Flip-Flops the Hot New Business Shoe?

You never know what will be the one thing that your customer, boss, or co-workers will notice about you. Do you really want it to be that you wear flip-flops to work?

Are Flip-Flops Damaging Your Career?

NEW YORK (Reuters) - With more women wearing flip-flops to the office this summer, U.S. style gurus are warning that the casual shoe once mainly seen on the beach could be damaging to careers -- as well as to feet.

Lauren Cardinale, 25, who works at West Glen Communications, wears beaded or other fancy flip flops to the office -- when she can get away with it.

"Occasionally I wear flip flops to work," she said. "I wear nicer shoes if I'm meeting with clients or if I know there will someone in the office who doesn't approve of flip flops."

Cardinale is one of thousands of young women in New York who consider flip-flops an essential part of their summer wardrobe.

An online survey conducted for retailers Old Navy and Gap found flip-flops topped the list of wardrobe items that college and high school students planned to wear to work this summer.

More than 31 percent of women said flip-flops were the single "must have" item for work this summer.

But many companies disagree.

I would have to agree with the companies. Flip-flops say to me "it wasn't worth the time to put on shoes". Not exactly what you want to tell your clients, eh?

Keeping Track of Your Time.

In today's busy world, it can be easy to lose track of time. But in business, lost time means lost money. How can you make sure that the time you spend on a project is logged properly? Here at OffAssist, we use two different forms of time tracking software. We use one for our in-house staff, and another for staff located off-site.

On-Site: TraxTime by Spud City Software

TraxTime is a simple solution for all your in-house time tracking. Multiple copies can be networked so that a manager can view or print a report of all time spent on a project.

The user can set up multiple customer projects and the user simply punches in and out, similar to an analog time clock.

When it is time for billing, simply print out the report.



Off-Site: MyHours by SPICA International

When you need a web-based application for time tracking, we have found that MyHours is up to the task. This software allows remote reporting of hours by multiple off-site employees or contractors.

Similar to TraxTime, MyHours can also handle multiple companies. In addition, you can also set up categories underneath those companies (called projects) and set specific price codes for each project.

You do not have to be online all the time. You can log in at the end of the day and enter your work times and it will be sent to your businesses central account.

Conclusion:

TraxTime and MyHours are both very robust solutions for tracking time within your company. TraxTime is a little easier for in-house tracking, while MyHours has an entire suite of tools designed around off-site workers and contractors.

For more information please visit:

www.traxtime.com

-or-

www.myhours.com

Don’t Know what to Blog?

So now you blog is set up and ready to go. You are ready to jump in there and draw more traffic to your website. Only one problem: What do you blog about? Don’t worry, this is completely natural. Even the most experienced blogger can get writers blog. Here are some basic ideas to get you started:

1. What are your customers scared of? The fastest way to build a rapport with your customers is to show that you understand their needs, feelings, and their business. Certain fields have more risk than others when being outsourced or during collaborative exercises. Set your customers at ease.

2. Your business: In the news. What current news topics are affecting your industry? Post a link to the news story, or quote pieces of it and show how your business if prepared for a similar incident or how the new technology will allow you to help you customers in new or improved ways.

3. Most popular book on your specialty. This is easier than it sounds. Go to Amazon.com, find your category, and read the top book in your category. As you read the book: blog your notes, create a study guide, refute, rebutt, advance, expand, expound.

4. The one topic no one else in your industry will talk about. You know what it is. That one thing your competitors websites shy away from mentioning. That one topic that just makes people mad when they read it. The more controversial, the better.

5. Feature, Feature, Feature. Guest bloggers are always welcome. Whether it be a client, a colleague, or even a competitor.

Still don’t know what to post? How about this:

6. Your latest meeting. Even if it was just a lunch outing with a collegue. What did you learn? How can it be applied to your industry? Was it someone smart? Interesting? Crazy? Let the world know!

Still lost? Still don’t know what to write? Write anything, even about your commute to work or traffic in your area. You can always revise it or delete it later. Blogging is more about quantity than quality.

June 2006 Newsletter

The June newsletter is, at long last, up:
http://www.offassist.com/newsletters/jun06.html

You can start getting them in your email box by visiting our website at http://www.offassist.com

PDA Addiction...

I was reading the news and saw THIS news article under "odd news". Honestly? My first thought was that I'm not going anywhere near this Chicago hotel. I mean, Morris (That's my Treo SmartPhone for those that may not know) is my brain. I can't leave home without him, he keeps me in touch with the world, email, text messages, phone calls, voice mail - heck, I even listen to audio books!)... but then I got to thinking...

This may not be a bad thing... people walking around talking on their phones in public sometimes drive me crazy. If everyone is giving theirs up to this dude, then maybe I'll be able to hear my own conversations...

... just sayin' :-)

Seriously though, moderation in all things, right? I wouldn't say I'm addicted to Morris, but he is my mobile office. If I need to be somewhere and I can easily access information (even documents) from this small piece of equipment that fits into my pocket - definitely better than any laptop I've ever gotten.