So, Windows 7 has been out for over six months, and there have been no reports of a Vista-style Microsoft misstep. You may be wondering if it's time to upgrade. Getting the latest and greatest is always fun, but the bottom line is will Windows 7 help your business?

I usually recommend waiting nine months to a year before migrating to any new Microsoft desktop operating system. This gives Redmond enough time to work out most of the bugs, and to release the first service pack (in the case of Vista, I recommended waiting forever...)

Are you diligently pursuing a permission-based model for your email marketing campaign? Good for you!

When you say "permission," however, what exactly do you mean? Do you still have people on your list from three years ago, who may have never opened one of your messages? I hate to tell you this, but you can't really say you have their permission anymore.

Focus on strengthening your relationship with your email recipients, and everyone will benefit.

Working on any relationship is a challenge--especially a relationship that may be conducted primarily through the Internet. The good news is that there are a number of great tools that can help you with this effort.

If you are like a lot of business owners, you have heard about the "paperless office"--but for you it's more of a dream than a reality. You would like to free up the space currently occupied by your filing cabinets. You would love to get rid of that mess of pages on your desk.

Regrettably, for many years, taking an office paperless has been a difficult, expensive, and--at times--ineffective process. Pricey software, clunky scanners, and too-many-exceptions-to-the-paperless-rule meant that you could spend a lot of money creating an electronic filing system--only to find that you had to keep the physical files around anyway, because it was actually easier to file and locate documents the old way.

Kansas City is a very personal town. Everyone seems to know everyone else. It's essential, for the success of your business, to make your email marketing personal as well. Your friends and neighbors do not want to feel as though you are treating them like a number.

The good news? There are quite a few tools and techniques you can use to turn a faceless email newsletter into a valued source of information which your recipients will eagerly anticipate every week or every month. One tool is the auto-responder.