Category Archives: Money Saving Tips

Lessons Learned from an Email Hacker

  By E.T. Barton | January 17, 2012 - 10:11 pm | Fighting Fraud, Internal Controls, Money Saving Tips
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Last week, I was the victim of an Email Hacker.  For the first time in 12 years of having my Yahoo , someone managed to get in and change my email password.  As I tried frantically for days to get control of my account back, I realized that I had made several small mistakes that – if I had known better – could have prevented the nightmare it quickly became.  You see, not only do I have a Yahoo email account, but I also have Yahoo Messenger, a Yahoo Website, a secondary Yahoo email, the customized Yahoo Page, but I am also on many Yahoo groups.  And while I LOVE Yahoo because everything can be accessed via one email and one password, you can imagine how frantic I was to suddenly not be able to contact anyone I know and tell them what happened.  Here’s what I learned, and what … Continue reading →

Lesson Learned: A Faster Way to Setup A New Computer

  By E.T. Barton | December 20, 2011 - 9:23 pm | About, Case Studies, Lessons Learned, Money Making Tips, Money Saving Tips, Step-by-Step Instructions
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This past weekend has been yet another eventful “Lesson Learned the Hard Way” weekend.  This weekend, I had my laptop die an untimely death.  To say it was unexpected would be a lie.  I saw the signs; I knew it was going to stop working for me sooner rather than later.  Thus, at the first sign of serious trouble, I began to think of laptops I have loved and lost over the years.  As I did, I suddenly realized a very disturbing fact:  I have gone through four laptops in nine years. As you can imagine, I was not delighted by this realization.  I was in fact, a bit aggravated.  Although my last computer lasted just shy of four years, I felt it had not been nearly long enough.  Since my computers have never had a virus before, and since I  am gentle with my computers and never, ever drop … Continue reading →

The SpongeBob SquarePants School of Business

  By E.T. Barton | November 28, 2011 - 10:42 pm | Case Studies, Getting Customers, Increasing Profits, Money Saving Tips, Small Business Advice, Spotlights
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  Okay, I have a confession to make:  I am a Mom.  Even worse, I am a Mom with a Toddler.  What that means is that as a “Mom with a Toddler,” I know all the words to “Elmo’s World.”  I also know how to “Do the Pigeon” and that “C is for Cookie” (which is good enough for me).  I know how to read Dora’s map, and I know Hannah Montana’s true identity. What’s more… I know “who lives in a Pineapple under the sea.” Why do I know these things, you may wonder? Well, as any Moms with Toddlers will tell you, having a toddler means having some cartoon playing over and over and over again on the TV.  For a mom, that means no matter how much you try ignore your children or their shows, bits of information tend to sneak into your subconscious until suddenly you’ve … Continue reading →

BOOKKEEPING MONEY-SAVING TIP # 2: Use a Rewards Credit Card

  By E.T. Barton | November 21, 2011 - 10:24 pm | Money Saving Tips
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In Bookkeeping Money Saving Tip # 1 – Skip the Checks, it was recommended that Small Business Owners (SBOs) use checks as little as possible.  Not only do checks cost money to purchase and replace, but they also cost bookkeepers a lot of data entry time.  The better tool to use in lieu of checks is debit cards.  Debit cards take directly from the checking account, just like a check would, but the debits are better for fraud prevention, record keeping, and downloading into certain bookkeeping programs (like ). ON THE OTHER HAND, over-usage of debit cards can be a mistake if the checking account balance is not kept up to date.  The smaller the business, the less likely it will be that a checking account balance will be watched closely.  Therefore, the best idea when it comes to managing payments and expenses is to forego the debit card in … Continue reading →

Why You Should Invest in QuickBooks

  By E.T. Barton | October 24, 2011 - 9:30 pm | Money Saving Tips
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There’s a saying in Mary Kay that I’ve always lived by.  To paraphrase, the saying goes, “Don’t waste dollars on penny projects.”  If you’re a Small Business Owner (SBO), this phrase for you would mean, spend your time on the things that will make the most money for your business (like sales).  Bookkeeping is often one of those things that won’t make you nearly as much as what you do best.  Plus, it can be delegated to someone else who will do it faster and cheaper.  In effect, an SBO who does the data entry on their own books is spending dollars when they could be spending pennies to hire the work out. Yet having said that, an SBO does not necessarily need to hire a bookkeeper to do their books, especially when there is a program like on the market.  QuickBooks can actually do much of a small business’s … Continue reading →