All Posts, Apps, Graphic Design
With all the new apps coming out these days, Upscayl is one that I really felt led to write about and share with you all. Have you ever had an image that you wanted to use but couldn’t due to it’s low quality and resolution? Maybe an old photograph that was slighly out of focus and would wish you could fix it? Well Upscayl is your solution! It’s a FREE desktop app that is available for Mac, Windows, and Linux and it uses AI to process the image. They’re working on a cloud version so that you may be able to use this within your browser or mobile device without the need to install anything at all.
There’s a few settings that I thought were amazing and wanted to highlight them:
Saving an Image as PNG or JPG
There’s two buttons that you can easily select how you’d want your image to be saved as. Either PNG (Portable Network Graphic) or as JPG.
Batch Upscayl
This toggle switch enables you to select all of the images you have in a select folder to perform the same upscaling option to all of them with a single command. This is extremely useful when you may have many images that you would like to process for better quality and not have to select them one by one and wait for them to process one by one.
Hope you find this helpful and useful in your day to day tasks. Let us know how this may have helped!
About Design Theory, All Posts
As the proud owner of Design Theory, I am thrilled to share a significant milestone in our journey. We have recently been certified as a Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) by Orange County Government | Business Development Division. This achievement is opens up our business opportunities not just to Orange County Government, but also to GOAA, Orange County Public Schools, Orange County Library, and several more agencies.
The Business Development Division of Orange County’s initiative is to increase the utilization of minority and woman-owned businesses (M/WBE) in the County’s procurement process. Our certification as an MBE is a step forward in this direction, enabling us to contribute more significantly to our Central Florida economy. I recently attended a couple of meetings where I learned in great detail from the results of a 5 year Disparity Study, how to search through upcoming expiring contracts, and currently available/open contracts. There’s still more work I am responsible for like identifying closed contracts that our agency may have qualified for, terms, and how much the bids were awarded for. And this is managed through OpenGov.com, also allows you to see other MBEs who are interested in open bids as well as save and favorite agencies (to name a few features). There’s also an eBook OpenGov published called “The 2023 State of Local Government Report” and I would highly recommend that everyone reading this downloads a copy.
As our journey continues we’ll continue to share what we’ve learned and opportunities for other business owners to take advantage and participate. The goal for us is to expand our business through this sector and reach new levels of success and growth.
There’s several people that I’ve personally met and worked with and will continue to work with as we grow in this program. Shout out to Kesi, Patrice, and VaSantha! Knowing that we can stay connected If you’d like more information from the Business Development Division, below is their contact information:
Business Development Division
Internal Operations Centre II, 2nd Floor
400 E South Street
Orlando, FL 32801
Phone: (407) 836-7317
Email: BusinessDevelopment@ocfl.net
All Posts, Domains, Web Development
As a business owner, your website and domain are crucial assets in your digital presence. There may come a time when you decide to terminate these services. Before you do, it’s essential to understand the consequences of this decision, not just for your immediate operations but for your long-term digital footprint. In this article, we’ll explore what actions may happen when a website and its associated services are terminated, cancelled, or abandoned, focusing on aspects like email services, domain name status, data backups, and more.
Loss of Website Access and Functionality
When you terminate your website services, the most immediate impact is the loss of access to your website. Depending on your service provider, this may be immediate or at the last day of your contract. This may also include loss of your content, graphics, images, software, and functionality. In some cases a backup or transfer can be requested, but it will need to be performed before the termination.
Other actions may include:
- No More Content Updates: You can no longer update or change your website’s content
- 404 Errors for bookmarked or externally linked pages
- E-commerce Operations Cease: If your site includes e-commerce, these functions will stop, affecting sales and customer interactions
- User Access is Revoked: Customers or clients will no longer be able to access your site, leading to potential loss of business and client trust
Disruption of Email Services
If your email is hosted through your domain provider, terminating your website may disrupt sending or receiving emails. Depending on how your mailboxes were setup, you may not retain a copy locally on your device(s) of your mailboxes. People who try and email you may receive bounce-backs or undeliverable messages. Ask your provider first about options to archive, download, or transfer your email and mailbox folders. If you have P.O.S. (Point of Sale) systems, calendars, they may need to be reconfigured if they utilize an email account with your domain name. Another thing to consider is logins to banks, government agencies, or other third party institutions, you’ll want to change your contact email to another address that you have access to or getting it updated after you lose access to the registered email account may be difficult to support.
Domain Name Release and Potential Repurchase
This is a big one that not many people realize. Your domain name, the digital address of your business will be available for anyone else to purchase and register. Depending on how much traffic your domain received and it’s ranking, it may be on the radar from some bots and software that are waiting for the chance to scoop it up and hold it or resell it for a profit. There’s very little legal obligations to get a released domain back. Though not impossible, but may be costly and avoidable by just keeping the domain registration active with a nominal annual fee.
Grace Periods and Redemption
Typically, there’s a 30-day grace period during which you can renew your services without losing your domain. Check with your service provider before you close your account to ask about this. Reactivating your domain post-grace period can be costly and is not always guaranteed.
Data and Backup Deletion
The termination of your website services also impacts your data. This includes but isn’t limited to any content, graphics, images, and photography. Unless you have a backup, you will lose all the data on your website. In some cases you may want to ensure you have a recent backup or copy of your website, because having one from a long time ago may not contain any recent or updated content. Some providers may offer data transfer services or backup and retention services for a fee. There is a nifty website that we use occasionally to research an archived timestamp or snapshot of a website through The Wayback Machine.
SEO and Online Presence Impact
Many business owners invest a lot of time and money on improving their online presence and search engine results page (SERP) ranking. To lose this may be detrimental and not a first thought when considering terminating your website and domain services. The SEO ranking you’ve built up over time will be lost, affecting your online visibility. Any external links or references to your website will lead to dead ends, potentially harming your brand’s reputation.
Legal and Compliance Issues
Depending on your industry, there may be legal ramifications to research and consider. Certain states, governments, and/or industries require data to be kept for specific periods, even after a business ceases operations. You might need to inform clients or users about the termination of your website and services, and give them a means to respond and record or document that response.
Wrapping this up, I want to leave you with some key takeaways to remember. Terminating your website and domain services is a significant decision with far-reaching implications. It’s not just about losing a site; it’s about disrupting your business’s digital presence, losing critical data, and potentially harming your long-term online reputation. Before making this decision, consider the consequences, explore alternatives, and ensure you have a plan for data backup and migration. If you would like help with this, promptly contact us so that we can act quickly and potentially save you money and peace of mind.
About Design Theory, All Posts, Business Strategy, Strategy, Work Life
Hey everyone, I want to share with you a story about how we transformed our business in just two months.
It all started at the end of 2022. My husband Jean and I were sitting around the kitchen table, reflecting on the past year and wondering what we could do to make 2023 even better. We had a lot of ideas, but we decided to focus on three key things:
- Reinvesting in our business. We had been so focused on growth that we hadn’t taken the time to invest in new software and tools, or to improve our processes. We realized that this was a mistake. So, we made a commitment to reinvesting in our business, so that we could be more efficient and better equipped to take on new challenges.
- Changing our annual routine. Instead of waiting until the end of the year to start planning for the next year, we decided to start planning now. We wanted to be proactive and make sure that we were making the best investments possible. So, we sat down and mapped out our goals for 2023. We also identified the key areas where we needed to improve.
- Dreaming bigger. We wanted to define a new version of “success” for Design Theory. We didn’t want to just keep doing the same things the same way. We wanted to push ourselves and see what we were really capable of. So, we set some ambitious goals for ourselves, and we started to develop a plan to achieve them.
I’m not going to lie, it wasn’t easy. There were definitely some challenges along the way. But we stayed focused on our goals, and we never gave up. And in the end, it all paid off.
In just two months, we completely transformed our business. We invested in new software and tools, we improved our processes, and we developed a clear plan for achieving our goals. We also hired a new team member and expanded our services. As a result, we were able to increase our revenue by 152% so far this year.
I’m so proud of what we’ve accomplished in the past year. But I know that this is just the beginning. We’re excited to continue growing our business and helping our clients achieve their goals.
If you’re an entrepreneur, I encourage you to take the time to reflect on your business and identify areas where you can improve. Don’t be afraid to make changes, and don’t be afraid to dream big. Anything is possible if you set your mind to it.
If you’re interested in the exact process we took to increase our revenue, join the waitlist for our Holiday Sales Training here – http://www.heroacademy.co/smash
