How to Save You Time In Your Small Business with Microsoft Word Templates!

One of the issues that most small business owners overlook when building starting out in business is the use of technology. Whilst computer technology may require a significant investment when starting out; Overtime, if your systems are built correctly they will in fact save you very large sums of money, in particular in the area of staff wages.

When I first started my business, One-on-One Personal Computer Training, I started out with a $3,000 Credit Card, which when you talk to any business adviser or business-coach is absolutely the worst thing you could do. One of the issues I have been most conscious of is the cost of having a large number of staff. The way I achieved a high level of efficiency in such a competitive market was to automate as many of the day-to-day tasks as I could. The best tasks for automation are those that are repetitive.

As soon as I mention the word Business Automation, most technophobes will put up a barrier and go into a minor or major fit. Business automation can be as simple as creating just a few Microsoft Word templates. Business automation doesnรขโ�ฌโ�ขt necessarily mean hiring a huge plethora of software developers and toiling day and night to build some monsterous and complex system. It can and should be simple so that you as a business owner can in fact do it yourself. Let me explain!

Microsoft for all its good and bad issues, has provided business one of the most awesome tools - Microsoft Word allows you to build templates that you can reuse as many times as you wish.

What Is A Microsoft Word Template?

Essentially, a Microsoft Word Template is like any traditional word document, the difference is that it is designed to be reused as many times as you require. Why not create a normal word document then. Well, the difference is that when you use a Microsoft Word Template, you can store the template under the New dialogue box, so that each time you want to use the document you go to that one point and it will be available.

Did you know that you can even create your own folders in the New dialog box? For our team at One-on-One Personal Computer Training, we have created our own tab called One-on-One which is where we store all of our templates for our staff to use.

What Sort Of Templates Might You Need?

This is one of the key questions I get asked the most. The most common templates I see small businesses require are items like Sick Leave Forms, Leave Applications, Order Forms, Sales Letters, Purchase Order Forms and so forth.

One of the reasons why I chose to build Microsoft Word Templates in my business was to ensure a level of continuity of contact with our customers. By building a series of Templates such as:

- A Company Letter Head
- A Company Fax Sheet
- A Company Leave Application
- A Company Thank You Letter
- A Company Weekly Timesheet
- A Company Sales Letter
- A Company Visitor Sign-in Sheet
- A Company Purchase Order Form
- A Company Order Form

By having these forms in a central place I have ensured that my staff donรขโ�ฌโ�ขt need to be recreating these styles of documents each time they have to send a letter or fax. Further to this, I know that certain sales letters used by my staff will achieve the sales outcomes that I am looking for. By using a Microsoft Word Template, they know that when they get and enquiry that they can simply fill-in the customer details and the letter is done.

In our sales letter templates we use Microsoft Wordรขโ�ฌโ�ขs Fill-in field to prompt our staff for key information like the Customers Name, Address and Company Name ensuring that the information does get put into the letter. Once they have completed that they simply press the Print button and its ready to go to the customer. As a business owner, knowing that thatรขโ�ฌโ�ขs all my staff have to do to achieve the sales makes me feel far more comfortable than them having to write their own customised letters each time a customer enquires about our training.

Microsoft Word templates are an incredibly useful tool in automating common documents that your staff maybe creating and I believe that this is the first process that all business owners should be using in automating their business.

Chris Le Roy is the Managing Director of One-on-One Personal Comptuer Training. He is a Microsoft Office Specialist Master Instructor and MCSE and has written a range of training material to help individuals become Microsoft Office Specialists. To find out more visit - http://www.1-on-1.biz or online shop at http://shop.1-on-1.biz. One-on-One Personal Computer Training also offers a Free online help forum for Microsoft Office Issues at http://help.1-on-1.biz

Speed up Internet Explorer 6

Internet Explorer 6 has been around for a while and its been a good browser. Since new alternatives like Firefox and Opera have come out we now know that, yes there is faster browsing out there. Internet Explorer can be as fast after trying out a few tips in this article.

Step 1: Default is your friend.

You heard it here first folks. (probably not) Generally setting the browser to its defaults will make it go faster. There are two areas in specific that will make the largest impact. Security settings and the advanced settings. To set these at their defaults go to Internet Explorer. In the browser go to the tools menu and select internet options. In the internet options go to the security tab. In the security tab set all of the zones to default. Then go to the advanced tab. In the advanced tab you will find the restore defaults button at the bottom of the window. Click o it and that's it. Click on OK and restart your browser.

Step 2: Setting the Number of Connections per Session.

Internet explorer limits the number of connections it opens when you click on a link to open an new web page. Microsoft did this to comply with HTTP 1.1 standards but it also really slows down things when you open a new website and download the sites images. So to change that go to the start menu and select run. In the run command type regedit and click OK to open the registry editor. In the registry editor navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER SoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionInternet Settings. Here change the MaxConnectionsPerServer and MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server to a number you wish. That's it, once done restart windows and you are all set. Just a note that this will effect all windows applications that use the internet explorer api so if something else is not working right that is why.

Step 3: Keep less and save time.

Windows by default will automatically set your temporary internet files to a certain percentage of your hard drive. If you have a hard drive that is a 200 gigabytes your temporary internet files will be a couple of gigabytes in size. The more files that Internet Explorer has to look through the more time it takes to load a page. To change the size of your temporary internet files goto the tools menu in Internet Explorer and select internet options. In the internet options click on the settings buttons in the temporary internet files. Change the size to the desired amount (I usually use 100MB) and click on OK. Your computer might stall for a little bit if there are a lot of files to delete.

Its as easy as that. Three steps to speed up your internet browsing in Internet Explorer. I'm sure there is a whole lot more out there but these are the ones that will help you out the most. Till next time.

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