Efficient Small Business

If you've been looking for a program to create brochures and flyers, look no further than Google Slides! This member of the Google Docs family is designed for presentations, but it's easy-to-use drag & drop functionality make it perfect for designing small scale marketing collateral. In this video tutorial, I will show you tips and tricks to give your brochures a professional touch using this free online program. How to create a professional brochure with Google Docs: As you can see, Google Slides makes it very easy to create beautiful marketing content. When you are finished with your brochure, you can download it as a JPEG or SVG. Are you getting the most out of the programs your business is using? Find out by taking our free online Evaluation.

Many small businesses utilize online surveys to learn about their customers. Surveys are a great way to get direct feedback about your products, services, and customer satisfaction. If you have ever used an online survey, you may know there is no shortage of free options for creating them. However, these are usually “freemium” - meaning their free version restricts access to certain functions unless you pay. But what if you’re on a budget, and you don’t want to work around a bunch of restrictions? Google Forms to the rescue! Here’s what you need to know about Google Forms: It’s Free! Google Forms is a completely free online form that is available to all Gmail users. Unlimited Form Responses (Sort of) Technically, there isn’t a limit on form entries. However, if you are connecting your responses to a Google Sheet, accepting more than 100k responses may pose an issue (this number varies greatly, depending on the number of questions in your form). You also have the option to downloa...

If you use spreadsheets to hold customer, you have probably wanted send emails or text messages directly from your spreadsheet. If you haven’t wanted to, maybe you do now! In this two-part video tutorial, I will show you how make a Google Sheet send an email or text message at the click of a button. In Part 1 of the Employee Database tutorial, I explain how to format your Google Sheet.   Part 2 explains how to use Google Apps Script to automate sending emails and text messages directly from your spreadsheet. Click here to access the sample sheet. Script: function topRow() { var rowNum = 8; // Row 7 is the actual top row, but it is being skipped, so new rows will copy the data validation rules   return rowNum } function menuRow() { var rowNum = 6; // Column title row   return rowNum } function eSubject() { var cellAddr = "F1"; // Cell address   return cellAddr } function eMessage() { var cellAddr = "F3"; // Cell address...

In “Where Is Your Money Going (Part 1)”, I touched on three of the most common areas where small businesses throw away money. In Part 2, I will give a brief overview of three of the more unknown areas in which small businesses throw away money. Service/Software Installation When you begin using a new software or online service, the company you hire will typically provide onsite or remote assistance to get you up and running with their product. However, when this new service has replaced an old service, the new support team will not help you deactivate or unsubscribe from your previous service.  Many small businesses get caught up with with the transition and onboarding process (and a million other things), and forget about their previous expense. Unless this is a large monthly expense, it frequently goes unnoticed. Service Subscriptions: Multiple Purchasers This is probably the sneakiest way money disappears, because it’s looks like a completely legiti...