INTERNET GUIDE

Put your operations online

BY MICHAEL J. RUSSER

Wondering whether the Internet can improve your business operations as well as your marketing?

It takes more than great salesmanship and marketing to make it in real estate. Since a critical aspect of marketing is delivery, how you run the operations side of your business is also important and another area where the Internet shines.

Get rid of your fax machine
The biggest problem with faxes has been that you’ve had to be where the fax machine is to receive one.Not anymore.Thanks to a free service called eFax, you can receive faxes anywhere you receive your e-mail.When someone faxes to your exclusive eFax number, the fax gets converted to an image, then attached to an e-mail and sent to you. With the free eFax viewer, you can view or print your faxes as you like, saving a few trees in the process.

Your clients will be so impressed that you can receive those all-important counteroffer papers right there on the spot, just by plugging into the Internet.

Fire your printer (the one with ink on his hands)
Imagine walking into a listing appointment with an armful of beautiful four-color flyers featuring photos you took the day before with your digital camera. With Expresscopy.com, you simply upload your layout files to the expresscopy.com site, and in 24–48 hours, high-quality pieces are delivered to your door. The cost for 100 copies is 39 cents per 8.5-by-11-inch sheet (using standard bond paper). And there’s no charge for overnight delivery--or sales tax, since the company is based in Oregon.

Ship like a Fortune 500 company
Ever wonder whether your critical overnight delivery ever arrived?And how about that hand-scrawled shipping label? Not impressive. Fedex.com, airborne.com, and ups.comlet you track shipments, schedule pickup times for your packages, and print professional-looking shipping labels.

Bye-bye, post office line
No more trips to the post office for stamps, because with e-stamp.com, you download postage over the Net.Using a laser printer, you can print special digital stamps directly on your envelopes. Sorry, no digital Elvis stamps yet.

Also, if you still send bulk snail mail, eletter.com can simplify the process. Upload your letters, flyers, and even the files that contain the text for your information booklets along with a mailing list database, and the service takes care of the rest.It’ll merge, print, fold, stuff, and mail your bulk mail in record time. Clever cost calculators on the site even tell you how much the mailing will cost to the penny.

Your business is strategically affected by the quality of vehicles supporting it. Let the Internet supercharge your all-important administrative operations.