by Amber Miller | Jun 29, 2015 | Blog, Featured, Infusionsoft
Considering taking your business to the next level with AUTOMATION? Don’t know where to start? Overwhelmed with all the options out there?
Here’s an informative, no-nonsense approach from Wes Schaeffer, The Sales Whisperer©, that compares two popular systems: Ontraport vs. Infusionsoft.
http://thesaleswhisperer.com/office-autopilot-vs-infusionsoft-by-an-infusionsoft-consultant/.
We here at Smart to Finish are knowledgeable and experienced business automation experts, and we can help you make an informed decision on the direction to take your business automation!
by Amber Miller | May 21, 2015 | Blog, The Team
(Q) How big is your family?
(A) I was born in Longview, WA. I’m the youngest of 5 kids. YAY – the baby! The one that was spoiled the most. I moved to Arizona when I was 19 with a couple of friends and could never move back after realizing there are places where it doesn’t rain 10 months out of the year!! I got married when I was 23 and have two adult children who live nearby. Thankfully, my son still stops by weekly to do his laundry and my daughter visits often usually dropping off her dog while she is off on some adventure! I am begging, begging for grandchildren – but doesn’t look like it will be happening anytime soon. So, my daughter’s friend has a 5 year old girl and she visits us and calls and us grandma and grandpa, and we shop, play games, bake cookies – we love her as if she was our granddaughter!
(Q) What is one of the craziest thing to happen to you?
(A) I’ll start with one of the craziest things that ever happened to me – when my husband and I were dating we were at a park playing frisbee and he threw it too far and I ran to catch it and wrapped my entire body around a gigantic saguaro cactus! Had to be taken to ER and they contacted poison control because they had never seen so many needles stuck in a person. I was still pulling out needles weeks later that were embedded in my skin!! (Husband proposed to me shortly after that incidence—I’ve made him pay for it ever since!)
(Q) Do you have pets?
(A) After watching our daughter’s dog a few times, we fell in love with the boxer bread and now have two of our own. One is a boxer mix (not sure what the mix is) her name is Merlot. The other is all boxer—100 .lbs of boxer and his name is Brut. We got him as a puppy and he fits his name! We have learned when we leave them alone to shut all doors and put everything up high so they can’t reach it. Came home too many times to things shredded all over the living room!
(Q) Do you like cooking?
(A) I have never liked to cook. During the time we were raising our kids, my husband did all the cooking. I don’t know exactly why, but suddenly I started watching some cooking shows and wanted to chop things. For the past 3-4 years now I have loved cooking. I find it very relaxing. The hubby is happy to come home to a dinner that’s not chicken nuggets and fries anymore!
(Q) Favorite Television Show?
(A) I am addicted to reality TV. I know – it’s so wrong!! I can’t stop myself from watching any of the Real Housewives shows, Kardashians, Deadliest Catch (my FAV), Southern Charm, the list goes on and on….. I know, I know – my family says I need to seek help!
(Q) Favorite Restaurant?
(A) I love In and Out burger restaurant! Thankfully there is not one too close to me or I’d probably be there everyday and if you’ve seen me that would not be good!!
(Q) Do you like Movies?
(A) I love going to movies (I’ll be honest – it’s for the popcorn w/the white cheddar salt)! Since working at home the past few years – I love a slow afternoon when I can sneak away and go enjoy a good flix when there’s hardly anyone at the theater. Never thought I’d go see a movie alone, but I actually don’t mind (I know you’re thinking probably because you don’t have to share the popcorn … and you’re right!)
(Q) Favorite thing to do on the weekend?
(A) My brother-in-law has about 300 acres about 3 hours north of us and we love going up and camping on the weekends. The dogs love running free and I spend time reading and cooking…. And of course enjoying a little vino!
(Q)What is your favorite food/drink?
(A) Oh, speaking of vino – I have a love (well, maybe I should say major love) for wine that started from many business dinners with a previous manager who insisted that I needed to start drinking red wine. It’s healthy she would say. When I tried it I hated it – had to add ice to get it down. Well, I’m a red wine lover now – maybe too much, lol. Hence the name of my dogs! Even my kitchen is wine theme. My mother is moving from WA to AZ (a couple miles from my house) in the next few months. I have a feeling I’m going to need to start buying wine in BULK!
(Q) Tell us a little about your work history.
(A) I worked for 2 large financial institutions in the past 25 years and held various marketing roles. I have been working for Amber a little over a year and love learning the virtual assistant world and working with such great people. I look forward to many years to come!!
by Tina Walker | Mar 26, 2015 | 1Shopping Cart, Blog, Entrepreneur, Featured, Infusionsoft, Marketing
New Tax Rules for Selling to European Countries
If you haven’t heard, the European Union has new rules on value-added tax (VAT), which took effect on January 1.
To put it simply, ANY businesses selling digital goods and delivering them electronically to customers in European Union member countries will be required to collect and pay VAT based on the VAT rates of the country where the customer is located and does apply to businesses based outside the EU who sell to consumers in the EU.
So what does that mean to you? Well, if you are selling digital products to European Countries, it might be something you want to have us setup in your tax settings to collect the tax for those specific countries.
What are the consequences if you don’t? This is a new thing, so we are not sure on that and would probably advise asking your accountant.
If you want help with us setting up your shopping cart so that you are in compliance, contact us at assist@smarttofinish.com, we are happy to help.
by Tina Walker | Feb 10, 2015 | Blog, The Team
1. What you wanted to do as a kid?
(A) I grew up in a really small town and I think with most kids from a really small town, you have big dreams to grow up and enter the “big city life”. I always thought I would grow up and be an attorney. I pictured myself living in a eclectic loft overlooking the Plaza. Funny thing is that I live
10 minutes from that small town, which I would never want to leave today. I live on 20 acres with my family and would never want to be an attorney today!
2. Siblings
(A) I have one younger brother, Rick. He lives in Minnesota now, but we go visit him each summer. He is a professional Walleye Angler and placed second in the U.S. a few years back. He was ranked as one of the worlds top Ironmen in his sport 3 years consecutively. I am so happy that he gets to live his dream and he is a great uncle to my boys.
3. Wisest thing anyone ever told me was?
(A) I was once told by a good friend that you have to look at life like you looked at college. You go through life to learn and when you make a mistake, that’s your tuition, pay it, and keep learning.
4. My role model is, because?
(A) My role model was my grandparents. Salt of the Earth people who instilled in me the importance of honesty, treatment of others, love of family, dedication, hard work and always doing what was right, even when it was hard.
5. Where you were born?
(A) I live on the Kansas/Missouri line, on the Kansas side. There is a sort of rivalry on both sides of the state line. Kansans always say that Kansas is the better place and Missourians say Missouri is. My mom had traveled over into Missouri for the day and went into labor with me, called my grandparents to say she had to go to the nearest hospital in which my grandparents thought was a joke as I was born on April Fool’s Day. So, I am officially known in this area as a “Missouri Puke” or a “Missouri Jack***” Yes, it’s true! Feel free to google and you will get a great lesson on Missouri history!
6. Your favorite food?
(A) My favorite food, well, It’s a toss up between Fettucinni Alfredo and Jose Pepper’s (local KC restaurant) Chips and Salsa.
7. Scariest thing to you is?
(A) Scariest thing to me is I am scared to death of any spider of any size. Second runner up is flying. However, I have flown a time or two.
8. Favorite movie or tv show?
(A) As of now I love to watch The Big Bang Theory
9. Favorite Music?
(A) I like a lot of different genres. Country, pop, rock, christian rock, some rap. It does bother me just a little that 80’s music these days is being called “classic”!
10. The best gift I ever got was?
(A) My children. I truly never understood the magnitude in which a child changes a persons life until I had my first child. I realized then if I never earned another thing in my life it was okay, because I truly had all that I needed. Beyond my children I recently received a gift in which a wonderfully sweet girl went and collected old barn wood in which she sanded down herself, glued together, took some small nails and made a heart shape with them, ran red string from nail to nail making a beautiful heart. I was awestruck at her thoughtfulness. The gift is beautiful and sits in the heart of our home.
by Amber Miller | Feb 4, 2015 | Blog, The Team
Each month we will share some fun facts about our Team Members!
This month, learn more about our Chief Diva, Amber Miller:
1) I burn everything I cook. My husband says I can burn water.
2) I have a mini horse and a mini donkey as family pets.
3) I hate to be cold and I really hate the snow.
4) My favorite dessert is warm apple pie with vanilla ice cream. I could eat that everyday!
5) I am an only child. Growing up I felt more at ease in a room full of adults than with the other kids.
6) I have permanent eyeliner. It was a pretty blue, now it has faded to turquoise. It hurt so bad I don’t want to go have it darkened.
7) I love to go to antique stores. I love finding unique things or old treasures.
8) My dream vacation would be on an Alaskan cruise. Not sure I could handle the cold weather though…
9) I’m addicted to coffee. Everyone around me knows if I haven’t had enough…
10) The craziest thing I have ever done was to go and get my belly buttoned pierced during my lunch break with my sister-in-law. I don’t think they thought we would do it. That lastest two years until I got pregnant with my 3rd child 🙂
by Amber Miller | Jan 1, 2015 | Blog, Blogging, Marketing, Social Media
In an effort to cater to Facebook users Facebook has a major change coming that will affect millions of businesses that use Facebook to drive traffic for sales and conversions.
In November Facebook made an announcement that stated that it is going to change how your news feed posts that are used for the purpose of:
1. Posts that solely push people to buy a product or install an app
2. Posts that push people to enter promotions and sweepstakes with no real context.
3. Posts that reuse the same content from ads
A couple examples of the type of ads they are describing:
Per Facebook’s changes the problem with this ad is the part directing people to purchase their Season 1 DVD set.
Per Facebook’s changes the problem with this ad is the part directing people to purchase and install the app.
These changes are going to force businesses to purchase more ads from Facebook if you want to promote any type of the above ads. This does two things 1) increases revenue for Facebook and their shareholders 2) allows Facebook to have control over what “advertisement” content users are seeing. Basically Facebook is forcing business to “pay to play”.
Per Facebook’s statement the reason behind this is:
“One of the main reasons people come to Facebook is to see what’s happening in their News Feeds. Our goal with News Feed has always been to show people the things they want to see. That’s why we often look to people on Facebook to tell us how we can improve. As part of an ongoing survey we asked hundreds of thousands of people how they feel about the content in their News Feeds. People told us they wanted to see more stories from friends and Pages they care about, and less promotional content.
We dug further into the data to better understand this feedback. What we discovered is that a lot of the content people see as too promotional is posts from Pages they like, rather than ads. This may seem counterintuitive but it actually makes sense: News Feed has controls for the number of ads a person sees and for the quality of those ads (based on engagement, hiding ads, etc.), but those same controls haven’t been as closely monitored for promotional Page posts. Now we’re bringing new volume and content controls for promotional posts, so people see more of what they want from Pages.”
Moving into 2015 Facebook is still the #1 place to go for businesses to advertise their products or services. Even with this major change Facebook still has the most highly targeted advertising capabilities and the largest diverse audience you will find anywhere. In the 3rd quarter of 2014 Facebook had reported that is has 1.35 Billion active users on Facebook and this number continues to climb.
Facebook continues to be a great avenue to market on with a little training or by hiring the right company to assist you; you will be able to use this powerful platform to reach millions of people when promoting your business.
Written by Skye Hawk, Smart To Finish Diva
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