The Isolated Entrepreneur

You have heard of it, but what is it?

If you use the Internet a lot, you have probably racked up quite the list of bookmarks in Explorer or Firefox. With social bookmarking, you do essentially the same thing, but they are stored on a website instead of a computer.

This allows you to share your bookmarks with your friends and have access to them no matter what computer or browser you are using. You also have the ability to create tags (keywords) to describe the bookmarks so that you can find them quickly.

Since these sites are public, you can quickly search keywords to see what others have bookmarked for a similar topic.

Can social bookmarking have an impact on your business?

One thing you can do with these social bookmarking websites is add bookmarks that link to your website or blog. This may increase your search engine standing because you are increasing the number of external links to your site.

You can also improve your reputation as an expert in your field by building a library of bookmarks to informative sites. If other members of the social bookmarking site find your information informative, you can increase your ranking in the virtual community.

Maybe you can even get feature don the front page.

To make it easier for other to bookmark your site or subscribe to an RSS feed, use the widgets from Addthis.com.

For more information

• “7 Things You Should Know About Bookmarking” (PDF). EduCause Learning Initiative. May 2005.
• “The Social Bookmarking Faceoff” (Reviews) by Alex Iskold. Read/WriteWeb. 9/18/06.
• “Social Bookmarking Showdown” (Reviews), Wired, Scott Gilbertson, 11/6/2006.
• “Social Bookmarking for Business (tutorial)” by Dave Austin, AllBusiness, 12/13/2005.

Startup Nation release a tip sheet last week for smart, effective office designs for those of us who have clients visit their offices.

Some important tips include:

• Staying within your budget.
• Limit personal items.  It is a professional business, not your home.
• Purchase modular furniture.  This type of furniture can be moved to new facilities as your business grows.
• Add a touch of your favorite color. After all it is your space.
• Try out the furniture your clients sit in.  Make sure they don’t get a glare from windows or lamps.
• Check out Wi-Fi.  It is impressive if your clients can fire up their computers easily.
• Make sure your floor plan works.  It is a hassle to get to the printer you use often?
• Pay attention to details.  Does you client feel intimidated?  Are you giving them a feeling of privacy?

The tip sheet article also has links to some online office design sources.

I put a new link in my blogroll for the paperless office.  The lens highlights the tools used for becoming paperless.

Did your new years resolution included getting organized, clearing your desk off or getting through your emails in a timely manner?

You might want to throw out those Steven Covey books and look at David Allen’s Getting Things Done. 

This system is much more informal that Covey’s.  It doesn’t require goal setting or mission statement writing.  That comes later, after you have a system in place.

As a virtual assistant, I love client’s who use GTD.  When it has been implemented, it makes my job easier - they know how to delegate.

Read MarketingProf’s Clearing the Clutter—How Busy Marketers Can Get Things Done for more information.

Have you ever thought about storing your supplies in a filing cabinet?
Think about how much space you will save. When you put supplies on shelves there is a lot of empty space above each stack.

You can store more in a drawer of your filing cabinet. Here are some supplies that are great for storing this way.
- Ink cartridges. If you buy in bulk, take them out of the outer packaging
- Notepads and notebooks
- Avery labels
- Greeting cards, envelopes and stationary.
- Printer paper Depending on your drawer, you might be able to store some legal sized paper under the folders.
- Spare manila folders
- CDs & DVDs Best stored at back of drawer.