"For several years I have been meaning to write a blog posting about how great it was to go from a messy stack of papers on my desk to a having paperless office. But, this is the year I began leading a paperless life. All my business and personal documents exist only in the cloud. I feel a huge sense of freedom, I feel more modern, and I feel more organized."
Good Morning Folks,
Today's throw back Thursday is truly interactive as I challenge all employees, customers and fans to do for yourselves what we at FSO do for our clients— make paper digital, retrievable, useful and enjoyable again.
Our friend Eric Borgos has been kind enough to share his own step-by-step recipe for throwing back through old boxes of childhood memories, old schoolwork, albums and cds, old businesses and past lives you've been apart of and making them digital and sharable for your current an future generations to enjoy.
In the process you'll rid yourself of clutter and paper, have better documentation for insurance and ensure your precious memories survive inn the unlikely event of floods, fires and other natural disasters (especially because you will back up the files you create on the cloud.)
Eric over to you:
==> My Paperless Life by Eric Borgos, President of Impulse Communications, Inc.
For several years I have been meaning to write a blog posting about how great it was to go from a messy stack of papers on my desk to a having paperless office. But, I have now moved on to even loftier goals. This is the year I began leading a paperless life. All my business and personal documents exist only in the cloud. I feel a huge sense of freedom, I feel more modern, and I feel more organized. I would liken it to the nirvana of the elusive inbox zero (getting down to 0 unanswered emails in your inbox), or for the less tech overloaded, the feeling of having a clean room/house.
Here’s the top 10 ways I accomplished my paperless life:
1. Office Clutter –
I started several years ago by converting to a paperless office using a Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner (you can buy one for around $500 on Amazon.com). It converts everything you scan to keyword searchable PDF files. Each pile of papers I had is now a file on my computer. For example, credit card statements from 2013 are 2013CreditCards.pdf. Some files are more general, like 2008-2013BusinessPapers.pdf. The Fujitsu scanner scans both sides of each document, and it is not a problem if the paper sizes vary (like a small receipt). Every few months I scan in whatever documents I have accumulated, and then at the end of the year I combine them into 1 big file (like 2013CreditCards1.pdf and 2013CreditCards2.pdf and 2013CreditCards3.pdf all merge into 2013CreditCards.pdf).
2. Magazines –
I used to subscribe to a bunch of magazines such as Wired, Fortune, Inc., Entrepreneur, Business Week, and Fast Company, and they would pile up waiting to be read. Now instead I can read those and 150 other magazines (Rolling Stone, People, US, Time, etc.) using a new service named NextIssue.com, which costs $10-$15/month. For that fixed monthly price, you can read as many of those 150 magazines each month as you want on your mobile phone, tablet, or PC. I read them on my iPhone.
3. Old Boxes –
I scanned my boxes of childhood memories. Old schoolwork, old businesses I had started (I began my entrepreneurial career when I was 10), old poems I had written. I even scanned my shoebox full of notes from girls that I had kept all these years. Also, I found some tapes of songs I wrote and recorded as kid, and used a special cord I bought on Amazon.com to transfer the cassettes to MP3 files on my computer.
4. Music –
No more CDs. I used to have a collection of over 200 CDs (rock/pop/country), which I manually copied to MP3 files a few years ago. I eventually threw out the CDs and was happy with just the MP3 files. A few years ago I signed up for rdio.com (unlimited online music for $4.99/month) and have not bought a CD since. They have 99% of all the CDs I had, and 99% of all the new ones I would buy. This week I took it a step further, and deleted all my MP3 files (they were taking up space) since with services like Rdio.com, Spotify.com, Rhapsody, all the music I like is forever available in the cloud.
5. Books –
No more books, just e-books. In fact, I have had people give me an book I thought looked great, but bought the e-book instead of reading the real book I already had, just because it is much more convenient for me to read things on my iPhone.
6. Photos –
I had boxes of old photos, home videos (the old VHS kind), and photo albums from when I was a kid. I shipped them all off to ScanDigital.com, at 70% off via a Groupon offer, where they were converted to digital files. Now I can much more easily share these photos with my family, and they will be better preserved for future generations.
7. Taxes –
I e-file my income tax returns using TurboTax.com, and all my old tax records are scanned into a folder named /taxes .
8. Contracts –
No more printed contracts. As described in my previous post about Electronic Signatures, I sign contracts online using an e-signature.
9. Checks –
No more check writing. I make every available effort to use services that offer automated monthly billing or Paypal.
10. Cloud Storage –
I store all my computer files on a cloud service like Box.com (most people can use their free plan). That way I can access my files from anywhere on any device. I used to use Gotomypc.com to connect to my office PC, and that worked, but was slow and not very efficient.
There are also other advantages to being as virtual and paperless as possible. Several times my basement flooded and things got ruined. Luckily not anything important, but I could have easily lost all of it in a fire or a more severe flood. I have also moved a bunch of times, and for every move I had to deal with all my old boxes. And, with everything packed away, I did not have easy access to it. I never knew exactly where certain items were, and a lot of things I just forgot about. Now I have full access to all my stuff, anywhere, anytime, so I highly recommend going paperless to everyone reading this.
As you know, FSO has worked with organizations as varied as insurance companies and law firms to implement outsourced document and records management strategies" and to offer significant reductions in paper
At FSO Client Weitz & Luxenberg, our Bobby Dillon got his MBA in Records Management during a massive 3 ½ year project, the largest and most successful document conversion in the New York market and surrounding areas - migrating over 35 million pages of paper to an electronic format at the famed barristers.
Bobby and his team achieved this by following rigorous checks and balances, quality control and document processing perfection. This is the type of success and model of perfection that Bobby leads across all of FSO’s client locations.
Because Weitz & Luxenberg deals with Asbestos cases, the law still requires paper records retained for 30 years, so 25-30K bankers boxes were sent offsite to low cost storage, freeing up an entire floor of premium Manhattan office space for lease to others or more profitable venture.
Now thanks to Eric Borgos, all of us at FSO can walk the walk, rather than just talk the talk. To go through the experience of a digital conversion and be able to compare life before and after, you will be more effective whether you are serving a client working for FSO or the clients themselves.
If know of someone who would enjoy working for or with FSO please do not keep us a secret.
Have a fabulous, sunny, productive day filled with love and inspiration.
Hugs all around.
About the author:
Eric Borgos is the President of Impulse Communications, Inc., an Internet company that owns over 250 websites such as CheapFlowers.com, Dumb.com, and Adoptme.com. He is also an active investor with a portfolio of that includes Weights.com, Pastries.com, and Physical.com.
Mr. Borgos graduated with a finance degree from Babson College in 1991 and ran several different businesses until he found his calling on the Internet in 1995. Since that time Eric has been featured in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur Magazine, Readers Digest, USA Today, Popular Science, and Inc. Magazine; and his websites have been talked about on radio stations such as National Public Radio (NPR) and TV shows such as Extra and TechTV.
Some of the more interesting facts about Mr. Borgos include:
- At one point had over 15 people working for him but never met any of them (only used email)
- Invented a toy and got it sold at Toys “R” Us.
- Bought 2 retail flower stores thousands of miles away without visiting them first or knowing anything about flowers or retail stores.
- Tried to go public in 2000 through a reverse merger.
- For years had an office 3000 miles away but never once went there.
- In 2008 sold his Bored.com network of websites for $4.5 million
- In 2011 sold a portfolio of 4000 of his sites for $1.3 million.
