If this is your first time here, please consider subscribing by
RSS or by email. Thanks for visiting!

As we know, Leap Year only occurs once every 4 years. This leaves us with an extra day. I remembered how the TV Movie based on the book For One More Day was on several months ago. I however, am beginning this extra day with what I would do if I really had an extra day.

1. Get a massage


2. Sleep for half of the day


3. Walk in a park


4. Show my Great-Grandmother how well I can really cook (when I put my mind to it)


5. Visit my family more


6. Tell my Mom that I love her.

However, my reality today contains work-related meetings and deadlines.

I guess there is always the weekend.

This edition of Ask nextSTEPH covers accepting credit card payments online.

A client of mine asked:

I have a client who wants to pay for a service with American Express. I have a PayPal account. Can you tell me what to do to take credit cards?

My very first client for BeaOrganized (the organization part of my business, who is not a family member) several months ago wanted their address contacts to be transferred from their Windows PC (I am not going to say what version to protect them) to their Mac OS 9 system.

The solution:
Since the PC did not have any USB ports (Did I say I wasn’t going to mention the Windows Version?) I had to think out of the box literally. I got a 1.44MB HD disk (remember those? It wasn’t that long ago) and an external floppy drive for the Mac. I worked on the PC, opened the address book and exported each contact as a vCard (.vcf or .vcard) file.

I’ve installed USB external floppy drive to the Mac and inserted the floppy disk. I then opened the Address Book program on the Mac and the contacts In less than 5 minutes, I’ve imported over 300 entries.

So yes (insert name here), it is possible to transfer contacts from one platform to another.

I was applying for yet another affiliate program. On the registration form there wasn’t an option for “Ms.” in the title field.

It’s 2008 already and women should not have to state whether they are married or not.

If you are in business, are on the web most of the day, and have clients and/or colleagues that have blogs, it is a good idea to subscribe to their blogs.

I have personally subscribe to my clients’ feeds for a few reasons.

1. For coaching purposes. If I haven’t seen a blog post from a client from within a given period of time, I ask them what’s going on and what I can do to help them generate ideas for their blog.

2. For keeping abreast for business. I need to be aware on what’s going on with my clients’ businesses so that I can have some insight on how to assist them in the best way possible.

3. Reputation Management. Who isn’t concerned about their reputation online? I know it seems selfish, but in this day and age, one really needs to have a good grasp of their reputation online. This also include what client may or may not be saying about you and your business.

So in addition to subscribing to you own feeds, as Problogger Darren Rowse wrote a few months ago, it is also a good idea to keep an eye on your clients, and others online as well.

Yesterday, I attended the Small Business Technology Summit in New York City and came back with all kinds of goodies.

Ramon Ray and Marion Banker, did a phenomenal job pulling this together. I feel ashamed that it took me this long to join in on the fun.

Laura Leites, Laura Allen and Adrian Miller also make divine contributions to the summit.

Here are a few quotes that summarized the event:

“.., transparent, candid, quick communication.” – Karen Quintos, VP of Marketing for Small and Medium Business.

“Be clear, concise and compelling.” – Laura Allen, 15 Second Pitch

“Email is not CRM.” – Ramon Ray, SmallBizTechnology.com

Want more? You would of had to been there, but no worries, their there is always next year.

If you are in the U.S. and your worked last year, there is no doubt that you have started to receive tax documents. Whether you are a freelancer or a full-time employee, everyone will have more than their share of W-2s, 1099s, etc. Keeping all organized can be a challenge, but what I have found to be useful is the Tax Planning Organizer. I have personally used this for over 3 years and I can’t begin to say how many headaches it has saved me. Now whenever, I get any tax related document , I just file it and save it. When its time to do taxes, everything is right there.

If you are in the New York Metropolitan Area, I think that’s all that needs to be said. Here’s to getting through the day.

An online newspaper where I get to pick what writers I want to hear from , the stories I want to read and in the format I want to see them.

It’s that time of year again, when most people are getting tax documents by snail mail in order to file taxes for the previous year. However, this time around, I’m a bit excited and nervous at the same time.

This has to be the first year ever that all I’ve gotten was 1099s of one way or another. Of course I’ve been saving as I went along so the sting will not hurt as much. None the less, I do not regret making the decision to go freelance.