Happy Quote
April 27, 2007 in Happy QuotesDon’t ever let anyone tell you that something is too competitive. Once you subtract the people who don’t work very hard, or the people who aren’t as good as you, your competition shrinks dramatically.
- Maggie Mason, entrepreneur, author, and founder of Mighty Goods
PlanHQ
April 24, 2007 in 4 out of 5 stars, Business Planning, Hosted software, Project managementPlanHQ: Online business planning software. PlanHQ Limited Remember when you were in third grade and you had that math workbook? You may be reluctant to admit it, but it was kinda fun and you even accidentally learned stuff as you hurried to fill it all out. PlanHQ is like your favorite business plan workbook from MBA school. It's greatest benefit is how it challenges you to think through and answer for the whole business picture of your venture. As you're working through your strategy, goals, competitive analysis, market analysis, sales forecasts, etc. it's like having a very detail-oriented MBA coaching you. If you're like most entrepreneurs (one big part passion, and one small part business training) this is an excellent tool to help you get your act together. There are also collaboration features to help investors, partners, and others monitor and participate in the evolution of your venture. Nifty features like the ability to export it all into a Word Doc or PDF, and a report to tell you how complete your plan is are a nice touch. As you use the system, it evolves organically to provide you richer information and business intelligence for making decisions. If you have the discipline to use this software and challenge yourself to account for all the extraneous details we often overlook, you'll be better equipped for success. It's a brilliant bit of software. Intuitive, very well designed, and comprehensive without being overwhelming. I would love to see a "lite" version for free. Something with 1/5th the stuff, just the basics, to get you sold on the value of having the discipline to think everything through. It does shoehorn you a bit into their business philosophy. It's a sound philosophy and not heavy-handed, but you can feel the constraints of their approach keeping you between the lines. From $9 to $49/mo All plans start with a free 30-day trial and you can export it all before you leave. Reviewed by Carson McComasWhat is it?
Who makes it?
Why is it the killerest?
What could be improved?
How much does it cost?
Rating?
Happy Quote
April 19, 2007 in Happy Quotes"Is it possible that you’re just not good enough? That you (or your team) just don’t have enough talent to be the best in the world? Sure, it’s possible. In fact, if your chosen area is the cello, or speed skating, then I might even say it’s probable. But in just about every relevant area I can think of, no, it’s not likely. You are good enough. The question is, will you take the shortcut you need to get really good at this?"
-Seth Godin. His latest book The Dip is about dealing with (wisely quitting, or deftly overcoming) that stage, after the euphoria of starting, when your venture gets really hard.
Highrise
April 3, 2007 in 4 out of 5 stars, CRM, Hosted "Office", Hosted softwareHighrise: Take a CRM, rip out the extraneous confusing garbage no one uses (or understands), accidentally throw a bit of the baby out with the bathwater, but not enough to break the deal, and you've got Highrise. 37signals, LLC Highrise is extremely clean, immediately understandable, well thought-out and useful. 37signals makes software that I use after the initial infatuation wears off. I'm a regular user of most of their other products (they're best known for Basecamp). After spending a few days with Highrise I'm confident this one's a keeper too. By appearances, they didn't try to emulate a CRM so much as solve the problems folks typically turn to a CRM to solve. The result is an elegant contact and communication manager. I'm using it to keep track of the communication I have (email and phone) with partners and customers. When I'm on a call, I just open it up and take notes as we talk. For email I love how I can BCC (blind carbon copy) an email to my Highrise "drop box" and it will attach that email to the contact to whom I sent it. I can also forward any email I get from a contact to that same address and again it's attached and everything is organized. Outlook remains my cesspool of chaos, Highrise is my clean organized communication headquarters. A little tip: set an Outlook or Gmail rule/filter to auto-forward contacts from specific parties to your Highrise email drop box to make sure nothing gets missed. It also does reminders, to-dos, contacts, and "cases" where you can group and manage all the contacts, notes, and files related to a specific undertaking, or "case." Additionally, while I haven't tested it out yet there are several features for sharing all this information amongst various users. It also supports some ninja moves where you can (for example) forward an email and create a task at the same time based on how you format the email address going to your drop box. Note that there's a version specifically catered to freelancer/solo folks called the "Solo Plan." It's at the bottom of the pricing matrix (and hard to spot). The help section is well done and gave me the answers to all my questions as I ramped up the (very gentle) learning curve. This really is a thing of beauty. Highrise shows its youth. There are a few immature features that I'm sure they'll resolve in time. The software was released on March 20, 2007 and they've already released several new features and re-jigged the subscription plans. It's clear they want to make this work for users. The one disappointing omission I found immediately was the inability to wholesale import my Outlook contacts (note they do allow "vCard" importing which you can do one-at-a-time from Outlook). Outlook can spit out a predictably formatted text file, so I'm guessing (and hoping) they'll add this feature soon. The only big feature I expected but didn't find was a shared calendar. I haven't missed it yet, but when I start sharing this with other users, I would love something to get me away from Microsoft Exchange for that. From free to $150/mo for the motherload Reviewed by Carson McComasWhat is it?
Who makes it?
Why is it the killerest?
What could be improved?
How much does it cost?
Rating?
MyNewCompany.com
March 22, 2007 in 4 out of 5 stars, A serviceMyNewCompany.com: An online service that handles all of the necessary paperwork and legal documents for incorporation. You can do this paperwork yourself, but it's typically a quagmire of legalese and headaches. If you're running your own startup your time is usually better focused on building your business instead of dealing with arcane laws and forms for days/weeks. MyNewCompany.com, Inc. For starters, their pricing is VERY competitive (incorporation costs vary by type (LLC., Inc. etc.) from state to state) - they're easily on the lower-end of the pricing scale out there. But they really make the entire process painless and transparent. Sign-up for the creation of a company is painless and intuitive. You can easily 'create' a company in about 8-10 minutes online. Collection of necessary data is not really much more difficult than filling out a few online forms - and they've done a great job of explaining things along the way. Better yet, they provide a whole slew of various options and additional services that you can chose, and when you're all done with sign-up, they keep you up to date on overall progress on their end. Likewise, their online 'dashboard' gives you access to additional business resources and links. Nothing. They've got a great thing going - their product is highly-polished, efficient, and intuitive. Highly recommended if you need to incorporate or protect yourself (i.e., LLC.) during the ramp-up of a new business venture. Varies by service and state. Typically $200-$400 Reviewed by Michael K. CampbellWhat is it?
Who makes it?
Why is it the killerest?
What could be improved?
How much does it cost?
Rating?
Happy Quote
March 13, 2007 in Happy QuotesHere's to the crazy ones.
The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They're not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them,
glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.
And while some may see them as the crazy ones,
we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think
they can change the world, are the ones who do.
—Apple Computer (just an ad, but still pretty inspiring)
Happy Links
March 12, 2007 in Happy LinksSXSW Edition - 2 juicy panels:
- Web App Autopsy covered four existing web apps (RegOnline, FeedBurner, Wufoo, and Blinksale) and touched on:
- build time (Blinksale 3 months, Regonline 3 years)
- lines of code (Wufoo 43K, Regonline 549K - more than twice feedburner's 212K!)
- number of support requests (Blinksale 8/day, Feedbuner 45/day, Regonline 234/day)
- conversion rates (all about 1% for paid services)
- monthly income per user (Wufoo $13.03/mo, Blinksale $12.25/mo, Regonline $131/mo(!!))
- The Figures Behind The Top Web Apps provided oodles of juicy and valuable financial information behind 5 successful web apps: DropSend, Freshbooks, Maya's Mom, Mobissimo and Wesebe.
Some juicy snippets: - DropSend: To build $48,012 / To maintain $3,625/mo
- Freshbooks To build $20,000 / To maintain $46,000/mo
- Maya's Mom: To build $70,000 / To maintain $30,000/mo
- Mobissimo: To build $60,000 / To maintain $150,000/mo
- Wesabe: To build $200,000 / To maintain $3,000/mo
Great benchmarking information for web app folks. Get the slides.
Can't wait for the podcasts of these panels.
Google Alerts
February 20, 2007 in 3 out of 5 stars, A service, FreeGoogle Alerts: A service where Google will send you an email anytime a term you specify is found by its crawler. In other words: roughly any time a certain term is used on the Internet. Google Because you can use it to watch what others are saying about you, your business, your industry or whatever else would give you a competitive advantage. If desired, you can narrow it down to just what blogs, or the news say about a search term. You can also limit how often it emails you. From as-it-happens to once a week. This service use to be horrible, inaccurate,
incomplete, and late when it worked at all. About a month ago something
magic happened and suddenly it works as advertised. Free Reviewed by Carson McComasWhat is it?
Who makes it?
Why is it the killerest?
How much does it cost?
Rating?
WorkHappy.net teams with Authentic Jobs
February 5, 2007 in WorkHappy.net Advertiser
It's been unofficial for a while now, last month we made it official.
You may have noticed the jobs listing which has taken up residence at the top of the sidebar here on WorkHappy.net. Because I saw it providing a useful service for those of you hunting for talent (been there!), and those of you hunting for web design/development work (been there!) -- I placed it on the site as a service (without compensation) for a couple months. Last month Authentic Jobs made me an honest man.
Authentic Jobs is a job board run by the highly influential web design trend-setter, Cameron Moll. If you're looking for top web designer or web developer talent for your venture, a post here should hook you up.
To sweeten the pot, AJ offers a 100% money back guarantee (find the talent you need, or your money back). Which is a great reason to start your candidate search there. If that doesn't work out, you can reinvest on a competing board.
Postings cost $250 for full-time or $75 for freelance.
Here are a few fun success stories from other employers who have found success using the board.
If you're a web designer or developer, you probably already know about the board, but if not -- head over to see if your next gig awaits.
Here are a few recent postings:
Full Time:
Information Architect (Interaction - Experience Designer) at Los Angeles Times.
CSS Designer at SonyBMG Music Entertainment.
Sr. Rails Developer at JibJab Media Inc
Freelance Gigs:
Interactive Designer - Web2.0 at Mogulus
Flash Developer at Gifford Media
I hope you find this useful.
Happy Quote
February 5, 2007 in Happy Quotes"We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about."
— Charles Kingsley