CLEANING AND COMPRESSING YOUR MAIL DATA

This is an important part of your email management. When you no longer need an email, it should be deleted. When you first delete an email, your software will send email to Trash Bin. Your email is not actually deleted until you first empty your trash bin.

Emptying your trash bin compresses mailboxes from where email was originally filed. This is absolutely paramount to protection of your email data. If you go too long between compressing your email data, then your email data could become corrupted and you might need assistance in recovering your email data.

Even after you have emptied your trash, Compressing Folders is a recommended step to prevent other data corruption. Once you understand that an email does not actually move from one folder to another until folder is compressed, then you can better appreciate this advice.

As an example, when Email A comes into your main Inbox, data connected to Email A appears in two files. One file contains header and body of email. The other file contains only email header information.

When an email is moved from one folder to other, only header information is actually moved. The body information will not be deleted from original folder until which time original folder is compressed.

This explains purpose of emptying trash AND compressing folders. If email was simply moved from Inbox to another folder, then emptying trash is not enough. The original placement of email is not actually removed from file that contains body information until message has been designated for compression.

To empty your trash:

OUTLOOK EXPRESS: Click on Edit - Empty 'Deleted Items' Folder. To compress remaining folders, click on Tools - Options, then click on tab for Maintenance. Then click button that says, "Clean Up Now". Once compression is completed, click OK.

EUDORA: Click Special - Empty Trash. To compress remaining items that need compression, then click on Special - Compact Mailboxes.

NETSCAPE MAIL: Click on File - Empty Trash Folder. To compress mailboxes, click on File - Compress Folders.

I cannot stress enough how important it is that you utilize tools for emptying trash and compressing mail folders. Protecting your email data on a regular basis is good practice for avoiding disaster in your mailbox.

So many of us rely upon our email software to keep our online business running smoothly. Once you master tools provided in your email software, your online business will run smoothly also.

Let me share one important lesson I l've learned about computer software. One should never be afraid to try new things. Learning how to get most out of your software relies upon your willingness to dig in and learn how to use it.

Once you learn how to use your software to its full potential, then your life will be greatly simplified and your effectiveness will be dramatically improved.

Let us return our thoughts to your home business. Have you ever gotten feeling of excitement --- when you read something or thought of something --- that you could not wait to implement this new idea? This could be one of those moments...

In every home business, there are certain processes that we do over and again. Sometimes it may be possible to trim time or expense of a process which in turn will add pennies or dollars to your bottom line. If it is a process that you do hundreds or thousands of times per month, then your savings will multiply into hundreds or thousands of dollars in monthly savings.

Imagine what running a home business was like BEFORE computer...

Before personal computer, we had to hand type all letters and invoices. Now, we can setup a letter or invoice that we send out quite often, and we can save it in our word processor so that when we need to use it again, we can print it quickly and efficiently. There is no longer a need to type document again from scratch.

The computer has simplified our business communications and has provided us opportunity to reduce our costs of doing business.

Think about all of other processes that computer has enabled us to do for far less expense than what we could in past.

In this case, computer is a tool that permits us to save time and money.

So, my challenge to you is to begin examining processes in your own home business and look for ways in which you can save yourself time and money. It is far better for you to contemplate on this matter than it is for me to do so for you. Simply put, you know your business better than anyone on planet does. Therefore, you are in a better position than anyone to find those extra dollars that will decrease your costs and increase your profits.

The extra pennies and dollars you could extract from your business could spell difference between success and failure for your home business enterprise.