. More advanced features include morphing images and creating slide shows set to music. FastStone Image Viewer is compatible with Windows 98 and later, as well as many popular digital cameras. Download it directly from the product website.

Sumo Paint provides advanced editing tools with a wide variety of brushes and shapes to use for sprucing up your images or drawing them from scratch. You can also use it to make basic adjustments to your photos such as color correcting, editing sizing and cropping. It is a Flash based program accessed online. You can import and edit images from your computer and save them back. Or you can open an account and save images to Sumo Paint servers. However, the application only supports import of jpg, png, and gif files, and you can only output to png or jpg. Go to Sumo Paint and try it out.

22

Staying Above the Fold

One of the basics of web design is that the most important portion of your message should appear “above the fold.” This means that your prospect should not need to scroll in their browser in order to see the key message.

This used to be an easy task, when most everyone used a similarly sized monitor with the standard 800 x 600 resolution. Now, with the proliferation of tiny to huge monitors, and mobile phone to massive laptop screens, it’s not so easy. And, you need to decide whether you are going to design everything to the lowest common denominator (smallest screen), or whether you want to design to provide the best experience to the majority of users.

Google has created a handy screen to help you make the decision. In Google Browser Size Lab you enter any web page URL and it is displayed on a size grid. The overlay contains pixel dimensions on the horizontal and vertical axis, and contours that show the percentage of visitors that will see content above the fold. For example, 99% of visitors will see a 600 x 300 screen, while 80% will see 1000 x 550. The overlay screen is opaque, so you can see where key elements, such as a “buy now” button fall in the percentage of “above the fold” views. The grid is based on the screen size of all the people who visit Google, thus it provides a fairly accurate picture of the web universe as a whole. If you have statistics on your specific audience’s most common browser size, locate it in the grid and adjust your pages accordingly.

Visit Google Browser Size Lab, and put your pages to the test.

23

Cross-browser Compatibility Test Utility

One of the key components of a successful website is cross-browser compatibility. After all, you want to make a good impression on all of your visitors, which means that you want your site to look good to everyone— regardless of the browser or they use.

However, with the huge number of browser-OS variations currently in use, you may need to make strategic decisions about the number for which you can reasonably provide full support. So, while you likely want to make certain that your site performs perfectly under the latest IE and browsers, you may be less concerned about how it functions in IE 4.0 for Windows 2000 users.

But, in order to make these decisions, you need to know where you currently stand. BrowserCam can help you do just that.

The web-based application enables you to enter any URL from your website and preview it in any OS- browser combination. You simply select options like window size, screen resolution, and output format, and then click a button to save a screen capture.

Operating Systems Supported: Linux Fedora Core 6, MAC OSX 10.3-10.7, Windows 2000pro/XP/Vista/7

Browsers Supported (multiple versions): Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Mozilla, , , AOL, Camino

BrowserCam offers a free one day (200 capture) trial for anyone who registers. After the trial period, a number of paid subscriptions are available. But, if you dedicate a solid block of time, you should be able to get a fair idea of your site’s cross-browser compatibility during the free period. When you get a paid subscription, you can also use the Device Capture feature which shows you how your site looks on mobile devices such as Blackberry, Droid, and iPhone.

Give BrowserCam a try today.

24

Create a Mobile App in Minutes

It seems like everyone is going Mobile, and if your small business doesn’t jump on board the mobile wave, then it may just get left behind. It also seems like there is an app for everything these days, so if there isn’t an app for your business it could be costing you customers and sales. But even if you don’t think a mobile app will deliver any direct sales, it should be a key part of your customer communication strategy, as many of your customers are more likely to connect with your business via their mobile devices than they are via traditional email or even older fashion snail mail.

Previously there was a huge cost barrier to entering the mobile app market—you needed someone with advanced programming expertise, and designing a custom app could easily reach $10k or more. But as with all technology, as it becomes ubiquitous it becomes affordable.

Enter the AppFactory from mippin.com. Using this handy tool you can create an app for your business in about 5 minutes. Creating the app and experimenting with the simple configuration tool is completely free (you’ll need to register with basic information and a confirmed email address to save, retrieve, and edit it.) You can select up to 4 RSS feeds for your app, and customize the layout, logo, header text, and colors. So for example, you could create a feed in your blog for weekly specials, and create an app that would deliver those to your customer’s mobile device.

You can download your app and see how it looks on your mobile devices before distributing it. Then, for $99 per year you get an install link and QR bar code (available on any smartphone, lets users scan the code to go directly to your app—learn about it here), that you can send to your customers so that they can download and use your app on their mobile devices. IPhone web app, Android app, Java launcher, and Mobile web page are supported. For $999 per year you can purchase a “Native App Pack” that will enable you to offer your app via the Apple Store, Android Market or Windows Phone marketplace as well as third party stores such as Amazon.

Check out AppFactory now, and see how easy it is to create your own app, and join the mobile marketing movement.

25

Marketing & Public Relations

26

Must Read Internet Marketing Newsletter

The internet is the great equalizer for small businesses when it comes to marketing. Whether you’re selling a product, communicating with your client base via email, or creating your business’s first website, a little insight can go a long way in making your efforts a success.

One great resource is Larry Chase’s Web Digest for Marketers. It’s the one newsletter that has remained on our must read list for over 10 years—which says quite a bit in the fast- changing internet landscape. Each issue is focused on one internet marketing topic, and provides short reviews and links to marketing resources you may find useful.

You can subscribe here. And, while you’re at the site, scroll down on the page to check out the fantastic database of web marketing site reviews. You can perform a search—but by browsing topics of interest you may find gems for which you never thought to search.

27

Press Release Distribution

Writing and publishing press releases is a great way to get free exposure for your company. Just make sure the release is truly news and not simply a marketing pitch for you company. For example, a new product or product line is news, an award your company has won is news, but a description of the features and benefits of an existing unchanged product or service is not news.

Simply writing your press release and posting it on your website is not enough—you need to have it distributed to the press, published on reputable third-party websites and blogs, and indexed in search engines.

There are paid press release distribution services, but you also have a number of free options. All the sites listed below will enable you to distribute your press release for free. Many of them also offer paid upgrades to your posting, which you do not need to purchase. In most cases, Google, Yahoo and other search engines pick-up and index press releases from these sites.

PR.COM – Get the Free “Silver” plan

PR Log

1888 Press Release

Newswire Today

PR Zoom

24-7 Press Release – NOTE: They do not guarantee your release will be reviewed or published

PR Urgent – NOTE: They do not guarantee your release will be reviewed or published

Ecomm Wire – For e-commerce related news

28

Email Marketing Service

Most small business owners know that it’s easier, and less costly, to maintain and nurture existing customers than it is to acquire new ones. To do this, you need to stay in touch with your customers and keep them engaged with your business. Even if you don’t provide a product or service that’s needed every day, you want to be top of mind when a need for your offering arises.

A great way to stay in touch with your customers is via email. So, the first step is to build an email list by asking for your customers’ email addresses whenever you can—on order forms, in invoices, or by using an email list sign-up sheet at your place of business.

Once you have a list, even a small one, you can start your email program. You could publish a formal email newsletter. Or, simply send regular updates that announce sales, provide details on a new product line, or contain customer testimonials and case studies. Your emails can be as elaborate or simple as you like— the key is to make them regular and informative.

When you’re ready to start sending emails, try a free MailChimp account. This service enables you to manage a 2000 address email list, and send 12,000 emails per month at no cost. As part of your free membership you get access to easy to edit email templates, list management tools, a large library of email marketing help guides, and training materials.

Visit MailChimp and open your free account—then start emailing!

29

Get the Demographic Skinny on Your Customer Base

Understanding your customer base is a key factor in the success of any small business—particularly if you run a local business with a relatively small geographic reach.

The Census data collected by the federal government contains a wealth of demographic information, and can be broken down to provide a zip-code by zip-code profile of residents, including such statistics as population density, number of houses and percentages of the population by age, level of education, occupation, marital status, house-hold income, gender and race—and it’s all public record and freely available.

But, making dense census data useful is not a task for the timid—which is where ZIPSkinny comes in.

This website has synthesized the 2000 Census data into an easy to use application. You simply enter a zip code, and it provides an easy to read report on statistics for that area—in table and chart formats. You can look at comparisons between your zip code and adjacent ones, or run a comparison between up to 20 different zip codes of your choosing.

Use this data to make decisions on how to market your business, where to expand, or even where to close. Profile your customer base by zip code, and determine what your biggest customers have in common. (Or, have some fun and see how your own profile compares to your neighbors.).

Get the Skinny now—go to ZipSkinny.

30

Productivity

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PDF Creation Software

PrimoPDF is a free program that enables you to convert any type of document into a pdf file. It functions as a pdf printer on your computer, all you do is select “Print” from any application and instead of sending the document to your printer it goes to PrimoPDF which turns it into a pdf that you can share, email, or post on your website. It even provides the ability to limit change and print options, and to password protect and encrypt. It’s supported by Windows XP, Vista and 7.

Download PrimoPDF from the trusted CNet site. You can also watch a short video about the program before you decide to download and install, and read reviews from CNet and other users.

To get the latest Free Acrobat Reader, go to Adobe.com

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File Conversion Tool

Nothing is more frustrating than getting a file from a friend, colleague, or customer and not being able to open it. Sure you can go find a viewer, but wouldn’t it be easier to simply convert the file to a format your computer is already set-up to read?

The free Zamzar service is just what you need—it converts a wide variety of document, image, music, video, compressed, and even CAD files to common formats such as doc, jpg, and mp3.

For example, you can: Convert a pdf file to a doc file

Convert a PowerPoint file (ppt or pptx) to a swf Flash file

Convert a Windows Media (wmf) or Windows Audio (wav) file to MP3 or MP4

Convert a tar archive file to a zip file

Convert a CAD dwg file to jpg, pdf or tiff

See the full file conversion list

The process is simple, go to Zamzar and:

1. Upload your file (up to 100MB for free)

2. Select the format to which you want to convert

3. Enter your email address

4. Click the “Convert” button

5. Look for an email from Zamzar with a link to your converted file—the linked file will be available

for 1 day after your upload.

Give it a try the next time you’re faced with a file you can’t open!

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Quickly and Easily Clean Your Bookmarks File

Have your bookmarks gotten out of control? Are you often frustrated by dead bookmark links? Do you even know which of your bookmarks are live and which are dead? Do you bookmark indiscriminately with the best intentions of going back later to cull, de-dupe, and categorize? If you answer yes to any of these questions, you’ll love this free software program.

AM DeadLink is a handy little utility that helps clear-out the garbage from your bookmarks list. It finds all the duplicate bookmarks, and lets you delete them. It also finds dead links and colors them red. It shows you re-directed links and colors them blue. You can then view each bad link in the attached browser and either delete it or edit it to reflect a valid page.

TIP: It’s a good idea to de-dupe first then run the dead-link check. When the check is done, sort by error code so you can quickly and easily decide which bookmarks to delete immediately and which ones you want to check-out and edit.

The software is small, easy to install and uninstall, and works very quickly. A Help file is provided, but you can pretty much figure it out by mousing over the toolbar icons. AM DeadLink can be used with Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Mozilla, and is completely free.

Download AM DeadLink now from the product website. Or, download from the trusted CNet site and read the editors review and other users’ reviews while you’re there.

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Send Online Messages That Self-Destruct

One of the biggest problems with the Internet is that just about everything you post, email, or publish is saved for posterity—whether or not you want it saved— and it is largely impossible to remove all traces of it. Additionally, if you need to communicate sensitive information, such as a password or an account number or a limited time customer-specific price discount, there just isn’t a way to do it that doesn’t leave a permanent record… until now.

A new free service, One Time Secret, brings Mission Impossible technology to the web. Remember those mission assignment tapes that self-destructed after Mr. Phelps played them? One Time Secret does the same with message URLs. Simply go to their website, enter a short message, and securely submit it. The system generates a one-time use URL that you copy and email to the person for whom the message is intended. After one use, the URL is rendered inactive and the message text is destroyed.

What if someone intercepts the email with the link? To prevent unauthorized viewing of the URL, you can attach a passphrase to it (communicated to the recipient in a separate online or offline message) so that only an authorized person can access the URL. You can even set an unviewed URL to self-destruct in 1 hour, 4 hours, 12 hours, 1 day or 2 days (the default for all messages). For even more protection, the service takes steps to block all search engine crawlers (even the malicious ones that don’t follow the rules), so that your message is not inadvertently saved.

So, the next time you need to communicate secure information to a customer, or the next time you want to send an email message you don’t want archived, give One Time Secret a try.

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An Easy Way to Find Free Software that Meets Your Exact Needs

Sure free software lists and directories are good places to find useful applications, but finding exactly what you need often entails inexact searches and long browsing. Often you know the high-priced application you would want if you could afford it, but have no idea what other alternatives are available.

Enter AlternativeTo. This site provides free open-source and paid license alternatives to the most popular software packages. Simply select your operating system for installed applications—Windows, Mac or Linux—or select applications that are run via an online interface. Then search for the proprietary software program—such as Photoshop, , or Visio—for which you would like to see alternatives. AlternativeTo returns a list of reviewed applications that provide similar functionality. To see only free options, select “free” in the filter-by-license drop-down. When you see one you want to try, click the link to download it.

The site is community driven, so you’ll see comments from other users, and if you create an account, you’ll be able to join the conversation and recommend your own free finds to others. If your search comes up empty, you can even add the application to the “OMG Fail*” list to ask the community for suggestions.

Check out AlternativeTo now.

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Index of Links

Accounting and Finance

waveAccounting The Credit Process: A Guide For Small Business Owners Mark-up vs. Margin calculator HR Salary Wizard tool

Business Templates

Free Privacy Policy.com Business Owners Toolkit Work Rules Sheet Template Business Owners Toolkit General Work Rules Overview SBA Overview of Employee Handbooks SBA Employee Handbook Template The Small Business Toolkit Employee Handbook guide SearchDisasterRecovery.com SCORE Small Business Template Collection Inc.com Small Business Toolbox

Computers and Software

Tech Support Guy My Lockbox Free Backupify Picasa Backup Social Safe BackupmyTweets Revo Uninstaller Open Last Closed Tab

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Graphics and Design

Photo Rack FreeDigitalPhotos.net TurboPhoto Templatemo.com High Resolution Textures Vector Portal FastStone Image Viewer Sumo Paint Google Browser Size Lab BrowserCam AppFactory

Marketing and Public Relations

Larry Chase’s Web Digest for Marketers PR.COM PR Log 1888 Press Release Newswire Today PR Zoom 24-7 Press Release PR Urgent Ecomm Wire MailChimp ZIPSkinny

Productivity

PrimoPDF Adobe Acrobat Zamzar AM DeadLink One Time Secret AlternativeTo

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