Author: Steve Slisar

Steve Slisar has been training people how to use computers since 1994, opened a training centre in 1999 in Dee Why and by 2005 had 3 training centres and created over 35 individual courses that include Screen videos with audio commentary, training workbooks for those who prefer to read to learn, and exercise files that are used with the tasks in the workbooks so you get practical experience in the software you are trying to learn. Now the creator of 5 of the most popular online MYOB training courses in Australia.
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Your domain, your email

Domain names and email addresses from Domain Name BeginnersWe are constantly amazed at the number of businesses that are enrolling their staff into our online MYOB training course that use a Yahoo or Hotmail email address.

From my experience in the last 15 years domain names have come down from $135 per annum when I used to buy them from Melbourne IT to  just $25 per year from companies like NetRegistry. Hosting can also be very inexpensive for micro and small businesses.

When you enrol into the WordPress online training course you can:

  • Choose the micro business hosting option (through 123ezy) for only $100 pa and that enables you to setup your own email addresses as well as a WordPress website. Plus,
  • They’ll install the WordPress software and
  • We’ll provide you with a premium WordPress theme for no extra price!

Oh, and when you use WordPress you can have a mobile phone ready website in less time than you think by using a free plugin. This means that your website will look professional even on the small screens of iPhone, Android and other Smart Phones.

All you have to do is add the words and pictures and you can have your own professional website (and blogging system) and professional email address.

If you are interested in enrolling into our online WordPress training course with LIFETIME student access feel free to enrol here.

PS: You might be interested to know that the blog post you are reading is created using WordPress and distributed using Google’s Feedburner and we demonstrate how to do all of that in the course.

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Did you know that WordPress is free Website Building software?

EzyLearn Online Training Course Website for MYOB, Excel and WordPressMany people think that creating a website is complicated and expensive but it’s not and here’s why. WordPress is an open source program which means that anyone is free to download and use the software (for building websites). 

The only complicated parts of using WordPress to create your own professional website is installing it on your hosting and using the right combination of words and images to encourage people to call you, complete a form or order from you. Even getting a professional new logo for your business is now cheap and fast using crowdsourcing.

Our online training website where we deliver one of Australia’s most popular MYOB Online Training Courses is built using WordPress and we have a WordPress course that teaches you how to use the software.

The other piece of great news for small businesses that want a website is that you can choose from thousands of professionally designed “themes” that cost from zero, free and zilch to a modest amount like $50-$200.

For tricky parts including buying a domain name (use companies like NetRegistry or MelbourneIT) where you can buy a domain name for less than $20 pear year and hosting you can find from thousands of large and small providers.

NEW: We use and recommend Rose Hosting and SiteGround

The hardest job when you have a company website is that you should be adding to, editing and improving your website every week by creating new and relevant content that Google Search Engines collect and then share freely with people who are looking for you. That’s called Content Marketing!

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Can you really setup a VoIP phone system in 5 minutes?

Sometimes we use this blog to let you know about other projects we are working on and companies that we partner with. Today we share some information about VIRION and their great new phone system for small businesses.

Small Business Phone system using VoIPOur online training courses are a form of “cloud” based service. For example, you can access the MYOB training courses from anywhere in the world using just a username and password. It’s the same for small business phone systems using VoIP technology. You can purchase a small business telephone system for under a thousand dollars, plug it into your broadband internet, configure it in 5 minutes and start making and receiving calls from anywhere.

Best of all you can:

  1. Take your phone number with you when you move
  2. Port your Telstra number across and save a lot of money
  3. Get professional features like voicemail to email and much more.
  4. Save hundreds of dollars per month in call charges

We’re now using virion business grade VoIP and we’re also creating some training videos for them to educate their dealer network. Take a look at a quick and simple training video we created.

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Send debt collection letters using Microsoft Word from within MYOB

LIFETIME online training course access for MYOB, Excel and WordPressAre you using the Microsoft Word templates that come with MYOB? They are a great way to combine the data in your MYOB accounting software with the layout power of Microsoft Word. It’s also a great way of avoiding the emotions involved in chasing money, particularly if it is long overdue. Using Word Templates with MYOB enable you to maintain a professional, well planned approach to your finances.

This blog post contains a new video that will form part of our MYOB online training course. This course delves into the deeper parts of MYOB using some fancy and very handy features of the software. If you are receiving this blog post via email, make sure to click on the heading to get to our blog site to access the free video.

We won’t go into too much description here as the video speaks for itself, but we want to let you know that this new suite of videos will be available for existing students for no extra charge as part of our LIFETIME online training course access feature we announced in January 2011. If you want to receive our blog posts via email, just subscribe at our blog site.

Enjoy..

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Do you have to compete against workers from Bangladesh and The Philippines?

Philippines Remote Workers and Virtual AssistantsHigh Speed Internet, Software as a service, Crowd-sourcing websites, cloud-based services. They are all making it easier for small business owners to hire workers from anywhere in the world for rates that are much lower than Australia’s minimum wage.

I have written several blog posts about these new and exciting developments because they finally give small business owners the ability to hire like many large Australian companies. Finally, your local small business can have a professional logo or website without having to pay thousands of dollars. This might not be a good thing for Australian workers though…

I was interested to read an article about the PURGING of the professions in the Sydney Morning Herald because it highlights the huge issues that might face our workforce in the decades to come. There is one thing that does stand out in all this glum scenario and that is the value of Australian Qualifications, the ability to speak English (with an Australian accent) and the value of Continued Professional Development (CPD) to be current in your knowledge.

Most importantly it is important for Australian workers to be as aware as possible about software that can greatly improve their “productivity” so you can get more done in less time.

If you are not subscribed to this blog you can do so at this link. We have some exciting new announcements and new content for both Advanced Excel and some extra features using the latest version of MYOB AccountRight Plus so stay tuned.

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Why is Continuing Professional Development (CPD) important?

Continuing Professional Development for Bookkeepers- CPD and CPETwenty years ago you could safely complete a degree knowing that your qualifications will fuel your wages (that in turn fuel your lifestyle and desires) for the rest of your life. This is no longer the case. Changes in technology are partly to blame but so too are changes in legislation and workplace practices.

If you are an accountant, working in the finance or medical professions you would know about CPD (also called Continuing Professional Education – CPE). It’s a system of providing education for professionals to keep them up to date with what is going on in their professional and this is particularly important if your profession involves advising your clients.

CPD usually involves training seminars, short courses, watching online webinars and completing assessment tasks and each one of the tasks you complete give you a certain number of points towards your total yearly point requirement. Keeping track of your attendance or the results of an exam you did at the end of completing a short course are some ways of keeping track of these points.

Why do we mention it? Because it going to become VERY important if you want to be a professional bookkeeper.

If you have completed (or plan to complete) an EzyLearn online MYOB Bookkeeping training course you will be reassured by the fact that we are currently working on tools and assessment tasks to providing you with a solution for affordable Continuing Professional Development.

You’ll also be thrilled to hear that as an accredited training provider of the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers our CPD program will provide you with points towards their CPD program.

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New Training Material: Advanced Microsoft Excel 2010 videos

Excel Online Training Course 308 - pivot table value field settingsSometimes we use the EzyLearn blog to provide some free tips from new training material that we create, like manipulating Pivot Tables we mentioned earlier in the week. Today we are announcing that 14 new training videos are now available for our advanced Microsoft Excel course (number 308).

This is the list of videos that are now available:

Video for 3.1.1 – Using AutoFilter

Video for 4.1.1 part 1 – Cleaning up data using AutoFilter

Video for 4.1.1 part 2 – Cleaning up data using AutoFilter

Video for 5.1.1 – Perform an Advanced Filter

Video for 5.1.2 – Advanced Filter using Wildcards (search text within cells)

Video for 5.1.3 – Advanced Filter for multiple search criteria

Video for 5.1.3 – Narrowing search results using Advanced Filter

Video for 6.1.1 – Inserting a Pivot Table

Video for 6.1.2 – Filtering data in a Pivot table

Video for 6.1.3 – Sort dates by month in a pivot table

Video for 6.1.5 – Changing the value field settings in a pivot table

Video for 7 – Creating pivot table charts

Video for 8.1.1 – Get months values using the Choose function

Video for 8.1.2 – Show grades for student results data using CHOOSE function

 

Our new video references match the many exercise tasks you can complete to master the skills taught in the videos. Everything you watch in the videos you can re-produce using the exercise files that come with the course. The training workbooks contain step by step instructions so you can print them out and practice where-ever you are.

If you are an existing EzyLearn student with LIFETIME access you’ll have access to these new videos and all new content that we create. Stay tuned for more updates soon as we create new videos for the other advanced Excel topics covered in courses 308 and 309. Plus we’ll show you how to create your own macros.

If you like what you read and want to enrol to take advantage of lifetime student access as well as access to all levels of Microsoft Excel for just one price, use our enrolment form. Enrol into the Excel course today and start by 5pm tomorrow (next business day).

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Live Excel Pivot-Table Stats: self-paced learning versus class-based training

Excel Course 308 - pivot table value field settings for intermediate to advanced Excel training courseWant to see some live data from when we operated our Sydney-based training centre? We conducted courses for Absolute Beginners (we call it Computer Learners now), Microsoft Word and Excel, MYOB Accounting software for bookkeeping and others. We also offered different start times and different methods of delivery including self-paced (which has evolved into online) as well as class-based training courses.

The data in this free Microsoft Excel training video is taken from our student enrolment database the same year we created our first training videos. We created these videos to make them available to students who couldn’t fit into a schedule or wanted a more personalised training experience. Want to learn more about my fond journey in computer training? Feel free to also subscribe to my small business blog while you are at that site.

If you are reading this as an email, click on the heading to get to our blog site and enjoy the free training video about Pivot Tables using Microsoft Excel (the exercise file is provided in our Excel Training Course) and shows live data of enrolments for that year. We used a pivot table to find out:

  1. The popular courses,
  2. The popular training methods
  3. The popular start times for courses.

Can you see in the video which year the data is from? Back then we had experienced trainer like Maria Landrelli and Marie Diblasio to deliver our popular MYOB Day-to-Day courses to find work as a bookkeeper.

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Do you need more customers, more people, or more time?

Professional bookkeeper and online WordPress training course and hostingI was going through our EzyLearn blog library of articles today. In doing so, I was reminded that we started blogging back in 2007.

This was one year after we closed our three Sydney-based computer training centres to focus solely on online training courses.

After reading some of the old posts, I again realised just how much work is involved in maintaining a blog!

The Necessity of Blogging

When I analyse the workload of the EzyLearn team members and the hours we spend creating step-by-step training workbooks, training videos, knowledge reviews and assessment tasks, I realise that it is all very necessary.

Back in 2007, blogging wasn’t new. In fact, many people had heard of it but most small businesses (or large ones) weren’t really doing it much.

We at EzyLearn wrote a workbook to teach people how to use WordPress and it highlights one of the most important parts of being a training organisation. This being, to study what is new and understand how it will affect businesses and employees that use technology into the future.

This blog you are reading right now is read by a lot of other people and it highlights:

  1. Our commitment to keeping you informed
  2. The range of skills our team has
  3. The number of customers who come to us as a result of reading this blog

Why Blog?

Why am I talking about this? One of our most popular online courses is the MYOB Bookkeeping Course and a lot of people who complete this course want to start their own business.

These same people are keen to build their customer base enabling them to work their own hours, use their brains and earn a good living.

Having a website with built-in blogging functionality based on the WordPress Content Management System is a fantastic way to tell people what you know and drum up new customers. It enables you to keep in contact with people, keep giving them information with no strings attached, and remain top of mind.

Blogging and “content marketing” just takes a bit of time to learn and then keep up to date, but you’ll end up with more customers and won’t have to pay for Google Adwords! 🙂

Read more about why we do content marketing

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New Macros in Excel Course to handle prepayments

Excel Macros in advanced Microsoft online Excel Training courseWe are please to announce that our most advanced Microsoft Excel course (course 309) now includes a training exercise on Macros!

You may recall we asked the question as to whether it is better to give a discount and accept prepayments or to charge your normal price and chase invoices and statements? Well, we got our Microsoft Excel expert to create a simple table that enables us to keep track of prepayments as well as incremental reductions from this prepayment.

This file is a great tool to keep track of how much credit a customer has if you decide to invoice them in advance. There is a way of accepting prepayments in MYOB and our MYOB expert and resident BAS Agent is currently putting a guide together on how to handle prepayments using MYOB. Using Excel  can be a handy replacement for using MYOB in this one aspect of your business.

Best of all, Karen created a short guide that we have added to the 309 course training manual which explains how to replicate what she created. Both the Workbook and the demonstration file that Karen created are now at the learning site.

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Certificates issued

Institute_of_Certified_Bookkeepers Accredited MYOB Training CourseWe would like to congratulate all the students who successfully completed their course this month, your certificates have now been issued.

If you are contemplating our online MYOB training course you’ll be very happy to know that the certificate includes the logo for the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers (ICB). You may also recall that you can join the ICB as an EzyLearn student for free.

Here are some comments made by students about the course this last month:

The video durations made the course easier to absorb and having to complete assessment question at the end of each video session reinforced the knowledge gained.

– Julie from Mt Isa

Being able to work at your own pace & the ability to go back over anything, at any time. Easy to understand language, with added hints was also very helpfull.

– Maria from Macksville

Easy to understand and follow, Steve’s soothing voice

– Alexandra from Catherine Field

The Video’s are  quick and to the point

– Shauna from Green Point

 

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EzyLearn MYOB students now get free membership to the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers

Accredited online MYOB training course and support institute of certified bookkeepersIf you are learning MYOB because you want to become a bookkeeper you should know that the bookkeeping industry is undergoing huge changes at the moment and that you need to be aware of these changes.

One of the best ways that any person or company can keep up-to-date with changes in an industry is to participate in continuing professional development training and by joining an industry body. EzyLearn is a member of a number of professional associations including:

  • Australian Institute of Training and Development,
  • Australian Web Industry Association, and the
  • International Coaching Federation

We are also an Accredited Training Provider of the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers. This industry group ensures that all industry participants abide by professional standards and we are also thrilled to announce that as of today all EzyLearn MYOB course students are eligible to join the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers as a student member for free (normally $75)

The forms to access this free student membership have been updated in our learning platform so please feel free to log into your course and get your free membership.

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MYOB Professional Partners and Certified Consultants and EzyLearn

professional MYOB Partners and online training coursesWe recently mentioned our EzyLearn online training business opportunity and were surprised at the response. We were particularly surprised the receive applications from some MYOB Professional Partners who are looking for an online training solution to provide to their clients.

This makes sense when you understand that every business has different circumstances and they use MYOB software in different ways. When they need individual attention to these problems they turn to someone who understands the software intimately and they understand the price they have to pay for this expertise.

An MYOB training course however is designed to give 80% of the people who need to USE it on a daily, monthly and quarterly basis most of the skills they need to be confident with the software to perform the bookkeeping function.

So combining the EzyLearn MYOB training courses with some professional one to one consulting is a beautiful combination.

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MYOB Day-to-Day course now available separately

Receive-payments-using-MYOB-training-courseUp until now we have sold all our courses as one package because we felt that that is what everyone wants. Guess what? A lot of people did and still do love it, but we found that a lot of people just want enough skills to get then a job performing data entry tasks using MYOB. For this reason we’ve made that course available.

The MYOB Day-to-Day course is still a full days worth of training on the Sales, Purchases, Banking and Inventory modules. The workbook in that course takes you through the process of a company ordering products from the wholesaler, receiving the stock and then selling that stock combined with the services they provide to their customers. Along the way, there are part payments, full payments, Accounts Receivable reports, sending of statements and much more.

The new individual course is available with 12 months access so that we can provide a great resource with up to 12 months to access it when you need to. MYOB Day-to-Day training course includes all the topic in course 502. See what’s included in the MYOB Day-to-Day Course.

If you are interested in this new low cost online MYOB training course option, discover the price for this an our other online training courses at our enrolment page.

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Want to operate your own online training business?

Online training course and support business for saleEvery business owner makes decisions about how they want to grow the business and the different “channels to market” are discussed in strategic management textbooks regularly. In 2010 EzyLearn made an executive decision to build a Partner program so that other companies can benefit by working with us and our training courses and content.

We explored many options including affiliate marketing and in 2012 our line up of available partner plans has evolved completely. You can start with

  • some code which can go onto a page on your website and receive a commission for each sale,
  • you can have a new website commissioned with all the information about our online courses and an enrolment form where you receive the payments, or
  • you can plug right into the EzyLearn enrolment process and receive payments from the general public.

If you are interested to learn more complete our online training business opportunities application form and begin your journey.

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Can MYOB repay it’s debts with its head in the clouds?

cloud-accounting xero vs saasu vs myob online training courseWe wrote back in early 2010 about what appeared to be a revolutionary move at the time about MYOB founder Craig Winkler jumping ship and moving to Xero. In the recent bad press about the bug-ridden upgrade of MYOB AccountRight 2011 there is an interesting mention about Cloud Based accounting and MYOB’s goals to get into that space.

In the past 12 months we have worked with as well as provided training for many virtual assistants (remote contractors) and we’ve come into contact with other cloud-based accounting/bookkeeping services you might like to know about. Our pick of the bunch would have to be SAASU at this stage because they have a product that is perfect for remote contractors or micro businesses.

It appears that Xero and SAASU own the online accounting market space but it will be interesting to see how MYOB go as they diversify into cloud accounting as well as their many other products like website hosting, which we’ve never really understood when there are market leaders like MelbourneIT and NetRegistry as well as thousands of small providers.

While we’re on the topic of cloud, here’s a little plug for virion business grade voip. Our trainers have compiled an Excel spreadsheet to demonstrate the cost savings of VoIP over traditional telephony and this year we will have some training for IT Consultants about the Siemens Gigaset office phones.