talkmagic.co.uk

Hi, bit of a techy question. Basically I have an email & hosting package from Fasthosts (email address is info@smartmagic.co.uk) & have for a few years. I'm not sure what kind it is as their site isn't the best to get around. I have an iphone which I can see, & reply to emails from but (and here's where it gets complicated for me) I also have my emails on my laptop with folders created for each booking with all their emails in, all set out nicely but on the iphone it's just a list of emails in date order with no folders etc.

My questions are;
Does anyone have a better setup?
Does anyone understand the pop imap & all the different configurations?
Does anyone know where I can go to get it all sorted properly?

I'm wanting to streamline a bit more & stay ontop of bookings & I'm sure seeing my emails on my phone set out with the folders would help. I'm toying with the idea of an iPad when the next one comes out so I'm guessing i'd have the same problem so trying to think ahead. There's got to be an easy way, possibly involving invoices & things like that but one step at a time.

I'm just starting out on turning my magic into a serious business so you're way ahead of me in that respect. However, after registering a LTD company and designing a website, I opened my business account with Barclays. I've banked with Barclays before and didn't particularly like them but they offer two years free business banking if you sign up to their acountancy package.

I think it's about £15 per month. To be honest, it's amazing. It's basically a portal for all sorts of stuff that will make your life one hell of alot easier as a working pro. The most important service is Freeagent. You can check them out on http://www.freeagagent.com" target="_blank. They have some videos on their explaining what you get as part of their package. In short, you can link the site to your business acount so it downloads your statements. You can add all your expenses and invoices. It calculates all your profit and loss, calculates your tax position, gives you warnings when things are due. If you raise an invoice on there it tracks it for you for when someone hasn't paid. It basically does everything you could possibly want as a small business. I think you can also get it as an app on your phone.

I'm in the process of doing several freebie stage shows just to get some real life photo's. My actual website is complete, save for these photo's and will be going live at the beginning of March. My plan is to have an E-mail for bookings. You can link paypal to your site, and to Freeagent so that it will update your invoices automatically, and let you know when there's an issue. If you have business banking elsewhere you can just get freeagent. However, I do like the Barclays portal. It also has lots of template legal docs, business planning and legislation type stuff that you may need.

You can also hire the portable visa type scanners so that you can take card payments on the go. I'm not sure how much this is but I'm told it's not as pricey as you might think. I'm going see how much money I generate before taking this step? My view is that taking bookings and payments and tracking what's happening with each should be relatively straightforward. As far as I can see, these products offer that. I'm not sure what other methods people use? It would certainly be interesting to hear what other working magicians are doing??

K