This year marks the 40^th anniversary of EarthDay, celebrating and raising awareness of our natural surroundings and theimportance of sustainability.  Wonderinghow to celebrate this popular, nationally-observed day?  One way you can, on Earth Day and any otherday, is to use electronic billing.

Put simply, SmartPay is a green choice because it savespaper.  However, there is more to thissimple fact than appears at the surface. Let’s consider everything that goes into the process of traditional,paper-ridden billing and payment.

As we learn from a young age, paper comes from trees. Yetover 70% of the trees used to make paper are not trees grown in tree farms forthat purpose[1].  Instead, these trees are forest-harvested,chopped down from their natural ecological and biological habitats. In turn,these trees take away the health of the environment, as well as for otherplants and animals.  The papermanufacturing industry is also the third-largest user of fossil fuels aroundthe world[2]and is the single largest industry in its amount of water consumption[3].

Emissions from vehicles also must factor into this equation,since vehicles are used to transport the original paper itself, as well asbills and invoices.  As the end user notonly receives their bill or invoice online but also pays online, vehicleemissions are further reduced because a run to the post office, bank, or bothis cut out from the process.

With Americans using over 85 million tons of paper per year[4],the impact on the environment proves to be a substantial one.

And all of this is simply skimming the surface; that’s notto consider other elements of traditional billing, such as the number ofresources needed for ink for the invoices and bills, nor the paper used forenvelopes.  A change in the way you doyour billing and payment means a change in the amount of paper used anddemanded yearly, which means a change in the state of the overall environment.

On this Earth Day, choose to celebrate by considering achange in your daily lifestyle.  Chooseelectronic billing and payment.  The environment will thank you.

"Homebased business"used to bring to mind images of ladies sewing up casserole dish cozies while their kids were at preschool. Now, wiith estimates of the number of homebased businesses in America reaching 38 million, that image has to go.

Entrepreneur magazine claims that American homebased businesses generate $427 million in revenues each year -- an average of $63,000 per year for each home business that generates revenue, according to IDC.

Not only are the numbers significant, but most homebased businesses are successful, too. 70% of new homebased businesses are still around after three years, while only 29% ofother kinds of startups survive that long.

There are plenty more numbers where those came form, but they don't change the fact that many people are still imagining that lady making casserole cozies when they think of home businesses. That means that some will expect to pay less for services from someone working at home, will be more casual about paying at all, or may in other ways offer homebased workers less professional respect.

How can you avoid having your clients think of you as some nice guy who does a little work on the side? Make sure that your homebased business looks professional.

• If you don't have an office, then your website can be your place of business. Make sure it's a professional web site.  
• Your email address needs to be a professional one, too, with an @yourbusiness.com address rather than @aol.com or @gmail.com.
• You can use your home phone number or a cell phone -- just try to avoid having lots of homelike background noises (childrem TV, dogs) when you answer it.
• Use a professional ebilling system like SmartPay to send invoices, rather than typing something up or writing it by hand. SmartPay gives you a customized secure portal for a very professional look.
  
• Keep office hours -- or look as though you do. You can work when you please, but answer your phone and schedule meetings only during regular working hours for your industry. If you can't answer your phone during normal working hours, make sure you have a professional-sounding message on your voicemail.
  
• Don't expect clients to accept excuses about childcare, exams, or other personal issues. Even if they don't mind, it reinforces the idea that you're just working in your spare time.
• Pay attention to packaging, advertising, and other elements of your brand -- a consistent look shows that you're serious about your business.
  

Even if being homebased is part of your brand identity,use a consistent look in your website, payment portal, business card, and advertising to convey your professionalism. "Fresh from the Farm Kitchen!" or "Your Mobile Mechanic: Our Low Overhead Means You Pay Less!" are great business messages, but "I do this in my free time for fun, so I don't really care if you cancel appointments with me" is not.

There's a new medical experiment going on, and it doesn't involve any mice.

A growing number of physicans have chosen to take up an insurance-free practice. These doctors refuse Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance, and bill patients directly.

Your first thought might be that this is a luxury service, but it doesn't end up working that way. Here's why:

The typical medical practice spends 65-70% on overhead, much of which is for the special and elaborate paperwork and negotiations involved in billing insurance. According to a survey in Health Affairs, the average American doctor spends 43 minutes a day on insurance paperwork, in addition to the support staff's time spent on it. This paperwork is for the insurance companies or Medicare/ Medicaid, not for the good of the patient or the practice -- and Health Affairs estimates the total cost at about $31 billion each year. 

The typical medical practice also does 90% of its work at pre-negotiated discounted fees. The insurance company negotiates lower prices on the services, and pays the doctors less. The patient's savings over private billing is based on their ability to pay the lower fees the insurance company has negotiated for them.

Physicians who switch to direct patient billing can lower their overhead and charge the discounted fees directly to the patients -- often ending up with a better bottom line than they have when the vast majority of their work is done through insurance.

Add electronic invoicing, which routinely improves collection of fees by 32% or more and reduces staff and storage requirements, and physicans can earn more  with a smaller staff and a smaller space. A more patient-centered practice, a less stressful office environment, and quality care for uninsured as well as insured patients are the results.

At present, just under 2% of U.S. physicans run insurance-free practices.  The number is growing, though. The experiment has been largely successful for those who've tried it, and some experts are suggesting that this new trend may solve the problem of shortages of medical professionals, as well as offering more affordable health care to patients.