Author Archives: Jessica Granish

Relax Yourself to Holiday Cheer Part 3 of 3

I know it is hard to believe, but your company will survive without you for a couple weeks. Your emails, voicemails, and to-do lists will all be there when you get back. Everyone deserves a holiday that is stress free, which means you have to trust that people at the office will be able to handle it. There are people who are excited and looking forward to the opportunity for the experience and to prove themselves. Give them this time while you are away to step up. This is a great opportunity for people to learn how to resolve problems themselves.

When you start to feel overwhelmed with all the preparation, remember that you also must take care of yourself. Increased anxiety and stress weaken your immune system. If you aren’t taking care of yourself, you could easily end up sick your entire holiday, and no one wants that. So even while you have many things to do before you go, remember to step back and take a deep breath. Sneak in some time for yourself. Make sure you are still eating all your (healthy) meals and getting enough sleep. Alpine Small Business Solutions Relax

As a small business owner myself, I know that it hard to step back and fully relax, so I compiled a list of some proven techniques to let it all go.

Breathing Technique. Controlled breathing is the simplest and most practiced relaxation technique for anxiety. You can do this anywhere and use it as an instant “reset” button when things start to feel like they are piling up.

Meditation. This is an effective way to enhance self-control, a key requirement to keep anxiety from taking over. Sometimes all it takes is sitting quietly.

Exercise. This may seem like another chore you need to get done, but don’t skip the gym. This is one of the best ways to relieve stress, clear your mind, and take out a little aggression if needed. Think of the way you feel when you are done with a good workout—that high can help your accomplish more.

Do something you enjoy. Whatever it is that makes you happy. Take that time for yourself. Remember this is your holiday!

Be spoiled. Go get that massage or pedicure and enjoy the quiet time. Try a yoga class, acupuncture, or another spa service that will help you relax.

You have taken all the steps to prepare for this, so relax and have a great vacation, in the knowledge that you left everything in the best state possible before going away.

Above all, keep in mind what the true meaning of the holiday season is all about for you. The season can be a special time of the year when you spend time with those you love and reflect on all the blessings in your life.

Organize Yourself to Holiday Cheer Part 2 of 3

Now you are really feeling the crunch. You have your schedule planned but now you must execute it to every detail to make sure your holiday time off goes as planned. Well, here are a few tips on how to keep this time of the year organized and stress free.

Delegate. If you have too much to do, it just might be your fault. Are you using all your resources? Did you contact your VA and pass off a couple tasks that you don’t necessarily have to do? Sometimes, we are our own worst enemy when it comes to always wanting to take control and do everything ourselves. Remember that your virtual assistant is there to help.

Debrief. If your staff members are experienced, you likely don’t need to leave a step-by-step operating procedure, but make sure if any specific sets of instructions are needed, you leave them where they can be found and write them with plenty of time. Brief the people before you leave because usually in your hustle and bustle to leave, you aren’t leaving the most detailed instructions. Even better yet, plan on bringing your replacements in the meetings a few weeks before so they are in the loop, or have them look over your should the week before so they can ask questions and see what you did to complete your day-to-day tasks. This will help them feel more confident about doing the task while you are away, and it will help you avoid calls while you are supposed to be relaxing.

Leave yourself a note. This may sound a little obvious, but you will also want to make your return to be as smooth as possible. Think of the tasks that you may not have completely finished. You will want to be able to step right in and get back to work. Here are some ideas:

Reminder to turn off your out of office reply
Where you are with any unfinished tasks
Immediate action items
Your to-do list your already created
A list of appointment times to meet with the people to whom you delegated tasks

Declutter and clean. When you leave, make sure your desk is clear, and your office is ready to come back to work. It will give you peace of mind as you walk out there door, and it will give you a nice fresh start to help you from feeling overwhelmed the moment you walk in the door. If you have someone completing daily tasks while you are away, make sure they know where everything is and where it goes.

A few organizing tips:

Have a place for everything
Throw away what you don’t need
Label your folders and drawers
Get your desk back in order before you leave each day
Ask for help

Congratulations! You are ready to head out the door and enjoy your time off. Make sure you take this time of to “reset” and recharge. Part 3 has many tips of how to relax and make this time off the best yet.

Schedule Your Way to Holiday Cheer Part 1 of 3

It is that time of the year where the days are getting shorter and the to-do list keeps getting longer. It can be easy to get overwhelmed with how much you have to do, the time you want to take off, the gifts you needs to get, the school needs a volunteer, you have a holiday concert to go to, and so on with the never ending list of holiday festivities. At Alpine Small Business Solutions, we see it every year with clients trying to frantically clean everything off their desks before the end of the year or their annual leave. We have three main tips for you to keep the panic out of the holiday and make sure you are still on top of it all: Schedule, Organize, and Relax. We have a three-part blog series to help you make it to the end of the year and time off in a breeze when you use your online business manager.

Schedule

Begin early. I know we all don’t like the holidays running together. Halloween is displayed before school supplies are put up, Thanksgiving is sold out before trick or treating began, and Christmas has taken over the entire fall/winter season instead of just staying in December. Yes, it gets tiresome, but you should put this practice to use to make your holiday time go more smoothly. Start early and schedule everything you need to accomplish with plenty of advance. Remember, everyone is likely trying to do the same thing you are, and you don’t want to end up at the bottom of a long pile on someone’s desk.

Leave on time. Don’t stay late at work trying to get something else done; you will always find more things that need done and you are neglecting all your other to-dos.

scheduling help

Make a to-do list that is effective. Remember to focus on today and not every single task that has to be done sometime in the future. If you skip a task on your to-do list, it should get a higher priority the next day, and not everything should be in your “red” category—not everything can be an emergency, or there is no point of color coding.

To-do lists are a great way to keep projects organized not only when leaving for the holidays but also on a daily basis. In fact, I recommend taking 15 minutes at the end of each day to create a to-do list for the following day.

Schedule when you are going complete each to-do
item. A to-do list is a good start, but now it’s time to schedule when you will complete each task. If you have items that you need to delegate, book time to hand off the project. Treat each project as its own appointment. Honor that time and protect it from interruptions as you would time with a client.

A schedule is only good if you plan it and stick to it. You will keep yourself on track for your holiday fun. Next, watch for how to get organized to get out the door to family and fun.

Business to Business Facebook Likes Don’t Count

NO! Say it isn’t true!!!

Yes, it is sad but true. B2B Facebook likes are not added to your business page’s like count. Facebook is set up with a complex algorithm that isn’t very business friendly. This algorithm determines many aspects of how Facebook works and what is seen by your followers.

If not getting all the likes you could isn’t depressing enough, actually only a fraction of your followers can see your status updates at any given time because of how Facebook’s algorithm works. This leaves small business owners in the hard spot of having to work hard to get every like they can and pushing consistent, quality content to get people to like and engage on their page. The more engagement you can get the more Facebook allows your content to be seen.

So should I still like their pages?

YES! Still like business pages with your business account, but also do it with your personal account. Engage with content that is relevant to you with your business account—like, share, and comment all you want, the page owner will greatly appreciate it. Just make sure you also like the page with your personal account so the business is getting credit for your like. As important as likes are in the Facebook world, engagement will take you page to a whole new level, so make sure you are posting quality content and talking with others in your field.

Is there anything I can do?

Yes! But you are going to have to pay for it or work for it. Facebook has ads and ways to promote you page to get a larger audience. There are also many organic tactics that a virtual assistant can help you set up to try to grow your page, but it is always an ongoing process. You have to work for those likes and engagement through persistence and content.

It is so unfair!

Yes, it does seem a little unfair to businesses out there trying to grow their page, but the truth is that is exactly what Facebook is trying to do as well. Facebook is like any other business, and they are trying to make money by having businesses promote their page to get followers and have their information be seen.

From small business owner to small business owner, help one another out. We all are trying to grow and get our word out there. Engage, comment, like, and share as much as you can, not only will it help the other business but it will be helping yours grow as well. Go team!

How Mom is Rocking Strategy and Implementation

Moms are the best, aren’t they? They seem like they can do anything at times. They have super powers of being able to make anything happen, but really, they are masters of the business strategy and implementation. There are many factors to running every business. So many tasks and things to do to stay above water (also very familiar with being a mom) that sometimes it is hard to really to take your latest greatest ideas and turn them in to a profit. Simply, that is exactly what strategy and implementation is: taking your brilliant idea and finding a way for it to make you money. Mom may not be making a profit, but she is the master of building a strategy and implementing it to make sure it happens.

Mom makes business strategies and strategic implementation really easy to understand. Strategy is the plan. This is what you want to do and how you are going to get there. Implementation is the process of taking that plan and making it work. These two go hand in hand. A plan doesn’t do any good if you don’t have mom there to make sure it is followed through with.

Here is how to look at a well-run strategy that is fully implemented by mom.
Think of a mother trying to plan a family vacation. She develops her plan. She knows what she wants to do: She wants to take the family to Disney World. Now she does her research. She decides when she wants to go, she is going to get a house sitter and dog walker arranged to take care of everything while she is gone. Mom does her research on costs: airlines, hotels, rides, foods, souvenirs, movies, junk food, snacks, meeting the princesses, breakfast with Goofy, a couple’s massage, etc. Mom thinks of all the goodies that will make everyone in the family happy. She makes sure that the husband has the time scheduled off work. She buys the motion sickness medicine and she lines up everything that needs to happen in order for her family to go on vacation. This is her strategic plan. She knows what she wants and how she is going to get there. She knows how much she has to budget and how long she has their launch (vacation). She has made her plan.

Now, Mom has to implement that plan. This is where mom’s super powers really shine. Now is the time she has to start taking action. She makes sure everyone knows the plan and is on board to make it to Disney World. Now is when she is budgeting for groceries every month and putting a little extra away each week. She waits to buy her the new pair of jeans she desperately need, and puts a little more money away. She rescheduled a new dog walker because the other cancelled. She rents a movie and makes popcorn at home instead of taking everyone out this week. She watches travel sites and books the flights with a killer deal. She stays strong and says no the ice cream run everyone wants and puts another 20 dollars away. She gets the camera ready. She doesn’t get her hair done and goes with a little longer look for the trip, and puts that money in to the vacation fund. She makes sure everyone’s bags are packed and that they have everything they need. She makes sure the family arrives to the airport on time and heads off the family vacation of their dreams. The steps mom takes to make sure that her plan is executed and everyone makes it to Disney World with everything they want is the implementation. Mom is a rockstar!

Your business needs a mom. An OBM mom who can write you a strategic plan and then help you implement it. You need someone who is going to be able to take you from your dream of going to Disney World to actually being there, on budget, with everyone and everything you need. Alpine Small Business solutions can do just that. We have the all-inclusive service that will walk your through the process and make sure all tasks are being done to make your dream a success.

2014 National Small Business Week

Honoring America’s Entrepreneurs: Small Business Owners DO Make a Difference

Let’s salute ourselves! We are the small business owners who dare to dream and create a company that we are passionate about. It’s often a difficult road and many people find it challenging to succeed, but with teamwork and dedication, the small business owners keep America strong. We provide an essential foundation and network for our communities!
May 12–16, 2014, has been proclaimed National Small Business Week by US President Barack Obama. The US Small Business Administration recognizes and highlights outstanding businesses and entrepreneurs from all 50 states. Important contributions of distinguished owners have been honored since 1963, when President John F. Kennedy first proclaimed the event.

The National Small Business Person of the Year, chosen from representatives across the country, will be awarded at the end of the week. In addition, the Phoenix award will be given to a public official, a business owner, and a volunteer involved with disaster recovery in a community.

Check out some of the amazing ways that small businesses make America strong.

50 percent of Americans own a small business or work for one!
Small businesses create 2 out of 3 new jobs in the United States every year!
Small businesses drive innovation and increase global competiveness!

Alpine Small Business Solutions is proud to be part of the network of small business owners and is committed to continuing to offer a wide variety of professional services with our personal touch.

Here are some ways that you can help your business remain strong and creative in the coming years!

1. Delegate your routine tasks to a virtual assistant or online business manager.

2. Seek imaginative solutions with other creative people.

3. Add people to your team to expand your horizons.

4. Take time to interact with other small business owners.

5. Celebratethe passion that you bring to your business.

The publisher of SUCCESS magazine, Darren Hardy, says, “As any small business owner knows, entrepreneurship can be a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs, terrifying twists and turns. But they wouldn’t have it any other way. I believe we’re living in the greatest era of opportunity for entrepreneurs and National Small Business Week is a great example of that.”

We DO make a difference in the American way of life, for our families, our communities, our country, and the world. Alpine Small Business Solutions salutes all the small businesses and celebrates with you for everything that you bring to the business world. Thank you for your creativity and perseverance! Together, we are strong and growing!

Events will take place all over the United States honoring the small business. For additional information, visit http://www.sba.gov/nsbw/nsbw.

Denver has many events going on for Small Business Week. The city of Denver Office of Economic Development is sponsoring a series of small-business classes. For more information about Small Business Events in the Denver area go to www.denversbdc.org.

TUESDAY, MAY 25

ACCESS Opportunity with the City & County of Denver General Services/Purchasing Division, 9–11 a.m., 1445 Market St., 4th Floor Boardroom.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 26

National Healthcare Reform: How It Will Impact Your Small Business—8–11 a.m., Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, 1445 Market St., 5th Floor.

THURSDAY, MAY 27

Road to Recovery—9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Kimbal Hall, 700 E. 24th Ave.
During these tough economic times, learn what your company can do to better position itself on the road to recovery.

San Francisco is on Monday, May 12, at Twitter headquarters and will be streamed on SBA.gov beginning at 11:40 am (Eastern). The event will discuss strategies to help small business owners learn how social media can be integrated into marketing strategies to help drive business growth.

Kansas City is on Tuesday, May 13, at Burns and McDonnell headquarters. The program includes “Are You Bankable: A Lender’s Perspective,” “Contracting with the Government,” and “From Small to Big: The Dynamics of Growing Your Business.”

Boston is on Thursday, May 15, at Microsoft New England R&D Center. Sessions are about online marketing strategies, rejuvenating your business, and finding capital for your business.

Washington, DC, is on Thursday and Friday, May 15–16, at the US Chamber of Commerce. The SBA will live stream several events, including speakers and award ceremonies for local and national business owners.

New York City is holding an event to help you promote your business into the mobile age. It is Wednesday, May 14, 2014 from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM (EDT). You can attend in person or stream it from the Small Business Administration web page.

9 Ways a Virtual Assistant Can Stay Active & Fit While Being Desk Bound

I love what I do for a living! I am blessed to get to work from my home office and be here when my kids go to school and when they get home from school. Although, I try to live an active lifestyle, I am still desk bound most days. Don’t get me wrong, being desk bound has given me so many great opportunities and has really elevated me to the next level in my Virtual Assistant and Online Business Manager Practice. I absolutely love the thrill of being challenged by the tasks that I do while connecting with so many diverse people and helping guide entrepreneurs on ways they can lessen their load by delegating, automating, and systematizing their current processes.

Online Business Manager | Staying Fit While Being Deskbound

This is Jessica’s Home Office Set Up

As much as many of us love that we work from the comforts of our home, most of us don’t want to live an inactive lifestyle and be sedentary all day. Some people can delegate their work to be done by a virtual assistants or business managers to help reduce the hours in which they are completely desk bound. If you are lucky enough to have a great team of virtual professionals, awesome, that means you are more apt to get out and enjoy a round of golf, an hour of exercise at the gym, a bike ride, a brisk walk….or some hula hooping. For others, it may be a little more difficult to get out and get active during working hours, so to stay fit, you often have to be creative and find ways to exercise and keep moving even if you are desk bound.

Here are 9 suggestions to incorporate fitness in to your daily work routine.

Get an exercise ball instead of a chair. This will help with your core strength as you sit and balance. Choose a ball color that makes you happy, and this will stimulate your energy! Unlike sitting in a chair, sitting on an exercise ball engages your core muscles and helps improve balance and flexibility. Occasional bouncing can also help your body interact with gravity to a greater degree than sitting on a stationary chair, as well as being fun.
Take a break at least once an hour. Stand up, stretch, bend over, twist your body, lift your legs—get the blood flowing. If possible, deliver messages directly to your coworkers versus sending an email, what a great excuse for a short walk. Or if you have a dog, take him for a romp around the block or at a nearby park. Research shows that simply standing up, about 35 times a day or so, will counteract the cardiovascular health risks associated with uninterrupted sitting. Standing up once every hour was more effective than walking on a treadmill for 15 minutes for cardiovascular and metabolic changes.
Have a set of 5-pound weights handy. Several times per day, you can lift them over your head and swing them over your shoulder! Don’t allow your elbows to extend more than two inches behind your body. This exercise helps loosen your shoulder muscles and eases back tension. Strength training is an integral part of a well-rounded exercise program, and is recommended for both sexes and all ages. For every exercise that works the front of your body, be sure to do an exercise that targets the rear.
Place a foot massager under your desk. These wooden bars will provide relaxation while helping exercise your lower body. You can use them with your shoes on, or, if it’s appropriate in your office, slip your shoes off for a great foot massage. This can be done without out anyone knowing you are even doing it.
Reach for the sky! Also, reach way across the desk, reach for the wall, or reach for anything in any directions… just stretch and reach! Organize the layout of your office space in such a way that you have to stand up to reach oft-used files, the telephone, or your printer, rather than having everything within easy reach. Ideally, you’ll want to stand up at least once every 60 minutes, or more, so simply moving one or more things you frequently reach for could allow you to build this kind of movement in to your regular work day.
Hold on to the edge…of your chair or desk, then push yourself up and away (be sure that the item you are pushing away from is sturdy and won’t slip). Make it an action that is similar to a pushup. Also, use the desk or chair to steady yourself as you bend over to touch the floor.
Lift your legs. While seated you can march in place or make dance patterns. There are a series of moves you can do at your desk that will both release tension in your neck and back, as well as ease some of the day’s stress. You want to make sure you are keeping your blood moving.
Motivational Fitness Gadget. Whether it is a Fitbit (that is what I have), a Bodybugg, a Nike Fuel, or similar, these nifty little gadgets are an amazing way to help you with your motivation to get moving. It gives you a visual of how much (or how little) you are actually moving during the day. These devices can tell you all kinds of important information such as steps taken, distance traveled, calories burned, stairs climbed, and with my Fitbit it even analyses my sleep patterns. They act as your very own personal trainer in a way. These nifty wristbands will also allow you to set goals for yourself and track your progress across all of your devices, like your smartphone and tablet. One of the girls I work with also has a Fitbit, so we connect on there to keep our “friendly” competition going (which is great motivation) and to help remind the other to get away from the desk when she doesn’t have very many steps in for the day using the cheer or taunt feature that is build in. I love it.
MyFitnessPal. This is an awesome tool, and it is free. I use it every single day. It is a Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker. They say that 70% of fitness and weight control is attributed to your diet. So tracking your food intake is super important to staying healthy and fit. My Fitbit even syncs with Myfitness pal, so that I can be sure to track everything I am doing. It also has a a large database of foods that you can select from, or if you are creating your own meals, you can download the app to your mobile devices and it will allow you to scan product labels for instant calorie counts. Another tool that I absolutely adore.
Bonus! I know I said I’d share 9 ways, but I have one more! Close your eyes; slowly rotate your head from side to side and back and forth. Think of your happy place and take a deep breath. In one minute, you’ll be refreshed and ready to resume your work!

If you need help, I strongly suggest setting a timer on your phone or your watch to alert you to take a break at least once an hour. You don’t have to stop working, just take a quick break to rejuvenate your mental and physical well being! And if you really need to just have something fun to do, take a look at this online site, compiled by Alpine Small Business Solutions: https://www.alpinesbsolutions.com/fun-stuff/. Great ideas!

What is a Google AdWords Campaign?

Working with your business on the Internet should be easy, right? You just post a few things on your website, and the customers start rolling in! It’s so simple. Yes . . . but . . .

There are better ways for you to draw potential customers to your site with a quality pay-per-click (PPC) effective Google AdWords campaign. Your ad is written with specific keywords that are targeted to your company. When someone searches online for that word or phrase, your ad can appear, and people click on it to go to your website. This is a good thing!

For example, go to your Google home page. When you search for a specific word or phrase, there are ads on the right side of the page. Your goal is to have your ad at the top of the page, and to have it intrigue people, so they want to click on it!

This is one of the best ways for you to attract more customers. Your company only pays for the consumers who click through to your site. However, the more clicks, the lower your rate can be, and the higher on the page your ad appears.

How can you get there? By hiring an expert Virtual Assistant or Online Business Manager! You need the expertise and experience of a researcher and writer to create an ad that will be relevant and interesting to your specific customers. This ad can introduce your business and describe what you’re selling (new or different from what’s available through other sites). The ad is also a marketing tool to let people know what services you offer.

Google Ad Words | Virtual Assistant

Why would you want to try this on your own? If you broke a bone, you could maybe try to set it yourself, but chances are you’d prefer that someone with medical expertise take care of you. And if you needed the services of an electrician, you would probably want to hire someone with training and experience to complete the job in a skillful way.

So why not hire a person who knows what to do to get you optimal results with your Google AdWords marketing campaign? Hire an assistant or manager who knows how to explore your business and research the best keyword alternatives for search engine optimization (SEO) to make your ad outstanding. That’s imperative before the writing even begins!

The virtual assist Organic SEO Manager ant or business manager will focus on how your business is different and the best concept to attract people. This will get your business noticed! Then the quality of the ad will target specific relevant searches.

Additionally, your manager can track your ads, PPCs, and site visitors to provide you with ongoing feedback and current ideas for SEO. Let an expert handle the busy, time-consuming work of this important marketing tool, while you focus on what you do best!

To get a free report and consultation about your business, please contact Alpine Small Business Solutions at this site: https://www.alpinesbsolutions.com/seopreliminaryreport/.

Why Do You Need a Virtual Administrative Assistant? 10 Answers

QUESTIONS

1. Do you sometimes feel like you want to clone yourself to keep up with all the mundane and repetitive tasks that you need to do to keep your business going?

2. Are you so bogged down in the everyday duties of running your company that you can’t find time to do the real production that you are responsible for?

3. What if you could have someone help you with those pesky administrative duties? Things like answering the phone, responding to emails, online research, setting up meetings and events, and taking care of your social media?

ANSWER

The answer is an affordable virtual assistant. These skilled, efficient, independent men and women are hard workers who are able to handle everything electronically for you through phone, fax, and computer.

1. Have your office phone forwarded to ring directly to a real person who can respond quickly to any customer orders or questions. No more missed calls or mangled messages on your voice mail.

2. Send documents via email for your virtual assistant to fax or mail to clients and customers.

3. Ask your virtual assistant to find you the best source and pricing for equipment or products that you need. He or she can research online and then call to find out details, giving you a report about the best options.

4. Skype with your personal administrative assistant and show your ideas for a PowerPoint presentation that they can create for your next workshop. Give a visual representation to ideas that you want the assistant to pursue for you.

5. Engage with an efficient copywriter assistant, who will write press releases and update your social media sites on a regular basis. Once you know what a virtual assistant can do for you, all your Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Website accounts will have a dedicated person who can monitor them and give you reports.

6. Assistants can research lodging, hotels, restaurants, and activities for your business use and for a much-deserved vacation. (With all the time and money that you save by using an affordable virtual administrative assistant, you’ll be able to take that vacation and getaway to somewhere nice, knowing that the office is in good hands!)

7. Give your virtual assistant access to your email and let him or her respond on your behalf, post calendar appointments, send reminders, and offer updates. Consider setting up an auto responder series, written and managed by an assistant.

8. Virtual assistants can implement and manage your organic SEO campaigns, blogs, and articles. With minimal direction from you, this important ongoing aspect of your business can be taken care of.

9. For your next webinar, teleseminar, or workshop, have an expert virtual assistant set up, manage, and coordinate all aspects of the program.

10. Delegate almost anything to an affordable online business manager and/or virtual assistant. For more ideas, visit Alpine Small Business Solutions at https://www.alpinesbsolutions.com/virtual-assistant/.

BONUS ANSWER

Best of all, most virtual assistants are independent contractors and you save hiring and job costs associated with salaried or hourly employees.

That’s 10 great reasons (with a bonus) to hire a virtual administrative assistant! What are you waiting for?

The Ins and Outs of the New Gmail

As usual there are always changes coming along to snarl up our comfort zone of knowing our way around a certain product or service. Well, our comfort zone has been compromised. Google is the next in line of the changes and at first it looks super great for email organization but with further inspection, the new tabbed interface is super confusing.

Google describes the new tabs as a way to “put you back in control so that you can see what’s new at a glance and decide which emails you want to read and when.”You get five optional tabs, described by Google below. Google automatically sorts your inbox into these tabs using its special algorithms (essentially matching many of Gmail’s existing Smart Labels, which automatically filter incoming messages):

Primary: person-to-person conversations and messages that don’t appear in other tabs
Social: messages from social networks, media-sharing sites, online dating services, and other social websites
Promotions: deals, offers, and other marketing emails
Updates: personal, auto-generated updates including confirmations, bills, receipts, bills, and statements
Forums: messages from online groups, discussion boards, and mailing lists

You can also choose to force starred emails from all tabs to display in the Primary tab (in addition to the other tab).

The tabs do give you a convenient way to automatically sort your inbox according to Gmail’s preset categories and get notifications at a glance for when new emails come in. However, the tabbed view introduces a new, not-so-clear element in Gmail called “categories.”

When you create a filter, in addition to being able to label a message, you can now categorize it as: Personal, Social, Updates, Promotions, or Forums from a dropdown box. These, as you see, match the tabs.

The problem is, you already have labels that also match these categories. Gmail, for example, adds Social Updates, Promotions, and Forums as SmartLabels in the left menu. The “Notifications” SmartLabel corresponds to the Updates tab but SmartLabels are not the same as Categories. Gmail’s pre-designed SmartLabel filter makes it seem like that, but they’re really two different things.

How to Customize the Tabs with Your Own Filters As mentioned earlier, you can now create your own filters to categorize messages, thus putting them in one of these tabs. So if you have no use for the “Forums” tab, you can instead use it to collect messages from specific senders or keywords.

Unfortunately, there’s no way to change the tab name… at least yet. The key is to make sure the filter doesn’t overlap an existing filter that might counteract what you’re trying to do. For example, you can’t have “Skip the inbox” on a matching filter, otherwise it won’t appear in the tabs at all (since the tabs are organization for the inbox).

To customize the tabs:
1. Create a new filter for the messages you want moved to one of the tabs.
2. In the filter options in the next screen, choose the category that matches the tab for the “Categorize as” option.
3. You’ll also have to check “Exclude from SmartLabels” just in case Gmail tries to categorize your email differently. Then hit “Create filter.”
4. If you also want to prevent Gmail auto-categorizing other messages in that tab, you could also go into your Settings > Filters and scroll to the bottom for the SmartLabel Filters and disable or edit the corresponding filter. However, do this with caution, as it seems there’s no easy way to restore the built-in filter. It might be better to configure Gmail’s SmartLabels so they skip the inbox and thus skip your tabs. About.com’s Email site has the list of each SmartLabel (e.g., “label:^smartlabel_promo” for Promotions). When creating your filter, search for that “label:^” term to filter it out as you’d like.

How to Disable the Tabbed Inbox If You Don’t Like It

If you don’t like the new feature, it’s pretty easy to get a more traditional inbox back. Just click on the settings cog in the upper right-hand corner, go to “Configure Inbox,” and uncheck everything except “Primary.” This will remove the tabs and bring you back to the old, familiar, one-inboxed interface.

Thinking about Gmail’s new tabs, SmartLabels, regular labels, and filters can feel like you’re trying to solve an annoying circular reference error in Excel (this happened to me today). However, the new tabbed view might come in handy if you know how to harness it.

And as always, if this stuff makes you dizzy and you just don’t want to take the time to learn all the ins and out of the new Gmail, remember that Alpine Small Business Solutions, is your one stop shop for all your social media, Virtual Assistant, Online Business Manager and business building needs. We got your back, so give us a jingle or shoot over an email anytime we’re here to help.

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