DeKalb County Brown Bag Links

A warm welcome to all the folks who braved the cold weather to hear me speak at today's Dekalb County Brown Bag Luncheon. I met many entrepreneurs -- from start-ups to seasoned pros -- and was impressed with the talent and commitment they exhibited. Best of luck to all of you with your business ventures. We hope to see you back here on the blog from time to time. As promised, here is a listing of the web sites we discussed today:

MARKETING TOOLS:
•E-mail management and marketing: http://www.ConstantContact.com
•Polls/customer surveys: http://www.surveymonkey.com/
•Cheap photos for marketing pieces (coupla’ bucks a piece): http://www.iStockPhoto.com
•Full-color printing: http://www.PrintingForLess.com (ask for the Red Team)
•Quick, cheap printing (quality not great): http://www.OvernightPrints.com
•Fun, quirky printing: http://www.Moo.com
•Custom, cultural, and theme invitations and event paperie: http://www.KembaCelebrations.com
•Shirts, tote bags with your logo (small quantity): http://http://ocs.landsend.com/corpsales
•Edible greeting cards: http://www.EdiblesInc.com
•Custom cookies: http://www.LadyFortunes.com
•Chocolate business cards: http://http://SchottChocolateImages.com/
•Cheap mugs: http://www.DiscountMugs.com
•Custom containers, notepads: http://www.TheMacBethCollection.com
•Last-minute gift ideas: http://www.RedEnvelope.com
•Business networking: http://www.LinkedIn.com
•Social networking (find relevant groups):
http://www.Facebook.com
http://www.Ning.com
http://http://www.meetup.com/cities/us/ga/atlanta/ (MeetUp Atlanta) (MeetUp Atlanta)
•Naming tools: http://http://www.wordlab.com/tools/t_index.cfm

OPERATIONS TOOLS:
•Simple project management tool: http://www.BasecampHQ.com
•Quicker surfing: Google Toolbar http://http://toolbar.google.com/T4/index_pack_xp.html
•Easier bookmarking: Google Bookmarks http://www.google.com/bookmarks/
•Directory assistance on the run (free): Google SMS (text message) http://http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/mobile/sms/
•Create PDF files (free): http://www.pdf995.com
•Conference calls (almost free): http://www.MrConference.com
•Legal advice and forms: http://www.LegalZoom.com
•Productivity advice: http://http://suiteminute.blogspot.com/
•Online continuous data backup (cheap): http://www.Carbonite.com
•Restaurant reservations (quick): http://www.OpenTable.com
•Discount furniture, supplies, office space: http://http://atlanta.craigslist.org/
•Web-based accounting: http://www.QBOE.com (QuickBooks Online Edition)
•Plan your route:
http://www.MapQuest.com
http://www.GeorgiaNavigator.com
•Best deal on cell phones: http://www.Sprint.com/SERO
(need an employee e-mail to access the site: email me and I'll send you one)
•Web site traffic reports and analysis (free): http://www.google.com/analytics/
•Free website (domain name, hosting, branded e-mail, design tools): http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/officelive/default.aspx
(Microsoft Office Live)

Make Life Easier: Get 15% off at Red Envelope

We often recommend RedEnvelope.com for last-minute client gifts. If you're looking for great holiday or end-of-year gifts, we just found a code for 15% off at Red Envelope. Just type in this code at check-out: BDEAL15. It expires 12/31/07. Happy Shopping!

http://www.redenvelope.com/

Super Tuesday -- Super Links

I'm speaking at the Atlanta Business League's annual "Super Tuesday" event 9/25. I've promised to post a list of the web sites I referenced during my talk. The topic is technology to grow and manage your business. I've broken the links into tools we use on the marketing side and tools we use on the operations side. Hope you all find this helpful. Regular readers of our blog will recognize some of these as we've blogged on their usefulness before!

Marketing Tools

•E-mail management and marketing:
–www.ConstantContact.com
•Polls/customer surveys:
–www.SurveyMonkey.com
•Cheap photos for marketing pieces (coupla’ bucks a piece):
–www.iStockPhoto.com
•Full-color printing:
–www.PrintingForLess.com (ask for the Red Team)
•Quick, cheap printing (quality not great):
–www.OvernightPrints.com
•Fun, quirky printing:
–www.Moo.com
•Shirts, tote bags with your logo (small quantity):
–http://ocs.landsend.com/corpsales
•Edible greeting cards:
–www.ediblesinc.com
•Custom cookies:
–www.LadyFortunes.com
•Chocolate business cards:
–http://schottchocolateimages.com/
•Last-minute gift ideas:
–www.RedEnvelope.com
•Business networking:
–www.LinkedIn.com
•Social networking (find relevant groups):
–www.Facebook.com
–www.Ning.com
–http://www.meetup.com/cities/us/ga/atlanta/ (MeetUp Atlanta)

Operational Tools

•Simple project management tool:
–www.BasecampHQ.com
•Quicker surfing:
–Google Toolbar
•Easier bookmarking:
–Google Bookmarks
•Directory assistance on the run (free):
–Google SMS (text message
•Create PDF files (free):
–www.pdf995.com
•Conference calls (almost free):
–www.MrConference.com
•Legal advice and forms:
–www.LegalZoom.com
•Productivity advice:
–http://suiteminute.blogspot.com/
•Restaurant reservations (quick):
–www.OpenTable.com
•Discount furniture, supplies, office space:
–http://atlanta.craigslist.org/
•Web-based accounting:
–www.QBOE.com (QuickBooks Online Edition)
•Plan your route:
–www.MapQuest.com
–www.GeorgiaNavigator.com
•Web site traffic reports and analysis (free):
–Google Analytics
•Free website (domain name, hosting, branded e-mail, design tools):
–http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/officelive/default.aspx (Microsoft Office Live)

Make Life Easier: Priceline and Hotwire Forum

This site won't win any design awards, but if you're looking for serious insider help getting the best hotel rates, you won't care what the site looks like. My hubby and I are planning a trip to NYC for our anniversary and I was coming up short with my usual research; the room rates in NY right now are sky high. Googling away, I found this site called BetterBidding.com. If you like to use Hotwire (and I do), they have all kinds of cheat sheets to help you figure out which hotels match up with your Hotwire search results. You can then go check those hotels out on TripAdvisor or another review engine and see if it's a decent place. And if you still can't figure it out, post a request for help on the boards and you'll get very useful tips, rates, and links. It's like having a travel agent who really knows how to "game the system." Be sure and use the links they provide you; this guy makes his money through the referrals.

Priceline and Hotwire Forum on BetterBidding.com

Make Life Easier: Create PDF Files For Free

Need to create a PDF file but don't want to pay for the full version of Acrobat? Not to worry. The kind folks at Mashable have put together a list of free tools you can use. I downloaded PDF 995 and it's working great for me. There is a slightly annoying box that pops up when you create a PDF that asks if you want to sign up for the paid version but it's easy enough to get rid of.

read more: PDF Toolbox: 40+ Tools to Rip, Mix and Burn PDFs

Make Life Easier: Talk to a Real Human

Sometimes, it's frustrating to get nothing but Voice Mail Jails when calling a company. Worth bookmarking, this tool gives you the numbers and prompts to get to a real person. Hope this makes your life easier!

Talk to a Real Person Cheat Sheet

Make Life Easier: OpenTable.com

Welcome to our new feature, "Make Life Easier." From time to time, we'll post links to tools we find particularly useful. Stuff that has made our lives easier, like OpenTable.com. OpenTable is the reservation system used by lots of restaurants in major markets like New York, San Francisco, and Atlanta. You can go online and search for a restaurant with an open reservation at the time you'd like. It's the fastest, easiest way to find an opening that we know of. And OpenTable preserves your information so all you need to do is login, click around to find the restaurant and time you like, and submit your reservation. They'll even record notes to the restaurant if you wish ("this is a surprise birthday celebration; can you bring a dessert with a candle in it?").

It's taken years for OpenTable to build their restaurant database. (Read more here at the New York Times.) Restaurants resisted the technology at first, but they love it now. They're able to record a diner's preferences on where to sit, dietary requests, etc., which enhances their ability to provide superior customer service. It's a win-win for all and it's our pick for a service that Makes Life Easier.