Your Business Quick Tip Newsletter
Vol 19 No #186 – 5th August 2020
Contents
- Personalised Email Merge
- Excel and Cell Phone Numbers
- Three Upcoming Webinars
- How Interesting!!!
- Lemon Peel Cleaner
- Sharing Google Calendars
1. Personalised Email Merge
Did you know you can do a personalised email merge using Word and Excel (or Outlook Contacts)?
You’ll find it in the MS Word Mailing Ribbon. There’s a step by step wizard that walks you through it. For email, simply select merge to email. It’s something I use all the time. Wonderful.
Excel and Cell Phone Numbers
Excel doesn’t like cell phone numbers. Or it simply doesn’t like leading zeros, which is the case. How many times have you typed in the mobile number only to have the zero vanish?
Three Solutions
These first two aren’t kosher but work. The third is the charm.
- Use the letter o instead
- Add a space after the first three digits
- Add Special Formatting Instructions to the Column.
- First highlight the whole column where you’ll keep the cell phone numbers
- Home Ribbon > Number Menu >Click the box with General In It.
- Select More Number Formats (the bottom one)
- Select Custom
- Type (here the General is) “0”#
3. Three Upcoming Webinars: Excellent Value. Concise Learning.
- Includes handouts
- 24/7 One year follow-up
- You can get a certificate of completion for CPD points
- Focused. Practical. Problem/Solution format
- Includes ongoing education
18 August -Online Newsletters: Grow. Convert. Keep Clients
With the current business uncertainty, it’s important to keep in touch with your clients and prospects. Writing and sending a regular online newsletter, as well as creating marketing campaigns is an easy and inexpensive activity if you do it yourself.
You benefit by easily and consistently bringing in new business; converting prospects to clients, adding value and enhancing and maintaining existing relationships.
This newsletter is now running for 20+ years and was one of the first email newsletters. Why not learn from someone with heaps of practical hands on experience (plus I wrote two books on the subject)?
10 September: Fabulous Excel Tips & Tricks
Would you like to learn how to accomplish in 15 minutes, what takes others hours; even days? I’m serious!!!
You’ll learn tricks on: cleaning, de-duping, massaging and fixing your information. However, this webinar is not only about lists and databases The tips on summerising, graphing, tabulating, merging and printing will have you kicking yourself for not knowing them before.
16 September: Microsoft Word Magic
You use Word every single day. Yet how much of your time is wasted mucking around with Formatting, Retyping, Tables. Margins. Editing?
This problem : solution webinar will show you the magical diamonds hidden within the Ribbons that save you a significant amount of time and stress.
No matter if you simply create letters; or are an intermediate user creating long reports daily. You will learn over 25 top tips, tricks and shortcuts that you will kick yourself from not knowing before.
4. How interesting!!!
In the last newsletter I hemmed and hawed at including a tip about cauliflower. “This is a business newsletter” I said to myself. “Does it belong”?
As it turns out, the wee cauliflower article generated the most (and positive) comments the newsletter has had in years!!!
Thus I hope you enjoy your new non-business tip addition as below.
5. Easy-Peasy All-Purpose Lemon Peel Cleaner
Lemons, lemons, lemons!!!! They’re so in season now. What do you do with your rinds? As you see below, don’t throw them out. A fabulous way to use your lemon/citrus peels is to create a chemical free all-purpose cleaner.
All you need are lemon peels, distilled white vinegar and water.
- When cutting the lemon skin, try to remove just the yellow peel. Too much white pith can cause stickiness.
- Fill a glass jar with the peels (maybe 5-8 lemons).
- Pour white vinegar into the jar, close with a lid and set the jar aside for 2-3 weeks.
- Take the lemon peels out from the vinegar.
- Use the vinegar full strength or dilute with water, up to a 50/50 mixture.
- Pour the combination into a spray bottle and off you go.
6. Sharing Google Calendars
You might not know that you can share and multiple Google Calendars. Why? It’s useful for business and family.
For example. We just bought a depreciating mobile family bach (i.e. a campervan). Of course the kids are all putting their dibs in when they want it. So hubby Steve created a calendar called campervan and shared it with the family. He and I also share our calendars. A shared calendar will overlay its details on your calendar (it can be assigned a colour). This allows the kids to book the van from their personal calendar, and everyone will see when it is available or not.
When I look at my calendar, I can see Steve’s appointments, activities in Green. Mine in Red. The camper van in yellow. You can see below Steve Is taking the van (yellow) to the NZ Masters regatta where he is a volunter (green) and I have a speaking engagement (red)
For business it’s a great idea for sales teams/managers (over view of who is where and when) and you can create private and even public calendars that you load on a website.
To share a calendar, click on the three dots to the right and select share.
To create a new calendar, go to Settings>Add calendar > Create New.