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Everyone has an email addict for a friend. You know . . . the ones that send dire warnings that would take two minutes to debunk on Snopes (Dawn, I love you, but you are way too trusting of emails), or threaten,

“You will have seven years of bad luck if you don’t forward this email to ten friends in the next five minutes.”

Whenever I get those, I always think, “Gee . . . thanks for thinking of me.”

However, yesterday my friend, Angela, sent me a forward that truly made a positive difference in my day. It was a list titled “45 Life Lessons and 5 to Grow On” by Regina Brett of The Plain Dealer.

The list starts off with this:
To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most-requested column I’ve ever written. My odometer rolls over to 50 in August, so here goes:
Then follows 50 lines of absolute gems of wisdom, one of which is enough to ponder for a day.

As I read through the tips, there were several that hold true for businesses as well.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

While you need to have a plan for your business, it is important to remember that the plan is for the long-term. It doesn’t have to be done all at once. Many times when I talk to a business …

This is part three of our Web Site Basics for Business Owners series.

In the last article in the series, “Web Site Basics for Business Owners,” we talked about how the different components of a web site work together. This week we are going to go into domain names in more depth.

What is a Domain Name?

A domain name is how people find your web site on the internet. The domain name system (DNS) is managed by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). Among other responsibilities, ICANN determines which extensions will be available for registration (.com, .net, .org, etc.) and accredits private companies known as registrars to manage the actual domain registrations.

How to Get a Domain Name

There are thousands of sites out there that offer domain registrations. I use www.GoDaddy.com. They have great prices, awesome customer service (you can actually get someone on the phone without getting lost in a phone system purgatory), and have great tools in their account management.

I don’t use any of their other services; however, all of my domains get registered through them. If you need to find a domain, they are having a sale through June 12th on .com domains. (Save 30% on domains: Go Daddy $6.95 .com Sale!)

One thing to remember is that you are paying to register to use the domain name and the registration has to be kept current.

Choosing Your Domain

Now there is an art …

A couple of years ago, I read an article in the paper about “time debt.” We promise more or overcommit to more time than we have to give.

I’ll admit, I’m a big offender in this . . . huge. No, not just huge, but “HU-ooGE” as Donald Trump would say (imagine the pursed lips.)

So after I read the article, I made a decision to be more accountable with my time.

Know What You’re Working With

The first step I took was to map out how my week looked and how much available time I actually had. I’m visual, so this was truly a schedule drawn on paper. I listed all of the things that I ideally wanted to do both personally and professionally: exercise, network, work on personal projects, etc.

What I quickly discovered is that I don’t have nearly as much disposable time as I thought I did.

After that shocker, I worked out what looked to me to be a reasonable schedule.

Track Time Spent

The next step was to track the time it took to accomplish tasks. Since I already kept a journal with running notes, this wasn’t too big of a stretch.

Again, it was sobering to find out that I couldn’t cram as much as I thought I could into a day.

However, as I kept on with the tracking, readjusted my expectations, and set more realistic goals, the amazing thing was that …

So you’re working on a project with a client or team member that is out of state, or maybe you’re in the same area, but with the price of gas and the stress of traffic and you don’t want to drive across town and you need a conferencing solution.

There are a number of options out there including the enterprise level Webex, Adobe’s conferencing solution, and GoToMeeting.

But you want fast, easy and affordable.

Skype offers free conference and video calls to other Skype users. The conference calls can have a total of ten participants, nine others besides yourself.

Basic Skype services are free, which include calls (phone and video) and chats to other users. Purchasing a premium service enables you to connect to non Skype users. Think Vonage on steriods.

Signing up for the service is pretty painless. Just create an account and download a small desktop program.

The also make it very easy to outfit your computer, home, and business to fully utilize their service with an online store. They don’t only sell headsets for your computer, but WiFi phones, web cams and their fully loaded conference phone

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