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Post from: Eco-Office Gals

Save Huge on Eco-Office Gals Services!

Matt Silverman, Associate Features Editor at Mashable, offers suggestions on some technology investments that small businesses can take that could result in huge long-term savings and decrease the wasteful use of paper products.

Matt recommends that small businesses consider the following software solutions:

• NitroPDF
• PDF995 Printer Driver
• Fax to E-mail Services
• EchoSign Online Contracts
• Online Backup and Record Keeping

Business owners should also consider using one of the technology based tools available for billing, tracking and collections, like AcceptPay from American Express OPEN. For more information on AcceptPay, visit www.acceptpay.com.

See the full article here.

For all the latest headlines, ideas, and insights from the new OPEN Forum follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/OPENForum

Post from: Eco-Office Gals

Guest post: Paperless Office Options

Yes you heard me right.

An analogy for you: I had an ex-boyfriend that would order steaks from Denny’s and then complain every time about how terrible their steaks were.  If you want a good steak don’t go to Denny’s, go to a steakhouse. Go to Denny’s if you want a yum breakfast or piece of pie at 3 am. Likewise don’t hit up a steakhouse if you’re looking for fast food…. get my drift.

Your Virtual Assistant should have a specialty or a niche as the VA industry has seen fit to call it.  That one area they have become the “go-to-gal/guy“.   When I connected with Cristina Favreau on Twitter and saw her bio “I help VAs find their marketing voice, define their niche, get clients! Master at brainstorming.” I knew she was a sure follow.  She not only got the concept “If you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one” she had made it her specialty!  If you are a VA still struggling to find your place I recommend you check her out.

So, What about Eco-Office Gals? We are a Green Virtual Assistant Service. We strive to not only to provide your small business with administrative needs, but we are always looking for the best ways to make us all a little greener. We try to give your small business eco-alternatives to everyday administrative needs. We encourage electronic communications, e-signed contracts, and other earth friendly alternatives. Above all we are paperless. The best you will get out of us print-wise is designing a business card to print in a responsible manner.  We will create a blogsite, an e-newsletter or other e-publications, draft an email or design web advertising for you. If you need letters drafted, hard copy publications, fliers etc. Eco-Office Gals is not a good fit for your Virtual Assistant needs.

Do you have to be a green company to work with Eco-Office Gals?  Not exactly.  However, if your company has no desire to move in a sustainable direction chances are we will not make a good fit from the start and our partnership will be short lived.

So, while you do want your Virtual Assistant to “know it all”… don’t expect to find one that is willing to do it all. If you want a steak cooked to perfection… find good steakhouse.

Grow Green,

Jen

Image courtesy of Dallas Steakhouse Restuarant

Post from: Eco-Office Gals

Don’t Pick A Virtual Assistant that “Does It All”

The economy is taking everyone for all their worth so why not try out a few free or cheap ways to green up your act in the office without hurting the green in your wallet?

The Green Office is giving away some office supplies. Just become a fan on Facebook and comment on their wall.  That’s it, once a week they will pick a winner. Check out details.

How about a HUGE discount on green business cards? I recently connected with PrintingForLess.  They really cover the spectrum of being green if you have to print.  Their standard is to use FSC certified paper, non-toxic ink, wind-powered facilities and more.  For first time clients I can also offer my readers a $25 Off your first order!  Use my referral code RP1D6SEJM and $25 dollars will get knocked off your first order!

I was recently introduced to a new company O’Bon and I am drooling to try a few of their products.  Recycled newspaper pencils, sugarcane paper and more.  You can request to review a product, enter to win or for more immediate gratification they have some great low cost specials.

I have to mention my tried and true favorite, Echosign.  Paperless, e-sign contracts that are SO easy to use. Don’t have too many contracts each month? They offer 5 per month for free.  If that doesn’t cut it you can go unlimited for as low as $14.95 per month.

I couldn’t close this up without offering Eco-Office Gals own green web hosting.  Starting with plans as low as $9.99 per month you can feel good knowing your site is being hosted with 130% wind powered hosting.

So, go ahead and make a few baby steps to grow your small business green without hurting your green.  Every step counts!

Image credit TheCubeKing Blog

Post from: Eco-Office Gals

Green-Up Your Office For Free or Cheap!

So, you’ve had a few days to check out all of the awesome giveaways and sponsors available and I hope you are loving all the prizes as much as I am! There is more to these sponsors then just their products and sponsorships. They’re also doing their own projects or sharing tips to contribute to towards Earth Day and the environment as a whole.

Tara Burner:

Tara Burner of Affordable Mineral Make Up and Go Green Home Makeover, offers a Green Tip everyday to help you grow in your green lifestyle at Green Tip of the Day.

EcoStore USA:

The founder of their company Ecostore New Zealand, Malcolm Rands, is known throughout New Zealand, Australia and Britain as Ecoman! Because he is a true environmentalist who stumbled upon a way of keeping not   only the planet healthier for our families and children as well.Malcolm is here with Ecostore USA for the month of April not only promoting their launch at the MEIJER grocery store chain but Earth Month.  For the next three weeks they have Malcolm on a tour of all five of the states that MEIJER is located in on the ASK ECOMAN tour.

GlassDharma:

GlassDharma is putting their straws where your mouth is. As a small business dedicated to making a difference (without a massive photography, marketing and advertising budget), creativity and generosity were needed. In honor of Earth Month, GlassDharma is giving away 500 straws to those who ask because they are so confident that you will love their line of straws, and help to make GlassDharma a trend that is fabulously functional. GlassDharma is certain that once people use them, they will spread the word…and their straws.

WeeBgreen:

WeeBgreen is going to posting a couple things in recognition of Earth Day this month.

1. They will be attending a “Kids Grow Expo” at the local university campus on April 24th

2. They are also going to start a “vegetable garden” series on weeBgreen.blogspot.com chronicling our garden plans and planting schedule

3. One other thing they’re going to slowly do over time is recycle/upcycle old clothing into new apparel and plush toys (old sweaters become soft play blocks with appliqués, etc).

The Green Path Company:

Green Tip of the Month

This month’s tip has to do with recycling plastic bottles and jugs.  If you are lucky enough to have a recycling program in your city then you probably have a separate recycle trash bin that you toss all your recyclable trash into, including plastic bottles.  Most of us, including me, thought that tossing plastic bottles into the recycle bin insured that these items would be recycled.  Not so!  If the bottles have liquid in them there is a chance they will be removed from the recycling process either during an automated phase or during the manual sorting phase. So the tip this month is to make sure ALL of your plastic bottles and jugs are empty before putting them out to be recycled.  Even if they look empty there can still be residual liquid in them, so remove the caps before tossing them out, this will help insure ALL of the liquid has evaporated before they reach the recycling center and ALL your plastic is recycled.

For additional entries to the Green My World Giveaway: Visit any of the sponsors in the giveaway and let readers know about Earth Day projects, tips or giveaways they are doing. You can build off of one of these tips by getting details from their sites or find your own. Do not simply copy one of above, the entry will be deleted!

DO NOT leave your tip on this post, leave it on the Green My World giveaway post.

All the best!

Jen

Post from: Eco-Office Gals

Earth Day Happenings

Happy Monday! Let jump right in and strut some stuff! Faerie Made Soaps is our company for the week. A little background from the site:

Faerie Made® is a woman owned business located in Asheville, North Carolina creating quality artisan soaps and fine skin care products from natural ingredients.

The mission of Faerie Made is simple: to provide high quality natural artisan soaps and body care products as we support other small businesses on the local and global scale while walking as gently as possible upon the earth.

Located in the mountains of North Carolina, our handmade soap, fair trade shea butter products, hemp lip balm, body care products, and products for skin care are made from natural ingredients in small batches.

Faerie Made sent over their sample pack so I could try several of their products including:

.10 oz facial elixir, a .25 oz sample each of our toners (rose and neroli), one each of our facial masques (Glacial clay and rose argiletz) and one half ounce sample each of our soaps we recommend for face (lavender citrus, oatmeal honey, and sea spa).

Tina was also awesome enough to add a sample of her Muscle Rub after listening to me whine and cry about my sciatica.

So, what did I think of the products?

I’ll start with my first round of mini-makeover, I needed to take a new picture for a blog I will be guest writing for, many of you have complimented on that picture and I will say my skin looks pretty dang good! That day I used the Rose Masque, Oatmeal Honey Soap, Neroli Toner and the Facial Elixir.  I’m going to start with the Facial Elixir I fell in love the first time I applied it. Just two little drops covered and made my face feel silky smooth and it smells really great! I will say that although the Rose Masque did a great job, I didn’t care for the smell of it; a strong clay/dirt smell, waiting for it to dry up so I could wash it off was a bit of a struggle. The toner is very light scented, more my style and the soap was great.

The second round included the Glacial Milk Masque, Sea Spa Soap, Rose Toner and Facial Elixir. This was my favorite combo of the two.  The hubby and I both participated in this makeover.  He has terribly dry skin and I saw a massive improvement the next morning.  The Glacial Milk Masque had a much lighter scent, seemed to dry quicker and I really liked the Sea Spa Soap. Elixir still reigned as the favorite and, unfortunately we drained the sample that day.

Currently I am using the last soap, Lavender Citrus, which I like and the toners.  The muscle rub also has a non-medicinal scent, covers well and is not greasy. I can’t attest to the functionality of it yet since my sciatica gets so intense when I get it that meds often don’t help.  It’s gone now, but who knows what combination of anything actually did the trick!

Tina is giving one reader a full size of my favorite the Facial Elixir! To enter do any (or all) of the following, for each one leave a separate comment for a separate entry! US residents only, please.

* Visit Faerie Made and comment here on which product you would love to try.
* Blog about this giveaway
* Tweet this giveaway
* Stumble this giveaway
* Use other forms of social networking to spread the word about this giveaway.
* Buy anything from Faerie Made and comment 5 times that you did! (I will confirm)

One winner will be chosen on Wednesday 2/18/09. Please don’t forget to leave a separate entry and any lame entries that show obvious laziness i.e. “Thanks for the great giveaway” will not be published therefore not counted. It’s just not fair for the people that do know how to follow simple directions. Thanks!

Random.org picked commenter #15! Congrats, Sheila!

Good Luck,
Jen

Post from: Eco-Office Gals

Flaunt It! Monday: Faerie Made

EarthTalk^TM
From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: What is “microfinance” and how does it help poor countries and preserve the environment? – Eliza Clark, Seattle, WA

The brainchild of Grameen Foundation founder Muhammad Yunus, microfinance is a form of banking whereby financial institutions offer small loans to the poor. The idea behind the concept, which originated in Bangladesh in the mid 1970s, is that motivated and disciplined poor people could climb out of poverty if they had access to funding-even small amounts-that help get businesses off the ground. With access to revolving loan funds, these “micro-entrepreneurs” can build businesses, pay back the borrowed money, and continue to provide for themselves and their families in a sustainable manner.

A classic example would be a woman who borrows $50 to buy chickens so she can sell eggs to other members of her community. As her chickens multiply, she can sell more eggs, and eventually she can sell chicks as well. She pays back the money and has climbed out of a perhaps desperate situation financially-and the community benefits from having a new source of nutritious food.

“Having access to money to start a small business isn’t about fulfilling a dream, it’s literally about keeping their families one step ahead of starvation and putting a roof over their heads,” says Tracey Turner, founder of MicroPlace, an online “microfinance marketplace” launched by eBay in 2007. Individuals can put small or large amounts of money on MicroPlace and get a rate of return in the two- to three-percent range-better than a donation-and get the satisfaction of knowing that their cash is helping someone in a developing country improve their lot and that of their impoverished community.

On the environmental front, microfinance is, in and of itself, “green” in that it promotes businesses that can be sustained indefinitely. Example after example over the last three decades have proven the concept that when poor people are given opportunities to earn a living in a legitimate and sustainable fashion, they have little or no need to pillage their surrounding natural resources to shelter or feed themselves. Also, most of the financial institutions involved in microfinance hold up sustainability as a precondition for awarding loans. Others encourage greener businesses by offering lower interest rates to borrowers with sustainability-oriented plans.

While upstarts like MicroPlace and Kiva (which operates on a similar model whereby individual investors can get in on the microlending fun) are grabbing most of the microfinance headlines these days, Grameen Bank was the first microfinance lender in the world, initiating its first project in 1976 in the Bangladeshi village of Jobra. Today Grameen does a lot more than just offer small loans. It also accepts deposits and provides other banking services, and runs several development-oriented businesses including fabric, telephone and energy companies. And it has spawned thousands of other institutions doing similar things: World Bank statistics show that more than 7,000 microfinance institutions serve some 16 million people in developing countries with $7 billion in outstanding loans, 97 percent of which are repaid.

In 2006, Grameen founder Muhammad Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.

CONTACTS: Grameen Bank, www.grameen-info.org, MicroPlace, www.microplace.com; Kiva, www.kiva.org.

GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit it at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/thisweek/, or e-mail: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php.

Post from: Eco-Office Gals

What is Microfinance?

Happy Superbowl Sunday! Just a short thought for today. I was reading my butter lovin’, twitterbud, Julie Roads guest post on Chris Brogan’s blog this morning and was so thrilled with one of the points she made I just wanted to share some link love!

I’ve had the pleasure of working with Julie on projects in the past, look forward to working with her more in the future and I am thrilled to hear she is happy with the VA she is working with on current projects!

Julie’s guest post this morning was Things that Keep Me From Falling Down.  She highlights points in her business that help her move forward and keep her from falling down.  And what was point #4 that has me so excited to share this morning?

4. A Virtual Assistant. Yes, I’ve taken the plunge. Do you know that I was holding myself back from growing my business because I couldn’t do all of the ‘things’ I needed to be able to do in order to grow it? If that isn’t ass-backwards, I don’t know what is. Now, with my right hand lady, I’m publishing ebooks, offering my 1-on-1 Intensive, creating an affiliate program and doing about a zillion other things I’ve been meaning to do. The best part? I get to do grow and dream – and my VA always says, ‘yep, I can do that.’ I love it.

Yes, there’s an investment. But the return is so much greater. I’ve decided that my business is worth it. For you, it might not be a VA, it may be some other integral staff member that’s been missing. The question here is: what are you doing that someone else could do for you? Faster, better and more efficiently so that you can focus on what you do best.

So my question for you this morning? Do YOU need a Virtual Assistant? Feel free to contact me with any questions I may be able to answer!And thank you to Julie for the huge kudos for VA’s!

Post from: Eco-Office Gals

Do YOU Need a Virtual Assistant?

Mission:

To provide Eco-Friendly and Paperless Virtual Assistant Services, WordPress Design and resources for businesses interested in making a lighter environmental Impact.

Eco-Office Gals strives to build businesses green and paperless.  Our blog site compiles information about sites and products that we find safe and useful for our environment. Our services include Virtual Assistant services, WordPress development and green web hosting in our effort to help small businesses become paperless by using various forms of electronic media and communication.  Additionally, we offer eco-alternatives when tangible products are a must.

Eco-Gal Jen:

Jennifer brings 10 years of real-world Administrative experience to your business venture.

From 1997 – 2002 Jennifer worked in the private sector at Oxbow Corporation in West Palm Beach, Fl.  For 5 years she provided support to 30+ employees of the Finance Department at Oxbow including, but not limited to document production, call screening, data entry, and file organization.

Life events caused her to move to Greenville, SC. She spent the next 5 years (2002 – 2007) employed in the public sector as the Administrative Assistant to the OMB Director of the City of Greenville.  At the City she provided support to the OMB Director, OMB Assistant Director, Risk Manager, Budget Director and Accounting Department.  During her final year at the City she also re-designed and maintained the City’s Intranet, resulting in receipt of the City’s Innovation Award and a new found love of website design.

After a decade of unloved jobs, Criminal Justice, Literature and Teaching credits, Jennifer still couldn’t figure out what she wanted to do when she grew up. When nothing seemed to fit right, she figured out she’d take all the skills she had learned and loved to do and figure out how to make it work. Love of design, learning and teaching – frustration of wasted paper and discovery of the VA wold started the steady growth of what is today Eco-Office Gals.

Awards & Accomplishments:

• City of Greenville Innovation Award – Voluntarily transformed the City’s outdated Intranet into a more user-friendly, engaging, interactive and reliable tool for internal communications.

• Provided Leadership in the City’s United Way Campaign; served one year as City’s Campaign Coordinator.

• Participated in special project committees, such as Employee Recognition & Awards Program, Christmas Float Committee, Accommodations Tax Committee and Affordable Housing Committee.

Contact Jen

Post from: Eco-Office Gals

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