Don't kill anyone if you don't have to. We're here to make a deal.

Mal ,'Serenity'


Buffista Business Talk: I wanted simple, I wanted in-and-out, I wanted easy money.

A virtual watercooler where Buffistas in business can talk, share, exchange, bemoan, exult and assorted other power verbs associated with all areas of running/starting up a business. For existing or potential Buffista business owners of all types. Spamming is NOT ON. A list of our Buffista owned businesses is on our links page.


Stephanie - Nov 01, 2012 2:58:57 pm PDT #1030 of 1416
Trust my rage

That would be great Liese.


Strix - Nov 01, 2012 3:17:34 pm PDT #1031 of 1416
A dress should be tight enough to show you're a woman but loose enough to flee from zombies. — Ginger

I don't do the graphic design part, Stephanie, but if you need copywriting or proofing, let me know. (VERY reasonable rates, since I need more copywriting in my portfolio; market here FLOODED with agency lay-offs.)

And I know law lingo and ad psychology, just sayin'!


Liese S. - Nov 01, 2012 5:54:42 pm PDT #1032 of 1416
"Faded like the lilac, he thought."

Okay, insent, Stephanie!


Liese S. - Nov 01, 2012 7:13:21 pm PDT #1033 of 1416
"Faded like the lilac, he thought."

Hey, so ita ! was asking over in Bureaucracy where non-business-owners could go to talk about work stuff. I said I thought it would be fine here. I'll quote below her inquiry. What say you all?

The Buffista Business thread is for people who are or run their own businesses.

Where should I post (I'm assuming Natter will be the first answer, but is it the best) about being good at work. And I mean that across a wide range of works.

I might be needing another way to present a 2-page weekly status report for someone else to present to management. Or someone needs to know that trick for Outlook (you know, the way that makes it not suck?--I KEED I KEED). Talk about if certifications improve your resumes in give industries...that sort of stuff could be stultifyingly boring in Natter, out of place in Business, because it's explicitly called out as for business owners only.

I cheated--I really do want that perfect 2 page status report format, and I even have ideas to bring to the table! Status reports of any sort--I'm looking for templates, and can share examples. Never mind--how do you make Project your bitch...and should you have to? Do you apply the Zero Inbox thing to your professional mail? How's that working out for you? GTD in general? Productivity tools?

Some of us drones need help to, even though do report up to someone/thing.


amych - Nov 02, 2012 4:09:46 am PDT #1034 of 1416
Now let us crush something soft and watch it fountain blood. That is a girlish thing to want to do, yes?

As I said over yonder, I think it'd fit right in.


beekaytee - Nov 02, 2012 4:31:23 am PDT #1035 of 1416
Compassionately intolerant

I tried Project years ago and ran away screaming.

In terms of the zero inbox, I strive for a trash free box. It's not empty, but there is an order to it.

My solution is a fairly granular folder set up. I currently have 23 folders and actually use them all. One is 'unsorted', which I admit is cheating, but my sole motivation for the emails that I keep is to be able to search them, should an issue arise.

Thunderbird gives me a reasonably efficient search function, so it works pretty well.

Another trick I use is to go first to my Verizon webmail page, select all and then click off the non-spam/useless email. That way, only the email I am interested in makes it to the box.

I would love to have a conversation about certifications, too. I have loads, but sort of feel that they are a waste, as no one ever asks for or about them. When I promote them, it feels a little ooky to me.


Jessica - Nov 02, 2012 6:12:21 am PDT #1036 of 1416
If I want to become a cloud of bats, does each bat need a separate vaccination?

I zero out my inbox about twice a year. Then I'm diligent about it for another week, and then it gets away from me and right now I have 8000 emails in there. So it goes.


Liese S. - Nov 02, 2012 6:15:19 am PDT #1037 of 1416
"Faded like the lilac, he thought."

I used to just keep everything. But my hushmail has limits, so I clear that regularly. Personal, though, so there's rarely anything that needs archived.

I feel like my other mail, imap, is only showing me two years back. Do I have it set to automatically delete or something? Cause I don't want that.


le nubian - Nov 02, 2012 10:37:12 am PDT #1038 of 1416
"And to be clear, I am the hell. And the high water."

I zero out my inbox about twice a year.

I sit in amazement.

I have given up getting to zero in my inbox about 4 years ago.


§ ita § - Nov 02, 2012 10:44:50 am PDT #1039 of 1416
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

I think I'm going to forcibly zero out my inbox before the end of the year. I'm going to cheat, but I'll do it. I think the goal of keeping it tidy is important, but I can't tell if I could be achieving that because there's so damned much. I have email in there since my first project at this job.

In fact, lemme do that now.

A bit problem is the fact that I'm on the team group email distro. I can't even count how many emails that is a day. I used to have a rule that funnelled them all off, but then I'd miss things I needed to know about. I now don't funnel emails with URGENT in the subject line, or very specific task-related ones that come every Sunday, but the rest go into a folder I never look at, and there are currently 40696 unread emails there. Only 10 in my normal inbox.