I just learned of a tool that helps you in those cases when you are trying to mail or post HTML code. It is called HtmlEscape.

Sometimes the special characters are problematic. HtmlEscape contains tools for handling special characters and unicode characters.

They have unicode charts that serve as a quick reference guide for looking up a special character. There are examples of the character, the escape code, hex code, utf-8 code and shows if the character is a part of the most common fonts for the web. There are more than 50,000 different characters in unicode.

All the tools are “paste in your text and get a result immediately” and the escaping is done without submitting to a server. In the example below I pasted in the code for a past newsletter, escaped the code and then pasted it back into Dreamweaver. It works beautifully. I am in a few WordPress forum and they suggest using this tool when pasting in code for troubleshooting.

Just another one of the many web tools that I had never heard of.

Freedom. What does that mean for you?

Freedom shows itself in many ways. One of the freedoms that is evolving for me is the freedom to choose what it is I want to do in my business. I used to struggle with the thought of specializing – how cool would it be to do it all but that is not reasonable and in a sense, it represents freedom lost.

To me, freedom is not sitting on the beach with a drink in one hand and a novel in the other. I see freedom as doing what I love with the flexibility to take care of my family and myself – the master of my universe

When you try to do it all, you either never get really good at anything or you are so stressed out having to work much harder to keep up with everything. Work feels like a burden rather than something that you love doing. Resentment sets in. Freedom lost!

It takes having some wide open time to go from churning through things to being completely creative and unique. Your brain is working so hard at getting through the tasks. We need to be quiet, go for a walk and all of a sudden, your creative juices start to flow, words appear, ideas come together, possibilities are born.

How do you get freedom? Freedom is choosing to do that work that is uniquely yours where you work in your big-picture brilliance. It is not always about doing the work you are good at. You might be good at QuickBooks but if you want to free up your time to do things that make money in your business, finding someone to do QuickBooks is a good thing.

There are so many great tools available to us and it all seems easy in the beginning to manage ourselves. But if you are like me, the possibilities grow and so does the complexity.

Think about your day, even keep track of where you spend your time for a week. At the end of the week, analyze it as impartially as possible (pretend it is someone else’s) and make suggestions as to where they could free up time and gain freedom so that they can work in their creative brilliance, making money and leaving the other important work to a virtual assistance or business manager.

Here’s to your new-found freedom!!

I just completed a series of newsletters for a client where her feature article was a 7-part series entitled Seven Keys for Rut-Free Living on the Road of Life. She gave an overview of the 7 keys and then each week she went into depth, one key at a time. Rather than creating feature articles and blog posts one at a time, string together a series and take the pressure off of having to come up with fresh content each week.

Also when you find yourself writing a long blog post, look for a way to split it up into two or even three blog posts that are shorter, faster to read and possibly easier for your readers to digest and to put into action in their day.

Also post your newsletter article on your blog and to EzineArticles. It is free to join and it is another great tool for sharing your expertise and getting visitors to your site to sign up for your newsletter. You have written great material – make sure to share it!!

You may think that it is redundant, posting the same content but remember that you want to post it first on your own blog. Google likes to see original content and will give your blog ‘credit’ for new original content. Then send it out to your newsletter list. It is quite likely that they rely on getting your newsletter to read your article and aren’t going to your blog to read it there. They like the convenience of it just appearing in their email on a specific day of the week. Visitors to EzineArticles most likely have never heard of you and are looking for educating new content and if they like your article, will visit your website and become a newsletter subscriber.

Ever wish you could easily capture your Skype video chats, interviews and testimonials.

There is software available to help you do that.

Super-Tintin for PC

Finally, an easy way to record online conversations. Supertintin is a recording tool for online interviews, conferences, lessons, podcasts, or family VoIP calls.

• Both Audio and Video: Record all audio and video streams including Skype voice mail and screen sharing video.
• Easiest to Use: Very easy to record and playback.
• Highest Quality: Supertintin records Skype calls by capturing original media data while making sure there is no data loss. Because it is not a screen-capture recorder, video quality is not affected at all if you open, close, resize messenger windows while recording.
• Picture-in-Picture: Record video in Picture-in-Picture, Side-by-Side, Remote-Only, or Local-Only mode! And you can also record local and remote video as two separate files.
• Saving: Supertintin lets you easily save your conversations to your computer’s hard drive or a portable USB drive, allowing you to re-watch your personal and business conversations as easily as watching your favourite DVD.

Ecamm for Mac

• Simply Simple – Ecamm puts ease of use first. Install Call Recorder and you’ll instantly see recording controls in Skype. Use the Record and Stop buttons, or activate Call Recorder’s automatic recording feature. The recorded files are saved into a folder on your Mac, neatly named with the caller’s name and the date. That’s it!
• Record Video Calls with Picture-in-Picture or Split Screen Mode
• Share Recordings in MP3 Format
• Designed for Mac Users by Mac Users
• Advanced Compression Technology Saves Space
• Try Before You Buy – Not sure if Call Recorder does what you need? Download the free demo version and try it out for 7 days. Purchase only if you like what you see.

You are excited about your business but will its foundation support solid growth? I was watching an “Extreme Elements” cake show on the Food Channel the other day and one of the cake divas was building a 6-foot tall cake. All the cake elements were done and she started stacking the cakes and it quickly became apparent that the base of cake stand was not going to support the growing stack of cakes. She had built beautiful individual cakes but the structure could not hold them all up.

Now I know your business is not a stack of cakes but will its current configuration support all that you want to do down the road?

Maybe when you started your business you did things on the fly, connecting things up and making everything work. As you got bigger and was busier, things started to fall apart because you weren’t able to fix things as easily. It seems easier to just start and fix later but what if you could start with a solid plan that let you build on over and over without having to make any adjustments?

What if you were able to anticipate and plan for growth right at the beginning?

What if you were able to have simple systems in place that help you keep things organized?

What if you were so organized from the beginning that when you hired your first assistant, they were able to take over right away?

Having a solid plan helps everyone around you understand what they can do to help you.

It seems so obvious after the fact but what if you were able to have a system when you first started out?

Planning first helps you decide the organization of your website, planning of your products, how are you going to promote products, how are you going to organize your shopping cart, and so on. Are there things that you could do right from the beginning that would help you understand your business better? Yes there are!

Putting together a metrics system, measuring your conversions and click-throughs. Measure what is working and what needs to be improved. You don’t have to work in the dark.

Building a wide, solid foundation right from the start is the best thing you can do for your business. Many of the great structures in the world have been built on a strong foundation, excepting maybe the Leaning Tower of Pisa and look how much energy it has taken to prop it up. I know that there are entrepreneurs out there who would love to start over with the organization of their business.
What if you were able to do it right from the start?

How would it feel to know that you had started with a vision and sense of growth right from the beginning?

Having an experienced technical virtual assistant on your team will help you build a strong foundation for your business to grow on.

I spent many years in corporations, working in what I thought was the ‘real’ world. I have now joined with the millions of small business owners working to create my dream business without it turning into a nightmare.

There are so many hats to wear when you are working in your own business. Overwhelm builds quickly and there is no relief valve.

First you have to learn what to do and then the how to do it. There are 24 hours in the day and perseverance can only get you so far.

When I look around at bricks and mortar businesses like bakeries and print shops, the owners and investors have spent a lot of money building their store, outfitting it with equipment, staffing it and keeping it going. The owners don’t expect to be the builders, painters, electricians, bookkeepers, cashiers, and cleaners. They can’t run the front counter, repair the equipment and do the bookkeeping. They hire people to help them build their dream.

Why is it when people start an online business, they expect that they can do it all? On one hand, it is easy to get started on the internet. The ongoing costs are extremely low – in fact, your running costs for an online business can cost you less than $1,000/year. But the reality bears down on you. Not only do you have to figure out ‘what’ you are going to do in your business, but then you expect yourself to be able to learn the ‘how’ of your business.

The ‘how’ of your business is complicated and time-consuming. There is a lot to learn, some of it is easy and even then, the intricacies are missed by the newcomer. Some of it you don’t do often enough to learn well enough. That is a vicious cycle that will zap your energy.

Rather than spending time getting to know your ideal clients, being creative with your product offerings and crafting your message, you spend hours fiddling around building a website or figuring out social media. Sure, WordPress is easy to set up and use but is that the best use of your time? Facebook changes so often that even the most seasoned user has a hard time staying on top of developments.

Your time is better spent developing your business and then marketing your business – remember now you are the marketing department as well.
Imagine being able to spend time simply daydreaming and being more creative in your business without having to worry about some of the day-to-day aspects of running your business.

I was speaking with someone the other day and she was frustrated with all the time that she had put in to building her coaching business without having much to show for it. She noted that some of her coaching associates had moved forward quickly because they hired a virtual assistant even in their early start-up days. What a great investment in themselves and their business!

Is your dream growing as fast as you would like? Is there a virtual assistant in your future?

I discovered a few cool tricks using the browser Google Chrome. This is my new go-to browser. Download it here.  It is quick and easy to use. You can type in either the URL you are wanting to go to OR you can type in a Google search into the bar and it will bring up the results from your request.

Another feature is the Split Screen tool. I have found this useful when I work on projects when I need two different windows. For example when I work with MailChimp and ExpressionEngine I can open both applications right next to each other.

You set up your default split screen in Preferences ==> Extensions ==> Options. You choose two pages that you want to open by default and then you can change them to anything after that.

This window comes up (it doesn’t look as pretty) but you choose your two pages.

Then to choose to use the Split Screen option you click on the small icon to the right of the input window (purple arrow) and your split screen will open.

Here is another cool trick I learned using Google Chrome. Say you have two or more tabs open in a window and you want to see two of the screens side by side. You can click on the tab of the screen and drag it outside the window and it will appear in its own window and then you can place it beside the other window. When you are done, you can close it or drag it back into the other window.

You could also do this if you had a bunch of tabs open and only wanted one tab left. Rather than clicking each one closed, you could pull out the tab you wanted to keep and then close the entire window.

Check out and install the Split Screen extension here.

I hope you enjoyed learning today’s techie tip.

I love to cook and I find that cooking is more enjoyable when I am organized. It is great when I have all the ingredients on hand and am able to prepare them in a way that makes the actual cooking part flow nicely. I can have a glass of wine while I cook rather than racing around looking for ingredients, chopping, grating etc.

Mise en Place (pronounced MEEZ ahn plahs) translated means “to put in place”. In kitchen terms, it refers to having all your ingredients ready to go before you start cooking or baking. Taking it further, it also refers to the layout and flow of a kitchen. Commercial and restaurant kitchens need to do this so that they can produce the amount of food they do every day.

Taking it another step, it can more than physical preparation. Again going back to the kitchen, you prioritize and plan the order in which you will make things. You read and re-read the recipe to mentally picture the flow of the recipe. What equipment will you need, where are you going to store it between steps, do you have room in the fridge to store it, do you have a big enough container, etc? Is your pantry organized in a way that adds to the flow? Considering all these questions prior to cooking makes everything flow.

Enough of standing around in your kitchen! The concept of Mise en Place can be easily moved into your business.

What does Mise en Place look like in your business? Is it a 6, 12 or even 18 month plan? Is it having checklists and flow diagrams that map out the processes and procedures in your business? Is it using well-designed launch calendars so that you know when and what you need to be doing at any point in time. Is it having a strategy rather than doing bits and pieces all over the place?

How does Mise en Place feel in your business? Your business flows with ease and grace. You have systems that support your business that give you peace of mind. There are fewer surprises that slow you down or distract you from what is at hand. You are wasting little energy on steering your business. You have a plan and the steering is easier. You know how all the components fit together and you stay focused. Everything you do has a purpose of propelling your business forward. You are able to choose the right strategic partners and to know where you need to put your efforts.

I used to work in high-tech science and I got into the habit of looking at my next day’s schedule analyzing how long each experiment would take, what did I need to have on hand, and I would prepare everything so that my experiments would run smoothly. If something was going to take 6 hours to run I would start it early in the day and then would fill the rest of my day with shorter projects.

I always spent a few minutes at the end of the day planning my next day. I would get things ready in my mind and if necessary get things ready in the lab. I still have that practice in my every day life. I finish up at night, look at my calendar for the next ay and plan how I am going to organize my day so that everything gets done (well, almost everything!). When I wake up in the morning it is reassuring to know that my day is nicely organized.

Although it seems like my day is already set the night before, I am also extremely flexible because I am prepared and organized. I love the feeling of being busy but calm at the same time. I feel like I am in the eye of the storm – lots of stuff going on around me but I am quiet and calm.

Having systems and structures in your business lets you save your energy for creating in your business. Face it, many of the tasks in our business are routine, repetitive and when planned well, take little of our creative energy. Our creativity opens up when we are not stressing the little stuff.

Has this ever happened to you? You sit down and start working on a project. You realize that you need to go one step back and set up something. You get there and you realize that you need to set something up first and so on. Soon a few hours (or days) pass, and you are back where you started, working on your project. Time has flown by and you have spent all that time working backwards getting everything in place. Cindy Morus, an outstanding online business manager and one of my mentors refers to this as the “counter-clockwise syndrome”.

How can you incorporate the concept of Mise en Place into your business?

What one thing could you start doing today that would help to shift the dynamics of your business?

Can you move away from the “counterclockwise syndrome” that zaps your energy and slows you down?

Imagine your business as a well-oiled machine that leaves you time for creativity, giving you the space to build that part of your business that will make you more money and bring you a wonderful sense of joy and accomplishment.

Mise en Place will serve you well in your kitchen and your business.

There are many times when you need to edit a photo – change its size, rotate it, crop it……. and you don’t have software like Photoshop.

Pic Resize is a free service that works wonderfully. You browse to the photo or photos that you want to edit, click Continue and you will see the following screen with all kinds of options. Here I have uploaded a photo of daffodils. I can crop it, rotate it, reduce the photo’s size and apply special effects.

Resizing/manipulating your photo with this tool will give keep the fidelity of your photo and give you the best results. You choose the format for your photo (jpg, gif, bmp, png) and the quality and then click on the “I’m done” button and your photo will be available for download for 20 minutes only. They do not store your photos.

I was interested in learning more about Pinterest and bought Kim Garst’s ebook The Quick and Easy Guide to Branding Your Business and Creating Massive Sales with Pinterest and enjoyed the book but was also very impressed with its look and feel. It was the nicest kindle ebook I had read on my iPad Kindle reader.

I did a bit more research and it turns out that Kristen Eckstein and her team produced Kim’s book (I know Kristen well).

Kristen has a program where she takes your pdf and converts to a lovely Kindle ebook and other formats as well (Nook, iPad & Sony Reader).

• Are you looking for a quality-controlled Kindle formatting team to take your PDF and make it a beautiful Kindle book?
• Have you tried one of those auto-PDF-to-Kindle formatting programs and ended up with a messy Kindle book no matter what you did?

With her PDF to Kindle Digital Publishing program you now have the power to pre-qualify your leads, make more money, and most of all become the go-to expert with increased credibility!

Check out her program here