The Internet and your business. The ultimate partnership.
Share This March 3rd, 2010 Antowan Nothling
If you own a small business or just started your own venture you will know how important it is to add value to your business using as little cash as possible. The Internet is a great tool for doing just that! You can find so much help for your business online nowadays. The volume of useful and important business information and digital tools have grown exponentially over the years and you will be silly to ignore the volumes of great business info and resources out there.
Most of your business processes can be efficiently managed using free tools floating about on the internet. Financial management software can be found on Sourceforge.net. They are a great source for finding software to do nearly anything you can imagine. Honestly! In my business I have taken my invoicing online using a piece of PHP scripting that interfaces with a MySQL database. I can invoice anywhere on the face of the planet where there is Internet. I can even do it on my mobile phone this way. I don’t have to carry a computer. I blogged about it before, the script is called BambooInvoice.
Having trouble with gauging distances to clients? Well a GPS would be a good solution but what if your GPS is in the car where it belongs, you are sitting in the office working on quotes that require travel fees, what then? Google Maps is your answer. Just jump onto http://maps.google.com set your default location (in this case your business location) and you are ready to rock and roll. Just calculate the directions, get the mileage listing and off you go. It is a great way to get around with if you don’t have a GPS anyway. Just print the directions and there you are!
Networking has never been easier. It is a little daunting the first time you start but doing serious things with the Internet can result in some serious results for your business. Linked In, Facebook, Twitter and so forth can be very handy networking tools not to mention great communication tools to stay in communication with your clients. You will have to spend some time on this but there is a world out there online that will be able to help you out in ways you never imagined. You just need to look a little. Seek and ye shall find!
Some handy sites:
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1 Comment
1. Lectron | March 10th, 2010 at 12:19 pm
I Like the internet and what it can do for ones business, the only thing is how to make it work for you, How to create that awareness that is so important