BusyWomenDirect

As part of my process of deciding how to move forward in my professional life, I am reviewing some of my old notes and articles. Here’s one I still really believe in and want to share:

Save Money and Your  Exercise Your Brain – June, 2009

We have all heard these two  statements: “The brain is a muscle and needs to be used” and “If I only could do that myself, I could save a lot of money”.  Learning new things keeps our brains actively exercised and saving money is important when you own a small business, so let’s talk about combining these two activities .

If you’re not a computer person, get yourself an old fashioned steno notebook.  Keep your notes ALL in there, use one side only and when that side is done, flip the notebook over and start on the other.  When the notebook is full, date it, and put it away.  I’ve got notebooks from last year and refer to them often to find things I knew I had.

To organize your notes on your computer, start by preparing an “Instructions folder” on your computer.  You can do this either in your email program or in the root directory of your computer or, To add an instructions folder to  Outlook or a similar program go to “Inbox” , right click, click New Folder, title your folder “Instructions”.  When you close, you’ll see that Outlook now has it’s own place to keep all those little notes that people give you about how to do this and how to do that.  Now, you can simply drag any emails containing instruction into this folder so   you can review them in the future.  If your email program doesn’t have a similar feature, to create a folder on you computer, you can add one to My Documents by right clicking in the document box and  selecting “New”,  “Folder”.  Of course, I’m a PC, so if you are a Mac, you are on your own!

Now that you  have your folder  (I also keep a printed version in a 3 ring binder), what kind of information should  you save?  Every tidbit, morsel, and long description of anything you would like to repeat in the future.  Unlike other professionals who like to keep secrets, people who work at their computers all day will gladly spend lots of time explaining to you what they did and how they did it, so take notes and keep them.  Also, be willing to share you own information.  The more you give to others, the more they will give back.

Here’s a great example of using stored information.  I needed a new Twitter page and am just learning how to create graphics properly, but I remembered someone telling me the sizes need for a Twitter page and found that in my instructions folder.  It came from a simple email with a colleague.  Armed with this information, I decided to use my brain to figure out the rest.  About an hour later I had a twitter page and I had step-by-step instructions of how I did it.  That information is now printed in my notebook, documented in my instructions file and ready to use the next time I want a new Twitter page or someone else does. By the way, feel free to tweet me at Celebrationz4U on Twitter and I’ll gladly share any information I have with you!

Here’s the key secret to making this work…ask questions.  If you are asked to send a graphic to someone, ask: What size do you need?  What resolution?  What format?  Questions like these give you keywords to explore when finding instructions on how to do something. Then Google the info and you’ll be amazed what you find. Don’t be afraid to try something new, you’re a businesswoman and a mom, you can do anything and learn new things every day, saves money and exercises your brain.  When you are speaking with someone with whom you have developed a rapport, ask “What does your job entail?”  Let them know you are interested.  Tell them what you do extremely well at and offer  to share information.  You’ll be surprised at what great info you’ll get and, as a side benefit, what good friends you’ll make.

New footnotes: Over the years since I wrote this as new website owner, I’ve come to learn one other important lesson…do what you are best at..if the job entails some skill you know you just haven’t mastered, hire someone to do it.  In the end, it’s much cheaper!