Free Toolkit for Small Business Online
Free tools are vital to the success of any small business. The current growth in free applications and software continues to benefit all businesses. Choosing a few of these tools was a real challenge. These applications assist small business owners with common issues such as web publishing, storage, document creation and editing, communications, marketing and scheduling.
Wordpress and Blogger are the top two online blogging tools which can also be used to create and manage fully funcitoning websites rather easily. If you are looking for an external solution your costs will increase exponentially. Use Google to find great walk-throughs for these free straightforward website solutions.
Dropbox is a storage system (2GB free) for storing files across multiple computers with ease. It allows the user to drop a file in to an internet folder which can be accessed by other computers or even your iPhone/ Blackberry. Dropbox also allows you to invite people to view private files or host files in a public folder accessible to anyone who knows the address. This is great for working with clients or transferring files among a group of people.
Google Docs is a free, web-based word processor, spreadsheet, presentation and form application offered by Google. Google Docs allows free storage of up to 1GB of data. Google Docs is also a collaborative tool for editing in real time. Documents can be shared, opened, and edited by multiple users at the same time.
Open Office is an offline alternative to Google Docs or Microsoft Office. It is available for Mac OS X, Windows, Linux and most other operating systems. Open Office is free to download and easy to install.
Hootsuite allows a user to measure, monitor and post to social media like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn all from one easy to use dashboard. There is a learning curve when using this incredible free dashboard so watch the short tutorial videos. Social media can be utilized to enhance customer engagement and communications, both internally and externally.
Mail Chimp allows the user to send out 3000 electronic mail outs per month or free for up to 500 subscribers. For a small business an email list is essential but keeping those people engaged and up-to-date with your business is even more important.
Doodle is an easy to use scheduling software. It's great for scheduling meetings. It's hard to explain how easy it makes things until you try it so just click the link above and test out Doodle.
It is important to consider free tools when managing your business.
Originally published in the Vancouver Board of Trade's Sounding Board Magazine.
The Olympic Torch Relay hits its Target
I quickly got over to Willingdon Avenue in Burnaby outside BCIT to tak pics of the torch relay from the street. Thousands of people took to the street to greet the flame as it ran past BCIT. Check out this for more.
You can see all 200 of the photos I took of the torch relay February 11th on Flickr.
The Chevrolet Volt with Jason Baker
After testing driving the Chevy Volt we made this short 60 second video to highlight the most important features:
- Full electric up to 64km
- Gasoline engine kicks in after 64km
- Chargeable on a standard outlet
- A full charge takes 3-8 hours
- Sport mode
The journey of the Chevrolet Volt has been long and arduous. I remember hearing whispers of its development about 5 years ago. It was a near mythical vehicle (left). Now the real deal (right) is en route and this November you can have one. You can own a piece of the future. I am not kidding. The fact that it can go 64km, the average daily commute of 75% Americans, on a single charge using absolutely no gasoline says more than anything else. To see all the rest of the amazing stats you can skip to the end where the wikipedia reference does the job. Driving it was pretty similar to driving a very nice new virtually noise free electric vehicle. So, like nothing any consumer has had the luxury to enjoy yet. Please enjoy this guest post from Jason Baker on the Volt.GUEST POST - JASON BAKER
With having been given the chance to drive the amazingly quiet Chevrolet Volt yesterday, I look forward to the future of electric cars and hydrogen fuel cell technology. I don’t consider myself to be a car enthusiast by any means, but as a citizen of Surrey where we heavily rely on cars to get around, I look forward to the anticipation of one day owning a Chevrolet Volt or at least an electric car. For a vehicle that has been the buzz of the automobile industry as the ‘car of the future’, it truly does deliver as a point A to point B car. At least for me it beats the low riding vibration 20-year-old Mazda stick-shift truck that I drive around with a large turning radius.
As much as I enjoyed the unbelievably smooth and quiet ride that the Chevrolet Volt comes with, I can’t help but think about our future as a society with electric cars. Although GM has spent years on sustainable technology that many residents of Vancouver would endorse, our public infrastructure is years away from supporting such a paradigm shift in the automobile. The Chevrolet Volt is a garage only vehicle with the need to continually plug in to either a 240V or 120V battery. I say continually because most people like myself, continually plug-in laptops instead of draining them out.
In general, society has focused more on the economical and sustainable benefits that vehicles like the Chevrolet Volt bring, but what about the things we haven’t thought about. For instance how do we take long road trips with the use of the electric battery? Have we thought about where we can plug-in at a hotel? How do we ensure that thief’s don’t walk off with a charging unit that costs $200-$500? Below is a short list of community infrastructure problems related to the innovation of electric cars:
- A shortage of public charging stations
- Building public charging stations into existing infrastructure
- The debate of who is financially responsible for charging stations on private property
- The security of your charging unit when left in an underground or outdoor parking lot
- Street parking and secure in ground charging units
- Developing rural areas at the same pace as urban areas to support the electric car
The Chevrolet Volt is an innovative vehicle and the new standard for electric cars. But its benefits develop the problems for infrastructure and safety. In addition to the charging stations, the vehicle is so quiet that pedestrians can’t tell a car is coming. In fact, when we pressed the ignition button, no one knew that the vehicle’s engine had started up. It was that quiet!
As a marketing professional, the current theme of “reset” with regards to changing our industry standards and habits also applies to society as a whole. We are in a complete reset, and this includes changing our infrastructure from catching up with old technology to planning with new technology for new sustainable infrastructure. This is why the automobile industry needs to put more pressure on governments because this is going to be the future, and we need to plan for it.
So as we listen to the build up hype of the Chevrolet Volt and future electric cars, just be cognoscente of the infrastructure issues that make this car feasible for the average consumer. This car should be more than a Point A to Point B vehicle, but it won’t be unless the infrastructure is built at hotels or other public parking spaces. But I am all for sustainable cars, just plan for it and don’t wait until the market is already here.
And we'll finish off with some information from wikipedia and the standard test drive & car show videos.
The Chevrolet Volt is a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle to be produced by the ChevroletGeneral Motors and expected to be launched in November 2010 as a 2011 model. Its retail price has yet to be announced by General Motors, but is estimated to be near $40,000 USD.[4] which would give a net price of about $32,500 after the $7,500 US Federal tax credit. The automaker has kept the Volt on or ahead of schedule, despite GM's Chapter 11 reorganization.[5] The Volt's propulsion system will be based on GM's new Voltec (formerly known as E-Flex) electric automobile platform, which differs significantly from GM's earlier BAS Hybrid and Two-Mode Hybrid systems. The first pre-production test car based on the full Volt design was built in June 2009 in Warren, Michigan[6] and by October 2009, 80 Volts had been built and are being tested under various conditions.[7]
For up to the first 40 miles (64 km), the Volt is powered by electrical energy stored in its on-boardlithium-ion batteries which are charged by connection to an electrical power outlet. The Volt's 16 kWh (8.0 kWh usable) lithium-ion battery pack can be fully chargedSAE J1772[8] compliant charging cord. Charge by plugging the car into a 120-240VAC residential electrical outlet using the provided harging station will be required.[9] Unlike most current commercially available hybrid electric vehicles, the actual propulsion of the Volt is accomplished exclusively by the electric motor.
-Thanks Wikipedia.Right side: the gasoline-powered engine used as generator to recharge the batteries. Left side: the electric-powered engine used for traction.
A typical test drive video
The classic car television show talks about the volt.
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