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.

Looking at a cash flow statement does not have to seem like a foreign language

Hello my consequent OpusTimenautes,

For those of you that are not in the business or entrepreneur world,  do you know what a cash flow statement is??

The wikipedia definition of a cash flow statement is:

In financial accounting, a cash flow statement, also known as statement of cash flows, is a financial statement that shows how changes in balance sheet accounts and income affect cash and cash equivalents, and breaks the analysis down to operating, investing and financing activities.”

To say it in plain English,  cash flow statement will show you the money that comes in and goes out in a company at a given time. It is the generation of income and the payment of expenses. Period!!

Computer Icon Michael Dell said:

“We were always focused on our profit and loss statement. But cash flow was not a regularly discussed topic. It was as if we were driving along, watching only the speedometer, when in fact we were running out of gas.”

To become proficient in Cash Flow Statement you need to know that the cash generated in a company comes from three activities which are: Operating, Investing & Financing. With that been said here they are the 13 ways to become the MacGyver of cash flow statements.

Operation Activities (section 1 )

  1. Operating activities are defined as the company’s primary business activities.
  2. Includes the production and delivery of goods and services.
  3. They determine a company’s net income ( liquidity ).  It must be positive to make the business viable.
  4. Analyses the company cash flows from income or losses.
  5. Reconciles an opening balance to an ending balance after accounting for all cash receipts, depreciation and paid expenses in a time period.

Investing Activities ( section 2 )

  1. Includes purchases or sales of long term assets like plants, properties, machinery and investment securities.
  2. Cash is used to invest in the business.
  3. Selling of an asset ( cash inflow ).
  4. Purchasing of an asset ( cash outflow ).

Financing Activities ( section 3 )

  1. Includes the activities related to receipt and repayment of funds provided by creditors and investors, like a issuance of a debt or equity securities, repayment of debt and distribution of dividends.
  2. Cash from the sales of a stock, bonds or borrowing ( cash inflow ).
  3. Cash for Bank loan repayment ( cash outflow ).
  4. Expanding the business through equity or borrowing.

There you have it folks!! A good cash flow statement is crucial to run a successful business, and you need to count with an awesome client management software like OpusTime to achieve your goals and make a profit. Don’t wait any longer and visit www.opustime.com to try your 30 days free trial period.

HELP US SPREAD THE WORD SO WE CAN GROW THE OPUSTIME COMMUNITY

As an OpusTime community user, we believe that you are in a unique position to identify other  individuals within your line of business or personal network who would benefit from joining the OpusTime family of users. For this reason, we have created our new Invite Your Friends program, so that you can refer potential new subscribers to our platform.  Please tell your friends about OpusTime, and to show our appreciation for your effort,  we will add a USD $39.00 plus 500 SMS credit to your account (Valid in USA and Canada, other countries may vary) as soon as any referral becomes a paid subscriber to OpusTime.

INVITE YOUR FRIENDS

There are no limits to how many users you can refer. Once any one of your referrals  becomes a paid subscriber to any of our plans, you will receive a USD $39.00 credit applicable for future payments and  your OpusTime account will receive 500 SMS credit. If more than one of your referrals subscribes to OpusTime, you will receive the same credits for each and every referral, without limits. To participate in this program, please go to  Settings,  then Subscription and SMS, and finally Referral Program so that you may share with your friends the proper code to benefit from this offer.     

We appreciate you being a part of the OpusTime community. Please go to www.opustime.com/blog-post/help-us-grow-the-opustime-community/ to start benefitting from this offer.

How to survive without your Administrative Assistant

Wikipedia´s definition of an administrative assistant

Most administrative assistant duties revolve around managing and distributing information within an office. This generally includes answering phones, taking memos and maintaining files. Administrative assistants may also be in charge of sending and receiving correspondence, as well as greeting clients and customers.

But What does Warren Buffet have to say about his Administrative Assistant

Tracy Britt is the kind of person who exists to make normal people feel lazy and unaccomplished. At the tender age of 28, she’s already the financial assistant and right-hand woman to Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett and is rapidly rising through the ranks at the Omaha-based conglomerate”.

Now imagine this scenario in your office when you show up to work

Your Administrative Assistant does not show for work monday morning. Chaos, confusion, clutter, suffering and tiresome hours of mess and disorder. You don’t know where to begin!!!! Your day has turned into the netherworld! Can your business afford the hit?

Fortunately, some business owners have taken the initiative to work smart and not hard and decided to subscribe to OpusTime to manage the business daily activities.

OpusTime does it all. Appointment, billing, online booking, expense and note taking management, combined with a powerful and simple communication system that will have your business perfectly in  tune!! Let OpusTime orchestrate all your client’s management needs, so that you can fine-tune on what you do best.

Don´t take our word for it. Try OpusTime yourself and verify its versatility in conducting your business to success.

Don´t be left behind here it is your 30 days free trial when you visit  www.opustime.com, where business owners belong.

Uberize your office – Great lessons learned from Uber





By now I believe in most, if not all, countries in this great planet have or have heard about Uber.

But why do people use it?

There are a bunch of reasons as to why people use uber, for example uber can be programmed in your office/house and you wait until the car arrives at your door for you to leave. You don’t have to go out on the street to catch a cab. Try that out during the hot and humid summer days, or snowy and rainy winter days!!!!  

 

What is it that attracts people to use Uber?

The service is convenient, accessible, with adequate pricing, the drivers are courteous, the cars used for the service are nice and clean and in good operating condition, the ride  is smoother, helps you arrive on time and can count on Uber for their daily city traveling services.

Uber provides such  an effective, rapid, high quality service that pleases all users. Uber is considered the elite transportation service in all urban areas where implemented.

Now, the questions I ask myself and every business owner and entrepreneur should ask themselves is: What can I do to run my business as efficient, economical, convenient and hassle free like Uber does?

What if I tell you that you can manage your business from your mobile phone at a budget price.

Believe it or not I am exposing you to a platform that will provide all that for you thanks to the power of the internet that will harness all functionalities and capabilities our software possess.

Don´t hesitate, just out of curiosity, go to www.opustime.com and find out for yourself.  Or click at button for  your trial period.

Old dog will learn new tricks. Can you still afford to stay in your comfort zone?

Choose OpusTime

What time is your first appointment tomorrow?
If you cannot answer that question without speaking to your front desk, then you are seriously missing out!

You may love your job. That’s right, every single minute of it. However, that does not mean that everything is wonderful, and you may be missing out on tremendous opportunities that could lead to higher revenues and lower overhead. How about more profit? But what will it take for you to decide to look into implementing new methods to upgrade your business operations? How much pain must you endure before you look at your procedures and see what is now possible in 2018? 

10 things you are missing out on, if you stick with your old guns

  1. You are dependant on your receptionist or reception computer to figure out when you start tomorrow.
  2. Sunday evening, you don’t know what time you start on Monday because your schedule is locked in the same manner than your office.
  3. From Friday night to Monday morning, no one can book with you until someone is at the office to take an appointment.
  4. When you leave your office, your relationship with your patients stays behind.
  5. You cannot contact them or consult any of your notes or contact information without going back to work.
  6. When you meet someone who needs your help, you can’t book them.
  7. The only way to book with you is to call your office. How many OPPORTUNITIES WILL YOU LOSE?
  8. You cannot consult your statistics until you go back to the office.
  9. If you need to make changes to your schedule, there is no way for you to implement the changes until you go back to the front desk computer.
  10. You will never know beforehand if someone cancels their appointment.

So what are you waiting for!!!! Don’t let your competitors stay ahead. Start your free trial!