excerpts

Does social have a role in enabling business collaboration

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:15:44 +0100

6 SaaS Metrics You Should Track - ReadWriteCloud

Tue, 28 Sep 2010 17:17:44 +0100

As you work to develop your product - before and after launch, it's important that you use more than just "gut feelings" to ascertain what's working and what's not. Along those lines, Ryan Carson, co-founder of Carsonified offered a list of six key metrics for your web app and how to track them.

It's a great list - with definitions, calculation methods, examples, and even a link to a Google spreadsheet...

http://www.readwriteweb.com/cloud/2010/09/6-saas-metrics-you-should-trac.php

4 QuickBase templates that can get you going... (Salesforce Lite & Proj Mgmt)

Tue, 28 Sep 2010 17:15:04 +0100

These templates provide a QuickStart to organizations interested in using QuickBase for project management, customer relationship management, tasks, time and invoices and knowledge management.

Get a 30 day FREE trial of QuickBase --- http://bit.ly/QBFreeTrial

The Future of Powerpoint? Maybe its Prezi.com

Tue, 28 Sep 2010 17:15:11 +0100

Here is both a Prezi and a video on making Prezis. It's a very cool technology that takes a different twist on the Microsoft Powerpoint concept. They're great to watch, but harder to make than I thought...

Power of storytelling on Prezi

The explanatory video

Zero Inbox -- Great Email Mgmt Concept from Merlin Mann

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 19:01:26 +0100

Here are some items from Merlin Mann to help you manage your email box in my favorite minimalist way.

Inbox Zero: Action-Based Email

View more presentations from merlinmann.

Top 10 Free Web Apps that I can't do without!!!

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:59:32 +0100

Here's a list of the web-based software apps that I suggest all small, medium and large companies checkout for running your business... (all are free except QuickBase)

http://www.evernote.com is a great sync'd note taking solution (many platforms, all get sync'd)
http://www.google.com/voice is the Google Voice and call forwarding app
http://www.google.com/wave is their collaboration app which allows a team to easily collaborate instead of back & forth with email
http://www.rememberthemilk.com task mgmt system that you can also use with others
http://connectnow.acrobat.com web collaboration software that starts at free
http://freeconference.com for free conf calls with a dial-in # in Iowa
http://drop.io, http://box.net and http://dropbox.com are good file sharing solutions to check out, and the first 2GBs are free
http://www.hootsuite.com is for managing your Tweets on Twitter (and also Facebook and LinkedIn)
http://www.diyplanner.com good print out templates (Daily or Weekly Planner pdfs to print)
http://www.blogger.com BLOG platform if you were thinking about getting into that
and
http://www.quickbase.com is a highly flexible, web-based data sharing solution (it's like sharing a spreadsheet, over the web, on steroids -- it's actually a relational database that supports uploading from Excel)

Series Seed (Legal service help for start-ups)

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 22:17:10 +0100

It seems Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz are pushing a system that is supposed to help start-ups work out the terms of their initial financing without running up big legal bills. I checked out the docs and it's a very sound and cost effective way to get your start-up business going. Good legal minds behind it too...

Go to Article from All Things Digital:

Our favorite back-up utility (oh, and it's free)... [By DAVID POGUE]

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 22:12:53 +0100

Microsoft's Free Sync Service (...this used to be the FolderShare service and is now part of Microsoft's sync.live.com)

Last week, I (David Pogue) wrote about an underpublicized gem in Microsoft's Windows Live suite of free online and offline

services and programs: SkyDrive. It's a free, 25-gigabyte virtual hard drive on the Internet, accessible from any computer. My readers gently pointed out that I managed to miss an equally spectacular feature: Windows Live Sync. It's

another very good, very free Windows Live service, for Mac and Windows, that everyone should know about. The problem: you have a work machine and a home machine. Or a desktop PC and a laptop that's frequently out of the house. Or a family. Or a small business.

Fundraising advice from Guy Kawasaki...

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 22:13:31 +0100

--Don't outsmart yourself. Keep your corporate structure simple and use service pros (lawyers, accountants, bankers) who always do high-tech startup work. Uncle Joe, the divorce lawyer, might be cheaper, but you'll regret using him.

--Don't be paranoid. If you're concerned about a competing investment, explain the basics of your company and ask potential investors if there is going to be any overlap. Corollary: Take money from people you like. You're going to be working together for a long time, so ``chemistry'' counts.

--Be brief. These are the metrics: one-page introductory e-mail (no attachments); 20-page business plan; 12-slide PowerPoint presentation; and 40-minute presentation plus 20 minutes for discussion.

--Acknowledge the competition. If you tell potential investors that you have no competition, they will conclude one of two things: There's no market or you're clueless. Both are not conducive to getting funded.

--Look for value, not valuation. All money is not created equal. Take money from investors who ``get it'' and have relevant experience and connections.

--Eat when served. This is the wisdom of Eugene Kleiner (Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers). When people want to give you money, take it. Lots of things can happen between now and the next time you need to raise money.

--Keep ``burn rates'' low and cash balances high. Keep enough capital on hand to last a year so that you can change your business model. Watch, don't buy, Super Bowl ads.

--Ask for ``less'' than you need. If there is anything investors hate more than bad deals, it's being locked out of good deals. Ask for less than you need so that you can declare victory as soon as possible. Then, graciously ``let'' others get in the deal.

--Let a thousand flowers bloom. Sometimes the most ``logical'' investors won't bite. On the other hand, investors in unrelated fields might. Don't be proud: Take the money.

--Don't let the bozos grind you down. Some of the most successful entrepreneurs couldn't raise money for months. The founders of Cisco are one example. Frankly, if you give up, you aren't an entrepreneur.

Getting things done (GTD)

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 22:15:40 +0100

How many ways are there to manage your task list? Almost as many as there are people with tasks to do. Here are 20 different ways of tracking your to dos, with examples of each.