New E-Book: A Practical Guide to Working for Yourself

Just a quick note to let you guys know that my friend Tammy from Rowdy Kittens just released another e-book, this one titled Smalltopia: A Practical Guide to Working for Yourself. I have not had a chance to read the entire thing yet, but I have been working for myself for over 4 years – and it’s still the best decision I have made regarding work since I left college. If you are considering taking the plunge and striking out on your own (highly recommended), you may want to check out Tammy’s book:

What’s Included:

- Tips, tools, and strategies that will help you build a sustainable small business.
- Stories from more than a dozen small business owners. The list of rockstar contributors include: Leo Babauta, Chris Guillebeau, Jessica Reeder, Chris O’Byrne, Everett Bogue, Russ Roca, Laura Crawford, Karol Gajda, Chloe Adeline, Victoria Vargas, Karen Yaeger, Jules Clancy, Heather Levin, Matt Cheuvront, and Tyler Tervooren.
- More than 50 micro-actions to help get you started.
- 156 pages and over 24,000 words of written content.
- Free updates for 1 year.

Tammy’s last book, Simply CarFree, was quite successful. It looks like this one should be as well. Check it out!

Pictures Of Things Organized Neatly.

I think I found my new favorite site. If you have some sort of weird OCD/organization fetish/problem, you should definitely check out Things Organized Neatly. It’s fascinating. Here’s a few images from the site:

Have A Smartphone? Get Rid Of Those Plastic Shopping Loyalty Cards.

Last week I installed a new application on my iPhone called “Key Ring“. It’s a free application that holds the information for any shopping loyalty cards you may have for your favorite grocery or department store. Instead of carrying around several different plastic doodads on your keychain, you enter the information in the app, which then creates the appropriate barcode for that store’s card reader. While the natural food store I normally use doesn’t have a loyalty card (and neither does the Farmer’s Market), the big grocery store across the street that I use sometimes makes you use the card in order to get their lower prices. I was of course doubtful that either the guy with the magic gun at the grocery store and/or the self check scanner would be able to read the barcode on my phone, but both did with ease. In fact, the checkout guy thought it was pretty cool and was going to download the app when he got home that night, as he had never seen it before in his checkout lane. Here’s what it looks like on my phone:

This is also handy for me because when I do head over to this grocery store, I rarely if ever have my keys with me… it’s across the street, so I walk to it. But I never leave home without my phone, so this way I always have that rewards card right in my pocket and don’t get dirty looks when I tell the cashier I forgot my card. (They never believe me.) Anyway, if you have loyalty cards and hate having all those little plastic things on your key chain, and use a smartphone, you might want to check it out.