Lisa Hendrickson is the owner of Call That Girl. She is an Outlook Expert and Microsoft 365 Consultant.
As my company started to grow in 2009, I quickly learned that I need a manual of operations to at least have some guidelines for the interns and new part time employees. The manual started off very thin, but as my company started to grow, the need for a more robust manual came into play. In November of 2010, I had 20 pages of information I needed to share with my team. Shortly after I added on 8 more employees, I needed yet more pages. Finally this past year, I had 16 employees and had enough for 40 pages. This is the edition that helped set official policies and procedures for the company.
If your company is moving to the next level of growth and is in need of a business operations manual, purchasing the template I created for my own company will save you a lot of time and energy. I have outlined the most important features of a manual, you need to just edit in your own information and make appropriate changes. You will receive the manual in a Microsoft Word document, ready to go!
Microsoft Outlook is the number one used software program for businesses for a reason. It’s great, works well and usually does what you need it to do – manage your email, create rules and help manage your day to day. Not every computer repair technician knows Outlook well enough to service your calls quickly, though. This is where I step in. Since the 1990’s, I have been supporting email programs. I started off with a program called “Mulberry” and it worked great, but only managed email. Then in 2000, when I graduated college I got my first job in the corporate world supporting Lotus Notes for American Express. Lotus worked ok, but was clunky at that time. Two months later I secured a new position with Honeywell and they were a Microsoft shop and this is where my love for Outlook began.
For 13 years I have engaged in all the Outlook versions and in the past two years moved into supporting all types of email, not just Outlook, but Mac Mail, Entourage, Outlook 2011, Thunderbird, Windows live mail, you name it…I can support it. Outlook is my love, though. I know it very well and am fast at repairing and training my clients to use it most efficiently.
Is your Microsoft Outlook giving you just too many headaches? Let’s schedule a tune-up for you and your Outlook program to learn how to use it better, repair your minor glitches and get you back on track…and back it up! Most people have no idea that they need to back it up.
Schedule an appointment today for a one hour session with Lisa for $99 (Save $30)
During this appointment we will cover the following:
To book an appointment, please click here or call 612-865-4475
Did you know that computer viruses can now take pictures of you or worse yet, live video? Well they can, and I’ve witnessed it! It’s a pretty scary thing; who knows what kind of information we are unknowingly giving these people. The question is this…is someone really recording the video or is it in the virus programmed to scare you? Either way, don’t take the risk! Here are a few things you can do to protect yourself.
1.) Tape your webcam if you’re not using it or face it towards the ceiling.
2.) Unplug your microphone when you’re not using it.
3.) Check your add-ons in Chrome, FireFox and Internet Explorer.
4.) Hang up on anyone calling you to tell you that your computer is infected.
5.) When adding new software, beware of the new software they will load on your computer, such as the “Ask Toolbar,” “Mcafee Security Scan,” etc.
6.) If you suspect you may have a virus, have your computer looked at by a professional (like Call That Girl!) ASAP.
So I get this computer in the shop. I boot it up and look over and see myself talking. Very odd. Usually the FBI MoneyPak virus just takes a picture of you and then nothing. This one though, was doing a live session. Not only that, but it was zooming in on me….so that means only one thing. Someone was on the other side doing some videos of That Girl! I should have been posing!
This is scary though folks…it can happen to anyone. These viruses change constantly and are a pain the butt to remove sometimes, but it’s now acting like big brother. What’s next??
Tape up your webcam if not in use!
When you set up Outlook for the first time, welcome to RSS feeds friends! You get them set up in the installation process. You sometimes have a chance to not turn them on, but most people just blaze right by that option, so most people have RSS feeds in their Outlook. Let’s start with what RSS feeds are…and what they can do for you and how to turn them off.
RSS means “Rich Site Summary” or the average person calls it “Really Simple Syndication” or just RSS.
RSS feeds are a way to get updates from your favorite websites in your Outlook. It could be news alerts from MSN or a blog post from your favorite blogger (like me!). If you look down the folder list in your Outlook, you may see RSS with tons of blue numbers. This is common, I see it everyday here with my clients. See the example to the right for where my RSS feeds lives. For the purpose of this blog, instead of removing RSS (which you can do and we will cover in a bit) I saved up a bunch to show you. See that MSNBC News one? 8794 feeds that I didn’t really sign up for, Outlook signs you up by default when you agree to RSS feeds in the setup process. This will be removed now!
How to remove RSS feeds
In your Outlook, you need to find your email settings. See pic below. You can click on the “remove” button on each and get rid of them.
Now how do you add an RSS feed from your favorite blog? Go to the top of my website and you will see the RSS feed button. My site says “Posts” but on some websites you may see “Feeds or RSS” with the commonly known logo. If you are new, you can click on the “subscribe” button and then those feeds will be in your Outlook or whatever other program you use.
I will start with the main reason – knowledge. Not every computer repair or support company has the knowledge to support what you need help with. These software support companies put in the time and energy to learn the products on their own so they can support you. But there are few people that know it, so the rates are higher. Compare this to knick knacks you buy at Target. Their section for fun house decor is full of cheap, under $50 trinkets for your home. But if you want something really unique, you go to an antique store where people hand-picked cool stuff. You pay $500 for that one piece that wows people and gives your home a little something extra. Specialty software companies are like antique stores, we know what we are doing and can get things done faster. We know people, the software and how to scoot past first level support (when we call into companies if need be). We also know the quick bugs that the software can create and how to fix them fast. We work in these applications all day, fixing, repairing and supporting is what we know well.
Basic tech support should be relatively affordable; the rates at CTG are competitive in our market and offer quick fixes. But if you are using specialty software such as ACT, CRM systems, Google Apps, Microsoft Office 365 or need server work done, expect higher expenses with your tech support.
Does this make sense? I hope so. I’ve had some clients ask why my Outlook pricing is now a bit more expensive. I have spent 13 years working with Outlook on many different levels; I am fast and fix many problems in 15 minutes or less. If you asked the technician down the street in a local repair shop to fix it, even though their rate may be very low…they could spend hours trying to figure out the problem and not fix it. The may even need to do other things to your Outlook that would make your head spin, like reinstalling, starting from scratch or worse. Their expertise is probably not in Outlook and that costs you more time and money. Hire a knowledgeable software technician and get back to work faster – it will cost less in your time and money.
Call That Girl offers Outlook (all versions), Hosted Exchange Transition Assistance (old POP/IMAP email to exchange, where everything synchs) and is now in training for Microsoft Office 365. If your company is interested in working with us on a beta testing level, we are very interested in talking to you about your company and moving to the robust work of online cloud application support for your IT needs. Call today for a consultation if you’re in need of any of the above. I look forward to helping! 612-865-4475
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