Fewer toys and more family vacations

The best reasons to stop spending money on toys and invest in an incredible family vacation

Can you think of a better use of your time than family vacations?

Family vacations on the beach
Fewer toys and more family vacations

All families need a moment of getting away to take well-deserved vacations. Home improvement, work, school, and the many daily activities end up overwhelming each of the members, making their life boring, monotonous and even generating stress.

Finding the perfect period that suits everyone’s time is not as easy as it seems; fortunately, there are holidays such as Easter, which can be the ideal occasion to plan a perfect family vacation.

However, for many parents, the money factor is the main inconvenience to decide on a trip. Therefore, they prefer to pander indirectly to their children by buying them the latest seasonal toys or videogames. But if we analyze how much money they have invested in toys and compare it with the expenses of a family vacation, we would conclude that the amount could be equal or similar.

Family vacations photo at a historic monument
5 reasons not to spend money on toys but on a family vacation

Vacations: focus on lasting memories

At OpusTime we care about how you manage your expenses, so we bring you some reasons why you should not spend your money on toys but on family vacations.

  1. Help to keep unforgettable moments that will surely last over time in your memory and that of your children.
  2. Take your family to places that involved a historical event, or places where the fauna and flora are the most relevant. This will allow you to teach your children about these topics in a fun and relaxing way.
  3. It allows you and your family to have the opportunity to discover their affinity in tastes. By spending a relaxing time together, you will be able to see what each person likes to do; thus they will have tools to plan activities frequently.
  4. It is not necessary to invest a lot on a trip. They can plan to go to nearby places, camping or stay in hostels. This will allow them to save and in the meantime, it will be useful for you and your family to meet people from different parts of the world and learn from their culture.
  5. Spending fun and relaxing moments make the family union increasingly narrow. This helps make interpersonal relationships less stressful and creates a new family dynamic.

If you like this post, you might also want to read 13 signs you should invest in vacation. By the way, you can manage your business from anywhere and free up time for what really matters with OpusTime. Sign up for a 30-day free trial and experience symphony at work!

OpusTime App wins Prestigious Awards!

OpusTime wins 2019 Rising Star and Premium Usability Awards from FinancesOnline!

Listening to our customers and hard work pays off, as OpusTime earns an important recognition in the first quarter of 2019.

OpusTime App wins 2019 Premium Usability and Rising Star Awards from Financesonline.com
OpusTime App makes an entrance in the Appointment Scheduling Software category at Financesonline.com

OpusTime App has earned the prestigious 2019 Premium Usability Award from FinancesOnline, a top platform for SaaS/B2B software and financial products reviews. In this business software directory, they provide an extensive base of software reviews prepared by experts and actual users so businesses can easily compare and find the best solutions. This annual recognition is given out after a thorough FinancesOnline.com software study across a number of categories to identify outstanding products, including the leaders in the Appointment Scheduler segment.

With an overall review score of 8 out of 10, OpusTime App was also honored in FinancesOnline’s list of the 2019 Rising Stars. Some of the specific features that the review team of software experts took into account in evaluating OpusTime were:

  • Online 24/7 Booking Solution
  • Book Multiple Appointments in one session
  • Booking via Facebook
  • Drag and drop rescheduling
  • Simple and Intuitive User Interface
  • Waiting List Management
  • Color-coded calendar
  • Client recalls with instant SMS templates
  • Auto Reminders
  • Advanced Note-taking
  • Invoice Management
  • Payment Management
  • Secured client notes
  • Client Communication (SMS and Emails)
  • Integrations with Facebook, Mailchimp and Quickbooks

These awards confirm the value OpusTime provides to entrepreneurs, freelancers, and health sector professionals who want to develop excellent relationships with their customers/patients through efficient appointment scheduling, reducing overhead, and orchestrating the most important tasks.

How to write your review of the OpusTime App?

Please visit FinancesOnline.com to write a review of OpusTime appointment scheduling!

Are you new to OpusTime or to appointment scheduling software? Experience all the features in-depth by signing up for a free 30-day trial!

Continuing education, a tool for knowledge update

The labor force world is constantly renewed due to changes in our daily life because society evolves every minute. Therefore, if we want to be competitive, stay ahead, learn new techniques and methods in our profession, we have to keep updating our knowledge and continuing education is an imperative way to achieve a competitive edge.

The variety of these continuing education courses is infinite and the lack of free time our employees experience at their places of work is not an excuse. There are excellent online trainings options that allow the employer, the employee or any person in general to follow a course and learn a new skill, from their offices or the comfort of their homes, if they prefer. Today, with the phenomenon of social networks, employees  must master very well all aspects regarding managing, handling, designing and interacting with social networks if they wish to succeed and stay ahead of their competition. The infinity of resources that Internet has to offers, there are no excuses for someone wanting their businesses to prosper. However, in order to apply the new skills learned it is necessary to dominate them completely.

Different approaches to continuing education

Study a new language: the market requires the English language if you wish your business to  develop internationally.  A great percentage of the world´s  commercial and/or trade exchange between countries is handled utilizing English, and being able to speak that language well will open new business opportunities for entrepreneurs as well as fabulous prospects for employer who seek to progress and get qualified experienced employees. Another fundamental language to bear in mind is Mandarin. The Asian giant is already the second economic power in the world and mastering its language is a spectacular advantage to stay above the competition. Latinos who want to progress in the United States and Canada must learn to speak English to fully integrate into these new societies. The same should be done by English speakers who want to trade with the Latino communities in Canada and the United States, since they represent a significant percentage of the total population. The Chinese immigration advance in the West is still huge like in the twentieth century and mastering its language mandarin represents a great virtue in the face of your competition.

For Latin Americans it is useful to speak Portuguese, Brazil is the great power of the region and to master its language would bring multiple benefits. The development of the professional through continuing education acquires new perspectives and open the doors to earn more money.

  • Internet resources for businesses: using the Internet to grow your business is essential. There are many pages that offer traffic services on the Internet. Traffic is essential so that our own website receives many visits and, therefore, more sales. It also offers selective traffic services. That is, that our website is visited by our target audience. For example, if we make plastic products for the kitchen, we need the page to reach adults who use them.

Regarding computer resources is essential to stay informed. Obtaining a knowledge update is very important because it gives entrepreneurs  the chance to know what new methods they can implement in order to increase sales and make more profit.

  • Social networks: they are the boom of our era. If a business wants to prosper, it has to dominate social networks. It is also necessary that you have many followers and interact with the brand. In addition, investing in social networks means investing in the future, since most of the users are young and there will be a time where all business transactions will be done online. If your brand is not handled well and you do not feel it has been present well enough to reach as many  people as possible, it is convenient to hire a talented community manager who manages the social networks of your business and will guide you to make your brand stand out.

In the case of a rising employee, social networks can be used to inform  potential employers about your professional profile and work experience to be considered for employment opportunities. It is convenient not to show anything of your private life and to maintain exhibiting  labor related issues only.

  • Coaching: resorting to coaching is a great idea to succeed, individually or collectively. The coaching consists of a personalized training on the area where you want to progress. The coach draws the best from the professional, producing extreme and positive transformations. The employer can use it for himself and / or his employees. An independent worker can hire a coach to excel his/hers qualities and achieve all proposed objectives. The only requirement needed is to be open to learning new techniques and methods. Progress will manifest naturally.

Continuing education for health professionals

Health professionals are require additional training and knowledge after having received a specialization. Dentists, podiatrists, podiatrists, chiropractors, physiotherapists and more must continue to be trained. There are extensive refresher courses in all specialties and you must choose the one that will give you an edge over your competitor. For example, dentistry is currently working hard on the aesthetic aspect of oral health. Many people invest in looking for the best professionals to make their appearances exceptionally better, so investing in a course of these characteristics and nature is beneficial and could lead to higher profits. The key for any health professional is to be informed about the demand and updates in his/her areas of expertise and their communities,  and what courses exist to meet that demand.

Reasons to be continuously educated

If you want to progress and earn more money, you have to keep yourself in a constant knowledge update, study and search. This will lead to a better understanding of your market ( your audience) or area where you wish to penetrate, and be able to make the right decisions. If you want your company to be ahead of your  competition you have to know what social changes are happening around you and design ways or methods on how to satisfy said changes. Therefore, translating into more sales, better margins for profit  and being ahead in a competitive world. In the case of a worker who wishes to succeed, the situation is the same: understanding the changes that are happening around you, live up to them and stay focused on what you wish to accomplish, maintain a higher level of knowledge updating, be competent and competitive.

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6 reasons why SMS is more effective than Email

Are you aware of the SMS opportunity to communicate and engage your clients? Better yet, are you in a position to benefit from such an opportunity? Does your practice management software allows you to keep patient communication active with systematic and automatic SMS as well as SMS campaigns?

Your Audience owns a mobile phone

In targeting my audience, I have discovered that 60% of the people in the planet utilize or owns a mobile phone, in comparison with the 40% of people who have access to an internet account.  Statistics show that the number of mobile phone users have increased dramatically in past years, with the tendency of more people projected to sustain the same orbit in future years, one has to assume that a SMS campaign will reach a higher number of people rather than by sending emails.

Open rates for SMS is far better than emails

Research shows that 98% of SMS messages have a response rate of 45% while the open rate for emails are at 28-33% with a much lower response rate of 6%. This means that almost 3x people are reading your messages than opening the emails you’ve sent them.

Awesome click through rate

Click Through rate is the percentage of clients that clicked through to a website via the link within an SMS message. The average click through rate for links in SMS messages stands at 19% while the click through rate for email marketing is at 3.2%. 19% click through so this means that for every 5 SMS you get 1 booking.

Vital Broadcasting with your patients

With higher open rates, SMS messaging provides you with the superiority of instantly updating and informing your recipients of what you have to say. This could mean anything from special offers to discount of products and services that your patients may be looking or needing for. SMS messages can be customized based on your patient´s purchasing behavior and keep them informed on specific offers they may be interested in.

More doesn’t necessarily means better

SMS messages are instant, mobile and accessible. They posses mass-messaging capabilities for spreading information. Their word count has to stay limited to only the most relevant facts rather than having all sorts of information risking your patient’s interest. People usually do not have the time or the patience to read the entire content of your email until they reach the link; in contrast, with a SMS message, which in fact are short and to the point, have a superior chance to grab your patient’s attention and keep them interested and updated.

It’s economical

What if every dollar you spent produced 100$ of business?

 

It may seem costly when you look at the cost of each SMS sent. However, the chances of  landing some bookings from your SMS messaging campaigns and turning them into actual money are by far greater than embarking of an email campaign. In addition, emails require creating and designing and that my dear OpusTimenautes translate into time and money.

Let a reliable practice management software work for you, become a paid subscriber.   OpusTime where business owners belong.

13 signs you should invest in vacation

Taking time off to plan and take a vacation brings incredible benefits to people´s health.  However, according to the American Psychological Association´s work and well being survey, those benefits are far from permanent.

But what does David Ballard, Director of the American Psychological Association Center for Organizational Excellence have to say about vacation.

“After workers return to work from a vacation, they usually feel less stressed, their mood is better, they have more energy, they’re more motivated, and they say they’re more productive and their work quality is actually better,  But for nearly two-thirds, those effects dissipate within a few days of coming back from a vacation.”

In the same way even mentioning  the word vacation to a pack of passionate entrepreneurs, and you’ll likely be met by perplexing stares or incredulity of reproach. Those lionhearted who take a break – be it dropping their pens at exactly 5:00 pm on a daily basis, taking a lunch break other than being in front of a computer, or dare I would say, plan and take a vacation off the grid – are stigmatized (red flagged) as not being cut out for the hardship of entrepreneurship.

Contrary to such a negative stigma, vacations are crucial to excelling in the endurance that takes to build a successful business. Here are the top Thirteen signs that you need to invest in a vacation:

1. Your job, which used to bring you so much joy, has now become mundane and you can’t seem to find any excitement in it anymore.

2. Your ideas or your ability to execute on an initiative are at a lull.

3. Every little problem is turning into a big issue.

4. You start making mistakes.

5. You wake up at 03:00 am without reason or have trouble sleeping.

6. You are feeling pretty cynical and everything arounds you annoys you.

7. You are losing touch with your personal life and feel stagnant.

8. Everything hurts (backache, headache, shoulder ache, carpal tunnel ache, sciatic pain).

9. You’re tired of in house entertainment (TV) and reach for that wine glass.

10. Anthills routinely become mountains.

11. Your entire life revolves around your work and you can’t think of nothing else.

12. Your energy levels is so depleted that you become a couch potato.

13. You daydream about anything but work.

Just like most things in life, moderation is the key. Take some time off (disconnect from your daily routine) so you can sleep better and be more productive, more relaxed, and healthier. Take the initiative to have the control of your business at your fingertips from anywhere with OpusTime.  Find out first @ www.opustime.com for your 30 days free trial period. OpusTime where business owners belong.

OpusTime update: Tabs and Icons Galore!

New Appointment Icons

We have expanded our appointment  icon  system on the appointment book to help you be more efficient.

event-note

Appointment Note:  Indicates that there is a note to the appointment such as when someone leaves a note during online booking.

final-notes

File note (Final): Indicates that you have entered a note in the client/patient file and that the note is final.

not-draft

File note (Draft): Indicates that you have entered a note as a draft in the client/patient file

New patient file tabs:

We have completely redesigned the client file page. It now includes tabs to help you rapidly find what you are looking for.
Thank you so much for all of your comments and suggestions. We hope that you enjoy this update as much as we do!

Enjoy this short video.

Use OpusTime is now on your Phone!

OpusTime is now fully responsive! You can use it on your mobile phone just as well as on any device or any browser!

This means you can book appointments, record invoices and payments and even take file notes just as easily on your mobile than you can on a tablet or a PC.

Run your business with your phone!

phone-hand

Improved flow for booking and followups

New buttons on invoice summary page.

The invoice summary page now contains to buttons. Book Appointment and Add Follow Up.

We hope you use this and take your customer retention to an entire new level!

Other improvements

 

  • The patient list now displays the reference number
  • The online booking sequence has been changed. People select professionals first then appointment types. This makes the booking process muche simpler in the context of a business with a large number of professionals
  • Account statements now display charges in chronological order instead of in invoice number order. (Shout out to Heather for reporting this one!)
  • Rescheduling an appointment to a different location is now possible.
  • Speed improvements.
  • Multilingual corrections for invoices and automated communications.
  • Various bug fixes and display improvements.

Make Your Life Rich With A Client Management Software

Who doesn’t want a rich life? Of course, everybody does. A rich life isn’t all about having lots of money, especially in the world we presently live in. Peace of mind and time to relax are also important factors that give you a rich life.

Many business owners are quite rich in terms of money, but their life is so packed with stress and tension that money isn’t bringing them much of happiness. If you are one of those people out there who are highly stressed out because of client related tasks at work, you must purchase a client management software now. It will take care of all your woes at work so that you can devote time to your passion, make money and still get enough of time to relax.

A client management software will prove something that you have always desired. An optimal client management software like OpusTime boasts so many features, which can bring peace into your staff’s and your life.

Starting from client booking, scheduling appointments to invoicing and making payments, OpusTime can take care of everything all at once. Besides, you can perform all such tasks from a single window. The scheduling software’s awesome accessibility makes it irresistible.

Technology has become so advanced these days that now you can perform a lot of tasks in a matter of few minutes or say in few clicks. So, why lack behind when you can lead with a top notch client management software like OpusTime.

Time is money and peace, so without wasting them anymore, switch to OpusTime and stay committed to your clients. Sign up for 30 days free trial of this superb scheduling software now.