… my new favorite website!

If you’re anything like me (i.e., an avid reader who also favors organization and simplicity), you’ll quickly fall in love with this online book trading community!

~ get started ~

Scour your home, collect at least 10 books (i.e., paperback, hardcover, and even audio) that you no longer want or need, and enter their respective ISBN’s at PaperBackSwap.com. Then, browse or search the inventory of over 2 million books to find new-to-you reading materials, and order your first 2 books for free in a matter of minutes!

~ next steps ~

Then, you just send out any books that others request from your virtual bookshelf (via USPS media mail) to earn credits that you can then use to order gently used books for yourself. Not a bad deal! It’s like trading books with your neighbors… in your really big subdivision (i.e., United States)… who collectively read a lot of books (i.e., over 2 million)!

~ end result ~

So far, I’ve sent out 8 books in 8 days and received 5 of the 7 books that I’ve ordered. It’s been a really easy and inexpensive way to acquire like-new books that I’ve been wanting to read (and aren’t available at our local library)! Plus, of course, the bonus : I’m getting rid of my clutter at the same time!

[ Hey… What are you waiting for? An invitation!?! Go check it out! ]

Changing The Present, a nonprofit website, offers a unique gift-giving model for those of us seeking to simplify our lives and improve our world.

So, if you haven’t yet purchased a gift for your mom, take a few moments to browse the site’s many causes to find an inspiring gift that will suit your budget, make a difference, and mean a great deal to your mom. With over 1,000 gifts, from $2 to $5,000, from hundreds of leading nonprofits, you’ll have no trouble finding just the right gift!

You can even send a customized printed greeting card to your mom, right from the site, with an inspiring photo and description of the gift that you’ve chosen to donate in her honor. She’ll love receiving your gift of charity! (Plus, your donation will be tax-deductible… an added bonus!)

Can you imagine the overall impact that, together, we could make as this new kind of gift-giving catches on!?! So cool!

As a fairly new small business owner, I have quickly learned that managing client information, marketing campaigns, and general business administrative tasks can easily become extremely overwhelming. Any suggestions?

Pen and paper aside, I’m in the market for an online hosted CRM solution. I’d love to integrate my website directly into the CRM application in order to manage my newsletter mailing lists with greater efficiency. At this point, though, it’s beginning to seem as though my head is in the clouds…

My professional organizing business is currently 95% service-based. At some point in the future, I do plan to expand into selling organizing-related products. I know, I know… there are definitely solutions out there that meet all my “requirements,” but I simply can’t afford to use them! I need some guidance!

My current CRM wish list:

• visually-appealing interface
• web-based & hosted
• lead, prospect, and customer tracking
• sales process management
• marketing campaign management
• automated drip marketing
• customizable reporting
• at-a-glance daily task list
• inexpensive (if not free)!

If you currently own a small business (or have owned a small business in the past), how do you manage your client information and marketing campaigns? I’d love to hear from you!