FSW Specialists

Reducing Office Clutter

Office clutter is the bane of my existence — and it should be for yours, too.  A mess in the office means that things get misplaced or just downright lost, important documents gets crumpled and spilled on, etc.

So we probably agree that reducing office clutter is a good thing.  But how to go about it?

Eliminating paperwork as much as possible  is one way to go about it.  Paperwork tends to stack up on people’s desks, particularly in inboxes and “to do” stacks.  I think paperwork is probably the biggest cause of office clutter.

Luckily this is the digital age, and it’s not that difficult to switch to a fairly paperless office.  No, you can probably never achieve perfect paperlessness, but you can at least reduce the amount of paperwork — and the amount of clutter — by digitizing the hard copies.

However, you won’t want just a standard little scanner for scanning all of your business documents.  Network attached scanners that can scan pages at a relatively high speed are required — at least, they are if you want to get the job done this century.

You will also need to look into document management software solutions if you have a substantial number of documents to scan and keep track of.  For example, my husband’s workplace has a shared drive where documents are accessed via a special system, so that employees can access the documents at any time and from any computer.

Reducing the amount of paperwork is only the first step in reducing office clutter.  There are other things that can be done — for example, minimizing the number of things employees keep on their desks — but eliminating much of the paperwork is always the first step.

Posted in Technology | No Comments »

Hearing aids improve lives

Hearing aids used to be something that people generally looked down on. If you needed to use an aid in order to hear better but your friends were sure to give you a hard time, you would likely not even bother.

Hearing aids greatly improve the lives of those that need them. Even when the technology involved with hearing devices produced, larger, cluncky wired things, the outcome of their use was almost always much better than not using them.

In today’s modern world, you could very easily be having a conversation with someone you’ve known for years, and not even be aware of the fact they were wearing a hearing aid. The reason for this is that a number of models are situated completely in the ear canal, and out of view for all except those peering directly in.

With the addition of skin tone selections, hearing aids have become virtually invisible to all but the most trained observers. These advancements are all great things because patients who need the devices are now much more likely to get treatment.

When a person with hearing disability finally gets the opportunity to regain some of those lost capabilities, they are usually overjoyed at that occasion.

Posted in Health | No Comments »

Getting Feedback from our Clients

As a business owner, I know that my clients are essential to our business succeeding.  Without them, we would be nothing, and I like to treat them like they are part of my family.  This means that I need to pay attention to their needs and concerns, and try to help them to solve any problems that they might have.

So, it should come as no surprise that I try to get feedback from our customers whenever I can.  Since we run a rental business, we give our computer rental clients a discount if they fill out a survey when they return the equipment.   Most customers are very happy to share their thoughts with us and let us know how we did.

In fact, it was listening to our customers that got us into the audiovisual rental business.  After finding nearly fifty surveys that suggested that we offer such a service, we decided to try it out.  Now, just two years later, it accounts for more than fifty percent of our business.  Without our customers letting us know that we should offer such a service, our business wouldn’t be where it is today.

So, I will be going through the customer feedback from this week today and maybe I will find some inspiration for our next business idea.

Posted in Small Business | No Comments »

Start Free and Work your Way Up

If you’re launching a small business then there are a lot of services that you are going to need. You will have to decide how much you want to pay for these services. In a lot of cases, it’s better to start with the lowest cost option available.

For example, let’s say that you need to get file transfer services for storing and sharing your online information. You should start with free file transfer services since they will probably meet your needs as a small business. If your business grows, you can upgrade to a fee-based FTP hosting service. If it gets even bigger, you can upgrade again and get a business ftp site.

Of course, not all decisions should be made like this. You don’t want to open your business on a bad property or in a cheap neighborhood just because the cost is low. But when it comes to service providers, it’s usually better to start small and see what you need as you grow. You can always spend more money as needed but you can’t get back the money that you spent if you got more than you needed in the first place. Choose providers that have multiple options so that you can upgrade easily as needed.

Posted in Small Business | No Comments »

Getting Rid of Family Heirlooms

One of the things that I never understood about my family was the continuous need to accumulate “treasures”.  I don’t know if it was a genetic condition or if they just learned it from their parents, but my parents bought every good deal that they could find.

I suppose the one condition that it had to have was that it had some sort of resale value.  In the case of my parents, they bought box after box of gold jewelry at any auction sale or garage sale that they visited.  They kept their stash in the attic, and told us that someday we would inherit their collection as the family heirloom.

But after their passing just two weeks ago, I am sitting up here in the attic of their home and missing them.  Even though I do love them, I am just amazed at how many boxes of jewelry they amassed over their lifetime and what I am going to do to get rid of it.

I have found a few places that will pay cash if you are selling gold jewelry and I am curious to see how much it is all worth.  I know that my father would be mad and would ask me “Why would you want to sell my gold”, but none of us children have any room to store all of these boxes.  Besides, the money we make from selling their collection can help our children pay for college and I think that they wouldn’t have a problem with that.

Posted in Personal Finance | No Comments »