Time is money. If you are like most small businesses you are constantly striving to find low cost ways to improve your overall or individual productivity so you can spend your time on what really matters, which is growing your business. Below are 5 free ways that you can implement almost immediately to improve productivity and make your team more efficient. They are all very easy to use and best of all they will not cost you anything!
Dropbox.com : Dropbox is your own personal cloud storage space that allows you to have access and share all of your documents, pictures, music, or videos anywhere you go. After signing up, you simply download the software and it places a file folder on your desk top which you can then use just like any other folder on your computer. You can then access all of your files on any computer or cell phone (via the IPhone or Android app). You can also share folders or files with others so everyone can see and edit the same file saving you a LOT of needless time emailing files back and forth and saving mutlitple versions of the same files
Up to 2GB of storage is free which is good for most people. (If you need more storage they have paid options as well.)
Dropbox will save previous version of all your files for 30 days so you can go back and see what changes were made.
You can upload files directly from you cell phone to you Dropbox account.
You are able to create public photo folders to share you pictures almost immediately with friends and family.
Google Docs : Google Docs may be the best way to help teams and groups of people working on the same projects be more efficient. Check out the video below to learn how to use Google Docs to help your organization. Many businesses are converting to Google docs and getting rid of Microsoft Office products and their expensive licences.
Workflowy.com : I love Workflowy, granted it is a silly name but it is a powerful yet simple product. Workflowy will allow you to organize your thoughts and ideas. It takes a little while to get used to it, but once you do you will love it. If you are like me, I am constantly writing down ideas, websites, or things that I would like to check out or remember later. This creates a single place for all of that that can easily be accessed from any computer or your cell phone.
Google Analytics: Google Analytics is a free product that will allow you to receive a countless amount of information about your website and it’s visitors. There are other analytics programs that might be a little bit more robust but they cost money. Considering that Google Analytics is free it is a truly great product and many consider it to still be the industry standard.
Asana.com: Asana has just been released to the public after completing it’s year long private beta. Asana is a task list manager for your team. If you have a large team that works on many projects and is constantly collaborating this might be the best solution out there.
There are a lot of great and innovative products and services that are available but these 5 stood out as something that could easily be implemented today and for free. If you know of any other great services that I might have missed please let me know in the comments as I am always interested in finding cool new sites. You can also follow on Twiiter @soonersoze. Thanks for checking out my blog.
Sex on the Moon by Ben Mezrich is our latest Capundo Top Book Pick.
Sex on the Moon by Ben Mezrich
Sex on the Moon is the true story of a gifted NASA intern who was on track to be an Astronaut that pulled off one of the most interesting and strange heists in history. In a romantic, but crazy gesture, he decided to steal the most precious objects in the world, Moon Rocks to impress his fellow NASA intern girlfriend. Moon rocks are illegal to own and are protected by an incredibly well guarded laboratory. He proceeds to convince his girlfriend and another NASA intern to help him pull off this Ocean’s 11 type heist. Click here to learn more.
You may recognize Ben Mezrich from his previous books, most notably The Accidental Billionaires, which the hit movie THE SOCIAL NETWORK was based on. SEX ON THE MOON is in the process of being made into a movie as well. I am curious as to the cast, but it has the potential to be a fun movie.
Our fist Capundo.com Gaming Pick is Catherinefor XBOX 360.
In Catherine, you enter the life of the main character Vincent and must guide him through a series of moral decisions regarding his love triangle between Katherine, his girlfriend, and Catherine the girl he wakes up next to at the beginning of the game. However, at the heart of the game it is a puzzle game with unique visuals and a compelling storyline.
Our first Capundo.com Top Book Pick is City of Thieves by David Benioff
City of Thieves is an engaging story about two friends during WWII Russia who go on an amazing quest all while set against the backdrop of the siege of Leningrad. The novel is both serious and funny and by all accounts is historically accurate. If you have not had the opportunity to read this novel I would highly recommend it.
Below are a couple more in depth reviews of the Book.
Congratulations, you decided to create your own blog. Now what? This might seem like an easy questions until you realize there are an ocean of blogging platforms available ranging from free to a couple hundred dollars a year. The first question you need to ask yourself is what do you hope to accomplish with your new blog. Are you just using it as platform to communicate with your family and friends, communicate with your small business customers, or are you hoping to build a brand and grow your audience. In most cases the sites below will meet your needs as they provide user friendly, convenient, and low cost or free options that require no technical knowledge or time consuming setup. In fact, most of them you will be able to set up and start blogging in under five minutes!
BLOGGING PLATFORMS
Blogger.com (GOOGLE)
Tumblr.com (Very popular and very easy to use)
Weebly.com (Feature Rich and offers paid upgrade options)
Wix.com (Flash Websites, Great for photography or fashion)
Flavors.me (Easy to set up and manage you social identity)
Posterous (Basic and easy to set up)
Snappages.com (Free personal option with paid upgrades, offers many features)
Jigsy.com (Many features and offers three paid options beginning at $10 per month)
Yola.com (They have a free option, but also offer two paid options starting at $99 per year)
Typepad.com (They are very popular and offer three different paid options beginning at $8.95 per month)
Each site has their pros and cons, but by going through this list you will be able to find the right blogging platform for your needs. There are many benefits to using one of these sites, but if your goal is to build your brand and grow your audience or start an online business then we recommend using WordPress.org. This option does require you to host your own website and is much more time consuming to set up. You can get away without knowing any technical knowledge but it does help. After careful consideration we decided to go this route and use WordPress for Capundo.com. We researched many hosting providers and elected to use Bluehost because they offered unlimited domain hosting, space, transfer, and many other features for only $6.95 or less per month. The benefit of hosting your own blog and using WordPress comes down to having significantly more control of your blog in every aspect and being able to make sure that it is optimized for search engines (SEO) as much as possible. I hope this helps you in your blogging decisions.
