Town Hall--What's the Small Business Development Center & What Can it do for me?

Mark your calendars for a Town Hall discussion ‘What’s a Small Business Development Center (SBDC) and What Can it Do for Me’? We’ll meet in the Long for Success room in the Small Business Town Hall on Tuesday, August 18, at 1:00 pm PT (4:00 pm ET).

Michelle L. Long, CPA will be the moderator. Michelle is the founder of Long for Success, LLC and an Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor, one of the national trainers for Intuit and author of the book Successful QuickBooks Consulting.

Special guests from Johnson County Community College Small Business Development Center in Overland Park, Kansas, include:
· Malinda Bryan-Smith – Regional Director
· John Andessi – Consultant

Discussion topics include:
· What is the Small Business Development Center?
· How can it help me grow my business and be more productive?
· How to find an SBDC near you
· Links and resources
· Most importantly—your questions!!!

You can type your question into the chat window or use a webcam and/or mic (about $20) to join in the conversation!

Here are a couple of links to join, but I’ll post again next week as a reminder.
http://community.intuit.com/small_business_town_hall Click Under Small Business Experts -- Long for Success and type in your screen name to join the room.

http://apps.facebook.com/smallbiztownhall/Home.aspx?auth_token=4b41dfb9c5fa6cceea9469e5e023dfdc

There is no need to register in advance or sign up, just type in your screen name to enter the room. When you enter the room, it may ask if you want to allow access to your web cam and/or mic. You can Allow or Deny. If you Allow access, then you can click on 'Request to Speak' and you'll be put in the speaker's que. When you're finished you click on 'Stop Speaking' at the bottom of that window and the it will go to the next person in the que.

If you don't want to speak up or use a web cam, you can type your questions or comments in a chat window on the right side.

Feel free to go into the room in advance to check it out and see how it works. You can even try out your webcam to see yourself & how it works!

I'm looking forward to it and think it is a great way to have discussions and Q&A with others!!!

Sending Large Files

Many times, the QuickBooks data file is too big to email to someone. Or perhaps, you have a large powerpoint file to send to someone. There are several services to transfer large files. A few FREE ones include:

www.sendthisfile.com
www.yousendit.com
www.pando.com

Check them out next time you need to send a large file!

If you're sending a QuickBooks data file, make sure the file has a password. Send the password in a separate email--not with the data file!

You can use this option to help clients when you cannot use remote access--have the client send you a back up or portable file. Then, you can open the file and talk with the client about it.

QuickBooks ProAdvisor Program and Certification Town Hall meeting

Mark your calendars for a Town Hall discussion ‘Everything you wanted to know about the ProAdvisor Program and Certification’. We’ll meet in the Long for Success room in the Small Business Town Hall on Tuesday, July 21, at 9:00 am PT (12:00 pm ET).

Michelle Long, CPA will be the moderator. Michelle is an Advanced Certified ProAdvisor, one of the national trainers for Intuit and author of the book Successful QuickBooks Consulting.

Special guests from Intuit include:
· Kate Viotto – Senior Marketing Manager, QuickBooks ProAdvisor Program
· Andi Anchetta – Program Manager, QuickBooks ProAdvisor Program

Discussion topics include:
· What is the ProAdvisor Program?
· How can it help me grow my business and be more productive?
· Details about the different ProAdvisor Certifications
· Tips & Tricks to help you study and pass the certifications
· Best practices for study and exam preparation methods
· Most importantly—your questions!!!

You can type your question into the chat window or use a webcam and/or mic (about $20) to join in the conversation! If you’re already certified, you can share your experience with others too!

Here are a couple of links to join, but I’ll post again next week as a reminder.

http://community.intuit.com/small_business_town_hall

Click Under Small Business Experts -- Long for Success and type in your screen name to join room.

http://apps.facebook.com/smallbiztownhall/Home.aspx?auth_token=4b41dfb9c5fa6cceea9469e5e023dfdc

There is no need to register in advance or sign up, just type in your screen name to enter the room. You may want to do it in advance to see how it works. You should have Adobe Flash Player installed. When you enter the room, it will ask if you want to allow access to your web cam/mic. You can Allow or Deny. If you Allow access, then you can click on 'Request to Speak' at the bottom of the middle section and you'll be put in the speaker's que. When you're finished talking you click on 'Stop Speaking' at the bottom of that window.

If you don't want to speak up or use a web cam, you can type your questions or comments in a chat window on the right side.

Feel free to go into the room in advance to check it out and see how it works. You can even try out your webcam to see yourself & how it works!

Using Social Media to Grow Your Business -- Town Hall

Please join me as we launch Long for Success meeting in the Small Business Town Hall on Thursday, June 25 at 9:00 am PT (12:00 pm ET). The topic will be ‘Using Social Media to Grow Your Business’ and my guests will be

· Scott Wilder – Small Business Group at Intuit
· Chris Kim – Senior Marketing Manager with Intuit
· Dante Layton – Owner of Dante Layton, Inc.
· Ruth Perryman – Owner of The QB Specialists

We’ll introduce Social Media (Twitter, FaceBook, Linkedin), discuss how to utilize social media for effective marketing, how to use an RSS reader, search for key terms and hear success stories from Dante and Ruth before opening it up for about 30 minutes of Q&A and discussion.

Using a webcam (about $20) you can join in to speak or you can type a question or comment in the chat window if you prefer.

Here are a couple of links to join, but I’ll post again next week as a reminder.

http://community.intuit.com/small_business_town_hall Click Under Small Business Experts -- Long for Success

http://apps.facebook.com/smallbiztownhall/Home.aspx?auth_token=4b41dfb9c5fa6cceea9469e5e023dfdc

We’ll be having many town halls in the future, so let me know what topics you want to discuss and possible guests to join me!

There is no need to sign up, just type in your screen name to enter the room. When you enter the room, it may ask if you want to allow access to your web cam and/or mic. You can Allow or Deny. If you Allow access, then you can click on 'Request to Speak' and you'll be put in the speaker's que. When you're finished you click on 'Stop Speaking' at the bottom of that window and the it will go to the next person in the que.

If you don't want to speak up or use a web cam, you can type your questions or comments in a chat window on the right side.

Feel free to go into the room whenever & check it out. You can even try out your webcam to see yourself & how it works!

I'm looking forward to it and think it is a great way to have discussions and Q&A with others!!!

Thanks so much!

Michelle

Creating an Effective Profile

It is surprising how many people do not complete their profile for the Intuit Community Forums. The forums are a great resource for both users posting questions and contributors providing answers. Completing your profile can enhance the benefit you receive from the community forums. Let’s consider it for both the user and the contributor.
When someone reads a question posted by a user, it may be helpful if they could go to your profile to get some additional information and insight about your business. This can help them offer a better answer or suggestion for you. Also, users often request to be contacted, but fail to complete the contact information in their profile. (You should not include contact information in the post itself.) For example, profile information you should complete includes:
· Line of business
· Description of your business
· Years in business
· Top selling product or service
· Website
· Best way to contact you
· Fun facts about yourself (optional)
In addition to the above information, if you are a contributor on the community forums and an accounting professional, then you should also complete information on your accounting practice, including:
· Professional designations
· Services provided
· Products supported
· Industries served
By contributing answers you are demonstrating your knowledge to others and often they may want to contact you for additional help or consulting. Contributing on the forums is a great way to enhance your reputation and get some new clients. You want to make it easy for people to find out more about your practice and to contact you. It is against the community rules to post links to your website in your posts, but you can post a link to your profile instead (which can include a link to your website).
So invest a few minutes of your time, complete (or update) your profile and enhance the benefit you receive from the community forums!

Saving & Restoring QuickBooks Data Files

I don't understand the techie reasons, but you are always supposed to save files to/from the hard disk before going to an external drive (CD, USB, external hard drive). Initially I thought you just needed to do this when going between the PC and Mac. However, I've since learned that you should always do this to avoid problems.

So, if you're getting an error message when trying to save or restore a file and you cannot seem to resolve the issue, try going to/from the hard drive first! If you cannot get a file to restore, you may need to have the file saved again--to the hard drive first.

Another quick note, when you're trying to restore the data file, make sure to determine what file type you are restoring (QBW, QBB or QBM). It does make a difference which button you'll choose when you restore.

Also, to send large data files to others you can use a file transfer service (many offer a free service) such as www.SendThisFile.com or www.YouSendit.com or others. Make sure the file requires a password and do NOT send the password in the message with the file--send it separately! :)

Join me at "Scaling New Heights" in May

I wanted to let everyone know that I will be presenting at least one session at the upcoming conference called "Scaling New Heights" - Advanced Training for QuickBooks ProAdvisors & Intuit Solution Providers. I’ll facilitate a discussion on topics related to my book "Successful QuickBooks Consulting” – including new content that I'm currently developing for my next book - "Beyond Successful QuickBooks Consulting." We’ll discuss how ProAdvisors across the country are growing their consulting/accounting practices (even in an uncertain economy), how to leverage social media like LinkedIn and Twitter, how to effectively manage your practice, and much more. I’d love to have you join us!

I strongly recommend this event for anyone who consults on Intuit software. I’m sure even the most experienced advisors will learn much from the advanced curriculum Joe Woodard has designed for this conference - including me!

You can get more information and register online at http://www.ScalingNewHeights.com. What a great conference to increase your skills, obtain CPE, network with others and launch your business to new heights!

When you register, tell them you heard about the event from Michelle Long to get a free copy of "Joe Woodard's Top 100 QuickBooks Tips, Tricks and Workarounds" with your registration!

Thanks for reading my blog and I hope to see you there!

Michelle