The Tribe of Adminsa home for wayward admins

If you own your own small business, you’re probably familiar with Vistaprint – they pretty much own the market in affordable business cards. It’s never quite as inexpensive as you imagine it will be though, by the time you decide to upgrade to that irresistible design, add a back side, make it glossy…oh, and shipping. Ugh – shipping

Well, Vistaprint has just upped its game. I recently received a promotion in the mail for 500 Premium Business Cards for $10. I added a back side to my card and paid $13 for 500 cards. I thought that was pretty good, but then I found 500 Premium Business Cards for $3.99. I don’t know which deal will be better for you – if you try the $3.99 deal and shipping makes it come out too comes out higher than $13, OR you do the $10 deal and don’t get offered a free upgrade to glossy finish, enter “newlook2011″ in the promotional code box at checkout and you’ll probably get the deal I got. Worth a try, if you have the patience. ( And I get credits if you use the links, so please do!)

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I’m discovering some of the basic functions in Windows 7 that I had thought we had lost forever.  I’m constantly failing to lock my computer now. Years and years of Ctrl+Alt+K the Ctrl+K suddenly results in…nothing at all. If you hit your old combo and skip off, you’re liable to return to a nastygram from IS or a mass of responses to “your” money giveaway or your declaration of your love for Hello Kitty. I thought you had to remember to click the “Lock This Computer” command, but no…it’s one stop shopping now: Windows key +L does it in one stroke!

Use the Windows key +L to lock your computer

And the desktop! Where the heck did the desktop shortcut go?? For months now, I’ve been minimizing every window (and sometimes it’s 40 of them) to see the desktop. Well, reading the directions sometimes helps. It’s here, one click on that little blue rectangle at the end of your tray:

Blue Rectangle is the Desktop Shortcut Key

UPDATE: Per helpful comment from Charles (below): you can also reveal the desktop by using the Windows key +D. Thanks, Charles!

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The Tribe is proud to recommend Ruby Receptionists®. We’ve hitched our star to this one-of-a-kind high quality service because it fills our clients’ needs like nothing else. Nothing frustrates a potential customer like not being able to reach your company, live and in person. Enter Ruby. For less that a tenth of the price of an on-site receptionist, you can have a bright, personable Ruby Virtual Receptionist answer your calls and respond to them in a courteous, helpful manner. Ruby combines bright, talented receptionists with innovative technology to create a seamless experience. Your customers will never know they haven’t reached your business. We think Ruby is the only way to go and will be affiliating with them for all of our clients’ reception needs.

In their own words:

Not every company or busy professional can afford to hire an on-site assistant. Some businesses don’t operate in a traditional office setting. But almost everyone will agree that missed telephone calls equal missed opportunities.

Most alternatives, however, are less than desirable. Answering services can sound impersonal and their staffs perform only the simplest tasks. When an estimated 60% of all consumers become angry or frustrated using an automated telephone, machines are simply out of the question.

With Ruby_®, you can enjoy all the benefits a professional receptionist provided for a fraction of the price of an on-site employee.

Not only can we reduce your business costs, we can actually improve your bottom line. With a team of receptionists always available, we never take a lunch break or a vacation. We don’t get sick or arrive late. We never miss a phone call, and you never miss an opportunity for new business.

Now you can sign up for Ruby through Tribe of Admins! Just click on the button below and a new window will open on Ruby’s site. This won’t affect your cost, experience or relationship with Ruby—it just lets them know that the Tribe loves their work!

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I recently solved a problem that had been plaguing me for months. I inherited an email schedule that had been created for a client, laid out like this:

Week 1              Week 2                Week 3

Tier1 Name 1    Tier1 Name 2   Tier1 Name 3

Tier2 Name 1   Tier2 Name 2   Tier2 Name 3

Tier3 Name 1  Tier 3 Name 2   Tier 3 Name 3

Looks like one of those puzzles in the Sunday Times, doesn’t it? Here’s the thing: Tier 1 folks got contacted every 2 months. Tier 2 every 4 and Tier 3 every 6. So here’s this beautiful schedule, which, when it comes to the end of the names, repeats. Well, it didn’t take me too long, as measured by average ape mentation rates, to figure out that when we repeated the first tier 1 contact it wasn’t going to be time yet to contact the Tiers 2 and 3 people listed for the same week. What’s really embarrassing is how long it took me to solve it. When I’m embarrassed, I try to advertise how stupid I am so everyone else can be embarrassed for me. I think it’s a well thought out psychological strategy. But seriously, this problem had clearly also happened to the person who preceded me, and something similar may have happened to you.

I searched the web for templates or solutions. I consulted Excel experts and tried out their arcane and extremely labor intensive formulas. I squinted and scribbled and searched for different software. I cursed.

Sometimes you just need to look at data in a different direction. If you can’t make a spreadsheet work horizontally, try it vertically. Everything may look different to you. If you want to see my—really very simple—solution to this particular little hell, the details are on this page. If you’re struggling with one of your own, try turning your monitor sideways.

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We’ve been hearing for years about which days are the best for travel in order to get a good price, about length of stay, and how far in advance to buy the ticket. Who knew there were key days of the week to buy the ticket?

In the Scott McCartney’s column “The Middle Seat” in the Wall Street Journal is an article titled Whatever You Do, Don’t Buy an Airline Ticket On … that is positively revelatory (at least to me). The worst days to buy are the the weekends—of course…that’s when recreational travelers are planning their vacations, I thought. My forehead still bears the slap marks (and all for nothing, as you’ll find out when you read further). Additionally, the airlines aren’t managing prices as actively over the weekend as they do on weekdays, so when cheap seats sell out, they’re gone—at least until Monday night.

On Monday, the airlines analyze the weekend ticket sales. By Monday night many of them have launched fare sales. By Tuesday morning, competitors are matching and beating the sales. Wednesday can be as good – sometimes better. By Thursday, the party is over. You start seeing $5-$10 increases across the board. If sales don’t lag and competitors match, the prices will rise for the weekend.

Rick Seaney, chief executive of FareCompare.com, studied three years worth of airline prices and concluded that 3 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday was the best time to buy. “That’s when the maximum number of cheapest seats are in the marketplace,” he said.

Now we come to the part I don’t get: weekends are the slowest sales days for airlines; Tuesdays the greatest volume. That makes the whole pricing scheme seems backward to me, but we don’t have to understand why, just what. Take advantage of it while you can – things are changing due to social media and 24/7 updates. You can read the full article here.

And be sure to put all that money you saved the company in your “Dang, I’m Good” file.

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This post is going to be about an AD. Not just any ad…I’m posting this because I’ve been doing my own taxes since my hair was brown and I think not doing it is silly. I have whatever the opposite is of a math brain…my head should tip to the side I’m so right-brained – and still, I do my own taxes. I started doing them when a program called MacInTax promised me it would be easy. That was the year after the the third accountant did less for me than I could have figured out myself, for the third year in a row. And one of them suggested that I lie to the feds. What am I, Alice Capone? You and I don’t need accountants. Our bosses, probably. We don’t. MacInTax grew, was sold, and today is TurboTax. It will hold your hand and you’ll get more back. And it’s FREE. Mostly. Really. Here’s the ad. Click on it.

(Choosing your TurboTax via this ad will divert $1 of your filing fee from Intuit to The Tribe. That’s the kind of diversion of funds I approve of. Help keep us afloat – pay your taxes!)

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When you create a large document, you are likely to have a table of contents. Traditionally, this is numbered in Roman numerals and the rest of your document is numbered in Arabic numerals. You probably see where to change the style, but it doesn’t work properly. You need to make separate sections, and the trick with Word and sections is to do everything in the right order.

Click here to view a little movie of how to do it. This is a flash movie (meaning you have to have Flash installed), so in case you can’t see it, here are the instructions via the “slow boat”:

You probably already formatted your page numbers, like this:

This window came up, and you clicked on “Format”:

You chose the lower case Roman numerals…

then “Start at ‘i’” and clicked “OK”:

Good so far? Good. Now your whole document has lower case Roman numeral page numbers in the bottom right corner, including the first page. But wait!!! You only want the Roman numerals for the index…starting on the third page you’re out of the index and into the document proper and you want Arabic numerals. No prob!

Put your cursor at the bottom of Page ii. On the page below, for example, I would insert it after the colon after “steps.”

Choose the “Insert” menu item again, then choose “Break” and “Section Break (Next Page):

This will not only make the section break, it will move your cursor to the next page (surprise!). Now that you’re there, just insert page numbers again:

and format again:

Only this time, you’ll format this new section to show up in Arabic numerals, starting at “1″:

Shazaam! Your index page numbers are now formatted in lower case Roman numerals and the rest of your document has Arabic numerals for the page numbers. You’re brilliant!

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There’s been a lot of talk among the admins in my life about the virtues of becoming a virtual assistant. In fact, there are many:

• You love the boss
• The commute is dynamite
• You hire and fire your own clients
• You set your work hours
• The dress code is the coolest!
• The costs of doing business are truly minimal

The downside? You are really, truly on your own. This brings some challenges:

• You have to learn to market yourself .
  • There are a couple of posts to get your started on a website here and here.
  • You’ll need to buy business cards and hand them out everywhere. Vistaprint offers the best deal. That link takes you to a big discount, and if you buy them through my links and I make my minimum to get a kickback, I’ll send you a kickback! (See? This is me, marketing) Just send me your info on the contact form.
  • You’ll need to network like mad. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter are all big helpers, but you need to get out and meet people. Tell them what you do. Ask what they do and tell them how you can help.
• The loneliness factor: you need to be able to work alone or have a place to work among people. Your networking can serve that purpose.
• Did I say you’re on your own? You’re on you own. Buy your own health insurance. Make sure you can handle a fluctuating cash flow. Figure out how to handle I.T. And don’t think you can call Employee Relations when the boss gets snippy.

If all that works for you, go for it! You may even want to join the team at The Tribe of Admins.

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This post is just an excuse to share that . Ever wonder what it means when you see something that says “Embed” below a picture you see in a post or on a webpage? When people – like Scott Adams – are comfortable with you reposting their material, they might offer this option in addition to the usual “Share” option, which allows you to repost to various social networks. Click “Embed” and you see a bunch of code come up. Copy it. In your blog or sometimes on message boards you can choose HTML view. In WordPress, your choices for creating a post are “Visual” and “HTML.” Click on “HTML.” Paste the code. Publish. Crow.

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