An easy way to look professional in your new business

Even if your business is just getting started, or perhaps you are only thinking about starting a business, it’s easy to look professional right from the outset.

You can quickly and fairly inexpensively set up your own email address (for example, michelle@mynewbusiness.com.au) and keep a domain name reserved for later setting up your own website.

The first step in this is your domain name – in order to have the end part of your email (the bit after the @) you need to “own” this address which is called the domain name. It is very easy to buy a domain name, but the hardest part is thinking up what your domain name should be and then checking that it is available.

In my book “Technology Made Simple for Start-up Businesses” (you can purchase it here), I provide a number of ways you might think about the name that is best for your business. There will be two uses for your business name.

1. offline uses (business registration, ATO, stationery, business cards, bank, etc) – this is your business name
2. online uses (website, email address, social media, etc) – this is your domain name.

Remember, shorter and more memorable is better than long and complex. It pays to have a few alternatives in mind because not all your choices will be available – like most things, you will probably not be the first to have thought of a particular name. It is also a good idea to start thinking about images that might go with your name. You may not think you’ll need it now and you probably won’t, but if your business goes ahead you will need to be able to build on it to develop a greater profile and presence and further promote yourself.

This post will only deal with how to get your domain name secured, but you should check the advice on the ASIC website about registering your business name (and this is worth doing early so no-one else nabs your name – it can cost as little as $34 for a year and can be completed very simply online).

To check your domain name is available you can start with Go Daddy or Melbourne IT, although there are others. Both offer an easy check of whether your domain is available, and they offer hosting services and website design for when you go live with your website.

You can secure your domain name for a small annual cost (usually less than $15). Once you own the domain name you are free to set up email addresses with that domain name. The above providers offer options to buy one or more email addresses attached to the domain name for a monthly fee (with Go Daddy it’s currently about $7/month), or you can subscribe to Google Apps for Work (currently $5/month/user after a 30 day free trial). Google Apps for Work provides you with connectivity from anywhere so if you’re looking at expanding your team beyond just yourself you can take up extra users at anytime. Both these options will allow you to set-up and use email addresses with your newly purchased domain name. For perhaps an hour of work in registering, setting up and paying and a low upfront cost, you can have your own business email addresses, along with a domain name that you can later use to set up your website!

 

Interview with Deborah Hutton

Recently, Deborah Hutton and I were interviewed on the Today show. If you missed this you can view the video here.

We talked about technology and its effect on our lives, with many people now feeling stressed because they can’t disconnect or “turn off” from their technology. There are many simple ways that you can save yourself time using technology and also reduce some of the stress of feeling constantly on alert for that next email, text or social media update.

Some of my immediate tips include putting your phone in airplane mode at night so that the beeping of messages or the vibration (which even in silent mode can still be heard) don’t disturb your vital rest. Another idea is to leave your mobile phone in your handbag in the back seat of your car – this removes the temptation to answer a call or text while driving. You can still answer your call but you are forced to pull over so at least you are driving safely and not risking fines and demerit points.

Microsoft recently published a paper called Life on Demand: How technology is transforming daily life which looks at some of the ways technology has changed how we live. Through these blog entries I will aim to share with you my thoughts on some of the issues and risks this report raises. I’ll be looking at ways you can guard against technology becoming your master rather than fulfilling its intended purpose which is for us to manage the technology as an effective tool.

What technology do you really need?

A new first for me – I just received my first royalty cheque from my first book online “Technology Made Simple for Start-up Businesses”. It is only a very small amount, but it is none-the-less significant for me as it took me quite a while to work up to the final book and actually get on and get it published.

Among the many issues I address in the book, one of the key things to consider revolves around your choices of technology. If you are starting your own business you will have many decisions to make. Even if you are re-entering the workforce, assessing what items of technology you need is one of the big issues you will grapple with.

Either way, you’ll need to consider whether you invest in a smart phone, an iPad or tablet, perhaps a laptop computer, a printer and the list goes on. All of these physical tools of technology fall under the heading of “hardware”.

Among the items you need to consider when purchasing your hardware, the first question is usually which overarching system you want to go with – Apple/Mac or all the rest. These are some of the considerations for you to think about:

• What system is your past experience in?
• What do you currently have/use?
• What is standard in your industry or profession?
• Do you have any support or someone to help you with the various pieces of hardware?
• And of course, what budget do you have?

After deciding which camp you want to favour, you will need to consider further hardware choices such as internet/Wi-Fi connections, printers, tablets, phones, screen size, memory capacity, cameras and much more.

If you are considering starting your own business my book, “Technology Made Simple for Start-up Businesses”, provides an easy guide and you can purchase it here.

Reducing stress of technology

Following on from my recent interview with Deborah Hutton on the Today show and my promise to share more tips with you on ways you can reduce the stress of technology, today’s topic is around email management.

According to an article by Creel Price (“Is Your Smartphone Making You “Leadership Dumb”, July 28, 2014), many people are suffering from “disorders” based around our inability to disconnect – FOMO or fear of missing out and FONK, fear of not knowing.

For many people this inability to disconnect is perpetuated by constantly receiving emails. Of course there’s Facebook updates, Messenger, SMS and a hundred other apps that keep you connected to people but a lot of business owners or employees also receive their work emails through their smartphones.

So I’m going to share with you my top tips for managing email – so that it is not managing you!

Firstly schedule times when you deal with emails. Even if you work in an office it can be difficult to get on with finishing a job if you are distracted every time you receive a new email. Set several windows during the day when you will review and attend to emails. People will soon get to know these or you could put an “out of office” message or add to your email signature to say something like “So that I may devote proper attention to your request I will review and respond immediately to emails between 10am to 11am and 3pm to 4pm daily. If your email is urgent please telephone me on…”. Unless you are a vital health professional or on call specialist, try to avoid responding to emails after hours – it simply creates an expectation that you will reply instantly.

Make sure you turn off the “you’ve got mail” indicators or put them into silent so that you don’t get immediately alerted whenever a new email arrives.

You can also work offline or in airplane mode. Once an email is in your smartphone’s inbox you can compose a reply at leisure and it will be sent when next you go online or turn off airplane mode. This allows you to work on those emails you need to attend to prepare a considered response without the diversion of a new message coming in that you absolutely have to read before you finish replying to the earlier message!

Another effective tool is to manage your emails using folders. I use four folders – Delete, A_Action, A_File, A_Read) and deal with each email as follows:

• If it can be deleted, it goes straight to the Delete folder
• If it takes less than 2 minutes to deal with, I do it then either Delete it or drag it into my A_File folder (the 2 minute guide comes from David Allen, productivity guru)
• If it is for reading, then it is dragged into my A_Read folder for later reading
• If it is for filing (that is, needs to be kept for later reference or legal requirements) then it is dragged into my A_File folder
• Finally, if it is for action, then it is dragged into my A_Action folder

In this way my Inbox is always empty. I can then disconnect my email account (airline mode or offline as mentioned above) and work on the various folders when I have allocated time in my diary.

Hopefully these tips will help you to disconnect occasionally from your emails, at the same time improving your productivity but without sacrificing your responsiveness to clients or friends.

Key tips
•Schedule times when you read and respond to emails
•Turn off all the bells and whistles that tell you “you’ve got mail”
•Work offline or in airplane mode
•Use folders to organise your emails so your Inbox is always empty.

Do you need the new iPhone?

It’s at this time of year that the technology companies start rolling out heavy advertising campaigns to convince us to buy their latest phone, tablet or other gadget. The cynic in me says they are trying to cash in on our Christmas spending, either for ourselves or as gifts, but of course it could just be this is the time of year they release new models!  So I thought it was timely to share with you how I go about reviewing my technology needs.

I recently did an exercise in assessment of my phone technology. I could of course, have simply rushed out and bought the latest, most expensive model because if I believe all the hype it can do everything for me. However, I decided to actually consider what I use my phone for and then made a decision on the cost-value proposition. I use my phone for the following main activities:
to make calls,

• to synchronise with my calendar, contacts and emails (in that order),
• to be my navigation tool, and
• to be a secondary hotspot device.

Business transactions (eg. banking or invoicing), complex emails and social media I reserve for doing on my home computer or my iPad when I’m away from the office. The small screen (even though they are getting larger each new release) of the phone I find a bit too small for my 50 year old eyes and the keys are too small for substantial typing.

The message in this for you is don’t be tempted to simply rush out and buy the latest release of phone or tablet or other gadget. Sit back, have a coffee and think about what you really need from your technology tools. How do you do business? What do you need your tools to do to help you run your business or life more effectively?  Remember, that technology should help you as a tool not complicate your life or provide you with a hundred “added features” that are useless to you and only add to their cost.

After thinking about what I genuinely need my phone for, rather than spending all my money on the latest smart phone, I got a phone that does what I need it to and had enough left over to buy a new iPad!