Happy Valentine's Day!

What do you get your special valentine? Most people would say chocolates are best, others go for the jewelry option, or a sweet thoughtful message on the perfect card and plush teddy bear. There is one Valentine’s Day classic that should not be forgotten - The Flowers!

Florists around the country are creating the most beautiful rose bouquets, but why are these symbols of love given on Valentine’s Day? It is said that Saint Valentine left his love a red rose and a note before he met his tragic fate on February 14, 269. If you can’t get anything else on this day of love, make sure to get a rose. Here are some unique ideas for the perfect bouquet of flowers for your special someone…

First a twist on the classic - Flower in Vase

courtesy of squidoo.com

Roses look amazing in giant martini glass.

courtesy of examiner.com 

Sweeten up any bouquet with with candy.

Make your valentine (gasp) and say Aww that is so sweet!, by making a bouquet with the music to their favorite song, or a map of the world.

courtesy of etsy.com

Combine the idea of roses and delicious cookies that look just divine!

                                                         courtesy of monstermarketplace.com

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Jan 31st Is The Deadline To Have W-2s & 1099s To Recipients

The team at Inspherio would like to remind you of the upcoming Jan 31st Deadline to have W-2s & 1099s to recipients. Our sister product, ExpressTaxFilings.com can help you quickly and easily generate and file W-2s & 1099s with the IRS.

How do you know if you should file a W-2 or 1099?
The simple answer is if you have employees and have withheld taxes, you would issue a W-2. For independent contractors who were paid $600 or more and no taxes withheld for the 2013 tax year, you would issue a Form 1099.

Want to know more about ExpressTaxFilings.com?
ExpressTaxFilings.com is the premier online filing program for 1099s and W-2s. We are IRS authorized, and our experienced unmatched U.S based support team is here to ensure you to have a stress-free filing experience.

With prices starting at just $2.99, ExpressTaxFilings offers the best e-filing solution and you can easily file for multiple recipients using our innovative bulk upload option - an easy to use feature where you can quickly upload both payer & recipient information from an Excel. doc

The benefits of using ExpressTaxFilings to file your W-2 & 1099 are:

• No expensive software to download or buy
• No paper forms to purchase
• No monthly fees
• No setup fees
• No complicated tax jargon

Questions?
Great! Their US-based support team located in Rock Hill, South Carolina is always available to help you with any problems you might have. You can reach them by phone at 803.514.5155 or by email at support@ExpressTaxFilings.com.

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Top 5 Ways To Use Pinterest For Your Event Business

1 | Plan for Pinning Success 

• Put in the time to set up your account properly. Jot down what you think you will be using your account for to act a guide. Make sure to include keywords in your description. Don’t forget to set up the links to your website and social media channels on your profile so viewers can move seamlessly between platforms.
• Integrate all your social media platforms. You can easily add Pinterest sharing buttons and apps to other social media platforms, such as Facebook. Call-to-action words are great to add to your Google+, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn to gain more followers on your Pinterest page! 
• When setting up your initial boards, choose topics or categories that reflect your business values, culture, interests, products and services.

2 | Check the Source Before You Pin

• Be Copyright Smart. Read the fine print first. It might take an extra few seconds, but it adds a degree of credibility to your page.Always double check the source of the Pin. This is very important. When re-pinning, click before you repin to see if pins are sourced from a legitimate website. If content has been “re-sourced” with a false URL to another site, you shouldn’t repin it.
  

 3 | Pin Strategically

• Pin across a range of boards. Add pins gradually, and create new boards as you feel necessary. Be creative with your board names, captions and pins.
• Follow, Follow, Follow. Start following users and/or individual boards that are of interest to you. By following and engaging with users and repinning their content, you will begin to build your own community of followers.
• Space your pins. Don’t do a pin dump! Pinterest is unlike Facebook and Twitter where the feed-time is limited. Pins will remain in view for days or weeks due to the cyclical nature of their exposure. Pinning for a few minutes a couple of times per day is enough to get you started.
• Time your pins. Take note of the times when your fans are pinning - be flexible, and if all else fails, 2:00-4:00 PM and at night are popular for pinning according to Pinterest.

4 | Be Social

• Comment and Like. Just like you would socialize on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or Google+, be sure to comment on, and Like, the pins of other users and businesses.
• Use Names and Tags to make your page more personable. Use @tags to notify the user you are engaging with. Hashtags (#) are used to highlight keywords that will lead viewers to your page when searched. By using names and tags, you can stand out among the large majority of Pinterest users and create engaging boards.
• Remember to Say Thank You. This is a forgotten art on Pinterest and other social media channels. Regularly check your Re-pins and visit the boards of people who have repinned your content and make the effort to thank them for repinning. Just like RTs on Twitter, or Shares on Facebook, the Re-pin is a valuable thing.

5 | Produce Visual Content

• Choose great images for your boards. Having interesting, engaging, quality images will most likely get your content repinned. Include photos, infographics, videos and text. Don’t forget that text is important to accompany your pins.
• Make pinners want to click on your pin by making them simple, visual, and clear. Experiment with size by mixing in taller pins to give your board a visually appealing look.

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Our New Vice President of Operations

The Inspherio Team is thrilled to announce that Glenn Durand has been promoted from Director of Business Management Products to Vice President of Operations for Span Enterprises.  Glenn joined Span Enterprises in 2010 and has faithfully served as the Product Manager for Inspherio, UnitWise, and UnitHub these past 3 years.  

As we continue to create new products, and expand our team at Span Enterprises, Glenn will be responsible for our day-to-day operations as well as our new product development.  Over the past few years, we have seen our company grow from just a few people to the large team that it is today.  Glenn has played an integral part in training our dedicated team at Span, and we are confident that he will continue to impart his wisdom to all of our future employees.

As Vice President of Operations, Glenn will continue working with Inspherio, as well as our many other products including UnitWise, UnitHub, Express Extension, ExpressTruckTax, ExpressTaxFilings, ExpressIFTA, and the upcoming UnitWise International, Span Command, and Truck Logics.

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Email Marketing Tips | Part Two

Sending Email Marketing Campaigns can be a great way to stay in touch with your clients, leads, associates, etc. In order for your email campaigns to be successful, there are a few things to keep in mind.

Include a Call To Action

Although not every email is about selling something, there should be a clear goal or purpose of the email. This Call to Action should be connected to your subject line in some way. For Example, you could add a link to your website, blog, Facebook, etc that your reader could go to see more information and make an action based on the email.

Communicate Efficiently
When writing an email, there is no need to change your writing style as if you were writing a textbook. Instead, you should communicate as you would in a casual conversation. A good test is to read the email to yourself aloud to see how it sounds. 

Keep Your Message Simple
Keeping your readers engaged is vital in order to prevent your emails from being deleted. Successful emails should not be unnecessarily wordy or complicated. Keep in mind that you have high competition for your readers' attention.

Be A Resource
In order to gain your readers' respect, you need to provide valuable information, whatever that may be. Readers will quickly loose interest if your emails become predictable or lack useful information.

Stay Tuned for More Email Marketing Tips & Tricks throughout the coming weeks.  

To Stay Updated on all Inspherio News, check us out on Facebook & Twitter

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Email Marketing Tips | Part One

Sending Email Marketing Campaigns can be a great way to stay in touch with your clients, leads, associates, etc.  In order for your email campaigns to be successful, there are a few things to keep in mind.

Be Direct
Just like you, your readers are busy people who receive many emails each day.  Email inboxes can become so overloaded that many emails receive little more than a quick glance before they are deleted.  To ensure that your message is seen, you need to make sure your subject and opening line are direct and captivating.

Make it Scannable
Thanks to smartphones & tablets, people are checking their email from anywhere.  With this in mind, it is safe to assume that you don't have their undivided attention.  Instead of writing in one large chunk, divide your content into short paragraphs with individual headings.  You could also keep your emails short & sweet by adding a "Read More" link and connecting it to your Inspherio Blog or a special page on your website.

Stay On Topic
As an event professional, your emails should further prove you to be an expert in your field.  If you stray too far from your areas of expertise, your readers will lose interest in future email correspondence.  Keep in mind that people are primarily interested in content that is Valuable & Entertaining, so keep your emails highly informative & also interesting.

Respect the Unsubscribers
If someone unsubscribes from your email marketing, or sends an email asking to be removed from your list, make sure that they are opted-out of email contact.  Continuing to send unwarranted emails to people who have requested to be unsubscribed is a violation of Anti-Spam laws.

Stay Tuned for More Email Marketing Tips & Tricks throughout the coming weeks.  

To Stay Updated on all Inspherio News, check us out on Facebook & Twitter

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5 Steps to Achieve Great Things

Les McKeown recently wrote an article for Inc magazine that outlined what he described as the "First 5 Steps to Achieving Great Things."  In his article, Les is focused on that all-important transition from Good to Great.  There has certainly been no shortage of advice on this transition, and that's because of its importance.  Anyone can become good at something simply through natural talents, but unless there is a conscious effort to become more than that, you will fall short of Greatness.  

Les' 5 Steps are as follows:
1.  Prioritize
2.  Plan Ruthlessly; Execute Relentlessly
3.  Get out of your inbox
4.  Get out of your office
5.  Review, revise, adapt, push on

Prioritize
To achieve great things, you must prioritize where your attention will be focused.  This also depends on how you will define greatness for your particular business.  Prioritization can include making Goals for the Long Term & Short Term.

Plan Ruthlessly; Execute Relentlessly
McKeown defines good planning as having a plan, working the plan, and not being trapped by the plan.  Obviously, you must work the plan in order to achieve your goals, but if you aren't adapting your performance based on your results then you are becoming trapped in a plan.  

Get out of your inbox
Not every email is worth checking the second it is received.  Recent studies indicate that smartphone users check their phone 150 times per day.  The constant notifications from your phone can bring about all sorts of distractions.  A great point that Les makes in his article is that by checking your inbox every chance you get "you're working to other people's agenda, not your own."

Get out of your office
The advice to get out of your office can be taken several different ways.  For example: your business' success in dependent on you getting out there, meeting with clients, and booking new events.  That doesn't all happen from within an office.  

Another way to take this advice is to get a change of scenery now and then.  Becoming comfortable is the enemy of innovation.  The more time you spend in one place,  the easier it is to fall into a routine complacency. 

Review, revise, adapt, push on
After a plan has been put in place, you need to review your success; revise anything that could be improved; adapt your plan to accomidate your recent findings, and push on.



Photo Credit: Squidish

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10 Tech Basics You Think Everybody Knows (But They Don't)

As a software company, we at Inspherio take great pride in making things easier, so we thought we would share these basic tech tips to help you use the web, your computer, and your smartphone more efficiently.  New York Times tech columnist: David Pogue recently presented this TEDTalk about basic tips & tricks that can help you use technology more effectively.  

1. Scrolling
Instead of using your mouse and dragging the scroll bar on the right, you can simply click the space bar to scroll down a page.  Likewise, you can click Shift + Space to scroll up.

2. Quickly Complete Forms
Use the Tab key to quickly move to the next box on an online form.  This is a great deal quicker than moving your cursor & clicking on the next box.  Also, when entering your state from a drop down list, all you need to do is click the first letter of your state repeatedly.  

3. Zoom In / Out
If you are having trouble reading small text on a screen, you can use Ctrl + to Zoom In and Ctrl - to Zoom Out. the + or - can be pushed repetitively to make the text bigger or smaller.

4. Typing on Smartphones
Pressing the space bar twice will automatically end a sentence with a period, add a space, and capitalize the first letter or the next sentence.

5. Quick Dialing
On any mobile phone you can quickly call the last number dialed by tapping the Call or Dial key.  

6.  Interrupt Voicemail
Since we all know how to leave a message after a beep, you can skip the process of listening to the instructions by pressing the carrier's interrupt key.
- Verizon: *
- AT&T, T-Mobile: #
- Sprint: 1

7. Google Tricks
- Google can also be used to Define any word by simply typing the word "Define" in front of any word.  
- If you need to track an upcoming Flight, you can search a flight number to find whether or not it is on time, what terminal it is arriving at and even the gate number.
- Google is even a currency & Unit Converter if you need to convert Dollars to Euros, tablespoons to cups, and much more.

For another fun Google trick, try Googling the phrase: "Do A Barrel Roll"

8. Text Basics
- Double-click to highlight a word
- Don't waste time clicking delete.  Just highlight something & type over it.
- Double-click & Drag to highlight one word at a time.
- Triple-click to highlight an entire paragraph.

9. Enhance Your Digital Camera Skills
To eliminate the shutter lag on your digital camera, you can half press the shutter button to pre-focus the lens before taking a photo.  This trick works for any digital point & shoot camera to calculate focus and exposure.  

10. Presentation Tips
While giving a PowerPoint presentation, you may notice your audience loosing focus.  You can attract more attention to yourself by clicking the B key to blackout the slide while you are presenting.  This does not close the presentation, it simply changes the screen to black.  To return to your presentation, you can click B again.  Similarly, the W key can be used for a whiteout effect.

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Happy Memorial Day Weekend

The Inspherio Team is always working hard, but sometimes even they take a little break for a national holiday.

We will not be offering live phone or chat support on Monday, May 27th for Memorial Day. You can still email us any questions, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

We wish you a happy weekend & hope you enjoy some quality time with your family and friends.

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Why You Should Not Have Music on Your Website

Designing a website for your business is a lot of fun and, while we understand that it can be tempting to personalize your website with your favorite music, there are some serious reasons that you should keep your website silent.

As a general rule of thumb, unless music is a part of your business, you do not need music on your website. As a DJ or videographer, you may benefit from having music on your site so that your potential clients can get a feel for your style & taste, but it is still helpful to take note of the following:

Speed - Streaming a song as your website's background music can require a significant amount of bandwidth. This causes slower loading times, and unhappy visitors. 

Discontinuity - With most music players, the music will start and stop each time another page is clicked on or whenever the page is refreshed.  

Taste - Everyone has different tastes in music.  If your website visitor does not like your style of music, they will automatically get a negative impression of you if music is blasted at them as soon as they go to your website.  We may like to listen to Journey's "Don't Stop Believin" all day & night, but we know not everyone shares our unique enthusiasm.

Dueling Banjos - Many people browse the web while already listening to music through Spotify, iTunes, or Pandora. Even if your visitors like the music on your page, they are unlikely to enjoy 2 songs played on top of each other.

Public Spaces - There's not much more annoying than using a computer in a quiet office, coffee shop,  library, etc and all of a sudden being serenaded by the unexpected loud music from a website you are visiting.  This will result in your site being exited in seconds, especially if the visitor cannot find where to turn the music off. Offices are particularly sensitive. If a bride-to-be, for example, is browsing for a wedding vendor while at work (and maybe shouldn't be), she will not be happy if she is outed by her computer speakers.

Browser Compatibility - Different browsers behave differently, not every browser is capable of playing every type of audio file. Old or out of date browsers may have a tendency to lock up when attempting to play music. 


A Few Alternatives:

Storing Audio on Inspherio- Music can be uploaded to the Audio section of the Inspherio Resource Library.  These Audio Files can be embedded into your website by selecting the button that looks like headphones in the website rich editor.  These will not play automatically.  Your visitors can click the play button and control the audio on the site.

Using a Playlist that does not AutoPlay - If you must have a music playlist on your website, we recommend using SoundCloud.  This allows you to create a playlist & has the option to not Autoplay when the page is opened.  Each playlist can be embedded into your Inspherio website using the "Embed Media" button. 



Photo Credit: JD Hancock

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Inspherio is Moving to a New Office!

The Historic Citizen's Building from Main Street

It's official, Span Enterprises is moving to downtown Rock Hill.  After working closely with Bryan Barwick of Barwick & Associates, LLC we have made the decision to move to the Citizen's Building in Old Town Rock Hill, SC.  Our growing team will be occupying the entire 2nd floor and the mezzanine level of the Historic Citizen's Bank Building on Main Street.  

After months of searching, Span Enterprises Co-founder & CEO: Agie Sundaram met with Bryan Barwick and made the deal for Span Enterprises to move in within the next few months.  The entire 2nd Floor will serve as our Marketing, Sales, & Customer Support Center for all of our products; while the mezzanine level will be used as "Span Studios" for the recording & production of our products' help videos.

This will be the 2nd move for Span Enterprises.  We outgrew our first office in Shiland Villages in 2010.  By early 2011 we moved to our current location on the 1st floor of Shiland Villages.  After continuously outgrowing our office spaces, we are greatly looking forward to having an entire floor to ourselves.  

Built in 1925, The Citizen Building is a Historic Rock Hill landmark and we are thrilled to bring our software development company to such a unique and well maintained space.  We are planning the overall design of our new office now & will be posting our progress.  

We are proud to be a part of Rock Hill's downtown revitalization.  As a tech company, we are glad to be located in the same building as several other forward thinking organizations such as The Hive - a workforce / small business development program, and the upcoming Clemson University technology incubator.  

Our team is also excited to be so close to so many great restaurants.  Being on the same block as Jimmy Johns, McHale's, Millstone, & Erin's Restaurant is definitely an exciting change.  With such great dining options within steps of our building, our team may end up spending their days & nights in "Old Town" Rock Hill.  

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Filter by Milestone

To simplify the process of locating one of your Booked Events, you can search by the last Milestone that was completed.

For Example, lets say you are looking for your weddings, but you only want to view those events that have completed the milestone: "Event Booked."

This will generate a list based on your criteria.  So instead of searching through a list of hundreds of events, you can narrow down your results based on your milestones.

If you have questions about this or would like to learn more, you can contact us at 704.234.6000 or send us an email at support@Inspherio.com

www.Inspherio.com

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Happy St. Patrick's Day from SpanPlan

The Inspherio Team would like to wish you a

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

We hope that your business continues to prosper & that you may find your own Pot of Gold during this upcoming Event Season!

If you have any questions about how you can improve your business with Inspherio, you can contact our dedicated Customer Support Team at 704.234.6000 or send us an email at support@Inspherio.com 

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A New Year's Message from Inspherio

The Inspherio Team would like to wish each member of the Inspherio family a Happy New Year!  2012 has been a great year for Inspherio!  We would like to wish you and your loved ones a Happy New Year full of good health, happiness, and prosperity!

  

"For last year's words belong to last year's language and next year's words await another voice.

And to make an end is to make a beginning."

-T.S. Eliot

The SpanPlan Team will be on a limited support schedule for the holiday:
New Year's Eve  -  9am-4pm EST
New Year's Day - Email Support Only

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A Christmas Donation

This year, instead of a Secret Santa program or exchanging gifts, the Inspherio Team decided to take up donations for a local charity.  This made much more sense than giving each other things we don't really need, and it gave us an opportunity to reach out to our local charities. 






The local organization we decided to work with this Christmas was the Dorothy Day Soup Kitchen.  This Soup Kitchen has been faithfully serving their community for 24 years, providing daily hot meals for anyone in need.  During Thanksgiving & Christmas, their volunteers provide a large banquet and also deliver to the sick & shut-ins of the community. 

It was truly a blessing to see such goodwill in action.  After seeing this work being done here in our city, we have been inspired to do more with the Dorothy Day Soup Kitchen in the future.  Especially since these organizations need help and assistance not only at Christmas, but throughout the year as well.   



Agie & Amanda meeting with Beverly Carroll of the Soup Kitchen

If you have been working with a local charity this year, send us a picture & we will share the story!

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Christmas Support Schedule

From all of the Support Team at Inspherio, we would like to wish each of our users a very Merry Christmas!  We hope that your holiday season is merry and bright, and that you are able to spend some quality time with your loved ones during this special time of year!

Our Team will also be celebrating the season with family and friends; we will not be offering live support on Monday, Dec. 24 & Tuesday, Dec. 25.  We will still provide email support for any emergency situations.    Our normal business hours will resume on Wednesday, Dec. 26th.

Merry Christmas!

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Happy Thanksgiving from Inspherio

Photo Credit: Martha_chapa95

We hope you are having wonderful day full of fun, family, friends, and of course, lots of food! The Heroes at UnitWise have so much to be grateful for & would love to take part in all of the celebrations of those within the UnitWise Family, but we just can’t eat that much, so we hope a blog will suffice! 

Our Holiday Schedule:
November 22 & 23, Closed for Thanksgiving
December 24 & 25, Closed for Christmas
December 31, Closed for New Year’s Eve
We will still offer email support on an emergency basis on these dates

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Getting Appy Doesn't Make You Happy

Photo Credit: JHaymesisvip

The amount of information that we have at our fingertips can be startling.  Thanks to our trusty smartphones, We can now find the answer to anything in just minutes, Instead of a brain we just use Google, and we've got pages of apps for everything to keep us informed & entertained.  

This progression of technology is a great thing and a lot of this new tech has the potential to transform your business for the better, however it could also leave you dazed and confused if it is not used correctly.  

Apps are a great example of this.  Many small business owners are made to think they are tech savvy because they have downloaded  pages of business related apps.  While many of these tools are useful, they can actually be a hindrance on your business by keeping your business compartmentalized into multiple programs on your smartphone.  Eventually, your business records will become quite a mess because your business data is divided into all these apps.  

Due to this App Overload, many business owners are using a different app for each business function: 
- One for Receiving Payments
- One for Invoicing  
- One for Expenses
- One for Income
- One for Trip logs
- One to Sign Forms
- One to Schedule Appointments
- One for Scanning Docs
- And The List goes On.....

By choosing to use a different app for each business function, your business will most likely experience a serious slow down due to the amount of time you spend disengaged & glued to your phone.  Not to mention the fact that your business image is now shifting from a confident professional to a texting teenager.  

What Is The Solution?

Many of the apps in the marketplace are good tools, but it would be better if all of these functions could work together in one place.  That's what Inspherio is for!  Instead of using dozens of apps and other programs to manage your business, you can just use one All-In-One program.  Inspherio offers the ability to manage your business from start to finish.  From adding a lead, to generating year-end tax reports Inspherio can do it all.  

To see for yourself, you can start your Free Trial today!

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Happy Labor Day

Photo Credit:  Kevin Dooley

The Inspherio Team would like to wish everyone a very enjoyable Labor Day Weekend!  We know that you have been working very hard, and deserve some extra time with your  family and loved ones!

Because of the holiday, our Customer Support Team will not be available for phone or chat support on Monday.  We will only be offering email support on an emergency basis.  

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Happy Memorial Day!

Just like you, the Inspherio team is always working hard, and sometimes even they may take a little break for a national holiday.

We will not be offering live phone or chat support on Monday, May 28th for Memorial Day.  You can still email us any questions you may have, and we will get back to you as soon as possible!  

We hope you are able to enjoy some quality time with your family and friends.  

Have A Great Weekend! 

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