Friday, February 10, 2012

7 Free #Tools That #Nurse #Entrepreneurs Should Be Using, @icoachnurses #nursefriendly #nursingentrepreneurs #entrepreneurship

7 Free Tools That Nurse Entrepreneurs Should Be Using

The Internet is littered with programs, apps, and plug-ins that all have the potential of being valuable tools for your business. Testing, researching, and exploring these gadgets and gizmos, however, could be a full-time job!  In my never-ending quest to find the hippest, hottest, and most efficient options for my EntrpreNurses, I have come up with a list of 7 “must have” free helper tools for business professionals:

1. TwitCleaner : Because it’s about the QUALITY not the QUANTITY of your Twitter Followers. Twitcleaner weeds the “junk” out of your Twitter Followers and leaves you with a solid, viable, and active base. Shady followers, self-absorbed followers, and inactive followers are all compiled into a Twitcleaner provided report for you and gives you the option to leave them be, or unfollow.

2. Bubbl.us: If you are a fan of Mind-Mapping, this super cool site let’s you create your own custom, colorful Mind-Maps that you can store, share, and update for later. “Brainstorm online with bubbl.us.”

bubble.us

Brainstorm and Share

3. Google Alerts: One of the keys to success is to research and monitor everything connected to your industry. Google Alerts helps you track activity on the Internet when a specific keyword is mentioned. Google Alerts help in:

  • monitoring a developing news story
  • keeping current on a competitor or industry
  • getting the latest on a celebrity or event
  • keeping tabs on your favorite sports teams

Set up an Alert for your business name and it will give you a cyber “heads-up” via email whenever your name is mentioned on-line. You can also set it for industry-related keywords to track news and updates in your field.

4. Google Boomerang:  This nifty little tool is a Firefox / Chrome plugin that lets you take control of when you send and receive email messages. Need to send something Friday but afraid you won’t remember? Write it, Boomerang it, and it will automatically send on the date and time you desire. No more “oh crap I forgot!”or “did I hear back from them or not?”

5. Skype: Don’t rack up minutes on your phone! Use Skype to speak with clients, business partners, and suppliers. Opt to use the camera feature and actually see who you are talking to as well. If you find yourself ringing up hefty long distance bills, start asking clients and friends to Skype you. Works for international calls as well. There are packages you can pay for too, but that depends on your individual calling needs. Plus the funky little noise Skype makes when it boots up is pretty cool ;)

6. Freshbooks : Freshbooks it a pretty sweet accounting and invoicing site that makes both less painful. It’s completely FREE for your first three clients. You can track expenses, create time sheets and log hours on projects. I am groovin’ on the Timer. It’s a way to keep real-time records of when projects start and end. Bring up the Start/Stop Timer tab, pick what task you are performing for which client, and start the Timer. When your done, click “Log Hours” and it automatically logs your time for you under that client for later billing.

7. AWeber: Building an email list is still important for any business. Remember you own your email list, you don’t own your Twitter followers or Facebook fans. AWeber is a great platform and makes creating and analyzing email campaigns really easy. However the best part is it is super cheap for up to 500 subscribers on your list. So when you’re just starting out it is a good way to test out all the features of an email marketing campaign without actually paying much at all.

There’s 7 Little Nuggest Of Entrepreneur Gold for you! I’d love to hear your top picks for free tools, apps and plug-ins. Use the comment below and share some of your favs!

Anna Morrison is the Founder of The EntrepreNurse™ Group and the annual EntrepreNurse™ Summit. Her work empowers Nurses to leverage their clinical experience to create profitable businesses with meaningful impact. She is the #1 Amazon Bestselling author of 5 Things They Never Told You in Nursing School. Her upcoming books include: The EntrepreNurse Club: Escape the Bedside, Make a Difference, and (Finally) Earn What You’re Worth, and the awe-inspiring Magnitude 7.0: Hope & Transformation After Haiti’s Apocalyptic Earthquake. As an inspiring servant-leader and in-demand speaker, and nursing career coach, Anna has helped hundreds of nurses re-connect to their passion for making a difference in the world, while improving their own lives. Anna runs the “I Coach Nurses” Blog online and her international volunteer work has been featured in The Miami Herald, on Good Morning America, Plum TV and Nurse.com. Anna is a member of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses and the National Association of Legal Nurse Consultants.

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Please Click on the "Via" link to visit Anna Morrison's website. This article has been reprinted by permission.

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