Tag Archives | presentation

SnagIt: One Of The Best And Cheapest Tools I Use

By on March 14, 2013 in Web/Tech

I started blogging life (seriously anyway) as a personal finance blogger. Some of what I learned about living on a shoestring and putting money where it matters have help me run my business in a lean, mean way.

300px-SnagIt_screenshotIf you knew Breaking Even B.A. (That would be Before Alice), you’d understand that, while I had the ability to put together a basic looking and functional website, it was not necessarily going to be the most beautiful thing on the internet. Since she has come on board with her Photoshop skills, ability to understand my specs, and attention to detail, Alice has helped us begin to make truly well designed sites. Yes, I feel like with Alice, I can use the word ‘design’ without cringing.

All this said to say that, in our lean mean company with one Photoshop licence at the moment, Alice gets this licence. Clearly.

But people say, Nicole, you give presentations all the time, you blog. You clearly need the ability to manipulate images somewhat. And to them I answer that I use SnagIt. 

I first got introduced to SnagIt via Ogy, a great colleague who runs another web development business called Ogosense. (How I know Ogy is a long story but a fun one if you ever want to read it.)

We were on a conference call when I saw a flash go by on his shared screen and he started drawing arrows and circles around things in a program on his computer.

“What is that?”

“SnagIt.”

I did the thirty day free trial of the software and bought a license ($50- but look for coupon codes at retailmenot.com or other places like it because there is often some kind of promo going. I got it for $30).

More then being not super expensive like Photoshop, SnagIt has a lot going for it.

1. It’s Mac and PC compatible.

2. You can do basic image editing, like cropping,  resizing, add a watermark, adjust colors etc.

3. You can do extras like blurring text, superimposing your own text, drawing, etc.

4. It allows you to do image screen shots (on PCs this is an issue) and you can do video screen captures if you want to do tutorials.

I am sure I am only understanding tip of the iceberg of what this software can do. But I can honestly say, for most people, SnagIt is probably enough to do the basic image editing and screen capture functions that you need to do as a blogger or someone else who needs to document the internet or your computer.

If you’re on the fence, download a one month trial. And let me know what you think!

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Breaking Even: 2010 In Review

By on December 31, 2010 in About Us

It’s been awhile since I’ve written my ‘this week in business’ series. A few large things that have happened in 2010 just to recap (some new stuff, some not so new stuff):

That’s certainly not close to everything but some of the more time intensive and interesting things for sure.

I also had a lot happen in my personal life:

  • I met a man who has put up with a year of 80 hour weeks with patience and kindness. Moreover he loves how much I care about my work.
  • I became an aunt. (Note to self: Get permission from my sister to put her baby’s photo on my website- she’s super cute!)
  • Sadie (my beagle mix) died and I adopted Gidget from Georgia.
  • I took my first vacation in two years and spent a total of three hours online that week.
  • I went with my family to Georgia (a working but fun vacation).
  • I found out my grandfather has cancer, which continues to worsen and has made me value the time I have with him.

As I’ve said already on social media today, I want to thank my family and friends for all their support this year, on the business front and other fronts as well.

2011 promises to be another exciting year and, while part of me is dreading turning 30 and what my Pepere will go through, part of me knows the alternative to moving forward is stagnating and no one wants that.

Happy New Year to you and yours!

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This Week In Business: Gas Station Coffee Edition

By on September 24, 2010 in This Week In Business

I always know I’m going on a big trip when I am drinking terrible gas station coffee. I kind of look forward to it actually!

After my presentation at Social Media FTW with Lenny Tracy of the Maine Real Estate Network, who sat through it. See how relieved I look? -Photo Courtesy of Maine Today

After my presentation at Social Media FTW with Lenny Tracy of the Maine Real Estate Network, who sat through it. See how relieved I look? -Photo Courtesy of Maine Today

This week, I headed to Social Media FTW in Portland to present about business blogging. Nothing like standing up in front of 150ish people with a mic on knowing you’re being videotaped. I had a good time but I was also really nervous… I think it went well anyway!

If/when the presentations go online, I’ll link them on this blog. But for the moment, here is a link to the slides of my presentation. You know, in case you want to feel like you were there.

Here’s what else happened this week:

Matt and I got a little more organized with the Downeast Learning workshops.

There seems to be two groups of people we contact about our workshops. 1) Publications who need to know about something way ahead of time to be able to publish it. and 2) People who only need it about a week ahead (as in they need a time constraint to actually register). Matt organized our press email list (and we have a separate email list we maintain off the Downeast Learning website of other people).  Now we can make sure the notification goes out twice: once a month ahead for the publications (and people) and once one week ahead to remind folks to sign up.

Matt and I are also going to try to live stream this next workshop to see if we can have people remotely register to attend workshops. We’ll keep you posted about if it worked.

To make sure we got in the print version of the Ellsworth Chamber newsletter, we also decided on our workshop topic for next month. You’ve Been Yelped! is all about the use of online review websites and how they can help businesses and non-profits can get and use online reviews to their advantage. There, now you know a month ahead! Though honestly, if anyone would sign up this early, you’d officially shock me.

My blog continued its move to WordPress.

At the talk I gave, I told people how I’ve moved my blog three times to different software/domains. I swear this move to WordPress was the last (from MyBlog, a Joomla component, in case you were curious).

Last week was the big move: making the software live and making sure everything worked overall. This past week has been tweaking things. I’ve been adding plugins, tagging blog posts, and otherwise polishing the content that’s on this site.

Do you believe it’s been four years since I’ve started the Breaking Even blog? Crazy!

I decided to tell people I would have to hold off on their work for a few days… and the world didn’t end.

I think those of us who work alone can think the world will don’t end if we don’t do everything right away. I had applied to be part of the Social Media FTW conference a few months ago and the last few weeks, work has gotten really busy. Ah, timing.

I had two choices: 1) Not sleep for the next month. or 2) Tell people there was going to be a bit of a delay. Since I need sleep so I don’t become Crazy Sleep-Deprived Nicole, I opted for option 2. Guess what? The world did not end. My clients were ok waiting a couple days. I love that people are reasonable…

I had breakfast with someone absolutely inspiring.

Samantha Warren is one of those rare people that has managed to be friends with a lot of my friends on Facebook without me having met her. And it’s not one of those cases where she knows people from one part of my life. I decided we should meet for breakfast, as cool people and fellow small business owners.

We had such a nice time: great conversation about life, work, and all the people we have in common. One idea she had that I thought was great was making a ‘procedures’ document, in case someone ever has to take over work for her (and also as a checklist to make sure all things she does get done on schedule). Anyway, if I ever need a wedding photographer, I think I’ve got one.

So while this week was a lot of driving, it was a great week in terms of meeting people and networking.

If you met me this week, I do hope you’ll comment below so I can follow you online as well. Have a good rest of the week!

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This Week In Business: Moving Sporadically Edition

By on September 17, 2010 in This Week In Business

It has been one of those weeks where everything is turning up in unexpected places (ever find a book in your fridge?) Yeah, it’s been that kind of week.

My worst idea happened Monday night when I decided to not go to bed until I fixed something. At 2 am, I decided to just look at it in the morning. Guess what? I figured it out easy the next day. But then of course, I was thrown off for the week… and there was a lot of moving to be done. And because I was so tired, some of the moving was a little sporadic.

I went to the Schoodic Chamber’s meeting to give a talk… and I was an hour early.
I headed to Winter Harbor (an hour from my house in Bar Harbor) and I got to where I was supposed to on time. Only, the door was locked and the parking lot was empty. Hmph.

I started walking around and saw a man painting his house. Thank goodness he was actually in the Chamber (I love small towns). “Doesn’t that start at 7?” I look at my cell phone: five minutes of 6. Good thing Winter Harbor is a beautiful town to kill an hour in!

My Mac died.
So I will be the first to say I don’t know nearly enough about Macs but I do know when a computer is acting weird. I combed the forums, I tried moving/deleting files, but nothing would stop the spinning beachball of death.

I brought it to the monthly Downeast Mac Users Group meeting and guess who may have messed up her computer enough to need a new hard drive? That would be me. But no worries, I have a backup computer and use Dropbox (free up to 2 Gigs) so most everything is saved. But still, a pain…

I moved my blog to WordPress… ok Matt did but I helped.
Nine months ago, Matt began helping me move the blog part of my website over to WordPress. But work kept coming up. Finally, this week it happened. And tonight, the whole thing officially went live on my site.

Now you won’t notice much different as we’ve kept the same design (and actually Matt is still fixing stuff). But you will notice features like better search and archives, a fun tag cloud, and some functional WordPress plugins doing things, like detecting how users get to my site and giving them a proper greeting.

I applied to try out merchant services.
I’ve been really dragging my feet about accepting credit cards. I’ve wanted to but it’s this whole process and I didn’t want to go through the whole setup only to find one person prefers it to paying with their checking or Paypal account.

I got an email offer from Quickbooks to try their merchant services for 60 days only paying the transaction fees. I find out tomorrow whether I’ve been approved but at least I’ll get to answer my questions like “Will people use it?” and “Will I get paid quicker?” with some actual data from trying!

I think one more good night’s sleep will leave me moving a bit less sporadically tomorrow. But I’m willing to accept that some weeks have days that feel like Monday every day. This was definitely one of them! Happy almost weekend!

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This Month In Business: Running on Coffee And Enthusiasm Edition

By on May 28, 2010 in This Week In Business
It has been a crazy insane month in my life. I’ve joked that if all this movement was actually running, I could run a marathon by now!

The big theme of the month was diversification. I mean my client base is growing at a steady rate but it’s really important to have a few related streams of income. This way, I’m not counting on one check to come in or one other person to decide to buy my services.

How I’ve been doing this is creating more in-person seminars. I love public speaking and people seem to enjoy my presentations so the question was, how can I make money doing this? How can I help more businesses? Here are a few things I did this past month:

I planned a whole new program to help small businesses learn about the internet.

Hugo Diaz, who is a local web developer in my area who normally works on really high end projects, took a lot of his time to help me develop the Downeast Internet Incubator Program (DIIP). The basic idea is to take business owners through the process of setting up social media and a basic CMS (content management system) website in small groups online which will 1) cut down on costs, 2) allow me to help more people, and 3) get more business owners in my area comfortable with using the internet and help build future capacity for my services.

The kickoff for the program is Saturday afternoon at the Maine Grind. I’m charging $10 for the program orientation because while some of it will be about the program, most of it will be about how to use Skype and DimDim to have remote meetings. I figure whether or not people like the program, they’ll definitely get their $10 worth.

There’s plenty of spots. To register, click here.

I presented at the Deer Isle Stonington Chamber.

Deer Isle-Stonington is a beautiful part of the county I live in and one of my old clients got me a speaking gig with the Chamber. It went well and I even got a client out of it. She says if I do a good job, she’ll tell everyone. Great!

I negotiated regular rent at the Maine Grind.

If I was going to set up regular seminar experiences, I needed a venue. Leslie, the owner of the Maine Grind was my first client ever so I’ve always had a soft spot for her. Even before I started working with her though, I loved her coffee shop with its free Wi-Fi, local art, and an upstairs room with good light (not to mention food and drink on site). Continue Reading →
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This Week In Business: Lack Of Sleep Edition

By on April 16, 2010 in This Week In Business

It’s been an interesting week here at Breaking Even Communications and in my life in general.

I’ve had a hard time sleeping, which is uncharacteristic of me. Most of what’s on my mind was thoughts of my grandfather. It was confirmed yesterday that he has liver cancer. He is one of my favorite people in the world, and one of my role models as far as being a good person.

I used to think that there would be times in my life that would be easier and times that would be harder. The older I get though, the more I realize that most times in life will be sort of mixed, and there is importance and even satisfaction in just moving forward. So onward for Pepere, and myself…

Here’s what’s been going on businesswise this week:

Matt and my workshop went really well…and we’re already planning another.

Besides running out of time and not having a good system to answer people’s questions, things went smoothly last Saturday. We have been asked about follow-up workshops, not only by people who came but by people who heard about it.

We decided to use our common website to post information about upcoming workshops and how-tos about the topics we didn’t get to. If you want to check it out: http://www.downeastlearning.com. We’re planning one in May about making websites search engine friendly. Stay tuned!

I gave a talk about blogging at my local library.

Last night, I gave a talk with a fellow local blogger at the Jessup Memorial Library. Four people showed up, which was a lower turnout than I was hoping.

Continue Reading →

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