As a small business, there is a good chance you have to manage projects and people that are not always located in one area.  So how do you maintain these projects and off location employees while still having the capacity to share updates, documents, and assign tasks?

Project management solutions

Conveniently enough, many project management tools can be found that make managing all of these things easier.  Using these tools will assist your small business in organizing projects and keeping employees and clients informed. Here are a few available options:

Basecamp

Basecamp remains one of the most popular online project management tools for entrepreneurs. There’s a simple reason for this: It offers an easily understood interface that lets you quickly manage any of your small business projects. You can access the system to communicate with project managers, delegate new tasks, give your okay to submitted documents and marketing materials, or schedule meetings. You can even enable your clients to access Basecamp to allow them to offer feedback on the work that you and your team have already carried out.

Quickbase

Quickbase has a lot to recommend it, not least of all the fact that the maker of Intuit business software is behind this program. Quickbase performs the same general tasks as Basecamp. However, it offers a unique version of a simple interface and is equally useful for both large and modest small businesses.

Huddle

For the more creative projects, like marketing and advertising, Huddle is perfect. Certainly one of this tool’s perks is its live-conferencing tool. If you need to collect the team in a quick and easy fashion, this tool lets you, regardless of where your team members might be.

Deskaway

This is a good tool for updating team members on a projects progression. Easily generate blog posts, congratulatory messages, and quick updates.

Project management tools are consistently getting updates and new options are becoming available.  Each of these project management tools can give you ways to strengthen your business’ ability to maintain organization and create a great experience for your clients. Keep your eye out for the tool that will best suit your business’ needs.

The promise of a paperless office has existed for years. Unfortunately, most offices must still use paper regularly. Is the paperless office just a pipe dream that we will not attain?  In a nutshell, no. We’re constantly moving toward paperless offices, but it’s just taking us much longer than we had hoped.

The advantages of paper

As nice as it would be to have everything in digital format, paper remains useful. The main reason it’s still around is that paper is portable. You can easily scribble a note and slide it into your pocket. Even the most eco-friendly offices still find uses for paper. If you’re an editor, you probably know how hard it is to edit a digital copy. Many people would rather proofread important documents in hard-copy format. It is sometimes simpler to spot mistakes when the file is printed out.  

Less paper than ever

Paper has become less and less important.  Quite a few past paper processes are now able to be performed on a computer. Team communication is dealt with via email. Even instant messaging has taken the place of paper notes to coworkers. Smartphones and tablets have taken over the dependence on a physical calendar/schedule system. If you take a look back at how far business has come in the past decade, it’s pretty clear that paper, while not fully obsolete, is no longer king.

The future

It’s obvious that offices of the future will rely on less paper than even we do now, but will paper ever really go the way of the milkman? Maybe. Some people still prefer having their milk delivered from a local dairy but most are content to pick it up from the store when they need it.

Paper will most likely go the same route and it will be a personal preference as to how much paper is consumed in the office. As many of our business processes rely on digital solutions, there will always be a select few who prefer good old-fashioned pen and paper.

It feels like iPhones can do everything but take out the garbage. Besides the obvious phone calls, we can monitor the latest movies and TV shows, and update our social sites. They store our music and give us directions to navigate to the nearest shopping mall. You might think you already know all your iPhone can do but here are a few lesser-known tricks you with thankful to learn.

Saving Time

If you find it hard to type a Web address on the small on-screen keyboard, before clicking in the address bar on your browser, turn your iPhone to a horizontal position. The keyboard will now be larger, making it easier to type an “e” and not a “w”. Here is a timesaving tip for making phone calls. When browsing the Web, if you come across a telephone number you need to call, simply tap the telephone number on the screen and your phone will call it.

More Efficient Typing

This tip will help you type faster: When you tap the space bar twice at the end of a sentence, your phone will add a period and automatically capitalize the next word you type. If you’re a individual who uses a great deal of special characters, it’s easy to access the menu by touching and holding a letter on your screen until the special character options appear. Then simply select the character you want and insert it.

Quick Printing, Personalized Entertainment

This tip is for those of you that own an AirPrint-enabled printer. It is simple to print documents, emails, and Web pages from your iPhone with this device. To print a Web page merely touch the “Action” icon and choose “Print,” this will send the information to your printer. Printing an email is just as easy; tap “Reply” and select “Print.”

It’s simple, too, to build your own customized music playlist. From the iPod app, hit the “Playlists” icon and then tap the “Add Playlist” icon. Give this new list a name, and tap any video or song on your iPhone to add it to his new playlist.

It’s something we already take for granted: when we touch an icon on the screens of our electronic devices, we expect something to happen. And not just anything, either; we anticipate our gadgets to do exactly what we want it to do, when we want it done, and all at the touch of a fingertip. It wasn’t too long ago that touchscreen technology was a source of wonder. Today, touchscreen technology is a given for a lot of of the latest gizmos—everything from tablets to GPS units.

How, exactly, does touchscreen technology work? How do so many of our screens know what to do if we touch the icons displayed on them? The answer isn’t that simple. That’s because there are a few different types of touchscreen technologies, and each of them works in a different way.

Resistive touchscreens

This is the most common and the most inexpensive type of touchscreen technology today. With resistive technology, screens are coated with an electrically conductive layer. Your fingertip causes the electrical current to alter when you touch the screen. The device’s controller receives the data and preforms the action you requested.

Surface wave touchscreen

This form of touchscreen utilizes ultrasonic waves that pass over the screen. Whenever your finger touches the screen, you absorb part of the wave. This information is sent to the device’s controller and an action is preformed. Simple right?

Capacitive touchscreens

Capacitive touchscreens most often have the sharpest image quality. Devices employing this technology are coated with a material that sends an electrical current across the screen. As the human body is electrical, when you touch the screen, you absorb some of the electric current which disrupts the flow across the device. Just as with the other types of touchscreen, the disruption sends information to the device’s controller. The device then performs the action that you requested, at the touch of a fingertip.

It’s a good thing we don’t have to fully understand the touchscreen technology to enjoy it. But it is nice to have a grasp, if only slightly, on how a technology works that we use everyday, particularly as we know that touchscreen technology isn’t going away any time soon.

Will digital currency one-day replace paper money? It may sound like something out of science fiction, but it may not be as far-fetched as it sounds. Consider that consumers already depend heavily today on credit cards and online services as Paypal to pay their bills. They swipe credit cards at the fuel pump when filling their cars. They order movies online through Paypal. They even pay for their burgers and fries with gift cards pre-loaded with currency. When you look at it this way, we’re really not that far off from ditching paper and coins for digital dollars.

The Bitcoin revolution?

Did you realize there is an increasingly popular digital currency currently in “circulation?” Bitcoin, first seen in 2009, is an “unhackable” peer-to-peer digital currency that is recognized globally and can used to purchase goods and services.

Bitcoin is not technically a legal tender and therefore many, if not most, retailers outside the Bitcoin user database won’t accept it.  It’s very possible another alternative digital currency may pop up and over take Bitcoin, becoming more mainstream than the revolutionary Bitcoin.

The digital currency model

The benefits of moving away from paper-based currency are numerous. Besides misplacing a gift card, it is difficult to lose digital currency.  You don’t have to worry (as much) about not having enough cash on you to cover an expense. Digital currency is also more eco-friendly, as the need to replace damaged or outdated paper currency is removed.

Digital currency may be more secure than paper money, too. When you’re robbed as you are walking down the street, you have little chance of recovering the money. However, if someone steals your credit card, it’s easy to cancel the card, protecting yourself financially. The same scenario could easily exist with your digital dollars.

Holdouts

Not everyone is sold on the concept of digital currency. A lot of people still don’t use credit cards or even have a computer. They prefer to use paper money, as it feels more real to them. We will just have to see how the world changes and if the luddites out there will change their minds.

This year’s Tokyo Motor Show exhibited some interesting, wild, and green concept cars. With efficiency in mind, companies unleashed these eco-friendly designs which are both imaginative and rather eccentric. Here are just a few.

Volkswagen

Volkswagen unveiled their newest Beetle and it is ready to rock. Teaming up with Fender, this Beetle is equipped with a sound system that features a 400W 10-channel amplifier, a subwoofer, and two sets of tweeters, one set in the front and one in the back. This car is great for anyone who is ready to rock out!

Honda

This eco-friendly design is Honda’s “micro commuter” car. This tiny electric car is just 98.4 inches long, 49.2 wide, and 56.3 tall and looks like something from a video game. To enhance its arcade feel, it’s controlled with two joysticks. While its top speed is only 37 mph and can only carry three people its tiny size is perfect for the city commuter.

Daihatsu

While this design from Daihatsu looks like a bus, it isn’t; it’s the FC Sho Case. FC standing for fuel cell. Daihatsu’s revolutionary design contains no rare earth metals, which makes it more economical to produce then other fuel cells. The LCD screen on the outside plays relaxing wave patterns, but when getting into the car passengers must step over these to get in which makes it hard for elderly people or individuals with injuries.

Toyota and Yamaha

Scooters have become more common in the past couple of years. People want easy, fuel-efficient methods for getting from here to there. Partnering with Toyota, Yamaha revealed an electric tricycle that takes scooters one step further. The EC-Miu can be recharged at charging stations used by other electric vehicles and it has Wi-Fi capabilities.

The concepts showcased at the Tokyo Motor Show this year were green focused and highly imaginative. It’s hard to predict what they will think of next, but I for one am looking forward to next year.

Android smartphones and Apple’s iPhones are very different. Android phones are highly customizable. You can change everything from your Android phone’s home screen to the way you download apps because Android is open source. The tips below will show you how easy it is to tailor your smartphone to your specific needs.

One-Touch Dialing
There are undoubtedly certain numbers that you dial more regularly than others. With Android smartphones, you can set up one-touch dialing for those people that you call the most. Simply press an open space on your screen and select the “Shortcuts” option. Then press Direct Dial and pick the right person from your list of contacts. Now you can call that person by simply pressing a single button.

Saving Time Searching the Web
If you have Web sites that you visit everyday, it is possible to customize your home screen to incorporate shortcuts to these sites. To achieve this, press and hold onto the desired site in your browser’s bookmarks until a list of options pops up. Select the option “Add Shortcut to Home.” You’ll then see the selected Web page appear on your phone’s home page.

Organizing with Folders
By creating folders on your Android phone, you can better organize everything from your contacts to your most important work documents by grouping these items into their own folders. For example, if you’re focusing on an important project for work, you can create a new folder that’s reserved for documents, Web addresses, and phone numbers related to this specific project. To make folders, press on a blank space on your phone’s screen. When your list of options pops up, press “Folders.” This will enable you to create your own folder and name it. You can then drag and drop important documents, images, and files into these folders.