By Ree Hotfessional | Leave A Comment
Working from home does have a couple of disadvantages. Unless you have a willing spouse or neighbor, your children are older, or you’re REALLY LUCKY, it’s unlikely that you have the kind of administrative support that a good assistant provides.
Voila! The Internet to the rescue.
Faxing without a fax machine? Check out Fax.com, eFax.com or MyFax.com. All three are low-cost and provide you with your own “fax” number, so you can receive faxes as well.
I use Fax.com – with a 30-day free trial and only $9.99/month thereafter, I can send or receive up to 300 pages per month – and each fax can be up to 5 Mb. I can fax from ANY computer – there is nothing to download at any time. It suits my needs quite well.
eFax.com has two options – Plus or Pro. With eFax Plus, $16.95 (after a one-time $10.00 startup charge), you can receive 130 pages and send 30 pages free. With the Pro plan, $19.95 per month allows you to receive unlimited #s of faxes, although a $0.10 charge is assessed for each outgoing fax. MyFax.com also has multiple plans; from $10-$40 per month, depending on the number of faxes you expect to send and receive.
There are more internet faxing services available. One thing for certain – ALL offer a greener option than traditional fax machines – no paper, no toner, no additional electricity.
What about mail services? Overnight packages still need to get there overnight. Do you want to drive over to the local post office or mail service center? Why not just have them come to you?
You will need to know how much your package weights. A simple food scale will usually do the trick. The model I use has a removable food tray and can weigh up to 7 lbs. It cost less than $20.
After determining the weight of your package, you can print postage from the U.S. Postal Service, FedEx, DHL, or UPS. All sites offer a “quote” option, so you can decide which provides you with the service you need at the least cost.
And then there’s office supplies. If your company has an agreement with a certain provider, you’re in luck. If not, Staples or Office Depot have brick and mortar locations that also deliver (free delivery with every order $50 or more). Of course, Amazon.com is another option, as is Overstock.com.
Now, if I could only find a company willing to deliver me my morning coffee, I think I’d be all set!
Ree’s personal blog is My Life as a Hotfessional – if you’d like to hear about the rest of the craziness in her life, please stop by for a visit.
ABOUT Ree Hotfessional
Ree is a working mom with a retired husband, 2 sons, a dog and two cats at home. Add 90% business t{read more}
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For office supplies, I would also recommend quill.com. At my office, we buy all our supplies from them. Shipping is free on orders over $45, and their prices are some of the lowest I’ve found. I’m not sure if it’s because we’re a “preferred customer,” but our orders arrive the next day if made before 4:00 pm.
I do have to give a shout out to the fax machine though. Being an independent contractor for the agency that I work through required me to have a fax machine. I don’t have to send or receive much, so we don’t run through ink quickly at all. And, a second phone line with my internet phone service is only $10/month. So, for us, it would be a savings over most other services. Granted, if we didn’t have a fax machine already, then it probably wouldn’t be. (Oh, and anything I receive or fax out are all things I need a paper copy of anyway.)