22 Free Things to Manage Your Life & Business
Boeing to chop 10,000 jobs. Starbucks closes 300 stores & cuts 6,700 jobs. Caterpillar laying off 2,000 more workers. AOL axing 700 jobs in cost cutting move. U.S. Postal Service considers cutting delivery to 5 days. Circuit City lets 34,000 people go & enters liquidation. Intel fires 6,000 workers. Economy shrinks at fastest clip since 1982. Recession appears to be picking up steam. We all know that America is going through an economic crisis and most of us have probably been affected by it in some way. Times are indeed tough. But as mom entrepreneurs, we're a tenacious bunch who isn't likely to give up that easily. We're going to keep building our businesses, even if we have pinch pennies, go at a slower pace and do much of the work ourselves. Here are 22 free things to help you manage your business and your life. 1. Jott.com--capture thoughts, create to-do's and set reminders with a simple phone call. Jott captures your voice, turns it into text and sends it where you want it--helping you stay on top of everything. 2. ClearCheckbook.com--an extremely easy to use tool that helps you balance your checkbook and manage your money. Think of it as an online checkbook register with the added bonus of viewing reports, setting budgets, creating reminders and more. 3. The Mogul Mom Directory--a directory of your fellow mom entrepreneurs. 4. BoutiqueUp! Daily--a resource site for mom-inventors, product developers, boutique owners, and others to connect with retailers who are looking for new products. 5. Evernote.com--allows you to easily capture information on the web, your desktop or your phone and makes this information accessible & searchable anytime, from anywhere. 6. 250 Business Cards from VistaPrint.com--what's not to love about free stuff? Get 250 business cards free from VistaPrint.com--you just pay for shipping. They have lots of other free stuff too, like rubber stamps, pens & checks. 7. Twitter.com--create a free Twitter account and enjoy the fabulous exposure it gives your business & increased traffic to your website or blog. Twitter is a wonderful place for mom entrepreneurs, offering community, help, information and fun. 8. TwitterFeed.com--once you've immersed yourself in Twitter, take advantage of TwitterFeed, a free service that "feeds" your blog to Twitter. Every time you post a new article, TwitterFeed sends it straight to Twitter where your followers will see it. 9. Blogs--free blog services like WordPress & Blogger give you the perfect forum to tell the world about your business. Unlike websites, blogs can be updated easily & quickly and allow you to build great relationships with your customers. 10. The Mogul Mom's free Little Black Book: Essential Business Resources, Recommendations & Referrals For Mom Entrepreneurs. 11. Photobucket.com--Keep all your pics and videos in one place - room for up to 10,000 photos and hours of video for free & share with everyone you know by email, IM or mobile phone. Make slideshows and mashups with music, special effects, captions, and more. Link to your profile, blog or website. 12. HARO--Help A Reporter Out is a free service that lists reporters who're looking for sources & gives you amazing opportunities for FREE press!! If you're a blog writer, you can also post a query if you're looking for sources. Sign up and get your business in the media! 13. Google Analytics--Google Analytics offers a host of compelling features and benefits for website & blog owners. Check out this article for more. 14. Ebates.com--offers members free cash back savings along with the best available coupon codes on the web. It's free to join and free to earn cash rewards on just about everything you buy. This article explains all the ins and outs of earning while you shop. 15. MomGenerations.com--Audrey McClelland, mother of 4 & former Donna Karan assistant, serves up 365 days of fashion advice for moms & offers great product giveaways! 16. Free Stock Photos--Microsoft's site offering tons of great Office how-to tips, like creating an electronic business card, help with Powerpoint presentations and much, much more. 17. Alltop.com--like a digital magazine rack, Alltop helps you explore your passions by collecting stories from “all the top” sites on the web & groups these collections into individual Alltop sites based on topics such as moms, startups and blogs. Use Alltop.com to keep abreast of all the top news in your industry. 18. iTunes Podcasts--with more than 3000 free podcasts (Internet radio broadcasts), you can listen to some great interviews with entrepreneurs & learn all kinds of new things for your business. 19. CreativeLive--Every week CreativeLive offers a host of free classes available for the taking. Check back every week, we're always updating them for you right here. 20. Google Docs--Google Docs, a free service from Google, lets you create documents, edit them, give select people access to them (even if they're across the world) and store them securely online so you don't have to worry about losing them. 21. YouTube.com--I recently asked my programmer how to install a new plug-in on my blog & he told me that whenever he doesn't know how to do something, he searches for it on YouTube.com! You can find out how to do just about anything on YouTube.com--from techie stuff, to cooking, to arts & crafts, to writing a press release, to tightening an American Girl doll's limbs. Take advantage of this fabulous & free website! 22. The Mogul Mom's free daily email for mom entrepreneurs. Sign up.