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Useful Apps – Toggl – The Simplest Time Tracker

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Toggl The Simplest Time Tracker - TaughtToProfit.com

Toggl is a free app that keeps track of your time. You click the “Play” buttom in the app, add what work you are doing and what project it is for (i.e. your business), and it starts keeping track of the time. It stops tracking when you press the “Stop” button.

There are apps that kind-of do this automatically, but one of the major ones is made by a company that also sells user data to advertisers, employs key loggers, and is ripe for hacking. These “automatic” time trackers also are sloppy in their time tracking. These automatic time trackers could track a user using the Chrome browser as work when the user is playing games on Facebook. It could also count Facebook as personal and not business even though you are answering customer questions on Facebook. You can adjust what these “automatic” time trackers say is business or personal, but if you have to continually adjust the automatic time tracker then it is not automatic and is more work than the few seconds Toggl takes to implement.

I find Toggl’s simplicity makes it accurate and reliable, if you use it. It cannot track time if you do not set it. You can adjust the starting and ending time of your activity if needed, so forgetting to start Toggl doesn’t mean that time was lost and cannot be tracked.

Using Toggl Is Very Easy - TaughtToProfit.com
Using Toggl Is Very Easy – TaughtToProfit.com

Toggl is basic and does exactly what you need it to do. If you do not currently track your time this is a great way to see inefficiencies in your business and correct them. I realized I was spending almost 2 hours a day on email after using Toggl. I have this down to about 30 minutes a day now. That is a huge time savings by simply realizing the inefficiency and implementing autoresonders and bots to handle the bulk of it.

They do have paid versions that help with billable rates and team time tracking, but if that does not apply to you the free version is simple and effective. It is available on almost every operating system. They have an:

Android app
iPhone app
Windows desktop app
Mac desktop app
Linux desktop app
Chrome extension

I highly recommend it, especially if you are one of those people that feels always busy. This can help you focus on what is most important and see areas where you are misusing time or plain wasting it. Download for free at: Toggl.com

Toggl Time Tracking App - TaughtToProfit.com
Toggl Time Tracking App – TaughtToProfit.com

MileIQ – Automatic Mileage Tracking App

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MileIQ Usage Screenshots - TaughtToProfit.com

Meet MileIQ.

Automatic detection. One-swipe classification. Mileage logging has never been easier.

This is the claim of the MileIQ app for Android and iOS. I know that it was personally a lot of work writing down all the miles on sourcing trips, shipping trips, and other business-related drives. The first day I used MileIQ I had 8 different drives and it logged them all perfectly and automatically. Swipe to the right to classify the drive as “Business” or to the left to classify it as “Personal.” That is all you have to do. You do not have to open the app, set it up, or do anything to get it to log each drive you take after you initially install it and turn on the Drive Detection. Once you have done that you are ready to automatically log your miles. It is a claim that it actually lives up to.

MileIQ Drive Detection - TaughtToProfit.com
MileIQ Drive Detection – TaughtToProfit.com

As business owners we always are looking for ways to save our valuable time, and this app is an easy way to do that. If you do not do much driving then MileIQ gives you 40 drives logged a month for free. If you need more it is a low price per year and it will quickly pay for itself in tax savings when you deduct the miles. The paid version also gets you extra benefits like logs being automatically emailed to you and other important features.

I tested it for a few days and it was so convenient that I bought the paid version and have been using it ever since. Gone are the days of my mileage log blowing away in the wind when I open my car door, or me just completely forgetting to write down my miles and missing drives being logged. As long as I have my phone with me my miles are automatically logged and it is one less thing to hassle with.

MileIQ - Automatic Mileage Tracking App - TaughtToProfit.com
MileIQ – Automatic Mileage Tracking App – TaughtToProfit.com

Used Electronics – Packing Tips To Ensure A Happy Customer

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Thanks Post-It Note

Many people avoid used electronics because of returns can be more likely. This is often due to the way things are presented. Many sellers will put an electronic item in a poly bag and ship it like that. I have seen them not even put the effort to ensure the item is clean and cosmetically presentable before shipment. This comes across sloppy and unprofessional.

The best way to present a used electronics item is to bubble wrap the item well, box it in its own box (even if shipping to Amazon FBA, just put a “This Is A Set Do Not Separate” sticker on the box), and to print the manual for the item (if it does not come with the manual). Depending on the item the cost of printing the manual could be high and might make it ideal to pass on that item. Just including the manual adds a personal touch and can help avoid returns.

To make the experience more personal on anything I am pre-boxing for Amazon FBA I will put a Post-It note with a handwritten “Thanks!” on it. It takes 2 seconds and it adds a personal touch that is normally lacking from Amazon and eBay purchases, and people actually appreciate it.

The main thing to consider is how the item will look when the customer receives it. Do what you can to best ensure that the customer is completely satisfied and you will also keep profit-draining returns to a minimum.

Newbie Help – Do Not Only Buy Products You Like!

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Amazon Seller App Scanning

The title may not make sense to you if you are new to reselling products, but the idea is that most of the people who get loaded with inventory that is not selling tend to buy products they personally like and think others will too. One of the early lessons I learned in resale was that it was the rare, the unique, and the thing I would never have any interest in that would tend to sell well. There are some products that I like that sell well, but if I amassed all my inventory based only on things I like then I would be a disastrous failure.

For the newbie, my advice is to not get caught up in only buying things you like. Do not misunderstand this as telling you to avoid buying items you are an expert in. You should buy those items you have an expertise in, but just because you like an item does not mean you have enough practical expertise in that category to know what will sell best. As a newbie you should be scanning everything you can get your hands on. Only with time will you develop the skill-set and practical knowledge to be more picky in which items you choose to consider for purchase and which you ignore. Ignoring items simply because they do not interest you is a sure fire way to miss a lot of potential profit.

Scanning items in retail arbitrage is extremely easy, but to be able to find profitable items may not be so easy. Do not limit the items you might research by scanning until you already know from your own research that those items are not worth buying. I remember the first time I saw a cross-stitch kit at a clearance section of a retail store. It is not something I would ever be personally interested in, but I scanned one, then another, then another, and left within minutes with about $500 worth of potential profit in a small amount of cross-stitch kits (all of which sold within a few months). Had I been looking for only things that interested me I would have literally been passing up easy money. Also, I now learned that there was real profit potential in cross-stitch related items, and so I can keep an eye out for them and find more profit while others ignore them.

Make sure you are not the person passing things you have never researched before. Research, research, research, and keep at it. You will be a success in retail arbitrage if you will never give up!

My Personal Inventory Destruction Crew

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My Personal Inventory Destruction Crew - Puppies - TaughtToProfit.com

I had 10 sets of Star Showers that were bound for Amazon and for eBay customers. FedEx, sadly, decided to drop at the curb instead of at my house. The neighbor’s puppies were happy to provide their assistance and had fun chewing the box, tearing it open, and destroying one Star Shower. They still ended up being such a great arbitrage opportunity that even the destroyed one sold for double the purchase price as is, for parts.*

* This happened on December 10, 2015