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JoshCork
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Posts by JoshCork
Canon ImageFORMULA P150 Portable Duplex Document Scanner
01 year ago
In case you don’t know, I love Costco! I shop there almost every week to feed my addiction. If you are wondering what that has to do with small businesses, then you must not have a membership. Many small businesses shop at Costco to find great deals on office supplies (another one of my addictions) and everything you never knew you always wanted. Needless to say, you can always find a good deal at Costco. Some businesses do prefer Sam’s Club, but don’t even get me started on the difference between the two. We are going to start featuring a new item from Costco every week. I know, another reason for me to go there. The items will be in store or online, but we will make sure we mention it. Here’s our first item. Enjoy!
Canon ImageFORMULA P150 Portable Duplex Document Scanner
$264.99
This items is available online and here are the specs from Costco’s website:
The imageFORMULA P-150 personal document scanner’s compact size, simple use, and advanced feature-set liberates document capture by taking it beyond the walls of the office to the convenience of any user location. The P-150 scanner combines practicality, productivity, and value in a sleek, mobile design.
Scanning Modes:
- Black and White, Error
- Diffusion, Advanced
- Text Enhancement II,
- 256-level Grayscale,
- 24-bit color, Auto color
- Detection
Other Features:
- Auto Page Size
- Detection, Custom Color
- Dropout / Enhance Color,
- Deskew Pre-Scan
- Function, Prevent Bleed
I have been wanting a portable scanner for a while now and this one might be the one I go with. It looks very portable because it folds up easily and weighs 2 lbs. While this is not the smallest scanner on the market, it does have more features and an automatic feeder. One thing that I am excited about, is scanning directly into Evernote on my Mac. How great is that! Of course, it is also compatible with Windows. You don’t even need a power cable for it, it uses the power from your usb port…gotta love having one less cables to carry around.
I’ve been considering a portable scanner so I can easily scan in receipts, client mock ups and client paperwork. (We could all use less paperwork in our life) Yes, of course I have that all in one printer that lets me scan things in. I just can’t take it to client meetings and scan in the contract, then hand the client his copy right there. That is a real time saver for me! I am sure a small business web development company isn’t the only business that could use this.
Ok, so I had to check….is Costco the lowest price around?? It is close, but Amazon beat it. Here is the link to the product on Amazon. It also has good reviews on Amazon and PC Mag. If you have one, let us know what you think in the comments.
Manage Your Company’s Image on Google Places
01 year ago
by JoshCork
in Saving Money
Now Google Places lets you respond to reviews for your company. Customers have been able to write reviews of companies for a while now, but Google recently started allowing businesses to respond back. Yeah!! Applause!!! This is great news for businesses. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Google Places, it is the business listing tied to Google Maps. Now you can manage your image on one of the most popular map sites. (This is the only map site that I use) All you have to do is verify that you are the owner of the business in Google Places and you will notice a link under each review to “Respond Publicly as the Owner”. It is that simple, but here are instructions on responding to reviews in Google Places, if you would like the Google version. If you are wondering how to verify that you are the business owner in Google Places, click here. .
It would be easy if customers just used 1 website to write those reviews, but unfortunately that doesn’t happen. Here are some other sites that you may know – Yelp, Kudzu, Angie’s list, and Service Magic. Since I am the owner of a small business web development company, I like to see what customers are saying about us. I do a Google search for CORIS WebDev every month to see if our company’s name has popped up on a new review site and or mentioned in an article. I recommend you do the same, you don’t want to have a bad review out there turning potential customers away for you, since we all know how a bad review can affect business…managing your company’s image on the web is tricky. I just make sure that I don’t read too much into what the customer is saying and remember to keep it professional. It never looks good if you get into a shouting match with a customer online. I like Mike Blumenthal’s take on responding to negative reviews here.
Make sure that your company is listed in Google Places, so your customers have another place to make their rave reviews about you!
Need to Focus on a project? Use the Pomodoro Technique!
11 year ago
by JoshCork
in Small Business
Courtesy of @ wwarby
Small business web development isn’t the easiest thing in the whole wide world, and with all this technology and good content to read on the web it’s easy to get distracted! A technique we use here at CORIS to do our small business websites development is “The Pomodoro Technique”. We’re happy to share this technique with you to help you get more done every day! The Pomodoro Technique can really help you make progress on your tasks or projects. This is great for those of us that are constantly bombarded with emails, projects, meetings and tasks. (who isn’t these days?) This is actually the opposite of multi tasking…focus on a single task to make progress. This sounds so simple, yet it can be really hard to do when you are being pulled in so many directions. More specifics after the break… (more…)
Create Manageable Goals Using Goal Minimums
01 year ago
by JoshCork
in Small Business
Photo courtesy of @eflon
Feeling guilty about not accomplishing your New Year’s resolutions or goals? Then perhaps you need to use Goal Minimums to get things done. This is simply finding the minimum amount of work on a goal that will make you feel like you are making progress toward your overall goal. Let’s say you have a goal to write a book. The goal minimum would be to write for 15 minutes 3 times a week. This may help those of us who can’t find the motivation to even start on a goal because it seems too large or too much of a commitment. I have found that small business web development keeps me busy and leaves little or no time to work on the non-pressing issues and personal goals. This technique seems promising since it will give the feeling of accomplishment, without necessarily finishing the goal.
This new twist on goal setting will break down the goal into manageable chunks without limiting what you can accomplish. You might want to work on the book for an hour instead of 15 minutes because you are on a roll. It is really all up to you. Goals no longer have to seem unreachable. Check out this article from Lifehacker for more on goal minimums.
Social Networking Tips That Every Small Business Should Use
01 year ago
by JoshCork
in Small Business
Social Networking is the craze right now. Being “social” online can help you get customers and improve your relationship with existing customers. Here are a few tips from Bloomberg Businessweek on being social, check out the full article here.
1. Use the Right Social Networking Outlets: Make sure you are using the best online social networking outlets for your customers, whether it is Facebook, Foursquare or Twitter. (Don’t be afraid to use all of them and more!) Chances are you already have existing customers out there waiting to find you!
2. Blog it and Get Fans: Having a blog on your site adds benefit to customers and gives them a reason to return to your site. Having quality content on your website will also help you get ranked higher on search engines, like Google. Creating a Fan Page in Facebook gives your customers more visibility to you and makes it easier for them to spread the word about you.
3. Make Time to Be Social on the Web: This is just as important as staying on top of your regular work, but much more fun! Make sure you are regularly updating your online outlets, this will show customers and potential customers that you care and will most likely improve the chances of them using you.
Don’t be afraid of social networking, customers will like seeing you out there! The setup is easy and keeping tabs on social networks can be easy if you use one of these tools to update them all at the same time - Tweetdeck, Seesmic, Ping.fm, or Hootsuite. These will definitely save you time! Don’t forget to let your customers know you are out there by adding feeds or links to your website. We have seen with small business web development that it always helps to have another advertising outlet to draw in customers. So happy tweeting, posting, and checking-in! We will see you out there!
Small business owners faced with a tough choice this is an interesting technique to help!
01 year ago
by JoshCork
in Small Business
Now this one sounds silly… but it’s absolutely true, a University of Michigan study exploring how physically washing your hands with soap and water can help you feel better about a tough decision you’ve just had to make. We know that as small business owners you’re faced with tough choices every day, choices that you feel the consequences of in a very direct way. We have seen our share of tough decisions while doing small business web development too.
photo courtesy of @helga
Lots more detail by way of the NPR Podcast after the break, click more to read (and listen) on.
Use technology to find the cheapest gas around town for your small business! [Money Savers]
01 year ago
by JoshCork
in Saving Money
If you’re a small business with employees that travel around town going from place to place doing the hard work you provide to your customers then keeping reading… I’ll walk you through how to use this technical tip to save your small business $700 per year!
Our new website….
01 year ago
by JoshCork
in Small Business
Our new website is now up and running! We’re so excited! We’ve got lots of new information out there including a small business blog! The small business blog is something that we’re very excited about. The small business blog will be featuring technology centric articles for small businesses. The posts will vary but there will be a high emphasis about new technologies and how it can be used to increase efficiency and cash flow for small business! Please leave us any comments, feedback, or suggestions in the comments section below on our new site and what you think! Looking forward to working with all of you!
Thanks!
L&J
Putting Gmail to Work for Your Business
01 year ago
by JoshCork
in Small Business
We love gmail here at CORIS WebDev! We use it all the time in our small business web development work and personal life. The Official Gmail Blog recently had a post “10 Tips for using Gmail at Work“. This article has some great ways to incorporate gmail into your work life and make things easier. Some of the Gmail tips that I use all the time that are real timesavers are manage multiple email accounts from a single interface, set up custom “From” addresses and labels. Check out the article for more information on how to use these features or fill out the Contact Us form to get some 1 on 1 training. This is a good article for beginner Gmail users as well as seasoned pros, you never know when you may learn something new!