TEN TIPS is free advice from our ABRA members.  We’ve developed these articles to give you a little bit of guidance when you’re dealing with the products and services we provide – whether you’re buying these services from us or not.

Rate – Not the Only Factor in Getting a Business Loan – When shopping for the right bank/banker for your business loan, the rate is often the only factor people consider.  Of course, that is important, but using this exclusively can often lead to problems in the future.   Consider the bank and banker’s area of expertise, where they are located, and if the bank provides a full array of services you need, both now and in the future as you grow.  Out of town/out of state lenders and credit unions may have attractive rates, but they often do not provide all the services your business needs, and if you tie up all your company’s assets as collateral for a loan with them, you may  not have the ability to secure new credit in the future.  And most local banks/bankers can offer very competitive rates to go along with their full array of services.  — Doug Kuenstler

Computer Tips for COVID – These 8 tips highlight some of Zoom’s best features and will help you get the most out of your video calls, whether you’re working from home or just catching up with friends. — Tony Beaulieu

  1.  Use Good Video Conferencing Etiquette – Mute your mike, use headphones. Test your audio, mike and video before the meeting
  2. Touch Up Your Appearance – Zoom has a tool called ​​Touch Up My Appearance that adds a soft focus to your video, which smooths your skin.
  3. See Who Joined Your Zoom Meeting – If you need to know exactly who attended a call, and you are the host or an administrator, run a report after the meeting ends.
  4. Create a Waiting Room (and Stop Zoom-Bombing) – If you’re the one hosting a Zoom call, you can direct anyone joining the call into a Waiting Room
  5. Add a Virtual Background – You can take a video call from a messy room and hide it by adding a virtual background
  6. Add a Zoom Poll – Add a poll to your Zoom meeting to quickly collect responses from people about a topic.
  7. Discuss and Annotate Visuals in Your Zoom Meeting – If you’re working remotely and need to collaborate on visual materials, you can use Zoom to share an image and annotate it with others on the call
  8. Record Your Zoom Meeting – You can record the meeting and thereby have a video that you can share so that people can watch it in their own time.