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Youre so busy running your business you barely have time to think much less surf the Web for handy sites to make your life easier. Fortunately, Andrew Lock does it for you.
This weeks crop of Nifty Clicks can help you with home or office repairs, conducting surveys, editing PDFs and researching just about any topic.
Service Magic
As a busy entrepreneur, you probably dont have a lot of time to do odd jobs around the house, am I right? Well, now theres a way to find a reliable handyman or other skilled tradesman to come and do the job for you. Its a Web site called ServiceMagic.com, and it works like this:
First you choose a category that matches your need, next select a sub-category to get even closer to what youre looking for, then enter your zip code and answer a couple of questions about your project. The system will then do a little bit of work behind the scenes, and it will tell you when it finds some suitable providers for your project.
Youll need to enter your contact info at the final stage so that the providers can send you the quotes, but the whole process is pretty much seamless. I really like the fact that the providers listed are all pre-screened by Service magic before being recommended. Check out ServiceMagic.com, and get all those overdue jobs done around the house.
Ask500 Independent People
Now there are times in running a business when its useful to get feed back from people who give you an honest answer. You know how it is with friends and family. Youll say, What do you think of this, and theyll say Oh great, fantastic, wonderful, youre a genius, when what they really mean is, Oh I cant bear to break the news. Its terrible; Ill just stroke his ego.
You know how that is? Hmm, maybe you dont.
Anyway, now theres a resource called Ask500People.com, where within 24 to 48 hours you can get feedback from 500 people on any question youd like to put out there. So its a really useful research tool.
Just sign up on the site its completely free post your question, and within 24-48 hours youll get the results. Now if you want to narrow the results just to your existing customers, you can also embed the survey in your own Web site very nifty. It is a user-friendly system, too so you can set up a question very quickly and, like I said, its completely free.
PDFtoWord
From time to time I need to convert an Adobe Acrobat document, also known as a PDF, to a Word document. Now, PDFs arent easy to edit, but I recently came across a tool that solves that, and it works extremely well. Its called PDFtoWord.com. Its a Web-based service, its free, and it really couldnt be simpler.
First, select a PDF you want to convert. Second, choose the format that you want, which is either a Word document or a rich text file, and then enter your e-mail address. The system works its magic behind the scenes and then sends you the converted document as an e-mail attachment. Ive been really impressed at the quality of the conversion, and you cant beat the price which, like I said, is a nice round figure.
TheFreeLibrary
One of the challenges with the Web is that there is so much information its sometimes difficult to track down what youre looking for. Thats why I like TheFreeLibrary.com. Its a Web site that acts as a kind of a directory for millions of free articles and books on all kinds of categorized subjects.
The content dates back over the past 24 years, and it really is a great research tool. You can find information on virtually any topic, and you can either search or browse to find what youre looking for. Check it out its an amazing free resource.
You'll find lots more marketing tips and resources from Andrew Lock in our Small Business Essential series, Lock in Your Marketing Resources.
Andrew Lock is a self-described maverick marketer and the creator and host of Help! My Business Sucks, a free, weekly Web TV show full of practical marketing tips, advice and resources to help small businesses "get more done and have more fun."
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This article was originally published on October 29, 2009