It's not often you get told to spend spend spend. But it might just be the right thing to do right now.

£ $ € £ $ € £ $ €

WHY?

If you are self employed its very likely that you run your business year end in line with the UK tax year.

The UK tax year ends pretty soon, like in about a week.

SO?

Well if you are thinking of buying some new kit for your business in the near future then you'd probably be wise to buy it BEFORE the tax year end.

WHY?

Because you'll get the benefit of a reduced tax bill a whole bunch sooner than if you wait until after the tax year end.

And who wouldn't want that?

So if you are thinking of a new computer or printer or desk or office chair or an oven or a workbench or....well most pieces of kit, get your skates on and sort it out BEFORE tax year end.

The small print: this is a general article highlighting something you should think about, its not specific advice and should not be taken as such. Check the position for your business and base your decision on that but do consider the matter.

Its easy to end up wasting bits of time even when you are mad busy in your business.

You do stuff yourself that might be better passed to someone else.

You rummage around for information that should be at your finger tips.

We all do it.

Recently I've found a couple of bits of clever computer stuff that have really helped in stopping me wasting time.

So I thought I'd share them with you.

Both cost money but I'll bet you'll have pretty much saved what you spent within days or weeks, so a great ROI (as they say in big corporate speak).

Here goes.

For anyone who keeps losing their multiple passwords to log into things online you need:

1Password by Agile Solutions

Its fab, you store passwords as you log into each site and then they are there for next time with one click. You can use it across multiple devices too. No more losing the bits of paper you scribbled the log in details on or worrying your log in for all sites of *123456* isn't really secure enough. There are some sites it works less well on that have multiple layers of security. But it removes a whole chunk of faffing.

AND for those who can't really type well or fast (and that's most of us, don't kid yourself you can type at 80wpm accurately most of us can't):

DragonDictate (or its Mac version as shown below) by Nuance

It really does only take 5 minutes to get going and then you are away. It types as you speak. It works across loads of applications. The thing you might find hardest is that if you've never done dictation before speaking what you want to write will seem odd at first. Persevere and you'll slash how long it takes to get your written stuff done, even if you only use it for first drafts.

Go on stop wasting time!

PS I am not on any kind of reseller commission, I just thought you should know about these.

 

There lots of information out there about social media tools. Lots of experts and lots of websites.

Okay so I've blogged these before elsewhere.

One of the little tricks that makes a website or blog look just that bit neater is to have a favicon next to your site address in the browser address bar that reflects your branding.

I've been doing some bits and pieces of web design recently in Wordpress.

One of the tools I really like for picking colour schemes or playing with palettes is Color Scheme Designer.

There's hours of endless fun to be had coming up with bonkers schemes.

And of course it is very helpful when you need to design a scheme or adapt one for some one.