Nothing gives me the heebie jeebies more than the thought of losing our business data. I was in Dallas in the middle of June at a conference when I got a call from one of our staff members, he was standing outside our office and saying “The front door is smashed, we’ve been broken into.” [...]

Spring has arrived and you know what that means. Clean out the shed, trim the bushes and repair the sprinklers. Yes, I woke up to the beautiful sound of birds chirping and the site of blue skies and oh yeah, the “honey do list.” If you are a home owner you know all too well [...]

Understanding and documenting your network is the first step in saving yourself money and time when problems arise or when considering bringing in an outside consultant. Many people don’t understand why they should document their network environment, the simple answer is that you run reports on your business to help you make informed decisions, this [...]

Before hiring a consultant or making internal decisions concerning technology, it’s important to understand and document your network environment. Doing so will help eliminate frustration and save money. So, when beginning this evaluation, there are some things to take into consideration: control, location, equipment, and software. Working with networks is all about control. It’s important [...]

LinkedIn, the social network for business people and can be more beneficial than Facebook and Twitter for a business owner. LinkedIn is a social network with profiles, groups, events, and discussion boards designed for professionals to network together. A LinkedIn profile can be broken down into five main sections: a synopsis, a summary of what [...]

This is a post I’m sharing from my friend Chris Brogan. Originally published on chrisbrogan.com and in My Office Today print edition 2009. Chris Brogan is an eleven year veteran of using social media and both web and mobile technologies to build digital relationships for businesses, organizations, and individuals. Chris speaks, blogs, writes articles, and [...]

While technology affords us new learning opportunities like webinars, webcasts, and video conferencing, the art of personal interaction and the benefits of sharing in common groups are being lost. Nothing can replace the feeling of sharing goals, ideas, and solutions with those who understand our problems, frustration, and needs.While we need the large conferences and [...]

One way to empower productivity is internal instant messaging. There are a lot of benefits to internal instant messaging, like improving communication, and archiving historical data. Internal messaging prevents outside access to your network. This improvement in communication comes from the ability to talk to other people in different areas of the office. This also [...]

Recently my wife and I became “empty nesters” and I have been reflecting on some of the neat things my kids brought into our home besides the high volume and constant activity. A couple of things that our youth forced into our homes were MP3′s, iTunes, the social media craze, and phone texting. With some [...]

Let’s be honest, when it comes to security and our data we could all be more fastidious about it. It’s not that we don’t understand the need for it but we just don’t want to deal with it. The sheer technical prowess required to understand encryption is rather daunting and governing officials are urging us [...]

I just got another privacy notice from one more vendor in the mail. When I think of how easy it would be to steal my mail and my confidential data spreading everywhere it makes me nervous, and yet another notice arrives in my mail and this one has my entire credit card number on it. [...]

Did you know that every time you hold a staff meeting more than half of what you have said has already been forgotten before the meeting is over? If you’re wondering to yourself why your staff members have forgotten so much information, you might be surprised that it has more to do with human nature [...]

Why change the way I track tax work through the office? Isn’t the manual system better? If it ain’t broken don’t fix it! I have heard these and many other sayings over the years and it never surprises me, because Accountants, like many of us, don’t like change. If you are using a manual system [...]

Many owners have considered removing such luxuries as the “coffee break” to help curb lost productivity. There is a guilty culprit to lost productivity, and it’s not the coffee break. The following will describe a workplace environment we know all too well. In a firm that has multiple staff members, delegation and management for the [...]

There are many traditional methods for transferring confidential data like email, online storage, mail, pickup, and an online service. But with the advent of increased bandwidth more businesses are choosing to take their client’s confidential data online. Putting client’s data online comes with many challenges and choosing the wrong solution can put your practice at [...]

There are many ways to communicate to those in our department, office, our clients, and vendors but it has become increasingly difficult to manage the most effective ways to communicate. Here are some of the most common problems and best practices to have more efficient communication. Let’s take a look at the many elements to [...]

What the Right Practice Management Suite Can Do for You? Practice Management Suites come in many flavors but how do you find the right one for you? My Office Today interviewed Toni Springer, owner of Toni B. Springer, CPA, with an office of six employees. Toni looks to Office Tools Professional to help her run [...]