Life Of E's

Running a small business, which includes a household (and keeping up with the administrative portion) can get unwieldy in a hurry. If you are starting out and looking for ways to file and organize your business receipts, here are some suggestions: First, be careful not to make this more difficult than it needs to be. [...]

Tags: accounting, bookkeeper, credit cards, Marie Gibson, QuickBooksPro, receipts

There is a dizzying array of domain name extensions (and more will be added this year and every year for the foreseeable future). When you are purchasing your domain names, it’s hard to know which ones to buy – all of them? Just .com? This post shares some ideas for you to consider when you [...]

Tags: .biz, .com, .info, business name, domain, domain names, extensions

Not long ago, one of the women in my mentoring group posted this question on our blog: In addition to your main company, you created Pumpernickel Publishing, LLC.  I recall you mentioning that you separated your publishing company from Emphasis on Excellence, Inc. from a business perspective. I see myself creating a lot of my [...]

Tags: Books, business license, Business-Set Up, credit cards, QuickBooksPro, shopping cart

When you are getting started in business – and as you continue to build your business, you’ll be using plenty of postage. You’ll send direct mail pieces, marketing pieces, correspondence, and the like. You may wonder what your options are for postage (and note, these options apply for those mailing from the U.S., although I’m [...]

Tags: mailing, Pitney Bowes machine, postage, postage options

It takes a village to raise a child and it definitely takes a village (a team) for most professionals in today’s world to function in a peacefully productive way. Consider which of the following people you need to get lined up for your team. Significant other. Do you have a significant other and if so, [...]

Tags: advisor, consultant, support, support staff, team, team members

When you are starting – and growing – a new business, you need support, accountability, and fresh ideas. Being in a mastermind group is one way to get all three. If you’ve ever wondered about the pros and cons of being in a mastermind group or about how to get one started, here are some [...]

Tags: mastermind group, Resources, support

If you are a new small business owner, you might have this question (as did one of our Life of E’s members!): When starting a business, how much letterhead and how many business cards do you think a person should start with? The big “breaks” in cost seem to be at 2000 sheets of letterhead [...]

Tags: branding, business cards, envelopes, letterhead, stationery

During a recent Life of E’s Email Extravaganza, I received this question: Which credit card processing co. do you recommend for your shopping cart?  At this point I am only accepting through PayPal but that may not work for government clients. My response: Here are two earlier responses from the blog on this: http://meggin.com/lifeofes/wordpress/?p=236 http://meggin.com/lifeofes/wordpress/?p=213 [...]

Tags: credit card services, payment options, PayPal

A recent Life of E’s Email Extravaganza yielded the following interaction between a Life of E’s member and me.  Her question will be familiar to many readers: My current company (_______________) is my original brand. I have invested a lot of time/money/energy promoting this brand and it is doing fairly well. It is 100% of [...]

Tags: business development, focus, satisfied customers

The following article is used with permission from Karyn Greenstreet of Passion for Business.  I asked if I could share it because it deserves wide readership and you may not have seen it if you aren’t subscribed to her free newsletter. A strange phenomena has been spreading like a virus over the past few months. [...]

Tags: protection, security, virtual assistant, website designers