My Twitter buds are talking about receipts and business cards this morning, so here's a run-down of my scanners. I own three scanners, one standard, flat-bed, one portable that is 9" wide, and one that is business card size.
My flatbed scanner is a Canon CanoScan 600U that is a few years old now. It runs the CanoScan Toolbox software. It's also set up with a TWAIN32 interface, so I can use it with a wide variety of applications. This scanner is your basic $80 flatbed. I haven't even attempted to install this scanner to firefoot, my new laptop. I just added getting the scanner running under Ubuntu as a task for me for this week.
I was using this to scan receipts for expenses reimbursement, but it presented a complication. Because it's a standard-size flatbed, I didn't pack it and bring it along when I traveled to teach. If I'm on the road for 3-4 weeks in a row, I wouldn't want to be bothered with doing expenses in the 24-36 hours on the in-between weekends. That meant the receipts were piling up on my desk for the week where I was home. by then, the entire task was the ultimate pain in the butt, and an experienced procrastinator like me got very good at avoiding them.
Most of us can get away with this to an extent. sure, your bookkeeper/accountant will fuss at you that they can't get things done. When you're married to your CPA, however, it's more complicated, as you can imagine.
Since I fly Delta regularly, I pass through Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (ATL) regluarly. There are three great geeky things at ATL: a Palm Store, vending machines that sell iPods and accessories, and NeatReceipts.
The NeatReceipts concept looked interesting - a portable scanner that's not a flatbed, but a feed-through design. A typical scanner works like a photocopy machine; you put the original face down, and the bar with the scanning element is pulled across the length of the original, storing the image digitally as it goes. A feed-through scanner switches the movement. The entire scanner is page-width (9"), but it's only as thick as the scanning element, maybe 3" or so. That means it's very portable. The software is straightforward, scan-to-PDF, which is all most of us need to scan receipts.
I hesitated buying it, thinking, do I really need to spend $200 on another scanner? When my CPA threatened to withhold marital favors, I still procrastinated. When she threatened to change the locks, I figured she might be serious, so I bought one.
It's wonderful. I can pack the NeatReceipts scanner in my suitcase and do bills while watching TV on the road, emailing it all back to my CPA, thereby guaranteeing I don't have to sleep on the patio when I come home late one evening.
NeatRecepits has a MAC version of the software, as well, Greta. :-)
My third scanner is for business cards. It's an older CardScan (600x). In addition to the very-techie stuff I travel to teach, I also do a bit of "end-user" training, particularly stuff that helps self-employed and self-starters. It started with me showing folks in my BNI chapter a thing or two, and that grew into regularly scheduled classes. I taught the ACT! contact management software, occasional classes on MS Outlook, etc. One of the most popular classes I ever taught is called "How To Use A Business Card Scanner." I talk about how the scanner will scan a bitmap (graphical) image of the card, then use OCR (optical character recognition) software to turn that into fields in an "address book" style database. Depending on the specific software used, that scanned-card database can be exported to various other applications, like Outlook or ACT!
Business Card scanners are a very useful tool for those engaging in a lot of face-to-face business networking. If you go to business card exchanges, networking mixers, etc., you trade a lot of cards, and the prospect of keying all that data into your computer can be daunting. The CardScan scanner+software's pricetag ($225 or so) doesn't look so bad at that point.
(As an aside, the NeatReceipts website says you can scan biz cards with that scanner as well. I don't know how good their OCR software is, though.)
Which scanner works for you? A flatbed scanner is important for anyone who wants to scan photos, or use the scanner/computer/printer combination as a photocopy machine. NeatReceipts is perfect for road warriors, and the small, bizcard-size scanners make business networking a snap.
Recently in Keyboard Networking Basics Category
Reading through a discussion about the site LinkedIn.com, I was fascinated by this statement by one of the participants:
Why is everyone rushing to join Facebook and porting over all connections? I use LinkedIn for business and Facebook for social purposes.
My response was simple: I don't see the two as mutually exclusive.
The notion of keeping your social and business networks separate is a trap that networkers have fallen into for generations. The desire to not mix business and pleasure is understandable. Business dealings can easily break up even the strongest friendships. Many people are reluctant to sit down with their friends and "talk business."
Three years ago, I found that I was having lunch less and less with some friends whom I've known since college. I was building up two business networks of my own, and was struggling more and more to find the time to just "do lunch" and not talk business. That's when it dawned on me, why not do both? I left the business networking group I was in and started a new one that included my friends. It turned out that my friends knew a lot of people that I didn't, and were more than willing to introduce and recommend me to them.
All I had to do was ask. The formal structure of a business networking group was the right catalyst for this.
It's tough for some folks to get past this wall between business and social networking, and Keyboard Networking can ease the process. Instead of those awkward face-to-face moments, do it on-line:
- Set up your social network on Facebook. Upload your personal contact list from your e-mail program and build up your Facebook.
- Set up LinkedIn and add your business contacts.
- Merge the two.
I set up Facebook a while back, and didn't use it all that much--my social networking is done mostly on blogs and LiveJournal. When I revived it and uploaded my e-mail contacts, I was surprised at how many of my onlne friends were already there. It was neat to watch others who immediately set up Facebooks when invited to do so.
Once your social network is set up, then do the same with your business network. Again, I was pleased to see how many competent face-to-face networkers I knew went right to LinkedIn and set themselves up there.
The third step is the key one. So many of us don't want to impose on our friends, so we don't know who they know in the business world. We don't hang out after hours with business colleagues, so we don't know all that much about their personal interests. If someone goes through the trouble of setting up a Facebook or a LinkedIn profile, it's safe to assume that they'll do two if asked. There's no awkward face-to-face moment where your friends think you're trying to hook them into Amway or something, just an e-mail. Odds are they'll check it out, and if they decline, nobody gets upset.
Now, study your connections on both sites. You'll be impressed when you learn that your friends from school or church know half a dozen people you'd love to be introduced to for business. Next time you go to a chamber mixer, you'll be armed with more personal knowledge so you can strike up conversations and keep them alive
Give this a try today, it will only take you a few minutes.
Keyboard Networking 103 - Using LinkedIn.com
Monday, December 10th - 8:30am-9:30am
repeats
Tuesday, December 11th - 5:30pm-6:30pm
Location:
T. L. Starke's
3535 Severn Ave.
Metairie
(Severn and W. Esplanade, next to CVS)
RSVP: edward@nosra.org or 504.339.5087
Learn how to make LinkedIn.com work for you!
One of the guidelines often mentioned by personal coaches and networking trainers is that a person should try to work three personal networks at a time. Less than three is too vertical; there is less chance for branching out between the networks. More than three spreads the individual too thin, straining their personal credibility within the networks.
Keyboard Networking allows the savvy networker to go beyond those three personal networks, because it allows for a much more flexible schedule. For example, if e-mail is a persons primary Keyboard Networking tool, they can answer their messages in the morning, before they begin their traditional work day, and in the evening, after that traditional work day is complete.
The national and international aspects of the Internet are also good reasons to include Keyboard Networking in a marketing plan. Belonging to groups such as Rotary, the Chamber, or BNI are good ways to meet others locally, but growing a network beyond your local area usually requires travel. There are many people whose businesses are such that they could offer their services to others from a distance, but are unable to make contact with others to build the relationships necessary to make that a reality. Communicating with others via the Internet is a good way to develop those relationships; the individual can travel via the computer to expand their contacts.
Back in 1998, I was chatting on-line using a program known as ICQ. The program (ICQ stands for I Seek You) has since become the most widely-used instant-messaging program on the planet. One of the more interesting features of ICQ is its random chat feature. Users can make themselves available to receive instant messages from other ICQ users at random.
While many of these random encounters are short-lived, some turn into interesting conversations and still others into business relationships and friendships. Such was the case when I met a web developer from Missouri. We started chatting about computer topics and realized we were a good fit professionally. Without even meeting this person face-to-face, we were able to establish a business relationship that remained profitable for several years.
As the Internet has matured, so has Keyboard Networking. Sites dedicated to on-line networking are coming of age as even newer on-line networks are forming. The old-school tools, instant messaging and e-mail, have become second nature to so many that it's easy to develop an effective Keyboard Networking strategy.
That is the power of Keyboard Networking. Word of mouth will get your business known in your home town, and maybe a bit farther if the people talking about you travel. Keyboard Networking expands that and enables you to extend your visibility worldwide.
Since the technology that facilitates Keyboard Networking isnt new, there are a number of possibilities for implementing this as part of your overall marketing strategy.
