Home Office Site

I won’t hide the fact that I have been a big fan of Google products all along. I long ago converted to Gmail, and recruited whatever friends I could to use Gmail for their email application. I soon afterward switched to their calendar system…….(this will involve a separate post). And now I am a big fan of iGoogle.

At first I didn’t quite “get” iGoogle. It just sort of seemed like a playground area to decorate a favorite landing area when you first log online. However, while I was setting up this blog, editing a website, and keeping track of links for a program I’m setting up for my employees all in the same afternoon, iGoogle’s usefulness became apparent in almost a trite “Aha!” type moment. I was able to arrange my iGoogle page into several useful tabs.

I have iGoogle set up as my homepage, and once I log into my Google account, my landing page on iGoogle shows me my most recent emails, my current to-do list, my calendar entries, my google bookmarks (another favorite), and my favorite news sources.

I have two other tabs set up….I’ve been too lazy to name one of them, so it is still called Name this Tab. I go their infrequently to play a quick game of Sudoko, learn my Spanish word of the day. That kind of thing.

My third tab is called numbers. I keep domain IPs, login reminders (pre-treated with my own personal disguises that I understand), and a yellow pages gadget to look up phone numbers.

This is all done with the use gadgets that you can get by clicking the links at the top of your iGoogle page. This is all so easy. On the typical afternoon I was talking about I would go from one of my Mozilla tabs back to my iGoogle page to log important links and article ideas. I jotted down login info for my cPanels. Since I operate more than one Cpanel I also had FileZilla open on the desktop so that I could transport files to servers. I was taking phone calls and wrote down my notes to later enter into my calendar(s). If I needed to close down my desktop quickly (and I did) all those little jots of notes were still there when I came back without closing down notepad, word, etc. I’m probably not doing justice to how handy this iGoogle page is, so play around with it and see if it helps you keep your life sorted.

By the way, I just had a conversation with a friend who wasn’t using iGoogle because she thought that anyone could see her iGoogle page. This just isn’t so…..everyone sees the standardized iGoogle page until they log in and then they can see their private iGoogle page. The privacy level is the same as it is for your calendars and email.

NETGEAR has announced the general availability of the two newest additions to their Powerline Adapter Ethernet/Network series, the  Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter Kit (XAVB101) and the  Powerline HD Plus Ethernet Adapter Kit (HDXB111).

Wow…..now  this is a neat idea.  If this works, people can save big bucks……..just plug into existing wiring to network to another location….no re-wiring!!!!!

Read about this here.

I wrote a few days ago about QuickBooks.  Since then I was surprised to discover that they have a free  product available to small business owners called Online Invoices.

What’s included?

Unlimited Invoicing
Multiple Invoice Templates
Address Book Management
Accept Credit Cards & eChecks*

If you want recurrent invoicing, or you want to create and send estimates, the  cost is only $9.95  per month.

It  seems to me that using this product is a complete no-brainer.  I have many friends and acquaintances who operate small  businesses out of their  homes.    Cash flow  needs to  be a top priority for all of us, and  having  an organized system of invoicing customers (especially those late  in payment) is critical for your success.  I am not an affiliate with Intuit (maybe I should work on that) …….I  am giving this recommendation to  you to help you out!  If you don’t  have the money to invest in  QuickBooks…….start here.

I think I have given up on a normal lifestyle. Working late creating the budget for Food Works for next year.

Every time I use QuickBooks I think of all the things I wish it would do for me. I mean, it is all right there.

For instance, my customer list has gotten enormous. And often times I won’t know what the customer name was listed as before (please realize that I’m sharing Quickbooks with several other programs operated by MWH and I’m not who set up all the customers). I should be able to do a simple search based (sort of like google) so if I put in Women’s Affairs I go straight to that office. As it is now, I don’t know if it is listed as Women’s Affairs, IU office of Women’s Affairs, Indiana University Department of ……well you get my drift. Perhaps this isn’t a problem for others, but I bet it is. Other organizations are larger than ours. This one small improvement would save me a bunch of time.